By Joel Beall
Golf fans are mostly grateful at Monday’s joint announcement from the game’s governing bodies, in which they offer hope that three of the four men’s majors and the Ryder Cup can still be played in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, as the sport does its best to salvage as many events as possible, more high-profile tournaments have become causalities of the schedule crunch.

At the forefront of these cancellations is the Open Championship. Four days after Golf Digest reported that the Open was not expected to be played this season, R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers officially announced the world’s oldest tournament had been called off for 2020.

“I can assure everyone that we have explored every option for playing the Open this year, but it is not going to be possible,” Slumbers said.

Slumbers later remarked it would have been “unreasonable” to “rely on the support of the emergency services, local authorities and a range of other organizations” given the demands of the COVID-19 outbreak. Conversely, part of the reason the championship is being cancelled—rather than postponed as is the case for the other three men’s majors—is because of insurance, a source told Golf Digest last week. Similar to Wimbledon, the R&A has a policy that shields against a global pandemic.

It marks the first time the Open will not have been played since 1945, when it was cancelled because of World War II. Slumbers said Royal St. George’s will now be the venue for the 2021 Open Championship and the Old Course at St. Andrews will host in 2022 rather than 2021. The Women’s British Open remains on the LPGA schedule, slotted for Aug. 20, while the R&A and USGA had already postponed this year’s Curtis Cup until 2021.

Next is the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Although the Masters will be held in November, the club has decided it would have to wait until 2021 to follow up the event’s 2019 debut. “Ultimately, the many scheduling challenges with NCAA tournaments, the World Amateur Team Championships, the LPGA Q-Series and other events when women’s amateur golf resumes led to this decision,” Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said in a statement.

Ridley did clarify that each player who accepted an invitation for the 2020 championship will be welcomed to compete in the 2021 Augusta National Women’s Amateur, provided they remain an amateur. That might mean increasing the field in 2021 beyond the 72 players expected to play this year.

Likewise, the USGA has scrubbed two of its majors, the U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Senior Women’s Open, for 2020. The 41st U.S. Senior Open had been scheduled for June 25-28 at Newport (R.I.) Country Club and now will be played at Omaha (Neb.) Country Club from July 8-11, 2021. The 3rd U.S. Senior Women’s Open, had been scheduled to take place July 9-12 at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Conn.

“Canceling this year’s Senior Open championships was a very difficult decision to make,” said USGA CEO Mike Davis. “Not only are they important pillars of our championship schedule, but we also value our relationships with both Newport Country Club and Brooklawn Country Club and were looking forward to staging incredible events there this summer. Given the ongoing health and safety issues related to COVID-19 and the significant consolidation of schedules into the back half of 2020, including the postponement of the U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Open, we felt it necessary to make these unfortunate adjustments to our 2020 championship plans.”

The USGA’s first two scheduled championships for 2020, the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball and U.S. Women’s Amateur Fourball, were cancelled on March 17. The USGA stated it will continue to rely on CDC and WHO recommendations in determining schedule considerations for its remaining eight 2020 amateur championships. The U.S. Open at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y. has been postponed until Sept. 17; the U.S. Women’s Open, originally scheduled for June 4-7 at Champions Golf Club in Houston, will now be played Dec. 10-13.

The PGA of America announced last week that its Senior PGA Championship, scheduled for May 21-24 at Harbor Shores Resort in Benton Harbor, Mich., has been cancelled. “While we are incredibly disappointed, we all understand that protecting public health is the highest priority,” PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh said. For the moment, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is scheduled to go on as planned for June 25-28 at Aronimink in Newton Square, Pa.

The PGA Tour could see additional cancellations to its calendar, but as of now, the Tour has only announced it’s moving its regular-season finale, the Wyndham Championship, and all three FedEx Cup Playoff events one week later, starting the week of Aug. 10 and concluding with a Monday, Sept. 7 finish for the Tour Championship. The Tour is also working to reschedule tournaments into the weeks formerly occupied by the U.S. Open, British Open and men’s Olympic golf competition in June and July.

