Stephen Ames posted a 65 in the morning wave. Billy Andrade matched it late at Omaha Country Club on Thursday.
Stephen Ames posted a 65 in the morning wave at the 41st U.S. Open. Late in the day, Billy Andrade matched it and those two co-leaders will take a one-shot lead into Friday’s second round.
Andrade had five birdies and was bogey-free on Thursday. Ames had two bogeys but carded seven birdies, including four on the back nine.
Wes Short, Jr., also went bogey-free and he is in solo third, a shot back.
Alex Cejka, who didn’t play the Senior Players but won the first two majors of 2021, sits in a tie for fourth with Robert Karlsson after shooting each shot a 67. Cejka has now posted his ninth consecutive round of par or better in a major this year.
Jay Haas, the oldest golfer in the field at age 67, shot a 69 on Thursday. Fred Couples shot a 1 under as well. Those two are among a group of eight golfers tied for eighth.
“I tied a 67-year-old man, so I’m tickled pink,” Couples, 61, joked on Golf Channel after his round.
There are 34 amateurs in the field. Two of them, William Mitchell and Jeff Wilson, posted even-par rounds of 70 and are T-16 after day one.
Omaha Country Club is hosting the U.S. Senior Open for a second time. Kenny Perry, who won the event there in 2013, is tied for 29th after shooting a 1-over 71.
There is a chance of some inclement weather rolling through the area on Friday.
A 51-year-old Els will tee it up in the U.S. Senior Open this week for the first time in his career.
There are two ways to look at an abundance of major starts – particularly an abundance of major starts in one season. It can be exhausting or it can be energizing. Ernie Els is choosing the latter outlook.
A 51-year-old Els will tee it up in the U.S. Senior Open this week for the first time in his career. Put the Big Easy in the same age bracket as Phil Mickelson, who is just over a month removed from winning the PGA Championship in a field of young hot-shots. Els, in fact, is only eight months older.
Els hasn’t bowed out of that arena entirely, and the four-time major champion plans to tee it up at the British Open next week. But he’s mixing in some senior majors, and this week’s U.S. Senior Open at Omaha (Nebraska) Country Club can be a kind of tune-up.
“For me, it’s a blessing to play in tournaments that I’m really committed to mentally,” Els said. “A lot of times in the last four or five years on the regular Tour, I just didn’t have quite the energy to really pick myself up in some of those events, and now I feel that there’s a different energy with me. I feel I can compete.
“I use a lot of the regular events to work on my game, hone my game, and try to get ready for kind of the big ones for us. So that’s kind of been my game plan so far. I’ve played quite well in majors, but I haven’t won one, but I’ve been in contention. So just got to keep building on that and see where it takes us.”
Els’ first major start came in 1989 at the British Open, where he missed the cut. But three years later, he finished in the top 5. All told, he’s had 11 top-10 finishes at the British Open in addition to his 2002 and 2012 titles.
In just four senior majors, he has logged three top-5 finishes and a worst finish of T16 at this year’s Senior PGA Championship.
After playing this week’s U.S. Senior Open plus next week’s British Open at Royal St. George’s, Els will make the Senior British Open his third major stop in a row. At the end of last month, he also finished fifth in the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, another senior major.
“I feel I’ve done that work, and it will come through now in the next couple of weeks,” he said. “This one’s huge. Next week is huge and we’ve got to travel, and then the British Seniors. It’s kind of a new frontier for me, but I’m up for the challenge to see where it goes.”
In recent years, Els has faded out of sight in the young man’s majors. Since winning the 2012 British Open, he has missed the cut 10 times in 25 major starts. He hasn’t played the Masters for four years or the PGA Championship for three.
In some ways, of course, the U.S. Senior Open will be a different beast. But Els, who won the U.S. Open in 1994 and 1997, sees that the bones are there.
“The rough is up,” he said. “It’s in very good shape, but if you come here with not much game, you’re not going to have a great week.”
Els’ presence at the U.S. Senior Open is just another intriguing age-is-just-a-number storyline in Omaha, and on the PGA Tour Champions in general. Mickelson has dipped his toe in with the 50-and-over lot, teeing it up three times (and winning two of those starts) since turning 50 on June 16, 2020. So far, he hasn’t competed in a senior major.
