By Kent Gray
After a memorable opening 68, Robert MacIntyre was in the headlines at The Open again on Friday, this time for calling out two-time PGA Tour winner Kyle Stanley for not yelling fore on the penultimate hole of the second round at Royal Portrush.

It will be a shame if the fallout from the perceived lack of etiquette clouds MacIntyre’s play after a second-round 72 saw the Scotsman comfortably advance to the weekend in his major championship debut.

The 22-year-old lefty was one of only two players with MENA Tour links to survive the 36-hole cut which fell at +1. American J.B. Holmes shares the overnight lead with Irish Open and reigning Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship titleholder Shane Lowry at -8 –- six strokes ahead of MacIntyre. With rounds of 70-71, Englishman Callum Shinkwin, the winner of the MENA Tour’s 2019 Omega Dubai Desert Classic Shootout, starts the weekend at -1.

MacIntyre was unimpressed with how Stanley failed to shout fore after watching the American’s wayward tee shot on the 17th hit the mother of the Scotsman’s caddy, Greg Milne.

“Every golfer, from amateur to professional, knows what to shout. It’s pretty disappointing,” MacIntyre told the BBC.

“I told him I didn’t like what he was doing and asked him to please shout fore over the weekend. He didn’t really accept that, but I stood up for the etiquette of the game.”

MacIntyre couldn’t get his putter going on Friday in his one-over 72 but the European Tour rookie is just happy to have a shot at the claret jug.

“It’s been a success so far, just to make the cut,” said MacIntyre who started the week 21st in the Race to Dubai standings and a shoo-in to tee it up at the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates in November.

“Tee to green I was patient and stuck to my guns. I feel my game is there to be challenging. The scores haven’t gone away, so a good run tomorrow and I’m right back in it.”

Meanwhile, a gritty Friday 68 – 10 shots better than his opening round – wasn’t quite enough to get MENA Tour Order-of-Merit (OOM) leader Matthew Baldwin into the weekend. The 33-year-old Englishman spoke with the MENA Tour’s Joy Chakravarty after finishing +4, three shots outside the cut.

Rory started Thursday with a quad bogey, @mattbaldwin26 with a triple.
Rory ended Rd1 with a triple, Matt with a double.
Rory finished today +2 after being +8. Matt finished +4 after being +9.
Unfortunately, both missed @theopen cut despite their brave efforts. pic.twitter.com/scpCm11eHc

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) July 19, 2019

What a shame that one shot has cost me a good Open Championship but what an experience to play! Lots of things to learn from and today I proved that with the right attitude I can achieve my dreams!! Onwards and upwards…. again ??‍

— Matthew Baldwin (@mattbaldwin26) July 19, 2019

Curtis Knipes, the MENA Tour amateur OOM leader, had his heart set on the silver medal for low amateur honours after an opening 72. But a Friday 79 saw him miss the cut on +9.

Indeed, the silver medal won’t be awarded at Royal Portrush as none of the six amateurs made the cut; Japan’s Takumi and new British Amateur champion James Sugrue were the best at +2.

The dream run of our Amateur Leader Curtis Knipes has come to an end at @TheOpen. He cant’s recover from a horror triple bogey-bogey start and in tough conditions. But Knipes should be very proud of his achievement pic.twitter.com/I7quRQbyJ1

— MENA Tour (@theMENATour) July 19, 2019

Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond (2017 Mahasamutr Open) finished +5 while MENA Tour patron Darren Clarke was left to rue a triple-bogey seven on the 36th hole which saw him drop to +3 and miss a fairytale weekend on his home course by two strokes.

The post The Open 2019: MacIntyre, six back at Royal Portrush, making all the right noises in major debut appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Former MENA Tour winner Robert MacIntyre made the cut in his Open Championship debut, shooting rounds of 68 and 72 to advance to the weekend at Royal Portrush. However, it was the Scotland native’s words, not play, that made headlines Friday night.

Following his second round, MacIntyre took exception with Kyle Stanley for a perceived lack of etiquette.

