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Morning 9: Tour, White House talk further | Daly: I was kidding about COVID-19 cure | Padraig warms to fan-less Ryder Cup

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1. Tour, White House again discuss reopening (along with other major sports leagues)

 

Tom VanHaaren, ESPN Staff Writer, reports on another White House discussion...”Chief medical officers from major sports leagues participated in a call Tuesday with Seema Verma, who is a member of the White House coronavirus task force and administrator for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services.”

  • “The call, according to a White House official, was to go over how sports play a role in President Donald Trump’s plan for opening up America amid the coronavirus pandemic. Verma also updated league medical officials on the latest testing available and encouraged them to follow guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
  • “Among those representing the various sports leagues were officials from Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA, the WNBA, the NHL, the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour, the NCAA, the College Football Playoff, the National Women’s Soccer League, NASCAR, PGA of America, the Masters Tournament, the United States Tennis Association, as well as a few other organizations.”
  • “The PGA Tour was among the first professional sports leagues to announce an intention to return to play, with plans to open the revised schedule on June 8 with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.”
2. PA courses open
Meanwhile, in my home state…Golfweek staff report…Count Pennsylvania as another of the states that will allow players back on the links soon. Golf courses across Pennsylvania can reopen on Friday, May 1, Gov. Tom Wolf announced early this week.
  • “Deemed non-essential, golf courses have been closed as part of the Wolf administration’s mitigation efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
  • “Wolf announced Monday he is lifting some restrictions on businesses related to certain outdoor activities to ensure Pennsylvanians have opportunities to safely enjoy outdoor recreation as a way to maintain positive physical and mental health, according to a news release from Wolf’s office.”
3. Scheffler leads at Maridoe
An update on the exhibition tournament in Texas, via Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…”As they set off down the fairway Tuesday at Maridoe Golf Club, Davis Riley, Viktor Hovland and Parker Coody couldn’t help but crack a few jokes.”
  • “We’re all carrying our college bags, even Viktor and I, so you have a ‘Bama bag (Riley), Texas bag (Coody) and Oklahoma State bag (Hovland), and we’re like, ‘Well, this just feels like college golf all over again,'” Riley said. “It was funny.”
  • “However, it was Scottie Scheffler who had the day’s last laugh…The PGA Tour rookie birdied each of his final three holes, including a chip-in from 25 feet at the par-4 18th, to shoot 6-under and take the first-round lead at the Maridoe Samaritan Fund Invitational, a 54-hole event benefitting the Carrollton, Texas, club’s caddies, who are out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic.”
4. Daly: I was kidding
Golfweek’s Steve DiMeglio…”Two-time major champion John Daly said he was just joking around when he talked about having a cure for COVID-19 in a 50-second video posted to YouTube and shared by The Trump Organization on April 9.”
“Speaking Monday on Golf.com’s Subpar show hosted by former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz, Daly addressed the backlash he received concerning his remedy consisting of vodka, Diet Coke and cigarettes.”
“Shame we can’t have any humor in this country or this world anymore, you know, without somebody busting your you know what,” Daly said. “I didn’t mean to hurt anybody’s feelings. Hell, I was just doing it for fun, just try to get some laughs in the tough times we’re going through.
We all need some (fun) right now, we all need a sense of humor right now. We pray for the people who have fallen and pray for this virus to get over. I didn’t mean any harm by it.”
5. Weinman: Let’s not screw this up
Tough to pick an excerpt from the Golf Digest editor’s excellent meditation…“as one of the few widespread permitted activities, golf represents a kind of litmus test. We all want to play, and a cursory glance at courses in my area suggests most are trying to make it work-tee times spaced out, practice facilities and clubhouses closed, carts banned or limited to those who really need them. When my course sends out weekly emails outlining or emphasizing these restrictions, the subtext is always, “We’ve got a decent thing going here. Don’t screw this up.”
  • “Yet there are reports out of different parts of the country and abroad where golfers are holding firm to the game they’ve always played. Big groups, two players to a cart. Beers flowing post-round. At a time when deep sacrifices are being made all around, there is great danger, both symbolic and otherwise, in assuming the asks being made of society don’t apply to golf. The game fights a bad rap as it is.”
  • “…Which is to say if your course is open, or will hopefully open shortly, be happy for that. We all want everything back soon-packed grill rooms, a handshake and maybe even a hug when the round is over, a practice green where I can obsess over my inconsistent stroke. But until then, keep it simple. There have been times when we’ve all had to tolerate playing partners who take liberties with the rules. Now shouldn’t be one of them.”
6. Scott phones “golf buddy”
AP report…”In a phone-a-friend moment during the coronavirus pandemic, Adam Scott reached out to a fellow golfer who’d been waiting for his call.”
  • “Under the headline “No cameras, no trophies, but Adam Scott just won the lockdown’s act of kindness award,” the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported Tuesday about an interaction between one of the world’s leading players and a fan he’d never met, but who believed the pair were playing buddies.”
  • “Ross Campbell reportedly has seven brain tumors and experiences confusion, including a belief that he and Scott regularly played rounds together.”
  • “The 76-year-old Campbell’s daughter reached out to Scott while he was briefly back in Australia and the golfer readily agreed to make a call.”
7. “Take one for the team”
Rick Broadbent at The Times…“Padraig Harrington has admitted that the Ryder Cup could end up having to “take one for the team” and be played without fans.”
  • “The Europe captain is adamant that he and the players want spectators to be present at the biennial event in September, but accepts the decision is “above my pay grade” and different scenarios are being investigated. He also said he thought that if the PGA Tour made a successful comeback in June then it “massively” increased the likelihood of fans being allowed into the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.”
  • “Harrington, 48, told The Times: “Everyone wants fans to be there, but the question is does sport need the Ryder Cup and should the Ryder Cup take one for the team.”

