College Basketball Super Star, Catlin Clark, loves golf! Iowa guard Caitlin Clark, the national women's basketball player of the year and a golf enthusiast, will play in the pro-am of the PGA Tour's John Deere Classic on July 5. Clark will be in a group with fellow Iowan Zach Johnson, who is captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team that will face Europe later this year in Rome. Johnson, Clark and their group will compete at the TPC Deere Run course in Silvis, Illinois. After her round, Clark will participate in a youth clinic at the driving range.
Well NCAA Champion, Rose Zhang, wins her inaugural pro event in a 2 hole playoff over Jennifer Kupcho. She could have put it away on #16 when she had a short putt for birdie and pulled it. It would have put her 2 shots up with 2 to play, she ended up with a bogey on #18 letting Kupcho into the playoff. She's 20 and a 2 time NCAA Champion amongst other things. Could be a big summer for her.
OK so I thought that there couldn't be anything more depressing that watching all those talented kids pound the ball in the Drive, Pitch, and Putt contest....and then this came along! Here's a kid in MIDDLE SCHOOL who's gotten to final qualifying for the US Open. HE'S F'N 13 YEARS OLD!!!! Jaden Soong, 13-year-old golfer, makes the final round of qualifying for the U.S. Open | Daily Mail Online
Wow! I can't express how impressed I am with this guy. Good things happen to good people. Nice win on Sunday.
Sure didn't see this one coming.....lots of details yet to be announced but my understanding is that Monahan to be CEO, the Saudi as Chair with the PGA getting to select a majority of the Board, apparently DP World Tour is involved in the deal as well. Holy crap! https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/06/pga-tour-agrees-to-merge-with-saudi-backed-rival-liv-golf.html
Got to think that Koepka's victory in the PGA left the tour in a tough spot. It gave legitimacy to the LIV players and took some of the luster of their tour.
PGA Tour sold out to LIV Golf and the Saudis. Pro golf will never be the same. PGA Tour sold out to LIV, Saudis. Pro golf will never be the same.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was called a hypocrite in a heated meeting with players at Oakdale Golf and Country Club in Toronto on Tuesday, hours after the tour announced that it was forming a partnership with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the DP World Tour. Australian golfer Geoff Ogilvy told reporters that a player called Monahan a hypocrite during the meeting at the site of this week's RBC Canadian Open, which lasted for more than an hour. Monahan called 'hypocrite' by golfers in meeting
While I was not personally affected by the Saudi sponsored attack on 9.11 ( beyond having our business phones down for almost three full days ), I cannot overstate the disgust that people in the shadow of New York City feel for the PGA today. Our little town has a memorial, our neighborhood has a memorial to neighbors who went to work that day and never came home. People are still dying from the residual effects of that attack. The NFL has let its players mock police and disrespect the flag and anthem. The NBA jumped all over the BLM craze which has since been proven to be a big Ponzi scheme and a farce. But this about-face by the PGA is the cruelest betrayal of all. People ask how did this country reach this dilapidated, amoral crime and drug ridden state of organized ignorance and denial we find ourselves in. Well, it was not any landmark decision or life changing event. It was a thousand little concessions made over the last six decades to the lunatic fringe which culminated in this hot mess.
I'm deeply disappointed as well. Monahan had maneuvered the Tour into a tough spot tho surely he must have had better, more principled options but my guess is that for the rank and file tour pro, this is probably a good thing from an economic standpoint. The Tour was never going to be able to outlast the Saudis bottomless checkbook in never ending rounds of legal battles but there has to have been another path to negotiate than outright capitulation. He took the easy way out, negotiated a route that lined his personal coffers with gold, he could sell to the rank and file as beneficial and sold out those like McIlroy, Wood, et al that turned down a fortune for a more principled stand. I'm with Rory, not a Monahan fan right now
I don't know what was going on in the background on this. It's possible that the networks told the tour that they were considering giving a contract to LIV and that if a merger was possible, this might be the best time for them. You have to feel for the guys that were caught between cash and tradition. As long as there seemed like a moral reason for avoiding the Saudis it was probably palatable but after making their stand, the leadership betrayed them. Rory's my guy from now on.
The reasons I didn't watch LIV golf is now the reason I won't watch the PGA. I will wait and see the details but I can't imagine a more hypocritical reversal.