THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Angel Yin withdrew from the Chevron Championship after carding a first-round 78. Yin, who was in a wheelchair earlier this season after breaking her left ankle in Austria, was in too much pain to carry on at the Club at Carlton Woods.
Defending champion Lilia Vu didn’t even make it to the first tee on Thursday before she had to withdraw with pain back. The two players who squared off in a playoff here last year were too banged up to give it another go.
Yin made her first start of the season two weeks at the T-Mobile Match Play in Las Vegas where she took a share of fifth.
Angel Yin withdrew following her first round at The Chevron Championship due to a foot injury. @LPGA
Yin told Golfweek on the eve of the championship that she felt a great deal of pain walking the fairways of Jack Nicklaus Signature Course and during the follow-through of her swing. Cross-country flights seemed to make things worse.
While Yin wouldn’t reveal the details of what she was doing during the time of the “avoidable accident,” she did say that she made a mistake by taking off her air cast every night for two weeks in Austria.
“That was wrong,” she said. “My doctor was not too happy.”
With the Olympics on the line, Yin was pleased to be back in action in time for the first major of the year. A little nervous, too.
Lilia Vu’s title defense of the Chevron Championship was over before it began.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Lilia Vu’s title defense of the Chevron Championship was over before it began. The world No. 2 had a nagging back injury flare up during warm-ups at the Club at Carlton Woods and withdrew from the event before her 1:10 p.m. CDT tee time, according to an LPGA official. Vu is expected to release a statement later in the afternoon.
Earlier this season, Vu withdrew from two events during the Asian swing. The former UCLA standout said during a pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday at the Chevron that she was 95 percent recovered.
Apparently things turned for the worse quickly.
“It’s been a rough couple months battling with my injury,” Vu said on Tuesday. “It’s been a little scary. I’ve definitely cried a lot on the range sometimes because my back just couldn’t hold up.”
In a statement posted on social media, Vu stated “I have been dealing with a back injury for a while now. Some days are better than others, and today was unfortunately not a good day. During my normal warm-up routine, I had severe discomfort in my back and I felt that I could not compete up to my standards and made the decision to withdraw from the tournament before my tee time.”
Vu won four times on the LPGA last season, including two major championships, and was the tour’s Player of the Year.
She was asked earlier in the week what she thought about during the time she spent in the scoring area last year at The Club of Carlton Woods, waiting to see about a playoff.
“I think it was cold, and I was a little worried about my back,” she recalled. “It was actually really clutch last year. My physio was actually out of here on her way to Dallas, and I think after 30 minutes on her drive there she turned around and came back and had enough time to help me on the range and get ready for the playoff.”
Hopefully Smith gets feeling better before next week.
Cameron Smith is going to head into the first major championship of the year a bit rusty.
The Australian, who captured the 2022 Open Championship, withdrew from LIV Golf’s event in Miami, Florida, at Trump National Doral, due to illness. Smith shot 3-over 75 in the opening round and had four birdies, five bogeys and a double. The specific illness was not mentioned.
Ben Campbell will replace Smith in the Ripper GC lineup for the rest of the team competition.
Smith placed third in LIV’s latest event in Hong Kong last month and has two top-10 finishes in his first four events of 2024.
He has a history of playing well at Augusta National. He has four top-10 finishes in the past six years. The 88th Masters Tournament starts Thursday.
With the exception of Tiger, Couples might have the most famous bad back in golf.
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — With the notable exception of Tiger Woods, Fred Couples might have the most famous bad back in the history of golf. And right now, that back is not cooperating.
Thursday, Couples was sounding like a man who might not get to the first tee on Friday at the Galleri Classic. Turns out, Couples was right.
“I can get it around. Last week part of the problem was there were a couple times in the group where I’m playing with guys on a par-3 and they’re hitting a 6-iron and I have a 4-iron out just trying to dink it up there,” Couples said Thursday. “I tried to hit a 5 on one hole and it just didn’t work out well, but that would have happened the next hole or the next day. On Saturday I just couldn’t even swing.”