As for the European Tour, the Old World circuit released little information in the joint statement. The Scandinavian Mixed scheduled to begin June 11 and the D+D Real Czech Masters slotted for Aug. 20 have already been cancelled, but the European Tour only added more details about its schedule would be coming “of due course.”

The post Augusta National Women’s Am, USGA Senior Opens are latest prominent golf events cancelled for 2020 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

“I’m losing my hair, I’m losing my hearing, and I’m losing my distance off the tee,” Watson said Wednesday at the Warren Golf Course at Notre Dame, where the 40th U.S. Senior Open begins Thursday. “I’m at a loss in a lot of different ways. But I’m still healthy, and I’m very grateful for that.”

Winner of the 1982 U.S. Open, Watson is competing this week in his 52nd USGA championship and his 17th U.S. Senior Open, which he has never won, though he has had six top-five finishes.

He turns 70 on Sept. 4. He has no special plans to celebrate it. “What’s September 4?” he said, feigning ignorance and grinning. “You blab to the whole world I’m 70 years old on September 4? Thanks a lot.”

Having cut back on his schedule, Watson has competed just five times this year and skipped the first two senior majors. He has no idea how many more times he’ll play in this championship, but it’s clear he has a special affinity for USGA events. The influence of his dad, Ray, is woven tightly into his golfing DNA.

“It started with my father, who said, ‘If you win the U.S. Open Championship, you’ve beaten the best field on the toughest golf course you’re going to play.’ And so when I was a kid growing up, it was a U.S. Open, that was the tournament I wanted to win,” he said. “It still is.”

The major championship that came to define him was the British Open, which he won on five occasions. Three times he won the senior version among 14 titles on the PGA Tour Champions. That why he serves as global ambassador for the Open Championship and just two weeks ago played in an outing at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, site of this year’s championship.

Watson seems to be enjoying more the ceremonial aspects of being an elder statesman. In 2017, he didn’t play in any of the four majors for the first time in his career. He stepped away from the game for all but six starts last year as his wife Hilary battled pancreatic cancer. She now is in remission.

Bettmann

This is not to say Watson doesn’t still work at it. He played nine holes at the Warren Course on Wednesday and then beat a couple of bags of balls, searching for a more reliable swing. He hit more than a dozen balls out of a divot with a utility club, making the challenge even more difficult by bumping the ball up against the back of the impression.

“If you can hit it solid out of a divot, you should be able to hit it solid with a good lie,” he reasoned.

He just can’t generate the length he once enjoyed. Remember, almost 70.

During the practice round, he sidled up to Darren Clarke, who is 50 and playing in his first U.S. Senior Open, and said to him, “I’ll pay you for it.” Clarke was puzzled. “I’ll pay you a lot of money,” Watson told him, “for 50 more yards.”

Watson’s U.S. Open triumph came at Pebble Beach. The Kansas native drew special satisfaction from watching Gary Woodland, another Kansas native, take the 119th U.S. Open two weeks ago on the Monterey Peninsula.

“I haven’t had a chance to talk with him,” Watson said of Woodland. “I Tweeted out, ‘I was extremely pleased as a fellow Kansan. We Kansans have a special affinity for the 17th hole at Pebble Beach.’”

Woodland chipped from off the far side of the putting green to within two feet to save par on the 17th hole in Sunday’s final round to preserve his lead.

In 1982, tied with Nicklaus, Watson sent his tee shot on the famous par-3 hole over the back-left portion of the green. Now short-sided, he appeared headed for a bogey but instead chipped in for birdie after having told his caddie, Bruce Edwards, that he could make it, orchestrating one of the most memorable shots in U.S. Open history.

Watson and Nicklaus, who won the 1972 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach among his record-tying four titles, were among 32 living U.S. Open champions who gathered at Pebble on the Tuesday before this year’s championship for a reunion celebration at the Beach Club just off Stillwater Cove. That was something. That was special. You could tell just from reading Watson’s eyes as he spoke about the occasion.

“It was delightful to be there with 32 out of 36 living U.S. Open champions,” he said. “We had a chance to mingle and talk, and the old guys got to talk with the young guys, the young guys got to talk with the old guys. Jack and I were co-hosting, and when I got up to speak, I said, Jack, I’m sorry to do this, but just look over my shoulder here.”

