"GOOD LORD, IS THE ROUGH THICK at Erin Hills ahead of the U.S. Open," wrote GolfDigest.com.
On Tuesday Wesley Bryan, a recent first-time winner on the PGA Tour, demonstrated the difference between rough and fairway during a practice round. The fairway and deep rough are separated by only two paces.
Hey, U.S. Open field: DO NOT MISS FAIRWAYS.
Actually, I don't mean that. Watching them hit out of the evil U.S. Open rough is one of my favorite things on the golf calendar.
I understand the severity of what I did and I take full responsibility for my actions.
I want the public to know that alcohol was not involved. What happened was an unexpected reaction to prescribed medications. I didn’t realize the mix of medications had affected me so strongly.
I would like to apologize with all my heart to my family, friends and the fans. I expect more from myself too.
I will do everything in my power to ensure this never happens again.
I fully cooperated with law enforcement, and I would like to personally thank the representatives of the Jupiter Police Department and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office for their professionalism.
ORLANDO, Fla. (May 24, 2017) – The PGA TOUR Champions stages its second major in as many weeks with the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship outside of Washington D.C., airing on both Golf Channel and NBC. Days after winning the Regions Tradition to tie Jack Nicklaus for the most senior major titles all-time with eight, Bernhard Langer will make his first attempt at surpassing Nicklaus this week. The European Tour stages its flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship from Wentworth, with an elite field taking part in the inaugural Rolex Series event, playing out on Golf Channel with more than 25 hours devoted to live tournament coverage. The PGA TOUR remains in Texas, shifting to Fort Worth for the Dean & DeLuca Invitational, as Jordan Spieth defends, while Sergio Garcia, Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson also are in the field. Ariya Jutanugarn is set to defend her 2016 title at the LPGA Volvik Championship in Michigan.
PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS
KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship
Dates: May 25-28
Venue: Trump National GC Washington, D.C., Potomac Falls, Va.
Mediate defends: Rocco Mediate finished three strokes ahead of (then) two-time defending champion Colin Montgomerie to claim his third PGA TOUR Champions victory.
Headlining the field: Bernhard Langer, Vijay Singh, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Colin Montgomerie, John Daly, David Toms, Tom Lehman, Tom Watson and Mark O’Meara.
EUROPEAN TOUR
BMW PGA Championship
Dates: May 25-28
Venue: Wentworth Club (West Course), Virginia Water, England
Tournament Airtimes on Golf Channel (Eastern):
Thursday 5 a.m.-1 p.m. (Live)
Friday 5 a.m.-1 p.m. (Live)
Saturday 7:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (Live)
Sunday 7:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (Live)
Broadcast Notes:
Elite field convenes at Wentworth: The field includes 14 of the top-50, and six of the top-10 in the Race to Dubai standings.
Headlining the field: Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose, Alex Noren, Tyrrell Hatton, Branden Grace, Russell Knox, Martin Kaymer, Ian Poulter, Francesco Molinari, Thomas Pieters and Tommy Fleetwood.
Spieth defends: Jordan Spieth finished three shots ahead of Harris English to claim his eighth career PGA TOUR win.
Headlining the field: Sergio Garcia, Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm, Phil Mickelson, Billy Horschel, Si Woo Kim, Zach Johnson, Charl Schwartzel, Matt Kuchar, Wesley Bryan and Beau Hossler.
LPGA TOUR
LPGA Volvik Championship
Dates: May 25-28
Venue: Travis Pointe Country Club, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Jutanugarn defends: Ariya Jutanugarn finished five shots ahead of the field to earn her third LPGA Tour win.
Headlining the field: So Yeon Ryu, Ariya Jutanugarn, Lexi Thompson, In Gee Chun, Shanshan Feng, Sei Young Kim, Amy Yang, Anna Nordqvist, Cristie Kerr and Brooke Henderson.
STEVE STRICKER IS A WISCONSIN GUY (Edgerton) and the U.S. Open will be played in Wisconsin at Erin Hills in less than a month.
But as Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard reported, the 50-year-old Stricker is not exempt to play in the 2017 U.S. Open. And time is running out. Nonetheless, Stricker will try to earn a spot after his request for a special exemption was turned down.
"I asked for a spot and I didn't think I would get one," Stricker said. "I figured I'd try to qualify and get in and I'm also playing a few events trying to get in that way."
Unlike many of his peers, Stricker has actually played Erin Hills "about five years ago," but he'll have to dial up his game a notch or two if he wants to tee it up there in the U.S. Open in a few weeks.
