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19th Hole

Jeff Golden issues statement on Florida Mid-Am incident

Published

5 years ago

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Jeff Golden is sharing more details about the events of May 16 at the Florida Mid-Amateur Championship.

If you recall, police were summoned to Coral Creek Club during a rain delay in the Golden-Marc Dull final. Golden alleged Dull’s caddie, Brandon Hibbs, punched him in the face during a parking lot altercation. Dull and Hibbs both deny the incident occurred.

Rather than paraphrase or pull quotes, it seems appropriate to post the majority of Golden’s statement as is, since it’s his attempt to speak for himself and set the record straight.

“When my name was announced on the first tee, my opponent’s caddie immediately asked an off color question. I laughed off the timing of that question, along with many other examples of bad etiquette to come. Alcohol appeared to be influencing his behavior. I’ve never seen an opposing caddie engage in so much conversation with a competitor. On the eighth hole I had become extremely frustrated because I was forced to back off my shot two different times when my opponent and caddie were talking and moving. I expressed my disappointment with their etiquette to the match referee following our group.”

“The ruling that came from the caddie’s comments on the ninth hole started because of a simple question that I posed: “Was that advice?” I thought this was the only way to slow down the caddie, clean up the etiquette and play a gentlemanly match. I felt justified in my decision, especially since my opponent then asked his caddie, “Why did you say that?” The caddie recused himself from the match, but he didn’t leave the property.”

“…I didn’t even get my bag out of my car when the caddie reappeared and said he’d like to apologize. I most likely had a smile on my face, because I was ready to put the past behind us, and he punched me in the face. I was knocked to the ground, and by the time I looked up, he was walking away, to my surprise, toward the clubhouse. The pro shop is a separate building, so that’s where I immediately went for help. The inside of my mouth was bleeding and my face was throbbing. I realized my hand was also hurting –that’s what broke my fall instead of my head.

“The pro shop employee called the police and was extremely helpful, getting me ice and offering any help I needed. The police arrived, and the deputy concluded that there wasn’t enough evidence to justify pressing charges. I gave a recorded sworn statement to the deputy recapping the events.”

“The FSGA has one job, and that’s to follow the Rules of Golf. Unfortunately, there’s no rule for an inebriated “ex-caddie” punching a player in a match-play rain delay with no witnesses.”

“The FSGA gave me one option when the rain stopped. I had to play. My opponent had the option to concede the match and take responsibility for his caddie, but he told me he had nothing to do with what occurred.”

Golden further indicated that he conceded the match because of “physical and emotional distress, pulsing pain in my face, dizziness and cuts on my right hand.” He indicated he was surprised the FSGA didn’t suspend the match.

With respect to that point, it’s probably worth pointing out that FSGA executive director Jim Demick said that Golden “didn’t want to play anymore.”

“Regrettably, the golf course was very playable and Jeff understood that he needed to resume the match. I think he was just ready to go,” adding police “found absolutely no evidence of an assault.”

The FSGA hasn’t provided additional comment or modified that statement.

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4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. Manfaat Kesehatan

    May 28, 2018 at 6:43 pm

    hopefully all in good health and fine..

    Reply Report comment

  2. Johnny Penso

    May 28, 2018 at 12:18 am

    I suspect there’s a lot more to the story than we’re getting here.

    Reply Report comment

  3. Richard Douglas

    May 27, 2018 at 12:10 am

    This seems to be a very credible account. Why else would Golden choose not to continue?

    I’m baffled by law enforcement’s reaction, but those people are pretty stupid as a rule.

    This match should have been suspended. Better yet, Dull should have conceded the match. It seems pretty obvious what his caddie did.

    Reply Report comment

  4. Mike W

    May 25, 2018 at 12:13 pm

    Nothing new under the sun. Ted Ray knocked the daylights out of Wilfred Reid at the U.S. Open between the second and third rounds of the U.S. Open while the latter was leading the field (Reid completely collapsed thereafter), an incident immortalized in the book “The Greatest Game Ever Played”. One can only imagine the huge blow up today in the world of instant media, video of the event, at a restaurant, going viral, the likely suspension of Ray, the whole thing would’ve been blown up into an international scandal. But Ray went on to nearly win it all and later the two patched it up and became good friends.

    Reply Report comment

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19th Hole

‘Never be buddies’ – NHL star hits back at Brooks Koepka following golfer’s heckling

Published

11 hours ago

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Mar 30, 2023

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Brooks Koepka, Bubba Watson and Patrick Reed all take part in this week’s LIV Golf Orlando, their own prelude to the Masters starting on April 6th.

So, of course, at Wednesday’s presser, they were asked about their preparations, what would happen if one were to win at Augusta and, naturally, about ‘Cone-gate,’ a recent incident involving Koepka, a traffic cone, and an insult hurled at NHL defenceman Aaron Ekblad. 

 

Koepka, captain of the Smash GC team, was happy to answer the reporter’s question and had his fellow LIV players intrigued by his revelations:

Q: Brooks, sort of a viral clip from last week at the Panther game, I was just curious what’s your beef with Aaron Ekblad, and did you bring the cone from home?

Brooks: I did not bring the cone. He gave up a bad goal. It was a bad pass in the third. I’m a die-hard P’s fan, and he gave up a bad goal.