“Yeah, there’s a few things that I’ve been not happy about today. And coming down the last I wasn’t happy with the one on 17. Not just with me,” MacIntyre said.

The 22-year-old elaborated that his ire was directed at one of his playing partners. Though MacIntyre was also paired with Andrew (Beef) Johnston, the Scotsman reports MacIntyre was referring to Stanley.

“The ball is going in the crowd. We’re shouting ‘fore,’ the ball is coming down,” MacIntyre said. “We’re shouting as it’s coming into the crowd, and he’s just standing watching it. People don’t have enough time to react after we shout.”

According to MacIntyre, the errant ball hit the mother of Greg Milne, MacIntyre’s caddie, on the 17th hole. According to the Scotsman, it was the second time during the round Stanley didn’t give warning, hitting a marshal on the shin on the 14th hole.

Richard Sellers – PA Images
MacIntyre and his caddie during Thursday’s first round.

Following the wayward shot at the 17th, MacIntyre said he confronted his playing partner.

“I said I wasn’t happy. And I didn’t really like the response,” MacIntyre said. “He’s the only one I’ve seen. Straight in the crowd. It was in the crowd from the word go. And we expect them to shout ‘fore.’

“It wasn’t too pleasant. But you’ve got to tell them.”

MacIntyre reiterated that Stanley did not take the news well, but believed that Stanley had an obligation to protect the gallery.

“Just shout, simple as that. Us, too, shouted as it was coming down, but you don’t have time,” MacIntyre said. “It’s too late then. People are diving out of the way of things when they should have more time.”

MacIntyre is in his rookie season on the European Tour. Stanley, who also made the cut with rounds of 75-67, had not returned Golf Digest’s requests for comment as of writing.

The post The Open 2019: Kyle Stanley confronted by former MENA Tour player for not yelling ‘Fore’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Ron Galella, Ltd.

I think we’ve got a blockbuster on our hands — or at least, a Netflix original better than that Will Smith “Bright” disaster. If any big-time Hollywood producers are reading this, give me a call. And in the meantime, let’s talk about all the plot lines unfolding during a busy time on the golf calendar.

WE’RE BUYING
Bryson DeChambeau: Forget about the kooky cap and the kookier single-length irons, the man who pretty recently experimented with side-saddle putting is no longer a side show on the PGA Tour. DeChambeau, one of the most decorated amateur golfers ever, picked up the biggest win of his pro career (so far) at the Memorial. And the self-proclaimed artist created one of the most intense reactions you’ll ever see after draining the winning putt:

“This is probably the most important win of my entire career.”

We felt it, @B_DeChambeau.#LiveUnderPar pic.twitter.com/XHcqdXaq3Z

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 4, 2018

Captain American might have competition in the celebration department at this year’s Ryder Cup.

Ariya Jutanugarn: In the span of a couple hours, we went from watching a dominant performance to a gutsy playoff win after Jutanugarn blew a 7-shot lead on the back nine at the U.S. Women’s Open, but still survived extra holes with major title No. 2. We’re happy for the young star because that could have been a career-crippling loss. And Ariya, who hits a 2-iron longer than I could dream of hitting my driver, appears headed toward a pretty special career.

TV coverage: We’re tough on TV networks from time to time, but we’ve got (almost) nothing but kudos all around this week. A tip of the cap to Golf Channel and CBS for (finally) figuring out a way to show live golf at the Memorial when tee times have been moved up (Of course, it took Tiger in contention for it to finally happen). And a round of applause for Fox for its limited commercials during the final round of the U.S. Women’s Open. Well done, everyone!

John Smoltz: The Hall-of-Fame pitcher is now a budding star on the senior golf circuit after qualifying for the U.S. Senior Open later this month. It’s an amazing accomplishment — even to John Smoltz. “I pinch myself every day,” Smoltz told me on an upcoming podcast. And I had to pinch myself while talking to John freaking Smoltz. What a legend. Smoltz also told me he’s willing to be mic’d up during Fox’s coverage. Let’s hope this happens!

