The lone player director on the PGA Tour’s policy board who truly represents the little guy used his temporary platform to remind anyone who would listen that the game is full of little guys who cherish signature moments as much or more than signature events.
“I feel this is a great break, and I want you to be here,” Peter Malnati said to PGA Tour rules official Steve Rintoul during a crucial moment in the closing stretch of his eventual victory in the Valspar Championship Sunday in Palm Harbor, Fla. Malnati had hit his approach through the green and into Read more…
Winning the Masters is a life-changing event, and Rahm has already discovered that. Throw in the decision that changed the arc of his pro career, opting to join LIV, and this Masters will be unlike any other for a defending champion.
Scottie Scheffler insisted this type of performance was coming. At Bay Hill, he mowed down the field with a red-hot putter and claimed his second Arnold Palmer Invitational. (Next up: TPC Sawgrass.)
ORLANDO — Rory McIlroy took a shortcut on the way to posting his lowest back-nine score at Bay Hill Club and putting himself in the mix in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. It was what he might call the “fargiven” kind of shortcuts, to steal one of his lines. With one of the most prodigious tee Read more…
The 14,000 square-metre venue in Florida will reportedly be able to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. The previous air-supported stadium was rated to withstand a Category 4 storm.
ORLANDO – They’re not always living the dream on the PGA Tour. Sometimes a nightmare intervenes. Ask Jake Knapp. It seems so long ago when a player could simply drive the green or thereabouts on the par-five sixth hole at Bay Hill Club and turn it into a pitch-and-putt par 4. But it wasn’t. Bryson Read more…
Playing opportunities on the PGA Tour appear to be contracting in this new age of signature events that feature larger purses and smaller fields. Rory McIlroy, who argued for creating the more exclusive tournaments – eight in all this year – isn’t inclined to give them his seal of approval.
ORLANDO — No one should get the sense that there is an ounce of panic in the Rory McIlroy camp as it pertains to the one area of his game that could keep him from winning the career grand slam. Of course, when we put it like that, it seems like a perfect time to Read more…
While a few players in attendance expressed a mild level of interest in a what-if scenario that could allow LIV reinforcements, the overriding sentiment was that there is no sense wasting time or energy on a situation out of their control.
ORLANDO — Justin Lower never got a chance to officially meet Arnold Palmer, but the Ohio native probably has one of the more memorable encounters with the legendary player among those competing in this week’s 59th edition of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Lower, who opened with a five-under 67 Thursday at Bay Hill Club, a Read more…
ORLANDO — While Justin Thomas was explaining to reporters Thursday how golf can beat you up and how the game wasn’t beating him up as badly as it did last year, Kurt Kitayama was in the midst of getting two black eyes and a bloody nose. At least figuratively. Bay Hill was landing rights and Read more…
ORLANDO — Those sticky rules of golf can sure derail a fine round. Good thing for Hideki Matsuyama that a rule change enabled him to maintain a share of the early lead Thursday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Winner earlier this year at the Genesis Invitational, Matsuyama opened with a five-under 67 at Bay Hill Read more…
ORLANDO — It can be a very lonely feeling to be a rookie on the PGA Tour. Nick Dunlap, barely more than a month into his professional career, didn’t really mind the relative isolation in his debut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Not that he had that much of a choice. In what can only Read more…
With LIV abandoning its designs for OWGR inclusion and the PGA Tour appearing no closer to an agreement with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia that would reunite all of the game’s top players, it appears that the OWGR system will continue to come under scrutiny. Even among tour players who benefit from the current situation.
One unavoidable fact about a void: it affords opportunity. Someone is going to fill it. The only hope is that it’s someone cool or deserving. Or both. Say what you will about the strength of field, or lack thereof, at the Mexico Open at Vidanta, the outcome of year’s eighth PGA Tour event had a Read more…
Some on LIV Golf accepted what can only be estimated as generational wealth. Their omission from the OWGR is not a punishment, but the price of that payday.
PEBBLE BEACH — The last thing Leo Lukenas remembers before he died was the routine task he had performed countless times for 50 years as a caddie and for 25 years working at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am—just handing a few clubs to his player. Carrying for amateur Geoff Couch in last year’s tournament, Lukenas Read more…
Australian Golf Digest
