GolfPunk favourite Paige Spiranac has spoken out about the horrendous experience of having an explicit private photograph leaked to the world. The 26-year-old who has a social media following of two million-odd people sent the picture to a man she was dating, but he decided to do the dirty when they broke up.
A careless error on his card has dumped England's Eddie Pepperell out of the Qatar Masters at the Education City Golf Club in Doha. The 2018 champion had hoped to find that form of two years ago and force his way into the world's top 50 in time to qualify for The Masters.
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.
It was a worrying time for the European Tour as Italian golfers Edoardo Molinari and Lorenzo Gagli were quarantined in Muscat and originally forced to pull out of the Oman Open over fears they may have contracted the coronavirus. However, the pair will now play, partnering each other after Gagli’s test proved negative.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the bunker, or waste area, the Patrick Reed saga pops its nose out again. This time its the world number two Brooks Koepka giving his two pennyworth and he, as usual, does not pull any punches. Koepka described Reed’s actions as “building sandcastles in the sand.”
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.
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.
Many happy returns from GolfPunk to arguably the greatest golfer that has lived and who turns 80 today. It may be that Tiger will surpass or equal Jack’s eighteen major titles mark, only time will tell but until then we raise our glasses to the Golden Bear and thank him for all those great memories.
It looks like the PGA Tour are moving to close down the debate on the Patrick Reed saga. Rumours have it that Cameron Smith has been admonished by the PGA Tour for his outspoken comments on Patrick Reed's behaviour at the Hero World Challenge.
The European Tour has a real headache on its hands following Iran’s recent threats to "destroy" parts of the United Arab Emirates if there is retaliation after the attacks they launched on Iraq in reprisal for the US killing of Qassem Soleimani.
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.
Hats off to the European tour for coming up with another little classic for us all to have a laugh at. A few years back the tour let Little Billy loose on the players. Billy gave the pros a complete grilling with a series of cheeky questions, the Rory McIlroy one is a classic. Three years on, a documentary crew follow him as he returns to Dubai for the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
