By Ben Alberstadt with Gianni Magliocco.
For comments: [email protected]
Good Tuesday morning, golf fans, as the PGA Tour heads to New Orleans for the Zurich Classic. |
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1. 15-year-old finishes top 20 on KFT
Jay Coffin for Golf Digest…”During a week when most eyes were on Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda, the 15-year-old lefty finished off an incredible week with a five-under 66 in the final round of the Korn Ferry Tour’s LECOM Suncoast Classic at Lakewood Ranch in Florida.”
- “After opening with 68-66-70, Russell finished at 14-under-par total to tie for 20th place. The finish in which he jumped 28 positions on the leaderboard on the final day, gives him an exemption into next week’s Veritex Bank Championship at Rangers Park in Arlington, Texas. He’s the youngest player to finish inside the top 20 on the PGA of Korn Ferry tours, according to records that go back to 1983.”
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2. Understandably, Nelly WDs
Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner…”Nelly Korda’s bid for a record-setting sixth consecutive win will have to wait a few weeks.”
- “A day after capturing the Chevron Championship during a marathon final round in Houston, Korda announced on social media that she was withdrawing from this week’s JM Eagle LA Championship.”
- “It was not an easy decision,” she wrote. “After the unbelievable week at the Chevron and grinding through the mental and physical challenges of four events in the past five weeks, I am definitely feeling exhausted. With so much still to come throughout 2024, I feel I need to listen to my body and get some rest, so I can be ready for the remainder of the season.”
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3. Scheffler’s impressive No. 1 feat
Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…”After Scheffler’s victory Monday morning at the RBC Heritage, Scheffler upped his points average to 15.016 and increased his advantage in the Official World Golf Ranking over No. 2 Rory McIlroy to more than double McIlroy’s 7.365 average, meaning Scheffler is ranked further ahead of No. 2 than No. 2 is ahead of the last-ranked player.”
- “The last time a No. 1 player had a greater points average was Woods, who was at 15.4564 on Dec. 6, 2009. But Woods was less than seven average points ahead of No. 2 Phil Mickelson at the time. Earlier that year, Woods was 7.735 ahead of Mickelson, which is the last time the gap between Nos. 1 and 2 was greater than Scheffler’s current 7.651 advantage.”
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4. Zurich field notes
PGATour.com’s Adam Stanley…”Rory McIlroy will make his tournament debut alongside good pal, Ryder Cup teammate, and Irishman Shane Lowry – a duo that was firmed up during a celebratory lunch after the Ryder Cup last fall… Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele will try to reprise their 2022 win here. Cantlay and Schauffele have both the Foursomes and Four-ball scoring records at this event… Davis Riley and Nick Hardy will defend their 2023 title. No team has gone back-to-back… Three sets of brothers (and two sets of twins!) will play together with twins Rasmus and Nicolai Højgaard and Parker and Pierceson Coody in the field along with Alex and Matt Fitzpatrick. Alex Fitzpatrick and Rasmus Højgaard are sponsor invites…”
- “Billy Horschel, who won last week at the Corales Puntacana Championship, will be without his previous partner Sam Burns, as Burns and his wife are expecting their first child any day. Horschel will instead be paired with fellow University of Florida alum Tyson Alexander. Horschel has won the Zurich Classic when it was both an individual and team event… Other notable pairings include Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama, Sahith Theegala and Will Zalatoris, and Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin. The Canadian duo finished runner-up a year ago and would like nothing more than to show Presidents Cup International Team captain Mike Weir how well they play together… Steve Stricker will play his second TOUR event this season (after earning his way into THE PLAYERS Championship), teaming up with Matt Kuchar.”
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5. Tiger’s teammates
Field Level Media report…”Tiger Woods announced Monday that Max Homa, Tom Kim and Kevin Kisner have joined his Jupiter Links GC TGL team.”
- “The virtual golf league headed by Woods and Rory McIlroy will begin its inaugural season next January. Woods also unveiled the team’s logo.”
- “I have already shared my excitement and optimism for TGL as a league and product,” said Woods. “Now that we have finalized our roster with a team of world-class golfers, I am even more confident that this group will proudly represent the Jupiter (Fla.) area and connect with our fans for years to come.”
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6. Woosnam questions Cantlay’s decision
Our Matt Vincenzi…”After the horn sounded to suspend play due to darkness, Cantlay, who’s ball was in the fairway on the 18th hole, had a decision to make. With over 200 yards into the green and extreme winds working against the shot, conventional wisdom would be to wait until Monday morning to hit the shot.”
- “On the other hand, if he could finish the hole, he may just want to get the event over with so he could get out of Hilton Head.”
- “Curiously, Cantlay chose neither of those options. After hitting 3-wood into the green, and still coming up short, the former FedEx Cup champion chose to mark his ball and chip and putt on Monday morning.”
- “Ian Woosnam, who was watching from home, took to X to give his thoughts on Cantlay’s decision making.”
- “Cantlay would end up getting up and down for par when play resumed at 8:00 am Monday morning.”
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7. JT on Scheffler’s “weird” equipment choice
Our Matt Vincenzi…”After Justin Thomas’ third round of the RBC Heritage, the two-time major champion went in the broadcast booth alongside the CBS crew.”
- “While Thomas was watching Scottie Scheffler play on the back nine of his third round, he wondered aloud why Scottie uses high-numbered golf balls.”
- “Does anybody else think it’s weird that Scottie uses high numbers? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an elite player use high-numbered golf balls.”
- “Amanda Balionis who was on the grounds chimed in, reporting that analyst Dottie Pepper had wondered the same thing earlier that day.”
