Paul Casey Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

Paul Casey has no regrets, but it doesn’t mean he won’t miss playing in the Ryder Cup

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 08:30:42 +0000

Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey, Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald celebrate with the Ryder Cup trophy after beating the Americans in 2006 in Ireland. David Cannon

Think back. Back to when LIV Golf actually became something real. The consensus view in the wake of that bombshell news was that the next European Ryder Cup team had emerged relatively unscathed compared to a US squad suddenly deprived the services of Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau. Only Sergio Garcia and Paul Casey, said that initial narrative, would be anything like seriously missed from the European side that would take on the US in Italy next month.

Around 18 months later, Casey is philosophical when the subject of the biennial contest he has played in five times comes up. On the one hand, the 46-year-old Englishman, who is competing in an Asian Tour International Series event, the St Andrews Bay Championship, this week, has been bedevilled by injuries this year. But on the other, there remains a lingering sadness that he will not be involved for a sixth time. Given full fitness, he remains good enough to contribute to his old friend, European captain Luke Donald’s cause. (They won two matches as foursomes partners in the 1999 Walker Cup at Nairn.)

“I will miss being part of the Ryder Cup when it happens,” Casey concedes. “I obviously don’t know if I would have made the team this time but I was certainly capable of doing so. No guarantees though. Or regrets. If you regret stuff in golf, it’s hard sport to play. You wouldn’t last long with that sort of thinking. I learned that early on. You just have to get on with it.

“But yes, if I’m healthy, I still feel I could be useful at a Ryder Cup,” he continues. “And I’m not alone in that. Let’s say Ian Poulter isn’t playing the golf he wants to play. Or has played in the past. And so won’t be part of the 12-man team. I would still have him be involved. That’s what is going to be missing in Rome, guys like Poulter and [Lee] Westwood in the locker room. I’ve been in those locker rooms. The pundits and the commentators have not.”

Casey’s most recent and perhaps final Ryder Cup experience came at Whistling Straits two years ago, when he lost all four of his matches — “so frustrating” — amid the 10-point shellacking suffered by captain Padraig Harrington’s team. In the almost two years since, the Irishman’s leadership and decision-making has inevitably come under critical scrutiny. But Casey is having none of that.

“Clearly, Padraig will go down as a losing Ryder Cup captain,” he admits. “But he might be the best captain I’ve ever played for. No one ever writes that. He was an amazing captain. We didn’t have a crowd because of Covid. That was a massive factor. Sometimes it comes down to that little bit of luck.

“I’ll tell you how good a captain Padraig was,” Casey continues. “The caddies bought him a watch. They all got together, bought him a Rolex and brought him to tears when they presented it to him in Dubai, a few weeks after the matches. That said so much. Caddies normally don’t like dipping their hands in their pockets for players. But it was actually the flip side of what was going to happen if we won. Padraig was going to buy every caddie a watch. He was so highly respected.”

Paul Casey with Captain Padraig Harrington in 2021 at the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. Warren Little

Again like so many others, Casey feels that the Ryder Cup has been damaged by what has gone on the last 18 months.

“That was never anyone’s intent,” he says. “But it has to be fixed. (DP World Tour chief executive) Keith Pelley has admitted that. He’s had conversations with people I know and he has admitted that. They have a captain issue in the future. I love that Luke is captain. I know him well and he has my respect. I want him to be a great captain, which he will be win, lose or draw.

“The Ryder Cup is so valuable in terms of what it gives to golf in Europe, not just monetarily. We don’t want that to be damaged any more than it has been already. I don’t watch a lot of golf outside of the majors. But I will certainly watch the Ryder Cup. And I might just have a piece of Euro team clothing on under my top. I won’t have the commentary on though,” he said with a laugh.

Indeed, laughing is something Casey remans well capable of doing while competing on the LIV tour. Despite not being fully fit for most of 2023, his countenance remains cheerful, outwardly at least. And no, there is no going back.

“Moving to LIV has changed me for the better as a person” he says. “I was probably in a spiral before and not in a good way. There are so many things people don’t necessarily want to hear from pro golfers. Whatever the sport. But I was trying to play multiple tours. Then there were team matches and the Olympics and all the rest of it. It was taking its toll. Look, I still want to do what I do. But something had to give. I just don’t want to do it all as often.

“But it’s always about the golf and I’m not playing at the level I want to right now,” he continues. “I’ve struggled this year. At Centurion I had to pull out during the final round; I just couldn’t walk. It all stems from my old foot injury. Sometimes though, it’s my back and sometimes it’s knee. The pain goes up and down my body. In effect, I have a bad wheel, which has made working on my game difficult. Which in turn means I haven’t been playing that well.”

Casey, a former member of both the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council and the DP World Tour’s Players Committee, has some strong views on the state of the professional game worldwide right now.

“There’s a lot of mess,” he says. “It’s a big mess. But there are already too many opinions floating around. I’m not going to throw mine into the mix.”

Well, maybe a little. There are a few things he would like to see happen. Like so many others, Casey’s worry is that those currently sitting round the table talking golf’s future will follow the route of self-interest more than what would be for the good of the game.

“More consideration needs to be given to the needs and wants of the fans,” he maintains. “That doesn’t get talked about enough. And certainly not enough by those making the big decisions. All of this can’t be just about business. That frustrates me and probably many others. It doesn’t matter whether I am part of the DP World Tour or the PGA Tour or LIV, we are all part of the issue and so the solution. But we are not all swimming in the same direction right now. That’s my biggest concern. This needs to be about the consumers.”

Let’s hope that noble claim is not also naive.

