On paper, there is nothing especially intriguing about the 2014 Ryder Cup. Historians looking at a list of scores 100 years from now will see nothing more than the continuation of a pattern — a European blowout win at home. And because the final score was so lopsided, these hypothetical historians won’t even be able to read about a hero on the course, or to pinpoint a critical dramatic moment. Without knowing the details of how the blowout came to be, it would be easy to conclude that the Gleneagles Ryder Cup was, well … boring. In fact, those who remember 2014 will recall that this event teemed with melodrama, the most memorable bit playing out when Phil Mickelson made a very public rebuke of US captain Tom Watson — while Watson was sitting on the same stage — during the post-match press conference. If the score on the course looked rather bland by the time Sunday singles came to an end, the intrigue behind closed doors was exquisite.

On one side, you had a US system reeling from decades of losing, the particular heartbreak of blowing a big Sunday lead to the Europeans at home at Medinah in 2012 still fresh in everyone’s collective minds. That led Ted Bishop, PGA of America president, to make the maverick move of naming Watson to the captaincy in 2014. Not only was Watson beloved in Scotland as a five-time Open winner, but he was also the last American captain to win on European soil, back in 1993. In theory, the appointment made sense.

The problem was, Watson was seriously disconnected from modern players, and his instinctual approach to strategy and leadership would end up being very much at odds with what the Ryder Cup required. And it was Watson’s bad luck that on the European side, the captain who survived a tense nomination process would prove to be a brilliant strategist who plotted out his team’s manoeuvers to the last detail. Paul McGinley’s candidacy was challenged by both Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie, but when he was chosen, he set to work unleashing a comprehensive two-year battle plan designed to come together in Scotland.

Paul McGinley. Ian MacNicol

Watson had no idea what he was in for, and the ensuing debacle was notable for how precisely it showcased America’s Ryder Cup shortcomings in the most unflattering light. Decades of mismanagement were magnified, and when it was over, a public confrontation almost felt inevitable. And the great irony about Gleneagles is that by delivering such a thorough beating to the Americans, Paul McGinley and the Europeans may have woken them up for good.

The post The Massacre at Gleneagles: When Paul McGinley schooled Tom Watson at the Ryder Cup appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
In the wake of what turned out to be a highly successful Ryder Cup captaincy at Gleneagles in 2014, Paul McGinley was quick to pay tribute to the positive experience he gained while skippering Great Britain & Ireland against the Continent of Europe in the eventually defunct Seve Trophy. And now Luke Donald, who will lead Europe in the Ryder Cup in Italy in 2023, is to be given a similar opportunity to flex his captaincy muscles.

In January, a new match-play contest between GB&I and the continent will take place at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club. Two 10-man teams will compete over three days, Jan. 13-15, for the Hero Cup, with Donald over-seeing the roles of the two as-yet unnamed captains. Twenty points will be available over the course of the three sessions—five foursomes, five four-balls and 10 singles.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of this week’s BMW PGA Championship—an event Donald has won twice—the 43-year-old Englishman was quick to confirm the potential benefits that the Hero Cup will bring. Both for himself and for prospective team members.

“I’ve talked to a few of my predecessors over the last month or so and they all identified the Seve Trophy as an important part of the journey towards becoming a Ryder Cup player or captain,” Donald said. “It’s nice to create team events that get players together. It will be especially useful for players who have not been involved before. This event is part of the process to get them understanding how important they are. We’ll be trying to get as good a field as possible.”

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On that front, Donald is almost certain to be without the four Europeans—Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm and Matt Fitzpatrick—who won events during the just-finishes 2021-22 PGA Tour season. All are more than likely to be in Hawaii to compete in the Sentry Tournament of Champions, one week before the Hero Cup. Still, as Donald pointed out, the match in the Middle East will be useful practice for those who have less extensive experience of team golf.

Where the former World No. 1 was less definitive was when the inevitable question regarding LIV golfers came up: Will they be eligible for the Ryder Cup? And, to his credit, Donald did a pretty good impersonation of a politician by answering another question altogether.

“All I can control is right now and the decisions in front of me,” he said. “That’s something totally out of my control. It’s going to be down the road. I’ll deal with it when it comes. There have been many challenges from different Ryder Cups in the past. Sam Torrance had to have a team [picked in 2001 but playing in 2002 due to 9/11 delaying the event] that a year later, some of the players weren’t playing nearly as well when they were picks. Monty had an issue with the weather (2010 at Celtic Manor) and had to completely change the format. There have always been challenges.”

What Donald did reveal is that one of his vice-captains, Edoardo Molinari, will be handling the statistical side of the Ryder Cup operation, both when it comes to the six captain’s picks available and the subsequent pairings once the side is finalized.

