Saudi Arabia is to host a world first $1.5million prize-fund Ladies European Tour golf week in what promises to be a landmark moment for women’s sport in the Kingdom. November’s consecutive tournaments take women’s golf into another new territory and will see players compete for what will be the LET season’s biggest purse after only the British and Scottish Open.
1991 Masters champion, World Golf Hall of Famer and new Legends Tour ambassador Ian Woosnam OBE will represent SkyTrak when he returns to Tour golf for the 2021 season. After signing with the brand this summer, the European golf icon will now sport a SkyTrak-branded golf bag and will wear SkyTrak-branded clothing and headgear when he plays.
Justin Walters made the most of the favourable early conditions to post a brilliant bogey free 64 and open up a three shot lead on an opening day of the 2020 ISPS HANDA UK Championship where four hours were lost to the weather.
Prince’s Golf Club in Sandwich Bay, Kent has celebrated the completion of a major renovation project at the 27-hole property with the opening of Smugglers’ Landing, a completely new par-3. The three-year project undertaken by internationally acclaimed golf course architects, Mackenzie and Ebert, began with the now lauded ‘reimagination’ of the Himalayas nine, completed in Spring 2018.
As we feared the 'Covidiots' have spoiled it for the responsible vast majority in the UK and we are not only in lockdown but golf is also out of bounds! England Golf, Scotland Golf, Wales Golf and the Golfing Union of Ireland all confirmed that courses must now shut until further notice.
The Players' Championship in Florida is cancelled and no further tournaments will be played up until the Valero Texas Open. The announcement came from Tour saying it was " the right thing to do for our players and our fans is to pause."
Whether we think it is an overreaction or not, it is looking like a chaotic outlook for the golf calendar as a result of the Coronavirus. Two further European Tour have been postponed and add in the President Trump travel ban and the future for European golfers in particular is looking dim.
Poor old Francesco Laporta, he flew into Doha to play in the Qatar Masters only to be shown the red card and had to turn about and fly straight back to Italy. The Qatari authorities have decided that any passenger arriving on a direct flight from Italy, or having been in the country in the last two weeks have a choice of going into quarantine for 14 days or flying back to Italy.
Ok as nobody else seems to be doing it, I am going to come out and defend the seemingly indefensible, or at the very worst add a bit of perspective. Hank Hainey made a pretty unwise statement and was clearly mistaken in taking what might be described as ‘locker room humour’ to the airways. But, was he being ‘racist, xenophobic, and sexist’ as stated by the PGA Tour’s lawyers?
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.
In the final Hero Challenge of the year South African Erik van Rooyen defeated former Masters Champion Danny Willett. You know the Hero Challenge, it’s the one where 6 top pros compete at target golf, hitting to a floating green out in an expanse of water. The closer to the flag you are the more points you score, with the closest ring being 50 points the next 25, well you get the gist.
Honma, that premium brand from Japan has just launched its first shop in Paris. However, it is no American Golf, or standard pro shop, and it would not look out of place on London’s Bond Street. In fact, we would not be surprised if we saw George Clooney walking out of it with a Nespresso in one hand and a Honma wedge in the other.
