Gary Player: No Candy Bars, Even For Baboons!

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John Clarke of the New York Times prepares us for the now-annual gathering of pro golfers and wildlife as the European Tour's Nedbank Challenge returns to South Africa.

Last year play was stopped at Gary Player Country Club twice for mongoose invasions, including a stolen ball for Victor Dubuisson.

Naturally, Mr. Player's advice is to not poison the animals.

Does Player have any advice for golfers navigating wildlife at his only namesake course? “Quite frankly, I wouldn’t give a candy bar to any living thing, not even a baboon, for the damage it does. Sugar is poison,” said the famously fit 82-year-old.

“The animals on the golf course are generally nonthreatening,” Player said. “But you can be lucky to perhaps be on one of the holes bordering the game reserve and see some rhino, giraffes or even a herd of elephants.”

Freak Injury Files: Stenson's Rib Injury From HSBC Promo Event?

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This makes Rory's kickabout injury look practically heroic. Except, perhaps to European Tour Chief Keith Pelley who has now lost Henrik Stenson for the 2017 Race to Dubai over a rib injury.

According to Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com, the injury appears to have been caused by that absurd WGC-HSBC pre-tournament "presentation" in Shanghai.

As to how he injured himself Stenson was also cryptic, suggesting that the injury occurred during a pre-tournament publicity presentation that included the Swede being hoisted into the air by a harness like a “superhero.”

“I’m not superman even though certain people thought I was superman,” he said in Turkey.

Maybe this is why Stenson was in no hurry to mark his ball on the greens!

He's Back! Paul Casey Will Be Eligible For 2018 Ryder Cup

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Besides being one of the world's most consistent players and a fantastic match play golfer with a stellar record in the format, sophisticated world traveler Paul Casey knows when there's a Ryder Cup to be eligible for.

Paris, Versailles, here he comes! From Alistair Tait's Golfweek.com report on Casey re-upping his European Tour membership:

“As hard as it was trying to make it work three years ago – struggling with my game, dropping out of the top 50 – I have missed it (the European Tour) too much,” Casey said. “I have missed my contribution to English golf, British golf, my contribution to Europe.”

Player Reactions Suggest Shot Clock Golf Might Get Ugly

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I was fascinated reading the different takes to next year's Shot Clock Masters on the European Tour if nothing else because they were so far apart in assessing pace.

Josh Berhow at Golf.com included this quote from Dustin Johnson, asked if more tournaments should have a shot clock.

"Yeah, absolutely," he said on Wednesday, prior to the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, when asked if he would like to see a shot clock on the PGA Tour. "I think it would be very interesting. You'd see a lot of guys getting penalties on our Tour. Yeah, that would be quite fun, actually. I'd have plenty of time but there's a lot of guys that wouldn't. They would be getting a penalty on every hole."

And then there is Henrik Stenson, who plays at a very nice clip when he's on, but can be shockingly slow when he is game is off. Ready golf is not his thing when he's struggling, so if he plays in the Shot Clock Masters he might be in for a rude awakening. A penalty-a-hole awakening:

"I think you can tell that on any golf course around the world on a Saturday morning game, if you have players that are ready to play and hitting and when it's their turn, it can be very quick," Stenson said. "But if you have a foursome where the other three are standing around waiting, while one player is doing his hole preparation and execution, then it's going to be a very slow game. It's certainly enough time, as long as you are preparing while the others are hitting and getting ready."

This Will Actually Be A European Tour Event Title: The Shot Clock Masters

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We knew next June's Austrian Open was going to take slow play seriously with shot clocks and penalties and referrees. But this? The Shot Clock Masters...near Vienna. Psychoanalysis free of charge.

Alistair Tait fleshes out some of the details for Golfweek.com but does not reveal what the winner's jacket might look like. A track suit jacket perhaps?

Every player will be timed on every shot in Austria. The other big difference from GolfSixes is that the event will use the Tour’s official timing policy. Each player in the 120-man field will have 50 seconds for the first player in a group, with 40 seconds for subsequent players. A one-shot penalty will be handed out to players going over the time limit, and a red card will appear beside their name on the leaderboard.

