Traveling with golf equipment is stressful because no one wants to have their gear go missing or get damaged on a golf vacation. Sadly, my clubs were lost for four days when I flew from Manchester, England, to Edinburgh, Scotland, after the 2006 British Open, which meant I played Carnoustie and The Old Course at St. Andrews with borrowed clubs while wearing running shoes.
Danielle Kang felt that stress last week because her clubs were lost for two days before the Solheim Cup in Spain started. She plays Titleist clubs, but Ping’s equipment truck was the only one on-site at Finca Cortesin, so Ping supplied Kang with equipment so she could practice until her gear (and a second set rushed and hand-delivered by Titleist Europe) arrived on Tuesday evening.
Whether you are planning a once-in-a-lifetime golf vacation to Europe or a buddy trip to Arizona, these five tips can help lower the anxiety of traveling with golf equipment.
Tiger Woods won the same stop three times in a row six different times.
Only six golfers have ever done it. It’s only happened 11 times in all on the PGA Tour and Tiger Woods has done it six of those times. On two of those occasions, Woods won the same tournament four years in a row.
We’re talking about winning the same PGA Tour event three years in a row, something that hasn’t happened in 13 years, not since the 2011 John Deere Classic.
The list of PGA Tour golfers who have won the same tournament three consecutive seasons has some big names on it, for sure. Woods, as mentioned. Jack Nicklaus was the first to do it. Many of the game’s greats never pulled off this feat, though. Tom Kim has the chance to do it at the 2024 Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas.
Check out the list of names and tournaments below. Source: pgatour.com.
Let’s take a closer look at the lefties on the PGA Tour.
About 10 percent of the U.S. population is left-handed but there has only been 17 lefties to win on the PGA Tour.
One place they can find common ground is the official website of being left-handed, lefthandersday.com, where it appears the struggle is real:
“August 13th is a chance to tell your family and friends how proud you are of being left-handed, and also raise awareness of the everyday issues that lefties face as we live in a world designed for right-handers.”
August 13, 2024, marked the 33rd annual International Lefthanders Day. On that site, you can purchase things such as left-handed scissors. For left-handed golf clubs, you’re probably better off looking elsewhere.
Fifteen non-righties have combined to win 86 times on the PGA Tour, led by you-know-who, Phil Mickelson.
With Brian Harman’s win at Royal Liverpool in 2023, there have now been three lefties to win the Open Championship, joining Bob Charles (1963) and Phil Mickelson (2013).
There’s an elite, exclusive club in the world of college golf where new members are rarely added.
There’s an elite, exclusive club in the world of college golf where new members are rarely added.
The cost to get in? A once-in-a-lifetime round. While no player has ever crossed the scoring threshold into the 50s, 19 men’s players have signed for a 60. And in 2023, the first woman joined the club.
Only one woman has ever signed for a 60 in an official college round: N.C. State’s Lauren Olivares Leon in the 2023 Cougar Classic. Seven have signed for a 61, most recently in 2024 courtesy of Mississippi State’s Avery Weed in the opening round of The Ally. Michigan’s Monet Chun fired a 61 in April 2024 at the Chattanooga Classic. Denver’s Anna Zanusso also did so at the Westbrook Invitational. Julia Johnson of Ole Miss did the same in 2019 at the Battle at the Beach. While at Gonzaga, Bianca Pagdanganan shot a 61 at the 2017 Pizza Hut Thunderbird Invitational. Before that, Colorado’s Esther Lee joined the club at the Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational in 2016. Stanford’s Mariah Stackhouse recorded the first women’s 61 at the 2013 Peg Barnard Invitational.
Take a scroll through the members of college golf’s Club 60.
Director Bill Paxton’s movie was released in theaters on Sept. 30, 2005.
The roster of strong golf movies isn’t that deep but this one is on the short list.
Director Bill Paxton brought amateur golfer Francis Ouimet’s story to the big screen on “The Greatest Game Ever Played”, released in theaters 19 years on this date, Sept. 30, 2005.
The secret weapon for Ouimet – played by Shia LaBeouf – in the 1913 U.S. Open wasn’t a particular set of clubs, nor his familiarity with the course at The Country Club, which he could see from his bedroom window.
When the amateur won the title in an upset against British veterans Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, he credited his caddie, Eddie Lowery, a 10-year-old boy who was his loudest cheerleader.
The stunning victory cemented a place for Ouimet and Lowery, as well as The Country Club, whiched hosted the 2022 U.S. Open, in golf history.
Eddie Lowery: Francis Ouimet’s caddie
A 20-year-old Brookline native who had caddied at TCC, Ouimet was fresh off a loss in the U.S. Amateur when the president of the U.S. Golf Association asked if he would play in the Open. Though he initially declined, Ouimet joined after his boss gave him time off to play.
Finding a caddie proved more difficult.
