Columbus will host a second PGA Tour event the week before the Memorial Tournament.
Columbus will host a second PGA Tour event the week before the Memorial Tournament scheduled for July 16-19, according a memo from the PGA Tour that was obtained by ESPN.
The Columbus-based tournament will serve as a fill-in this year for the John Deere Classic, which was scheduled to be held July 9-12 in Silvis, Illinois, but canceled because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.
The Memorial, postponed from June 4-7 to the spot once occupied by the canceled British Open, hopes to have spectators at its event but has not been given official clearance to do so.
The new event will also be played at Muirfield Village Golf Club, although it will have a different sponsor, according to the memo.
The PGA Tour is currently building a bubble around players and caddies at all tournament events, and have added charter shuttles for all between sites, so the opportunity to keep players housed in one area for an extended period of time is an attractive one.
The Korn Ferry Tour, for example, is running multiple events in the Jacksonville area to start the season and later moving to San Antonio for consecutive tournaments.
Bridgeman led Clemson and was seventh in the ACC with a 70.14 scoring average and finished worse than 18th just twice in seven starts.
The premature ending to spring athletics due to the coronavirus was a shocking sudden conclusion for all involved, but it especially came at the most inopportune time for Jacob Bridgeman.
The current Clemson standout was heading into the final stretch of his sophomore year with abundant momentum. He not only won the final event of the abbreviated season posting 12 under (67-66-65) at the Palmetto Intercollegiate in Aiken, but equaled the second-lowest 54-hole score in Clemson history.
His four-shot win over teammate Turk Pettit tied the fourth-largest margin of victory at the program. The Tigers also won the event with a second-consecutive top-five finish in team play.
And then just like that, the season was over.
“Pretty much everyone on our team was playing well, all shot a low round, and that was probably one of the best weeks I’ve ever played,” said Bridgeman, who regularly plays out of Inman’s Woodfin Ridge. “So we were looking to make a charge in the spring and were hosting the (NCAA) regional. Playing a regional at your home course when you’re a really good team is almost like an automatic bid (into the national championship event). So that was real disappointing because we had such a big advantage I thought playing at our home course. But what can you do.”
As for his individual win, Bridgeman said, “I was hitting it awesome, putting great and coach (Larry) Penley felt I had total control of my golf ball and I agreed. I never really felt like that before, maybe a few years ago, but a couple days after that tournament is when we found out everything was shutting down. We took it pretty bad. We were all out playing one day and were told everything was canceled and it was really depressing.”
Bridgeman added, “We went to dinner and sat there not saying a word because we really didn’t know what to do. At the time my roommate Will (Nottingham) was a senior and we felt he was done, so it was really hard for us. Thank goodness he gets another year and is coming back.”
The NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to student-athletes competing in spring sports.
Bridgeman led Clemson and was seventh in the ACC with a 70.14 scoring average and finished worse than 18th just twice in seven starts. He only posted two tournaments that were over par and his other five starts he was no worse than 4 under in each. He earned honorable mention All-American honors from the Golf Collegiate Golf Coaches Association.
“Most every tournament I had one or two good rounds and then kind of a mediocre one that kind of kept me from winning,” Bridgeman said. “It was a really solid year. Wish I could’ve played and finished better at certain places but finishing with a win was pretty exciting.”
Bridgman has been living in Clemson off-campus and trying to get practice in as much as possible during the pandemic closures to many practice facilities including the school’s Walker Course range. His summer tournament schedule has so far been uninterrupted as he’d planned on playing only four tournaments, none of which have been canceled.
He wasn’t going to play until the July 15 Southern Amateur outside Dallas, Texas. He then planned on playing two other July events before the U.S. Amateur in August at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind.
Currently Clemson’s active leader in career stroke average at 71.21, Bridgeman enters the summer at No. 33 in the Golfweek/Sagarin college rankings and No. 141 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. While he’s been a regular in Clemson’s starting lineup each of his two seasons, Bridgeman was a different player this year.
“I got a lot smarter with how to play,” he said. “I think that was the biggest thing for me, getting a lot stronger mentally. And I got stronger physically, too, started working out a lot. I made my body to where I could trust it over and over to do what I wanted to do and then my mind was strong enough if I got into a bad spot I knew what my strengths and weaknesses were and how to approach different situations.”