European Tour To Unveil Shot Clock At '18 Austrian Open

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Alasdair Reid reports for The Times that a shot clock will be part of next June's Austrian Open, replete with group referees, 40 second limits and one-shot penalties.

Reid says European Tour tournament committee member David Howell supports the idea but is concerned that we won't see great recovery shots if this became a regular practice. However, Howell says the committee signed off because the event in question can have its field size reduced.

“We’ve discussed it and agreed it should take place,” Howell said. “Among the committee, we think it’s worthwhile trialling that week in those specific circumstances. The field is not the strongest so it can be shortened without doing anyone too much harm. That allows the opportunity to get around quickly, so that’s why it is that week.”

Still The Best Grow The Game Gimmick, Pro Golf Edition: KLM & European Tour's Beat The Pros

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It was great last year when KLM and the European Tour played up this Thursday-Saturday gimmick and it remains a great way to attract eyeballs and interest on days not called Sunday. The concept is simple: hit your ball inside the pros at the 14th hole and earn a nice pair of flight tickets from KLM.

Though the reaction of the pros who got beat by Dutch amateur Lauren Hillebrand, a repeat winner, was a tad awkward:


The pros had more fun almost getting beat by sweet-swinging 8-year-old Tom Hendricks:

He may not have won #BeatThePro but eight year old Tom Hendricks certainly won over the crowd at the #KLMOpen today.

A post shared by European Tour (@europeantour) on


And check out 11-year old Matthias Henke beating Chris Wood and Max Albertus.

Now I know this shouldn't become a weekly thing on tours as it'd lose some luster. But at the occasional LPGA, PGA Tour Champions and yes, PGA Tour event, this would be a fun gimmick to employ for a little free press.

We Can Find Things Again! European Tour Restores Old Website!

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The information-light, purportedly-young people friendly revamp of the European Tour's website is no more after earning universally loathsome reviews.

In an open letter complete with the file photo  PelleyModeratelySomber_RedGlasses_4.jpg, Chief Executive Keith Pelley chalked the change up to technical issues and fan input.

I was hopeful the technical issues we faced were behind us, but having monitored our website and app closely they are clearly not, which is why we have taken action.

You, the fans, are vitally important to the European Tour and our players. I want to make your experience – whether in person at our tournaments or on-line – the best it can possibly be.

We have listened to your feedback and we appreciate all of you who took the time to contact us. We took that very much into consideration when taking this step.

You should know we will continue to work behind the scenes, reviewing the future direction of our website and app, but nothing will be done until we are 100% confident, both from a technical and a design perspective

Here it is folks...rejoice! The site we thought worked fine is back:

BMW PGA Announces Move To September Before Ink Is Dry On PGA Move To May Deal!

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Pelley!

Wasting little time...about 10 minutes to be exact...the European Tour announced a shift in the BMW PGA Championship's date to September.

I'd give then an "8" for passive aggressiveness, even this could end up being a great switch.

With the PGA Championship moving to May and the Players to March, the European Tour immediately seized on the likely shortening of the PGA Tour playoff season to push their marquee event into a month where the field stands to improve. Furthermore, the European Tour's Race To Dubai should also benefit from the U.S. calendar changes.

More on the PGA move to May later, as we learned a few fun things in today's press conference that I'm writing about for Golfweek. In the mean time, for immediate release... 

The European Tour today announces that the BMW PGA Championship will move from its current date in May to a new September slot from the 2019 season onwards.

The prestigious Championship, which is part of the European Tour’s Rolex Series, will be played at Wentworth Club from May 24-27, 2018, before moving to September for its 65th anniversary edition the following year.

The move comes following news announced earlier today that the 2019 US PGA Championship will move from its traditional August date into May, with The Players Championship on the PGA Tour moving from May to March.

The specific date of the 2019 BMW PGA Championship will be released in due course but it will be central to a strong and robust end of season schedule on the European Tour.

Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the European Tour, said: “Significant changes to the global golfing calendar have given us the opportunity to move the BMW PGA Championship to a more favourable date from 2019 onwards.

