Golfing News & Blog Articles

What an incredible of life-saving by Ana Paula Valdes and reporting by the Northwest Arkansas Gazette’s Chip Souza, who documents an incredible story reminiscent of Mary Bea Porter-King saving a drowning boy a 1988 qualifier.

In a nutshell, Valdes, playing in a Women’s All Pro Tour event, saved someone from drowning.

Please hit the link and read it all, but a snippet:

Valdes said she looked out into the lake and saw a person floating face down about 30 feet from shore. Kathy King said the momentum of the cart traveling down the embankment, then slamming into a tree likely caused the woman to be propelled through the front of the golf cart and into the lake.

“I said, ‘Oh my god, that’s the lady,’ ” Valdes said. “So I jumped in the water and started swimming her way. I finally got to her and I tried putting her face up against my chest. I was swimming because I could not touch the bottom. It was deeper than I could stand.

“So I was swimming, trying to keep her face out of the water. I was trying to wake her up because she was unconscious. I kept saying, ‘you’re OK, you’re OK.’ ”

Phil Mickelson, who turned 50 earlier this month, shot a 7-under 63 on Friday in the Travelers Championship to take a one-stroke lead into the weekend.

One of his playing partners tested positive for COVID-19. The other didn't feel well and pulled out. But Matt Wallace, a little scared, a little lonely, played on.

Denny McCarthy, who shot 3-under 67 and was paired with Matt Wallace and Bud Cauley during the first round of the Travelers Championship, tested positive for the coronavirus and has withdrawn from the event.

Since the U.S. Open will not be “open” for the first time since 1942 when Ben Hogan won, trying to get a field in place without qualifying was no easy task. And for the most part they appeared to a superb job bringing a diverse group of players to Winged Foot this September.

Brentley Romine has the full list of exemptions, including six time runner-up Phil Mickelson thanks to a World Golf Ranking cutoff date of March 15 when Mickelson was ranked 61st.

There were a couple of surprises near the end, pleasant in the case of the Order of Merit winners and top seven ranked amateurs. Surprising but not shockingly so: the top three from the 2020 PGA Professional Chanmpionship scheduled for late July, and of course, that old standby, Special Exemptions.

-Order of Merit winners from the Asian Tour, Sunshine Tour and PGA Tour Australasia as of July 15.

-Top three finishers in the 2020 PGA Professional Championship.

-Top seven ranked players, not otherwise exempt, in the World Amateur Golf Ranking as of Aug. 19, following the U.S. Amateur.

-Special exemptions.

Back in March when the Players Championship attempted to play on as other sports shut down, most felt it was Rory McIlroy’s suggestion to “shut it down” if a PGA Tour player tested positive that put the gravity of the pandemic into perspective.

After his opening 63 at the Travelers he praised Commissioner Jay Monahan’s uplifting press conference and suggested calls to stop playing following a few positive tests was silly.

From Christopher Powers at GolfDigest.com:

“I think people … you hear one or two positive tests and people are panicking, and I saw a couple of calls to shut the tournament down, which is silly from my point of view,” McIlroy said. “You know, I thought [Monahan] did a really good job explaining. There’s been almost 3,000 tests administered. The percentage of positive tests is under … it’s a quarter of a percent.

“I think as a whole, it’s been going really well. There’s a couple of loose ends that we needed to tidy up, and I think we’ve done that. So yeah, I feel like the mood and the tone of the event was probably lifted by Jay yesterday.”

One update to the Tour guidelines not mentioned in Jay Monahan’s Tuesday press conference involved how Shane Lowry’s possible COVID-19 brush was handled. The Commissioner approved Lowry’s place in the Travelers Championship field—and opening with 66)—but he must wear face covering in scoring and is precluded from entering the TPC River Highlands clubhouse.

From Brentley Romine at GolfChannel.com on Lowry proceeding cautiously:

“I contacted the Tour pretty quickly because I asked them what did they think I should do because I wanted to do the right thing,” said Lowry, who decided to remain in the field and shot 4-under 66 Thursday. “But I don't think I was within enough contact with Ricky over the course of the nine holes we played on Tuesday. … I spoke to [Tour commissioner] Jay [Monahan] yesterday evening here at the club, and he said that I'm good to play, so I'm here to play.”

He may be playing, but Lowry also is having to take extra precautions. He is wearing his mask into the scoring area and he’s restricted from going inside the clubhouse and player dining.

Mackenzie Hughes fell just short of the 12th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history, but took a three-shot lead after going bogey-free Thursday at the Travelers Championship.

June 25, 2020

NCGA Mourns the Loss of Past President Jerry Blackmore

Jerry E. Blackmore, who served as NCGA president in 1992, died June 23.

Mr. Blackmore was born August 19, 1940 in Great Falls, Montana.  The only child of Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Blackmore, he grew up as a young child in Duluth and Ely, Minnesota.  His family moved to Castro Valley when Jerry was a freshman in high school.  He’d graduate from Castro Valley High in 1958.

Later, Jerry earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Finance from San Jose State and an MBA in Taxation.  He was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity while at San Jose State and was a member of the California Society of CPA and American Institute of CPA.  He served in the Vietnam War in 1962 and 1963.

