The post ‘A first for me’: After bizarre penalty, Luke Donald still in hunt at Ryder Cup host site appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘A first for me’: After bizarre penalty, Luke Donald still in hunt at Ryder Cup host site appeared first on Golf.

Former World No. 1 Luke Donald was only four strokes off Rory McIlroy’s lead at the halfway point of this week’s Italian Open. That’s impressive on its own for a player who is 44 years old and one year away from captaining the European Ryder Cup team.

But his position would have been a whole lot more impressive if not for a rare rules infraction on Friday that cost him a couple of precious strokes.

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This week’s Italian Open is being played at Marco Simone, which happens to be the host venue for next year’s Ryder Cup. That made it a no-brainer for Donald — who was chosen to replace original European captain Henrik Stenson after Stenson defected to LIV Golf — to play, providing him a thorough look at the course and allowing him to keep a close eye on his potential Ryder Cup team members.

Few thought Donald would have any chance to contend, but by Friday morning he was firmly in the mix. After shooting 69 in Round 1, he made par on his first hole in Friday’s second round, the 10th, before reeling off three-straight birdies to reach five under and challenge for the lead.

Then something happened that mid-handicappers might be familiar with, but what Donald called “a first for me” in a Twitter post after his round: he played the wrong golf ball.

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“I did something I don’t think I’ve ever done in golf. I hit the wrong ball on 16, which was, yeah, frustrating,” Donald shared with reporters after the round, “I hit a poor tee shot left in the rough. The spotter kind of went straight to the ball and I just assumed it was mine and mine was a few feet left of it. Yeah, it was a costly 7.”

Playing the wrong ball is obviously a major no-no in the rules of golf, and in Donald’s case it resulted in a two-shot penalty, turning a bogey-5 on the par-4 16th hole into a triple-bogey 7.

As he alluded to in his post-round press conference, Donald could have avoided his fate by making use of Rule 12-2, and lifting his ball to identify it and ensure it was his own before hitting it without penalty.

Alas, he didn’t, but he did realize his error before finishing off 16, which was crucial; had he started the next hole playing the wrong ball, he would have been disqualified.

Fortunately for Donald, he did notice, fixed the error, then went on to birdie five of his next eight holes to get back into contention.

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The post Could LIV golfers qualify for Team Europe in the Ryder Cup? We found out more today appeared first on Golf.

The post Could LIV golfers qualify for Team Europe in the Ryder Cup? We found out more today appeared first on Golf.

The first indications of what the 2023 Ryder Cup will look like have started to take shape as Europe announced important changes to its qualification process Tuesday. 

For the 2023 Cup, captain Luke Donald will make SIX captain’s picks, double what previous captain Padraig Harrington was allotted in 2021. The European team will feature six automatic qualifiers in addition to those six picks via its long-used European Points and World Points lists.

The move to six captain’s picks was first made by Steve Stricker during the 2021 Cup for the USA, which was widely praised as it helped result in a record-setting 19-9 victory for the Americans at Whistling Straits. The U.S. will maintain the same system with the upcoming 2022 Presidents Cup, captained by Davis Love III.

“These changes to the qualification process for Team Europe follow in-depth analysis with the team at Ryder Cup Europe and with Thomas [Bjorn] and Edoardo [Molinari],” Donald said in a press release. “I’m delighted that when we presented our thoughts to the Tournament Committee, they were 100 percent behind them.”

The decision comes amid great consternation over who will be involved with Europe, considering the recent launch of LIV Golf. It was just last month that Henrik Stenson was the European captain but lost his position with the team when he signed with the upstart league. Donald assumed the post just 12 days later, saying, “Some of my best experiences in golf have been in the Ryder Cup and I would not swap those for anything.”

A major question follows if LIV golfers will be able to qualify for the team. It can be reasonably expected that, at this moment, LIV golfers will not earn a captain’s pick from Donald. But can they still qualify on points? There is no announced stipulation barring them from that path onto the team.

At next week’s BMW Championship, where Ryder Cup qualifying begins, there will be 18 LIV golfers in the field. If, say, Sergio Garcia wins that event, it will go a long way to his qualifying for the 2023 Ryder Cup. The same goes for major championships in 2023, which will award the most points (6,000), followed by the Rolex Series events, which are played on the DP World Tour. But European Points will only be awarded to active DP World Tour members who maintain their membership, and World Points (distributed via the World Golf Ranking) will not be awarded to events held during the same week as a Rolex Series event. (In other words, LIV Golf’s schedule of events would want to be wary of the DP World Tour’s biggest events as well.)

