Whether Justin Thomas deserves one of Zach Johnson’s captain’s picks remains the biggest question ahead of next month’s Ryder Cup in Rome. But according to a fellow major champ and three-time Presidents Cup vice-captain, the decision to take Thomas to Italy with the team should be a no-brainer.

Enter Geoff Ogilvy with the strongest take yet in this debate. The 2006 US Open champ and International Team leader is a huge fan of Thomas, particularly when it comes to match play.

“If they don’t take him, it’s the worst call ever,” Ogilvy told Golfweek. “He’s the best head-to-head match player in the world.”

Geoff Ogilvy holds the trophy after winning the 2006 US Open. Stan Honda

That’s a pretty bold claim, but Ogilvy has certainly witnessed JT’s prowess in person as a captain for the past three Presidents Cups. Thomas has compiled a stellar 10-3-2 record in those three events, helping Team USA win each time.

“JT would be my first pick. I’ve been inside the ropes at enough Presidents Cups there’s just no chance you don’t take Justin,” Ogilvy continued. “He does something to the team. He goes out front and leads and fist pumps and makes everyone behind him believe.”

The 30-year-old Thomas is a 15-time PGA Tour winner with two majors, but has been mired in a slump that kept him from qualifying for the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Six players (Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa and Xander Schauffele) have already automatically qualified for the American team. Captain Johnson will make his six captain’s picks to round out the squad following this week’s Tour Championship.

The post Major champ Geoff Ogilvy says not picking Justin Thomas for the Ryder Cup would be ‘the worst call ever’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

He would go on to win a US Open, at Winged Foot in 2006, closing it out with do-or-die pitch on the 72nd hole over a huge mound to a fraught pin that was pure Sandbelt golf. Ogilvy was enough of a tactician to win World Golf Championships on American layouts like La Costa and Doral, but his heart has always been in a different kind of golf. Following the second round of the Sandbelt Invitational at Royal Melbourne on Tuesday, Ogilvy was asked what makes him happiest as a golfer. “I’m pretty happy here, absolutely,” he said. “Sunsets are very beautiful out here. A little leather carry bag, half-set of clubs, play golf until dark…” His voice trailed off, dreamily. It’s an easy walk home once the sun goes down — he now lives off the 14th hole, a measure of how far this former caddie has come.

Royal Melbourne

Ogilvy has many burdens as the host of the Invitational, but for four hours on Tuesday morning, Royal was his sanctuary. Watching, say, Bryson DeChambeau clobber an American target golf course, it’s easy to think of the golf swing as violent and the game utterly mindless. Ogilvy at Royal Melbourne conjures Fred Astaire dancing on air. At 45, Ogilvy still has plenty of pop, but his swing is graceful, his ball flight measured, his approach shots well considered, his pitches bordering on voodoo and his lag putts a perfect blend of caution and optimism. “You can hit 14 fairways here and bogey every hole,” he says. “It’s about where you are in the fairway, about taking on shots you can take on and not missing in wrong spots above the hole. It just makes you a better golfer.”

Contrary to his soft-spoken and genial nature, Ogilvy can run very hot on the golf course. But on this course, at this event, he radiates nothing but contentment. A bogeyless 69 will do that for a fellow. He moved up to 16th place, at even par overall, but lost ground to Cam Davis’ scintillating 66, which has given the fellow Aussie a seven-stroke lead. (Ogilvy is only four strokes back of second place.) When it was over, Ogilvy rhapsodised about the golf course where he feels most at home. “It’s an incredible piece of land with a great routing and unbelievable set of greens. If you took Augusta National and the Old Course and blended them, you’re in that realm. There’s lots of width here, it’s all about angles. Bunkers are to be avoided at all costs. And then you have sloping, crazy greens. There are not many courses that have greens and bunkers on this scale, so big and bold.”

It is a course so good it demands an annual championship, and last year it finally arrived with the Sandbelt Invitational, in the same way Bob Jones conjured a showcase for another MacKenzie course in Georgia. Jones’ thoughtful writings on the game remain timeless, so it’s no surprise that his “Down the Fairway” is Ogilvy’s favorite book. (“Golf in the Kingdom” is a close second.) Ogilvy does not have the grand ambitions of Jones … or Clifford Roberts. But Ogilvy’s charming little tournament is already one of the feel-good events of the golf year, in part because it affords the chance to watch a gifted player in perfect harmony with the course that raised him.

