Denmark’s Nicole Broch Larsen hit the top of the leaderboard at around 1pm and did not look back, as she recorded a four-under-par round of 67 to hold a one-shot overnight lead from five players at the close of play on day one of the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open at Renaissance Golf Club.
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.
Eddie Pepperell must have mixed memories of Portugal Masters after missing the cut and losing his card in 2016. However, this year he appears to have found an innovative way to motivate himself, wagering Martin Kaymer about appearing on the Television Show First Dates.
Matt Fitzpatrick’s little brother, Alex, led the way for team Great Britain and Ireland at Royal Liverpool yesterday. Following a foursomes win in the morning, with partner Conor Purcell, Fitzpatrick took out world number one amateur Cole Hammer (great name!) in the top afternoon singles game to help The GB&I team to a 7-5 lead after day one.
Well it’s been a pretty exciting week for golf on the island of Ireland. First, Shane Lowry’s spectacular win at the 148th Open in Northern Ireland and then the magnificent Adare Manor in County Limerick has been announced as host of The Ryder Cup 2026. Not too shabby!
They needed it to be tough out there if they were going to challenge Shane Lowry but in the end, it was too tough and the conditions actually played in to the hands of the big man. For a man who grew up playing links golf up and down Ireland he was always going to be one of best equipped if the really high winds came.
The GolfPunk team love the game of golf and are big supporters of the idea of improving the etiquette on the course and in general. However, this week the big news running around social media was about the US amateur golfer that carded an impressively poor 194 for 18 holes and things got worse when the Florida State Golf Association confirmed it was actually a 131 over par 202!
Darren Clarke will hit the opening tee shot at The 148th Open, while fellow local favourite Rory McIlroy is paired with US Open champion Gary Woodland for the opening two rounds at Royal Portrush, which we cannot wait to see!
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.
I just placed a bet on the US Open. I got odds of just shy of 6/1 on one Mr Brooks Koepka. My heart is with Justin Rose and, if his amazing short game continues, he may well win but my head says that Koepka will come through to make history.
Graeme McDowell shot a second round 67 at the Canadian Open to sit on eight under, four off the halfway lead which is held by Matt Kuchar and Scott Brown. Gmac still work to do if he is to grab one of the three spots available for The Open but he is well placed come the weekend.
Chang Hsin-chiao is relishing the prospect of facing off with Chinese Taipei compatriot Chen Ting-yu and Indian Keshav Mishra in what promises to be an intriguing final-day showdown at the 13th Faldo Series Asia Grand Final.