Bernard Langer, 63, has 41 wins on the Champions circuit, 11 senior majors among them.
They’re like golf’s version of Tom Brady, who is just another source of inspiration for athletes looking to extend their career behind the old idea of an 50-year-old expiration date.
“It depends on how you look after yourself, how you approach the game mentally, but if you’re physically there, you’ve got to just get yourself in a really good mental frame,” Els said. “Bernhard, as you say, is showing it. Also, he’s 63 years of age. He’s third on the money list. He’s struggling a little bit with the knee injury a little bit, but he’s won in every single year for 14 years out here.
“Those three guys have really shown a lot of the guys the way forward, I think.”
Els may end up showing the youngsters a little something himself.
Steve Stricker won the U.S. Senior Open in 2019 and is the defending champion after the 2020 edition was canceled due to COVID-19.
The U.S. Senior Open is back on the schedule this year after being canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In fact, it was one of 10 U.S. Golf Association events that were canceled a year ago.
This week, the 41st edition of the Senior Open will take place in Omaha, Nebraska.
A field of 156 golfers will take to the course on Thursday at Omaha Country Club.
The USGA reports that 2,999 golfers filed entries in 2021. That’s the third-most in championship history. The record for entries is 3,101 in 2002.
Here’s a rundown of what you need to know.
Defending champ
Steve Stricker
With his wife Nicki handling caddie duties, Stricker went wire-to-wire in 2019, just the third golfer to do so in the championship. He started the final day with a six-shot lead and then fired a final-round 69 to win by that same margin over Jerry Kelly and 2018 champion David Toms. Stricker won the event in his first attempt. Simon Hobday in 1994 and Olin Browne in 2011 were the others to go wire-to-wire.
About the venue
Omaha Country Club
The course is hosting the U.S. Senior Open for the second time. Kenny Perry won it the last time it was held there in 2013. It’s the seventh course to host twice. Omaha Country Club was established in 1899 and has been at its current location since 1925. The course was redesigned in 1951 and renovated in 2005.
How to watch
Golf Channel (TV) and Peacock (streaming) will tag-team the coverage in 2021. Live TV coverage will go until 8 p.m. ET all four rounds, with the third and final rounds on Golf Channel from 4 to 8 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday.
The most majors?
Bernhard Langer
Langer has 41 wins on the Champions circuit and has won 11 senior majors. He became the all-time leader in 2017 after he won the Senior PGA Championship. Jack Nicklaus is next with eight. Hale Irwin, the all-time leader in senior wins with 45, has seven senior majors.
By the numbers
There are 20 countries represented. The U.S. claims 121 of the 156 golfers. There are 72 golfers playing the event for the first time. There are 34 amateurs in the field, the most since 2012. Jay Haas, who is 67, is the oldest player in the field. Jose Maria Olazabal is playing in his first U.S. Senior Open. He’s in the field on a special invitation.
Senior majors in 2021
This is the fourth of five majors on the senior circuit. Alex Cejka won the Regions Tradition and the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. Stricker won the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship. The final senior major in 2021 will be the Senior Open Championship at the Old Course at Sunningdale in Berkshire, England, July 22-25.
Where does it go from here?
There are four future U.S. Senior Open locations that have been announced:
2022 – Saucon Valley Country Club (Old Course), Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
2023 – SentryWorld, Stevens Point, Wisconsin
2024 – Newport Country Club, Newport, Rhode Island
2025 – The Broadmoor, East Course, Colorado Springs, Colorado
This will be the fifth USGA championship to be held at Newport, which hosted the inaugural U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur championships in 1895.
The United States Golf Association today announced that Newport Country Club will host the 44th U.S. Senior Open Championship. The historic venue was originally scheduled to be the host site of the 2020 championship, but it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This will be the fifth USGA championship to be held at Newport Country Club, which hosted the inaugural U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur championships in 1895. The dates of the U.S. Senior Open are June 27-30, 2024.
“Newport Country Club and the USGA have a long, rich history that dates to the club’s beginnings as a founding member club of the Association, and we are more than pleased to continue this relationship as we progress through these challenging times,” said John Bodenhamer, USGA senior managing director, Championships said in a statement. “We know that the region and community will be fully supportive of the U.S. Senior Open, senior golf’s most prestigious championship.”
