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19th Hole

Rickie Fowler’s U.S. Open qualifying bid agonizingly crushed on final hole…but all may not be lost

Published

2 years ago

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For the second year in succession, Rickie Fowler will likely not be teeing it up at the U.S. Open, which takes place next week at The Country Club in Brookline.

Monday began with Rickie Fowler’s name in the headlines, albeit not for his appearance at the U.S Open qualifying event in Jupiter, Florida.

Early in the day, Golf Channel’s Rich Lerner broke the news that Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler would both be joining the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series. Sure enough, soon after, Mickelson officially announced his participation in the opening event to take place this week in London.

With the golf world waiting on Fowler’s status, the 33-year-old set about qualifying for the year’s third major, getting off to a disastrous start.

With just four spots up for grabs in Jupiter, Fowler almost played himself out of contention early on, playing the opening four holes in three over par. The Californian then rallied on his back nine with four birdies before carding a double on his last hole to sign for an opening round of 2-over. 

Needing something special in his second round, Fowler gave himself hope, getting to 3-under for his round through 12 holes. A bogey on 13 looked to put pay to his chances before late rallying birdies on 16 and 17 meant that a birdie on his final hole would take him into a playoff against amateur Fred Biondi to determine who would take their spot in next week’s event.

Fowler looked set to complete the fine comeback, with 8 feet for birdie separating himself from the playoff. Unfortunately, what happened next was not in the script, with Fowler lipping out the putt to seemingly end his U.S. Open qualifying hopes.

Ironically, it would be the second major of the year that Rickie has missed out on playing thanks to a lip out after a missed par putt on the 72nd hole at last year’s PGA Championship caught a piece of the hole but refused to drop to cost him a place in this year’s Masters tournament.

Following his final round on Monday, Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner spoke to Fowler, who rued his opening round but stated that he was encouraged with the way he performed during the final round.

Fowler revealed to Lavner that he was looking forward to taking some time off following an appearance at his sponsor’s Puma HQ on Tuesday and that his stance has still not changed on the “intriguing” LIV Golf option.

In a late twist, however, Fowler arrived back at the course on Tuesday morning in a bid to grab an alternate spot in next week’s field.

With two of the contenders not bothering to turn up, Fowler had a couple of men to beat in Steve Marino and Tom Lewis, and he did just that with a birdie on the fourth extra hole, to take first alternate spot.

Maybe we will still see Rickie at Brookline next week!

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Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at [email protected].

19th Hole

DP World Tour pro has score improved after round following bizarre rules situation

Published

3 hours ago

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May 6, 2024

By

As originally reported by Ryan French of Monday Q Info, a DP World Tour player was impacted over the weekend by a peculiar rules situation.

Ivan Cantero was playing the Volvo China Open when he hit an errant tee shot on the 13th hole. Cantero was unsure if the ball was in play or not, as it went towards a jungle area, so he played a provisional.

French confirmed with a rules official that the provisional was legal due to the fact that the player didn’t know whether the ball was in play or not.

Cantero’s original ball was found in the penalty area, which should have rendered his provisional irrelevant.

A rules official then told Cantero he could no longer play his original ball because he hit a provisional.

French shares that Cantero asked for a second opinion and was given the same (incorrect) answer. He went on to play his provisional and made a long par putt on the par 5.

After the round, the rules officials realized their mistake and decided to take a stroke away from the player, changing the par to a birdie.

The report cites rule 20.2 in the Rules of Golf.

“If a ruling by a referee or the Committee is later found wrong, the ruling can be corrected if possible under the Rules. If it is too late to do so, the ruling stands.”

The score change resulted in Cantero making the cut on the number and he then rallied on Saturday to finish in 23rd place after a weather-shortened event.

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19th Hole

‘F*** around and find out’ – Phil Mickelson fires warning shot over LIV’s access to majors in since-deleted tweet

Published

7 hours ago

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May 6, 2024

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On Sunday, the social media account “Flushing It” made a post about the importance of LIV Golf ensuring that their players have major championship eligibility going forward.

“LIV can have the grandest of plans for their future but getting players access to major championships should be their number 1 priority. Especially with the major exemptions running out fast and nearly all player contracts up for renewal this year and next.”

Phil Mickelson then responded to the post, warning the golf world that excluding LIV players from majors will have unintended consequences, saying “FAAFO” which means “f*** around and find out”.

“Maybe some LIV players won’t be missed. But what if NONE of the LIV players played? Would they be missed? What about next year when more great players join? Or the following year? At some point they will care and will have to answer to sponsors and television. FAAFO”

His post has since been deleted, but there are plenty of screenshots out there.

It will be easier said than done, but it does appear that some sort of agreement between LIV and the majors could be coming in the future if the PGA Tour and LIV aren’t able to mend fences.

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19th Hole

Greg Norman reveals plan for LIV to own all their golf courses and each team to have a home venue

Published

7 hours ago

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May 6, 2024

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In an interview with Bloomberg, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman discussed the current state of LIV and what it means for the future of professional golf.

In the interview, Norman said he believes that LIV has been welcomed with “open arms.”

“Our product is received with open arms by many, but a few want to try and stop us for all the wrong reasons. They haven’t been able to sustain their position in the game of golf. What we have done brilliantly is injected more capital. Golf is finally looked upon as an asset class.”

Interestingly, Norman also revealed future plans for LIV to own all the courses they play and have home courses for each team.

“Man United owns their stadium. Indian Premier League, they own their stadiums. NFL, they own their stadiums. Think about LIV owning all their own golf courses, each team having a home venue and they host. And now you can build out around that. It’s not just a golf course. You bring in education, you bring in hospitality, you bring in real estate, you bring in merchandise, you bring in management, you bring in all these other different opportunities that the game of golf has to deliver to a community, to a region. We are gonna be doing that.

“The Philippines are very keen to get us there. Golf in the Philippines is doing very well. We are not just sport, we’re sports and entertainment and culture. So no matter where we go in the world, we adjust what we need to deliver from an entertainment standpoint.”

Norman also talked about his time as the number one player in the world when the best players in the world didn’t always play on the same tour.

“That never happened anyway. Right? I was number one player in the world. Very seldom did I go and play in the United States or Europe or Asia or anything. Did I play against the best in the world outside the four majors and maybe the TPC? They’re the five, right? So very, very seldom did that happen. We got all paid appearance money to go play somewhere.”

Norman added that LIV “isn’t going anywhere.”

“My boss told me LIV is not going to go anywhere. It will be well and truly in operation, running well past his death – he’s a young guy.”

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