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Andy Ogletree steps in for a shot at LIV Golf DC glory as Paul Casey withdraws

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 25 May 2023 09:54:51 +0000

Reserve player Andy Ogletree, the International Series Order of Merit leader, will replace injured Paul Casey in the Crushers line-up at this week’s LIV Golf DC.

Ogletree, the 2019 US Amateur champion, will make his third appearance of the 2023 LIV Golf League season and second for the Crushers. He filled in for Anirban Lahiri in Orlando and shot even-par for the three rounds, with two of his scores counting for the team. He finished 43rd on the points leaderboard that week.

In the most recent LIV tournament in Tulsa, Ogletree replaced Majesticks co-captain Lee Westwood for the final round and shot an eight-under 62 for the team. The 62 is one stroke off the LIV-record low score for a single round.

Ogletree currently tops the International Series Order of Merit standings through four events on the Asian Tour. The leader at the end of the 10-event series in 2023 earns full-season playing privileges as a regular member for the 2024 LIV Golf League season.

“He played well last event in Tulsa, he shot eight-under. It’s kind of hard not to pick him,” Crushers captain Bryson DeChambeau said. “I’m looking forward to some more good scores out of him. He’s a great kid, great player. I love having him on the team, and he’ll be a tremendous asset.”

Reserve player Andy Ogletree to replace Paul Casey (injury) in @Crushers_gc lineup for #LIVGolf DC pic.twitter.com/PydyhsZp5r

— LIVGolfComms (@LIVGolfComms) May 24, 2023

Casey withdrew due to lingering foot issues that also forced him to miss last week’s PGA Championship. He’s currently 27th in the Individual Champion standings and has not posted a top-24 points finish since his fourth-place result in the season opener at Mayakoba when the Crushers won their first team title.

“His feet have been hurting him a little bit, and then ultimately just got to his body,” DeChambeau said of Casey. “He’s in a place where he’s recovering, and he’ll be good in a couple weeks he told me, so no issues with that.

“That’s what we’re here to do, we’re here to support him whatever his decision is to make sure his health is 100 per cent. We need him 100 per cent. He’s a great golfer, great player, and for this team and LIV Golf, we need him playing at his best and healthy.”

Since Ogletree will be playing all three rounds at Trump National Washington, DC, his score will count on both the team and individual leaderboards.

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PGA Championship 2023: LIV Golf’s Paul Casey pulls out of PGA Championship at Oak Hill

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 17 May 2023 06:24:14 +0000

Paul Casey has withdrawn from the 2023 PGA Championship.

Casey, 45, cited injury as the reason for pulling out. Though the exact nature of the injury was not specified, the Englishman has battled back problems throughout his career. Casey played last week in the LIV Golf Tulsa event, finishing T-40 in the 48-player field.

Casey had received a special invite into the PGA Championship. Though he didn’t play in 2022 due back issues, he had contended in his past two PGA appearances, finishing T-2 at Harding Park in 2020 and T-4 at Kiawah Island in 2021.

This was scheduled to be Casey’s 20th appearance at the PGA Championship. However, with LIV Golf remaining without World Ranking points, this was perhaps Casey’s last shot at the Wanamaker. Halfway through LIV Golf’s second season Casey is ranked 27th in the league’s individual standings.

Taking Casey’s spot in the field is Sam Stevens. The first alternate is now Aaron Rai.

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Report: Stenson, Kaymer, Casey set to be among latest LIV Golf stars to resign from DP World Tour

Matt Smith — Tue, 09 May 2023 11:15:07 +0000

Henrik Stenson with his Ryder Cup captain replacement Luke Donald

Henrik Stenson and Paul Casey are reportedly among the latest stars set to resign from the DP World Tour — taking the total of high-profile LIV Golf players either having already walked away from the old European Tour or about to in the immediate future to nine.

Last week, four long-standing members — Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Richard Bland and Ian Poulter — quit the circuit with the threat of incremental fines of up to $630,000 for DP World Tour card holders who continue to participate on the LIV Golf Circuit.

Now The Telegraph has reported that Swede Stenson, England’s Casey, Germany’s Martin Kaymer, and South African duo Charl Schwartzel and Brandon Grace are set to follow suit.

Paul Casey

All DP World Tour members who have competed on LIV Golf since its inaugural event in London last June are in breach of the tour’s tournament release regulation and so are liable to the sanctions imposed on members in breach of that rule.

Following the DP World Tour’s fine and suspension of 17 members who moved to the new circuit last June for the inaugural LIV Golf event in London, a group of players led by Adrian Otaegui, Poulter and Justin Harding filed an appeal against the DP World Tour. The LIV members were granted an injunction to enter the Genesis Scottish Open, pending a full hearing before the arbitration panel in February, which voted in favour of the DP World Tour.

The move to quit the DP World Tour means LIV Golfers will not face any more fines in the future for continuing to compete on the new series.

Martin Kaymer

However, it also rules out any future Ryder Cup participation for the European contingent, with Stenson — who was stripped of the Team Europe captaincy after he switched — Kaymer and Casey all having featured prominently in the biennial tournament along with Poulter, Garcia and Westwood.

New Ryder Cup skipper Luke Donald recently admitting his sadness at the departure of the initial trio of Westwood, Poulter and Garcia. “It is a shame,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of history when it comes to the Ryder Cup. Ultimately this is their choice and I wish them well.”

Rory McIlroy, a Ryder Cup teammate of all the European players, echoed that sentiment: saying: “I think it’s a shame that you’ve got the highest points score ever in the Ryder Cup [Garcia] and two guys that, when they look back on their career, that’s probably going to be at least a big chunk of their legacy is the roles that they have played in the Ryder Cup for Europe [Westwood and Poulter] … But at the end of the day that was their choice.”

