LPGA TOUR Major record falls at Evian CHAMPIONSHIP
ISSUE 201 | 20TH SEPTEMBER 2016
GOLF
PGA TOUR It's down to Scott, Day IN FedExCup PLAYOFFS
Brendan Jones back to his best with ANA Open victory in Japan
EUROPEAN TOUR Molinari WINS AGAIN AT ITALIAN OPEN
*
GRINDER
TIGER'S TAYLORMADE BUYOUT RUMOURS Titleist Introduces NEW 917 Drivers - Available Oct. 21 OGILVY TO USE TOUR EXEMPTION FOR 2016/17 SEASON PGA ANNOUNCES 6-HOLE GOLF COMING TO PERTH WORLD NO.1 DAY RUMOURED TO BE MOVING TO NIKE CALLAWAY DEBUTS BIG BERTHA FUSION DRIVER NOMAD DREWITT WANTS PGA TOUR HOME
Brendan Jones has added to his impressive Japan Tour victory tally capturing his 14th title on the Japan Tour. Jones, who has been playing in Japan since 2000, posted a one shot victory at the ANA Open in Hokkaido. The win was timely for Jones who has endured a difficult year featuring just one top-10 finish coupled with injury woes since undergoing major wrist surgery in 2013. Jones collected almost $300,000 for his win and has now won almost $12 million in his Japanese career. The top 30 golfers in the FedExCup standings head to the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, this week for a chance to capture the FedExCup and the $10 million prize that goes along with it. Jason Day and Adam Scott are both players in the top five of the FedExCup standings, so a Tour Championship win would also see the FedExCup falling into the hands of an Aussie. On the amateur front the Aussie team of Cameron Smith, Curtis Luck and Harrison Endycott are set this week to contest the Men's World Amateur Team Championship in Mexico this week. The Australian trio of Hannah Green, Robyn Choi and Karis Davidson finished tied for 12th place at 11-over in the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship.
ADAM SCOTT WILL LINE UP ALONGSIDE JASON DAY AT THE FEDEXCUP TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP THIS WEEK (CREDIT: ANTHONY POWTER)
WORDS: PAUL PRENDERGAST // IMAGE: JAPAN GOLF TOUR
The NSW south coast product who now makes his home in the nation’s capital, claimed his 14th Japan Tour title by a single stroke after taking a two-stroke overnight lead into the final day’s play on the island of Hokkaido. Ikeda took hold of the lead when Jones dropped early strokes against the Japanese player’s sizzling form, touring the first 14 holes in six-under par. However, the crucial final holes made all the difference with Ikeda bogeying the 18th hole to open the door for the Australian who, courtesy of a critical birdie at the 17th, only needed to par the final hole to claim victory. Jones shot a final round two-under 70 to finish at 18-under for the tournament and take home the first prize cheque of ￥22,000,000 (approximately $287,000). “I have been playing well for a while and have just not been able to finish it off but this week it all clicked for me. I felt calm and relaxed all week and knew I would be there at the end of the week.," said Jones on his website. “I’d be lying if I did not have doubts after the surgery as to whether I could make a full comeback so to have done so makes this even more rewarding. I am hesitant to say I am back but it just felt like it used to feel. With the confidence you get out of a win then hopefully I will be able to contend in further events this year." Ikeda’s final round 67 was good enough for second place ahead of defending champion Ishikawa (68), who finished at 16-under to maintain his hot streak of form over the past few events following his own return from an injury layoff this year. NSW’s Won Joon Lee was the next best of the Australians although his tied 19th place would be somewhat disappointing to him, having been placed inside the top-five at the halfway mark of the tournament but ‘only’ managing to shoot even par at the weekend. A former winner of this event, Kurt Barnes finished tied 26th at 7-under while Brad Kennedy (T40), Adam Bland (T52) and Scott Strange (T60) rounded out the Australian challenge.
Jones BACK ON TOP WITH ANA OPEN WIN
Bouncing back from wrist surgery in 2013 has been a slow and frustrating process for 41-year old Brendan Jones however the wait has definitely been worth it, with the Canberra resident holding off the fast finishing Yuta Ikeda and Ryo Ishikawa to take out the ANA Open in Japan.
World Number One Jason Day has not had the Playoff series that he would have liked, certainly nothing quite like last year when he won two of the four events on his way to claiming the No.1 ranking he has barely relinquished since. However, both Day and fellow Queenslander Adam Scott are still extremely well placed to take out the FedEx Cup – and become the first Australian to do so - by virtue of their positions in the top 5 ranked players heading into the Tour Championship at East Lake. Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Scott, Day and Paul Casey can all take out the Cup and the $10 million dollar bonus with a win at East Lake, or by having results fall their way if they can still post a high finish. FedEx Cup points were reset after the BMW Championship allowing all 30 players qualified for the Tour Championship a mathematical chance of taking out the title, no matter how slight. As an example, No.30 ranked Charl Schwartzel would need to win and have Johnson finish in the bottom two, and so forth. No. 6 ranked Rory McIlroy and No. 7 Jordan Spieth, the defending Tour Championship and FedEx Cup champion, are also not without their chances but will both be expecting to have to win and hope Johnson, Reed and co. finish further back in the field. The last player to not win the Tour Championship but take out the FedEx Cup was Tiger Woods in 2009, when second to Phil Mickelson at East Lake. Day’s withdrawal with back soreness during the final round of the BMW Championship at Crooked Stick might place a question mark over his chances, although his fighting spirit and a history of playing well with injury is well documented. Of the two Aussies however, Scott appears to be in the more consistent and ominous form after finishing outright or in a share of 4th place in each of the first three Playoff events. The Tour Championship tees off at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club on Friday Morning AEST.
