5. Tom Lewis turns to PGA Tour to reignite career
BBC’s Iain Carter…”England’s Tom Lewis is the latest to commit to America as he searches for a breakthrough that would, at last, allow him to fulfil massive potential.”
- “Despite flashes of genuine quality, the 29-year-old has still to fully realise his spectacular early promise. It helped him lead the 2011 Open at Royal St George’s as the first amateur to shoot 65 in the Championship’s history.”
- “Since then, Lewis – who was named after Tom Watson, with whom he played during that famous round at Sandwich – has won twice on the European Tour without becoming the force that was anticipated.”
- “Now he has concluded he must fully commit to the PGA Tour to find out the full extent of his talents. This week Lewis plays the Bermuda Championship with his mind made up that the US circuit should be his main priority.”
6. Zalatoris aiming high at Bermuda Championship
Kevin Prise for PGATour.com on Willy Z (established nickname? Should be…)’s pursuit of Special Temporary Membership…
- “Zalatoris, 24, has taken the golf world by storm since the Return to Golf in June. The Dallas resident via San Francisco has recorded 14 top-20 finishes in his last 15 starts between the PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour, including three top-10s in four TOUR starts this fall: sixth at the U.S. Open, eighth at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, and fifth at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Now he’s just 3.035 non-member FedExCup points shy of securing Special Temporary Membership, which would allow him to accept unlimited sponsor’s exemptions for the remainder of the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season.”
- “With his top-10 in Las Vegas, Zalatoris earned a spot in this week’s Bermuda Championship, where a two-way T69 finish or better will earn him the requisite non-member points needed to equal or surpass No. 150 in the 2018-19 FedExCup standings. (The official magic number is 288.035 points; Zalatoris currently has 285.)”
- “In a way, Zalatoris is playing with the house money. He finished in the top 10 on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List through the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, so he’ll get some starts on the PGA TOUR in 2020-21 regardless of this week’s outcome…”
7. Brooks Koepka clears up PGA kiss controversy with girlfriend Jena Sims
Jaclyn Hendricks for the NY Post…While participating in an Instagram Live Q&A on Monday, Sims was asked why the 30-year-old golfer didn’t kiss her before the final round of the 2019 PGA Championship, a moment now forever ingrained in social media meme-story.
- “When you’re walking in, there’s a million different things going on, and we’d always gone a certain way,” Koepka explained of the tournament, which took place at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale.
- “But there was a big group of people, the one way that we had usually gone, and decided we were going to go a little different route, just because of so many people blocking it,” he continued. “I kind of was going to grab Jena, and tell her to come this way, I didn’t realize – she thought we were going to separate, I thought we were going to walk in together.”
8. New PGA pres
AP report…”Jim Richerson was elected the 42nd president of the PGA of America on Thursday at a virtual annual meeting that included Tim Rosaforte becoming the first journalist to be awarded honorary membership.”
- “Richerson, the senior vice president of operations for Arizona-based Troon Golf, succeeds Suzy Whaley, He previously was general manager and director of golf for Wisconsin-based Kohler, where he first was elected a PGA officer.”
- “The PGA of America, which has some 29,000 members, held its annual meeting virtually for the first time in its 104 years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
9. “They probably suck at golf”
Jack Seddon for GolfMagic…“Varner returns to action on the PGA Tour this week at the Bermuda Championship and speaking to the media ahead of the event, the World No.120 ripped into the dinosaurs of our sport who have an issue with hoodies on the golf course…”
- “The funniest part is I was watching the Panthers play, I had some beers and I’ve had people ask me about a hoodie,” Varner said. “I’m like, ‘Damn, is it really a hoodie?’ They’re like, ‘What’s the deal with the hoodie?’ So I had about five or six people ask me about a hoodie and I just, I said, ‘The problem with golf is that we’re talking about a freakin’ hoodie.’
- “My tweet had nothing to do with a hoodie, it’s the fact that we’re talking about a hoodie and we’re not worried about how we’re going to get more people into golf and how we’re going to grow the game. That’s the part that’s funny to me because some people are bitter, man. They want it to be like a certain way.
- “I don’t really care that you’re mad what I think of a hoodie, you know, and if you really think a hoodie’s a problem, then you probably suck at golf anyway.”
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ViralGolf2020
Oct 30, 2020 at 3:57 pm
I didn’t know Jack Nicklaus owned a pointy white hood.
Peter
Oct 30, 2020 at 11:25 pm
You’re kidding, right?
Peter Sarro
Oct 30, 2020 at 11:26 pm
You’re kidding, right?
Rwj
Oct 31, 2020 at 12:00 pm
You’re part of the problem