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Paul Casey relishing International Series Vietnam test

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 13:07:45 +0000

Paul Casey, the winner of 21 tournaments worldwide, is looking to add to his impressive trophy cabinet this week at the International Series Vietnam — being played on the Greg Norman-designed KN Golf Links in Cam Rahn.

The $2 million event will tee off on Thursaday and is the fourth event on the International Series this season and the eighth stop on the Asian Tour with many players battling it out for the top spot on The International Series Order of Merit and duly winning a place in next year’s flourishing LIV Golf League.

Casey who has never played in Vietnam says his goal this week is to triumph in what is the biggest and most lucrative golf tournament ever staged in the country: “The goal is always, when you get on a plane at any event around the world is, to win. I’ve won I think a couple of times on the Asian Tour but never on The International Series and never won in Vietnam, never played golf in Vietnam, so that’s the goal this week.

“We’ve got some great players in [former LIV golfer Andy] Ogletree and [Wade] Ormsby playing this week and Anirban [Lahiri] is playing this week, I’ve got to keep my head down and try to play some great golf on a great golf course and see what happens.”

The 45-year-old has previously won twice on the Asian Tour with both victories coming in China in 2005, at the TCL Classic and the Volvo China Open. Most recently Casey has found success on the LIV Golf League winning the team event with Crushers at LIV Golf Mayakoba, where he also finished in fourth place individually.

Speaking of his LIV Golf experience, he said: “It was my second time on a podium, first team victory so that was quite cool. I guess that is the interesting thing about LIV now, I’m a guy who played college golf, I played with, believe it or not, Pat Perez, Matt Jones and there’s other guys who went to the famous Sun Devils [Arizona State University] — Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm.”

Rahm is a friend of Casey’s and the Englishman revealed he has been busy congratulating the new Masters champion.

“I’ve sent Jon Rahm a lot of texts this year saying congratus, I just copy and paste now!”

Casey recognises how important it is to have the newly formed enterprise as part of the Asian Tour.

“I think it is very important now. I’ve played sporadically on the Asian Tour and coming back and playing a couple of them you can feel the vibe, you can actually feel that things have been elevated, there’s a clear pathway now for guys who play well on the Asian Tour,” he said.

“You can feel that there is a different level to everything but yet it’s got the same warm feeling that the Asian Tour has always had, the people are so nice, the staff are amazing. I’m really happy with this is, where it’s at and it’s going to get better and better and better and a great reward for the guys that play well so The International Series is real.”

The Englishman will tee it off alongside the International Series stage winner Ormsby, who triumphed in Thailand last month, and Taichi Kho, who was victorious in the latest Asian Tour event at the World City Championship in Hong Kong.

Casey has his family here supporting this week, and is looking forward to the all-round experience in Vietnam for both himself and his children: “It’s great fun, it’s nice to bring the kids somewhere around the world and wonderful they get to see Vietnam a little bit, it’s an experience. It’s not just living in your neighbourhood wherever that happens to be around the world, you’ve got to see the world a little bit and this is something that is very different to what they experience at home.”

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Charles Howell III says ‘money was not a factor’ in joining LIV Golf

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 06:29:36 +0000

By Joel Beall
In his introductory press conference Charles Howell III stressed that “money was not a factor” in his decision to join LIV Golf.

Howell, 43, is one of the newest members of the fledgling circuit, announcing his decision to defect from the PGA Tour last week. Unlike most LIV Golf competitors Howell’s departure was a surprise, his name not widely rumored to be a part of the league. He was seen as part of the tour’s player cognoscenti, a position earned thanks to his easy-going disposition along with making more than 600 career starts on tour. Though he won just three times across two decades Howell still captured more than $42 million in earnings. For better and worse, Howell was the paradigm for the riches that could be had on tour without being a star.

Which raised questions on why, exactly, Howell would want to leave for LIV Golf. Speaking to the media at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on Wednesday, Howell asserted LIV Golf’s guaranteed signing bonus and financial opportunities were not the impetus to leave the PGA Tour.

“For me, I’ve been there for 22 years, and it’s been awesome. I’ve got nothing but great things to say about the PGA Tour, what they’ve given me, the opportunities, et cetera,” Howell said. “But when this came along, I’m 43 years old, I’ve done a lot of that. I still love the game. I love the game more today than I did five years ago.

“Now that my son is playing competitive golf, I’m even more incentivised in the game. This is something really new and exciting.

“Bryson [DeChambeau] reaches out and says, I’d love for you to be a part of my team. That’s a compliment, but it’s also a responsibility,” Howell continued. “OK, I’ve got to play well; I’m responsible not only for myself but for Paul [Casey], for Bryson, for others. It’s new and exciting.

“Not that the PGA Tour got boring, but I’m extremely excited to be here for the next few years, and yeah, it’s a new venture, and at this age and this part of my life, it’s perfect.”

Howell entered the week No. 169 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He will be competing with DeChambeau, Casey and Shaun Norris in the team portion of this week’s LIV event in Bedminster. With his decision to join LIV Golf, Howell is expected to be suspended by the PGA Tour and will miss the FedEx Cup for just the second time in his career.

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Paul Casey accuses DP World Tour of moving goal posts with LIV Golf

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 06:09:41 +0000

By Joel Beall
PGA Tour and DP World Tour players who have competed in LIV Golf events have been suspended and fined for playing without receiving a conflicting-event release from their respective commissioners. However, one of the newest LIV Golf members on Wednesday accused the tours of only recently enforcing the rule.

Speaking at Trump National Bedminster Golf Club ahead of this week’s LIV Golf event, Paul Casey explained that such a release, at least with the former European Tour, was never an issue in the past.