“Statistically, it makes sense for us to have six picks,” Donald said. “I didn’t really see any downside with having more picks. I think form leading up to a Ryder Cup is key, and that will give us an opportunity to see who is playing the best. I think a few of the picks will probably be self-explanatory, and it’s nice to have other picks to round out the team, create great partnerships, great foursomes and fourball pairings that really work. I’ll also be looking at players that suit the course at Marco Simone. So having six picks is nice. It gives me a lot of flexibility to really choose the strongest lineup.”

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A member of the DP World Tour board of directors, McGinley is a familiar voice and figure Sky Sports and Golf Channel.

All in all, the Dubliner has done well for himself.

Back at Gleneagles for this week’s Senior Open on the King’s Course that sits adjacent to the PGA Centenary layout that hosted the Ryder Cup back in 2014, McGinley was quick to play down his chances of playing success this week, even before he was understandably distracted by the news of Henrik Stenson’s premature departure from all things Ryder Cup. By his own estimation, Tuesday’s pro-am was only McGinley’s fourth round of golf in the last two months.

“If I make the cut this week it will be good,” he said with a smile. “I’m shattered after last week at the Open Championship. After working for NBC and Sky, I was walking up the 18th fairway on the Old Course at 11.45pm every night.”

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Still, for McGinley this is a place that holds a host of memories, most of them good. Although for this emotional soul, there is more than a hint of melancholy whenever his active mind wanders from Ryder Cup triumphs toward the in-fighting that dominates professional golf today.

“Every time I come through the gates and up to the hotel, walk through the corridors, the memories come flooding back,” he says. “That was there, that’s where this was, that’s where the team room was. The hotel creche, was our team room. Great memories, but with all the stuff going on in the world at the moment, there’s a bit of sad reflection at the same time.”

Paul McGinley. Mike Ehrmann

McGinley speaks with great fondness of the Ryder Cup. And no wonder. In four appearances as a player and captain, he was never part of a losing team. All of which only adds to his disappointment with the state of limbo the European captaincy now occupies. This is a man who cherishes the relationships he has formed in the biennial contest.

“In high-end business and high-end sport, we’re talking billions of dollars,” he says of the emergence of LIV Golf. “When money gets involved to the level it has done, people make decisions based on that. I’m not going to ridicule the likes of Ian Poulter or Lee Westwood and all they have done for the European Tour. Besides, it happens in every sport, not just golf.

“Look at how many soccer players in their early 30s go to China, or Dubai, or Qatar and take a huge windfall of money. David Beckham did it when he went over to the MLS in the States. Golf is now no different. The tours had pretty much a monopoly on things, but now there is a bit of competition. That has created leverage for astronomical amounts of money. Guys late in their careers are getting this windfall and they’re making decisions based on that. But they have to understand there are consequences and Ryder Cup captaincy is one of them.”

Still, McGinley’s empathy does extend as far as having his own doubts over what he might have done in the face of a multi-million dollar offer from the Middle East.

“I’m part of the establishment,” he acknowledges. “I’m not sure what I would have done. I’ve done well in the game, but that’s just me. I don’t think it’s my position to judge these guys. In a lot of ways I get it, but my view is the same as a lot of people’s. ‘Fine, lads, good luck, but don’t try to come back and play both sides.’”

[parone_video_player campaign=”335″ defaultlang=”en” feed=”51-private-gdme-instruction”/]

It isn’t long before McGinley is back to 2014, back with the men he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with in Ryder Cups. He talks wistfully about those times, about the team spirit that bonded them so tightly in the contests with the big, bad Americans. Underdogs to a man, they fought for a common cause.

“It’s important to me to maintain a friendship with all the players I have played with and led,” McGinley says. “We had an unbelievable team spirit, everyone recognised that and could see that. We had a lot of fun as we always do, and I’d like to think that, in 2014, we brought out the best of all previous Ryder Cups I’ve been involved in and highlighted the players. I made them the focal part of part of what I was doing as captain.

“Everyone says I left ‘no stone unturned’ and all that stuff,” he continues. “But it was just simplicity and it was clarity. It was engagement of the heart and getting them really focused. That’s all I tried to do. Yes, I was meticulous behind the scenes. But that doesn’t mean the players knew any of that. I did all of that and kept it from them. They knew only a tiny amount. It was simplicity and clarity. And structure. They needed to understand their positions within the team. And what their roles were. Nothing more. That was how I played my best.”

Great times indeed. And, sadly, times we may never see again.

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After three seasons as one of the European Tour’s highest-ranking events, the Saudi International presented by SoftBank Investment Advisers is set to become the Asian Tour’s new “marquee” event in a landmark 10-year agreement.