“Wentworth Club is an iconic location in the realm of British sport and the BMW PGA Championship is always hugely popular with the public as was seen in May when it launched our Rolex Series with 110,000 spectators in attendance over the course of the week.

“This is a new chapter for the event but we expect similar interest in the autumn, as was shown historically by the World Match Play Championship when it was played at Wentworth Club at that time of the year.”

The BMW PGA Championship was the first of eight Rolex Series events to be played on the European Tour’s International Schedule in 2017, all of which are part of the Race to Dubai. Sweden’s Alex Noren claimed the title in May, overturning a seven shot deficit with a stunning final round of 62 to win by two strokes over the West Course, which had undergone a multi-million pound revamp in the period between the 2016 and 2017 Championships.

Noren joined an illustrious Roll of Honour for the Championship which includes Seve Ballesteros, Arnold Palmer, Tony Jacklin, Sir Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, José María Olazábal, Colin Montgomerie, Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy.

Rolex Effect? European Tour On Ranking Points Streak

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Alex Miceli at MorningRead.com suggests we're seeing the first sign of success for European Tour Chief Keith Pelley's Rolex Series, with the three lead-up events to The Open offering more world ranking points than their PGA Tour counterparts.

Miceli writes:

Not since 2010, when the European Tour’s BMW International Open offered the same ranking points as the Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour, followed by France and Scotland outpointing AT&T National and John Deere, has Europe proved to be a better draw than America.

The Rolex Series, which consists of eight lucrative events offering purses of at least $7 million throughout the European Tour season, has allowed Keith Pelley, the tour’s chief executive officer, to create an environment in which European players want to return home to compete.

“There's no question Rolex has come in and has allowed us to elevate the tournaments,” Pelley said of the Swiss watchmaker’s sponsorship. “As the title partner of the Rolex Series, they believed in the vision … but what we have invested in the infrastructure to make it a much stronger and a better tournament.” 

Here were the points breakdown on fields for those events:

HNA Open De France 270 vs Quickens Loans National 229
Dubai Duty Free Irish Open 288 vs Greenbrier Classic 174
AAM Scottish Open 342 vs  John Deere Classic 140

In another nice sign for the tour's ability to intrigue players to tee it up more often, Pat Perez has joined the tour after rising to 42nd in the world ranking, joining Kevin Na and Japan’s Hideto Tanihara in taking up similar affiliate memberships with the European Tour this season.

Perez said: “It’s probably the first time I have been in a position to do become a European Tour member in my career. I’ve always stayed in the US. So I figured, after I won and got to the top 50 in the world, I might try and travel a bit and see some new parts of the world and play against other great players. I wanted to play the European Tour and become more of a global player.

“I am going to try and broaden my horizons, go to places such as Dubai and Malaysia, and see where I fall."

Gilbert Rules Out Trump Aberdeen For Scottish Open, Kicks Open The Door To Cruden Bay For 2019!

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Though it was looking likely that Trump International Aberdeen would land the 2019 Scottish Open due to its proximity to sponsor Aberdeen Asset Management headquarters, CEO Martin Gilbert has all but ruled it out due to

From Martin Dempster's Scotsman report:

“Politics aside, Trump would be an ideal venue, but you can’t put politics aside. That is the issue so we will wait and see.”

Turnberry, which Trump also owns, is currently waiting to find out when it will stage a future Open Championship, with the R&A likely to wait until his term as US President comes to an end before making that decision.

Trump has made no secret of the fact that he’d like to see an event like the Scottish Open staged at his highly-acclaimed Menie Estate course. “The Scottish Open is coming,” he declared during a visit two years ago. “The Scottish Open wants to be here forever, they think this is the best course they’ve ever seen.”

Even more exciting was Gilbert's revelation that European Tour officials have scouted out Cruden Bay and, with a few alterations, believe it can be made to work. Gilbert said the the course would not sport the 14th and 15th holes and their blind shots, and might be replaced by by Old Tom Morris designed holes on the club's St Olaf course.

While former host Royal Aberdeen is a candidate, Gilbert made clear that an all-men's club course would not happen. The Scottish Open venue now annually hosts both the men's and women's editions of the event. In hearing him speak to a small group of press today, I can attest to his enthusiasm for Cruden Bay as an acceptable solution.

