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
The U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor gets underway at Thursday and John Daly has withdrawn, citing the USGA's refusal to grant him a cart.
Daly made the request, the USGA says it wanted more information and Daly claims that is not the case, so he WD'd.
I’m not going to mislead the media or my fans. No “additional information” was ever requested, or it would have been provided. I “WD” bc @USGA had already made their decision after our exhaustive medical submission. Any claim to the contrary is pure fiction. https://t.co/6EfnBnkqaJ
— John Daly (@PGA_JohnDaly) June 26, 2018
Scott Verplank was granted a cart after applying for one. The USGA noted this in a Tweet:
Full statement below: pic.twitter.com/sPeAzdyGhL
— USGA PR (@USGA_PR) June 25, 2018
A spectacular compilation of Hosung Choi's swings from last week's Korean Open, courtesy of Skratch.
Justin Thomas is teeing it up in the French Open this week and already about 20 strokes up on Bubba Watson, who panned the place upon arrival.
So Yeon Ryu was among the LPGA Tour players at the CVS Charity Classic, seen here with Rory McIlroy and his spring-fling putting coach Brad Faxon.
A post shared by 유소연,골퍼 /Soyeon Ryu, Golfer (@1soyeonryu) on
The new 12th hole "bunkering" at Pine Valley looks just as ghastly from a vertical as it has in all other photos that have surfaced.
Golf World's John Feinstein looks at the rise and fall of Washington D.C.'s PGA Tour stop, conducting the final edition this week at TPC Potomac At Avenel Farm (FKA TPC Avenel).
While Feinstein is a bit tough on Tiger as host and notes the loss of Quicken Loans as the most fatal component of the tournament's demise, the story points out how the event suffered identity issues when it lost Congressional as a regular host.
In the tournament’s swansong, Woods will play this week, his lone expected start after a missed cut at the U.S. Open and before heading to the Open Championship at Carnoustie. One might have thought his apparent return to health could inspire a sponsor to jump in and take a chance on Washington, but Woods didn’t seem to really care very much if that happened. His foundation is now the beneficiary of the annual PGA Tour event played at Riviera Country Club outside Los Angeles.
The L.A. event has the kind of stability never established in Washington. It has been played at Riviera for 44 of the last 46 years, as opposed to the D.C. event which will have been held at four golf courses in 13 years, none for more than three consecutive years.
Also noteworthy here is the influence this event had on Chicago's annual stop, which previously held the July 4 date before being shifted to a playoff stop moved around to different venues, several outside of Chicago. The July 4 date is currently Greenbrier's.
The story is a prime example of quickly a tournament's fortunes can turn on quality of course, consistency of location and the identity an event derives from a regular host venue and date.
You may recall that it was only six months ago that we could only envision the lobbying effort behind the scenes as the PGA Tour and PGA of America battled successfully to preserve their tax-exempt status. Many took pleasure in pretty conservative organizations begging a Republican Congress and Republican President to not inflict great financial damage on their operations.
Yet already, the effort to end 501(c)(6) tax-exempt status is back with this bill. The $100 million it proposes to save for taxpayers will undoubtedly buy the Space Force a few nice space suits...
Senators Ernst and King Seek to Withdraw Tax-Exempt Status from Professional Sports Leagues
PRO Sports Act would give $100 million back to taxpayers
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Angus King (I-ME) introduced bipartisan legislation, the Properly Reducing Overexemptions for Sports (PRO Sports) Act, to strip multi-million dollar professional sports leagues of their tax-exempt status, saving roughly $100 million in taxpayer dollars over 10 years.
“Professional sports leagues – which are raking in millions of dollars from television rights and membership dues – shouldn’t also be scoring a hole-in-one with their taxes,” said Senator Ernst. “The PRO Sports Act amends the tax code to revoke this unnecessary exemption, saving approximately $100 million in taxpayer dollars over 10 years. Senator King and I are cutting this wasteful spending and protecting taxpayer dollars.”
The PRO Sports Act would revoke the 501(c)(6), tax-exempt status of professional sports leagues with over $10 million in gross receipts. While some leagues have voluntarily ended their tax-exempt status in recent years, others continue to use this loophole while bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
“Sports leagues like the NHL and the PGA Tour provide entertainment for millions of Americans, but that doesn’t mean these league-specific brands should be able to utilize Section 501(c)(6) of the tax code to be tax exempt,” said Senator King. “This bill would help close loopholes that allow leagues to boost their profits at the expense of taxpayers – it’s just common sense.”
Jimmy Walker announced (in writing) that he leaves a ball down as a backstop to help someone he likes or someone he feels sorry for, then Phil Mickelson hit a moving ball and said he'd been waiting to do it in competition for a long time. He was not, as far as we know, punished.
But a pro golfer employs a compass and protractor--a device at least 50% of the players could not identify by name, much less use--and Ponte Vedra is investigating. Strange times indeed.
Will Gray reports for GolfChannel.com on what DeChambeau was told about these potentially not "allowable" devices he's been using since October, 2016 to double check the accuracy of hole locations.
