Golf News
Tiger Woods watched his son, Charlie, shoot a 10-over 80 on Tuesday and miss the cut at 22 over through two rounds at the US Junior Amateur.
The 15-year-old Woods, who earned a spot in the 264-player field last month, finished near the bottom of the pack. The top 64 players advance to match play, which begins on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Dynamic around the sport at Games has shifted dramatically and has scope to offer most captivating storylines of year
A glance at the programme for the upcoming Olympics makes you wonder why there was so much fuss attached to golf making a return to the Games in 2016. Yet fuss there was; from players who couldn’t be bothered travelling to Rio to others who questioned whether any sport where a gold medal can never be the pinnacle was worthy of inclusion. The strength of negativity made people ponder whether golf’s Olympic alliance would last.
Eight years on, the dynamic around Olympic golf has shifted beyond comprehension. Participation numbers in the sport are soaring. Golfers are generally unsure what that gold medal means in context of their career – in fairness, only four living male and female players have sampled this – but have learned to embrace the Olympics. After what looked stress-free success at Royal Troon on Sunday, Xander Schauffele will land in Paris not only as the defending champion but with the Claret Jug in his hand luggage. Schauffele is the first player to win the Open and US PGA Championship in the same year since Rory McIlroy’s halcyon summer of 2014. The American has his eyes on a career grand slam.
Continue reading...Matthew Jordan’s approach into 1 is gathered up by the bunker guarding the front left of the green. Never mind! The links expert – he grew up playing at Hoylake, where he finished tied for tenth last year – nearly holes out with a delicate splash. The ball stops on the lip. The shot deserved more, but he’d have taken par when watching his ball disappear into the trap. He remains at level par, unlike his poor playing partner Justin Thomas, who ends up with a triple-bogey seven, his bid over after one hole. He’s +3, and it’s been a topsy turvy week for JT all right. An opening round of 68, a 67 yesterday, and a 78 in between that was a microcosm of the entire week in itself: 46 out, a battling 33 coming back to survive the cut. If the 31-year-old American can rediscover some consistency, he’ll become his old super-dangerous self once again. But this week is over.
A nightmare start for the two-time PGA champion Justin Thomas. A wild slice, and his drive goes sailing towards the beach. That’s not necessarily the worst opening tee shot at an Open Championship – Ian Baker-Finch (below) has JT’s back – but it’s up there. So far off beam. Thomas’s second finds a fairway bunker, from which he’ll be forced to chop out sideways. A triple bogey looks on the cards now. His hopes and dreams – he’d started the day at level par - over in a matter of seconds.
By the time of the 1995 Open at St Andrews, [Ian Baker-Finch’s] confidence was twisted almost beyond repair. He stood on the 1st tee, paired with the legendary Arnold Palmer, having not made a single penny in prize money all year. Then came the sort of mistake even a weekend hacker would have trouble making. Standing in front of the widest fairway in championship golf, Baker-Finch snap-hooked his ball straight over the parallel 18th fairway and out of bounds, nearly 180 yards to his left. Baker-Finch shot 77, six shots better than his playing partner Palmer, but then Arnie was 65 years old.
Continue reading...The rain is beginning to come down now. Umbrellas up. The greens suddenly not running quite as quickly as they were. Russell Henley, coming off the back of a birdie blitz at 4, 5 and 6, tries to make it four in a row at 7, but leaves his 20-foot putt a couple short. He remains at -1. See also the in-flight Thriston Lawrence, whose 30-foot birdie attempt up 12 stops one full rotation short. He’s still -4.
It’s difficult to keep these things going, mind. Justin Thomas had been going along like a train until dropping his first shot of the day at 13; now he’s shipped another, the result of driving into a bunker at 15. He’s back to level par for the tournament and just (just!) four under for his round.
Continue reading...Just before 10pm last night, qualifier and major debutant Dan Brown birdied 18 and signed for a 65 that gave the 29-year-old from North Yorkshire the surprise 18-hole lead. Look!
-6: Brown
-5: Lowry
-3: Thomas
-2: Noren, N Hojgaard, Rose, Henley, Schauffele, Hughes, Dean
-1: A Scott, Wallace, Kirk, Straka, Koepka, Fitzpatrick, Scheffler
Cameron Smith has been left licking his wounds after enduring the most “brutal” day of his major championship career at the British Open, shooting an 80 for the first time in one of golf’s four biggest tournaments.
In 33 majors stretching back nine years, the 30-year-old Queenslander had never before suffered an indignity like Thursday’s opening round at Royal Troon as he carded a nine-over par round.
Continue reading...Adam Scott came so close to lifting the Claret Jug in 2012. It wasn’t to be, and those closing four bogeys at Lytham will have left a scar. He had the Scottish Open snatched from under his nose last week by Bob MacIntyre, too. But there’s little that vexes the genial Aussie too much, and here he his holing out from one of the deep bunkers guarding 1. An opening birdie, and while there are 71 holes still to play, we’re allowed to dream. It’s free.
-1: Song (2), Kinoshita (2), Scott (1)
Continue reading...Home favourite Robert MacIntyre took full advantage of a stroke of luck to win the Scottish Open with a dramatic final birdie putt.
MacIntyre, who was denied the title 12 months ago by Rory McIlroy’s stunning finish, produced one of his own at the Renaissance Club. He rallied to win after trailing Adam Scott by two shots with three holes to play in a rollercoaster final round.
Continue reading...A year after being denied by Rory McIlroy’s last-gasp heroics, Robert MacIntyre has another chance to claim the title he craves most in the Scottish Open.
MacIntyre shot a third round of 63 at the Renaissance Club, the lowest of the day in changeable conditions, to trail his Ryder Cup teammate Ludvig Åberg by two shots.
Continue reading...Rory McIlroy experienced an unwelcome sense of deja vu as his putter misfired once more in the second round of the Scottish Open. Competing for the first time since agonisingly missing out on a fifth major title in the US Open last month, defending champion McIlroy added a 66 to his opening 65 at the Renaissance Club.
McIlroy briefly held a two-shot lead with five holes to play at Pinehurst but made a bogey at three of the last four, including a miss from 2ft 6in for par on the 16th as he finished a shot behind Bryson DeChambeau.
Continue reading...Keegan Bradley is assured of making another Ryder Cup team, this time as the US captain. The PGA of America announced his selection on Monday after months of talking with Tiger Woods about taking the job.
The PGA of America pushed out the news on Instagram after word began to leak during the day that Bradley, who has played on only two Ryder Cup teams, was chosen to lead the 2025 matches at Bethpage Black in New York.
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