Scheduled for Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City from February 3-6, the tournament has had its purse bolstered to $5 million – a $1.5m increase – as a result. While no star signings were initially mentioned, Golf Saudi are also again promising to assemble “one of the strongest fields in world golf”.

Monday’s announcement won’t have come as a major surprise to the now cosy PGA and Euro Tour powerbrokers at Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida or at Wentworth in England but it is a seismic moment nonetheless as golf’s global battle lines are redrawn.

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Insiders see the Asian Tour, dormant since the COVID-19 outbreak, as a sleeping giant reawakened thanks to the global disrupter role – not to mention the fiscal might – being played by Golf Saudi and the Saudi Golf Federation in both the men’s and women’s games. Monday’s announcement is seen as a  forerunner to the Kingdom bankrolling a new-look Asian Tour which continues to be loosely linked to the controversial Super Golf League.

In a joint statement, Golf Saudi and the Asian Tour said the sanctioning of the Saudi International “represents a revitalised strategy, intended to elevate the well-established event in significant emerging markets around the world.”

But PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Euro Tour CEO Keith Pelley will no doubt be reading between the lines of key statements made by both Golf Saudi CEO Majed Al-Sorour and Asian Tour Commissioner and CEO, Cho Minn Thant.

“This partnership will unlock many opportunities for players, sponsors and fans of the game,” said Majed Al-Sorour, who also doubles as the CEO of the Saudi Golf Federation.

“Most importantly, we are eager to help build a more inclusive game for all eligible professional golfers that spans borders and cultures by fostering collaboration with major tours and see this as an exciting first step on that journey.

“Today marks a significant development for our flagship golf event and our vision to strengthen the depth of world-class golf events, both in the GCC and also on the international stage. The importance and potential of Asia’s role in world golf is undeniable, not least due to its position as a global economic powerhouse.”

Cho described the deal as an “outstanding development for the Asian Tour that will create significant benefits for our membership, key stakeholders, and fans alike.” He said the Saudi International, which boasts Dustin Johnson as a two-time champion and is managed by golf and sports management group IMG, would create “new commercial prospects” and enable a “greater number of professional golfers to qualify and compete for life-changing opportunities”.

“The Saudi International presented by SoftBank Investment Advisers is a world-class tournament which has become truly global. We are thrilled that it will be the showcase event of the Asian Tour’s season, spearheading our expansion into new frontiers,” said Cho.

The Saudi International will mark the start of a revamped 2022 schedule for the Asian Tour which looks back to the Bandar Malaysia Open in early March, 2020, as its last event pre the coronavirus pandemic. Monday’s media release said a combined schedule to complete its stalled 2020/2021 season was being finalised and would be unveiled in “due course”.

There will be relief, especially regionally, that the 2022 Saudi International hasn’t been scheduled directly opposite the elevated Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic but the impending 2022 Asian Tour calendar is sure to make Monahan and Pelley take note when it is finally released.

As former Ryder Cup captain and European Tour board member Paul McGinley warned the Daily Mail last month, the global game should prepare itself for major disruption for the next three or four years.

McGinley told respected Daily Mail golf correspondent Derek Lawrenson that he expects the Saudi-financed takeover of the Asian Tour to succeed, meaning the European Tour is set to lose other big events such as the Hong Kong and Malaysian Opens.

The European Tour’s next move in relation to its 2022 schedule will indeed be fascinating.

With the Saudi International, which has spent large on appearance fees to attract the game’s biggest names, now part of a revitalised Asian Tour schedule, a seemingly inescapable tug-of-war for the game’s biggest names has begun.

“We’re resigned to that kind of thing happening and the lawyers being involved,” McGinley said.

“If the Saudi event becomes part of the Asian Tour, will Jay Monahan give the defending champion Dustin Johnson a release to get his $2million appearance fee, or Keith Pelley grant releases for the leading Europeans to play? That’s the path we’re on, sadly.

“We’ve spoken to the Saudis on a number of occasions. We would love them to continue to be part of our tour but they see it a different way. They think golf is stale and want to come in as disrupters and change the whole DNA of the game.”

The Kingdom is understood to have offered the European Tour unimaginable riches to partner in their new vision for the pro game which includes players reportedly owning F1-style teams, not to mention tens of millions in sign-on and appearance fees. But when the European Tour sided instead with the PGA Tour, the Saudi financiers looked closer to home; the Kingdom is geographically part of Asia after all. And the Asian Tour is only part of the complex and increasingly fractious puzzle.

The PGA Tour quickly informed players of immediate bans if they align with the Super Golf League. But what if the Saudi International is “only” part of the Asian Tour? Would the PGA or European Tour be so bolshie as to stop a player appearing on a circuit that is also a member of the International Federation of PGA Tours? Or will the disruption McGinley warns of mean the total disintegration of golf’s long-established halls of power?