Nicklaus didn’t catch on at first. Watson was pointing out the window behind him at the 17th green.

The post Tom Watson will soon break 70 — in age — but he is still animated by playing in USGA championships appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Jack Nicklaus’ son, Gary, whose own son GT was his caddie, birdied the final two holes to post a score of 70 that got him into a three-man playoff for one spot with Lance Ten Broeck and Don Bell. Gary won the playoff on the first extra hole.

“I am super excited about playing,” Nicklaus said. “I have been looking forward to this tournament all year. I had a chance earlier this week in New York to get into the U.S. Open and I failed to do so. To come back just a few days later and do this at my home course means a great deal.   “I think the whole scene today was punctuated by being able to enjoy such a moment at my home club, with my son on the bag and my parents and friends there in the gallery. It was a great day and hopefully I can carry it over to the championship at Notre Dame. I never thought a Buckeye from Ohio State could be this happy about going to Notre Dame.”

Proud of son Gary who qualified today for #USSeniorOpen! Gary, a senior rookie, was even thru 16 in qualifier at The Bear’s Club, heard he needed 2-under 70 to get in playoff for last of 2 spots & birdied last 2 holes. Won 3-man playoff on 1st hole!
Caddie (son GT) needs haircut! pic.twitter.com/pybP2jlj7k

— Jack Nicklaus (@jacknicklaus) June 7, 2019

Last summer, Nicklaus qualified for the U.S. Amateur. He turned professional for the second time in his career later that year. He has played in three PGA Tour Champions events.

“I have struggled with tendinitis in my left elbow, and to be honest it’s been pretty annoying,” he said. “That, combined with limited starts on the PGA Tour Champions, have kept me from gaining any consistency and confidence in my game. But being able to birdie my last two holes to get into a playoff, and then to win the playoff against two very talented players, gives me some much-needed confidence and momentum.

“I’m pleased and excited for a number of reasons. I’ve always enjoyed the USGA championships, and the opportunities I have had to play in the U.S. Junior, U.S. Amateur, Mid-Am and the U.S. Open. Now I have earned a chance to play in the U.S. Senior Open in my first year of being eligible.”

The post Jack Nicklaus’ son Gary Nicklaus qualifies for the U.S. Senior Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Welcome to the Dew Sweeper, your one-stop shop to catch up on the weekend action from the golf world. From the professional tours, trending news, social media headlines and upcoming events, here’s every golf-related thing you need to know for the morning of July 2.

Molinari puts on clinic at Quicken Loans National
Got to feel for the field at TPC Potomac. Temperatures in the area hovered in the mid-90s most of the weekend, with humidity making it feel like triple digits. Conditions brutal in their own right. Especially so when you’re playing for second.

That’s what the Quicken Loans National was rendered to thanks to Francesco Molinari, who lapped his competition by a whopping eight shots with a final-round 62.

Related: Alex Noren sneaks off with the French Open

“Amazing, amazing. I still haven’t realized what happened today,” Molinari said. “It was a lot easier than I thought. I played great. The start of the back nine was incredible. Really proud of what I’ve done, and I hope a lot of guys back home [in Italy] are watching tonight.”

The 35-year-old is noted as one of the best ball-strikers in the game, and it was his second-shot prowess that propelled him at Potomac with a tournament-best 9.8 strokes gained/approach figure. Coupled with keeping the big numbers at bay (just two bogeys on the week), it was smooth sailing for the 17th-ranked player in the world.

Technically it’s Molinari’s first PGA Tour victory; he captured the 2010 WGC-HSBC Champions, but it was not a tour-sanctioned event until 2013. Conversely, perhaps the display should have been expected, as Molinari had won the BMW PGA Championship and finished second at the Italian Open in the past month. Other notables included Beau Hossler, who followed a Travelers’ runner-up with a T-6, a 12th-place finish from Rickie Fowler, and a T-4 from a certain 14-time major winner…

Rob Carr

Woods gets back on track
Since stirring runs at Innisbrook and Bay Hill, Tiger Woods hadn’t been particularly formidable. There were flashes at Muirfield Village and Sawgrass, but the 42-year-old posted just one top-20 finish since the Arnold Palmer Invitational, including a missed cut at the U.S. Open. That trend looked to continue after a so-so opening round at the Quicken Loans. However, Tiger delivered an inspiring response, playing his final 54 holes 11-under par, good enough for a T-4 finish.

