Major(s) News & Notes November 3rd, 2022
/
Chicago Golf Club lands two big USGA events (USGA)
All of that and more in The Quadrilateral’s weekly (free) news and notes.
When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
2022 Women's Open Champions, Cutmakers And (Point) Missers
/
Ashleigh Buhai approaches the 18th in sudden death (Photo by Oisin Keniry/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)
The Quadrilateral: Wrapping A Wacky Weekend In Golf
/
Oh, and how cool did Congressional look? A word not normally associated with what used to be a big, soulless mess! I have before/after pics to prove the point. One of NBC’s aerials:
Quadrilateral: Major(s) News & Notes, June 23, 2022
/
Congressional’s 10th and 18th (PGA of America)
Minjee Lee Sets The U.S. Women's Open Scoring Record
/
Minjee Lee wins at Pine Needles (John Mummert/USGA)
Colonial 2022: Another Rough Ratings Week On The PGA Tour
/
The 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge featured World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler as the third round leader and Jordan Spieth in contention, but that was not nearly enough to help CBS’s ratings.
Eventually won by Sam Burns in a playoff over Scheffler, the final round telecast drew a 1.46/2.43 million average audience, down 2021’s 1.79/3.11 million for Jason Kokrak’s win over Jordan Spieth. All numbers courtesy of ShowBuzzDaily’s weekly sports report on a busy weekend for viewers.
Saturday’s CBS broadcast from Colonial and all Golf Channel telecasts showed declines. The LPGA’s match play event at Shadow Creek was also down across the board and did not draw a top 150 rating for Sunday’s final match.
The NCAA Women’s Championship earlier in the week on Golf Channel also failed to rate.
Pine Needles: All 18 From Above
/
I drooled a few times watching how Donald Ross’ Pine Needles has been transformed by Kyle Franz. This week’s U.S. Women’s Open site takes about 15 minutes to get through and while it would be fun to see the before shots, it’s best we just focus on the present as the world’s best women prepare to descend on Pinehurst.
Enjoy!
Nasa Wins LA Open, Norman Gets An Open Rejection
/
It was another fun week at Wilshire Country Club where Nasa Hataoka dominated and set herself up as a U.S. Women’s Open favorite with her DIO Implant LA Open victory.
Wilshire And The LA Open Are Back!
/
Wilshire’s 18th hole for the DIO Implant LA Open
They’ve traded in one kind of implant company for another but the LPGA’s LA Open remains a premier event on the schedule thanks to another return to charming Wilshire CC.
The mid-city Norman MacBeth design is easily the LPGA Tour’s best non-major venue and a chance for 17 of the world top 25 to shine in ET prime time. Plus, the biggest payday and even in women’s golf is just 43 days away, so he LA Open commences the run-up to Pine Needles.
Brooke Henderson defends.
TV TIMES (all times Eastern on Golf Channel)
Thursday, April 21 – 6:30-9:30 p.m.
Friday, April 22 – 6:30-9:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 23 – 7-9:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 24 – 7-9:30 p.m.
For a good teaser, here is The Fried Egg’s drone view appraisal of the course:
Quadrilateral: Major(s) News & Notes, April 21, 2022
/
Whew, busy week. Part catch-up after the Masters and plenty of other fresh stuff too.
The PGA Club Pro has sent 20 to Tulsa and I have their names!
Rebound! Mission Hills' Dinah Shore Course Is (Already) Back With A 2023 Tournament
/The LPGA and Chevron are reportedly eyeing something called The Clubs at Houston Oaks for the Dinah Shore/Chevron (From Beth Ann Nichols in Golfweek). But Mission Hills is already on the rebound with plans to host a Champions Tour event in 2023.
The PGA Tour Champions announced a partnership with healthcare company Grail to sponsor The Galleri Classic, named after Grail’s multi-cancer early detection test. The tournament will be March 24-26 on the Dinah Shore Tournament course at Mission Hills, which had hosted the LPGA Tour for 51 years. That PGA Tour Champions was last in the Coachella Valley in 1993, when Raymond Floyd won the final edition of the Gulfstream Aerospace Invitational at Indian Wells.
R.I.P. Shirley Spork
/
From Richard Goldstein’s NY Times remembrance:
Spork finished second in the 1962 L.P.G.A. Championship but never won on the women’s tour. Her legacy, apart from her role as a pioneer of the women’s pro game, lay in her tutoring countless women, from duffers to fledgling pros, and in creating schools to help would-be teachers pass on her knowledge to their own students.
Spork received the Ellen Griffin Rolex Award, the L.P.G.A.’s highest teaching honor, in 1998. She was inducted into the inaugural class of the L.P.G.A. Teaching and Club Professional Hall of Fame in 2000. She won the 2015 Patty Berg Award for contributions to women’s golf and was named the L.P.G.A. Teacher of the Year in 1959 and 1984.
In 1947, while attending Michigan State Normal College in Ypsilanti outside Ann Arbor, a teachers school now known as Eastern Michigan University, Spork won the first national intercollegiate golf championship for women. She graduated with a degree in physical education two years later.
During the 1950 golf season, she joined with leading women’s players, including Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, Betty Jameson and Marilynn Smith, to form the L.P.G.A. But in its early years, prize money was meager, the tournaments received little attention in the sports media, and the players jammed together in autos as they traveled around the country.