The post I watched Geoff Ogilvy play Royal Melbourne for the Sandbelt Invitational — and it was an absolute treat appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Still, as it turned out, Ogilvy’s brace of missed cuts at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and the Barracuda Championship were far from bad omens. Finding something like the form that saw him win eight times on the PGA Tour, the 45-year-old Australian, an assistant captain to International skipper Trevor Immelman at last week’s Presidents Cup, nipped around Kingsbarns in a bogey-free six-under 66 in his opening round at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

While that was far from the best score of the day on the Kyle Phillips design, only five men managed to shoot lower. So Ogilvy was understandably pleased with his day’s work of six birdies, 12 pars and symmetrical halves of 33. He is tied for 11th place, five shots behind Romain Langasque, who shot 61 at the Old Course.

“I came here not having played at all for the last two weeks. I came here with zero expectations,” said the Melbourne native. “But I have been out there a couple of times a week at home, as well as a bit of practice. But I’m not competitively sharp, although my swing feels pretty decent to be honest. My chipping and putting were solid too, which is normally the part of the game that suffers most when you haven’t played much.”

Ogilvy’s birdies were mostly stress-free on day that “just got better and better” weather-wise. Which is in complete contrast to the forecast for Day 2. A shotgun start at 8.30am local time will see Ogilvy begin Friday’s second round on the eighth tee of the Old Course at St Andrews. That is, he feels, the place to be if the wind blows as hard as it is supposed to.

“The Old Course is the easiest of the three to play in the worst weather,” he said. “There is a bit of space and on most holes you can bump-and-run the ball onto the greens. At Carnoustie there is nowhere to hide from the elements. And Kingsbarns is so exposed a high wind there is always going to cause problems.”

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Ogilvy’s play is that he did it with a brand new set of clubs. Both his golf bag and his suitcase have failed to arrive from the United States. Both were last seen in Newark, New Jersey.

“The club thing is not ideal, but it isn’t the disaster it would have been a few years ago,” Ogilvy said. “Thanks to the guys at Titleist, I am playing with a set that is identical to my own. They had all my numbers on the computer and so they could reproduce them easily. So there was no real adjustment there. At home my golf had been feeling pretty decent — I was improving every time out since July — and that continued today. But you never really know when you’re not match fit. Golf at home is not the same as golf on tour.

“But my shots went where I aimed them and the right distance. And I holed a pair of nice putts in the middle of the round on the first and second greens. I birdied three of the par-5s. My only real mistake was driving into a fairway bunker on the 14th. But I laid up to a nice spot and got up-and-down for par.”

Also helping the cause was Ogilvy’s reunion with Matheson. The pair worked together between 1999 and 2012. And today was like “all our yesterdays” for the old chums.

“It was fantastic,” Ogilvy said. “Squirrel was telling all his old stories. I’d heard them all … but it was nice to hear them again. We were together so long, today felt very trustworthy. We were like a well-oiled machine even if we haven’t been working for a while. He is such a great caddie.”

Matheson got the last word saying, “Geoff was much better than I thought he would be.”

Praise indeed.

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By Stephen Hennessey
Geoff Ogilvy has quietly built an impressive portfolio of course design work across Australia and Asia. Now he and his firm of Ogilvy, Cocking and Mead have secured a large-scale project at one of golf’s well-known tournament courses to preserve its status as a sought-out venue for major championships.

Medinah Country Club announced on Tuesday its members had approved a master plan by Ogilvy’s team to perform a full-scale renovation of its No. 3 course. The project, which includes the creation of three new holes in addition to work on the entire routing, is budgeted at $23.5 million, the club said. Construction will begin at the end of 2022, and the No. 3 course will reopen in 2024. The news was first reported by The Fried Egg’s Andy Johnson on Monday.

Ogilvy, the 2006 U.S. Open champion, first got into golf course design in 2010 with fellow Australian Michael Clayton and later partnered with Michael Cocking and Ashley Mead to form OCM. Previously, the bulk of the firm’s work had been in Australia and New Zealand, but OCM completed a full-scale renovation of Texas’ Shady Oaks in Fort Worth last year. Golf Digest recognized their work in 2021, ranking Shady Oaks as a top-10 renovation.

Approval of the master plan at Medinah No. 3 gives Ogilvy, Cocking and Mead its first high-profile project in the U.S., as Medinah looks to remain a viable venue to host future major championships. No. 3 has held four majors (the 1949 and 1975 U.S. Opens and the 1999 and 2005 PGA Championships) as well as the 2012 Ryder Cup. It is scheduled to host the 2026 Presidents Cup.

“We feel incredibly humbled and honoured that the Medinah Country Club membership voted in favour of our plan,” Ogilvy said. “It’s a huge sign of confidence that the members are as excited with our concept as we are, and we can’t wait to get planning started in 2022.”

Medinah No. 3 has slowly slipped in Golf Digest’s America’s 100 Greatest rankings each year since 2007-2008, when it ranked 11th in the U.S. The Chicagoland design ranked 60th in our last ranking. The club and OCM agreed to a design partnership in December 2020, resulting in the approval of the plan by members on Saturday.