Stricker will try to qualify at a 36-hole U.S. Open sectional qualifier in Memphis, Tennessee, on June 5. He has made 19 appearances in the U.S. Open, with four top-10 finishes. His last appearance was 2014.
ORLANDO, Fla. (May 17, 2017) – The PGA TOUR Champions will stage its first major of 2017, as Bernhard Langer is set to defend at the Regions Tradition in Alabama. The PGA TOUR shifts to Texas for the AT&T Byron Nelson, where Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and defending champion Sergio Garcia headline the field. Ariya Jutanugarn – No. 3 in the current Rolex Women’s World Rankings – will defend her 2016 title at the Kingsmill Championship in Virginia, while world No. 1 Lydia Ko also is in the field. The European Tour is in Sicily for the Rocco Forte Open, being contested for the first time since 2012.
PGA TOUR
AT&T Byron Nelson
Dates: May 18-21
Venue: TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas, Irving, Texas
Garcia defends: Sergios Garcia defeated Brooks Koepka with a par on the first playoff hole to claim his ninth PGA TOUR victory.
Headlining the field: Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka, Matt Kuchar, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter, Charl Schwartzel and Ernie Els.
PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS
Regions Tradition
Dates: May 18-21
Venue: Greystone Golf & Country Club (Founders Course), Birmingham, Ala.
Langer defends: Bernhard Langer distanced himself from the field, winning by six strokes over Olin Browne to claim his sixth major title on the PGA TOUR Champions.
Headlining the field: Bernhard Langer, Vijay Singh, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Colin Montgomerie, John Daly, Steve Stricker, David Toms, Tom Lehman and Mark O’Meara.
Jutanugarn defends: Ariya Jutanugarn finished one shot ahead of Su Oh to earn her second career LPGA Tour win.
Headlining the field: Lydia Ko, So Yeon Ryu, Ariya Jutanugarn, In Gee Chun, Lexi Thompson, Shanshan Feng, Sei Young Kim, Amy Yang, Anna Nordqvist, Cristie Kerr, Brooke Henderson and Mariah Stackhouse.
The AT&T Byron Nelson begins tomorrow in Irving, Texas. The following piece is from the archives. ON MARCH 11, 1945, BYRON NELSON won the Miami International Four-Ball with Harold "Jug" McSpaden as his partner. It was the beginning of an extraordinary win streak that has never been matched on the PGA Tour and is one of the greatest individual streaks in the history of sports.
Byron Nelson's 11 Tournament Win Streak Miami International Four-Ball Charlotte Open Greensboro Open Durham Open Atlanta Open Montreal Open Philadelphia Inquirer Invitational Chicago Victory National Open PGA Championship Tam O’Shanter Open Canadian Open Nelson earned just under $35,000 during the streak. "I was almost in a trance," he told Golf Digest in 1970. That year, he won 18 of the 30 tournaments he entered, including the PGA Championship, a match-play event until 1958. He finished second seven times. A month after Nelson's death in 2006, President George W. Bush approved a resolution to honor the golf great with the Congressional Gold Medal for his numerous contributions to the game. How Nelson Ranks: Sports' Greatest Individual Streaks (From the Page 2 editors of ESPN.com) 1. Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak (1941) 2. Glenn Hall's 502 consecutive games played by a goaltender (from 1955 to 1962) 3. Cal Ripken Jr.'s 2,632 consecutive games played (May 30, 1982 to Sept. 20, 1998) 4. Byron Nelson's 11 straight PGA victories in 1945 5. Wilt Chamberlain's seven straight games of 50 or more points (Dec. 16-29, 1961) 6. Johnny Unitas' 47 straight games with a TD pass (1956-60) 7. Wayne Gretzky's 51-game points streak (1983-84) 8. Edwin Moses' 122-win streak in the 400-meter hurdles (1977-87) 9. Tiger Woods' four straight major pro golf titles 10. Harry Broadbent's 16-game goal streak (1921-22)
I MISSED THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP. That is, I didn't see any of the final round. It was Mother's Day and I had to drive to the Shenandoah Valley.
Enough said.
I'm still trying to catch up on golf after a short intense stretch of family life that included an engagement, a prom, a college graduation, Mother's Day and probably something else.
Of course, 21-year-old Si Woo Kim won The Players thanks to a sparkling short game and great composure for an untested player.