“What happened earlier this year, I wasn’t a part of it, but fines being handed out for playing without a release, I’ve played many a tournament without a release and was never fined, and suddenly the goal posts are changing,” Casey said.

One of the provisions in the PGA Tour Player Handbook and Tournament Regulations is that each PGA Tour member acknowledges the commissioner, the tour’s policy board and the appeals committee have the authority to permanently ban a member from playing in a tour co-sponsored, approved or coordinated tournaments if the member violates its regulations. One such regulation generally prohibits tour players from playing in events when there is a PGA Tour-approved or sponsored event taking place at the same time. Per the handbook, players who reach the 15-event minimum (which members must meet as a condition of their membership voting rights) are eligible for three conflicting-event releases per season, which is why so many tour players were allowed to play in the Saudi Invitational earlier this year. The regulations also state such requests can be denied and playing in spite of these denials has been the impetus for tour discipline.

“As our regulations clearly state, there are no conflicting event/media releases available for events that take place in North America,” read a PGA Tour memo earlier this summer announcing suspensions to players who competed at the LIV Golf event at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Ore. “As a result, these players did not receive the necessary conflicting event and media rights releases and their participation in the Saudi Golf League/LIV event is in violation of our tournament regulations.”

The DP World Tour has followed a similar route, with CEO Keith Pelley writing in an open letter, “Before joining LIV Golf, players knew there would be consequences if they chose money over competition. Many of them at the time understood and accepted that. Indeed, as one player named in the letter said in a media interview earlier this year; ‘If they ban me, they ban me.’ It is not credible that some are now surprised with the actions we have taken.”

However, Casey’s accusation would make it seem like LIV Golf is being discriminated against by the DP World Tour in ways other events haven’t been.

For his part, Casey said he is not trying to hurt the existing tours with his decision.

“None of us, I think speaking for the three of us sitting up here, none of us are intending to damage golf or damage the tour,” Casey said, sitting next to Charles Howell III and Jason Kokrak. “I’m a guy who’s sat on the European Player Committee for many years, I’ve sat on the Player Advisory Council for many years. In fact, I retired and then they asked me to come back because of my input.

“I know the fabric of this game pretty well on the inside, on the tour level. At no time have I ever tried to damage the tour in the decision that I’ve made. If it’s damaged, I think the questions have to be asked somewhere else.”

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Open Championship 2022: Cameron Smith’s chill vibe, Rory McIlroy’s bubble, Tiger Woods’ future and 15 other parting thoughts from St Andrews

Golf Digest Middle East — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 06:32:22 +0000

By Dan Rapaport

Noted fisherman Cameron Smith reeled in Rory McIlroy for the biggest catch of his life, delivering a final round for the ages with a 64 at the Old Course. There is so, so much to discuss. Here are our parting thoughts from the 150th Open Championship.

1. We start, as always, with the winner. Cameron Smith was not the fan favourite on Sunday, but he has the ideal temperament to win a major championship as the non-fan favourite. The entire British island, and the Irish one west of it, did everything in its power to will Rory McIlroy to victory. Smith hardly seemed to notice. He is as easygoing as they come, seemingly impervious to noise or narrative. As he strutted through the back-nine in just 30 shots late on Sunday afternoon, he carried himself like a chill-as-hell Queenslander out for a twilight round on the links. As the Aussies say: “No dramas, mate.”

Rory McIlroy. Warren Little

2. On Saturday evening, with the Claret Jug firmly in sight, Rory McIlroy spoke of wanting to stay in his own bubble during what he knew would be a mentally taxing final round. His reasoning: If I interact with the crowd too much, I’ll allow myself to think about what a victory would look and feel like, and that’s an express route to failure. I certainly understand the sentiment — wanting to keep a layer of emotional insulation between your golf game and everything else — but I found it a particularly interesting comment given an interaction I had with him early in the week.
It was Thursday morning, and McIlroy had just finished the par-4 fourth when his group discovered the threesome ahead still on the tee of the par-5 fifth. He, Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele stopped between the two holes to watch the group behind them finish out. (It was a theme for the first two days, particularly so on Thursday, when afternoon rounds dragged longer than six hours.) Once the group ahead had hit, Rory and Co moseyed on over to the tee, where I happened to be sitting. McIlroy, needing to kill some time, came over for a chat. He wanted to know what the ‘D’ logo on my hat was. A personal brand? No, of course not. It’s an alternate logo for Deepdale Golf Club. He’d played there. He remembered the head pro. We discussed the course and its elite membership. Then we talked about hoodies. He liked mine, and I asked if he’d ever played in one. He’d considered it, but ultimately decided the hood itself was a bit too large and might interfere with his swing. Then he turned around to hit.
McIlroy shot 66 that day, and he clearly wasn’t in his own bubble. At least not in that moment. I don’t pretend to know what kind of attitude he should have down the stretch — he’s won four majors, I’ve won zero — and Thursday morning and Sunday afternoon are not the same proposition. But maybe that’s part of the problem? That he seems to play his best golf when he’s loose, and it’s virtually impossible to be loose with three holes left at the Old Course? Or maybe it was just an ice-cold putter. (Yeah, probably that.) By the way, per the oracle Justin Ray: McIlroy is the first player on record to start Sunday with at least a share of the lead, hit every green in regulation and lose. He also hit it in just one bunker all week and holed out from it for eagle. He simply could not hole a putt when he needed to all weekend.