“They said, ‘Hey, we just want to let you know that we’re investigating the device and seeing if it’s allowable,’” DeChambeau said. “I understand. It wouldn’t be the first time this has happened.”
For his part, DeChambeau handled the news well.
“It’s a compass. It’s been used for a long, long time. Sailors use it,” DeChambeau said. “It’s just funny that people take notice when I start putting and playing well.”
A post shared by GolfWRX (@golfwrx) on
Bubba Watson took home the Travelers Championship for his third win of 2018 and third Travelers (kind of small) trophy.
19-year-old Nasa Hataoka won the NW Arkansas Championship and with it came an unwieldy piece or crystal and a wieldy Rolex.
A post shared by LPGA Tour (@lpga_tour) on
Scott McCarron won the American Family Insurance PGA Tour Champions tournament and when he returns can provide his dentist's waiting room with the accent piece it's always needed.
Dream Achieved. Scott McCarron is your 2018 @amfamchampionship winner!
A post shared by PGA TOUR Champions (@pgatourchampions) on
Matt Wallace captured the European Tour's BMW International Open stark white minimalist --expect anything different?--trophy.
Brady Schnell takes home the Wichita Open's nautical-theme propeller--actually he'll be shipping that weapon FedEx--and moves to 12th on the Web.com Tour money list.
Your 2018 Wichita Open champion is Brady Schnell. #WichitaOpen #webtour
A post shared by The Wichita Open (@the_wichita_open) on
Rory McIlroy trying to tee off in round 3 at the Travelers. Squirrel!
Hosung Choi made a nice run at one of two Open Qualifying Series spots available in the Korean Open before a Sunday flameout. This would have been fun to see at Carnoustie:
GolfBalled suggests Greg Norman had a body double for the ESPN body issue shoot. I'll let you be the judge:
That's the case Golf.com's Dylan Dethier makes quite well. It comes after Lee Westwood posted this Tweet in response to hearing Phil Mickelson say he'd been thinking of stopping his moving ball at Augusta National's 15th over the years.
The Tweet:
Here’s a scenario. Thoughts everyone??? here you go..... over the back on 15 at Augusta. Chip it too hard, run over before it gets to the water and knock it on the green so you don’t have to hit it again or go the drop zone! 🤷🏽♂️@USGA ?
— Lee Westwood (@WestwoodLee) June 17, 2018
Dethier writes of the USGA ultimately citing 14-5 over 1-2, rightfully so based on a strict interpretation of their rules and the "precedent now set".
The so-called Phil Rule will be simple: anyone who intentionally strikes a moving ball will be disqualified.
Mickelson entered the week hoping to add his name to the USGA's record books — he'll have to settle for its rulebooks. Otherwise the awkward jogging alley-oop will just be left hanging there as a strange loophole option, tempting players in tight spots. "I took the two-shot penalty and moved on," Mickelson said.
I would normally argue that the honesty of the players and fear of being ostracized by their peers would make this unnecessary. But with the USGA coming to Mickelson's rescue week without even a single word of disdain for his behavior, and in a world of backstopping and players snickering at Mickelson's actions, it's time to cook up the new rule before this shameful stuff happens again.
But this is the place we've reached in golf: to explore such a decision in the next rules of golf, the USGA would first have to come to terms with not condemning the behavior in any way that might deter repeat offenders. Strange times.
Jordan Spieth and Zach Johnson leading understandably led Mike McAllister's PGATour.com roundup of day one at the Travelers, but one back is Rory McIlroy.
It seems the lad spent his post-U.S. Open performance further refining his seemingly-great swing to get back to a certain year, enabling him to work the ball both ways.
From an unbylined Reuters report:
“I’m trying to get back to the way I swung in 2010, 2011 and it’s sort of hard because my body’s changed quite a bit since then,” the 29-year-old, whose muscular frame now is a far cry from the scrawny teenager of days gone by, told reporters.
“The feeling I have now is the feeling I had in the middle of 2009.
“That’s basically what I did over the weekend. I got a feeling that really resonated and brought me back to a time when I was swinging really well, and sort of went with that feeling."
Okay so it's like 2009-11, but still fascinating that he'd drifted that far from his swing of seven years ago and that he could get it back in a weekend.
The remembrances are pouring in for Australia's greatest golfer and global golf ambassador emeritus Peter Thomson.
The New York Times obituary by Richard Goldstein.
The Guardian's version by Peter Mason.
Golf History Today has put together a nice roundup page of some insights into the man and online videos.
Jerry Tarde remembers a longtime Golf Digest contributor, including this:
Over lunch at our offices in Connecticut, I once asked him about Jack Nicklaus’ design work. “Nicklaus courses are like Jack himself—grim and humorless, with sharp edges,” he said.
Martin Blake files a wonderful Australian perspective. This was one of many special anecdotes:
Momentarily he worked a day job in the AG Spalding factory in Melbourne, testing golf balls and promoting the product. But it did not last for too long and in any case, he was finding places to play around the world, notably on the bouncy, wind-swept courses of Britain. “I liked playing on a course where the ball bounces. As time went by, I found I had an advantage. Somehow, I comprehended that style of play, watching the ball bounce forward. But I had to learn both, frankly – bouncing and non-bouncing.’’