The PGA-European Tour alliance has already begun building a more global tour by giving next year’s Scottish Open (another Rolex Series event like Dubai) and a couple of smaller PGA events – the Barbasol Championship and the Barracuda Championship – co-sanctioned status, as well as reducing the number of World Golf Championship events.

McGinley hinted Dubai, the flagship BWM PGA Championship at Wentworth and maybe even the Dubai Duty Free-sponsored Irish Open could soon follow suit. So perhaps last week’s Dubai Desert Classic announcement is just the first circling of wagons in the Middle East, such an important region for the European Tour.

McGinley expects new UK events to suck up some of the suddenly empty spaces in the European Tour calendar given the Asian Tour exodus, insists the ET won’t eventually be “eaten up by the PGA Tour” and also doubts Saudi money will be able to trump tradition. In the long run that is, but not before a massive legal scrap.

“Ultimately, we’ll get to where everyone wants to be. But we are going to have to suck up some disruption,” McGinley said.

“The Saudi lawyers reckon the PGA Tour can’t stop the players from joining and still being members but Jay [Monahan] is adamant that he can. Unfortunately, it’s looking like we’ll end up with a massive legal case.”

The post Saudi International aligns with Asian Tour in seismic 10-year deal appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
When Hideki Matsuyama hits a golf shot that isn’t otherworldly, he’ll instantly give you a clue. A silent look of disgust is often accompanied by a disconsolate slump of the shoulders. If he really doesn’t like the strike, the offending club may even be gently relinquished at the top of his backswing, left on the ground for his caddie to pick up and admonish for insubordination.

Chances are, the result is not as bad as the (over)-reaction, sometimes quite the opposite in fact. The Japanese star is golf’s master of the poker-face. You think his hand is lousy but it turns out to be a straight flush after all.

Tyrrell Hatton is no Hideki Matsuyama and yet sometimes he is. After just about every shot, you know exactly what the Englishman is thinking. Often he’ll voice his displeasure to caddie Mick Donaghy, the canny Scottish bagman who seems to be good at letting it go in one ear and out the other.

Hatton’s second round at the DP World Tour Championship Friday was one of those especially expressive days. If you used his reactions alone as your leaderboard, you’d figure Hatton was a frustrated also-ran. But it turns out all the grumpy, argumentative, disbelieving looks added up to a bogey-free, four-under 68 on the Earth layout at Jumeirah Golf Estates. He was still frustrated – that’s par for the course for Hatton – but at -7 through 36 holes, he’s just three strokes adrift of leader Patrick Reed and still very much in the final sprint for the Race to Dubai title.

Up in the TV commentary booth, former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley summed it up nicely.

“Yes, Patrick can win with his ‘B’ game,” McGinley said. “He is one of the best at winning when he’s not quite on. He’s great at churning out a 69 or 70. But the English guys are the biggest challengers, with Hatton, who is three back on seven under par, the most dangerous of those.

“Tyrrell is such a tough competitor. And he can go head-to-head with Reed. [Tyrrell] has won in Europe and America this year. He really is something special. And, like Patrick, he can win without his best stuff—we saw that [in his win at the BMW PGA Championship] at Wentworth a couple of months ago.”

Typically refreshing, Hatton didn’t sugarcoat his feelings in his post-round interview. What was the key to being the only player to go bogey-free on Friday, Tyrrell?

“A bit of luck when I needed it,” said the 29-year-old whose 2020 also includes victory at the PGA Tour’s prestigious Arnold Palmer Invitational.

“I think the score is quite generous for how I played. I didn’t feel that comfortable out there. On the course I was kind of tinkering and trying to find something. Obviously happy to go bogey-free and in a decent position going into the weekend.

“From memory, I don’t think there was too many shots that were really bad, like where I was in a sort of difficult position, so I guess my misses ended up okay.”

Hatton’s frustration extended till the last hole when he narrowly avoided the creek with his drive only to end up in a lush lie. He tinkered with hitting a fairway wood but eventually opted for the sensible option of a lay-up, wedge in. There was no birdie but no damage done either.

The scores after two rounds.#DPWTC #RolexSeries

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) December 11, 2020

“Yeah, I really wanted to go for it, but as I stood over it, I was like, it would be stupid. The 3-wood wasn’t just kind of — it didn’t want to go into the grass at all. The grass seemed quite hard, so there was just no point. So I just hit a 7-iron up there, tried to give myself a decent number and didn’t hit a great wedge shot in, unfortunately.”

Ah well. You’re still in it and have the chance to add to “two massive wins”. It must be nice to have the freedom to “just go for this and really try and win the tournament and also the Race to Dubai?”