 

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Photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship

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GolfWRX is live this week at the Wells Fargo Championship as a field of the world’s best golfers descend upon Charlotte, North Carolina, hoping to tame the beast that is Quail Hollow Club in this Signature Event — only Scottie Scheffler, who is home awaiting the birth of his first child, is absent.

From the grounds at Quail Hollow, we have our usual assortment of general galleries and WITBs — including a look at left-hander Akshay Bhatia’s setup. Among the pullout albums, we have a look inside Cobra’s impressive new tour truck for you to check out. Also featured is a special look at Quail Hollow king, Rory McIlroy.

Be sure to check back throughout the week as we add more galleries.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

See what GolfWRXers are saying about our Wells Fargo Championship photos in the forums.

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SuperStroke acquires Lamkin Grips

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SuperStroke announced today its purchase of 100-year-old grip maker Lamkin Grips, citing the company’s “heritage of innovation and quality.”

“It is with pride and great gratitude that we announce Lamkin, a golf club grip brand with a 100-year history of breakthrough design and trusted products, is now a part of the SuperStroke brand,” says SuperStroke CEO Dean Dingman. “We have always had the utmost respect for how the Lamkin family has put the needs and benefits of the golfer first in their grip designs. If there is a grip company that is most aligned with SuperStroke’s commitment to uncompromised research, design, and development to put the most useful performance tools in the hands of golfers, Lamkin has been that brand. It is an honor to bring Lamkin’s wealth of product innovation into the SuperStroke family.”

Elver B. Lamkin founded the company in 1925 and produced golf’s first leather grips. The company had been family-owned and operated since that point, producing a wide array of styles, such as the iconic Crossline.

According to a press release, “The acquisition of Lamkin grows and diversifies SuperStroke’s proven and popular array of grip offerings with technology grounded in providing golfers optimal feel and performance through cutting-edge design and use of materials, surface texture and shape.”

CEO Bob Lamkin will stay on as a board member and will continue to be involved with the company.

“SuperStroke has become one of the most proven, well-operated, and pioneering brands in golf grips and we could not be more confident that the Lamkin legacy, brand, and technology is in the best of hands to continue to innovate and lead under the guidance of Dean Dingman and his remarkably capable team,” Lamkin said.

Related: Check out our 2014 conversation with Bob Lamkin, here: Bob Lamkin on the wrap grip reborn, 90 years of history

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Tour Rundown: Pendrith, Otaegui, Longbella, and Dunlap soar

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Take it from a fellow who coaches high school golf in metro Toronto: there’s plenty of great golf played in the land of the maple leaf. All the greats have designed courses over the USA border: Colt, Whitman, Ross, Coore, Mackenzie, Doak, as well as the greatest of the land, Stanley Thompson. I’m partial to him, because he wore my middle name with grandeur. Enough about the architecture, because this week’s Tour Rundown begins with a newly-minted, Canadian champion on the PGA Tour. Something else that the great white north is known for, is weather. It impacted play on three of the world’s tours, forcing final-round cancellations on two of them.