As that standing suggests, there were plenty of positives for Tiger. His 21 birdies tied for a tournament-best, his iron game remained steady (T-7 in greens in regulation), and he made a handful of bombs on the dance floors. In that same breath, his short game continued to frustrate, as he finished dead last in putting inside 10 feet. And though the 21 birdies were impressive, they also underlined Tiger’s inability to avoid bogeys, given Molinari, who also had 21 birds, finished 10 shots ahead.

“I’ve hit the ball well in this stretch, I just haven’t made anything,” Woods said. “I’m starting to hit some putts, I’m starting to make those putts you’re supposed to make from 10, 15 feet, but I’m also making some from outside 20.”

Nevertheless, it was a solid final tune-up before the Open. Woods has a nice track record at Carnoustie, and it’s historically a major where shaky putters can excel. In short, might want to snag those 25-1 claret jug odds while you can.

Rob Carr

Tiger’s USGA jab
Mike Davis and the USGA have taken their share of body blows for losing Shinnecock Hills, again, at this year’s U.S. Open. Judging by Woods’ roundabout jab on Sunday, those punches aren’t stopping anytime soon.

Following his fourth round, Woods was asked his thoughts on the upcoming Open Championship at Carnoustie. Tiger shared his experiences with the venerable links—he has finished 3rd and 12th at two previous Carnoustie Opens—which led to the following on commentary on the R&A, and what could be interpreted as an indictment on the USGA:

“One of the neat things about playing about the Open Championship, they don’t care what par is,” Woods said at TPC Potomac. “They let whatever Mother Nature has…if it’s in store for a wet Open, it is, if it is dry, it’s dry. They don’t try to manufacture an Open.”

When asked a follow-up if that was a shot at the USGA, Woods replied, “Come again?” and when the question was repeated, a handler escorted Woods away, saying, “I heard ya,” with a smile.

He’s not wrong, and certainly not alone in his USGA assessment. Still, bold move, considering Woods might have to rely on an exemption into the Pebble Beach field next year.

Gregory Shamus

Park snaps sophomore slump with PGA win
After sharing Player of the Year honors as an LPGA rookie, it had been a disappointing second go-around for Sung Hyun Park on tour this season, missing the cut in five of 12 events with just two top-20 finishes. But, after her Sunday performance, it’s clear that Park has snapped the dreaded sophomore slump. Park beat So Yeon Ryu and Nasa Hataoka in a playoff to win the KPMG PGA Championship for his second career major.

Park, who didn’t make a bogey over the final 30 holes, turned in a final-round 69 at Kemper Lakes to earn a spot in overtime. On the first playoff hole—the 18th, which had only been birdied once throughout the entire day—both Park and Ryu made red numbers to advance. Following a brief weather delay, the two came back on the 16th, where Park’s 10-foot birdie sealed the deal.

Fitting, as the 16th was also the site of a phenomenal up-and-down from the hazard that kept her in the running:

WOW! This is the definition of clutch at the @KPMGWomensPGA! pic.twitter.com/QyFVA1OXAc

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) July 1, 2018

A showing that brought the usually-stoic Park to tears.

“Even though it was a really tough year, I think I did really good play this week,” Park said, “and I think all the work I’ve done has paid off today. That’s what really made me cry.

“Actually this is my first time feeling like this kind of emotion, like being this emotional, and I was really happy.”

Robert Laberge

Toms wins U.S. Senior Open
David Toms picked a good time to break through on the Champions circuit. The 2001 Wanamaker winner closed with an even-par 70 at the Broadmoor to win the U.S. Senior Open by one over Jerry Kelly, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Tim Petrovic.