Given that it's one my favorite courses on the planet, I concur, as long as modifications for the tournament do not change the course's character. (Recent changes to the 9th by Tom Mackenzie improved one of the weakest holes there.)

“Politics aside, Trump would be an ideal venue, but you can’t put politics aside. That is the issue so we will wait and see.” Turnberry, which Trump also owns, is currently waiting to find out when it will stage a future Open Championship, with the R&A likely to wait until his term as US President comes to an end before making that decision. Trump has made no secret of the fact that he’d like to see an event like the Scottish Open staged at his highly-acclaimed Menie Estate course. “The Scottish Open is coming,” he declared during a visit two years ago. “The Scottish Open wants to be here forever, they think this is the best course they’ve ever seen.”

Read more at: http://www.scotsman.com/sport/golf/donald-trump-s-aberdeen-course-ruled-out-for-2019-scottish-open-1-4503898
“Politics aside, Trump would be an ideal venue, but you can’t put politics aside. That is the issue so we will wait and see.” Turnberry, which Trump also owns, is currently waiting to find out when it will stage a future Open Championship, with the R&A likely to wait until his term as US President comes to an end before making that decision. Trump has made no secret of the fact that he’d like to see an event like the Scottish Open staged at his highly-acclaimed Menie Estate course. “The Scottish Open is coming,” he declared during a visit two years ago. “The Scottish Open wants to be here forever, they think this is the best course they’ve ever seen.”

Read more at: http://www.scotsman.com/sport/golf/donald-trump-s-aberdeen-course-ruled-out-for-2019-scottish-open-1-4503898

Scottish Open: Dundonald Links Flyover 1 to 18

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I won't lie: Dundonald has not been the most exciting Scottish Open venue in recent years. Granted, Gullane, Royal Aberdeen and Castle Stuart are very special places on name alone.

But after watching this Dundonald Links flyover from the first to the last, I'm much more excited about seeing this week's Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open. As we discussed on Morning Drive today, no tournament has made a faster rise over the last few years than this one thanks to a combination of sponsor, quality venues and younger players getting over their links antipathy (and a few older ones like Phil and Henrik showing this can be a great pre-Open prep).

I arrive Thursday to take in the action and as you know by now, this is a Golf Channel and NBC combo platter, with GC coverage starting at 5:30 am ET Thursday. Weekend coverage by NBC starts at 12:30 PM ET.

The flyovers:

 

Rahm Wins Irish Open, Lexi Rule Surfaces Too

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After a temperamental U.S. Open, Jon Rahm once again showed he can put rough weeks behind him by dominating the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.

This quote from Alistair Tait's Golfweek account suggests someone is very confident heading into The Open, and his updated odds reflect similar confidence from punters.

“That makes two for two, shooting 65 in the final round,” Rahm said. “Obviously, it’s a very different tournament here for me. I’ve been saying I haven’t played my best golf, and today, for 15 holes, I played the best golf I can ever play on the golf course with the weather that we had. Obviously, the bonus of holing out on four was great, but man, this is a nice feeling.”

The round was highlighted by a hole-out at the fourth.

As for the ball mark issue and changes in the rules, here is Tait's account with this from rules official Andy McFee on why the rules are more forgiving:

“One of the points in the new decision is that the outcome depends a lot on what the player says and his explanation of the events,” McFee said. “Jon said: ‘I knew I marked it to the side and then I was trying to make an effort to put it back to the side.’ He’s definitely made the effort.

“We’re talking about the difference between the ball being lifted at 10 o’clock on the ball marker and put back at 11 o’clock which is not a problem.

“The new decision the R&A and USGA crafted, with the full knowledge from the PGA Tour and ourselves, is all about trying to eliminate these fine margins and get to a position where if a player has made a reasonable judgement then the game will accept it if it’s slightly wrong.

This screen grab shows his ball was closer to the hole and not in the same location:

In other news, the Irish Open will again play at a links next year, heading to the newer of two courses at Ballyliffin. Liam Kelly reports.