World Number One Dustin Johnson is excited to get started at the Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers, as the American targets a second title at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, a maiden victory of 2021 and a seventh successive winning season.
European Ryder Cup Captain Pádraig Harrington has confirmed his participation in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, the first Rolex Series event of the 2021 Race to Dubai season, when international golf returns to Abu Dhabi Golf Club from January 21-24.
Charley Hull has today confirmed her spot in Saudi Arabia’s ‘women’s week of golf’ – joining Major-winning Solheim Cup teammate Georgia Hall as one of the headline names competing in next month’s “unprecedented” $1.5million events. The 24-year old will head to the Middle East seeking her second win in the region, having come out on top in Abu Dhabi’s Fatima Bint Mubarak Open last year.
Saudi Arabia is to host a world first $1.5million prize-fund Ladies European Tour golf week in what promises to be a landmark moment for women’s sport in the Kingdom. November’s consecutive tournaments take women’s golf into another new territory and will see players compete for what will be the LET season’s biggest purse after only the British and Scottish Open.
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.
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 fairy tale has slowly unwound. Local boy, Darren Clarke, who led the field off on Thursday in the 148th Open Championship, took seven at the last to miss the cut. Rory McIlroy, who famously shot 61 around Royal Portrush at the age of 16, shot 65, equalling best score of the day, but agonisingly missed the cut by one. And our man, Gmac, held firm just making it through on the cut line, nine back from the leader.
Justin Rose shot a third round 68 to close the gap on leader Gary Woodland to just one shot, with the field a further three shots back. Looming ominously in the pair’s rear-view mirror is one Brooks Koepka who shot a bogey free round of 68 to continue his slow, but continuous, move up the leaderboard.
America’s Gary Woodland shot a 65 to take the lead in the US Open and join Justin Rose and Tiger Woods in the record books with the joint lowest score in a US Open at Pebble Beach. He leads England’s Justin Rose, who added a round of 70 to his own 65, by two shots as they go into the weekend.
The crowds were out on mass to watch Tiger slay the beast, that is Bethpage Black, but it was his playing partner and holder Brooks Koepka who showed how it was done. Koepka’s course record, bogey free, seven under 63 was as unexpected as it was impressive. This is Bethpage Black after all where par is considered a good score.
Tiger Woods, in his first outing since his Masters victory will be teeing it up with Francesco Molinari and title holder, Brooks Koepka, for the opening two rounds of this week’s US PGA Championship.
It is now some two weeks since Tiger’s historical victory in The Masters and the frenzy that went with it. CT Pan’s win at the Heritage was impressive but taking nothing away from CT, the event did suffer somewhat from a Masters’ hangover. So, what is there to wet us golf lovers’ appetite this week? That will be the Zurich Classic Team event