By hosting the 2024 U.S. Senior Open, Newport Country Club will become the sixth club to have held a U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Senior Open. The other clubs to have hosted those four USGA championships are Cherry Hills Country Club, in Cherry Hills Village, Colo.; Hazeltine National Golf Club, in Chaska, Minn.; Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club; Pinehurst Resort & Country Club, in Village of Pinehurst, N.C.; and Winged Foot Golf Club, in Mamaroneck, N.Y.
“On behalf of the Newport Country Club, we are excited to have the opportunity to host the 2024 U.S. Senior Open Championship as our nation and community work toward normalcy,” said Barclay Douglas Jr., club president, in a statement. “The state of Rhode Island, the city of Newport and the club are enthusiastic to support this USGA championship. Our ‘City by the Sea’ will be enhanced by having the world’s best senior players compete for the Francis D. Ouimet Memorial Trophy on our historic Tillinghast course.”
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William F. Davis designed Newport Country Club as a nine-hole layout in 1894, and the course was expanded to 18 holes five years later. In 1923, A.W. Tillinghast remodeled the course, which sits on the southern end of Newport. Ron Forse supervised a restoration in 2005. The distinctive Beaux Arts-style clubhouse, which was designed by architect Whitney Warren, overlooks Brenton Point.
Newport Country Club is one of the five founding members of the USGA, which was formed on Dec. 22, 1894. Theodore A. Havemeyer, the co-founder of Newport Country Club, was the Association’s first president, and the Havemeyer Trophy is annually presented to the U.S. Amateur champion.
Newport Country Club was the site of the first U.S. Amateur and first U.S. Open in 1895. Charles Blair Macdonald, who is considered the father of American golf course architecture, defeated Charles E. Sands, 12 and 11, to win the inaugural Amateur. One day later, Horace Rawlins, an English professional, posted a two-stroke victory over Willie Dunn to claim the U.S. Open over 36 holes, four trips around the original Newport course.
In 1995, the U.S. Amateur returned to the course as part of the USGA’s centennial celebration. Tiger Woods won the second of his three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles by defeating George “Buddy” Marucci, 2 up, in the 36-hole final. Woods, who has won nine USGA championships, including three U.S. Opens, was 3 down in the morning round but took the lead for good by winning the 30th hole.
Annika Sorenstam shot a 1-under-par 70 to defeat Pat Hurst by four strokes in an 18-hole playoff that decided the 2006 U.S. Women’s Open Championship at Newport. The two players were tied at even-par 284 after 72 holes. Sorenstam recorded her third U.S. Women’s Open victory, which ties her for third for most wins behind Betsy Rawls and Mickey Wright, who each won four times.
The 2024 U.S. Senior Open will be the 10th USGA championship conducted in Rhode Island. The most recent championship was the 2011 U.S. Women’s Amateur, hosted by Rhode Island Country Club in Barrington, where Danielle Kang defeated Moriya Jutanugarn, 6 and 5, for her second consecutive Women’s Amateur title. Lydia Ko and Jihee Kim were the co-medalists.
The 2024 U.S. Senior Open will be the fourth Senior Open contested in New England. Salem Country Club, in Peabody, Mass., hosted the 2001 and 2017 Senior Opens, while Brooklawn Country Club, in Fairfield, Conn., hosted the 1987 championship.
The U.S. Senior Open was first played in 1980. The championship for golfers age 50 and older is open to any professional and any amateur with a Handicap Index® not exceeding 3.4. Seven players have won both the U.S. Open and the U.S. Senior Open during a career. The list includes Billy Casper, Hale Irwin, Orville Moody, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Lee Trevino.
Omaha (Neb.) Country Club will host this year’s U.S. Senior Open from July 8-11. Saucon Valley Country Club (Old Course), in Bethlehem, Pa., will be the host site of the 2022 championship, from June 23-26. The 2023 championship will be contested at SentryWorld, in Stevens Point, Wis. Broadmoor Golf Club (East Course), in Colorado Springs, Colo., will serve as host in 2025.
The U.S. Senior Open is expected to be staged at the famed Newport Country Club in the summer of 2024.