The plan includes the reimagining of Medinah’s closing stretch, aiming to reduce the repetition of par-3 shots across Lake Kadijah (currently three one-shotters occupy the proximity to the water). The OCM redesign calls for a rerouting of the final six holes, including a short par 4 that would have four of the final six holes playing along the water. A putting course is also included in the plans.

“It is with great excitement that I can announce that the members voted with overwhelming approval of the Course No. 3 Master Plan,” said club president William R. Kuehn. “This renovation encapsulates a continuing vision to provide compelling tournament play and a world-class golf experience for members, guests, and the professional tournament player.”

Here’s a look at some renderings of OCM’s plans, courtesy of Medinah Country Club:

The proposed new look of the 13th hole and up the 14th.

A straighter view of the proposed new 13th hole.

A rendering of the renovated 17th hole.

Looking down at the new 18th.

The proposed new 18th green.

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By John Huggan
It’s a great idea. An obvious idea. And now it is going to happen. Driven by the formidable pair of 2006 U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy and former European Tour player Mike Clayton, the inaugural Sandbelt Invitational will take place Dec. 20-23. Four of Melbourne’s world-famous collection of courses—Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath, Peninsula Kingswood and Yarra Yarra—will host one round each in a 72-hole event with 60-strong mixture of male and female pros and amateurs, a relatively low-key start to what both men hope will evolve into one of Australia’s biggest tournaments.

The potential is obvious, the philosophy novel in a world typically driven only by financial matters. Yes, Ogilvy’s eponymous foundation is kicking in a $50,000 (Australian) purse—and other sponsors will hopefully be in place by December. But for now the motivation is more altruistic than economic.

“Clayts has to take most of the credit for the idea,” Ogilvy told Golf Digest. “A couple of months ago we heard that the Australian Open was unlikely to happen [the men’s and women’s events were officially cancelled last week for the second year due to the pandemic], at which point Mike decided we had to have something in its place. We’ve been doing a few little things over the last few months, one-day 18-hole events that gave promising youngsters opportunities to play some competitive golf. So he called round a few clubs in Melbourne to see if we could expand that to a four-day deal.”

It didn’t take long. Ogilvy describes the reaction as “unbelievable.” Royal Melbourne was in straight away. Peninsula said yes within 30 seconds. Yarra Yarra and Kingston Heath followed quickly, too.

“Once we had the clubs involved, we sat down and thought about the field,” Ogilvy said. “The actual breakdown isn’t too clear right now because of COVID travel restrictions, so we’ll have to see how that pans out. But we’ll have the best field we can get, both men and women, professionals and amateurs.”

That concept, too, is an extension of what the Ogilvy/Clayton team has been doing with what they call “the game,” a series of one-day 18-hole events with men and women competing against each other designed to provide promising young Australians with competitive opportunities in these trying times.

“I want to make it clear the Sandbelt Invitational is not going to be like a ‘normal’ event,” says Clayton, who, much to the amusement of all who know him, will be “tournament director.” “Not yet anyway. It’s not going to be on television. There won’t be too many spectators. There won’t be any roped-off fairways or scoreboards. It’s all about getting the best players we can find competing with each other again. But the real stars of the show will be the courses. It’s not an event built round star names, which has been the norm down here for a few years.”

Michael Dodge
Ogilvy hopes the Sandbelt Invitational can provide playing opportunities for local golfers who have been limited in events they can compete in due to travel restrictions during the pandemic.

Disappointingly, it would seem unlikely that the leading Australians on the PGA Tour—Marc Leishman, Cam Smith and Adam Scott—will be able to tee-up this year. But the reaction from Ogilvy and Clayton’s fellow pros has been, as you might expect, unanimously positive.

“What a treat this will be, undeniably one of the best collection of golf courses worldwide,” said former Ryder Cup player Nicolas Colsaerts (whose wife is Australian) in a tweet.

Japanese Tour player Matt Griffin was even more effusive.

“Since the halcyon days of the 1990s, Australian golf has been all about who is not here rather than who is,” said the native Melburnian. “This announcement is the perfect example that it might be time to celebrate who is here rather than who isn’t. We have a heap of talent that’s been starved of big tournaments for 24 months desperate to prove itself. If you forget about the names, the product is basically the same and possibly even better, as the Vic Open has proved.”

Speaking of which, the Sandbelt Invitational will offer exemptions into both the Vic Open (a mixed-event sanctioned by the European Tour and the LPGA) and, for the men, the Australian PGA Championship. Already, legitimacy is growing.

“I really hope this will expand every year, to the point where it becomes a really big and important event,” says Clayton, one of golf’s most erudite and thoughtful commentators on all things architectural. “But we don’t need a huge purse at this stage. That only raises expectations, ones we can’t meet because of all the travel restrictions in place. Players from Western Australia, for example, can’t come to Melbourne right now. So the money doesn’t really matter that much.

