Category: Golf

• Smylie’s clutch final round to beat Smith in his pet event
• Youngster’s victory books him 2025 European tour card

Elvis Smylie stared down Cameron Smith at his pet event to win the Australian PGA Championship and book a return to the European tour.

The 22-year-old from the Gold Coast, son of former tennis star Liz Smylie, produced a string of clutch par saves and dodged Smith’s last desperate swings in a bogey-free Sunday at Royal Queensland. His 14-under total (65, 67, 67) left him two clear of three-time winner Smith (67, 65, 69), who was level with Smylie to begin Sunday but again stuttered on the final day after blowing a final-round lead at the NSW Open last weekend.

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• Englishman appealed sanctions after joining LIV circuit
• Sergio García still suspended despite paying £1m in fines

The latest indication of thawing relations between golf’s establishment and LIV rebels is expected on Wednesday, with Tyrrell Hatton to be named in the European Ryder Cup team’s warm-up event in Abu Dhabi. Sergio García, however, will miss out despite paying around £1m in fines to rejoin the DP World Tour.

The Team Cup, which takes place at Abu Dhabi Golf Club in January, features 10 players a team as Continental Europe take on Great Britain and Ireland.

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• Briton blasts rivals after tied-second finish at The Annika
• Sergio García to rejoin DP World Tour from LIV Golf

Charley Hull has hit out at “ridiculous” slow play in women’s golf, while insisting serial offenders should be removed from the LPGA Tour.

Hull tied second at Annika Sörenstam’s event in Florida as Nelly Korda notched her seventh win of the year. The tournament was overshadowed by pace of play issues, with Hull among players to finish their third round in near darkness on Saturday evening. The topic has been a regular one on the LPGA Tour and shows no sign of going away.

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Rory McIlroy contemplated his wins and losses, and everything else in between after ending a tumultuous year with a pair of trophies.

McIlroy broke a tie with Rasmus Hojgaard by hitting wedge to a foot for birdie on the 16th hole, and he closed with a 3-under 69 for a two-shot victory Sunday in the World Tour Championship.

He also captured his sixth title as Europe's No. 1 player. In 2024 he won four times — two of them on the PGA Tour, one of those with close friend Shane Lowry in a team event — and tied the late Seve Ballesteros with his sixth title in the Race to Dubai, formerly the Order of Merit

• Teary Rory McIlroy claims DP World Championship and sixth Race to Dubai

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• ‘I’ve been through a lot this year. I got the job done’
• McIlroy now level with Seve Ballesteros on all-time list

Rory McIlroy finished the 2024 season in style by adding his third DP World Tour Championship win after winning the sixth Race to Dubai title of his career.

The Northern Irishman was in the midst of a two-way tussle with Rasmus Højgaard for the season-ending event when his Race to Dubai crown was confirmed, with both players locked on 13 under with five holes remaining.

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• ‘I would pay for the privilege to play in the Ryder Cup’
• Europeans feel fee would be better spent on World Tour

Rory McIlroy has admitted he would pay to play in the Ryder Cup after it emerged US team members could collect $400,000 each for taking on Europe in New York next year. McIlroy believes such a move could undermine the “purity” of the biennial contest.

After pressure from leading players, the PGA of America’s board is seriously considering a move to break with Ryder Cup tradition and pay the 12-man American team by pooling a $5m fund. No such plan is being or will be considered in Europe; a situation McIlroy, the continent’s leading player, is fully behind.

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• Missing out on fifth major in June still grates
• Race to Dubai title would cap ‘successful’ season

Rory McIlroy admits his failure to win the US Open still “stings” after missing out on an overdue fifth major in June and remains a painful memory. The Northern Irishman looked set at Pinehurst to win his first major since 2014, but bogeyed three of the last four holes to finish a shot behind Bryson DeChambeau.

“Incredibly consistent again,” McIlroy said when asked to assess his season. “I think I’ve been really proud of that over the last few years. But then at the same time, thinking about the ones that got away, I could be sitting up here with a fifth major title and I am not.

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It is estimated that Trump played hundreds of rounds of golf during his first term as president of the United States

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is practising golf – for the first time in eight years – in preparation for future meetings with US president-elect Donald Trump, Yoon’s office has confirmed.