Cameron Young. Andrew Redington

3. Cameron Young now has five runner-up finishes in a highly impressive rookie season. He’s not satisfied. At all. Just days before heading overseas for the Scottish double, Young called his caddie Scott McKean to have the conversation every caddie fears. Making that call even tougher: McKean and Young are best friends. Like, best-man-in-wedding level boys. They became tight at Wake Forest, and McKean was on the bag for Young’s year on the Korn Ferry Tour, as well as the other four runners-up. Young felt it was in his best interest to have a veteran caddie on the bag; he didn’t love that each event was both his and his looper’s first time seeing a golf course. And so he pulled off the band-aid.
“I kind of, as much as I’ve had a solid year, there’s been a couple things missing, I think,” Young said Thursday. “I haven’t won anything, and that was just something that could change to kind of exhaust all my options to see what I could do better. That was just something that we as a team decided was probably best for my golf.”
Business comes first, and elite athletes have to make some brutal choices.

4: On the Tiger front … so, now what? Woods actually looked better physically at the Open than he did at either Augusta National or Southern Hills. The limp was less pronounced, and he was not at all far behind Matt Fitzpatrick or Max Homa off the tee. Which, of course, makes sense — the Old Course is dead flat, and he had another two months to strengthen his leg. But his game was powerfully rusty. He looked great in practice, striped it on the range, then couldn’t seem to get the ball into the hole once the scorecard was in his back pocket. The issue is that he simply cannot play enough events to develop competitive sharpness. When he came back from his back fusion, he spoke of being pain-free. He is never, ever pain-free anymore. He played 19 events in 2018 and five more in 2019 before his Masters victory. He’d proven himself a winner on the PGA Tour and a consistent contender in majors before finally cross the line. Even Woods cannot expect to turn up a few times a year, at the hardest courses, against the best fields, and snap back into championship-level form.
But he also doesn’t even seem to be considering playing more. After his 75 on Friday, he said he had zero events planned, that all he wanted to do this year was play in these three majors. He was then asked if he might try to play more events next year with an eye toward tightening his game before the majors.
“I understand all that. I understand being more battle hardened, but it’s hard just to walk and play 18 holes,” Woods said. “People have no idea what I have to go through and the hours of the work on the body, pre and post, each and every single day to do what I just did. That’s what people don’t understand. They don’t see. And then you think about playing more events on top of that, it’s hard enough just to do what I did.”
There is a distinct possibility, perhaps even probability, that this is the new normal for Woods — majors, and majors only. We simply don’t know if it’s even possible for his leg to get strong enough to sustain playing, say, 10 events a year, and we do know that he’d never in a million years ask for a cart. We know better than to count him out, but you do wonder how he would feel if he’s nowhere near contention in the majors next year. He’s said countless times that he does not have any interest in being a ceremonial golfer, but he’s also addicted to competition and seems his happiest inside the ropes, trading barbs with the boys. His future is a giant question mark.

5. This brought the close of an enchanting fortnight in Scotland, one in which we saw PGA Tour players, often (fairly) caricatured as golfing robots, morph into golf nerds like the rest of us. Max Homa couldn’t get enough, sneaking out for a twilight 18 at North Berwick after making the cut at the Scottish Open. On Wednesday evening of Open week, a few other media types came through with a last-minute invite to play Elie Golf House Club, an impossibly charming layout about 25 minutes due south of St Andrews. Andy Johnson, founder of The Fried Egg, described it as one of those rounds that fills up the tank. Spot-on. After watching the pros devise a plan of action for picking apart the Old Course, we were all itching for a crack at a links ourselves, and we got one. We teed off around 7pm and finished, just barely, in near-darkness. We shared a cab ride back and told jokes, debated our favourite holes and marvelled at the experience we’d just shared. In what other sport is there such a direct link between the best players in the world and the amateurs? This was like a bunch of American football journalists, adrenalin pumping after covering a Super Bowl practice, running Oklahoma drills. Or a couple basketball journalists, after watching a particularly fiery Final Four. Maybe that happens, but I don’t think so. Our connection to this game runs so deep because we play this game. Here’s to hoping that never changes.

6. Viktor Hovland just didn’t hit it well enough to win, so it’s sort of a moot point, but I can’t wrap my head around how conservatively he played on Sunday. The Norwegian’s driver is among his chief weapons, and even after falling behind early he opted to lay back with a driving iron a number of times. The most egregious example came on the par-4 ninth, one of the drivable holes at the Old Course that beg for a birdie. It’s not a particularly hard decision — virtually everyone in the field hit driver up by the green, and there were miles of turf right to welcome a block. It’s not a particularly tight tee shot, but Hovland pulled driving iron and did not give himself a good look at birdie. The only explanation: He just didn’t feel comfortable hitting one of the two most important clubs in the bag at St Andrews. (The other, of course, being the putter). It didn’t exactly scream confidence.

Viktor Hovland. Warren Little

7. Guys spent more time at St Andrews in the lead-up to the event than you’ll ever see at any other major. Typically, by Wednesday afternoon, the golf course is empty and the range is populated only by those desperate strugglers searching for a last-minute miracle. This week, the links and practice facilities were buzzing until about 7pm. Part of that was an attempt to familiarise themselves with the humps and bumps, but it was also because they wanted to milk every last minute out of a week they’ll tell their grandchildren about. It carried over into the tournament itself as I can’t recall seeing so many fist-pumps before noon on Thursday. Of course, guys want to be in contention at any major, but this week, they seemed almost desperate to get into the mix and feel the rush of chasing a title at the Old Course.