“People have criticised Golf Australia for cancelling the Australian Open. But our event is different. We’re not comparing apples with apples. We don’t have to deal with sponsors or television. We have no expectations. All we’re trying to do this year is run an ‘amateur’ tournament with good players on great courses. And we’ll see how it goes.”

The post How a former U.S. Open champ got four iconic Australian courses to commit to innovative new event appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Mike Stachura
Despite my best intentions and real number crunching, I will select a name to win this week’s U.S. Open that on the surface offers the excitement of an actuary driving a minivan in a cul-de-sac, the intellectual gravitas of seersucker, the logical consistency of a cartoon coyote getting beaned by his own anvil.

In other words, I’ll be wrong again—every major without fail since 2013—for reasons that make no sense to anyone but me.

Come to think of it, the U.S. Open setup at Winged Foot is very much like an anvil. Hard, impenetrable, unyielding, humorless. It is like a conversation with your prom date’s father when your prom date is late. And having second thoughts. Or, as it turns out, not at home.

Seems fair to say that there will be lost balls this week—in the rough. To a tour pro, that’s the emotional equivalent of wetting your pants in the fourth grade. You really don’t recover from that. You might think you do, but the PTSD from those sorts of moments lingers like a kind of spiritual dysentery. Which, by the way, was not the name of the band at my prom. That was Emotional Hematoma.

But I digress.

To pick a proper U.S. Open winner at Winged Foot, you have to look at history. It’s really not a stretch to suggest the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in 2020 is pretty much going to be the U.S. Open in 1974 or the U.S. Open in 1984 or, quite probably, the U.S. Open in 2006. The winners are a type. Grinders, yes, but with resumes. There’s a resolve that is heroic, yet usually they are not the heroes that fit the super suit. They’re fatter or skinnier or less poetically skilled and with a greatness that is never fully appreciated no matter how much they’ve won before or since.

Billy Casper wins the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Arnold Palmer does not. Hale Irwin wins the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Jack Nicklaus does not. Fuzzy Zoeller wins the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Greg Norman does not. And, of course, Geoff Ogilvy wins the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Phil Mickelson does not.

(And before we get all misty about Lefty’s great miss at Winged Foot in 2006, remember this: Ogilvy made miraculous par saves at 16, 17 and 18. David Blaine balloon-stunt miraculous. So difficult and exacting he should have been wearing a jeweler’s loupe. So incredibly smooth Don Cornelius should have been in the 18th tower.)

Bloomberg

You don’t accidentally win the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in the way you don’t accidentally solve the Conway knot problem. Or hike El Caminito del Rey. Or carry two kids and a car seat back into the house after a full day at Carowinds. You’re strong in all the ways that don’t end up as a New York Post headline. (By the way, my personal favourite, after a U.S. loss in the World Cup: “This sport is stupid anyway.”)

Moving on. It was the white-hot stable serenity of Ogilvy that won in 2006, so I figured it will be the Ogilvy of 2020 this time. Take the Geoff Ogilvy stats from 2006 heading into the U.S. Open in several key elements, match them up to who fits that profile today, and there’s your winner:

• Two rounds in the 60s and a top 20 in his most recent tournament coming in.
• Better than average in fairways hit (to avoid a lost ball or sprained wrist in the rough).
• A past top-30 finish in the U.S. Open because pretenders and first-timers don’t win U.S. Opens at Winged Foot.
• A win in the last 12 months to show you’re capable.
• And a scoring average, let’s say, .75 shots better than the tour standard. Why? Because that puts you probably in the top 20 percent. In short, you’re a player who matters, whether or not anybody notices.

Finally, since Ogilvy is listed at 6-foot-2, you need to be at least 6-foot-2. My reasoning: Nine of the top 10 in 2006 were at least 6-foot-1. Makes sense, right? Or at least the kind of sense that not allowing shorts at your club makes. Which was the rule at Winged Foot not all that long ago.

There are only two players who meet those criteria in this year’s field. They happen to be the two players who finished the recently completed PGA Tour season 1-2 in scoring average. Yes, one of them is Jon Rahm. A bull of a young man, perched on the very precipice of greatness. A heroic form given to heroic moments that should have their own national anthem or at least a rock opera.

But he is not the one I pick. Because I’m obviously an idiot. But Jon Rahm is basically Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson.

And Webb Simpson is Geoff Ogilvy.

Kevin C. Cox

Simpson, a guy who seems just as likely to be a tour rules official or USGA president as a U.S. Open champion, has all the skills to go along with the quiet heroics of being a dad who left the tour in a middle of a hot streak to check on his daughter’s tonsils. Helps that he’s won a U.S. Open before (by surviving, not dominating, Olympic Club in 2012 when all around him were crashing), but he led the tour in scoring average this year, hits it 10 yards farther than he did 10 years ago, found out how to putt after anchoring was banned and won twice since February.