“Yeah, I’m not really thinking about all that kind of stuff, just trying to go out there and play my best each day and try and give myself an opportunity come Sunday and see what happens.”

We’ll all see what happens. It will be written all over Tyrrell Hatton’s face.

The post Tyrrell Hatton being Tyrrell Hatton makes Earth a fascinating place to be appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Given the struggles to keep the European Tour financially and logistically viable in this unprecedented time, many feared the Staysure Tour would become a sad casualty of the coronavirus pandemic.

The doubters clearly hadn’t figured on Ryan Howsam’s vision for the over-50s circuit. The Englishman, who founded insurance firm Staysure in 2004, has become the first individual to have a controlling stake and leadership role in one of golf’s major circuits after taking a majority equity share in what is now known as The Legends Tour.

Howsam will oversee the Tour’s commercial strategy as part of the evolution of Staysure’s existing umbrella sponsorship announced in 2017. The Legends Tour was officially unveiled at the Wentworth Club, the European Tour’s HQ, on September 1 with former Ryder Cup captains Mark James, Paul McGinley, 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie and 1991 Masters champion Ian Woosnam on hand to sell the sizzle. The quartet will be joined by major champions Darren Clarke, Tom Lehman, Colin Montgomerie and Michael Campbell as Legends Tour ambassadors. The exciting news for Middle East fans is the work behind the scenes to bring a couple of Legends Tour events to the region. Well-heeled amateurs will also be intrigued by the exciting opportunities to compete alongside some of the game’s greats, including a ‘Legends Club” where Ams will compete in their own Order of Merit race.

New Legends Tour chief Mark Aspland chatted to Golf Digest Middle East soon after the tour’s unveiling to bring us up to speed with the all the latest developments of the circuit that no only refuses to die but is determined to become the “greatest amateur experience in golf’.

[divider] [/divider]

It’s an incredibly exciting time for senior golf.  Discussions were at the formative stage when I started working on the then Staysure Tour in early 2019. Keith Pelley and Ryan Howsam have a really strong relationship and the idea was first discussed between them whilst on the golf course. For the staff and players, we have the best of both worlds, the European Tour will still operate the ‘inside the ropes’ activities, whilst Ryan will have overall commercial control of the Legends Tour and drive the commercial activity and vision.

Majority equity shareholder Ryan Howsam is flanked by Paul McGinley and Colin Montgomerie

It was quite a job to unpick 25 plus years of the integration with the European Tour operations, but the result is a big step forward for a traditional rights-holder to engage with an entrepreneur to drive the business forward.

To align with the premium nature of the product we are looking at aspirational and successful venues to host events. We have an optimum number of 24/25 events eventually and the product we are building and the value proposition behind the Tour will align very closely with Tourism destinations. We have a very successful 10 year partnership in Mauritius and now Seychelles to form the season-ending Tour Championship, and are currently exploring the Caribbean and Middle East to complement the existing events.

We believe the Legends Tour has a unique offering that will complement the European Tour in the Middle East. We are in regular contact with Tom Phillips in the Tour’s Dubai Office and have several opportunities that are being explored.  The UAE has history with the players now playing on the Legends Tour, and we hope to build on this going forward.

The Legends Tour can complement the other golf activity in the Middle East. We are focusing on the Legends Tour being the ‘greatest amateur experience in golf’. The Pro-am and Alliance formats are central to this – it’s not re-inventing the wheel, more focusing in on the commercial value of our players, and offering an ‘inside the ropes’ experience in the tournament that I believe doesn’t currently exist in the Middle East.

It’s not re-inventing the wheel, more focusing in on the commercial value of our players and offering an ‘inside the ropes’ experience in the tournament that I believe doesn’t currently exist in the Middle East.

Aligned to this, in the new Tour structure within the Staysure Group, we have access to over 5.5 million predominantly 50+ UK travellers. This creates a compelling opportunity for premium tourism destinations and helps us to pull together a long-term narrative for the Legends Tour in the region.

In the new proposition, we are planning for standard fields to be 60 pros and 30 amateurs playing over the 3 days of the tournament.  Two pros to 1 am will create an intense, competitive opportunity for the amateur.  We are creating a ‘Legends Club’, where amateurs can play in a number of tournaments and feature on their own Order of Merit too.

The Amateur spots will be at a premium as they are limited and different territories have slightly different commercial models. For example, we are targeting the US golf travel market for our events in the UK to create a week of golf at incredible venues culminating in the Alliance events.  A title sponsor could come in and own Alliance spots too then allocate to charity / junior golf for a CSR project?  We will work a model according to the commercial requirements of the individual events.

