Lauren Stephenson ended with an eagle three on the last hole for an eight-under-par 64 to take a one-stroke lead after two rounds of the Geoff King Motors Australian Ladies Classic Bonville on Friday.
It was inevitable that Patrick Reed, who is playing at the WGC event in Mexico City this week, was going to be asked about the latest comments from Bob Kostis and Brooks Koepka. Talking after Thursday’s first round he managed to dance around the question.
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’.
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!
Bryson DeChambeau has been making much of his new physique ahead of this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Apparently, he has better Abs than Brooks Koepka and he will be playing even faster now as he will be bombing the drives. He may be right about the speed of play this weekend though as he missed the cut!
I didn’t think I would hear myself say this, but I feel sorry for Patrick Reed. Don’t get me wrong the guy has handled the whole affair badly and he clearly was borderline cheating at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas last December. However, due to the Tour’s insistence that the matter has been dealt with it has basically thrown the American to the lions, who in this case are the media and the golfing public.
Get ready folks there is a new handicapping system on its way. For those across the pond things will not be much different but for golfers in the UK, and to a slightly lesser extent Europe, there is a fair bit changing. The new World Handicap System will be introduced in the USA and dozens of other countries in January 2020 with the changes coming to the UK, Sweden, Portugal and Italy in November.
To say that Patrick Reed is not one of the most popular players on tour would be somewhat of an understatement. However, he has done little for his stock in trade with his blatant breaking of the rules at the Hero World Challenge. Some would say he is very lucky to get away with just a two-stroke penalty.
GolfPunk send it condolences and prayers to Tom Watson and his family on the sad passing of Hilary Watson just before midnight on Thanksgiving Eve. Hilary, who Tom described as ‘my hero’ had been battling pancreatic cancer for two years.
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.
We have reported a lot of lucky shots over the years but this latest one really must be up there. Thomas Detry was staring down the barrel of a disaster at the Nedbank Golf Challenge on Friday when lady luck smiled down on him. When we say smiled we mean totally beamed and showered him with lucky dust as what transpired will go down as one of the luckiest breaks in the history of well, lucky breaks.
Colin Montgomerie won the Champions Tour’s Invesco QQQ Championship last weekend, but the big story was one Billy Mayfair and the breaking of not one but two rules of golf. The story does not paint Mr Mayfair in a good light and the same must be said about the Champions Tour who seem to be trying to sweep the incidents under the carpet.