WE’RE SELLING
Tiger’s putting: Tiger Woods’ ball-striking at the Memorial? Vintage! Tiger Woods’ putting at the Memorial. Not vintage! Seriously, that was tough to watch. And completely mystifying when you consider how well Woods rolled it at the Players and how pure Muirfield Village’s greens are. In Friday’s round alone, Woods missed three putts inside four feet, a six-footer and a seven-footer, and still shot 67! Stats guru Mark Broadie calculated that if Tiger just had an average putting week — not Tiger average, but PGA Tour average — he would have been shaking Jack Nicklaus’ hand on the 18th green for a sixth time. For the week, he lost nearly 8 shots to the field on the greens while having the second-worst strokes gained/putting of anyone who made the cut. Not exactly what you want to see before heading to Shinnecock’s slick greens next week. . .

Bud Cauley’s car crash: The damage was extensive (five broken ribs, a fractured leg and a collapsed lung), but Bud said he’s “thankful to be alive” following “the scariest night of my life.” We’re glad to hear Cauley is on the mend and we wish him the best. And if he’s looking for motivation, we’ve got two words: Ben Hogan. The legend recovered from similar injuries sustained in his own accident and won six more majors. Of course, he’d already won three, but you get the point. Get well soon, Bud.

Final group’s pace of play: We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, but taking nearly six hours for PGA Tour pros to play a round of golf is ridiculous. Yes, they were in threesomes, and yes, the average golfer can’t begin to understand what it’s like to play under final-round pressure on a difficult course, but Bryson “Check the book” DeChambeau, Patrick “Happy Feet” Cantlay, and Kyle “Sloth” Stanley (Actually, he seemed to play at a decent pace) were practically putting people to sleep.

To summarise: Showing live golf over tape-delayed coverage is a good product. Showing guys taking an inordinate amount of time to hit shots — even if it’s live — is not a good product.

ON TAP
The PGA Tour heads to the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis, AKA that event Daniel Berger wins every year. Seriously, the man has won the past two years at TPC Southwind. Those are the only two wins of his PGA Tour career.

Random tournament fact: This is the last year of this longstanding event as we know it. Next year, it moves from June to August and becomes a World Golf Championship called the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. That’s great news for those involved in the event, but Memphis in August? You may as well hold a golf tournament inside a sweat lodge.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK
— Tiger Woods isn’t practicing on his backyard putting green right now: 1 million-to-1 odds
— Bryson DeChambeau will win the 2018 U.S. Open: 40-to-1 odds
— Bryson DeChambeau disagrees with Vegas’ calculations: LOCK

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Keyur Khamar

Tiger-esque.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (NATURE DIVISION)
A moose chased a couple playing golf in Utah:

That’ll help pace of play.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Live TV is tough, and Holly Sonders is a true pro for pushing on, but this slip of the tongue is too good not to share. Sorry, Holly. .

“Sexual Qualifying” > Sectional Qualifying
Way to keep a straight face!! ??@holly_sonders @shanebacon @BradFaxon @fs1 @usopengolf #RoadToShinnecock pic.twitter.com/EHxxpwekpa

— Dan Valine (@danvaline) June 5, 2018

Whoops. Credit to all involved for not cracking up. That’s focus.

UPDATE: Holly addressed the gaffe the following day:

SECTIONAL qualifying is complete! “Sexual” qualifying isn’t a thing…and I didn’t have the time to make a joke about my mistake as we needed to get off the air 60 sec later. If Brad and Shane had even cracked a smile we wouldn’t have made it through the segment ????

— Holly Sonders (@holly_sonders) June 5, 2018

Well played. A pro’s pro.

THIS WEEK IN DUSTIN JOHNSON-PAULINA GRETZKY PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

That “sexy beast” finished T-8 at the Memorial and is the Vegas favorite at both this week’s Memphis event and next week’s U.S. Open.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS
Add Michael Phelps’ name to the list of golfers who have made a hole-in-one before me:

First ace…. ummmm I’m speechless!?!? 190 yard window into us slightly elevated tee…. I hit 6 iron and it was a 2 hopper that rolled right into the cup… a nice and clean hole in one!!!!