John Hopkins had several memories in this Global Golf Post quick take, but this was just extra special and spoke to the man after his playing prime (at least until Senior Tour golf):
A few years later another image of Peter Thomson formed in my mind. Covering Opens in the late ’60s and early ’70s, I would be sitting at my desk when Peter would stroll in to the media centre, possibly still in his golf clothes with a sweater placed jauntily over his shoulders and carrying a portable typewriter. He would settle himself at a desk and bash out 800 words about his play and that of others in that day’s Open Championship and get them transmitted to The Age, the newspaper in his native Melbourne, Australia, or so I believe.
John Strege on how Thomson kept the golf swing very simple and shared his philosophy.
Mike Clayton says Thomson left the game in a better place in this Golf Australia piece.
In a special State of the Game, Rod Morri talks to Clayton about Thomson's life and his memories of the five-time Open Champion:
A lovely PGA of Australia tribute:
Honestly have you ever seen the Great White Shark--aka the Living Brand--happier?
Sam Weinman with behind the scenes shots from Eric Lutzens in advance of the ESPN The Magazine issue including the 62-year-old retired pro golfer.
Eamon Lynch put this into historical context, reminding us that Old Tom Morris once posed for a similar shoot after his infamous morning swims in the North Sea.
Chill out everyone. It’s not like Shark is the first Open champion to get his woolens off for a nude photo spread. pic.twitter.com/wiBRe1MbzX
— Eamon Lynch (@eamonlynch) June 21, 2018
Move over Chief Leatherlips. Some believe there is a Curse of Shinnecock Hills and writer Bruce Buschel makes his case in the East Hampton Star.
He shares several anecdotes about the back and forth between the USGA and the Shinnecock, who did receive some last minute concessions including a USGA pledge for a golf facility to be built on their land.
It seems there were also discussions about the 2018 U.S. Open logo which, to people of a certain generation, is already looking like a relic from a different world.
It’s insulting — it’s a cartoon Indian with a big hook nose wearing a war bonnet festooned with an arrow and a putter. Like a kindergarten coloring book circa 1955. So the tribe requested a redesign or a flat-out removal. They got neither. Shinnecocks don’t have much luck when negotiating with the white man, not here, there, or anywhere.
Buschel's case for a curse in light of another wacky U.S. Open at Shinnecock, proves more interesting given his rationale for the uneventful Opens there. You'll have to hit the link to read them all in context.
He sums up his case this way:
The Shinnecocks take no glee in the public disasters that have befallen Shinnecock Hills since the tribe was excommunicated, since the indigenous people were removed as caretakers of their own land.
No one talks about karma. And no one talks about the Curse of Shinnecock Hills.
Someone should.
Pro golfers have long howled about the USGA and U.S. Open setup, traffic, hotels and other perceived slights, so take all of this with a grain of salt.
That said, coupled with declining ratings, the end of a sellout streak in a year when ticket sales were limited and another U.S. Open where the champion as only part of the story, and you have major perception issues for our national Open.
Brian Wacker quotes many players for GolfDigest.com and the themes generally revolve around course setup, Mike Davis and a general disdain for the USGA.
The two most damaging quotes come from a pair of former U.S. Open winners, Geoff Ogilvy and Jordan Spieth.
Ogilvy:
“Did anyone ever trust them?” reasoned 2006 U.S. Open winner Geoff Ogilvy. “I think for the most part their intentions are sound, there’s some pretty good golf minds there, but they just can’t get out of their own way. You never have a U.S. Open where they’re not the story. Augusta is never the story of the Masters -- this year Patrick Reed was the story of the Masters. It has nothing to do with Augusta. It’s never the R&A, never the PGA Tour, never the PGA of America.”
Spieth:
“I think it was chasing score to par,” said Jordan Spieth, who won at Chambers Bay three years ago. “We had beautiful conditions with wide fairways so how they are going to get the score to par it’s going to become unfair with greens or pin positions or a combination of the two. They put pins where greens weren’t designed that way. As a golf course design nerd it was frustrating to look at. I was like what are you doing? I played poorly. Even with the setup, I thought it was fantastic for me but the course nerd in me was like I want to play this course at a different time.”
The two-time major winner and 19-time PGA Tour winner passed away from throat cancer. He was 71.
His My Shot with Golf Digest's Guy Yocom is a great summary of his career and memories, including his near-Masters win.
He's best remembered for his U.S. Open win at Southern Hills, played under a death threat. The USGA's highlight film from that win:
Green's 2007 World Golf Hall of Fame Speech:
The PGA Tour account salutes the late Peter Thomson with several images from his career.
Ryan Vermeer won the PGA Club Pro Championship at Fort Ord's Bayonet course.
Justin and Kate Rose are part owners of Master Merion, who ran 12th in a field of 30 in Royal Ascot's Royal Hunt Cup.
Cristie Kerr spotted this burrowing turtle while preparing for the Walmart NW Championship.
A post shared by Cristie Kerr (@cristiekerr) on
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
