1. LPGA to resume in Toledo
Golf Channel’s Randall Mell with the details of a newly minted tournament (at Inverness!) and a schedule shuffle…”The LPGA will do a new Ohio two-step in its return to action this summer…Much like the PGA Tour is doing next month, the women’s tour is adding a new Ohio event to give its players back-to-back starts in the state.”
“The LPGA announced Tuesday that it is moving the Marathon Classic in suburban Toledo back two weeks, to Aug. 6-9. This will accommodate a new event, the LPGA Drive On Championship, a 54-hole tournament scheduled for July 31-Aug. 2 at Inverness Club in Toledo.”
…”The Drive On Championship will now host the LPGA’s restart. It will be played without spectators and without pro-ams. There’s no title sponsor with a $1 million purse being funded in part by some of the title sponsors whose events were canceled. The new event will feature a 144-player field.”
2. Euro Tour to restart in Austria
Brentley Romine for Golf Channel…”Instead of resuming action in England in late July, the tour will return two weeks earlier with back-to-back events in Austria. The Austrian Open will be held July 9-12 at Diamond Coutry Club near Vienna, followed by the Euram Bank Open on July 15-18 at Golf Club Adamstal in Ramsau.”
“The tournaments will be dual-ranking events for both European and Challenge tour members, each with E500,000 purses.”
3. Clock is ticking for Ryder Cup
The AP’s Doug Ferguson…”…what do to about the Ryder Cup. A decision could come as early as the end of the month.”
…”This is a complicated decision for the PGA of America, and it’s not as simple as postponing it until next year, as was the case in 2001 after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.”
“Among the many moving parts is the Presidents Cup, the event that looks like the Ryder Cup but isn’t.”
“Never mind that the Presidents Cup doesn’t have the history, tradition or interest level of the Ryder Cup. It’s not even close. But it’s a financial boon to the PGA Tour, just like the Ryder Cup is to the PGA of America, even if not to the same degree…”
“Moving the Ryder Cup back one year would allow for the full experience – for players and fans, even those watching on television…”
“But not having the Presidents Cup next year would be costly to the PGA Tour, which already is out millions of dollars by supporting some of its tournaments that were canceled to help keep them from going under…It’s important to the tour to play the Presidents Cup next year. That’s why the tour went to some of the top players last week at Colonial for a survey.”
4. Foley/Rose part ways
James Corrigan for The Telegraph…”Justin Rose is going it on his own after parting ways with Sean Foley, his coach of 11 years under whom he made his major breakthrough, won Olympic gold and became world No 1.”
“The news will come as a shock to the game because of their successful time together, in which Rose went from outside the top 50 to become one of golf’s biggest stars and Europe’s most important Ryder Cup players.”
“But it understood that when the pair met up again before last week’s PGA Tour return in Texas, Rose signalled his intention to oversee his own swing. The 39-year-old’s third place on Sunday at the Charles Schwab Challenge provided instant vindication after an indifferent spell.”
5. How much speed will be too much?
Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…“DeChambeau said his ball speed was reaching 195 mph, but some players cautioned that he might be approaching the limits of what’s controllable.”
- “It’s been really impressive to see what he’s done over, say, the last year or so with his transformation and obviously some serious gain in speed and power,” Rickie Fowler said. “Where does it become almost counterproductive as far as too much speed, where dispersion becomes too great? There has to be some sort of peak in there. It seems like it may be around the 190 [mph] area. It gets tough to control the ball going straight once you get to the 200 [mph]-plus area.”
- “The long drive guys, obviously, have a lot of speed, but they can get away with 1 in 8 [drives] in the grid; 1 in 8 won’t do very well out here on Tour,” Fowler said. “But it is impressive. We’ll see kind of how it works.”
6. Fanless tournament total at 7
Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”First it was four. Then five. Now the number of PGA Tour events that will be played without fans is seven and likely growing following news on Monday that the PGA Championship in August will not allow spectators.”
“The PGA Tour’s original plan to return to competition called for the first four events, including this week’s RBC Heritage, to be played without fans. Added to that list is a replacement event scheduled for July 9-12 at Muirfield Village, the PGA Championship (Aug. 6-9) and 3M Open (July 23-26).”
7. 50th birthday gifts for Phil
Steve DiMeglio polled a few of Lefty’s peers to see what they’d consider getting him for the big 5-0.
- Harris English…”We all need to pool some money together to get him a seat on that Elon Musk flight to the moon. The footage and commentary of Phil on the moon would be incredible.”
- Zach Johnson…”Some Lulu Lemon yoga pants to accentuate his massive calves.”
- Colt Knost…”A blank encyclopedia so he can write his own version since he knows everything.”
8. Fowler: I’d wear a mic again
Rex Hoggard for Golf Channel…”After wearing a microphone during last Thursday’s opening round at Colonial, Rickie Fowler said he’d do it again.”
- “I’m sure there’s going to be more situations or times that guys may wear them coming up. I’m open to it,” said Fowler, who ended up missing the cut at the Charles Schwab Challenge, the first PGA Tour event back. “We’ll have to see where it goes. I think for the first time everything was good, especially for it being live, no delay. Next time we’ll just have to play a little bit better.”
- “Fowler said he practiced with a microphone attached to his belt last Wednesday to prepare for the round, and that physically it wasn’t an issue.”
9. The DeChambeau distance gap
Justin Ray of the 15th Club for PGATour.com with some interesting data…”But just how much bigger are Bryson’s drives than his peers on the TOUR? Historically, the difference isn’t as wide as some of the past kings of length.”
- “In 2003, the average driving distance on the PGA TOUR was 285.9 yards. Kuehne’s average of 321.4 was a colossal 35.5 yards further than the average that season. That’s the largest single-season difference since the TOUR started tracking the statistic in 1980.”
- “The average driving distance this season on the TOUR is 296.4 yards, meaning DeChambeau is beating the average by 27.4 yards. That’s the 20th-largest single-season difference, just behind Tiger Woods’ 1997 differential of 27.5 yards.”
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