Akron and Detroit were listed among sites to host an event before The Memorial in Columbus. But Akron appears to be out.
Firestone Country Club apparently is no longer being considered to fill an opening on the PGA Tour’s revamped schedule after Thursday’s cancellation of the John Deere Classic due to coronavirus concerns.
According to Golfweek, Akron and Detroit were among the alternative sites and Rob Oller of the Columbus Dispatch reported that Columbus could be in the mix, with one source saying it appeared to be the top option. According to the Dispatch story, Lexington, Kentucky, and Carmel, Indiana, are also possibilities.
“There are multiple options, more than a handful,” a PGA Tour player told Golfweek.
But Don Padgett III, executive director of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, said via text Friday that the Champions Tour major Aug. 12-16 would be the only professional golf tournament staged in Akron this year.
[jwplayer 7NBaZ2A0-vgFm21H3]
The John Deere was scheduled for July 9-12 in Silvis, Illinois, and was to be the first PGA Tour event to allow spectators.
Because of COVID-19, the tour could be considering keeping players in the same city for consecutive weeks. The Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club is set for July 16-19, the week after the now-open date. The Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club is scheduled for July 2-5.
The Detroit event will be played without fans; the Memorial has not been given approval to allow spectators.
Representatives of four tournaments preparing to host professional golf events in Ohio this year recently wrote a letter to Governor Mike DeWine seeking permission to allow the public to attend, according to the Dispatch. Those four were the Memorial, the Bridgestone Senior Players, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship and the LPGA Tour’s Marathon Classic in Sylvania.
The last time the same course hosted pro events in consecutive weeks was in 2014, when Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina was the site of the U.S. Open, followed by the U.S. Women’s Open.
Ohio State’s Scarlet Course and Scioto Country Club have held professional tournaments, but the Dispatch reported Scarlet had not been contacted by the tour as of Friday and Scioto did not know of any feelers in that regard.
The Nationwide, a Korn Ferry Tour event, is scheduled for Aug. 20-23 at OSU Scarlet.
The event is expected to return to the LPGA schedule in 2021 at Midland Country Club in Midland, Michigan. The tour also announced Friday Dow agreed to a contract extension with the LPGA, ensuring that the Tour will return to the Great Lakes Bay region in the future.
The next event on the revised LPGA schedule is the Marathon LPGA Classic July 23-26 at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio, followed by the ShopRite LPGA Classic July 31–Aug. 2 at Sea View Dolce Hotel in Galloway, New Jersey.
“While we are disappointed that the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational will not be held this year, I am excited that our friends at Dow have extended our relationship and will be hosting us in Midland for many years,” LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan said. “As I’ve said since this pandemic started, while we will do all we can to play safely in 2020, the most important thing is to ensure the long-term health of our Tour. We are very thankful to the team at Dow for their ongoing and extended support. The 2019 Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational was an incredible addition to our schedule, and I’m excited to see what they bring to the table in 2021.”
The LPGA said it will make further adjustments to the 2020 schedule if necessary.
When the LPGA last announced it pushed back the tour’s return to play, Whan said being the first tour to return to play “has never been the goal,” bur rather safety of players, personnel and sponsors was the priority.
The PGA Tour is expected to return to play June 11-14 with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
In this special edition of Forward Press, host David Dusek chats with Steve DiMeglio about the 2020 PGA Tour restart and what the rest of the season could look like amid the threat of COVID-19.
In each episode of Forward Press, you’ll get insight and commentary on all that is golf from David Dusek, Steve DiMeglio, Beth Ann Nichols, Eamon Lynch and Adam Schupak, as well as special guests throughout the industry.
The World Golf Hall of Fame closed temporarily due to coronavirus, but will reopen on May 18 with some precautions.
The World Golf Hall of Fame will offer several discounts upon its re-opening on May 18 after being closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Augustine is reopening on May 18, with special rates for the entire summer for area residents, children, first responders and health-care workers.
Playing golf at First Coast courses will also earn a reduced rate.