NEWPORT, R.I. — The U.S. Senior Open seemingly will be played in the City-by-the-Sea after all.
The tournament for golfers 50 and older, which was scheduled to be held at Newport Country Club in June 2020 but canceled because of the COVID pandemic, is expected to be staged at the famed club in the summer of 2024.
Barclay Douglas, longtime president of Newport Country Club, told The Daily News on Monday that nothing is official, but the “contract is almost completed.”
According to the U.S. Golf Association website, the Senior Open will be played at Omaha Country Club in Nebraksa in 2021; Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 2022; and SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, in 2023. The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colorado, will host the event in 2025.
The year 2024 is listed as “to be decided.” USGA officials did not immediately reply to emails from The Daily News. An official announcement from the governing body is expected in April.
Planning for the 2020 Senior Open, which would have been the first USGA event at Newport Country Club since the Women’s Open in 2006, started in April 2017 with an announcement at the Newport Marriott.
Less than 100 days before the first tee shot, the USGA pulled the plug on the tournament — one of several events that were canceled.
“We did everything except to have the championship,” said Douglas, who highlighted the “terrific” work of the USGA.
Should all the details be finalized, the tournament will be held the final week of June in 2024, Douglas said. “It’s a great time of the year, just before the big rush,” he said. “It’s great for the city and the state.”
The fact the USGA is returning to Newport is no real surprise. With its historic clubhouse, Newport Country Club hosted the inaugural U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur in 1895. In more recent times, the course was the site of the 1995 U.S. Amateur, when a young Tiger Woods prevailed, and the 2006 Women’s Open won by Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam.
After it was announced the Senior Open would be canceled in April 2020, Douglas said another USGA event at Newport Country Club would come down to “scheduling.” He added the game’s governing body in the United States “enjoys Newport.”
In the spring of 2011, Mullian — who has played in two U.S. Senior Opens — was in a life-threatening automobile accident.
Although his days of high-level competition are behind him, Georgia Club resident Glenn Mullian still remains happiest on the links.
A scratch golfer in his youth in Richmond, Virginia, Mullian enjoyed a successful run of senior division victories and in 2010 came out on top in nine tournaments, earning the Senior Golfer of the Year award from the Virginia State Golf Association.
But in the spring of 2011, Mullian — who has played in two U.S. Senior Opens — was in a life-threatening automobile accident, losing his right leg and sustaining serious injuries to his right hand, wrist and shoulder.
“I had over a dozen surgeries to try to fix everything,” said Mullian, 66, who with his wife Debbie moved to the Athens area five years ago.
Mullian, who in 1973 played on the UGA golf team under Bulldogs legend Dick Copas, spent weeks in the hospital, and once it was assured he would survive, he then began to think about what golf would now look like for him.
“When I was in the hospital I didn’t know what to expect,” said Mullian, who was able to return to the course about 15 months later. “The doctors don’t usually paint a beautiful picture and I had so many issues. I had so many injuries they didn’t know where to start with me. It was a real bad wreck and they helicoptered me to the emergency room; if they had not done that I would not have made it.
“I always thought in the back of my mind that I’d play again but I also knew it was going to be a challenge after losing a leg. I also had extreme damage to my left leg – I have a pin there. My ankle was also broken. My left leg hampered me as well and was very weak.”
Former UGA and U.S. Senior Open golfer Glenn Mullian poses for a photo at The Georgia Club on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (Photo/Joshua L. Jones, Athens Banner-Herald)
Mullian, who carries a 6 handicap, said he continues to tinker with different prosthetic approaches and added he often has fewer problems with his right leg than he does his right shoulder and wrist.
“I’ve shot a couple of rounds under par but my game is nothing close to what it was before,” he said. “I have limited power and that’s my weakness. I can still hit the ball straight and make nice shots, but I’ve lost power. Part of it is age, I know, but the other part of it is the makeup of what I’ve got. I just don’t have the power to play the kind of golf I’d like to play and I used to play.
“There’s only so much I can do when I swing when I can’t swing so fast. My prosthetic and my bad shoulder are on my right side and I also have a fused right wrist, which has gotten better but still limits me in terms of power. I’m just right down the middle, right in front of the green somewhere and I try to chip up and make a putt. I do OK.”