- “I’ve been going about this wrong my whole life,” Thomas jokingly said.
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8. Rory to rejoin PGA Tour policy board
Mark Schlabach for ESPN…”Four-time major championship winner Rory McIlroy is poised to return to the PGA Tour’s policy board, pending a vote by the board, which could come as early as this week, sources confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday.”
- “One of the PGA Tour’s most vocal supporters during its three-year battle with LIV Golf, McIlroy abruptly resigned as a player director on the tour’s influential policy board in November.”
- “He is expected to replace policy board player director Webb Simpson, who intends to step away before his two-year term expires in 2025.”
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9. Weir names Presidents Cup assistants
PGA Tour report…”International Team Captain Mike Weir announced Ernie Els, Trevor Immelman, Geoff Ogilvy and Camilo Villegas as captain’s assistants for the 2024 Presidents Cup, which will be played at The Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal, Canada, Sept. 24-29. |
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delete icloud contacts
Jan 22, 2015 at 4:39 am
Read the headline, and go straight to the comments. Bigger news would be Tiger making a birdie, finishing a round under par, or finishing a tournament without an injury.
While I completely agree that ‘Weird things happen to people’, any time TW gets so much as an in-grown hair, he makes sure the cameras are on him and milks it for all it is worth. Tiger has never been an ‘oh by the way, I just got my face pummeled by a camera’ kind of guy. Just sayin’…
Timbleking
Jan 22, 2015 at 3:54 am
Hancock 2 – He’s back.
Released in all cinemas in Phoenix, by the end of next week…
BigBoy
Jan 21, 2015 at 5:23 pm
Everyone wants to look like Mike Tyson…WHY?????
ND Hickman
Jan 21, 2015 at 6:04 am
I’m sorry but what is with the “LOL” tag attached to this article? This is a Golf website. Not some trashy gossip rag run by Perez Hilton or TMZ. Lets try and by a little bit more serious.
jgpl001
Jan 20, 2015 at 5:33 pm
Watch out Snoop Dog, Snoop Tiger now on the scene
Rich
Jan 20, 2015 at 5:15 pm
What? No pictures of him covered in blood from having the tooth knocked out by a camera man? Good place to be (in the snow fields) when his pants are on fire!
Double Mocha Man
Jan 20, 2015 at 4:39 pm
Fake tooth. Fake personality.
SS
Jan 20, 2015 at 7:53 pm
Right on, brother, right on!
brian
Jan 20, 2015 at 1:37 pm
polarized
JOTS
Jan 20, 2015 at 1:10 pm
Tiger missing a front tooth and Robert Allenby has a shiner / cut head….hmmmm…..coincidence??
RC
Jan 19, 2015 at 10:56 pm
Tell him to get a gold tooth put in
KCCO
Jan 24, 2015 at 6:53 pm
Should def go with a gold tooth, or a pop in grill????
Yeah
Jan 19, 2015 at 10:15 pm
So a camera knocked out his fake tooth that Elin BEAT out of his lying face? I wonder if Tiger will have a press conference to say the camera man was acting heroically when it happened. HAHA
CR
Jan 19, 2015 at 10:09 pm
I hope this means that he’s done for the season
jojo
Jan 19, 2015 at 9:30 pm
B F D!
……must have been a slow news day!
JonathanBilbo
Jan 19, 2015 at 9:30 pm
Why is he walking around without his “fake tooth” anyway? Regardless of who knocked it out.
CR
Jan 19, 2015 at 10:11 pm
Cos he feels like the gangsta he wishes he was
Nikki
Jan 19, 2015 at 11:15 pm
some people have to use pontic teeth, which is a place holder before an implant. Sometimes the bone isnt ready for an implant or the space isnt needed, a lot of celebrities have fake teeth that are are only attached by bonding them to the adj teeth.
Corrie-Lynn's dad
Jan 19, 2015 at 8:49 pm
Those are nike shades
Ct
Jan 19, 2015 at 5:14 pm
No Nike sunglasses? Somebody get a hold of deadspin! STAT!
brian
Jan 20, 2015 at 1:36 pm
you sure those dont say ” nike max polorized”…. because thats what it looks like to me…..
DatSliceDoe
Jan 19, 2015 at 4:57 pm
He’s had a fake tooth for over 10 years, how is this “news.” Clearly evidenced by every image of him where one of his front teeth is noticeably whither than the other.
Ct
Jan 19, 2015 at 5:11 pm
Your exactly right! Wait… Tiger and Elin are not together anymore? Again, nothing new!
Jason
Jan 19, 2015 at 4:57 pm
Thanks MG! We were all hoping someone could share their sentence structure knowledge with us. Man, you’re so smart. Please tell us more.
MG
Jan 19, 2015 at 5:12 pm
lol why u mad tho?
MG
Jan 19, 2015 at 4:31 pm
“Deadspin suggests that the tooth that was knocked out was in fact a fake tooth, which Woods had been sporting since the events of Thanksgiving, 2009 may have cost him the chomper.”
First off, this sentence structure is just hot garbage. Secondly the content is way off. Deadspin showed pics going back to ’04 where there was evidence he was wearing the fake tooth, well before the Thanksgiving incident.
bradford
Jan 20, 2015 at 7:55 am
But what if his intent was to say that the actual year, 2009, was the culprit?
MG
Jan 20, 2015 at 9:06 am
That would be a perfectly fine claim to make, so long as he provides a source. The problem is he sourced Deadspin as the 2009 date in that sentence. It’s not good when you falsely interpret your source, even if you are a blogger (Don’t tell Jason though, he still mad lol).