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Morning 9: Barstool to broadcast KFT event | RIP John Bland | Byron Nelson photos

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12 months ago

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By Ben Alberstadt with Gianni Magliocco.

For comments: [email protected]

Good Wednesday morning, golf fans, as we head towards the AT&T Byron Nelson.

1. Ferguson: Westwood did this to himself

The AP’s Doug Ferguson on Lee Westwood’s apparent incredulity…“So no, I never would have believed it had ended like this,” he said, “and there has to be a bit of sadness, of course.”

  • “There also must be the harsh realization that he did this to himself.”
  • “He was free to choose, and Westwood chose instant riches from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to play in a rival league that threatened the very tour to which he had been loyal all these years.”
  • “That can’t be overlooked. There has to be consequences. He should have known that, even if LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman told players they could have it both ways.”
  • “Remember, it was Norman who said in a text to Sergio Garcia some 15 months ago about the PGA Tour: “They cannot ban you for one day let alone life. It is a shallow threat.”
Full piece.

2. Barstool Sports to broadcast Korn Ferry Tour event

Dan Rapaport at Barstool with the announcement…“We got tired of complaining about all the things we don’t like about golf broadcasts. So we’re going to do one ourselves.”

  • “It’s been hard to keep this one quiet, but the news is now official: Barstool Sports will be the sole provider of live coverage for the NV5 Invitational presented by Old National Bank, a golf tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour, from July 27-30 at The Glen Club in Glenview, Ill. We’ll be live from 3:30-6:30 p.m. EST on Barstool.tv, and the broadcast will feature Riggs, Trent, Frankie, myself and a bunch of other Barstool personalities.”
  • “This is obviously a huge step for the Fore Play brand and for Barstool Sports as a whole. It’s no secret that the company is looking to move further into the live-sporting events business, as evidenced by the Barstool Arizona Bowl and the Barstool Sports Invitational basketball tournament we held earlier this year.”
Full piece.

3. RIP John Bland

Golfweek’s Adam Schupak…”South African golfer John Bland, who won twice on the DP World Tour before coming to prominence in the U.S. on PGA Tour Champions, has died. He was 77.

  • Bland’s death was announced by South Africa’s Sunshine Tour golf circuit. He died Tuesday “after a battle with cancer,” the Sunshine Tour said.”
  • “Born Sept. 22, 1945, in Johannesburg, Bland turned pro in 1969 and won his first of 36 titles at the 1970 Transvaal Open. He won the South African PGA Championship in 1977, one of three victories that year and a total he matched again in 1983 when he claimed the European Tour’s Benson and Hedges International over Bernhard Langer.”
Full piece.

4. 62 and a self-DQ

Our Matt Vincenzi…”Tommy Kuhl, who’s currently a fifth-year senior at the University of Illinois, recently shot 62 at a U.S. Open qualifier. The incredible round broke the course record.”

  • “Unfortunately, Kuhl was forced to disqualify himself after the round.”
  • “Once his 62 was in the books at Illini Country Club in Springfield, he went out to watch one of his teammates, Adrien Dumont De Chassar, compete in a playoff to get the final qualifier spot.”
  • “Kuhl told mondayq.com that was when he heard another teammate talk about the aerated greens, which reminded Kuhl that he’d broken a rule by repairing multiple aeration marks.”
  • “I felt sick to my stomach,” he said. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I didn’t tell the rules official.”
Full piece.

5. 9-year-old attempts USWO qualifying

Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…”What were you doing at 9 years old?”

  • “Bella Simoes, a 9-year-old from Brazil, began her quest of qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open on Tuesday in Naples, Florida.”
  • “Simoes is one of 68 players who will take part in the 36-hole qualifier at The Club at Mediterra. The top two finishers advance to the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach.”
  • “Should Simoes qualify, she would become the youngest competitor in U.S. Women’s Open history, breaking the mark set by a 10-year-old Lucy Li in 2013.”
Full piece.

6. Why USGA’s water conservation efforts matter

Cameron Jourdan for Golfweek…”Last month, the USGA announced a multi-year, multi-million-dollar investment toward reducing golf’s use of water.”

  • “Efforts to reduce water usage are nothing new in the game, but it’s more vital now than ever.”
  • “There’s only going to be more competition for our water resources as population increases,” said Cole Thompson, the USGA’s Director of Turfgrass and Environmental Research. “That’s really what this initiative is, is the USGA committing to hopefully leading the industry toward water resiliency.”
  • “The USGA’s $30 million commitment over the next 15 years will advance underutilized strategies and technologies that golf courses can use to economically reduce their use of water, a vital and increasingly regulated natural resource with near- and long-term cost and availability concerns. The work will focus on irrigation optimization, advanced conservation innovation and water sourcing and storage.”
Full piece.