A post shared by Michael Phelps (@m_phelps00) on Jun 2, 2018 at 11:38am PDT

Congrats, Michael, but c’mon with the typos. If I ever make an ace (LOL) you can bet I’m going to double and triple check my post(s) before letting everyone know about it.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I’m not going to give too much away, but it’s got to do with anatomical limits of your body and how you can best utilize them for your proprioception.” — Bryson DeChambeau talking about his golf swing. We think.

THIS WEEK IN TOUR PROS ARE JUST LIKE US!
Kyle Stanley’s bad break on the 18th hole in the Memorial playoff was just brutal — and reminiscent of what happens every time I clip a tree with a tee shot.

Wow.

What an awful bounce for Kyle Stanley at the 72nd hole. pic.twitter.com/DXJAiAeqJi

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 3, 2018

THIS AND THAT: Adam Scott will continue his streak of playing in major championships (currently at 67) after making it through a U.S. Open sectional qualifier. Clutch! . . . Also qualifying for next week’s U.S. Open was Andrew “Beef” Johnston. Good luck to whomever gets paired with him in front of rowdy New York crowds. . . . Joaquin Niemann didn’t win the Memorial, but his T-6 was good enough to earn special temporary membership on the PGA Tour for the rest of the season. Considering he’s 19 and already has three top 10s in five starts, we don’t think he should be worried too much about his future tour status. . . . And finally, take a look at this list of courses played by Barstool Sports’ Riggs:

lol it’s not even June yet #geauxriggs

A post shared by Sam Riggs Bozoian (@riggsbarstool) on May 31, 2018 at 7:31am PDT

Suddenly, I have a new hero.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER
How many tour wins will Bryson DeChambeau wind up with?
How many science degrees will Bryson DeChambeau wind up with?
How much is a set of single-length irons?

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The post Bryson DeChambeau’s big win, Holly Sonders’ slip of the tongue, and Michael Phelps makes a hole-in-one appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Shane Ryan
AUSTIN — Kyle Stanley just accomplished what Shubhankar Sharma, Dylan Frittelli and Xander Schauffele could not—he actually held on to a lead against Sergio Garcia. The Spaniard is finally beaten in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, but he didn’t go easy. Not in the group stages, where he trailed each match as late as the 11th hole, and came back to win all three. And not Saturday, where he turned a 3-down deficit into 1-down with five holes to play, and nearly made Stanley the fourth straight victim of a late comeback.

It was Sergio’s short game that finally let him down on the 14th, when he and Stanley both drove over the green. Stanley’s pitch was solid, stopping six feet from the hole, but Sergio misjudged his own effort and ended up 20 feet away. Stanley made his birdie to win the hole, and though Sergio won the 15th to return to 1 down, another iffy pitch on 16 left him with an 11-foot birdie putt that he missed by inches. When Stanley buried his 10-footer, the match—and Garcia’s tournament—was effectively over.

This weekend was not exactly a unique situation for Sergio, who has a long career of playing close matches that come down to the wire. He’s been successful, too—it would require about 10 hours of research to find out how many true back-nine comebacks he’s had, but with a little shorthand, we can establish without much difficulty how he fares in close matches. In singles duels that went to the 18th hole or beyond, Sergio has amassed a record of 14-8-1. For what it’s worth, his career record in the same scenario in pairs matches is 12-8-1.  

What is it that makes Sergio so adept in these situations? It would be easy to reach the simple conclusion that he’s a clutch player, but before last year’s career-defining Masters win, he was known as anything but a reliable pressure performer—at least in stroke play events. I caught up with him in the parking lot after his loss to Stanley this afternoon, and posed the question two different ways. Unfortunately, the answers to these mysteries sometimes don’t sound especially profound, and often it’s because the truth itself isn’t very profound.

“No, it’s quite simple,” he said. “You just keep at it. You just keep pushing and keep believing that you can do it.”