The IMAX Theater will remain closed. The facility will allow 25 percent of museum capacity in at a given time and will follow all local, state and CDC guidelines.
The Hall of Fame will offer complimentary admission through Aug. 31 to all first responders and frontline health-care workers. Children 12 and under are also admitted free during that time period when accompanied by a ticketed adult (two children per adult) and Northeast Florida residents will get 50 percent off admission with a valid ID.
The Hall of Fame also is offering 50 percent off admissions through Aug. 31 for anyone bringing a receipt showing that they played a round of golf at a Northeast Florida Course. The round must have been played within three days of the visit to the Hall of Fame.
Shaelynn Feuerstein already made history last year. The New Holstein golfer became the first girl to be named second-team all-Eastern Wisconsin Conference for boys golf after reaching sectionals as a junior. She plays on the boys team because New …
Shaelynn Feuerstein already made history last year.
The New Holstein golfer became the first girl to be named second-team all-Eastern Wisconsin Conference for boys golf after reaching sectionals as a junior. She plays on the boys team because New Holstein doesn’t offer a girls team.
Heading into her senior year, the three-sport athlete had dreams of making state and first-team all-EWC, but Feuerstein realized quickly in fall it might not be so easy.
While playing volleyball to start the school year, Feuerstein became fatigued easily and knew something was wrong.
After seeking an answer, it was discovered Feuerstein had developed an insulinoma, a form or tumor, on her pancreas which caused her blood sugar to drop to dangerous levels.
The condition normally presents in people in their 40s or 60s. Feuerstein’s blood sugar, which should be around 100-140, dropped to 20-30.
New Holstein, Wisconsin, golfer Shaelynn Feuerstein will compete next year for the Carroll University women’s golf program. (Photo: Courtesy of Shaelynn Feuerstein)
Feuerstein, who missed almost all of volleyball and played one game in basketball under strict supervision, had her eyes focused on golf in the spring.
“My mentality was golf was my favorite sport and has been my whole life,” Feuerstein said. “I wanted to overcome what happened to me and still succeed.”
Feuerstein underwent surgery to remove the tumor over Thanksgiving break and didn’t return to school until after Christmas break.
The bright side was doctors told her she could resume athletic activity in April, right when golf season was set to begin.
That plan was thrown for a loop due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the spring sports season was first put on hold before later being canceled.
“It’s pretty sad because of my health problems I wasn’t able to play my other sports,” Feuerstein said.
Golf runs in the Feuerstein family, with her brother and father having both played for the Huskies and the golf bags the team uses being donated after Feuerstein’s grandfather’s death.
“My dad taught me how to golf,” Feuerstein said. “When my grandpa passed away we donated golf bags with his initials so it’s always been about the Huskies team.”
While it was a setback, Feuerstein understood it was for the best. She is more susceptible to the coronavirus because of her recent surgery.
“I had hope we could compete but obviously better to get through this with limited contact,” Feuerstein said.
New Holstein golf coach Peter Hofmeister remembered when Feuerstein first joined the team.
He played Feuerstein, who was the only girl on the team when she started as a freshman, in a varsity event as a sophomore but wasn’t worried.
“Her eyes were as wide as dinner plates but she took it on,” Hofmeister said. “She wasn’t afraid despite being a girl on a boys team. Helped she beat a lot of them, too.”
Feuerstein wasn’t about to let fear stop her from reaching her goals.
“It’s very intimidating at first but after the first hole it gets easier,” Feuerstein said of playing with boys. “The boys might not think I can succeed but I put my mind to the task.”
“She has a unique sense of determination,” Hofmeister said. “She has a fire, which is the first syllable of her last name so it’s fitting. (The boys) respected her because she was good enough and earned it.”
Turns out it’s even a bit inspiring, as there were to be three girls on the New Holstein team this season, Hofmeister said.
Next year Feuerstein will compete for NCAA Division III Carroll University, where her brother played, as part of the women’s team.
“I’m excited for the experience,” Feuerstein said. “Never played on a girls team before so will be a cool experience.”
Despite having never competed as a senior, Hofmeister holds Feuerstein in high regard.
“Anybody who has coached a select amount of time will have athletes willing to put in the work and really stand out, and she’s one of them,” Hofmeister said.