Mullian usually plays during the week and once or twice on the weekends and enjoys frequent visits to the driving range.
“I usually play two or three times a week and go to the driving range a couple of times a week; I’m kind of a range rat now,” he said. “I enjoy beating golf balls and I like playing, too – I like to mix it up. But I have my hands on the clubs five or six days a week, for sure.”
Years after his accident and subsequent return to the game he began playing as a teenager, Mullian said while he’s often discouraged with the results, he’s grateful to be back on the course.”
“It’s half and half,” he said. “One half says, ‘I’m just happy to be here,’ and the other half says “When am I going to turn the corner?’ It’s hard playing on one leg and it’s hard playing on a shoulder and a wrist that won’t move much, but I’m enjoying it and I’m trying to have fun and stay positive because I have nothing to prove as far as my career goes.
“I don’t know what I’d do without golf and being retired; I wouldn’t be retired, that’s for sure. Golf is my savior, even though it’s extremely frustrating to play the way I do compared to what I used to play.”
SentryWorld and its aptly-named Flower Hole will shine in 2023 when the USGA returns with the U.S. Senior Open on June 29-July 2.
When the 2019 U.S. Girls’ Junior was played at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, it was hard to take your eyes off the flowers. The 16th hole at the Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed golf course in central Wisconsin is ringed by vibrant flowers in all shades of pink and red, set off by native grasses and clean bunker sand.
SentryWorld and its aptly-named Flower Hole will shine again in 2023 when the USGA returns with the U.S. Senior Open on June 29-July 2.
“In hosting the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship in 2019, we set out to earn the right to land other major golf championships and we’re thrilled that we could do just that,” said Mike James, general manager of SentryWorld and vice president of Sentry Services. “The U.S. Senior Open is undoubtedly among the most prestigious golf events in the world. With the help of state and local leaders and business and community partners, SentryWorld will provide a world-class experience and environment for players, officials and fans alike.
SentryWorld, a public facility, was developed by Sentry Insurance in 1982 as part of a sports complex that includes indoor tennis courts, banquet space and restaurants. At the heart of the 200-acre property lies the championship layout.
In 2013, Jones oversaw a major renovation that was led by architects Bruce Charlton and Jay Blasi, a Golfweek rater panelist and contributing writer.
The 1986 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, won by Cindy Schreyer, was SentryWorld’s first USGA championship. The 2019 U.S. Girls’ Junior has been the only other USGA event staged there.
This year’s Senior Open will be played at Omaha (Nebraska) Country Club, from July 8-11 and the championship will head to Saucon Valley Country Club (Old Course), in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 2022.
The United States Golf Association made a number of announcements Monday morning, including the cancellation of the U.S. Senior Open, to be played at Newport Country Club
NEWPORT, R.I. — Figuratively stationed on the 18th fairway with nothing more than a wedge to the pin, the U.S. Senior Open became one of the latest major sporting events to fall victim to the coronavirus pandemic.
The United States Golf Association made a number of announcements Monday morning, including the cancellation of the U.S. Senior Open, to be played at Newport Country Club from June 25-28, and the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, slated for July 9-12 at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Connecticut.
The U.S. Open, which was set to be played June 18-21 at Winged Foot in New York, has been postponed to Sept. 17-20 at the same location.
“Canceling this year’s Senior Open championships was a very difficult decision to make,” Mike Davis, CEO of the USGA, said in a statement. “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.”
Planning for the 2020 U.S. Senior Open began long ago, and an official announcement was made during an intimate gathering at the Newport Marriott in April 2017. It would have been the 41st installment of the tournament, which heads to Omaha Country Club in Nebraska next year and Saucon Valley Country Club in 2022.
“It’s out of our control,” Barclay Douglas, president of Newport Country Club, told The Daily News via a phone conversation Monday morning. “It’s unfortunate because a lot of people worked hard and were anticipating this.”
The bulk of that work started about 18 months ago, when employees with the USGA, led by championship director Hank Thompson, set up shop in an office building on Third Street in Newport.