The clincher is whose short game is most like Ogilvy’s. Rahm’s is better ever so slightly, but that’s not what this is about. We’re looking for the guy most like Ogilvy, and Simpson’s strokes gained/around the green average is closer to what Ogilvy’s was than Rahm’s is. That’s my logic, which now that I’ve said it makes no sense to me, either. That’s why I’m 0-for-forever in picking major champions.

It’s a technicality, but sure as you can’t wear white after Labor Day (as James Frederick Webb Simpson has known since he put on his first bow tie), that’s the difference between being Geoff Ogilvy and being Phil Mickelson. And Webb Simpson is definitely not Phil Mickelson.

The post Picking a winner at Winged Foot means finding the Geoff Ogilvy of 2020. And we’ve done it appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
Tyrrell Hatton held off a strong field and even stronger Florida winds to win his first PGA Tour title at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday. It was a gritty performance that felt more like a U.S. Open than a regular tour event. In fact, in terms of scoring, it was reminiscent of one of the more difficult U.S. Opens of all time.

Hatton hung on at Bay Hill despite shooting 73 and 74 the final two rounds. How rare is that? The 28-year-old Brit is the first golfer to win a PGA Tour event with two-over-par scores on the weekend since Geoff Ogilvy at the 2006 U.S. Open.

The biggest difference—aside from a major trophy on the line, of course—is how brutal that entire week was at Winged Foot nearly 14 years ago. While Hatton, a four-time winner on the European Tour, finished at four-under for the tournament, Ogivly won his lone major with a five-over total.

But Bay Hill was certainly in rare company in terms of toughness over the weekend. On Saturday, Max Homa’s two-under 70 was the only score under par. And Matthew Fitzpatrick was the only player to break 70 in either of the final two rounds with his Sunday 69. Slipping on that Arnie victory cardigan has never been so taxing.

By the way, the U.S. Open returns to Winged Foot this year in June. Coincidence? Well, yeah, that’s totally a coincidence.

The post Why Tyrrell Hatton’s hard-fought win at Bay Hill was even rarer than you realised appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Harry How

On the other hand, since I put my handicap police hat on, I’ve had numerous people reach out to me, including Larry’s father, with glowing testimonials about the future NFL Hall-of-Famer (Imagine how good he’s going to get when he finally retires?) and current GOAT of net scoring in golf. So perhaps it’s not right to label him a sandbagger. Although, to be fair, anyone who has ever won a net competition (myself included) has received some ribbing about their handicap. Also, I have never played a full round with Fitzgerald, so I can’t properly evaluate his current 9.0 handicap. Yep, that’s definitely how we should settle this debate. Larry, invite me out to Seminole or Whisper Rock for a few rounds and I’ll be the judge. Preferably, before the cold front arrives here at the end of the week. Either location works for me. Let’s do this. Please.

WE’RE BUYING

Nick Taylor: How has this guy only won once before?! Faced with windy conditions and a pairing with a living legend who everyone was rooting for, this Canadian channelled Clint Eastwood and said, “Make my day.” After a back-nine stumble, a chip-in on 15 and a rare birdie on 17 gave him a four-shot, life-changing win at a place where just last year he announced a life-changing moment.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Byy0P05Fhx2/?utm_source=ig_embed

And now:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8aTH1NlnGz/?utm_source=ig_embed

Pretty cool.

Victorian Open/Min Woo Lee: While Golf Twitter bitched (a bit too much) about coverage of the AT&T Pebble Beach, this tournament rightfully drew rave reviews. Or rather, tournaments with simultaneous European Tour and LPGA events happening on the same course while men and women played for the same purse. Congrats to the two winners, Min Woo Lee and Hee Young Park:

2 trophies. 2 wins. 1 equal purse ? #VicOpen pic.twitter.com/YVgOND8tIQ

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) February 9, 2020

Lee is particularly impressive. The 21-year-old Aussie who won the 2016 U.S. Junior was already the longest hitter on the European Tour despite weighing only 165 pounds. But he might have put on a few LBs celebrating his first win:

We think @Minwoo27Lee enjoyed his maiden tour win… ? #VicOpen pic.twitter.com/bE151za4KW

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) February 9, 2020

He just needs to work on his celebrations with his caddie:

We can all relate to this… ?@Minwoo27Lee #VicOpen pic.twitter.com/OpC83PEfEz

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) February 9, 2020

Then again, so do most tour pros.