The recent spike in coronavirus cases has not deterred The Memorial Tournament from being the first event to have spectators since the PGA Tour's restart. Said a tournament official: "It reminds us we have to make sure we do it right."

It was early in the morning, on a largely empty course at the Travelers Championship. It was a round full of fireworks, even if nobody heard them.

Expanding the Official World Golf Ranking, awarding spots for high finishes at PGA Tour events, a points system for European Tour events and spots for Korn Ferry Tour players and amateurs are all part of the new exemption criteria for the U.S. Open.

We started Shaft University as an introductory journey into golf shafts focused on a single question. “What is involved in creating a golf shaft?” From there, we explored the topics of materials, design, and production, which brings us to the end of this design cycle – testing.

As a trusted colleague likes to say, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” Whether a shaft design results in a physical product that achieves the target objectives isn’t clear until the shaft is tested. Or, think of it this way – everything is theoretical until it isn’t.

In a sense, shaft testing is the seminal moment when a product either checks all of the boxes, or it doesn’t. This isn’t to suggest that every shaft manufacturer uses the same checklist or maintains identical spec tolerances. However, leading brands produce higher quality products more often and more consistently.

WELCOME TO THE END

With that, welcome to Testing 101, the final component of this edition of Shaft U. Particularly with high-performance (and high dollar) shafts, engineers are likely to argue that of all the steps, testing might be the most critical one.

…and in a charming, expedite-the-freak-show exposure of regulatory ineptitude as we wonder how much longer American tournament golf can be played without quarantining half the Tour.

Obviously, it is CLEARLY the better way to play the TPC River Highlands’ 17th by flailing away on a spectator-free course. I mean, who would play to that tiny water-guarded fairway when they could bomb away? Bryson? We need you in this time.

Luke Kerr-Dineen first posted this after DeChambeau’s practice round at the Travelers Championship.

Bryson tried driving the 420-yard 17th green during his practice round today. Reached 198 mph ball speed on the drive (!) and stayed dry, but says it's too risky to try in the tournament.

Was tempted to try and drive a few holes last week, but ended up "playing smart" pic.twitter.com/quAysDTpVb

But he has so far, decided not to do it, Brentley Romine notes here:

One was the greatest sprinter of all time, while the other rewrote record books in golf. Which one dominated their field like no other?

Too many golfers pull the trigger too early in their swing. I’m an active recreational golfer and I watch a lot of other golfers (as well as myself) who get so frustrated by their ability to hit a golf ball perfectly 100% of the time. They would even be happy with 50% or any improvement but they can’t seem to calm down and execute the shot. I know the secret.

Unfortunately golfers love to watch the pros on TV executing every shot perfectly. We rarely see the duck hooks or the fat shots or the topped balls, but the pros do it too. The program producers just make sure that they only show the best of shots unless they happen to be following one of the tournament leaders who happens to make a poor shot.

My point here is that the pros have an amazing ability to start the transfer of their weight from the trailing foot to the leading foot during their swing transition at the top of their swing. They have no problem doing this with amazingly fast swings. We see this and our minds think we can repeat it on the golf course.

In the Heat of Battle on the Golf Course
We are always wondering where our bad shots are coming from especially when we do them on the golf course. It seems so simple to repeat great shots on the driving range. But on the course it all changes. When our minds are caught up with our last amazing drive or our last disappointing flub, we tend to internalize our feelings and release them by pulling the trigger too early in our next shot.

Bro-Bumps: Jay Monahan and Rory McIlroy at Last Week’s 2020 RBC Heritage

Kudos to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan for expediting his wheels up time to be out front on today’s hectic virus news at the Travelers Championship, apparently earlier than expected.

Also, kudos to the PGA Tour media team for axing all press conferences to focus on the matter at hand: more positive tests, more signs pro golfers are not immune to the virus, and more signs the that tour officials hear the bubble bursting.

And that’s about it for the compliment department.

The day that started with the news of Whoop’s for everybody! (Contrary to reports, the wrist devices do not inject you with anti-bodies OR zap you after walking into the Tour’s physio area without having tested negative).

Despite seven positive tests out of the 2,757 administered across the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour, commissioner Jay Monahan believes "every number hurts" and that "we all need to remind ourselves that we're learning to live with this virus."

If the PGA Tour had gotten complacent after two relatively smooth weeks, that changed in a hurry. So what does it mean for this week and ones after it? What would it take to cause another shutdown? And will there really be fans next month?

June 24, 2020

Sharing the Game With Friends and Family

After some very challenging months, we are all now enjoying the perks of summertime golf.

In taking stock of the situation, we more appreciate and realize how smart and fortunate we are to have chosen a sport that is proving to be such a great outlet in the midst of a pandemic.

Hopefully you’re not only getting back out to enjoy a few rounds, but getting some friends, colleagues or family members to join you. It’s time for some fun games again – but to play the games at even odds, everyone ought to have a handicap index.

In sharing the game with friends and family, here’s a reminder that there are several ways to join the NCGA and obtain an official handicap index via the new World Handicap System.