Couples ended up withdrawing from the Hoag Classic in Newport Beach in the second round, and he admitted the back hadn’t improved much as the Galleri Classic began this week. But with the Galleri being played on Couples’ old home course at Mission Hills Country Club, Couples wanted to do everything he could to play this week. Instead, it was a second withdrawal in two weeks.
“It was raining and freezing (in Newport Beach) and I couldn’t get loose, and it was just a waste of time even to continue to play,” Couples said. “So I tried to rest a little bit. The weather’s awesome (Thursday). I know it’s not supposed to be great Saturday and Sunday, but that’s the way it goes. I’ll get it around today and I’ll see what’s going on tonight. I just don’t feel very good.”
The Galleri Classic is important to Couples for several reasons. First, he lived at Mission Hills for years and continues to live in the Coachella Valley. Second, he played the Dinah Shore Tournament Course for many years with friend and fellow PGA Tour pro John Cook and George Brett of the Kansas City Royals. The tournament last year marked the return of the PGA Tour Champions to the desert, something the 64-year-old Couples had hopes would happen with him still on the tour.
“It’s a great event. A lot of people last year, too,” Couples said. “Again, we’re lucky to play all these tournaments that we have, but I’ll tell you for being a desert rat for 40 years, I’m hoping I’m healthy enough to just get it around. But I’d like to play at least two or three more years here.”
Fred Couples takes his putt on the seventh green during the Pro-Am at The Galleri Classic in Rancho Mirage, Calif., Thursday, March 28, 2024.
Trying to stay on tour
Couples, one of the most popular players among fans and with his fellow players on the PGA Tour Champions, has fought back trouble since his days on the PGA Tour, where he won 15 times including the 1992 Masters. He’s won 14 times on the PGA Tour Champions, the last win at the SAS Championship in 2022. But last year Couples played just 10 senior events, managing just one top-10 finish, something that clearly frustrates him.
“Now that I’m 64 my goal is to not come play a golf tournament and feel bad and finish 45th,” he said. “That’s like not much fun. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it, but I’m past that. So I’ll play a handful of tournaments and play with my buddies and enjoy golf.”
Officials of the Galleri can be comforted that even as Couples begins picking and choosing select tournaments to play, the desert tournament is high on Couples’ list.
“I have some hand-picked ones. I’ll play in Newport because I can get around there. I’ll play here,” Couples said. “I might go up to Pebble (Beach) and play. But I’m not going to travel around and play. I’ve actually felt okay in Hawaii and in Naples, but I just, I’m so afraid to hurt myself by practicing for a couple hours and I don’t feel well.”
It’s been a frustrating stretch for the pro, who finished tied for third at the Mexico Open.
Justin Lower’s opening round of the Valspar Championship was one to forget with the star finishing the day with a 77 at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course in Palm Harbor, Florida.
It’s been a frustrating stretch for Lower, who finished tied for third at the Mexico Open but has since missed two of the last three cuts, including last week at the Players Championship.
And his discontent grew on his final hole of the opening round as he tried to blast out of a greenside bunker and caught the fringe.
As Lower was exiting the bunker, he stepped on his sand wedge, snapping it in two.
With what would certainly be an uphill day on Friday, as the cutline is expected to fall somewhere near par, Lower withdrew prior to the second round of play, with no explanation given on his exit.
Justin Lower WD prior to the second round of the Valspar Championship.
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) March 22, 2024
Last week, it was illness. This week, the top-ranked player has a different reason for the WD.
For a second week in a row, Lilia Vu has withdrawn from an LPGA event. Last week, the World No. 1 withdrew during Sunday’s final round at the HSBC Women’s World Championship. LPGA media reported that it was due to illness.
This time at the Blue Bay LPGA event in China, it’s being listed as an injury.
Vu, who opened with a 72 in China, said this at the start of the week in a press conference: “Last week my body wasn’t feeling great overall physically, and it was just Sunday that I couldn’t handle. So I took the whole day off yesterday and hopefully I can regroup and have a good week this week.”