Tom Dombeck is a staffer for the Sheboygan Press and the Herald Times Reporter, both part of the USA Today Network. Contact him at tdombeck@htrnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Tom_Dombeck.
A $3,500 rental car, a 2,700-mile road trip and a 2-year-old — getting home from the Players was no easy task for Brendan Steele.
For some PGA Tour players, the cancellation of the Players Championship after one round was a minor travel inconvenience, one easily resolved with a call to the pilot or a short road trip home down the coast to Jupiter. It was a little more troublesome for one player with a rented Ford Expedition, a two-year-old passenger and a home in Irvine, Calif.
Brendan Steele was in a hotel room with his wife, Anastassia, and their daughter Victoria when he received a text from the Tour that Thursday night saying the Players was being called. The couple scrambled to book flights home to California, and by Friday morning they were on I-95 to Orlando airport bound for Los Angeles. After 15 minutes on the road, doubts crept it.
“We were thinking this doesn’t feel right. We didn’t really know anything about the virus at that point and Orlando and L.A. are two of the major international airports in the world,” Steele said.
They texted Val Curran, a physicians assistant and the wife of fellow Tour pro Jon Curran. What she would do in their position, the Steeles asked?
“I would drive,” she replied.
“It was left to Orlando and right into the unknown. We figured that we’d drive and feel more comfortable,” said Steele. “We didn’t have a rush to get home. We trucked it all the way in about four days.”
But the 37-year-old, three-time Tour winner admitted he wasn’t far into the 2,700-mile odyssey when he had second thoughts. “Early the first day we had a moment of, ‘Oh my God, we’re still in Florida!’ he remembered with a laugh. “Driving across the panhandle, it’s a long way.”
He texted his manager, Jeff Koski, who called a private jet service. “He got us a good price, but we were doing fine so we kept going.”
And going. He and Anastassia split time behind the wheel, making stops in Baton Rouge, La., Ozona, Texas (population: 3,225) and Tucson, Ariz—a route Steele admits he wouldn’t follow if he were driving across America for pleasure. There was just one detour, to visit the hipster artsy town of Marfa in the wilds of west Texas.
“We thought this is our only chance to get to Marfa. It was a bucket list thing for us,” he explained. He added a wry laugh. “It wasn’t that great. It’s a weird little town.”
Steele had been piloting the rented SUV for three weeks since the Honda Classic and at one stage had consulted his app to check the cost of returning the vehicle in California. “It said there would be a $150 charge. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s really reasonable,’” Steele said. But by the time he actually tried to confirm a new drop-off he was already just about in Alabama and the cost was $3,500. (Avis later reached out and refunded the difference.)
Good thing you played well at the Honda, I offered. (A T-4 there earned him $280,000.) “The funny thing was, flights for the three of us had totaled about $800,” he cracked.
That Honda performance, and a playoff loss to Cameron Smith at the Sony Open in January, was evidence that Steele has found a vein of form after struggling last season, which only adds to the frustration of an enforced layoff. “I feel like I’m really going the right direction,” he said. “Coming out of this, we’ll see. Who knows? I don’t think it’s something I can’t hang on to.”
Eager as he is to compete, Steele admits to being hesitant about the PGA Tour’s proposed June 11 restart at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth. “I need to hear more from the Tour about what the process looks like, and I know they’re working on putting all that together. There’s so many moving parts,” he said. “Where are we going to stay? Where are we going to eat? What is the interaction like with your caddie? I would hope they’re going to put charter flights together for us to make things easy. We’re going to be this traveling circus of 700 people flying around and it could get pretty out of control.”
For all the unknowns, this much he does know: his usual road companions Anastassia and Victoria are staying home. “I can’t see them traveling with me at least until the fall. Ideally I’d love to get them to Napa because we always have a great time there,” he said with an admirable gift for understatement. (He won the Safeway Open in Napa in 2016 and 2017.)
So if he elects to play the Tour’s first event back in Texas, what are the chances he’ll drive the 1,400 miles to Colonial Country Club from Irvine?
“Probably not very good,” he said. “But it would feel pretty easy to go just to Fort Worth.”
After planning to resume its 2020 season in June, the LPGA pushed back its restart date to mid-July.
