Strange Scores at Pure-Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic

HEATHER BOWIE YOUNG LEADS THE INAUGURAL Pure-Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic after firing a 39. That's right, 39, which is 6-under par. There are also a pair of 40s and a handful of 41s. The first round is still in progress on Paradise Island.

Pure-Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic Leaderboard

Why the strange scores? Because the 144 ladies are playing 12-hole rounds.

Heavy rains drenched the Ocean Club and only 12 holes are playable. It's the worst flooding in 20 years. Talk about bad timing. Tour officials hope all 18 holes will be playable for Sunday's final round. If not, it might be a 36-hole event.

"At the end of the day, we'll all play the same holes, the same course and be scored the same way," said Stacy Lewis, ranked No. 2 in the world. "That's a golf tournament."

74th Senior PGA Championship Tees Off in St. Louis

Robert Chapman

THE 74TH SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP IS UNDERWAY at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri. Bellerive is only the third course to host a U.S. Open, U.S. Senior Open, the PGA Championship and the Senior PGA Championship. The other two courses sharing that distinction are Oak Hill Country Club and Canterbury Golf Club.

Robert Chapman is the defending champion. The Englishman also won the 2012 U.S. Senior Open. The pair of majors were the journeyman's first professional titles in a dozen years.

"It has been a remarkable feeling to say that I have won the Senior PGA Championship," Chapman said at PGA.com.

"It was the best feeling in the world. I was also glad that I was able to go on and prove that I was not a one-off thing, and win a second major."

The Senior PGA Championship field includes Hall of Famers and Ryder Cup captains Tom Watson, Bernhard Langer, Tom Kite, Curtis Strange and Lanny Wadkins; Ryder Cup captains Hal Sutton, Mark James and Ian Woosnam; and major champions Mark Brooks, Mark Calcavecchia, Steve Elkington, Larry Mize, Andy North, Mark O’Meara, Jerry Pate, Scott Simpson, Jeff Sluman and Bob Tway.

Golf Channel and NBC will air 12 hours of live coverage of the Senior PGA Championship.

Golf Channel and NBC Airtimes
Thursday: Noon-3 p.m. ET (Live) / 12:30-3:30 a.m. (Replay) – Golf Channel
Friday: Noon-3 p.m. ET (Live) / 12:30-3:30 a.m. (Replay) – Golf Channel
Saturday: 3-6 p.m. ET (Live) – NBC
Sunday: 3-6 p.m. ET (Live) – NBC

VIDEO: Sergio Apologizes to Tiger for 'Fried Chicken' Remark

THE VERY PUBLIC SPAT BETWEEN SERGIO GARCIA and Tiger Woods took an ugly and stupid turn on Tuesday night at a European Tour awards dinner.

When asked if he would have Tiger as a dinner guest during next month's U.S. Open, Sergio said, "We will have him round every night. We will serve fried chicken."

Today, the outrage, the apology, the "is Sergio a racist?" commentary and much more.

"As soon as I left the dinner, I started getting a sick feeling in my body," Garcia said in a press conference on Wednesday.

"I wasn't able to sleep at all last night. I felt like my heart was going to come out of my body. Today it was difficult to hit a shot without thinking about it. Unfortunately, I said it. I wish I didn't do it but the only thing I can say is sorry."

I think Sergio should take a page from Vijay Singh's media relations handbook. The next time he's asked a question about Tiger Woods, use this: "No comment."

USGA and R&A Preserve 'Traditional Form of Golf Stroke'

THE USGA AND THE R&A TODAY ANNOUNCED the adoption of Rule 14-1b of the Rules of Golf that prohibits anchoring the club in making a stroke. The new rule will go into effect on January 1, 2016.

To explain their decision, the governing bodies issued a 40-page report. Section 2, titled "The Underlying Rationale for Rule 14-1b and Its Benefits to the Game," gets to the crux of the issue. Namely, what constitutes a golf stroke?