“It’s not like throwing together a family reunion,” Thompson told The Daily News back then. “I like to say it’s a big jigsaw puzzle, where you take all of these pieces and you start fitting them together. It may not all fit together today, 18 months out, but as you proceed through that timeline, they start to fit.
“And every now and again, you might have to get a hammer and bang one or two in.”
The U.S. Senior Open would have been the fifth United States Golf Association tournament played at Newport Country Club. It was canceled Monday because of the coronavirus pandemic. [NEWPORT DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO]No hammer was big enough to foresee the nail that is the coronavirus pandemic. Evan Smith, the president and CEO with Discover Newport, the area’s tourism bureau, said the cancellation didn’t come as a huge surprise, given what’s transpired in the past few weeks.
Still, he feels for all those involved with such a massive undertaking.
“My first reaction was how hard so many people have worked for the past two years, the people at Newport Country Club and the USGA,” Smith said. “They’ve been working on this project, and I feel for all of them because that hard work has been wiped out by a silent enemy.”
The field of players likely would have included first-timers Ernie Els, Angel Cabrera and KJ Choi, as well as Rhode Island natives Billy Andrade and Brett Quigley.
“The field was going to be fantastic — a lot of new names and great names,” Douglas said. “I think everyone was looking forward to it.”
Newport Country Club is one of five founding members of the USGA, the others being Chicago Golf Club, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in New York, St. Andrew’s Golf Club in New York and The Country Club in Massachusetts.
Newport, with its historic clubhouse, hosted the inaugural U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur in 1895. In more recent times, the course along the Ocean Drive that overlooks the foot of Narragansett Bay, was the site of the 1995 U.S. Amateur, when a young Tiger Woods prevailed, and the 2006 U.S. Women’s Open won by Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam.
While the sites for the next two Senior Open championships are set, a future stop in Newport certainly isn’t out of the question.
“I think these relationships will carry on,” Smith said. “Certainly there is no date set for a future event in Newport, but the relationship with Newport Country Club and the USGA is a strong one and has been for decades. I think you’ll see another major golf event [in Newport].”
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A USGA official told The Daily News during a kickoff event in March that between 50,000 and 75,000 spectators were expected to attend the tournament during the course of the week. Smith said the cancellation of the Senior Open is just the latest blow to the area’s economy.
“The second quarter of this year has been totally wiped out,” Smith said. “When you look at the different conferences and events, all of those things have been devastating for the industry — in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Something like golf could have been our fabulous comeback, an enormous kickoff, but these are the cards we were dealt,” he said.
Smith said the USGA shared with him with an economic impact study from the 2018 Senior Open at Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “The total was about $10 million, and I have no reason to doubt that report,” Smith said.
The South Bend Tribune last summer reported that officials in the Indiana city anticipated an economic impact of between $15 million and $25 million for the Senior Open contested at Notre Dame’s Warren Course.
Douglas said another USGA event at Newport Country Club will come down to “scheduling,” but said the game’s governing body in the United States “enjoys Newport.”
“They enjoy the history, and the people and the town,” Douglas said. “To be continued.”
As for the 2020 U.S. Senior Women’s Open, it was expected to be the third USGA Open championship and fifth overall USGA championship hosted by Brooklawn Country Club.
The club — located outside of Fairfield, Connecticut — was founded in 1895, hosted the 1974 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, the 1979 U.S. Women’s Open, won by Jerilyn Britz; the 1987 U.S. Senior Open, won by Gary Player; and the 2003 U.S. Girls’ Junior, which was won by 16-year-old Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff.
After a lengthy but winless PGA Tour career, Brett Quigley won in his second start on the senior circuit.
When finally we reach the safe side of this void, there will be losses that are painfully apparent in the world of golf. Lives, most likely. Livelihoods, certainly. Courses, companies, tournaments. Those are the known ones. The unknown losses are frivolous by comparison.
Some golfer will one day slip into a green jacket as the winner of the 84th Masters Tournament, but we’ll never know who would have done so had the event taken place as scheduled two weeks from now. Same goes for May’s aborted PGA Championship. For now at least, dreams of Rory McIlroy’s career grand slam and Brooks Koepka’s three-straight Wanamakers belong on the same beaten docket.
There are no winners because there are no races when the thoroughbreds are confined to their paddocks.
