Following the understandable cancellation of the Open, the proposed new dates for the remaining three majors are known. The PGA Championship will take place between the 6th and 9th of August at TPC Harding Park, the U.S. Open remains at Winged Foot and has been moved back to the 18th to 21st September and the Masters, usually the first major of the year will now come last between 12th and 15th of November.
The Players Championship will continue but spectators will not be allowed for the last three days. Poor old Russell Knox must wish that no one had been watching as he kicked off his tournament with a five putt at the first hole – ouch!
Annika Sorenstam and Gary Player will receive the highest honour a civilian can receive from President Trump at a ceremony on 23rd March. Sorenstam learned of the honour last year after a game of golf where she and Senator Lindsey Graham took on Gary Player and President Trump.
A lot of us have old clubs languishing in the garage or in the attic gathering dust. Those of a certain age may also have a modern-day antique - a wood actually made out of wood! But there is a man who has not one but over one thousand woods tucked away in storage and all of them made from what was the holy grail of golf manufacturing materials – persimmon!
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.”
The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and the Ladies European Tour (LET) today announced that they will unite in a joint venture partnership to push women's professional golf to new heights in Europe and around the world. The combination of the LET's European expertise and relationships in the region, with the LPGA's global strength and worldwide exposure, and their shared vision for the future of women's professional golf and growth of the game, provides the core ingredients to ignite a tour loaded with upside potential.
In a week where there has been much discussion about the Billy Mayfair affair Russell Henly has reminded us all that the vast majority of tour players are honourable golfers. On dishing out signed golf balls to fans after finishing his second round at the Mayakoba Golf Classic Henly realised he had violated the One Ball rule and called an eight shot penalty on himself.
Stop Press: Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam is set to become the first female professional to compete in the PNC Father Son Challenge. We’ve just picked the Brigadier up off the floor spluttering something about it never happening at West Hill or something. Yes, it is called a father son event but this is 2019 and actually the fairer sex has competed before.
It’s Manic Monday, so here is a very quick round up of all the main results and stories from the weekend!
Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama will go head to head in a globally televised skins game, the first in a series of annual competitions staged by GOLFTV. "The Challenge: Japan Skins" will take place on the 21st October ahead of the PGA Tour's Zozo Championship at Accordia Golf Narashino C.C. in Chiba, Japan, and we will not be watching.
We were all on the edge of our seats when Suzann Pettersen holed that six foot putt to win the Solheim Cup. Now Gleneagles are bringing back their offer to allow us ordinary folk to play that course, or one of the other two, for the princely sum of £201.90. Better hurry as we assume it may go up to £202.00 come January!
Following the debuting of the Titleist 2020 branding at the FedEx Cup playoffs the rather sleek looking bags are being launched on the European Tour at this week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. We still want one!
