Golfing News & Blog Articles

As the LPGA season restarts Friday, five rookies share what they learned about themselves and their games during the 166-day coronavirus pandemic shutdown.

This kind of analysis of Davis Love’s brief CBS stint might have made fans more appreciative of the Hall of Famer’s short TV career.

Rex Hoggard talks to Love about the end of his CBS stint.

“Go back to the four West Coast events and I got off to a rough start and it just wasn’t working for me,” Love said. “I found the mechanics hard and being entertaining was hard. It’s kind of like you’re hitting it bad and you start getting worse and worse and worse. I was surprised how nervous I was.”

Ah we never noticed. Well, some of us.

“I found out that it was a lot harder than I thought,” Love said. “We kind of had a perfect storm with [CBS lead producer Lance Barrow] leaving and my situation at home with the fire and coronavirus. Nothing was normal and I’m trying to learn a business when nothing is normal.”

You gotta give the members of @Inverness_Club a huge amount of credit for giving-up their course at short notice during the height of the season for a regular tour event, knowing they’ll do the same next year for #SolheimCup - big gesture of support for womens golf. #DriveOn pic.twitter.com/2iPgfs3BVo

Hardly unexpected but still nice to see: the LPGA’s finest are restarting their season at rejuvenated Inverness. And while the “major championship” conditions presented by veteran ace super John Zimmers could be a tough way to restart after a pandemic-driven break, I couldn’t be happier to see one of America’s great clubs and tournament courses back in fine form.

And let’s be clear: Inverness only fell out of favor because of regulatory malfeasance (as much as I’d love to blame the Fazio’s, it was still great even after their visit.)

The news wasn’t 100% perfect—one player tested positive for COVID-19 on site and another at home—the players sound excited to be back and grateful to be playing Inverness, even if some are going caddieless, as Beth Ann Nichols notes in this Golfweek story.

As for the course, the LPGA.com notes in advance of Friday’s first round include these player remarks about Donald Ross’s design.

With all due respect to Yoda, the spirit of the rules is not strong with this one.

Since the PGA Tour took down the video tweeted by their partners at CBS—paying lavishly for the rights btw—below is a shortened version posted that will inevitably be targeted by Cult Ponte Vedra in a futile attempt to scrub evidence of unsportsmanlike conduct by Bryson Dechambeau. The full version would allow you to see the various avenues he attempts to pursue in search of a better lie, including the spotting of one red ant in hopes of protecting himself form harms way.

This came after his Memorial antics whining about a ruling and mashing down rough, proceeded by his caddy trying to bully a camera operator. The total package should give you an idea of just how dire the situation is in the players-first, rules/golf core values of the game a distant-second-mindset that has overtaken the PGA Tour.

Brian Wacker at GolfDigest.com with the details and DeChambeau’s post-round comments suggesting he’s always going to respect the officials.

Bryson wants a drop because of a red ant

He is the worst pic.twitter.com/lRd2j44xMn

Ryan Moore and Adam Schenk lead the PGA Tour's Barracuda Championship with 14-point rounds under the modified Stableford scoring system.

A pair of past major champions, Francesco Molinari and Padraig Harrington, have withdrawn from the PGA Championship.

Bryson DeChambeau argued with an official at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational to no avail Thursday that his ball landed near a hill of fire ants at the seventh hole and he could take relief. He ended up taking a double-bogey 6 on the hole.

The LPGA Tour's return yielded two positive tests, including Marina Alex, for the coronavirus out of the 466 given to players and caddies before they traveled and when they arrived for the LPGA Drive On Championship.

Brooks Koepka matched his career best with an 8-under 62 to take the first-round lead at the FedEx St. Jude Invitational.

Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez led a Spanish charge in the European Tour's latest stop in England, shooting a course-record 10-under 62 in the opening round of the Hero Open on Thursday.

The shoes worn by a host of PGA Tour players this week at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational have special meaning because of the young people who designed them.

DID YOU KNOW?: On average, left-handed people have a shorter life span than their right-handed counter parts.

That’s not true at all. We live just as long as everyone else, but we’ve all heard that rumor right? It’s just one thing on a long list of sufferings that left-handers must endure. Lefties deserve better than a life of ink-stained hands, backwards scissors and the eternal lefty elbow battle. After all we’re the creative, free-spirited thought leaders, right?

So since we must overcome so many hardships in the few short years we’ve got in a right-handers world, we think we should at least be making the most of it and playing the correct club.

We’ve curated a list especially tailored to the lefties in the MyGolfSpy readership that includes the best clubs on the market, according to our tests, with left-handed options. Southpaws rejoice!

1. PING G410 Plus

2020’s Most Wanted Runner-Up is available in left handed options.