“First of all, it’s been a long time, obviously, the last time I held a trophy,” Toms said. “To do it in a USGA event is even more special. I didn’t really have the patience for U.S. Open searly in my career. I get better at it as my career went on. Never won one, but I got close. To finally have one, just means my patience is probably where it needs to be, finally.”

The tournament was up for grabs late into Sunday night, as six different competitors held the lead at one point on the final nine. Paul Goydos held the lead after a birdie at the 15th but stumbled with bogeys on the last two holes to finish two back. And it certainly wasn’t a flawless display from Toms, who hit just eight greens on the day. However, Toms’ putter saved the day, as the 51-year-old rolled in a birdie on the 16th, converted a difficult par save at the 17th and made work of a two-putt par on the closing hole for the W.

The post Tiger’s strong Open tune-up (and jab at the USGA), Molinari laps the field and Toms, Park win majors: What you missed this weekend appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege

Jerry Kelly was cruising, a wire-to-wire victory in the U.S. Senior Open has crept into the realm of possibility when he magnanimously reopened the outcome to a host of players.

Kelly squandered a three-stroke lead early on the back nine on the East Course at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., and will go into Sunday’s final round with a one-stroke lead over David Toms.

On the 12th green, Kelly missed a two-foot par putt, then a three-foot bogey putt and made a double-bogey five. That and a bogey two holes earlier, dropped him into a tie with his University of Hartford teammate, Tim Petrovic.

“I definitely worked for it today,” Kelly said of his one-over par 71. “I still felt like I hit the ball just good enough to shoot a good score, but two three-putts, one of them from about two-and-a-half feet, that one sticks in your craw a little bit.

Kelly, who at one time was seven-under par, completed 54 holes in four-under 206. Petrovic bogeyed the 15th, 17th and 18th holes, also shot a 71 and trails by two, as does Kirk Triplett following a round of two-under 68.

“I didn’t really make any putts to speak of,” Petrovic said. “I took my medicine coming in. I put myself in a bad spot on 17 and 18. Sometimes, especially in majors, you have to take your medicine and live to fight another day.”

Toms, a former PGA Championship winner, made the strongest move up the leaderboard by virtue of his four-under par 66.

“I kept the ball in play and obviously my irons are pretty good,” Toms said. “I had a lot of opportunities today. I misjudged a couple of clubs and was able to get it up and down. Hit a couple of chips that I thought really had a chance. Obviously, it’s the U.S. Open. You can get in a lot of bad spots out there. I avoided those, and hopefully, I can do the same tomorrow.”

Toms, 51, has yet to win in 34 previous PGA Tour Champions starts.

On Thursday, Kelly said, “I’m a fairly jumpy putter, there’s no doubt about it. I’m a very good putter, but I can look kind of foolish at times, too.” The 12th hole was one of those moments.

“I knew what I did,” he said. “Sometimes I pick the putter up and that’s what I did on all of those.”

The post Jerry Kelly stumbles, but holds onto a one-stroke lead over David Toms in the U.S. Senior Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
Laughter is the best medicine, so they say. Dottie Pepper, at least, was laughing, though nervously so, in the wake of her memorable close encounter of the weird kind.

A decade ago, during the third round of the U.S. Senior Open on the East Course at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., Pepper, in her role as an on-course reporter for NBC, came face to face—close enough, anyway—with a black bear.

“Kid,” NBC’s resident raconteur and comedian Roger Maltbie said during a commercial break when the threat had passed, “you picked the wrong day to wear white.”

Bada boom.

The U.S. Senior Open returns to The Broadmoor this week, and though Pepper won’t be there, her story is worth revisiting, given that the black bear was the most memorable part of the championship.

We say this with no disrespect intended for the winner, Eduardo Romero, also known as El Gato, the Cat. Hey, in the food chain, a bear is higher than a cat.

The Broadmoor sits at the base of Cheyenne Mountain (home of NORAD, incidentally), and wildlife abounds—deer, mountain lions, foxes, snakes and, yes, bears.

“We’d been told that they were around,” Pepper said from her home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on Tuesday. “It was discussed in the production meeting and we were kind of told what not to do, like, ‘don’t run.’