The Legends Club proposition feeds directly into the three-day Alliance events and will initially be focused on events owned and promoted by the Tour, but will be built out further over time. We totally respect that a number of external promoters host tournaments and want to use their own format. We aim to have between 6-8 Alliance events for the Legends Club in 2021. The Legends Club is a lifestyle opportunity where you travel and play with your wife /husband/partner to premium destinations living the life of our pros.

The opportunity is not just for over 50s. it’s for anyone with a passion for golf and spending time with our Legends on and off the course. The Legends Tour pros are great fun to be with and provide the full experience of not just golf… eat with them in the Players’ Lounge and enjoy a drink with them afterwards. This is a unique, premium experience that true golf fans will revel in.

“Accessibility to our stars will form the basis of our growth plan moving forwards.”

The celebrity Pro-Ams we have planned with big names from the sports, music and entertainment worlds are designed to create additional charity / CSR, PR and marketing opportunities, plus enhance the playing experience during the week and therefore commercial value for the over-all event. We want to create a week of top quality entertainment to maximise the value of our events.

The Ambassadors are a crucial part of our strategy going forward and we have been specific in their criteria of being Ryder Cup captains and major winners. We will be using them to drive the brand forward, create awareness, generate content for legendstour.com and utilise them for lifestyle experiences as well as playing experiences. They are the perfect marketing channel for us and our partners and we have further exciting additions planned on top of those already announced.

The post Re-branded Legends Tour exploring ‘several opportunities’ in the UAE appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
In the absence of many star names plying their trade primarily on the PGA Tour Champions in the United States, what was the European Senior Tour, then the Staysure Tour, has always struggled for attention. Nostalgia was its biggest selling point, the circuit reliant on pro-am income to survive.

Although specifics in terms of scheduling and the number of future events are still to be determined, things are going to be different in 2021. For one thing, the Staysure name will be replaced by the rather grand Legends Tour. And for another, Staysure Group CEO Ryan Howsam has assumed a majority equity share in what is, in golf, a unique ownership structure. Working alongside the head of the Legends Tour, Mark Aspland, Howsam, who founded the travel insurance company in 2004, will oversee the tour’s commercial strategy.

In that regard, the so-far lack of many recognisable names to build events around has been acknowledged and rectified. Going forward, former Ryder Cup captains Darren Clarke, Mark James, Tom Lehman, Paul McGinley, Colin Montgomerie and Ian Woosnam, along with 2005 U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell and 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie, will act as the tour’s “official ambassadors.” They will, according to the press release announcing the changes to the 50-and-older circuit, “play a key role in outlining the tour’s vision in the months to come.”

“Our major champions, our past Ryder Cup players and captains and our European Tour winners have considerable pulling power,” Aspland said. “The accessibility to them offered by our new structure will form the basis of our growth plan moving forward.”

Indeed, perhaps the biggest difference will be in what Howsam calls the “alliance format” of the as-of-now undetermined number of 2021 events, in which amateurs will get the chance to play alongside the pros in tournament conditions. An additional focus on the amateur experience, will include a selection of celebrity pro-ams aimed at bringing together the “legends of golf” with others from sports, music and entertainment.

“I see the re-launch of this tour as something which could change the landscape of over-50s golf forever,” said James, a seven-time Ryder Cup player. “The alliance format brings a different dimension to competitive golf and will give the players the opportunity to meet a plethora of people and form new relationships, while amateurs will continue to hear the many stories from our lives on tour.”

Entry to that sociable atmosphere will come at a premium price. Membership into the “Legends Club” will cost £60,000, a source told Golf Digest. There will also be a dedicated Order of Merit where the amateurs will compete for a place in the end-of-season Tour Final by playing in three-day alliance events at some of the “best golf courses in the world.”

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However, this weekend isn’t completely void of golf competition. Over in England, a few well-known European Tour pros and celebrity golfers are competing in the inaugural Paddy Power Golf Shootout. Tommy Fleetwood, Andrew “Beef” Johnston, Thomas Bjorn and Paul McGinley are all in the mix, along with soccer star Harry Kane, television personality Piers Morgan and LET pro Carly Booth, among others.

The group is competing in a number of challenges, one of which was an attempt to set a new Guinness World Records title by making the most putts from a “socially-distant” length of 6.5 feet in 60 seconds or less. Yes, apparently that is a World Record.

The number to beat was 14, and Fleetwood made his 15th JUST in time:

Watch @TommyFleetwood1 set a new world record during the Paddy Power Golf Shootout #PPGolf pic.twitter.com/hTopb5sorw

— Paddy Power (@paddypower) June 5, 2020

Impressive stuff, especially considering he did it with that claw grip. It can’t be easy to quickly roll in putts when you hold the putter like that, but Tommy lad knows what he’s doing.