Brett Quigley deployed a racehorse analogy when we spoke a few days ago. “Golf-wise, I’m ready to play. Absolutely chomping at the bit to get back out there,” he said. After a lengthy but winless PGA Tour career — one trammeled with injuries in its last decade — Quigley registered his biggest victory on Feb. 1 at the PGA Tour Champions stop in Morocco. It came in only his second senior start. He contended the next two events as well. Then the season ground to a halt.
Like most professional golfers, Quigley has spent the last couple of weeks eking out a semblance of normalcy at home with his family while hoping the good old days will come again. That’s a familiar experience for him. Before turning 50 last August, he had made just nine PGA Tour starts since 2011 owing to a couple of major injuries, including a stress fracture in his left leg and three fractured vertebrae.
He recently received a text message from an acquaintance. “You’re getting screwed,” it read. “You’re going to lose a year and you don’t have that many years.”
“I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I’ve already hit the lottery,” Quigley said. “I’m playing golf again and I’m competitive. I’m loving it. I don’t look at it that way at all. In some respects I am so ready to play, but I’ve been off for so long I’m okay with being a little more patient. I’ve waited this long, no big deal if I have to wait another three, four, six months.”
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Uncertainty around his next tournament start is second nature by now, so Quigley spends days with his daughters (aged 11 and 12), hitting balls at Medalist in Hobe Sound, Florida (at least until the club is ordered to close) and watching the news. “All these terms that a month ago I had no idea what they meant, now all of a sudden we’re all experts on flattening a curve,” he says with resigned humor.
A competitor in form must find it difficult not to anxiously scan the horizon for an event that survives the cull, I suggested. “I’m trying not to go there,” he replied. “I thought an outside chance was the U.S. Open…” His voice trails off. The U.S. Senior Open is still scheduled for June 25-28 at Newport Country Club in Quigley’s native Rhode Island. The dominoes in line ahead of it on the PGA Tour Champions schedule have been falling: three events canceled, one postponed and the first silver major, the Regions Tradition, shunted from early May to late September.
“If they can play it at all, it wouldn’t matter when they play it,” he said, more with hope than optimism.
Playing a major championship in Rhode Island would be a bonus in this environment. Playing anywhere would be welcome. “I guess if I had to put a date on it I’d say August, but I don’t know. Hopefully we’re playing golf by then,” Quigley said. “Hopefully we won’t lose too many more, but there are bigger issues than golf for sure.”
Phil Mickelson questioned whether the USGA and R&A were qualified to make equipment rulings that could effect the professional game
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Phil Mickelson read the USGA and R&A’s distance report that was released Tuesday and took his share of jabs at golf’s governing bodies during his pre-tournament press conference on the eve of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
“I don’t think that we have had massive equipment changes. We have just had athletes that have been able to take advantage of the equipment more so than in the past. And I hate to see that discouraged,” Mickelson said. “You look at what Bryson (DeChambeau) has done getting in the gym, getting after it, lifting weights, and hitting bombs, and now he’s – now you’re talking about trying to roll it back because he’s made himself a better athlete. So, I don’t know if I agree with that. But I also don’t really understand the whole scope of how it affects the game and how it affects agronomy and golf courses and so forth, so I’m not sure I’m the best one to really comment on it. I just know from the small little bubble of the PGA Tour, I hate seeing the athletes be punished or discouraged from continuing to work and get better.”
Mickelson also questioned whether the USGA and R&A were qualified to be making decisions that would shape the future of professional golf.
“I struggle with some of our governing bodies,” Mickelson said. “I struggle with it because we’re the only sport, we’re the only professional sport in the world that is governed by a group of amateurs, and that leads to some questionable directions that we go down. I wish that we had people that are involved in the sport professionally to be in charge a little bit more.”
Mickelson slinged his last arrow directly at the USGA and its U.S. Senior Open, which will be held at Newport (R.I.) Country Club, June 25-28. It would be the first PGA Tour Champions event that he is eligible for after turning 50 on June 16. It is scheduled the week after the U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club, where Mickelson has one of his six runner-up finishes.
When asked if he had any interest in playing the U.S. Senior Open and if winning the title would bring a certain level of satisfaction to him, Mickelson answered, “None whatsoever. No.”
