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.
We've all been there. One day we play great golf, nailing the drives and holing putts from everywhere, and the next – well complete rubbish. This phenomenon, however, is not purely an affliction of the amateur golfer as demonstrated by Matt Every who shot the lights out in round one of the Arnold Palmer invitational with a bogey-free seven-under-par 65 only to go out on Friday and shoot 83 and miss the cut!
Royal Troon first hosted The Open in 1923, and the great event will return to the famed links course in South Ayrshire a century on from that first staging. In 2023 Royal Troon will be staging the event for the tenth time, the last time being 2016 when Henrik Stenson prevailed in a mighty battle with Phil Mickelson.
For those of a certain age and most likely from this side of the pond will see parallels between the move by the proposed Premier Golf League and the World Series Cricket (WSC) competition of the late 1970s. Both ventures share two fundamental drivers, the chance for players to earn more money and access to broadcast rights for the organisers.
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?
It was great to see Graeme McDowell win again on the European Tour but had the tour applied the slow play rules more strictly come Sunday afternoon might it have been a different story? The Northern Irishman was carrying a ‘bad time’ after a transgression during his second round and playing in the final pairing come Sunday he and partner Victor Dubuisson became detached at the back of the field.
Look out Claude Harmon you could soon be out of a job. A six-year-old hilariously analysed Brooks Koepka’s swing during last week’s the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Apparently, Brooks dips a bit during his swing and he should know which way the wind is blowing!
Call us old cynics but are the latest set of changes at the Golf Hall of Fame just a dressed way to get Tiger Woods inducted into the Golf Hall of Fame a few years earlier and boost the quality of the list of possible inductees for the 2021 draft? The rules were only changed some four years ago to move the minimum age from 40 to 50 and now it is being edged back to 45.
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.
Berkhamsted Golf Club has decided to allow both sexes to compete in the Berkhamsted Trophy, a long-standing top men’s amateur in the UK. This is a world-first for elite amateur golf and has the backing of the R&A and England Golf. The event which is entering its 61st year – has transformed from being a men-only tournament, into one which invites both sexes to compete for the same prize.
It’s Manic Monday, so here is a very quick round up of all the results and stories from the weekend on the, PGA Tour, European Tour, LPGA and Women’s European Tour.
Pete Dye, designer of some of the world’s most famous golf courses, has died in the Dominican Republic at age 94. His family announced his sad passing on social media: “It is with much sadness that we announce our leader, mentor and hero Pete Dye passed this morning at the age of 94. Pete made an indelible mark on the world of golf that will never be forgotten. We will all miss him dearly.”