But yes, on paper, a high-performing LIV golfer who is also a DP World Tour member, hails from Europe and plays well in Rolex Series events and major championships will seemingly have a chance to qualify for the Ryder Cup team. There is zero specific wording in Team Europe’s press release that bans LIV golfers from qualifying. That said, the competition for those spots has always been fierce, and now there are just fewer spots to go around.

The top three players on the European Points list in 2021 were Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton, who each played very well on the DP World Tour that summer. The top three others on the World Points list were Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland and Paul Casey. Since that World Points list is compiled via world ranking points, mostly dominated by PGA Tour events, which LIV golfers are suspended from playing, it is highly unlikely a LIV golfer would qualify via the World Points list.

More plainly, for a LIV golfer to qualify automatically, they’d need to be one of the three best European players in DP World Tour events and major championships. But many of them are running out of time. Their world world golf rankings continue to decay over time by not competing on a tour that awards them. The Masters tournament awards lifetime exemptions for its past champions, many of which are LIV golfers. But the PGA Championship, U.S. Open and British Open entry qualifications are not as favorable.

To continue the aforementioned example, could Sergio Garcia outperform Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick and many other of the best European pros in the world in specific events that reward qualification points, littered across a schedule that also includes double-digit LIV golf events? Of course it’s possible, but rather unlikely. 

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The post Luke Donald replaces Henrik Stenson as Ryder Cup captain after LIV defection appeared first on Golf.

The post Luke Donald replaces Henrik Stenson as Ryder Cup captain after LIV defection appeared first on Golf.

The European Ryder Cup committee has named a successor to Henrik Stenson, and they weren’t willing to wait for the champagne to dry on Stenson’s first LIV Golf win to do it.

On Monday, the committee named Luke Donald the new European Ryder Cup captain for next fall in Rome, ushering in the longtime PGA Tour pro and former World No. 1 into the head role just hours after Stenson completed his first LIV event.

“Some of my best experiences in golf have been in the Ryder Cup and I would not swap those for anything,” Donald said in a statement clearly directed at Stenson and other LIV Golf Ryder Cup hopefuls. “I love everything the Ryder Cup embodies, from the camaraderie and companionship of being part of a team, to the history of the contest, but most of all playing for something bigger than yourself.”

To date, the debate over the rival league’s eligibility in the biennial event has proven one of golf’s most controversial topics. LIV’s players have repeatedly used their press conference time to lobby for their inclusion in the Ryder Cup, while the tournament’s organizers have offered pointed criticisms of the new league and expressed doubt over changes to the eligibility requirements that would allow LIV players to compete. (The current U.S. and European Ryder Cup eligibility rules require players to compete in PGA Tour and DP World Tour events in order to earn the points necessary to qualify.)

Stenson, who was named the European captain in March for next fall’s matches in Rome, represents the clearest sign yet of the challenges facing members of the upstart league in earning their way to Rome. The 46-year-old Swede was stripped of his captaincy just days after his decision to join LIV Golf for a reported $40 million signing bonus.

“As many of you have already seen, unfortunately my decision to play in LIV events has triggered Ryder Cup Europe to communicate that it is not possible for me to continue in my role as Ryder Cup captain,” he later said in a statement. “While I disagree with the decision, for now it is a decision that I have to accept.”

Stenson went on to win his first LIV event on Sunday in Bedminster, taking a victory lap around Ryder Cup brass in the process.

“I guess we can agree I played like a captain,” he told reporters afterward.

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Donald joins a European side in upheaval after last fall’s shellacking at Whistling Straits and this summer’s host of LIV defections from longtime stalwarts. In some ways, the LIV disruption could make life easier for team Europe, who will likely look to grow younger and hungrier in 2023. As part of his captaincy announcement, Donald confirmed that both existing European assistant captains — Thomas Bjorn and Edoardo Molinari — will remain in their posts.

Donald is undefeated in four Ryder Cup appearances (’04, ’06, ’10 and ’12), owning a 10-4-1 lifetime record in the event.

The 2023 Ryder Cup is currently scheduled for September 25-October 1, 2023 at Marco Simone Golf Club in Rome, Italy.

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The post Tour Confidential: Course-setup rage, LPGA outlook, wild caddie moves appeared first on Golf.

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Check in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in the sport, and join the conversation by tweeting us @golf_com. This week, we break down course-setup comments by Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, the LPGA’s season-opener, wild caddie moves and more.  