8. The way the Old Course played this week, springy and bouncy and brown, brought an interesting word to mind: luck. What role does luck have in this game? In a tournament that, by its very nature, should identify the best golfer of the week?
Opinions varied. Widely. On the whole, old-timey writers (and players) believe luck has always been baked into the fabric of this sport. It’s not supposed to be fair. Take Tiger Woods’ first hole of the tournament, for example. He flushed a long iron exactly where he was looking, and it finished in a fresh and sandy divot. Is that … is that good? Should that happen? In this case, I lean on the side of yes: this is a sport that’s played outside. Luck of the draw with tee times and conditions have always factored into determining who wins. If it was all supposed to be perfectly fair, why don’t we just give each player a piece of AstroTurf to carry around and hit off of? Why not just have competitions inside a simulator?
But not all luck is the same — there is luck of the draw and rub of the green, and then there’s having to hit and simply hope for the best. According to US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, there was way too much of that going on this week.
“I’m not really a fan,” Fitzpatrick said of the course and the set-up this week after his Saturday round. “It’s difficult to … I just feel like sometimes … I’ve heard it on commentary all week. You can hit good shots and get bad bounces. And you can hit bad shots and get good bounces. Like I say, I felt, for the first seven holes, I didn’t really miss a shot. I’m walking off seventh green and I’m plus-1. It’s tough to take. It’s tough to stay patient. I hit the green on 12, and I just got no putt. It’s tucked on top of a hill, and I hit what I thought was a good putt and it comes to 12 feet. There’s a lot of stuff like that that’s been done, obviously, to protect it from going lower, I guess … 16, for me, is an example of a hole where I’ve just tried to make par all week, just bang it into the long rough, wedge it up on the green, and get out with a par.”

Matt Fitzpatrick. R&A

Anecdotally, it did seem like most birdies this week were made by guys hitting it up by the green in one less than regulation — so, on their drive on a par 4, or in two on a par 5 — hoping their ball ended up in a good spot and getting up and down. There were so many driver-putters this week, and wedge/short-iron play was borderline irrelevant. When asked the two most important parts of your game you need firing to have success out here, Kevin Kisner didn’t have to think twice: Driving and lag putting. That’s different from the other major championship tests we’ve seen in recent years, where iron play is critical. As far as identifying the best players, it’s hard to argue with the quality of the leaderboard, and the unpredictable nature of the Old Course produced some highly entertaining viewing, but Fitzpatrick has a point. Justin Thomas, however, saw things differently. Like, direct opposite:
“The good part about this week is with the little amount of wind is they’ve been able to set some challenging pins,” Thomas said. And when the greens are rolling a 9 or a 10, you can do that. It’s not unfair, it’s just difficult. I thought the R&A did an unbelievable job setting up the course this week. ”
The lesson here: in any context, you’re never going to please 156 golfers.

9. For such an iconic venue, the opening tee shot at St Andrews is among the more underwhelming ones — a long iron, or a hybrid, or a fairway wood into perhaps the widest fairway in championship golf. There’s a certain charm in the first-tee introductions — “On the tee, from the USA, Tiger Woods!” — and the fans welcome each player to the tee with warm applause. Then, the player hits his shot and no one really knows exactly what to do, because literally all of them find the fairway. Contrast that with the first tee shot at Augusta, with that cavernous bunker down the right begging for a ball, trees right of it and a forest down the left. That shot can set the tone for a round; the first tee shot at the Old Course is essentially just a formality.

10. On the flip side, the first tee gave players an opportunity to show off their stingers. Yes, it was a stinger parade, with guys wanting to flight a long iron below the wind and have it roll for days. The nastiest one I saw this week — and by that I just mean, the lowest — and thus the current King of the Stinger: Joaquin Niemann. Max Homa gets the silver, Tommy Fleetwood the bronze.

11. We want athletes to be real with us, to avoid press conference mad-libs and provide a window into their true feelings. Of course, doing so might not be in their best interest — verbalising insecurities only makes them more real, and it’s not a coincidence that so many guys answer questions the same exact way. In their minds, there is little upside in spilling the beans to the press. Some brave (naïve) souls, however, eschew the sports-psychologist recommendations and let us in. McIlroy is the most salient example of this, but he’s not the only one. Enter Robert MacIntyre.
MacIntyre is currently the best player from Scotland, where this game started, and he wears that label (burden?) proudly. He spoke glowingly of the Scottish Open all week, wanting desperately to put on a good show for the home crowd. He wanted it even more at St Andrews, which made his back nine on Friday a pressure cooker. After a bogey at 15, he needed to play the last three in even par to get to the weekend on the number. He did, and then he exhaled.

Robert MacIntyre. David Cannon

“I’ve never been that stressed on a golf course in my life,” he said on Saturday. “With seven holes to go, I don’t know what was going on. Had to turn away from the actual fairway on 16 because there was too much going on. Fan support is absolutely brilliant, but I was feeling it. Almost … you’re not letting people down, but you know how much it means. There’s so many people supporting me, and it means so much to me that I just didn’t … I wasn’t going to let them down because I was having a hard bit, but I was trying almost too hard. I mean, last night I was sitting at the dinner table just slouched, didn’t know what to do. I was trying to eat, but I was just, I was done. I could have curled up in a ball when I finished and cried.”
Now that … that’s real.

12. Talor Gooch was the butt of a few jokes last week, but we’re going to focus on something he said that won’t be widely lambasted. “It was spectacular out there,” Gooch said after an opening-round 78. “There’s no better clap, cheer, roar than one at the Open. There’s something different about it. It sounds better than any other place.”
I’ll tell you what sounds different: there are no screams of “GET IN THE HOLE!” or “MASHED POTATOES!” There is indeed something viscerally pleasing about the sound of hundreds or thousands of people clapping thunderously, but not screaming. That’s the sound of the Open.