Golf Digest: That’s right, GOLF DIGEST. Editor-in-Chief Jerry Tarde partnered with Nick Taylor, received some serious Sunday airtime in that group that also included Phil Mickelson and Steve Young (NBD), and some serious praise from CBS’ Jim Nantz, who noted Taylor had “the calming influence of Jerry Tarde every step of the way.” Our boss did pretty well golfing his own ball too as he and Taylor finished T-2 in the Pro-Am, which is basically a win, because, well, Larry Fitzgerald. And how about Jerry’s sweater game?

Straight fire! OK, now we’re heading into potential brown-nosing territory. And Team Taylor/Tarde finished five shots back despite Nick winning the tournament by four, so it’s not like Jerry played like Tiger at Pebble in 2000. OK, now we’ve gone too far the other direction. . . Anyway, staff writer Daniel Rapaport picked up Matthew Fitzpatrick’s staff bag and helped his Northwestern buddy make the cut:

Not the finish we wanted but what an unbelievable week! pic.twitter.com/etUHs4MsOw

— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) February 9, 2020

Talk about a great side gig for a golf writer. Dan, you’re bringing in donuts or something the next time you’re in the office.

WE’RE SELLING

Ernie Els not captaining: After leading a spirited challenge at the 2019 Presidents Cup, the Big Easy said he’s done being the big cheese of the International squad. Too bad. The team seemed headed in a positive direction.

Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Rory McIlroy’s taste in movies: I love nearly everything about Rory McIlroy, especially his running interview series with the Independent’s Paul Kimmage. HOWEVAH, McIlroy made a real bogey with his assessment of “La La Land”:

To be clear, I have no problem with him crying at a movie. “The Shawshank Redemption” gets me every time. Obviously. But “La La Land”?! And specifically the music of “La La Land”?! Rory, let’s go see a real musical sometime.

Bryson DeChambeau’s fitness ranking: All power to Bryson for getting yoked this off-season, but he’s the 24th fittest athlete on the planet? Really? He’s fitter than, oh, I don’t know, Russell Westbrook? Or DK Metcalf?!

Or any NFL player for that matter? Even the kickers are jacked. Or . . . Brooks Koepka? Sure thing, Sports Illustrated. That being said, I love how this list just stokes the silly Brooks/Bryson feud. Live look at Brooks right now:

ON TAP

The PGA Tour heads to La La Land (Get your tissues ready, Rory!) for the Genesis Invitational, AKA that event Tiger hosts at Riviera, which always prompts lectures from all the golf architect geeks on Twitter. Get ready for a week of hearing about the 10th hole!

Random tournament fact: Tiger Woods has never won in 10 starts as a pro at Riviera, the most times he’s ever played a PGA Tour course without winning. He also teed it up as an amateur in 1992 and 1993, missing the cut both times. Rest assured, you will be able to recite all these facts from memory by week’s end.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Larry Fitzgerald will be let back onto Pebble Beach property next year if he still has a 9 handicap: 1-MILLION -to-1 odds

—Tiger Woods will finally win at Riviera this week: 18-to-1 odds (Actual odds)

—Rory will be ribbed for his “La La Land”/”Pretty Woman” comments this week: LOCK

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Check out this incredible shot Tim Herron took of Pebble Beach’s 18th hole:

Thankful to wake up at one of my favorite spots on earth today. @attproam pic.twitter.com/gLRKdQuZ8E

— Tim “Lumpy” Herron (@PGALumpy) February 6, 2020

Kidding.

Just an FYI, I found this beautiful pic on the inter web as I can barely take an in-focus shot with my phone!

— Tim “Lumpy” Herron (@PGALumpy) February 7, 2020

Same, Tim. Still, it’s a great photo. By whomever took it.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Shout-out to Sam Harrop for this fantastic song parody about Tony Finau’s lack of wins. The Charles Howell and Rocco Mediate lines killed me:

Many of you will know by now that music is my first love (though golf's pretty high to be fair)

So…I decided to pen an ode to Tony Finau, set to the tune of an REO Speedwagon classic. As you do.

First time I've done something like this, so go easy on me ?

RTs appreciated! pic.twitter.com/9FpX6cB2aw

— Sam Harrop (@sam_golf) February 6, 2020

And good to see Tony is a good sport:

?? loads of funny lines. I dig it bro @sam_golf after the next win I'll be looking for the remix! https://t.co/Kelhg5qnBT

— Tony Finau Golf (@tonyfinaugolf) February 7, 2020

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“There’s more than just guys, you know. It just makes sense. We should do this more often. The fact that this happens only once in a year is just nonsense.” —Geoff Ogilvy on the Victorian Open. Well said, Geoff. And Ogilvy had Golf Twitter in a tizzy talking about karma as he grabbed a share of the 36-hole lead in the event. Too bad there’s no such thing as karma and he finished last among the 38 golfers who made the three-day cut.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS (NOT NAMED LARRY FITZGERALD)

Seeing Macklemore take six practice swings before topping one off the tee was tough, but the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am still produced some fun celebrity moments with Bill Murray. As usual. Here he is sweeping a putt in backward:

Does it get any smoother? ?pic.twitter.com/JlmZ6WOnxR

— GOLFTV (@GOLFTV) February 10, 2020

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS (NOT AT PEBBLE BEACH)

The Rory McIlroy-Caroline Wozniacki engagement didn’t last, but it looks like the former World No. 1 women’s tennis player has held onto a thing or two from her ex when it comes to the golf swing:

Glacier golfing! (Don’t worry the balls were bio degradable) ??‍ pic.twitter.com/huon1S49HZ

— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) February 6, 2020

Very impressive.

