When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
The 118th Open saw Mark Calcavecchia capture his lone major, defeating Greg Norman (64 final round!) and Wayne Grady in the first aggregate playoff at Royal Troon.
Catch Golf Greatest Rounds: 1982 Open Championship, Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on Golf Channel.
Cue me some more Jim McKay and Dave Marr!
Jimmy Roberts with a recap...
Dave Shedloski weighs the comments of Jason Day and the statement from Shane Lowry adding themselves to the list of Olympic WD's, and in the short term Rio is taking the blame.
He writes:
Both said they are still fully committed to attending the World Cup in December in Australia. Yes to the World Cup and no to Olympic gold.
Blame it on Rio. All of it.
Both men, in their 20s and intending to have children in the near future, cited the Zika virus in their decisions.
What remains to be seen: how the male golfers' view of Rio contrasts with athletes in all other sports. If the Games go off well and the virus is a non-story (big ifs), they will end up looking pretty bad. If it's a boondoggle and spreads the virus, then all of this will be forgotten.
This, however, may be wishful thinking if the above best case scenario plays out:
“Yeah, I think it is a one-off. It depends,” Day said. “Certain things we just don't know. Like something could happen elsewhere down the road, and unfortunately that could make people pull out. I just hope they look past this and go, ‘You know, we're looking at the bigger picture and trying to grow the game,’ and hopefully if they can do that, then the Olympics can stay -- the golf can stay in the Olympics and everyone can move on to hopefully Tokyo and try and play there.”
Jeff Babineau at Golfweek makes the point about other athletes grinning and bearing it only making golf look worse.
This may be a one-off situation and 2020 in Tokyo could be fine, but golf has no concrete place in the games beyond that. A decision on golf’s future rides on this year’s performance. Will the Olympic torch holders who make the big decisions give golf a pass? Or whisk golf away? Truthfully, if athletes in many other sports show up in Rio, you have to think golf’s future in the games has dimmed.
But as Luke Kerr-Dineen notes in calling the situation a disaster (I, the eternal optimist see silver linings galore), points out that lack of excitement over the format along with scheduling should not be discounted.
Even though it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to know that schedule congestion, motivational issues, format problems and overall spoiledness are the more likely culprits for male "grow the game" advocates skipping Rio, it's still nice to see someone finally call out the men passing on golf's spot in the Games.
Alan Shipnuck in this week's SI/golf.com roundtable:
The entitlement and point-missing among the top (male) golfers is depressing. They are on their way to getting their dying, boutique sport tossed from the biggest athletic happening in the world. Then they won’t have to worry about playing in the Olympics beyond 2020. A small win for these selfish players but a big loss for the sport to make new fans and reach new markets.
But we won't focus on all of the South Africans passing or grow-the-game advocate Rory McIlroy making a last minute decision not to go.
Because at least Sergio is all in, John Austin reports:
"There are some security issues there that I would like to be taken care of and the Zika virus is causing a few problems but I don't have immediate plans of having a family with my girlfriend.
"But if nothing else happens between now and when it is time to go then we should be fine."
Golf Digest's Undercover Pro tells Max Adler that while there are issues, the golfers who pass on Olympic golf will ultimately regret it. Or so he thinks.
Put Alex Miceli at Golfweek down as the first to push back at the IOC member whining about the lack of top stars wanting to go to Rio.
If the games were in North America, Europe, many parts of Asia, Australia or New Zealand, athletes likely would make the trip. Instead, the IOC want to make statement by going to Rio for the first Olympiad in South America. And now the golfers are making their own statement.
Golf doesn’t need the Olympics, but the sport is willing to support the quadrennial games, if it makes sense.
The IOC, in turn, should be willing to support golf and not criticize its best players for making a thoughtful stand.
And Hogan would have won a fourth Genesis if not for Sam Snead and that pesky 1950 playoff a week later!
The PGA Tour released its 2016-17 schedule, as Rex Hoggard notes here, and it includes a no-sponsor-listed Tournament of Champions in January, meaning the tour will funding some of the purse.
(That's a move it would not make in conjunction with Cadillac to keep the Florida swing in tact at Doral. Now we know how much the execs like breaking out their Hawaiian shirts once a year!)
The new WGC in Mexico City does, indeed, land between Florida stops in Palm Beach Gardens and Tampa Bay. Cue the next Zika virus excuses!
The old Northern Trust Open/LA Open officially became the Genesis Open, as Doug Ferguson explains here.
Hyundai is actual the sponsor, but is keeping its name off in an effort to build the Genesis luxury brand into the next Lexus or Acura or Infinity.
So just remember, Ben Hogan won three Genesis Opens and five of those Dean & Deluca's!
Watching how replay has been used in other sports (particularly baseball, football, tennis), most sports fans have accepted the use of technology to get calls right. We've seen so many calls either confirmed or overturned for the betterment of the competition we are watching, and, let's face it, in a way that has made the sports more entertaining. Yet the USGA ruling at Oakmont stands as the most confusing, unnecessary and frighteningly dangerous use of video replay most sports fans have seen, even if it was an accurate interpretation of the Rules of Golf "Decisions".
So no matter how great a story Billy Hurley is, or what a magnificent weekend golf enjoyed with a combination of old (Ernie, Vijay, Henrik) and young names (Rahm, Lydia, Ollie) playing so well, the U.S. Open continues to be the 19th Hole subject of discussion.
And I'm still waiting to hear how it gets better for the USGA.
The SI/golf.com roundtable is not the place for the folks in Far Hills to look.