Lowery and his brother, Jack, played hooky from school to watch the play at TCC, and Jack agreed to caddie for Ouimet after the golfer’s original man bailed. When a truant officer caught Jack, however, Eddie took three street cars over to TCC and pleaded with Ouimet to take his brother’s place.
“I’ve never lost a ball,” Lowery advertised, not mentioning he had rarely caddied, according to TCC historian Frederick Waterman.
Her father was “just Dad, a very, very modest man,” and for most of their childhoods, Barbara and sister Jane – both of whom live on Cape Cod – never knew the grandness of what Francis Ouimet had accomplished as a young man.
At a time when golf was dominated by the Brits and the game was only for the elite, Ouimet and Lowery, scripted an incredible story. In the aftermath of their playoff triumph over the greatest players of the day, Britons Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, it has been said that 2 million people began playing golf in the United States, and Ouimet has been hailed as the “Father of American Golf.” A true American sports icon.
But to McLean, Francis Ouimet was the man who greeted them in the mornings at breakfast and sat at the dinner table in the evenings. “Always, he would ask, ‘How was school today?’ He never talked about himself,” McLean said.
Later, when she attended a local college, McLean said she would drive with her father from their home in Wellesley to the public-transportation stop. “He took the train to work; I took the car to my college classes. I should have been the one taking the subway.”
Ouimet served a few years in the Army, married Stella Sullivan in 1918 and opened a sporting-goods store with his brother-in-law, Jack Sullivan.
The 15th playing of the biennial bout will be held at Royal Montreal Golf Club.
The Presidents Cup was the brainchild of former PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman, the capstone of his legacy before he stepped down in June 1994.
The first Presidents Cup was played outside of Washington D.C. and former U.S. Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush were in attendance, helping to create international appeal.
The biennial competition has been a one-sided affair with the U.S. side holding a 13-1-1 record all-time. The International Team is winless since 1998.
This list is updated through the 2024 Procore Championship.
There’s a lot of money to be made in professional golf.
Tiger Woods maintains his overall lead atop the PGA Tour’s all-time money list. He is the first golfer to surpass the $120,000,000 mark in on-course career earnings and the only one over the $100 million mark.
Phil Mickelson, before departing for the LIV Golf League, surpassed the $90 million mark. Rory McIlroy is third on this list. He has gone past $90 million as well. Scottie Scheffler is now the seventh to break the $70 million mark. Jason Day was the 11th to surpass the $60 million mark. Every golfer on this top 18 list is now a member of the $50 million club.
With the bigger pots at stake in the PGA Tour’s signature events, expect a lot of movement up in the next few years on this list. There are now 83 golfers who have surpassed the $25 million mark in career on-course earnings.
With that in mind, let’s look at the top money earners of all-time, as measured by on-course winnings. Some of the names may surprise you.
Editor’s note: This list is updated through the 2024 Procore Championship.
This is the list of the longest drivers on the PGA Tour for each season since 1980, when the stat was first kept.
Who are the longest drivers on the PGA Tour?
They’ve been keeping stats on average driving distances since 1980.
In 2003, the mark of 321.4 yards was achieved by Hank Kuehne and was the standard-bearer for almost two decades. During the 2019-20 season, Bryson DeChambeau broke Kuehne’s 17-year-old mark. One year later, DeChambeau broke his own mark.
Go back to 1997, where John Daly was the first to surpass the average distance of 300 yards. In all, Daly led the Tour in driving distance 11 times.
Being a big hitter doesn’t always lead to victory. Only eight golfers on this list won a PGA Tour event in the same year they led in driving. In case you were wondering, neither Tiger Woods nor Phil Mickelson ever led the Tour in driving distance.
This is the list of the longest drivers starting in 1980 through the 2024 regular season at the Tour Championship.
Take a look at the 17 trophies the USGA hands out for its championships.
The U.S. Golf Association is conducting 17 championships in 2024.
That means the USGA will be handing out 17 trophies, from the U.S. Open to the U.S. Girls’ Junior to the Walker Cup and everything in between.
The organization notes that “as with all USGA trophies, the winner receives the trophy in a post-championship ceremony and keeps it for a year.”
Tiger Woods and Bobby Jones have the most of these trophies, as they each won nine USGA events. On the women’s side, JoAnne Carner has the most with eight.
Like many other businesses, sometimes golf courses don’t make it. Be it poor management, a shift in demographics, a lack of play or an owner’s decision to turn the land into homes or a shopping center, some layouts have simply run their course.
Often the land sits fallow for months or even years, the grass turns brown, or vegetation grows over the old fairways and greens.
Sometimes, the old golf courses are turned into parks or other public uses. In some cases, the course is saved and returned to its former glory.
Below is a collection of photos from golf courses that closed for extended periods of time.
(Editor’s note: The West Palm Beach Municipal Golf Course in Florida has reopened as The Park and Ahwatukee Lakes in Arizona has also opened again.)