THIS WEEK IN PGA TOUR PRO-WAGS PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

Justin Thomas used his off week to give the two special ladies in his life a nice night at a Las Vegas Golden Knights game:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8WpnhNBu5a/?utm_source=ig_embed

Awww. And JT, if that’s your girlfriend’s idea of a romantic night out, she’s definitely a keeper.

THIS WEEK IN PHIL BEING PHIL

I would have moved this up to the “buy” section, but it was already getting too long. But even with a tough finish, Phil Mickelson had himself a great week. Just days after saying he’d turn down a potential special exemption into the U.S. Open if he didn’t qualify, Mickelson nearly took care of that himself with a third-place finish. And he did it with his usual flair. Only Phil would be able to pull off a bunker shot like this AND immediately rank it:

Some par saves rank higher than others.@PhilMickelson said this one is in his top 5.#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/6Kvjkaiyg2

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 8, 2020

Then the following day, he got up and down from here!

"He's not giving up yet."

Phil continues to thrill. Wow.#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/ENryORGr4M

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 9, 2020

He may be outside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, but he’s still the game’s No. 1 content king. And it would be a travesty if he’s not battling the grandstands at Winged Foot in June. Again, CONTENT.

THIS AND THAT

Phil Mickelson became the third player (Sam Snead and Raymond Floyd) to record a PGA Tour top 10 in 30 consecutive seasons. Now that’s some impressive, um, phitness. . . . Editor-in-Chief Tarde hopped on this week’s Golf Digest Podcast to talk about that Pebble Beach experience and tell a great Phil story:

https://soundcloud.com/user-96678684/golf-digest-editors-incredible-sunday-in-the-final-pairing-at-pebble-beach

And finally, check out this guy who was really ready to mark his golf ball. At Costco.

Spring can’t get here soon enough.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Does that dude belong to a good golf club?

If so, does he need a fourth?

Can I bet on Larry Fitzgerald at Pebble Beach next year?

The post Larry Fitzgerald defies the odds again, Rory McIlroy’s ex shows off her golf swing, and Rory cries at the movies appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Last year the Victorian Open debuted a ground-breaking collaboration between the European Tour, the LPGA Tour, the PGA of Australia and Australian Ladies Professional Golf, with men and women playing concurrent tournaments at 13th Beach Golf Club for equal prize money. The format received rave reviews, and returns this week in Geelong, Australia.

However, while there are a handful of mixed-gender events—most notably, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and Annika Sorenstam are set to host the Scandinavian Mixed this June—the approach has yet to receive global acceptance. According to former U.S. Open champ Geoff Ogilvy, it is time golf’s governing bodies get with the program.

“There’s more than just guys, you know. It just makes sense,” Ogilvy said at the Vic Open. “We should do this more often. The fact that this happens only once in a year is just nonsense.”

Ogilvy, known as one of the premier player-scholars in the game, spoke of experience at last year’s event and how it spurred admiration for his female counterparts.

“All I wanted to do was watch the women and how they went about it,” Ogilvy explained. “Some of them are just machines, they don’t hit bad shots and they hit hybrids on to the green to 10 feet all day.

“It’s just a different style. There’s something to be learned from both sides and there’s enjoyment in watching both styles of play.”

To Ogilvy, part of the problem is rooted in the game’s conservatism, and that perhaps the primary stakeholders are “scared to rock the successful boat they’re riding in.”

“It’s probably just golf being stuck in traditions. You see the Japanese ladies’ tour is a much bigger and more successful tour in Japan than the men’s tour is,” Ogilvy said. “Whenever it’d presented properly, it seems like it’s just as popular. It just needs to have the opportunity. It’s just a bit of creative thinking.”

As for the framework, while the execution does present its share of issues, Ogilvy pointed out professional tennis already employs a successful model to replicate. “I know to some people it’s not complete equality but at least they play at the same place and the same time and play for the same prize money in Australia at the matches.”

For what it’s worth, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan mentioned in 2018 that it was “Only a matter of time” before the Tour features a mixed event, and earlier on Wednesday, the Guardian reported the World Cup is exploring the possibly of changing the tournament to a mixed format.