Fleetwood’s record did not last long. McGinley, the 2014 Ryder Cup captain, smashed it with relative ease:

What an effort from @mcginleygolf! ?

He's now a @GWR holder after this superb performance…?#PPGolf pic.twitter.com/35c6buSFVE

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) June 5, 2020

Unbelievable. The Irishman made eight straight to start, then added 12 more before time ran out. And, unlike Fleetwood, he took his time, setting up for each putt. Fleetwood seemed to have a staggered stance throughout as he tried to speed-putt his way through it. Patience prevailed for the savvy veteran McGinley, and he now holds a world record you never knew existed that will be extremely tough to beat. Cue everyone who watched this heading straight to the nearest putting green to give this a go. Good luck, folks, and make sure to record your futile attempts.

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Having paired with current European Ryder Cup skipper Padraig Harrington to claim the 1997 World Cup for Ireland, effective partnership is another area of expertise for McGinley. So when for the four-time European Tour winner expresses concern over some of the decision-making he sees going into the statistically superior United States squad’s preparation for the upcoming Presidents Cup against the Internationals at Royal Melbourne, his is an opinion worthy of note.

“There are a number of headwinds lining up against the American team,” says McGinley, who also twice led Great Britain & Ireland to victory over the Continent of Europe in the now defunct Seve Trophy. “I know people will point at the pronounced difference in the average World Ranking on either side. They do that before every Ryder Cup, too. As usual, the Americans look like much better players on paper.

“But let’s take a closer look at those rankings. They are based on performance in 72-hole stroke-play tournaments over a 52-week period. But the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup consist of 18-hole matches—often played with a partner—on a different type of course. Apart from anything else, that’s a whole different mind-set. So no data analyst would directly compare stroke play and match play to arrive at any meaningful conclusion. They are completely different dynamics.”

Ian MacNicol/Getty Images
McGinley knows from beating the U.S. in team competitions and believes the Americans must guard against overconfidence at Royal Melbourne.

OK, fair enough. But what exactly have the Americans got wrong in the build-up to a contest in which they have a 10-1-1 record all-time, including a 19-11 shellacking of the Internationals two years ago at Liberty National? Has a touch of arrogance and, dare we say it, complacency crept in?

“To be honest, the Americans are playing with fire,” McGinley says. “There are a lot of factors against them this time. A few of the players are out of form. The FedEx Cup finished in August and some of them have hardly played since. For those playing at the Hero Challenge in the Bahamas this week, jet lag is going to be a massive issue. They are very comfortable playing long, soft, wet golf courses. But Royal Melbourne isn’t going to be anything like the PGA Tour.”

That’s already a lot of potential negatives. But McGinley has more.

“Generally, Americans don’t like a lot of wind,” he says. “It’s going to be windy. The course will be firm and fast. Wouldn’t it have been better to play the Hero event the week after the Presidents Cup so that his players could tee-up in the Australian Open and at least get over the jet lag?”

Despite the fact that only on Day 3 of the four-day Presidents Cup is there more than one session of matches, McGinley also is clearly wary of U.S. skipper Tiger Woods taking on two roles.

“It will be difficult for Tiger to play and be captain,” McGinley says. “That is such a difficult dynamic. It will take away a bit of his focus. There is a time and a place to be a captain down the road. Tiger is still a player, a very important player. They should be spending a lot of time trying to come up with the best partners for him. The whole idea of the so-called Task Force was to get everyone ready for Ryder Cups going forward. They did all that and won the last Presidents Cup easily. But then they went to France for last year’s Ryder Cup and were patently not prepared for the exam. That should serve as a warning this time round.”

Ah yes, the golf course. Royal Melbourne’s composite layout is both the best 18 holes in the southern hemisphere and one of the most strategic tests on the planet. Raw power is useful, but not nearly as much as planning and positioning. Which sounds a lot like Le Golf National outside Paris, a course the Americans singularly failed to master a year ago.

“You can talk all you want about team spirit and pairings, but [Le Golf National] required a 2-iron to play it well,” McGinley says. “You needed to know it. You needed to be ready for a course that is alien to what is seen on the PGA Tour. So the Americans came over, took a look and wondered what it was all about. They were caught on the hop. They weren’t ready for it. Then they resented the fact that it was the way it was. They didn’t enjoy the challenge because they weren’t able to. You have to be ready to take the exam.”

The same is true of the International team, although the indications are that most of them will arrive better prepared for the conditions they’ll face at Royal Melbourne than their opponents. Seven of the 12 are playing in this week’s Australian Open. Still, questions remain about this necessarily diverse group. What has International captain Ernie Els done behind the scenes? What has assistant skipper Geoff Ogilvy done behind the scenes, on a course where he lives?