South Korean media said Yoon had visited a golf course on Saturday for a sport his office said he had last played in 2016.

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• Briton’s 66 with birdie-birdie finish seals two-shot win
• Tyrrell Hatton finishes second, Rory McIlroy ties for third

Paul Waring produced a stunning finish to hold off a stellar chasing pack and win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship by two shots from Tyrrell Hatton.

Waring had taken control of the event with a course-record 61 at Yas Links on Friday but saw his five-shot halfway lead reduced to one with a 73 on Saturday. The 39-year-old from the Wirral had spoken of feeling jittery during his third round but he displayed nerves of steel in a flawless closing 66 to secure victory with a 24-under-par total.

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Rory McIlroy backed the US president-elect Donald Trump to mend the relationship between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia funded breakaway, LIV circuit. McIlroy even floated the idea of Elon Musk, who he called 'the smartest man in the world', becoming involved in golf’s elongated merger plans. Trump has a keen interest in golf as well as business connections to Saudi Arabia and LIV Golf. He previously claimed he could align professional golf within 15 minutes.

• Rory McIlroy hopes Trump and Musk can heal golf’s civil war

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• Northern Irishman hopes president can help find peace
• McIlroy: ‘Musk is the smartest man in the world’

Rory McIlroy has suggested Donald Trump’s return to the White House could accelerate peace talks between traditional golf tours and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. McIlroy even floated the idea of Elon Musk becoming involved in golf’s elongated merger plans.

It has long been assumed that a Trump victory in the US presidential election could have a spin-off for golf. Trump has business connections to Saudi Arabia and LIV Golf – which the PIF funds – having previously staged events for the PGA Tour.

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Bradley’s pick was a panicked one after failing to entice Woods and the early noise around 2025 event resembles chaotic circus

A potential scenario, one which may be necessary to preserve some of the lofty status already bestowed on the 2025 Ryder Cup. Early noises around the event are so chaotic that Coco the Clown feels like an appropriate mascot for Bethpage as the US host Europe.

Via this theoretic plan, Keegan Bradley continues his ascent back towards the summit of professional golf. He qualifies for the team of which he is, for the time being, the captain. Because it is supposedly impossible to combine playing for a modern-day Ryder Cup team with captaining one, Bradley has to pass on his duties.

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• Standard tickets for Rome last year cost just over £200
• Online backlash over price hike for New York edition

Golf fans seeking to attend the Ryder Cup next year through the event’s “random selection” process face being charged $750 for day tickets for the competition proper. The cost of attending Bethpage Black in New York, where Europe are seeking to defend the trophy won in Rome last year, is only likely to increase the sense the Ryder Cup is pricing out ordinary golf fans as it moves towards the corporate classes. The online backlash has proved fierce.

Those who have not already bought Bethpage tickets can register for free via the Ryder Cup’s official site for the random allocation. Successful applicants for the event next September will be informed by early next month. Only single tickets for each day have been made available although those picked via the ballot may be able to buy up to four, if they can afford them.

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• Spaniard would have to rejoin DP World Tour
• García has had strong season in LIV Golf

Sergio García could be in line for a sensational Ryder Cup return at Bethpage next year after Luke ­Donald revealed he has held recent talks with the ­Spaniard about rejoining the DP World Tour.

García resigned from the Tour in 2023 after a sports arbitration panel ruled sanctions imposed on the former Masters champion and others who joined LIV Golf were ­appropriate. That appeared the end of the Ryder Cup road for García, the event’s record points scorer, given only DP World Tour members can play for Europe. García had an impressive 2024 season on LIV, ­finishing third on the overall individual standings.

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One of the nation's most storied golf courses is dealing with the aftermath of Helene, the former Category 4 hurricane that made landfall in Florida on Friday

One of the nation’s most storied golf courses is dealing with the aftermath of Helene, the former Category 4 hurricane that made landfall in Florida on Friday and was downgraded to a tropical depression as it continued its wrath into Georgia on Friday.

Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley said in a statement Saturday officials still are assessing how much damage was done to the iconic course, which has hosted the annual Masters Tournament since 1934. Augusta, Georgia, is located in the eastern portion of the state, along the border of South Carolina.

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