1. At the PGA Tour’s American Express (won by Hudson Swafford), world No. 1 Jon Rahm, in a fan video published to social media, was overheard saying to his caddie: “Piece of [expletive] setup. Putting contest week.” This comes on the heels of record low scores at the year-opening Tournament of Champions and a birdie blitz last week at the Sony Open. Is Rahm right? In scorable conditions, do PGA Tour events simply come down to who’s putting best — and, if so, is there anything wrong with that?

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Sean Zak, senior editor (@sean_zak): Yes, he’s right. And this is bound to bother Rahm more than any other player in the world, simply because he’s the best player in the world. He has routinely shown that when conditions are tough, when courses are difficult, he’s going to finish in the top 10. Cream rising to the top, they say. There’s nothing wrong with this happening at a handful of events over the course of the season. The issue is that it happens too often. Where players are not asked to work the ball both ways, to make difficult club choices off every tee box, to use different trajectories into greens. Organizers of the event seem to love the PGA West setup, though. This isn’t changing. 

Michael Bamberger, senior writer: No, all golf scoring is interconnected. The putting contest is grounded in how close you hit it. How close you hit it is related to where you hit your tee shots. BUT I totally understand what Rahm is saying. The harder the course, the smaller the number of people who can win. These desert courses are as easy as it gets, on Tour. That’s OK.

Josh Sens, senior writer (@joshsens): And on that note, remember when PGA West first hosted a Tour event in the ’80s? A bunch of pros thought it was tough to the point of being unfair. They wanted no part of it on a Tour rota.

Nick Piastowski, senior editor (@nickpia): I get what he was saying. It should first be noted that his putting misses in the third round were particularly brutal — shoot, even the Tour tweeted out a video of them — so he was running hot. But I agree with Michael. The putts were dropping more, because players were hitting fairways and greens more. It’s easier to do so on some courses, and that becomes a different style of golf. Not every course is supremely difficult, nor do I think we want every one to be. Now, if they’re all easy …  

2. On the DP World Tour, more course-setup consternation! After making a 9 in the third round on the 646-yard par-5 18th hole at Yas Links, Tyrrell Hatton said of the hole: “What’s wrong with it? Where do you start? It shouldn’t have a bunker in the middle of the fairway, and it shouldn’t be over 600 yards from a forward tee. If you hit a good drive as a pro, you should have at least a chance to go for the green in two, otherwise the hole becomes a par-3, and that’s if you play it well. Hardly anyone will get there in two with the wind even slightly against you.” Let’s set aside Hatton’s gripe with this specific hole and instead discuss his wider point about par-5s. Should all pros, with a good drive, have a chance to reach every par-5 in two?

Zak: I have no issue with a true three-shotter, so long as each of those shots have some level of difficulty layered within them. If the setup that day implies that it’ll take three good ones to reach the putting surface, so be it. The player’s placement anywhere on any hole should always leave some question remaining, whether it’s a risk-reward decision or a discussion on the best angle to hit the approach from. I’m not sure if Yas’ 18th does that, but this YouTube clip says it routinely plays into the wind, so perhaps it might need to be altered from 646 yards. That’s a lot. 

Bamberger: The par-5 is dead. It had a good run.

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Sens: Hatton’s frustration was clouding his thinking there. Nothing wrong with a three-shot par-5, as long as the second shot requires some thinking and execution. The worst par-5s are holes that ask you only to advance your ball on the second shot, with no other considerations. 

Piastowski: Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with a three-shot par-5, but like Sean and Josh said, it should have some creativity mixed in, and not just driver, iron, wedge, putt, putt. And from just a look at the scoring, the hole did play difficult — after all, Hatton took the nine on it. 

3. On the LPGA Tour, Danielle Kang, behind a final-round 68, held off a star-studded field to win the season-opening Tournament of Champions. Also of note on Sunday, world No. 1 Nelly Korda, who entered the round with the lead, stumbled to a three-over 75. Takeaways from week 1?

Zak: Kang has an infectious personality, and I’d love to see her fight for the No. 1 spot in the world ranking. So it’s hard for me to have a takeaway that doesn’t involve wanting this to be a 2022 launching point for her. My only other takeaway is that the frivolity of music playing in the background and all the celebs getting involved kinda makes it feel like an all-star showcase. Why can’t we bring it to Hawaii during the first week of the year, alongside the men?

Sens: That Nelly is human.

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Bamberger: And golf is hard, and four days of it harder yet.

Piastowski: The depth of the women’s game right now is fantastic. Nelly will win her share, but I think we’re going to see a lot of winners this year. 