Like a round of golf, the year started with so much hope and promise.

And then 2020 happened. Not that it’s any consolation but it happened to everyone. Also, it’s still happening.

Bogey. Double bogey. Quad. And then an “X.” Ball in pocket.

If a golf company could be prescient, Honma still couldn’t have selected a worse date (March 16, 2020)  to launch a flagship line of equipment. And not just any line but one built around an elite, world-class golfer who apparently had eyes for someone else.

2020. So much “ugh.”

Rory McIlroy says he may not return to Europe from the United States this year due to the risks associated with travelling amid the coronavirus pandemic.

His name mentioned as a player who has received an offer letter, Henrik Stenson was asked about the Premier Golf League’s prospects Wednesday in Memphis where he’s playing the WGC FedEx St. Jude Classic.

Q. I'm going to straight for the jugular. Your name's been mentioned as one of the players that's may be involved in the Premier Golf League. Can you comment on that, please?

HENRIK STENSON: I think we've all kind of seen--we've seen some of the things in the press and, yeah, I know a little bit what's going on behind the scenes and I'm following it closely, like a lot of other people. Yeah, we'll see what happens in the future really.

Q. Can you say now whether you've been approached or not, or is that sort of under cover?

HENRIK STENSON: Well, we'll--

Inverness’ 18th hole

One of the great places in American golf lore unveils a radically restored layout this Friday when the LPGA kicks off its 2020 season. So thanks to the Fried Egg for helping prep us with this overview of Andrew Green’s Inverness restoration, a welcome tonic from the men managing muggy, mundane Memphis this week. Golf Channel coverage of the LPGA Drive-On Championship starts Friday from 9-11:30 am ET.

Awesome day checking out the refreshed Inverness with @GreenGCA - great new bunkering, gets the Ross feel back at a historic place. Green complexes are phenomenal and it now stretches to over 7800 yards - 6 major championships...should be matter of time before #7 pic.twitter.com/NO6rZwQuwl

This week, @invernessclubgolf hosts the @lpga_tour Drive On Championship. A Donald Ross design, Inverness recently underwent a renovation by @green_gca Here, Green discusses his first impressions of the property and his discovery of three new Ross-inspired holes.

A post shared by The Fried Egg (@fried_egg_golf) on Jul 29, 2020 at 3:35pm PDT

One of the most respected former USGA Presidents has passed.

Grant Spaeth, collegiate golfing great and advocate for the game, followed in the mold of fellow Northern Californian Sandy Tatum and could safely be characterized as the last of an era attracted to serve the game for unselfish reasons.

David Shefter is thankfully still around at USGA.org to memorialize the life and interesting times of Spaeth.

This I didn’t know:

Spaeth graduated from Stanford and Harvard Law School before a brief stint in the U.S. Army, later establishing a law practice in Palo Alto. He also devoted a good deal of time to public service. He served as the deputy secretary for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare from 1978-80, and was a Palo Alto city councilman.

With Justin Thomas' regular caddie, Jimmy Johnson, not feeling well enough to work this week's WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, Thomas will have Jim "Bones" Mackay, Phil Mickelson's former caddie, on his bag.

Gaby Lopez, who won the first LPGA event of the year in January, has withdrawn from the LPGA Drive On Championship after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Rory McIlroy was asked on the eve of the WGC FedEx St Jude when he’ll be comfortable playing in front of fans again. The short version: not any time soon.

RORY McILROY: When would I feel comfortable when there's fans back on the golf course? I think I guess when there's less of a chance of people getting sick, I guess. And whether that's--you know, they discover more with the virus or there's different treatments, whether that's a vaccine or other treatments. So, I don't know. Again, like being out here, I feel pretty safe. We get tested multiple times a week, and inside the bubble I think we're pretty much not--obviously you can limit your exposure as much as you can. But yeah, it's hard. I don't know, I don't know. Whether it's a vaccination or whether it's something happens where there's a breakthrough and we know a little bit more about what's going on with the virus, but I probably can't give you a definitive answer about when I would be comfortable with crowds again.

Later in the interview McIlroy conceded he now understands the views of European players unwilling to travel for tournaments. This, after suggesting he would be leery of traveling to Europe or anywhere this fall. He had previously questioned some for an unwillingness to quarantine to be part of the PGA Tour’s restart.

And then regarding--like I--honestly, I don't know if I see myself going back to Europe this year. I don't know. I don't know if I want to travel, I don't know if I want to be exposed to more things and more people. So I don't know. I have no idea. I'm sort of taking it week by week. I've got my schedule planned up until the U.S. Open, which is obviously a couple weeks after the TOUR Championship, and then I honestly don't have any--I have no idea what I'm going to do after that.

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