Ian Poulter (featured in the video) tied for second with Louis Oosthuizen but had to hang on after shanking his approach shot on the 18th. We've all done it, right? It was a potentially disastrous finish by the Englishman. (Some observers were critical of Poulter's conservative approach coming down the stretch, suggesting that he wasn't playing to win.)
One thing all can agree on: Poulter's recovery shot after the shank was sublime. He made his par and collected a big fat T2 check.
If only I could recover like that. I'm still trying to recover from shanks I hit in my youth.
HALE IRWIN IS IN THE WORLD GOLF HALL OF FAME. Irwin won 20 times on the PGA Tour, including three U.S. Opens (1974, 1979, 1990). In addition, he won 45 events on the Champions Tour, including seven majors. Irwin is a winner and competitor who is known for his grit.
That toughness also came from the gridiron. Irwin was that rare tour pro who played major college football. He was awarded a scholarship to University of Colorado, where he played quarterback and cornerback, and earned all-conference honors.
In the above Feherty clip, Irwin talks about his approach to football and golf -- what they have in common and what's completely different about the two sports.
I'M HONORED TO BE LISTED in Golf Assessor's 50 best golf books, here. The site ranks the golf books from 1 to 50. THE LONGEST SHOT squeezed into the top 10. Here's what Golf Assessor said:
Perhaps one of the greatest sporting upsets of all time. NBC-TV claimed that Ben Hogan had won the 1955 US Open after he tapped in on the final hole. But little-known Jack Fleck, still out on the course, clawed his way back from nowhere, and made the clutchest of putts to force a playoff with his idol. It was one he went on to win, and subsequently etched his place in history. A brilliant tale of an impossible journey, against impossible odds, where the human spirit triumphed.
DUSTIN JOHNSON IS IN WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA, for the Wells Fargo Championship, his first event since missing the Masters with an injured back. The top-ranked golfer said he is "feeling good, healthy." The back pain is gone after he fell down steps in Augusta last month.
On Tuesday Johnson hit balls, putted and played nine holes. Today he will play a full 18 in the pro-am. Despite virtually no practice, DJ said he is hitting it pretty good and is looking forward to the run-up to the U.S. Open.
AT THE 1974 TALLAHASSEE OPEN, journeyman Mike Reasor made the cut after shooting a 71. And then something strange happened. Reasor shot what are believed to be the two highest scores recorded on the PGA Tour.
After that second round of 71, Reasor and a friend rode horses. You can imagine what happened next. The PGA Tour pro was tossed out of the saddle when his horse named "Bandy" took off unexpectedly in a full gallop.
Reasor suffered a separated left shoulder, strained knee ligaments and two cracked ribs. Today, that would result in a withdrawal from the tournament. But not 43 years ago. If Reasor could finish the Tallahassee Open, he would be exempt into the next event he played.
So that's what Reasor did; he finished.
Reasor played using his one good arm, his right, swinging a 5-iron. He hit it about 120 yards. He also used a wedge and putter.
In addition, he had to keep up with his playing partners. And he did that, too.
"On the last three holes on Saturday," Reasor later told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "word had gotten around the course what this crazy fool was doing. We had more people watching us than the leaders."
Reasor finished with a total of 381, which was 93-over par and 107 shots behind winner Allen Miller.
For his PGA Tour career from 1969 to 1978, Reasor played in 241 events, made 102 cuts and had 10 top-10 finishes.
IT WAS A TOURNAMENT WEEK of playoffs, two of which finished on Monday.
At the revamped Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the first two-man team event on the PGA Tour since Ronald Reagan was president, Cameron Smith and Jonas Blixt beat Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown on the fourth playoff hole.
Meanwhile, on the LPGA Tour, veteran Cristie Kerr and Haru Nomura slogged through six extra holes at the Volunteers of America Texas Shootout. That is, the pair played the 18th hole six times before Nomura finally prevailed. According to many observers, it was an onerous playoff mainly because of Kerr's slow play.
Asked how she would celebrate her third victory, Nomura said, "... I'm here in Texas; I want to have a steak."
On the European Tour, Alexander Levy won the Volvo China Open in a one-hole playoff with Dylan Fritttelli. Levy made up seven shots in the final round, firing a 67 to Frittelli's 74.
"At the start of the round I was thinking maybe top three would be a good result," Levy said, "but when I was on the 15th green and saw I was just one shot behind… that's when I began to believe I could win the tournament."
Levy, 26, has four European Tour titles. His first one was the 2014 Volvo China Open.