Last summer, Vu had a back injury scare at the Mizuho Americas Open in New Jersey that forced her to withdraw. She took nearly a month off before returning at the KPMG Women’s PGA in late June.
“I’m really grateful to be here right now because it could have been bad with my back,” Vu said last year at the KPMG.
The 2023 Chevron Championship is coming in five weeks, and Vu will be looking to defend her title in Texas.
“I’m kicking myself but laughing at myself at the same time.”
Lucas Glover had never missed a tee time in his PGA Tour career.
That changed Thursday morning.
Glover withdrew before his 8:26 a.m. local tee time (10:26 a.m. ET) at the 2024 WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. As Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard reports, it was a simple misunderstanding.
“I just mid-read my text messages [that listed my tee time],” Glover told Golf Channel. “I’m kicking myself but laughing at myself at the same time.”
A PGA Tour official called Glover, who was in his hotel room, letting him know there was a minute until his tee time. That’s when he withdrew.
Ryo Hisatsune was the first alternate and got into the field with Glover withdrawing. The six-time PGA Tour winner finished T-58 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last week.
Glover was the sixth of seven WDs this week. Davis Riley (Sunday), Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Rodgers (Monday), Kevin Streelman (Tuesday) preceded him. Carl Yuan withdrew after his first round Thursday with a neck injury.
Although a pair of stars will be absent, the field is still impressive this week.
PHOENIX — Fresh off a pair of consecutive rounds of 72 to close the weather-shortened AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Viktor Hovland withdrew from this week’s WM Phoenix Open on Monday.
Hovland, who is ranked fourth in the world, wasn’t the only top player who decided to skip an appearance in the desert. No. 5 Xander Schauffele, who finished T-54 last week in Monterey after opening with a round of 73, also withdrew from the WM Phoenix Open. His finish at Pebble Beach was his first outside the top 10 in four starts this year.
Schauffele tied for 10th and Hovland tied for 42nd at last year’s WM Phoenix Open. Although the two will be absent, the field is still impressive this week.
Also in the field at TPC Scottsdale will be Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas – they are among the nine players in the OWGR top 20 to tee it up this week. Although the WM Phoenix Open isn’t a signature event this year, many of the best on the PGA Tour will battle for the top prize of $1.584 million that’s part of $8.8 million purse .
Xander Schauffele WD from the WM Phoenix Open; Alexander Björk in.
Thorbjorn Oleson, who is ranked No. 54, has also pulled out of the event. Victor Perez, Jorge Campillo and Alexander Bjork have all been added to the field.
BLAINE, Minn. — There aren’t many situations where past champions of a PGA Tour event will miss heading back to a place where they’ve made special memories.
Cameron Champ has a pretty good reason for withdrawing from the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities, which he did Thursday morning before his scheduled afternoon tee time. Champ and his wife, Jessica Birdsong, welcomed their first child Sunday evening, a baby boy.
The three-time PGA Tour winner was going to try to make it to Minneapolis on Wednesday night or Thursday morning but decided to remain home.
Love withdrew just ahead of the opening round of the U.S. Senior Open at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
Davis Love III withdrew just ahead of the opening round of the U.S. Senior Open at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
Love was selected by U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Zach Johnson to serve as a vice captain for the 2023 matches which will take place from Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome. He was one of 72 exempt players in the field and was scheduled to make his third appearance at a U.S. Senior Open.
He was replaced in the field by 55-year-old Tom Werkmeister, the first alternate. Werkmeister went off in a threesome with Jerry Kelly and Kevin Sutherland at 9:42 ET and will play with that pairing through the first two days. The event will be broadcast on Golf Channel from 12-3 p.m. ET and 6-8 p.m.
This isn’t Werkmeister’s first appearance in the event, in fact, it’s his fourth. He finished T-43 in 2019 when the tournament was staged at The Warren Course at Notre Dame, in South Bend, Ind.