Bubba: What sport is this?

Reed: Hockey.

Brooks: Really?

Yeah, it’s all right. Yeah, he gave up a bad goal I think midway through the third, and I just felt like if they didn’t win that game, they weren’t going to make the Playoffs. Dedicated fan, man.

Bubba: What is that cone he’s talking about?

Brooks: There was a cone. There was a cone that was just outside, so I —

Bubba: Were you hydrated that night?

Brooks: Yeah.

Bubba: Now we’re getting to it.

Brooks: Absolutely. Listen, I’m a die-hard fan.

Bubba: Is your shirt on or off?

Brooks: It’s on.

Bubba: I ain’t gonna look at it then.

Brooks: But I’m a die-hard fan, man. When they do something good, I’m the first one to cheer them, I’ll text these guys.

Bubba: Did you not text him?

Brooks: I didn’t text him, no. I did not.

Well, Ekblad has since responded, and told Sportsnet’s Luke Fox that he doesn’t know Koepka and that they will “never be buddies.”

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19th Hole

Brooks Koepka’s coach says he expects LIV golfers to struggle at next week’s Masters

Published

11 hours ago

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Mar 30, 2023

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With the permission of Augusta National, the field for next week’s Masters will include six former champions that made the decision to join LIV Golf.

Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel and Phil Mickelson will all tee it up on 6th April, certain to show that the move to the rebel tour has not diminished their ability to still compete amongst the world’s elite.

However, Pete Cowan, coach to the likes of Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka, says that he is “not optimistic” about the chances of the LIV players at the first major of the year.

In an interview with The Times, the 72-year-old short-game wizard said,

“I’m not optimistic about players who aren’t playing competitively on a regular basis,”

“It’s a big deal. Like any sport, if you’re not competitively sharp you struggle.”

To put that into context, the official world’s top three players have taken part in a total of 21 events between them, with number three Jon Rahm leading the way with eight competitive outings, one ahead of the world number one Scottie Scheffler.

In contrast, 2016 US Open and 2020 Masters champion Dustin Johnson has only played two events since the turn of the year – LIV Mayakoba and LIV Tucson – and the current LIV table leader Charles Howell has done the same.

As The Times states, the most active PGA athletes will have played ‘more than double’ the number of rounds compared to their LIV counterparts come the Masters. There is concern over the level of commitment and desire to win from the LIV players, with last year’s Open Championship winner Cam Smith finishing fifth and 24th in his two outings in 2023, and DJ ranking in 35th and 13th in limited fields.

It may be that it’s money for old rope, but the incentive to appear in one of the PGA Tour’s ‘elevated’ events must also weigh heavily on those that took the big bucks to jump ship in 2022.

Cowan doesn’t slate those that went for the money, agreeing it has to be a motivating factor in sport, no matter what the public persona might say.

“Whether they say they do or not, they all play for money,” he said, before continuing

 “They are selfish and they have to be to be very good players. Ask Rory how much appearance money he gets a year. They all need to get round a table because if someone is investing billions into my sport I’d be saying, ‘How can I accommodate you?'”

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19th Hole

Augusta National Women’s Amateur champ hit with brutal 4-stroke penalty to begin defense

Published

11 hours ago

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Mar 30, 2023

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When high school sophomore Anna Davis won the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur, everything went her way.

From charging through the field on the final day with a 69, to seeing leader Latanna Stone finish double-bogey, bogey to hand her the title, the then 16-year-old admitted, “I’m still a little shocked. I literally… I’m speechless. I can’t even fathom what just happened.”

Fast-forward 12 months and the defending champion had a completely opposite opening round, the bad day highlighted with a four-stroke penalty on her opening hole.

In the first round of the ANWA at Champions Retreat, host for the first two rounds of the 54-hole event, Davis twice lifted, cleaned and placed her ball while it was in the rough, mistakenly believing it was ‘preferred lies’ from anywhere.

Davis was then told on the 4th hole that there was a chance the committee would penalize her, but it was only after she finished her round that they confirmed she had lost four strokes, and had to sign for a 9 on hole one.

Chairman of Competition Committees James B Hyler Jr explained, “During play of her first hole, Anna Davis lifted her ball and failed to replace it on its original spot on two separate occurrences. Under Rule 9.4, Ms Davis has been penalized two strokes for each occurrence of playing from a wrong place. Her score on hole 1 will be increased from 5 to 9.”

Davis, who made four cuts from seven outings on the LPGA Tour last season, followed her opening hole with a double at the fourth hole and bogey on the next, standing at eight over par after just five holes. However, she fought back with four birdies and no dropped shots through the last 13 holes, eventually recording a four-over 76, 10 behind leader Rose Zhang.

The 17-year-old told reporters that she had checked the ruling with the group scorer. She asked if the preferred lie ruling apply all over the course and says she was told yes. “I guess he didn’t know,” Davis admitted.

“Aside from hole 1, I played pretty good today,” Davis said. “I hit a lot of shots close. The putter wasn’t really rolling, but I hit good shots.”

“I felt pretty good with my game the next 14 holes after that. I hit good shots. I just tried to forget that the 1st hole happened. All I can really do is have that give me motivation to do well tomorrow and have a good round tomorrow.

I’m playing well so I’m confident that I can do well tomorrow.”

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