“Pebble Beach has always been a special place to me,” Woods said in a statement. “It’s an honor for TGR Design and me to partner with Pebble Beach Company to design a new short course at such an iconic location.”

“Located just across from the first tee at Pebble Beach Golf Links and named after the former head professional at Pebble Beach, the Peter Hay Golf Course has been a mainstay on the property since it opened in 1957.”

Full piece.

Daniel Rapaport writes…”Matt Kuchar must have mixed feelings about 2019. The good: a ninth PGA Tour victory, two runner-up finishes and clinching the winning half-point for the U.S. at the Presidents Cup in his fifth appearance in the biennial event. The less good: dirtying a previously spotless reputation. It started back in November 2018, when Kooch used local caddie David (El Tucan) Ortiz at the Mayakoba Classic. The two agreed, according to Kuchar, that Ortiz would get $5,000 for the week. Kuchar went on to win and made $1.3 million for his efforts. Standard procedure calls for a player to pay his caddie roughly 10 percent of a winner’s check, but Kuchar decided against giving Ortiz any bonus at all, meaning he paid his looper less than 0.4 percent of his winnings. The public didn’t learn about this until January, when Kuchar was contending at the Sony Open (which he also won). After initially defending his actions, Kuchar eventually apologized … and paid out another $45,000. But his strangely scandalous year was far from over.”

“At the WGC-Dell Match Play, Kuchar again found himself at the center of a controversy when he didn’t verbally give Sergio Garcia a two-inch putt that Garcia missed. Kuchar told a rules official that he didn’t say “it’s good,” meaning Garcia lost the hole. As you might imagine, Garcia was not pleased. A few days later, the two put out a truly odd video trying to put the awkward situation behind them in its own awkward way. For good measure, Kooch had another snafu at the Memorial, when he pleaded for a dubious drop in the fairway. TV footage showed he didn’t deserve the drop, and two rules officials told him as much. Unconvinced, he asked if he could seek a third opinion. The answer was no. The outrage from the match-play mixup and the Memorial imbroglio should fade with time. Unfortunately for Kuchar, no one will forget El Tucan.”

Full piece.

“This was the year that the Rules of Golf were supposed to be simplified. It became the year that the rules, and the game’s rules makers, became reactionary.”

“There was a great deal of interest as to how the new abiding principles were going to play out in 2019, as well as intrigue as to how players at the professional level would accept them.”

“…Controversy started immediately and never seemed to let up, and touched on any number of issues. Some were routine, the kinds of infractions you see every season. Some were more unusual, like Lee Ann Walker’s 58 penalty strokes or Trey Bilardello being disqualified from U.S. Open qualifying after shooting 202, or the backstopping debate.”

“But what made rules such a big storyline this year was the implementation and reaction to something that was designed to clean up past messes. Instead, the USGA and R&A, as well as the PGA and European tours, spent the year dealing with the fallout, making in-season concessions and promising alterations.”

Full piece.

The most recent and youngest player ever inducted into the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame, Park tallied 18 of her 19 career wins and six of her seven major-championship titles between the first shots of 2010 and the last of 2019. Park spent 106 weeks atop the Rolex Rankings, won three major championships in a row in 2013, and captured the gold medal in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio following a nearly two-month layoff due to a left thumb injury.”

Full piece.

“The European Tour picks the venue (it usually goes to the highest bidder these days). It has full control of all operations. Paris last year felt like a home game – the course, not just the crowd – just as Hazeltine was for the Americans.”

“The Presidents Cup is a match between two teams, one owner….The PGA Tour selects the site. The PGA Tour picks the captains, though not without heavy input from all the key people on the International side.”

“That magnificent logo Els created for the International team? He said it required PGA Tour approval. The support staff for the International team are PGA Tour employees, even if they hail from countries outside the U.S.”

Full piece.

“What was the moment on the 18th green like on Sunday?”

“I’ll never be able to recreate that moment. The entire week was a team effort. I feel like I got a lot of credit for it because it came down to that putt, but anyone else’s point was as important as mine. I never thought I was going to be part of a moment like that ever again. You can dream, that maybe you can be in the mix and have those emotions, the highs, lows and excitement. It shows what the Solheim is all about. And maybe how important experience is. It shows sometimes that’s as valuable as young talent. You need a combination. I’ll be vice captain two years from now and hopefully down the road, I’d love to be captain. Those are things that I’ll remember when it’s my turn to pick a team.”

“Was it the best moment of your career? Yes, because it was a moment I could share with my son. I think you can only dream of sharing a moment like that with blood. I think that’s why I made the decision right there to retire. This is it. This is the peak. Everything else is going to feel … more ordinary. That moment gave me all the answers I’ve been searching for. I wanted to get back on the golf course as a mom, to prove to myself that I could come back. Hopefully when Herman gets older we can look back at the videos and hopefully that will make him proud of what I did.”

Full piece.

One of his suggestions…”Work the Event...Here’s one proven path onto Augusta National: create a technology company and build it into a multi-billion dollar business, then get word out through your well-connected friends that you’d like to join the club and wait a few years for the invite. It worked for Bill Gates. It could work for you.”

“More realistic, though, is to learn how to write, photograph or broadcast. From there, all you have to do is join the press corps, get credentialed to cover the Masters and enter the media lottery. 28 members in that pool are chosen to play the course on the Monday after the event, though if you’re selected, you have to wait another seven years to enter the lottery again.”

“Another option is to earn a coveted spot as a tournament volunteer. They’ll work you hard that week. But they’ll also set aside a spot for you to play one day in May.”

Full piece.

“Former Fox Sports host Holly Sonders has shared news of her engagement on Instagram, taking the next step in her whirlwind romance with Vegas Dave.”

“Sonders and Dave Oancea, who is a big-time bettor better known as Vegas Dave, both shared photos on social media of what appears to be a proposal on the beach in Mexico.”

“I never thought this day would ever happen,” writes Oancea, who has 947K followers on Instagram.

Full piece