4. Luke Donald, according to an exclusive report from the Daily Mail, is in line to be named the next European Ryder Cup captain. The report claims that 2020 captain Padraig Harrington, a key member of the five-man committee that chooses Europe’s captain, has given “a ringing endorsement” to Donald’s potential captaincy. Wise choice? And who’s your early pick to helm the American side?

Zak: Donald is a sound choice. He’s squarely in that aging-out-but-still-around-to-compete bracket that seems to bode well for captainship. They weren’t going to make a bad choice. European temperaments are too kind. As for the Americans, the game would be better off with Fred Couples as RC captain, even if that ship has sailed. Zach Johnson seems to be next in line, but he’s still playing a very full schedule. Phil Mickelson is showing no signs of stopping. Tiger is, I think, incapable right now, all due respect. I think Jim Furyk has my vote, huh? 

Sens: Sean’s right about Donald. He’s in that sweet spot. Respected veteran. Ryder Cup experience. Past his peak, competitively. Unless he’s been living in the U.S. so long that we can count on him as a double agent? Agreed that Johnson will be at the American helm. 

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Bamberger: Oh, that’s funny. I’d have preferred to see Rory McIlroy as a playing captain, and Johnson — Dustin Johnson — doing the same on the other side. The event should require playing captains, and no assistants. As is, the captains and the “vice” captains clearly have way too much time on their hands.

Piastowski: Donald is fine. Does Lee Westwood then make the team at 50? As for the Americans, Fred Couples would be my choice. The team will need a cool head in the room when it heads to Italy. But no matter what happens, the captains for the 2025 event have to be Mickelson and Poulter. Those two, with a New York crowd. Love it.  

5. In a bizarre scene during the American Express’ third round, Lee Hodges, tied for the lead at the time, was pulled off a shot by his caddie — in the middle of his backswing. While it turned out to be the right move — Hodges hit the green and birdied the hole — Golf Channel analysts Trevor Immelman and John Cook both said they had never seen such a thing. What’s the boldest move you’ve seen from a Tour caddie?

Zak: Well, there’s Kessler Karain’s dust-up with an Australian spectator during the President’s Cup in 2019 that literally banned him from finishing the competition. But in the lighter category, I loved when Austin Johnson went to retrieve a ball of his brother’s from a hazard (he had to; DJ wasn’t done with the hole yet) and kept his shoes on when he jumped into the water. They were on the 4th hole when it happened, so it made for a squeaky afternoon. 

Sens: What year was it when Brian Stuard’s caddie quit mid-round in Reno? Oh, right, Google tells me it was 2014. That took some chutzpah, as no one on the Tour says.

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Bamberger: Well, Tom Watson’s not on Tour, but his Yiddish is solid. I’m going to leave out the names here, but a long time ago, a caddie quit on a player after he whiffed in the woods and didn’t count it. The player said it wasn’t a whiff — he had aborted his swing. The caddie begged to differ.

Piastowski: I just want to talk more about that move. For anyone who doubts the value of a good caddie, watch the video. He wasn’t just carrying the bag. He was his coach out there. And he legitimately put his job on the line to do so.  

6. In a three-part series on GOLF.com this week, our Michael Bamberger sung the praises of nine-hole golf. What the best, most memorable and/or most fun nine-hole experience you’ve encountered?

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Zak: I need to get this answer written before Dethier logs on. The Valliere nine at Morfontaine was never promised to us, but it came at the end of our playing the 18-hole course. With the sun setting, we were reaching that afternoon golf nirvana where you’re desperate to just … keep … going. Thankfully, a member had joined us and invited us out for the original nine holes constructed on the property. It felt like we were cheating by getting an extra nine holes, but I remember them way more than the other 18. All of them were extremely scorable, Dylan nearly made an ace, I made an eagle, and we capped it off with a quiet beer on the terrace. An experience I’m probably incapable of recreating. 

Sens: Hard to beat Northwood, an Alister Mackenzie nine-holer north of San Francisco. Cut through the redwoods, with such an easy-going atmosphere that visibility is sometimes clouded by a cannabis haze. But I also highly recommend Gleneagles, in San Francisco. Great throwback. Bay views. Compelling test. (Lee Trevino called it one of the toughest nine-holers he ever encountered.) And frequented by time-capsule San Francisco characters.

Bamberger: The nine-hole par-3 course at Augusta National is memorable and beautiful. If you play it with one ball, you’re doing some golfing. I needed one sleeve and part of another. The nine-holer in Edgartown, Mass., is one of my favorite courses — nine or 18 — anywhere. The nine-holer on Mackinac Island is outstanding. Golf’s so-called fifth major is the spring net championship at the St. Martins nine-hole course at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. The third green is one of the best in Philadelphia and its suburbs. Any ball on it, in approach or whole putting, seems to have a life of its own.