“If the Internationals are in a good place, like the Europeans generally are for the Ryder Cup, I really do think that the Americans are facing real challenges,” McGinley says. “It would still take a brave man to bet against them. And I’m not saying that I will do so. But this is going to be interesting. This is not lined up the way many people seem to think. It is certainly not a home run for the visitors. If the Internationals are ready and prepared, they have a lot of things going for them.”

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By Brian Wacker
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Tiger Woods accomplished his goal, winning the Masters in April for his 15th career major championship and first in over a decade. The price has proven to be a steep one, though.

“It took a lot out of me,” Woods said Tuesday of his victory this spring at Augusta National. “That golf course puts so much stress on the system.”

Whether he is fully recovered and able to again ratchet up his game to a high enough level to contend for a fourth claret jug is the big question for the 43-year-old heading into the year’s final major.

This week’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush will be just the fourth start for Woods since he slipped his arms into a fifth career green jacket earlier this year. He has played only 10 competitive rounds in the three months since, with a missed cut at the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black, a T-9 at the Memorial and a T-21 at the U.S. Open.

Since then, Woods has barely touched a club. After playing at Pebble Beach, he took a lengthy vacation in Thailand with his girlfriend, two kids and his mom, returning home to South Florida in early July. He slowly began to get back to work, arriving at the Dunluce Links on Sunday for his first look at the course, where he played 18 holes with Patrick Reed before going another 18 a day later with Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler. Tuesday, meanwhile, he played seven holes and had a light practice session that included putting coach Matt Killen.

All that time off caused some to wonder if Woods would be properly prepared for Portrush. Padraig Harrington was first to question the approach two weeks ago. Then Paul McGinley did this week.

“I don’t know what’s going on with Tiger,” McGinley, the former European Ryder Cup captain said. “His schedule doesn’t make a lot of sense—in fact, to play just one tournament outside the majors makes no sense at all to me, unless he’s got something else going on that we don’t know about.

“We don’t know where he is with his fitness, we don’t know where he is with his health—we just don’t know a whole lot about anything to do with him at the moment. But the way he’s planned his schedule, it’s easy to think there must be something amiss.”

From Woods’ perspective, however, he’s trying to get through not just this season but beyond.

“[Last year] I played too much,” said Woods, who made 17 starts in 2018. “A lot of it was trying to qualify for certain events, trying to get into the playoffs, trying to qualify for Akron. It was just trying to build a schedule, to get me where my World Golf Ranking would get me up there where I’d be in the World Golf Championships and some of the bigger events, where I didn’t need an exemption into the U.S. Open. So this year I made a conscious effort to cut back on my schedule to make sure that I don’t play too much.

“I want to play here as long as I possibly can. And you have to understand, if I play a lot, I won’t be out here that long.”

There’s also the question of how well a guy who has had four back surgeries, among myriad other operations, will hold up in what could be chilly, wet conditions along the northern coast of Northern Ireland. Rain is in the forecast for all four rounds, and temperatures aren’t expected to climb out of the low 60s at best.

Someone of Woods’ age being in contention, or even winning, wouldn’t be unprecedented, though.

In 2008, 53-year-old Greg Norman led through the first three rounds at Royal Birkdale. A year later, 59-year-old Tom Watson nearly won at Turnberry before losing in a playoff. In 2011, Darren Clarke at 42 won the claret jug on a rain-soaked Royal St. George’s.

Despite 15 career majors, this is still new territory for Woods, as the PGA Tour schedule was reconfigured this season, with the PGA Championship, previously held in August, moved to May, the Players Championship to March and the FedEx Cup Playoffs concluding at the end of August.

All of which has compressed the end-of-year schedule and left Woods trying to find the right balance.

“This schedule is a little bit different,” he said. “I’m trying to figure it out, and trying to play enough golf to where that I can compete and win events.”

Speaking of scheduling, Woods has a somewhat unique one this week, teeing off at 3:09 local time Thursday. The late start means he’ll have a chance to study how the golf course is playing before he even gets there.

“I will be watching the tournament. The tournament will be on TV,” Woods said in an interview Tuesday with Golfing World on GOLFTV. “That’s one of the neat things about this event is that you will have one late tee time and hopefully two late tee times on the weekend. Seeing how the guys play, what clubs they hit off the tee, that’s so important. Where the pin locations are, you’ll see a lot of the breaks. There’s so much you can learn from watching the telecast. It can be extremely advantageous.”

Since we last saw @TigerWoods he’s been riding elephants ?

He spoke about that and more in our chat on-course today. pic.twitter.com/fNocYu0Dto

— GOLFTV (@GOLFTV) July 16, 2019

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