“I heard throughout the week they had been making their presence known in the compound. A mom and a couple of her cubs were in the dumpster every morning. We knew that. It was drought conditions, and they were coming further down the mountains to get food.

“Obviously, we know they’re out there. We were hearing while on the air that there was a bear seen over by [hole] No. 11 or 12.”

Pepper wanted more assurance that it was not in her vicinity.

“Guys, tell me again, where’s that bear?” she asked those in the production trailer.

“Oh, don’t worry, Dottie, it’s going in the opposite direction.” The opposite direction of whom?

Pepper was on the left side of the 13th fairway when the bear came charging over a rise and straight toward her.

“I look up, and thank God we were in commercial break,” she said. “Here he comes full tilt, and he’s coming right at me. ‘It’s the bear! It’s the bear!’ He was making a deadbeat for me.”

She dropped her yardage book and tentatively began to run. “Then I remembered, you’re not supposed to run,” she said.

The bear eventually passed by and then through the fans on the left-hand side of the fairway—“they split like the Red Sea,” she said—and eventually made its way through the West Course and back into the wilderness.

“It scared me, but also made me realize his fur is kind of moving with him. It was so perfectly shiny, sort of like black, but you didn’t know if it was black, purple or green. It was so big, so fast and so beautiful.

“Everyone else was laughing their tails off, and I had this nervous laugh. Gary [Koch, another NBC broadcaster] said that it could have been really bad. It hit me that night when that clip opened on [ESPN’s] SportsCenter, how big he was. I could have died. It might have seemed funny at the time, but I didn’t sleep well that night.”

Pepper has a photo of the bear closing on her hanging on a wall in her home, as does Bernhard Langer, who was in the 13th fairway and was a nearby witness to the harrowing scene.

Anyone familiar with Pepper’s playing career would likely recall how fierce a competitor she was. I noted in my story for Golf World that week, “the bear might rue the day were it to have tangled with the famously feisty Pepper.”

Thankfully for Pepper, and the bear, we’ll never know.

The post Dottie Pepper recalls her harrowing encounter with a black bear at the 2008 U.S. Senior Open at the Broadmoor appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
A bad right knee will keep John Daly out of this week’s U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo. Well, a bad right knee and what Daly believes is a bad ruling by golf’s governing body.

On Monday morning the USGA announced that Daly had withdrawn from the championship due to a knee injury. The two-time major champ, however, took to Twitter to clarify the announcement with the following message:

“I had to WD from the U.S. Senior Open. The deteriorating osteoarthritis isn’t helping my rt knee,” Daly wrote. “I fall under the ADA National but USGA turned down a cart for me this week. Just going to give the knee a rest. Don’t know what’s ahead for me.”

Unfortunately— I had to WD from the US SENIOR OPEN. The deteriorating osteoarthritis isn’t helping my rt knee. I fall under the @ADANational but @USGA turned down a cart for me this week. Just going to give the knee a rest. Don’t know what’s ahead for me. https://t.co/Bna5maK13P

— John Daly (@PGA_JohnDaly) June 25, 2018

USGA rules state: “Consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a disabled player or caddie may be permitted to use a golf cart as an accommodation to his or her disability for those events where golf carts are not allowed. As required by the ADA, the USGA will evaluate such requests on a case-by-case basis.” Following Daly’s tweet, the USGA issued a series of tweets regarding the Daly decision, beginning with this short explanation:

On Daly's withdrawal: Each request is reviewed individually. We respect the privacy of all players and cannot discuss any medical conditions. We offered Mr. Daly the opportunity to provide additional information to support his request. He decided to withdraw this morning.

— USGA PR (@USGA_PR) June 25, 2018

Then a link alerting people how to file for the use of a golf cart in competition:

For more information on how to request a cart for medical reasons at any USGA championship, click here: https://t.co/20jug8Lg7N

— USGA PR (@USGA_PR) June 25, 2018

And a longer statement regarding Daly’s situation, which also indicates Scott Verplank will be allowed to use a golf cart for this week’s championship.:

Full statement below: pic.twitter.com/sPeAzdyGhL

— USGA PR (@USGA_PR) June 25, 2018

Daly doesn’t appear to be pleased with the ruling against him. In the hours since announcing his WD, he’s retweeted two messages from other Twitter users saying he has the law on his side, including one that suggests that Daly take legal action against the USGA.