A key excerpt:

In adopting Rule 14-1b, the USGA and The R&A have concluded that freely swinging the entire club is integral to maintaining the traditions of the game and preserving golf as an enjoyable game of skill and challenge. The essence of the traditional method of golf stroke involves the player swinging the club with both the club and the gripping hands being held away from the body. The player’s challenge is to direct and control the movement of the entire club in making the stroke.

This traditional form of golf stroke has prevailed throughout the centuries since the game began. It is true to say that one can find isolated or episodic examples of anchored methods of stroke dating back into the early 1900s, just as one can find early examples of almost any method of stroke that creative players might invent or try, such as putting in a croquet style (seen as early as the 1900s or before). But it is only recently that a non-trivial and recurring use of anchoring methods emerged, first with the long putter in the 1980s and then with the belly putter at the turn of the 21st century—an extremely short time in the history of this 600-year old game and not reflective of any established tradition.

The concept of intentionally immobilizing one end of the golf club against the body, in a manner equivalent to creating a physical attachment point to use as a fixed fulcrum or pivot point around which the club can be swung, is a substantial departure from that traditional understanding of the golf swing. Reduced to its most basic elements, golf involves a player swinging a club at a ball to move it toward and ultimately into a hole. The player’s most basic challenge is to direct and control the movement of the entire club in making that swing.

Anchoring the club while making a stroke also involves a challenge, but it is a different one, in which the player uses the immobilization and stability of one end of the club as an essential component of the method of stroke. It is not the same as freely swinging the club.

If you agree with the governing bodies' view of what constitutes a golf stroke, then you probably agree with the adoption of Rule 14-1b. If you don't agree, then you are probably an unhappy anchorer.

I agree with their view.

They waited way too long, yes, which has caused a lot of problems (and perhaps more to come in the form of lawsuits, disputes and implementation issues), but I ultimately agree with their rationale and decision. The anchored stroke is not golf.

Read the full report:
EXPLANATION OF DECISION TO ADOPT RULE 14-1B OF THE RULES OF GOLF

G-Mac the Knife Wins Volvo Match Play

By Brian Keogh

Brian Keogh is a golf correspondent for The Irish Sun and a contributor to The Irish Times, Golf Digest Ireland and other golf publications. The following excerpt from Brian’s Irish Golf Desk is used with permission.

Graeme McDowell at Medinah. (Camflan)

A RUTHLESS GRAEME MCDOWELL CAME UP trumps where Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley failed when he overcame Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee 2 and 1 in the final of the Volvo World Match Play Championship in Bulgaria.

The Portrush native became the first Irishman to etch his name on the trophy alongside some game’s legends and made amends for those painful defeats for Harrington and McGinley against Ian Woosnam and Michael Campbell at Wentworth in 2001 and 2005 respectively.

McDowell, who defeated Branden Grace 3 and 2 in his morning semi-final at the stunning Thracian Cliffs Beach and Golf Resort, was delighted to win for the second time in the space of just four weeks following his victory in last month’s RBC Heritage on the PGA Tour last month.

Those two successes have propelled McDowell to seventh on the Official World Golf Ranking, while his €800,000 first prize took him to the very top of The European Tour’s Race to Dubai.

Reading the names of the past champions of the 50 year old tournament that was first staged in 1964, McDowell said: “Els, Montgomerie, Westwood, Ballesteros, Norman, Lyle, Faldo, Player, Palmer—it’s just crazy stuff really.

“These guys are legends of The European Tour and legends of golf so to have your name on a trophy this cool is pretty special.”

VOLVO WORLD MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

Semi-finals
Thongchai Jaidee defeated Thomas Aiken 3 and 2
Graeme McDowell defeated Branden Grace 3 and 2

Final
Graeme McDowell defeated Thongchai Jaidee 2 and 1

Brian Keogh covers golf for The Irish Sun and contributes to a variety of golf publications. Pay him a visit at Irish Golf Desk.