It was an odd week in the golf world. The LPGA and the Korn Ferry were on a break, and only 13/15 of the rounds slated, were played. In the end, we have four champions to recognize, so let’s not delay any longer with minutiae about the game that we love. Let’s run it all down with this week’s Tour Rundown.

PGA Tour: TP takes TS at Byron’s place

The 1980s was a decade when a Canadian emergence was anticipated on the PGA Tour. It failed to materialize, but a path was carved for the next generation. Mike Weir captured the Masters in 2003, but no other countrymen joined him in his quest for PGA Tour conquest. 2024 may herald the long-awaited arrival of a Canadian squad of tour winners. Over the past few years, we’ve seen Nick Taylor break the fifty-plus year dearth of homebred champions at the Canadian Open, and players like Adam Hadwin, Corey Conners, Adam Svennson, and Mackenzie Hughes have etched their names into the PGA Tour’s annals of winners.

This week, Taylor Pendrith joined his mates with a one-shot win at TPC Craig Ranch, the home of the Byron Nelson Classic. Pendrith took a lead into the final round and, while the USA’s Jake Knapp faltered, held on for the slimmest of victories. Sweden’s Alex Noren posted six-under 65 on Sunday to move into third position, at 21-under par. Ben Kohles, a Texan, looked to break through for his first win in his home state. He took the lead from Pendrith at the 71st hole, on the strength of a second-consecutive birdie.

With victory in site, Kohles found a way to make bogey at the last, without submerging in the fronting water. His second shot was greenside, but he could not move his third to the putting surface. His fourth was five feet from par and a playoff, but his fifth failed to drop. Meanwhile, Pendrith was on the froghair in two, and calmly took two putts from 40 feet, for birdie. When Kohles missed for par, Pendrith had, at last, a PGA Tour title.

DP World Tour: China Open in Otaegui’s hands after canceled day four

It wasn’t the fourth round that was canceled in Shenzhen, but the third. Rains came on Saturday to Hidden Grace Golf Club, ensuring that momentum would cease. Sunday would instead be akin to a motorsports restart, with no sense of who might claim victory. Sebastian Soderberg, the hottest golfer on the Asian Swing, held the lead, but he would slip to a 72 on Sunday, and tie for third with Paul Waring and Joel Girrbach. Italy’s Guido Migliozzi completed play in 67 strokes on day three, moving one shot past the triumvirate, to 17-under par.

It was Spain’s Adrian Otaegui who persevered the best and played the purest. Otaegui was clean on the day, with seven birdies for 65. Even when Migliozzi ceased the lead at the 10th, Otaegui remained calm. With everything on the line, Migliozzi made bogey at the par-five 17th, as his principal competitor finished in birdie. To the Italian’s credit, he bounced back with birdie at the last, to claim solo second. The victory was Otaegui’s fifth on the DP World Tour, and first since October of 2022.

PGA Tour Americas: Quito’s rains gift title to Longbella

Across the world, superintendents and their staffs will do anything to prepare a course for play. Even after fierce, nightime rains, the Quito TG Club greeted the first four groups on Sunday. The rains worsened after 7 am, however, and the tour was forced to abort the final round of play. With scores reverting to Saturday’s numbers, Thomas Longbella’s one-shot advantage over Gunn Yang turned into a Tour Americas victory.

64 held the opening-day lead, and Longbella was not far off, with 66. Yang jumped to the top on day two, following a67 with 66. He posted 68 on day three, and anticipated a fierce, final-round duel for the title. As for Longbella, he fought off a ninth-hole bogey on Saturday with six birdies and a 17th-hole eagle. That rare bird proved to be the winning stroke, allowing Longbella to edge past Yang, and secure ultimate victory.

PGA Tour Champions: Dunlap survives Saturday stumble for win

Scott Dunlap did not finish Saturday as well as he might have liked. After beginning play near Houston with 65, Dunlap made two bogeys in his final found holes on day two, to finish at nine-under par. Hot on his heels was Joe Durant, owner of a March 2024 win on PGA Tour Champions. Just behind Durant was Stuart Appleby, perhaps vibing from his Sunday 59 at Greenbrier on this day in 2010. Neither would have a chance to track Dunlap down.

The rains that have forced emergency responders into action, to save hundreds of lives in the metro Houston area, ended hopes for a third day of play at The Woodlands. Dunlap had won once previously on Tour Champions, in 2014 in Washington state. Ten years later, Dunlap was the fortunate recipient of a canceled final round, and his two days of play were enough to earn him TC victory number two.

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