Last Chance Qualifier, new fan behavior policy, St Andrews ballot, and other notes ahead of championship week. Plus, USA announces the first four headed to Lahinch, Quotable, This, That & Reads.
The Harris caddy situation is unfortunate and in my opinion a poor rule. But it is no different to anyone trying to enter the US on a visa waiver program declaring a drug conviction.
Letʼs see if a certain world leader with nothing better to do starts screaming about it on their own social platform in the hope of getting yet another ban overturned!
It is but at this point it seems strange he can enter unofficial ways and is trying to do it through proper channels with no luck. Though Harris did fine without him last year.
I played Lahinch yesterday. Not from the Walker Cup tees of course. The greens are by no means the simple, lay of the land type found in some links courses. Visually, Lahinch is very intimidating with lost ball rough surrounding the playing corridors. Hopefully there will be enough spectators to locate mishits during the Walker Cup. According to the member who joined our group, Lahinch has yielded some low scores to elite players when the wind is down.
The women players are playing the Evian Championship this weekend. Nelly Korda is likely to miss the cut. Akie Iwai is currently on top of the leaderboard. Iwai has a twin sister who plays the Japanese LPGA.
An easy golf trivia question- What former men's major champion was also a twin and for a time his brother also played the PGA Tour?
Just on the tickets thing - the R&A’s ticket resale platform has hundreds available for every single tournament day for next week. The purported ballot demand vs. real life demand the week before the tournament isn’t lining up.
Agreed, I had a ticket (from 3) to sell for Fri. but the platform was not clear or easy to use for resale. Also pages of available tickets provided no guarantee it would be bought. Strange for any, let alone a Birkdale Open.
Good to know and I will monitor how it looks on the eve of play. There will be a danger at non-St Andrews venues of fans feeling burned by the process when they can't unload unwanted tickets.
Thank you for the shout out regarding the US Adaptive Open held at Woodmont. The course was spectacular and the participants worthy. The USGA deserves recognition in being flexible and “adapting” to the challenges of these athletes. Finally just a reminder, :”we are all adaptive athletes” as told to me frequently by top 100 coach and instructor Susie Meyers, in that no two human bodies are alike .
A little off topic but watched 10 minutes of the Champions Tour yesterday from Firestone. Similar to the Sr Open last weekend, the non-crowds were COVID-like.
Champions Tour is like the Miami Marlins ... more players than paying fans. Went to one event in Jacksonville. One enjoyable feature was lack of traffic after end of play.
Gotta believe life expectancy of Champions is not very long.
The Rich Lerner quote is funny! He & Jim Nantz are the ultimate drama kings & table-setters in history of golf promotion!
He's a storyteller and he's not wrong that it could be quite a scenario.
The Harris caddy situation is unfortunate and in my opinion a poor rule. But it is no different to anyone trying to enter the US on a visa waiver program declaring a drug conviction.
Letʼs see if a certain world leader with nothing better to do starts screaming about it on their own social platform in the hope of getting yet another ban overturned!
It is but at this point it seems strange he can enter unofficial ways and is trying to do it through proper channels with no luck. Though Harris did fine without him last year.
I played Lahinch yesterday. Not from the Walker Cup tees of course. The greens are by no means the simple, lay of the land type found in some links courses. Visually, Lahinch is very intimidating with lost ball rough surrounding the playing corridors. Hopefully there will be enough spectators to locate mishits during the Walker Cup. According to the member who joined our group, Lahinch has yielded some low scores to elite players when the wind is down.
Wild to hear the rough has remained so dense with the heatwave. Birkdale’s rough is not expected to be much of a factor.
Nothing on slow play from the R&A on their principles?
Not yet. It'll be interesting to see what they do in terms of enforcement. Slow play should be in the code of conduct rules!
The women players are playing the Evian Championship this weekend. Nelly Korda is likely to miss the cut. Akie Iwai is currently on top of the leaderboard. Iwai has a twin sister who plays the Japanese LPGA.
An easy golf trivia question- What former men's major champion was also a twin and for a time his brother also played the PGA Tour?
Curtis Strange?
Curtis it is. His identical twin brother Allen played the PGA Tour for at least one year.
Lanny Wadkins
Just on the tickets thing - the R&A’s ticket resale platform has hundreds available for every single tournament day for next week. The purported ballot demand vs. real life demand the week before the tournament isn’t lining up.
Agreed, I had a ticket (from 3) to sell for Fri. but the platform was not clear or easy to use for resale. Also pages of available tickets provided no guarantee it would be bought. Strange for any, let alone a Birkdale Open.
Good to know and I will monitor how it looks on the eve of play. There will be a danger at non-St Andrews venues of fans feeling burned by the process when they can't unload unwanted tickets.
You got to love a piece that where the word "hooch" is used. Love it.
Thank you for the shout out regarding the US Adaptive Open held at Woodmont. The course was spectacular and the participants worthy. The USGA deserves recognition in being flexible and “adapting” to the challenges of these athletes. Finally just a reminder, :”we are all adaptive athletes” as told to me frequently by top 100 coach and instructor Susie Meyers, in that no two human bodies are alike .
A little off topic but watched 10 minutes of the Champions Tour yesterday from Firestone. Similar to the Sr Open last weekend, the non-crowds were COVID-like.
Champions Tour is like the Miami Marlins ... more players than paying fans. Went to one event in Jacksonville. One enjoyable feature was lack of traffic after end of play.
Gotta believe life expectancy of Champions is not very long.