13. If I’m a LIV golfer, I’d be phoning whoever I can as often as I can to get updates on the Official World Golf Ranking conundrum. As Woods alluded to in his media conference, there is a distinct possibility that, at least in the short term, non-major winners who play the LIV series will not be able to get into majors if the circuit doesn’t offer World Ranking points soon. Guys in that position include Talor Gooch, Abraham Ancer, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Kevin Na, to name a few. Those guys being warm-blooded human beings with a pulse, this had to have been one of, if not the, best week of their year, and the prospect of not participating in these seminal events would toss me into an existential crisis.
Casey, for one, said he made the decision knowing full well that he’d likely slide down the world rankings, and that would likely impact his major-playing future. He did it anyway, pointing to his 45 years, and the fact he’s now played 71 major championships.
“It’s an interesting question for the younger guys,” Casey said. “Myself, I mean, I’m hanging on in the World Rankings. I don’t know what guys are going to do. I think there’s the option of playing some Asian Tour events. We’re going to see what happens with the DP World Tour. But I was under no illusions that my ranking could slide and be out within however long, whatever the timeframe is. More incentive to play well this week as well to try and get points.”
With the major season now in the rearview mirror, the LIV golfers are going to have to get creative should they want World Ranking points. And they desperately want World Ranking points. So, per Casey, a number of them are kicking around the idea in WhatsApp groups of playing Asian Tour events during the extended off periods between some LIV events. The saga continues.

14. Speaking of the saga … the golf world came together for four days in Scotland, but we were reminded of the drama while fans were still trying to leave the property. That’s when Cameron Smith was asked about the speculation of him making the move and … didn’t deny it. Minutes later, Sky Sports’ Jamie Weir reported that Henrik Stenson would join LIV imminently and be stripped of his Ryder Cup captaincy. Even if major weeks may provide some respite, the saga is not going to stop any time soon.

15. There’s always a random storyline that develops during major weeks that’s only tangentially related to the competition. This week, that role was emphatically filled by airline baggage woes. It seemed half the press room was dealing with lost luggage — or, worse, lost golf clubs. The pros weren’t immune to these issues, either, as Mark Calcavecchia didn’t get his sticks until Wednesday evening. But the quirkiest baggage story of the week came courtesy of Trey Mullinax, who won last week’s opposite-field Barbasol Championship then had to scramble to get to Scotland. When he got to the Old Course, he noticed his irons had been bent out of shape, the product of TSA searching through his bag then not bothering to put the clubs back in the actual golf bag, meaning they were loose in the travel case. He did not, however, notice that his putter’s loft was two degrees off until he made the cut on the number on Friday.
“I knew it looked funny,” he said with a laugh. “I was having to tell my caddie, man, I’m having to forward press this a lot. I was like, man, I don’t know what’s going on. The ball wasn’t rolling like it was in Kentucky. Surely I didn’t lose it in two days.” Indeed, he didn’t — after getting it adjusted, he fired a six-under 66 on Saturday. He blamed his mistake on “pure laziness”.

16. While perusing the entry list this week, one name in particular caught my attention: Justin de los Santos. He played under the flag of the Philippines this week, the birthplace of both his parents, and Justin grew up in Southern California. We played a number of rounds in junior golf together. It’s my job to cover this game, so I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I didn’t even know he’d turned professional. Justin went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, an excellent academic university but not exactly a PGA Tour player factory. While there, he took a class in Japanese with an eye toward plying his trade in Asia.
“Coming out of college, I tried to do Korn Ferry Tour school but didn’t get through. Then, to be honest, I needed the money. I figured the Asian and Japan Tour were better money than Canada and Latinamerica, and I didn’t quite have the funding to do Korn Ferry Mondays.”

Justin de los Santos. R&A

Off to Asia he went. Justin has spent the better part of three years in Japan, grinding on that tour and working hard to improve his Japanese. He’s 30th on the money list this year and No. 497 in the World Ranking. How, then, did he get into such an iconic championship? He birdied his final two holes to finish solo fourth in the Gate Way to the Open Mizuno Open, snagging the last of four spots up for grabs. He made his way to Scotland but decided staying in the town of St Andrews wasn’t worth the money, so he found a place about 15 minutes away by car. He doesn’t have a full-time caddie, so he picked up a local looper who has been working at the Old Course for 37 years. His name is John, but Justin couldn’t remember his last name. “Starts with a P, I think.”
Justin made the cut on the number, which is huge for two reasons: the Open purse dwarfs those of normal Japan Tour events, but it counts toward the money list, so he’ll move up considerably. Secondly, making a cut in a major gets you into second stage of Korn Ferry Tour qualifying school. Before this week, Justin didn’t know if he could afford to spend all that money to potentially not get out of first stage and figured he’d just continue focusing on keeping his card in Japan. Now, he’s thinking he’ll give KFT qualifying school a try once again. He desperately wants to get back to the States, and this week brought him much closer to that goal. With so much golf talk these days on nine-figure guaranteed contracts, stories like Justin’s resonate a bit deeper — particularly for me, given my memories of us playing together as kids. I absolutely loved seeing him this week.

17. I learned a new term this week: gravities. Apparently it’s a measure of green-speed firmness. The Stimpmeter is a staple of the golf course lexicon, but I genuinely had never heard of measuring the firmness of the greens. As in this bulletin from the R&A: “Greens single cut at 3.5 mm. Speed 10.6 — same as yesterday. Firmness is 161 gravities — 8 gravities firmer than yesterday.” This seems like valuable information to have, an added indicator of the conditions of the greens beyond just their speeds. Perhaps this will become more common.
Anyways, I was curious how they measure this, so I did some capital-J Journalism and found the answer! There’s a contraption called the clegg hammer, and it drops a steel ball onto the ground. It measures the firmness of the turf by how high the ball bounces off said turf. Next time you’re out with the squad for a weekend round, ask them how many gravities they think the greens are bouncing at.