7. Faster than Augusta’s greens?

8. Golf rounds up

Jason Lusk for Golfweek…”The National Golf Foundation, using data from Golf Datatech, reported this week that combined first-quarter rounds played from the past three years in the U.S. are up 17 percent compared to the same first-quarter periods of 2017-2019, pre-COVID.”

  • “The monthly comparisons for this year versus 2022 and 2021 aren’t quite as rosy, mostly attributed to weather. A recent NGF/Golf Datatech report showed that overall, rounds played in March 2023 were down 2.3 percent compared to March 2022, which trailed March 2021 when rounds spiked 45 percent as players looked for a break from COVID restrictions. Much of this year’s dip versus 2022 was attributed to the vast rainstorms that slammed parts of the Pacific Northwest and California.”
  • “Rounds played were also slightly down in February this year versus February 2022, also attributed mainly to weather. That follows a great January in which rounds played were up 7.1 percent versus January 2022.”
Full piece.

9. Byron Nelson Photos

  • Check out our galleries from this week’s tour stop!
Full Piece.
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Photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship

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6 hours ago

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May 7, 2024

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GolfWRX is live this week at the Wells Fargo Championship as a field of the world’s best golfers descend upon Charlotte, North Carolina, hoping to tame the beast that is Quail Hollow Club in this Signature Event — only Scottie Scheffler, who is home awaiting the birth of his first child, is absent.

From the grounds at Quail Hollow, we have our usual assortment of general galleries and WITBs — including a look at left-hander Akshay Bhatia’s setup. Among the pullout albums, we have a look inside Cobra’s impressive new tour truck for you to check out. Also featured is a special look at Quail Hollow king, Rory McIlroy.

Be sure to check back throughout the week as we add more galleries.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

See what GolfWRXers are saying about our Wells Fargo Championship photos in the forums.

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SuperStroke acquires Lamkin Grips

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1 day ago

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May 6, 2024

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SuperStroke announced today its purchase of 100-year-old grip maker Lamkin Grips, citing the company’s “heritage of innovation and quality.”

“It is with pride and great gratitude that we announce Lamkin, a golf club grip brand with a 100-year history of breakthrough design and trusted products, is now a part of the SuperStroke brand,” says SuperStroke CEO Dean Dingman. “We have always had the utmost respect for how the Lamkin family has put the needs and benefits of the golfer first in their grip designs. If there is a grip company that is most aligned with SuperStroke’s commitment to uncompromised research, design, and development to put the most useful performance tools in the hands of golfers, Lamkin has been that brand. It is an honor to bring Lamkin’s wealth of product innovation into the SuperStroke family.”

Elver B. Lamkin founded the company in 1925 and produced golf’s first leather grips. The company had been family-owned and operated since that point, producing a wide array of styles, such as the iconic Crossline.

According to a press release, “The acquisition of Lamkin grows and diversifies SuperStroke’s proven and popular array of grip offerings with technology grounded in providing golfers optimal feel and performance through cutting-edge design and use of materials, surface texture and shape.”

CEO Bob Lamkin will stay on as a board member and will continue to be involved with the company.

“SuperStroke has become one of the most proven, well-operated, and pioneering brands in golf grips and we could not be more confident that the Lamkin legacy, brand, and technology is in the best of hands to continue to innovate and lead under the guidance of Dean Dingman and his remarkably capable team,” Lamkin said.

Related: Check out our 2014 conversation with Bob Lamkin, here: Bob Lamkin on the wrap grip reborn, 90 years of history

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Tour Rundown: Pendrith, Otaegui, Longbella, and Dunlap soar

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1 day ago

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May 6, 2024

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Take it from a fellow who coaches high school golf in metro Toronto: there’s plenty of great golf played in the land of the maple leaf. All the greats have designed courses over the USA border: Colt, Whitman, Ross, Coore, Mackenzie, Doak, as well as the greatest of the land, Stanley Thompson. I’m partial to him, because he wore my middle name with grandeur. Enough about the architecture, because this week’s Tour Rundown begins with a newly-minted, Canadian champion on the PGA Tour. Something else that the great white north is known for, is weather. It impacted play on three of the world’s tours, forcing final-round cancellations on two of them.