Of course, the most famous case like this involved former PGA Tour pro Casey Martin, who successfully sued the PGA Tour in 2001 for the right to use a golf cart under the Americans with Disabilities Act in a legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Martin, currently the men’s golf coach at the University of Oregon, was born with a circulatory disorder in his right leg known as Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber Syndrome.

During a PGA Tour Champions event in October, Daly was forced to withdraw when his right knee collapsed. He also said he hurt his knee during a freak accident in April when a woman crashed her car into his RV in an Augusta Hooters parking lot during the week of the Masters. Since then, Daly has made six starts between the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions, three of which have resulted in WDs. However, he finished T-7 at the American Family Insurance Championship, which wrapped up on Sunday.

The post John Daly withdraws from U.S. Senior Open after USGA turns down request to use a golf cart appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
As a professional athlete, few have faced — and succeeded — under pressure like John Smoltz. The Hall-of-Fame pitcher raised his game when the stakes were the highest, posting an absurd 15-4 postseason record while wielding a scant 2.67 ERA. Smoltz took the mound in three playoff Game 7s, and yet, it was a recent three-hole playoff on the golf course at a U.S. Senior Open qualifier that had him feeling nerves like never before.

“There’s things that I’ve been through in golf that baseball couldn’t even prepare me for,” Smoltz said. “You’d think that pitching three seventh games would prepare you for any kind of unnerving or nervous moments, but it was nothing like what I went through.”

Ultimately, Smoltz made it through this latest sports battle, earning a spot in the U.S. Senior Open, which will be played June 28-July 1 at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. And now Smoltz will take a break from his job as a TV analyst for MLB Network and Fox to tee it up in his first major. Although, with Fox broadcasting the event, Smoltz says he could be involved with the coverage. Regardless, the 51-year-old is pumped about getting this unexpected opportunity at competing on a big stage again.

“I’m pinching myself every time I wake up,” Smoltz said.

Smoltz joined this week’s Golf Digest Podcast to discuss that crazy day of qualifying, his intense matches with Tiger Woods through the years, a prescient prediction he made to Joe Buck, and how golf played a role in his free agency. We also talked some baseball, ranging from his Hall-of-Fame induction to his toughest loss and most surprising win. Please have a listen:

https://soundcloud.com/user-96678684/john-smoltz-bryson-dechambeaus-next-big-step-and-a-wild-us-womens-open

The post John Smoltz on qualifying for the U.S. Senior Open, playing matches with Tiger Woods, and how golf affected his free agency appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

It’s official: A former World No. 1 and multiple-time major champion will make his long-awaited return to competitive golf at the end of this year. Welcome back, Greg Norman! What, did you think we were talking about someone else? Sorry.

While Tiger Woods teases us with videos of his swing, the man who has spent the second-most weeks in the top spot of the Official World Golf Ranking has given us a date for his comeback. Well, his “one-time” comeback.

Norman will compete with his son, Greg Norman Jr., at the PNC Father-Son Challenge, which begins Dec. 13 at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando. And the two made this announcement in the form of an amusing video. Check it out:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BaDCDAWgz_y/

David Duval and stepson Nick Karavites are the defending champs in the team event that pairs a major champ with a family member.

Norman, who mainly keeps himself busy with his various business ventures and cutting down trees with chainsaws, last teed it up in a tournament at the 2012 Senior British Open when he missed the cut. He played in one other PGA Tour Champions event in 2012, a T-53 at the Constellation Senior Players Championship. Prior to that, he played in six senior events in 2009, including a T-4 at the U.S. Senior Open.

We especially love the jumping jacks and sit-ups in the video, although, judging by the Shark’s impressive physique at 62, he doesn’t need to do much to get back into golf shape.

The post Greg Norman announces his return to competitive golf with amusing video appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.