18. Just like that, the men’s major season is over, and with another four big ones in the books, I’m feeling especially grateful. For this place, for this sport, and for all of you, who apparently enjoy my ramblings enough to read all the way to the bottom. I can’t thank all of you enough for following and allowing me to do what I love. There are 262 days until the first round of the Masters, but who’s counting. Until next time.

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Report: Henrik Stenson to join LIV Golf Invitational Series, will be stripped of Ryder Cup captaincy

Matt Smith — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 10:16:38 +0000

By Matt Smith
Former Open champion Henrik Stenson is expected to be announced as the latest big-name player to join the LIV Golf Invitational Series — a move that would lead to him being stripped of the Ryder Cup captaincy.

The 2016 Champion Golfer of the Year, was set to lead Team Europe against the Americans in Italy next September, but if — as has been widely reported — he is imminently about to sign on for the money-spinning Saudi-backed series, he would be ineligible to skipper the Europeans for the biennial team event in Rome.

After missing the cut at St Andrews during the 150th Open Championship last week, Sweden’s Stenson, 46, said his schedule for the remainder of the year was “undecided”.

On Sunday, the 2022 Open champ Cameron Smith refused to be drawn on rumours linking him with LIV Golf. “I just won the British Open, and you’re asking about that. I think that’s pretty not that good,” the Australian said when asked about the LIV links in his post-tournament media conference.

Smith is now exempt in all four majors until 2027 and would not have to worry about ranking point in order to qualify for the game’s flagship events

“I don’t know, mate. My team around me worries about all that stuff,” he added. I’m here to win golf tournaments.”

Players who have signed up for the LIV series are suspended indefinitely by the PGA Tour, and the DP World Tour has dished put £100,000 fines — along with a suspended ban from competitions as a legal battle goes through the courts — meaning LIV Golf players may struggle to get into events that offer ranking points.

The Asian Tour, which has received a healthy cash injection from the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which also funds LIV Golf, has offered spots in their ranking events for LIV players.

“There’s talk about guys sort of playing a couple [of Asian Tour events],” said Paul Casey, who is set to play in the third of the LIV events at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster from July 29-31. “I don’t even know the schedule. I’m sorry, whether they go play something before Bangkok to get ready, or the break in August.

“I think the discussion was if guys turn up en masse, then it lifts the world ranking points. So if they’re going to go play an Asian Tour, they all go together.”

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Open Championship 2022: LIV golfers like Casey considering Asian Tour route for World Ranking points

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 17 Jul 2022 17:46:21 +0000

By Dan Rapaport
As the men’s major season for 2022 ends at the Open Championship, the players competing in LIV Golf Invitational events have a World Ranking points problem. More specifically: a lack of World Ranking points problem.

At present, the Saudi-backed series does not offer World Ranking points, which are among the chief currency used to decide who gets to play in major championships. And with the players barred from playing PGA Tour events, LIV players now face the possibility of not receiving any World Ranking points until … well, who knows when.

The issue isn’t as large for recent majors winners — Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau among them — who will continue to get into the big four men’s events in via exemptions for their victories. But non-winners who have been getting into majors via their World Ranking — think Talor Gooch or Kevin Na or Paul Casey — are now facing the possibility of seeing their ranking slide to the point where the invites dry up.

The board of the Official World Golf Ranking board met this week at St Andrews and acknowledged that it had received an application from LIV for ranking points, but it is not clear whether that application will be accepted — and if it is, when.

What then are players to do? Turn to other tours, it seems.

“I think there’s the option of playing some Asian Tour events,” said Paul Casey, the World No. 28 who recently committed his future to LIV Golf. The Asian Tour has received hundreds of millions of dollars in investment from LIV Golf, is an OWGR-certified tour and has provided a pathway for its players to get into LIV events.

“We’re going to see what happens with the DP World Tour,” Casey said. “But I was under no illusions that my ranking could slide and be out within however long, whatever the timeframe is. More incentive to play well this week as well to try and get points.”

The LIV Golf Invitational Series is well under way

Casey said that there is talk among LIV players about entering Asian Tour events between the Trump Bedminster tournament set for later in July and the Boston tournament scheduled for Labor Day weekend in September. The same for playing in Asian Tour events ahead of the LIV Golf tournament in Bangkok in October.

“Do they go play to be a bit sharper? There’s a lot of discussion, a lot of WhatsApp chat group feeds going around,” Casey said. “I’m not part of most of them. I think the discussion was if guys turn up en masse, then it lifts the World Ranking points. So if they’re going to go play an Asian Tour event, they all go together.”

The next LIV event will be held at New Jersey’s Trump Bedminster outside New York City from July 29-31. Then comes the Boston start at The International in early September, followed by a tournament at Rich Harvest Farms outside Chicago September 16-18. At its Portland event, LIV Golf officials announced that in 2023 they would be shifting from its ‘International Series’ schedule to a league schedule that will include 14 events, up from eight this year.

Casey acknowledged that he made his decision to jump to LIV knowing full well that it could impact his major-championship future. But the Englishman turns 45 next week, and this week’s Open, where he marked his 71st start in one of golf’s big four. If he doesn’t get into another one, he’ll be fine.

But Gooch, 30 years old and No. 40 in the World Ranking, does not want to be shut out of golf’s marquee events, and so he’s considering the Asian Tour route.

“Yeah, it’s something that the guys have talked about,” Gooch said after a final-round 69 at the Old Course. “Just to play some, but mainly for World Ranking points, so we’ll see how that plays out.

“The majors are the pinnacle of golf, so that’s what everyone wants to do. Without a doubt.”

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