It was an odd week in the golf world. The LPGA and the Korn Ferry were on a break, and only 13/15 of the rounds slated, were played. In the end, we have four champions to recognize, so let’s not delay any longer with minutiae about the game that we love. Let’s run it all down with this week’s Tour Rundown.

PGA Tour: TP takes TS at Byron’s place

The 1980s was a decade when a Canadian emergence was anticipated on the PGA Tour. It failed to materialize, but a path was carved for the next generation. Mike Weir captured the Masters in 2003, but no other countrymen joined him in his quest for PGA Tour conquest. 2024 may herald the long-awaited arrival of a Canadian squad of tour winners. Over the past few years, we’ve seen Nick Taylor break the fifty-plus year dearth of homebred champions at the Canadian Open, and players like Adam Hadwin, Corey Conners, Adam Svennson, and Mackenzie Hughes have etched their names into the PGA Tour’s annals of winners.

This week, Taylor Pendrith joined his mates with a one-shot win at TPC Craig Ranch, the home of the Byron Nelson Classic. Pendrith took a lead into the final round and, while the USA’s Jake Knapp faltered, held on for the slimmest of victories. Sweden’s Alex Noren posted six-under 65 on Sunday to move into third position, at 21-under par. Ben Kohles, a Texan, looked to break through for his first win in his home state. He took the lead from Pendrith at the 71st hole, on the strength of a second-consecutive birdie.

With victory in site, Kohles found a way to make bogey at the last, without submerging in the fronting water. His second shot was greenside, but he could not move his third to the putting surface. His fourth was five feet from par and a playoff, but his fifth failed to drop. Meanwhile, Pendrith was on the froghair in two, and calmly took two putts from 40 feet, for birdie. When Kohles missed for par, Pendrith had, at last, a PGA Tour title.

DP World Tour: China Open in Otaegui’s hands after canceled day four

It wasn’t the fourth round that was canceled in Shenzhen, but the third. Rains came on Saturday to Hidden Grace Golf Club, ensuring that momentum would cease. Sunday would instead be akin to a motorsports restart, with no sense of who might claim victory. Sebastian Soderberg, the hottest golfer on the Asian Swing, held the lead, but he would slip to a 72 on Sunday, and tie for third with Paul Waring and Joel Girrbach. Italy’s Guido Migliozzi completed play in 67 strokes on day three, moving one shot past the triumvirate, to 17-under par.

It was Spain’s Adrian Otaegui who persevered the best and played the purest. Otaegui was clean on the day, with seven birdies for 65. Even when Migliozzi ceased the lead at the 10th, Otaegui remained calm. With everything on the line, Migliozzi made bogey at the par-five 17th, as his principal competitor finished in birdie. To the Italian’s credit, he bounced back with birdie at the last, to claim solo second. The victory was Otaegui’s fifth on the DP World Tour, and first since October of 2022.

PGA Tour Americas: Quito’s rains gift title to Longbella

Across the world, superintendents and their staffs will do anything to prepare a course for play. Even after fierce, nightime rains, the Quito TG Club greeted the first four groups on Sunday. The rains worsened after 7 am, however, and the tour was forced to abort the final round of play. With scores reverting to Saturday’s numbers, Thomas Longbella’s one-shot advantage over Gunn Yang turned into a Tour Americas victory.

64 held the opening-day lead, and Longbella was not far off, with 66. Yang jumped to the top on day two, following a67 with 66. He posted 68 on day three, and anticipated a fierce, final-round duel for the title. As for Longbella, he fought off a ninth-hole bogey on Saturday with six birdies and a 17th-hole eagle. That rare bird proved to be the winning stroke, allowing Longbella to edge past Yang, and secure ultimate victory.

PGA Tour Champions: Dunlap survives Saturday stumble for win

Scott Dunlap did not finish Saturday as well as he might have liked. After beginning play near Houston with 65, Dunlap made two bogeys in his final found holes on day two, to finish at nine-under par. Hot on his heels was Joe Durant, owner of a March 2024 win on PGA Tour Champions. Just behind Durant was Stuart Appleby, perhaps vibing from his Sunday 59 at Greenbrier on this day in 2010. Neither would have a chance to track Dunlap down.

The rains that have forced emergency responders into action, to save hundreds of lives in the metro Houston area, ended hopes for a third day of play at The Woodlands. Dunlap had won once previously on Tour Champions, in 2014 in Washington state. Ten years later, Dunlap was the fortunate recipient of a canceled final round, and his two days of play were enough to earn him TC victory number two.

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