Andy Murray Invested In Seve Movie, Admits To Sandbagging

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Bob McKenzie reports for the Express that Scottish tennis great Andy Murray invested in Seve The Movie, released June 27th, in part because of his dad's admiration for Ballesteros.

McKenzie writes:

"We went to watch the tournament in Gleneagles quite a few times which was just down the road from our house. I haven't played golf since I started having problems with my back and since the surgery, I haven't bothered trying to be honest.

"I will wait till I have finished (my career)."

Not that you would want to play Murray for 50p by the sounds of it.

"When I used to play for money, I always used to play off 16 or 17," he says with a smile.

"I have never lost a game of golf for money in all the times I have played. I don't know what my handicap was exactly but that is what I used to play off. "Everyone got hacked off when I was playing against them."

Murray plays Kevin Anderson in a fourth round match Monday at Wimbledon, reports The Guardian's Kevin Mitchell.

Henry Fitzherbert of The Express raved about Seve The Movie, calling it...

absorbing, beautifully shot picture (brilliantly edited by Saska Simpson) cleverly combines archive footage of Ballesteros with a dramatic re-enactment of his youth featuring a charming performance from young unknown Jose Luis Gutierrez.

Ewan Murray previewed the film for The Guardian and noted this about the lead actor:

José Luis Gutiérrez, who plays the young Seve in the early part of the film, should be underplayed. This is a role bearing a heavy weight of pressure and responsibility. Even for Gutiérrez – a 16-year-old with a handicap of four – Ballesteros is iconic to the level that he admitted to being “frightened” about not being up to the task.

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called Seve The Movie “engaging enough” and writes:

a misty-eyed tribute that, in DVD form, is destined to rest on the memorabilia-packed shelves of legions of golf-crazy guys from Dallas to Dumfermline.

No release date outside of the UK and Ireland has been set.

The trailer:

2020 PGA Championship To Harding Park

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Looks like Joe Passov beat me to it by about 15 minutes, but here's my GolfDigest.com item for The Loop on Harding Park landing the 2020 PGA Championship.

The decision is a positive for the PGA of America because they are coming west after a 16-year hiatus, but I don't believe the current course, despite it's staggering $23 million PGA Tour Design Services renovation price, is up to the quality standards for a major site.

As I spell out in the item, this also dooms the chances of an international PGA in 2020 to get away from the Tokyo Games. That was always a longshot, but obviously when you weigh Harding Park vs. Royal Melbourne, well, the international option would have been great for fans.

**Story updated with quotes from Sandy Tatum, who spearheaded the renovation of Harding Park over 11 years ago and as you can imagine is delighted with the news.