The LPGA won’t be back in action until mid-July at the earliest. On Wednesday morning the tour released its latest revised schedule with the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, a team event in Midland, Michigan, now in the lead-off position July 15-18.
The final event of the season, the CME Group Tour Championship, moves to Dec. 17-20 in Naples, Florida, immediately following the U.S. Women’s Open in Houston, Texas.
“One thing that has become clear is that there will be no ‘opening bell’ regarding a return to safe play in this new normal of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan in a statement. “To be honest, being ‘first’ has never been the goal when it comes to returning to play in this new normal. We have built a schedule that we think is as safe as possible given what we know about travel bans, testing availability, and delivering events that our sponsors and our athletes will be excited to attend.
“While July seems like a long way away, we are certainly aware that restarting our season in Michigan, Ohio and New Jersey will require a continued improvement in the situation in each of those states.”
The Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, originally scheduled for June 19-21, will now be held Aug. 28-30, taking the place of the now canceled UL International Crown.
The KPMG Women’s PGA is the latest major to move to a fall date. Originally scheduled for late June, the championship will now be held Oct. 8-11 at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.
[jwplayer S823sXjH-vgFm21H3]
Four other events that were scheduled to take place earlier this spring and then postponed – Volvik Founders Cup, LOTTE Championship, HUGEL-AIR PREMIA LA Open and LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship – have now been canceled for this season. That’s now a total of eight canceled events for 2020 plus the International Crown.
The Marathon Classic, Meijer LPGA Classic, new Pelican Women’s Championship and Volunteers of America Classic have all moved to later dates on the schedule featured below.
The AIG Women’s British Open remains on the schedule in late August even though the men’s British Open has been canceled for 2020.
There are four events still in the fall Asian swing, with tournaments scheduled for China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. The Korean LPGA is scheduled to return to action in mid-May with no spectators.
Players will compete for more than $56 million for the remainder of the year.
Updated LPGA schedule
Date
Event and location
Money
July 15-18
Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational
Midland C.C., Midland, Michigan
$2.3M
July 23-26
Marathon LPGA Classic presented by Dana
Highland Meadows G.C., Sylvania, Ohio
$2M
July 31 – Aug. 2
ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer
Seaview, A Dolce Hotel, Galloway, New Jersey
$2M
Aug. 6-9
The Evian Championship Evian Resort G.C., Evian-les-Bains, France
$4.1M
Aug. 13-16
Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open
The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland
$1.5M
Aug. 20-23
AIG Women’s British Open Royal Troon G.C., Troon, Scotland
The 2020 Northeast Amateur, set for June 24-27 at Wannamoisett Country Club just outside of Providence, R.I., has been canceled.
For the first time in its 58-year history, the Northeast Amateur Invitational will take a break.
The 2020 Northeast, set for June 24-27 at Wannamoisett Country Club just outside of Providence, R.I., has been canceled. The event attracts top amateur players from around the country, and the world, but ran into multiple complications due to the coronavirus pandemic. Tony Romo played in the event last year, but withdrew after injuring his back.
“Our priority is to protect the health and safety of the invitees, officials, volunteers, staff and membership of Wannamoisett Country Club,” said tournament chairman Ben Tuthill. “We care deeply about amateur golf and hosting one of the top events of the year, and make this decision with a heavy heart. Many different considerations went into this decision and we must act responsibly during this pandemic.
“We know how disappointing this news is for the players that were invited and planned to participate in the tournament this year. The tournament committee will acknowledge all exemption criteria used for the 2020 field selection and will invite those players to participate in the event next summer.”
Northeast Amateur chairman Ben Tuthill.
The Northeast regularly attracts one of the best and deepest fields in amateur golf. Last year the tournament was ranked fourth in the United States and ninth in world amateur golf events by strength of field according to Scratch Players World Event Ranking.
The Northeast is joining a slew of national golf tournaments on the sidelines this summer. The USGA recently canceled the U.S. Senior Open that was scheduled for Newport Country Club and five other national events. Also on the chopping block are the U.S. Girls’ Junior, the Junior Amateur, the Amateur Four-Ball, Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, and U.S. Senior Women’s Open.
