Golfing News & Blog Articles

France's Romain Langasque overturned a five-shot deficit to claim his maiden European Tour title at the Wales Open on Sunday.

Social media continues to bicker over Lexi Thompson’s clearance for what would have been an clear breach under the old Rules of Golf, but as Alistair Tait notes here, things seem to be murkier now with the R&A not penalizing Thompson.

The key issue: the R&A was ok with Thompson moving something behind her ball because it appeared to move back to its original position. The rule as 13-2 would not allow such a grey area, as Tait writes:

Whether the lie returned exactly to its original conditions is clearly a moot point. What isn’t moot is that Thompson made no effort to restore the original lie. The inference here is that Mother Nature decided to interfere by restoring the original condition, therefore there was no breach.

I can’t find the clause in either of my rule books that says if you improve your lie but the ball returns naturally to its original condition then you’re off the hook. You might struggle to find it, too.

Thompson, who was penalised four shots after replacing her ball incorrectly at the 17th hole during the third round of the 2017 ANA inspiration, is extremely lucky not to have been penalised on this occasion. She would have been penalised under the old Rules of Golf. There was no grey area surrounding old Rule 13-2, which dealt with this situation.

Dustin Johnson pulled away from Harris English and Scottie Scheffler to take control of The Northern Trust after three rounds Saturday at TPC Boston.

Dustin Johnson has had a strange run since golf restarted. He's won. Almost claimed his second major. He's missed cuts. He withdrew once. He's nearly broken 60 and twice shot 80. Now, he has a chance to win the FedEx Cup opener.

I’m not a huge fan of using low scoring to make the case to tighten up the equipment rules in the name of protecting skill. When scores aren’t low, the we technophobes hear stuff such as, “see, nothing to see here!” The same folks can’t be found when records are broken. Or they just chalk it up to modern athletes, arguably the last thing explaining an efficient scoring week.

So when players post a 59 and a 60 on the same day—under the relentless strain of PGA Tour Playoff pressure—it would be easy to highlight how overmatched TPC Boston looks. (Particularly when Dustin Johnson went out in 27, birdied the 10th and 11th, and seemed destined to shoot 57. )

But we know Tom Brodeur’s crew presents typically outstanding conditions. Players are usually peaking in August. And the updated modern design already appears overmatched by modern distances. Still, it’s notable how various intrusions of technological advances—clubs, balls, launch monitors, green reading books—are rarely cited in the scoring conversation.

Take Saturday’s CBS discussion citing consistency of agronomy (Dottie Pepper) and “quality of play” or “quality of setup” (Nick Faldo). No one mentioned clubs and balls which, if taken away from the players and replaced with something from 5, 10 or 15 years ago, seems more likely to impact the scoring.

Justin Thomas was asked Friday about the rounds and also noted player superiority over any outside influences:

Connor Syme of Scotland and Sebastian Soderberg of Sweden are tied for the lead three shots clear of the field after the third round of the European Tour's Wales Open.

Germany's Sophia Popov grabbed a three-shot lead heading into the final round of the women's British Open at Royal Troon as she carded a bogey-free four-under-par 67 in the third round on Saturday.

Tiger Woods shot a 2-over 73 while playing partner Rory McIlroy struggled to a 3-over 74, leaving them near the bottom of the 70-player field at The Northern Trust.

Scottish golfer Connor Syme moved into a strong position by taking a two-shot lead after the second round of the Wales Open.

Dani Holmqvist took a one-shot halfway lead at the women's British Open on Friday after braving the rough conditions at Royal Troon.

Shane Bertsch eagled the first hole of a four-man playoff Friday to win the Charles Schwab Series at Bass Pro Shops Big Cedar Lodge.

Dustin Johnson's captivating start Friday trailed off, leaving him with a 60 on the day -- one shot off golf's magic number -- but he still took a 2-shot lead at The Northern Trust.

Tiger Woods knows he missed a chance to shoot a low number at The Northern Trust on Friday, but his 71 was enough to make the cut in the first event of this year's FedEx Cup playoffs.

What a shame that Branson’s theaters are shut down right now. A little time in Missouri’s creative hotbed could motivate Phil Mickelson to stave off that next career option, the PGA Tour Champions.

As COVID-19 has halted Branson's Famous Baldknobbers, some shows by people you did not know still inhabited Earth, and even a few family-friendly Andy Williams tributes, Mickelson would not have time any way. He’s only got 48 hours to prepare for battles against the likes of Blake, Perry and Parel in the “Charles Schwab Series” at Ozark National.

From Ryan Lavner’s GolfChannel.com report at the Northern Trust, where Mickelson was eliminated from the playoffs:

“I feel like coming into this event I’ve been playing really well at home. I was excited to play. And I feel like I’ve been playing decent,” said Mickelson, who was set to miss The Northern Trust cut at even-par 142. “So I want to play. I really want to play golf. So that’ll give me a chance to play three competitive rounds.”

Scottie Scheffler posted a 12-under 59 on Friday at the Northern Trust to become just the 11th player in PGA Tour history to post a sub-60 round.

Having been eliminated from the FedEx Cup playoffs on the PGA Tour, Phil Mickelson will prepare for the U.S. Open by making his debut in a PGA Tour Champions event next week.

NBC’s Blayne Alexander introduces us to Xeve Perez, a 10-year-old phenom born premature at 20 weeks and weighing just three pounds. He took up golf at 18…months and is said to have one his first tournament at three. Just work with me here. It’s a good feature.

Anyway, he’s picked up plenty of wins since, is Georgia’s top ranked player in the 12 to 14 division even though he’s just ten. Also, he’d love to play Augusta some day. The 2026 Masters is penciled in right now and looking at that swing he’s got a shot.

Stick around for the live discussion and input from Today’s resident golfer Carson Daly. It’s fun stuff.

The ongoing trend of top players fiddling, pushing, mashing, digging and generally meddling immediately behind their ball continued Thursday at Troon.

This time it was Lexi Thompson in the AIG Womens’s Open who appeared to push aside some meddlesome Marram, but was cleared by the R&A of a Rule 8.1 breach because the grass returned to its original location. From Beth Ann Nichols’ report:

Yesterday, as part of its normal TV review procedures, The R&A viewed Lexi Thompson’s actions prior to playing her second shot at the 16th hole in round one of the AIG Women’s Open. 

Following a discussion between Chief Referee David Rickman and the player prior to her signing her scorecard it was determined that, although the player had moved a growing natural object behind her ball, it had returned to its original position. 

Thompson posted rounds of 78-75 and will miss the cut.

Here is the video:

Adams Golf is back!

Well, back insomuch as the Adams Golf Twitter account posted two tweets in a span of five days. That’s not prodigious by any measure but given that Adams hadn’t tweeted in nearly five years, the reemergence is notable.

Is Adams Golf poised to make a comeback?

Look good. Feel good. Play good. It's science. #XTDForged #AdamsFamily pic.twitter.com/MnoQCz2VVG

Adams Golf Rewind

If you’ve forgotten about the Adams Golf brand, the summary goes like this …

The LPGA Tour's Cambia Portland Classic will be played as scheduled Sept. 17-20 without fans at Columbia Edgewater Country Club, and the Kia Classic has been postponed until March.