A new day may be dawning in golf: a kinder, gentler rule book, beginning 1-1-19. The reason? The game takes too long and the rules are too confusing…and at times too penal. That’s fine motivation but as I digest the new rules, some of them work, others don’t. Some of the rules will make the game more fair and equitable, some rules will speed up the...
Yes, I know, most people voted for Dustin Johnson. But I think that’s a sympathy vote. I also think we in the golf media are doing that herd groupthink thing again. Dustin won the U.S. Open at Oakmont with a cloud hanging over his head, but he didn’t shoot 63 on Sunday and 20-under overall setting a major championship record. It was one of the greatest...
Tiger Woods’s long-awaited return to the PGA Tour will begin at home against the smallest field in competitive golf. Woods will play the Hero World Challenge at Albany December 1-4, starting alongside a mere 17 other players. “A lot of players make their homes right there, so it’s a buddy trip to Ti’s house,” quipped one irreverent wag...
Amidst a tumult and shouting that would have impressed even the great Grantland Rice himself, the United States defeated Europe 17-11, winning their first Ryder Cup since 2008. Patrick Reed preened like an NFL linebacker, Phil Mickelson made putts from Duluth, St. Cloud, and Monkato, and Ryan Moore – the last man to make the team – sank the Ryder Cup...
Here are the matchups for tomorrow’s singles at Hazeltine Natonal as the 2016 Ryder Cup turns towards the Sunday Singles. 1. PATRICK REED (USA) V. RORY MCILROY (EUR) Ohhhh, grab your popcorn. We finally get the marquis matchup we wanted to see at a Sunday singles. You KNEW Reed had to lead off, and you KNEW Europe had to front load, and for once, the stars...
It’s downright poetic: the “Greatest Event in Golf” (as countless golfers and pundits have described it) is being played in the most golf loving state in the union. This week the 41st Ryder Cup comes to Hazeltine National, the golf club specifically designed to bring the golf world’s pre-eminent events to Minnesota. Built in 1962 by Robert...
SPRINGFIELD, NJ – As night falls at Baltusrol and the forest-draped mountain is shrouded by low clouds, the waning crescent moon shines feebly in the overcast sky. Finally, the promised rain came, just a thin shower, but I was too late. Against all predictions, the 2016 PGA Championship finished on time Sunday night. Inside the clubhouse amber lights burn...
SPRINGFIELD, NJ – —“I didn’t win despite my handicap, but because of it – just as Hogan came back from that automobile accident, and Babe Zaharias came back from a cancer operation. — Ed Furgol after winning The 1954 U.S. Open at Baltusrol At precisely 9 o’clock the sun went down with a last vermillion flash behind old Baltus...
SPRINGFIELD, NJ – When you look at a map of Baltusrol Country Club, the payout of the golf course resembles a barbell with the left side over-inflated on the bottom. But to the professional golfers assembled here for the last major golf championship of the year, the 98th PGA, it looks more like the plumpest, fattest, juiciest chicken wing this side of Buffalo...
I caught up with Graeme McDowell, Kevin Streelman, Sergio Garcia, and golf course architect Rees Jones while roaming the grounds, while Phil, Henrik, and Danny Willett and more dropped by the media center for interviews. You can read all about it Golf News Net. We’ll have more all week from Baltusrol, as well as an extended dance version of the Jay’s...
We’ve said it from day one – golf didn’t need to be in Olympics. This was just a money grab for the networks, the IOC, and the PGA and European Tours. We’ve steadily reported about the terrible format of the tournament, the devastating Zika virus, the filthy water conditions sickening athletes by the dozens, and the security risks. Now Sally...
What a lousy week for professional golf. First boats start floating across fairways at The Greenbriar Resort, forcing cancellation of the PGA Tour event and sending everyone scrambling for rescue and clean-up efforts after a disaster displaced thousands in West Virginia. But then came the embarrassing double whammy that a) Jordan Spieth is pulling out of the Olympics...
Golf News Net Publisher, Broadcaster, and Editor Ryan Ballengee writes this solid article on distance on the PGA Tour. I’ve been agreeing with Ryan for years – we need bifurcation on the Tour.Once you turn pro, grab a persimmon driver and hardwood woods. I mean really – people are routinely hitting 400+ yard drives now. Normal players just...
OAKMONT, PA – All week long this was a U.S. Open that begged to be forgotten. From a Thursday washout that declawed the golf course and left everyone wrong-footed and playing catch-up to the rules flap that luckily didn’t turn the tournament into a morality play, this 2016 U.S. Open wasn’t Oakmont or the USGA’s finest hour. Swirling in the...
PITTSBURGH, PA – —The noise afterwards, It rises up like a storm, As if you were the Thunder God himself. Proximo to Maximus the Gladiator— Like a scene from Gladiator, the roar of adulation rang from Erie to Allentown and from Scranton to Akron. No mere coliseum could match it. Conquering heroes were returning home, and this is Pittsburgh. When you...