Our Bryson may not quite be ripping it up on the golf course but word has got to us that he made the Sports Illustrated Top 50 Most Fit Athletes. Quite excited to learn who had made this Top 50 ( 25 men and 25 women) we were somewhat disappointed to find the definition of ‘fit’ not quite matching GolfPunk’s.
Due to the vagaries of the world ranking system, Rory Mcilroy is set to grab the top spot from Brooks Koepka. Neither player is playing this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am which means when the hard sums are crunched next Monday McIlroy will regain World Number One for the first time since 2015.
According to Rory McIlroy, he is approaching 2020 with a new mindset, one in which he plans to play carefree golf. But what exactly does ‘carefree’ mean in terms of playing the game? Consulting the dictionary carefree is an adjective meaning free from anxiety or responsibility. Checking the thesaurus, I happen to have to hand synonyms for carefree include ‘breezy’ ‘cheerful’ ‘jaunty’ ‘happy go lucky’.
Alison Muirhead, from Scotland who last week won the Pre-Qualifier event came alive on day two of the final stage of Ladies European Tour Qualifying School. Firing a superb six-under-par 67 around the South Course at La Manga Club in Cartagena, Spain. Muirhead now leads by five shots from overnight leader Morgane Metraux who could only post a level par 73 around the South Course and Pia Babnik of Slovenia.
Thomas Pieters leads the Omega Dubai Desert Classic after an impressive opening round of 67 on the tough Emirates Golf Club course. The Belgian leads by one shot from David Lipsky of the USA with a gaggle of twelve players, which includes Englishman Eddie Pepperell, Robert Karlsson of Sweden and Dane Søren Kjeldsen, a further shot back.
Encouraging signs from the first event with the European Tour’s new regime on slow play. The toughened up four-point plan did not result in any penalties but the general consensus was that the pace of play was better. Even Bryson DeChambeau seemed to have responded positively – might the penny be finally dropping?
Ping Europe Ltd has lost an appeal against an infringement decision from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and £1.25 million fine. The CMA had originally ruled that the manufacturer had broken competition law by stopping retailers from selling its clubs on their websites.
Master Craftsman Scotty Cameron has produced a reboot of his classic designs to produce eight new blade and mid-mallet setups precision milled putters. Retaining the classic Scotty Cameron look the putters look to deliver a tour level performance to the retail market.
Ping has signed up Eddie Pepperell on a multi-year equipment deal. Eddie will be all Pinged up , as it were, as he will be wearing a Pink hat and carry a Ping staff bag as well as playing the clubs. It seems Eddie’s antics on Twitter also endeared him to the bosses at Ping and once again he amused his audience with an offer to Prince Harry.
There were lots of hugs and high fives as Team USA fought back from a 10-8 deficit to win the Presidents Cup, once again, by a score of 16-14. That huge smile we saw after Wood’s victory at Augusta was back and the there was obvious emotion in the US Captain’s voice when talking after his team’s victory.
Well they’ve had the boxing, Tiger and Rory have declined big pay days to play there and now Saudi has made history by announcing the first-ever professional women’s golf event in the Kingdom. The fully-sanctioned Ladies European Tour event will be staged in collaboration with Golf Saudi and the Saudi Golf Federation and carry a purse of $1 million.
Derek The Donkey, GolfPunk's grumpy horse-envier once again delivers his 'Joke of the Week'. As you know he likes nothing better than a proper good laugh as long as it's at someone else's expense...