Okay, but is there something special about his particular style that makes him more resilient than many of his peers?

“No, don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I don’t enjoy that. I’d rather be 2- or 3-up on the front and play the back like I’ve been playing it, and win 5 and 4, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to do it all week.”

So he didn’t quite see what I was after, and it’s never easy to badger a player after he’s just lost—two questions was about the extent of what I could get away with before he and his agent and the other reporters would start to look at me with more than just a hint of annoyance. Nor could I ask Kyle Stanley, who like most other winners in the morning session declined all media appearances in favor of eating and preparing for his quarterfinal round against Justin Thomas. But even if the atmosphere wasn’t conducive to that type of discussion, it may be that the answer he gave was about as deep as it gets. Sergio is a natural fighter, and it may even be that he unconsciously gravitates toward dramatic situations. The flip slide of his skill under pressure in match play singles is his inability to make things easy, and we’ve seen the consequences of that in the majors for the better part of two decades. Maybe the minimized damage of a bad hole in match play is a sort of comfort—a disaster can only cost you a hole, not a tournament, and therefore it’s easier to maintain a sense of optimism and even aggression.

That said, Sergio broke through the final barrier by winning the Masters last season, and that removes a significant pressure blockage from his brain. Never again will he have to listen to a Ryder Cup crowd heckle him for never winning a slam, and never again will we have to wonder on the back nine if he’s about to blow another opportunity. It should give him a measure of freedom in 2018, and as we’ve seen over the past month, his form is solid. Top-ten finishes at the Valspar and WGC-Mexico, a win in Singapore, and now a gritty fight to make the knockout stages in Austin all bode well for Augusta. Tiger Woods was the last repeat winner at the Masters, 16 years ago, but though Sergio has walked in the predictive shadow of favorites like Phil, Bubba, Spieth, Rory, and Tiger himself, there’s a better chance than many think he’ll win his second green jacket next month.

The post Sergio Garcia was a hard man to kill in Austin, and may be even harder at Augusta appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers

The post Kyle Stanley shoots 64, leads by two shots at the Tour Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Kyle Stanley and Charles Howell III came into the final round of the Quicken Loans National four strokes off the lead. It would take a low round to even challenge leader David Lingmerth, and that’s what both produced, four-under 66s that vaulted them to the top of the leaderboard and into a sudden death playoff at seven-under 273. It would take just one hole for Stanley to earn his second PGA Tour victory, five years after his first at the 2012 Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Stanley, 29, was emotional after the round, a product of finally breaking through once again after a couple of difficult years. He burst onto the scene in 2012 when he infamously missed a short putt on the 18th at Torrey Pines that would have gotten him into a playoff. The former Clemson standout bounced back to win a week later in Phoenix, much like he has shown resilience in 2017. Stanley has five top 10s, nine top 25s and took the lead into the final round of the Players Championship, where he finished T4.

He now has a victory to add to his already strong season, and it earns him a spot in the 2018 Masters as well as one in this month’s Open Championship. It will be his first appearance in both majors since 2013.

Charles Howell III has had a drought of his own, with his last victory coming ten years ago at Riviera Country Club. He came from three strokes back on the final day to win in 2007, and nearly topped that on Sunday coming back from four down. A bogey on the first playoff hole thwarted that bid and gave him the 16th runner-up finish of his career. It matches his best finish of the season (T2 at Farmers Insurance Open), and gets him a spot in the field at the Open Championship.

Rickie Fowler equaled the best round of the day, a five-under 65 that featured a career-high nine birdies. Had it not been for a double-bogey six on the par-4 14th hole, Fowler would have found himself in the playoff alongside Stanley and Howell III. He finished in a tie for third at five-under 275. It’s his fifth finish inside the top five this season.

Tying with Fowler was Martin Laird, who had a bogey-free round through 17 holes, but dropped a shot on the par-4 18th to finish with a three-under 67. It’s the Scotsman’s best finish of the season, and earns him at spot at Royal Birkdale.

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