Alan Shipnuck, senior writer, Sports Illustrated (@AlanShipnuck): It was a brutal public relations hit for the USGA, and Davis’s quasi-apology didn’t really help. I got the first interview with him at Oakmont. Davis was upstairs in the locker room changing into his tie for the trophy presentation and I pounced on him. At that point DJ was on the 16th hole and Davis still hadn’t seen video of the incident! He was just going by reports from other staffers. It was clearly an institutional breakdown in communication and procedures. This will all lead to some soul-searching and clearly the USGA needs to overhaul how it handles things on the ground at big tournaments.
That's just bizarre.
Bamberger tries to see nuance and both sides and comes closest to defending the decision, even though he's no in agreement:
In my opinion, the videotape was completely inconclusive and I would have not accessed Johnson the shot, but to reach another conclusion is entirely reasonable. Now if you want to say there should be a new rule by which these minute movements shouldn’t matter, go ahead and try to draft such a rule. But right now, the rule is that any movement must be accounted for and the USGA was trying to do right by Johnson and the rest of the field. That is its obligation. The rest -- including Tiger and Jordan and Big Jack himself -- is noise. The USGA is not in the public-relations business. Its purpose is to stage a championship and assure that the rules, which it tries constantly to improve, are applied fairly to all.
And the last word from Gary Van Sickle speaks to what I sense many golfers feel:
Nice of Davis to apologize for delay in penalty assessment, a terrible mistake. But by Monday, he had plenty of time to recognize that Hall and Pagel had wrongly assessed a penalty and ignored USGA’s own definition that “unless the facts show that a player caused the ball to move,” there is no penalty. I lost a lot of respect for the USGA on this one. This can’t happen again.
What seemed like a ho-hum week on the PGA Tour turned into an epic, emotional and intriguing mix of youth, age and sentimentality merging into the best tournament of the season.
Photo by JD CubanIt wasn't just that former Navy man Billy Hurley III won in his native D.C.-area almost a year after his father went missing and eventually, took his life, and did so with his career at a low point where he had limited status. He did it with a sponsor's invite by Mike Antolini of the Woods Foundation, in front of understandably emotional family and friends, all while holding off HOF's Els and Singh, and new young-gun Jon Rahm.
John Strege with some great backstory info on Hurley.
Thomas Boswell in the Washington Post on the win. And this quote from Hurley says so much about the emotions he had to battle en route to victory.
On Saturday, as he held the lead at Congressional, Hurley noticed that there were policemen following him, protecting him, so to speak. “Obviously I think about my dad a lot,” Hurley said after his round. “I was walking from 9 to 10, and I’ve never really had a whole lot of police officers following my group. You know, I’m not like that cool. But playing in the lead, they have a couple police officers following you around. It dawned on me, ‘Hey, this is what my dad did.’ He walked inside the ropes and did this at Presidents Cups [and other Washington-area events].”
The chip-in, which is enough to make anyone believe in the Golf Gods.
The full round highlights:
The day was big for those hoping to play in the next major. Hurley, Rahm, Singh and Harold Varner (!) made it to Troon thanks to their great play at Congressional.
For Immediate Release:
HURLEY III, RAHM, SINGH AND VARNER III QUALIFY FOR THE OPEN AT QUICKEN LOANS NATIONAL
26 June 2016, Bethseda, Maryland, United States: Billy Hurley III, Jon Rahm, Vijay Singh and Harold Varner III have qualified for The 145th Open at Royal Troon after today’s final round of the Quicken Loans National at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland.
The Quicken Loans National was the seventh event in The Open Qualifying Series, which gives players the opportunity to qualify for golf’s most international major championship at leading Tour events around the world.
The four players will now compete against the world’s best golfers to become Champion Golfer of the Year when The Open returns to the famous Ayrshire links for the ninth time from 14-17 July, 2016.
Meanwhile, six players also qualified for The Open through the European Tour Race to Dubai and the PGA TOUR FedExCup rankings. In the Race to Dubai, England’s Andrew Johnston, Sweden’s Rikard Karlberg, South Korea’s Soomin Lee, and Joost Luiten from the Netherlands all earned a place at Royal Troon, while Americans William McGirt and Smylie Kaufman booked their place through the FedExCup.
At the Quicken Loans National, American Billy Hurley III earned his first PGA TOUR title and a place in The 145th Open after a tremendous performance in front of a raucous hometown crowd. The former US Naval officer thrilled spectators by chipping in at the 15th and following that up with a 27-foot birdie putt on the 16th green to close out the tournament with a two-under-par 69.
The 34-year-old finished on 17-under-par and will now challenge for the Claret Jug for the second time after making his Open debut in 2014 at Royal Liverpool where he finished tied 64th.
Vijay Singh, who made his first appearance in The Open at Royal Troon in 1989, will play in his 25th Championship and 89th major after finishing runner-up behind Hurley. The 53-year-old Fijian’s best finish was tied for 2nd place with Thomas Bjorn in 2003 at Royal St George’s. At Congressional, Singh closed out his round of 65 with a birdie at the 18th to finish on 14-under-par for the tournament.
Former no. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking™ Jon Rahm booked his spot at The Open after tying for third place alongside Bill Haas, who has already qualified for the Championship. The 21-year-old Spaniard, who was making his professional debut this week after finishing as low amateur at last week’s US Open, posted a final round 70 to finish on 13-under-par.
American Harold Varner III also qualified for The Open after nudging out European Ryder Cup player Francesco Molinari, who was in position to scoop the fourth qualifying spot after finishing 8-under-par. But a final day score of 70 saw him finish in seventh place at 9-under-par behind Ernie Els and Webb Simpson who were both already exempt for the Championship. He will now make his Open debut at Royal Troon.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