Piastowski: The nine holes I’d play as a kid under the twilight rate at the Milwaukee County Parks golf courses. While technically the courses were 18-holers, you could get in only nine, due to either lack of sunlight, or an increase in bug bites. But all it cost you was 5 bucks. Safe to say, it wasn’t until I was older where I played golf in the morning.  

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The pressure is going to be high at next year’s Ryder Cup in Rome, especially for Team Europe. Coming off a devastating loss to the American squad last fall at Whistling Straits, the Europeans are desperate to reclaim the Cup. And, if a recent report is true, they’re turning to surprise player to lead the team back to the winner’s circle.

According to a report by the Daily Mail, former World No. 1 Luke Donald is in line to be named as the next European Ryder Cup captain. The exclusive report claims that 2020 captain Padraig Harrington, a key member of the five-man committee that chooses Europe’s captain, has given “a ringing endorsement” to Donald’s potential captaincy.

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Many believed fellow Englishman and Ryder Cup stalwart Lee Westwood would get the captain’s nod for 2023, but the Daily Mail reports that Westwood passed on the opportunity.

Though he has fallen in the rankings in recent years, the 44-year-old Donald made history in 2011, becoming the first player to win the PGA Tour and European Tour money titles in the same year. He won two events on each Tour, and briefly ascended to the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Donald has played on four Ryder Cup teams (2004, 2006, 2010, 2012), all of which resulted in European wins. He previously served as vice captain at the last two Ryder Cups.

Donald’s selection is far from official, and the same goes for the U.S. team, who have yet to announce their captain for Rome.

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Every year, it seems, we learn some cool new insidery factoid about Augusta National and/or the Masters. Just yesterday, in fact, a video surfaced of an underground ball-feeding contraption at the practice area. Only at Augusta!

Now, thanks to Luke Donald, with a nod to Tiger Woods, we’ve learned of yet another delicious nugget. Yes, pun very much intended.

Moments after Woods’ Masters Sunday went up in flames on the 12th hole, Donald — who has played in 11 Masters — took to Twitter to delight his followers with this bit of tournament lore:

“Little known fact but the camera man in the tower behind 12 will throw you a mini chocolate bar if you give him a nod on your way to the 13th tee – Tiger may want a little sweetness to take away the sour taste in his mouth right now!!!”

Man, just when you through a trip through Amen Corner couldn’t get any sweeter.

Alas, no chocolate for Donald at this 84th Masters. The Englishman didn’t earn an invite.

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Denny McCarthy’s 2019-20 PGA Tour performance didn’t turn many heads. He finished 73rd in the FedEx Cup standings, had four top 10s and registered a season-best finish of T8. The $1,178,557 he made on the course was solid, but a far cry from the more than $20 million earned by Dustin Johnson during the same season.

But beyond McCarthy’s baseline statistics, advanced analytics show he had a historic season. He led the Tour in SG: Putting metric, gaining an average of .988 strokes per round on the greens. This performance on the greens ranks as the second-best putting season of the ShotLink era (since 2004), ranking only behind Jason Day’s ridiculous 1.13 strokes gained per round in 2016.

McCarthy led the Tour in SG: Putting last season, too, gaining .926 strokes per round. Being the leader in SG: Putting in back-to-back years is a rare feat, and one that puts him in elite company.

Luke Donald is the only other pro to lead the Tour in SG: Putting in back-to-back seasons as he took the title as the Tour’s top putter in three straight years from 2009 to 2011. Donald nearly made it four in a row at the top of the Tour in putting, but he was narrowly edged out by Brandt Snedeker in 2012.

McCarthy is off to a bit of a slow start this season in his quest to match Donald, ranking 86th in SG: Putting through two events. But considering the 27-year-old has never finished outside the top 20 during his first three seasons on Tour, it’s safe to assume he will find his groove on the greens as the season progresses.

If he putts like he has the last two seasons, he could soon write his name in the record books.

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The post GOLF’s Subpar: How Keegan Bradley started an epic pick-up basketball game with Tom Brady and Michael Jordan appeared first on Golf.

Subpar’s Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by 4-time PGA Tour winner Keegan Bradley who shares the incredible story of how he started a pick-up basketball game involving Michael Jordan and Tom Brady.

Manscaped is the official sponsor of this week’s episode. Get 20% Off + Free Shipping, with the code SUBPAR at Manscaped.com

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The post Luke Donald: Do these 2 things to hit perfect pitch shots appeared first on Golf.

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