The post Geoff Ogilvy makes plea for more mixed-gender tournaments: “It’s more than just guys in the world who play golf” appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
GEELONG, Australia — This is an event for real golf fans. Or fans of real golf. Both really.

This week’s Vic Open in Australia—a ground-breaking collaboration of the European Tour, the LPGA Tour, the PGA of Australia and Australian Ladies Professional Golf—has men and women playing alongside each other on two golf courses at 13th Beach Golf Club on the picturesque Bellarine Peninsula and, here’s the big news, for equal prize money. No, not huge money by today’s standards—a $1.5 million total purse for each—a factor that has surely led to the absence of many star names across the gender divide. But the Vic Open remains a fascinating hint of a more enlightened future for professional golf.

“The guys and girls thing just makes sense. Two real tournaments played at the same time on the same courses makes sense,” argues former U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy, a native Victorian who will be playing in his home state Open for the first time in 21 years. “I wanted to be part of that. Everybody has been praising this event for the last four or five years. That’s all I’ve been hearing in the locker room.

“The people walking on the fairways, guys and girls at the same tournament, alternating groups, a cool venue, two different courses. It’s all great. They are ticking every box. And the field is getting better every year because of that.”

Indeed, backed by the state government, this latest version of the Vic Open—it has been around in various forms since 1957 and has been won by the likes of Peter Thomson, Kel Nagle, Bruce Devlin, Greg Norman, David Graham and Ian Baker-Finch—is in many ways a step back in time. To a better time.

As Ogilvy points out, in recognition of the fact that golf is best viewed from “down the line” rather than “face on,” spectators will walk behind the players rather than alongside them. And the fields contains much of interest to the true golf aficionado. The likes of Laura Davies, Karrie Webb, Minjee Lee, Paula Creamer, Georgia Hall and Catriona Matthew on the women’s side, and Ogilvy, Victor Dubuisson, Ryo Ishikawa, Matteo Manassero, Nicolas Colsaerts, Lucas Herbert and Bob Macintyre are all in attendance. It’s an eclectic mix of young and not-so young.

Indeed, the Vic Open has been so successful, Golf Australia—who run the men’s and women’s Opens Down Under—have taken note. While immediate contractual obligations make an imminent move unlikely, seeing the two championships together is a definite long-term possibility.

“There is no downside to this event,” confirms Matthew, who is making her Vic Open debut. “It really is an inventive initiative and a fun format. I’m enjoying the different vibe that comes with having the men alongside. The only depressing aspect is how far they all hit the ball [laughs]. But I’m all for anything that gets away from the normal 72-hole stroke play we see almost every week.”

Michael Dodge/Getty Images
Signage around 13th Beach Golf Club highlights the fact both the LPGA and European Tour are running concurrent events on the same course.

Amid all of this giddiness, there have been one or two murmurings of discontent. Many of the women have noted the sight of several of their tees sitting either directly alongside or marginally ahead of those of the men. This, many argue, will lead to a wide disparity in the winning scores that will only support the chauvinistic notion that the men can play and the women can’t.

“It’s not that hard,” says one woman who asked not to be identified. “All they have to do is set the test up so that we are all hitting the same clubs into the greens. There are some holes out there where I’ll be going in with a hybrid and many of the men will be hitting short irons. To a tight pin, that’s just not fair.”

Still, perhaps the only real downside is the list of absentees. Symbolically at least, it is disappointing that only four of the world’s top 50 women have made the trip, especially when the Australian Women’s Open, also an LPGA event, will be played in Adelaide next week. (Which is not to say that the leading men have made any more of an effort to acknowledge this historic event).

“I haven’t explicitly said we should get the same money as the men,” says Englishwoman Meghan Maclaren, one of the more interesting voices in the women’s game (go to megmaclaren.com to read one of the most thought-provoking blogs out there). “I’m not sure we will ever get to the stage where that can happen. Because of the way the business and golf worlds have operated for so long. If you are bringing in more money for sponsors, it makes sense that you should be paid more. But if you bring it all back to its most basic level, we are doing the same things as the men.

“We are playing the game to the best of our ability. Which makes me think there is no reason why we shouldn’t start with equal pay. But it has never happened. And the gap is so vast, which is what should be getting more attention. It shouldn’t be as wide as it is. And it doesn’t need to be.

To that end, says Maclaren, the Vic Open is a big deal. “We are getting the chance to play for the same prize-money as the men, which is great,” she says. “Nowhere else in the world is doing this. This week we will end up with two different winners—and they will have played the courses completed differently.”

Exactly. Golf geeks of the world unite. This is a tournament(s) worth watching. And watching closely.

The post The Vic Open is more than a novel event. It’s a model for the future appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.