It's down to Scott, Day at FedEx Cup
The five Australians who qualified for the FedEx Cup Playoffs starting back at The Barclay has been whittled down to two on the eve of the Tour Championship and season finale to the 2015/16 FedEx Cup this week.
WORDS: PAUL PRENDERGAST // IMAGE: ANTHONY POWTER
WORDS: MICHAEL COURT // IMAGE: ANTHONY POWTER
Drewitt arrived at the Boise with good vibes after meeting his girlfriend there last year. And things looked to be on track when the 25-year-old fired a first-round 65 with five birdies on the back nine and a lone bogey at the 18th. Then his whole week came unstuck on the second day when a double bogey at the last caused him to miss the cut by a mere shot, stalling his hopes of earning a place on the major tour in 2017. Still it’s been a real learning curve for the Taree-born Drewitt this year, living life out of a suitcase for most of the year, staying with friends and, where possible, driving from tournament to tournament. Drewitt spent most of his rookie season in 2015 crashing with friends, mainly in the Dallas area, as he navigated an up-and-down rookie campaign that saw him finish 93rd on the money list. Drewitt qualified for the Web.com Tour Finals with ease after a 55th-place finish on the regular season money list, highlighted by a runner-up finish at the BMW Charity Pro-Am and until last Friday had been enjoying the opportunity to pursue a PGA TOUR card. “It kind of feels like a home event,” Drewitt said after signing his scorecard early Thursday afternoon. “My girlfriend has a lot of friends here, and it’s good to come back here." When he turned professional in 2013, Drewitt hadn’t actually planned on heading to the US to carve out a career. Still things changed quickly when he failed to advance at Asian Tour Q-School. After he kept his Web.com Tour card with a T21 finish at Final Stage of Q-School, Drewitt decided to establish roots in Dallas, along with his girlfriend. Not that they’re there much: Drewitt has played every Web.com Tour event this season, and true to form, has spent off-weeks with friends throughout the country (during the off-week before the Web.com Tour Championship, he’s visiting friends in Cincinnati). Then it’s back on the road again...hopefully a track to the “Big Show” in the US.
The 18th hole gave Australia’s Brett Drewitt plenty of headaches and was enough to cost him a chance at weekend play in last weekend’s Albertsons Boise Open on the Web.com Tour in the US.
NOMAD DREWITT WANTS TOUR HOME
Thanks Heavens some things don’t change! The number one golfer in the world will be wearing Nike gear in 2017. Nothing too unusual about that, despite the big news several weeks ago that Nike would no longer be making golf clubs. Yet there was still big money offered to Australia’s Jason Day, the current world No 1, to tempt him to wear Nike shoes and apparel and even the Nike hat for the new season. Day’s contract with TaylorMade-Adidas is up at the end of the year but he is reportedly quite content with his current clubs and has agreed to resign with TaylorMade. But in a break from TaylorMade’s normal ‘tradition’ Adidas is selling its golf businesses. And while the terms of Day’s deal remain confidential, it was suggested in the US that the No 1 player in the world would be paid upwards of $10m a year. Day has finished in the top 10 in six of the past eight majors so can boast a consistency that even Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods have lacked in recent years. With Woods only now preparing for a comeback after 12 months out of the game and McIlroy just emerging from a lean year after struggling with his putting, Nike has been forced to push a man with just one PGA Tour win as its second big name for retail, Brooks Koepka. While a Nike player has not won any of the past eight majors, Nike is putting their considerable weight behind Day breaking that cycle. Nike’s decision to abandon golf equipment manufacturing came after it finished the 2016 financial year with $706m, apparently its worst year since 2011. Amazingly, Nike never achieved a significant share of the market in the equipment side of things. Conversely, their golf clothing business is more profitable as it is a market leader.
DAY RUMOURED TO BE MOVING TO NIKE
WORDS: BERNIE MCGUIRE // IMAGE: ITALIAN OPEN
Francesco Molinari held his nerve in a final-day battle with Danny Willett to claim a historic victory at the Italian Open.
Molinari WINS AGAIN AT ITALIAN OPEN
The home hero recorded a closing 65 to get to 22 under and beat Willett by one shot, becoming the first Italian to win his national Open twice since the event became part of the European Tour in 1972. The 2006 champion also became the first Italian to win any European Tour event twice as he claimed his fourth win and his first since the 2012 Reale Seguros Open de España in 2012. Followed by an enormous gallery, he tuned in 31 and held a four-shot lead with six holes to play but Masters Tournament winner Willett is made of stern stuff and went birdie-eagle on the 13th and 14th to cut the gap to one. There were nervy moments from both players in the closing stretch but Molinari held on to become the second home player to win their national Open in as many weeks after Joost Luiten’s victory at the KLM Open. Spaniard Nacho Elvira and England’s Chris Paisley shared third at 18 under, two shots clear of English pair Richard Bland and David Horsey. Molinari put his approach on the first to 15 feet and holed a curling right-to lefter for an eagle and a two-shot lead. Willett responded with a birdie on the second but Molinari followed him in from five feet and sent the home crowd into raptures once more. An approach to tap-in range on the fourth from Willett cut the gap to one but Molinari holed a 15-footer on the sixth and then chipped to tap-in range on the ninth to turn with a three-shot lead. Willett missed a golden chance to apply the pressure after putting his approach to three feet on the 11th and Molinari punished him on the next, putting his tee-shot to six feet and moving four ahead. There was a two-shot swing on the next, though, as Molinari left his second shot short of the green and missed from three feet with Willett making a birdie. Molinari picked a shot back up on the 14th but Willett hit a stunning second shot to 12 feet for an eagle and all of a sudden, the gap was cut to one. Both men were ragged off the tee on the last but Molinari produced a sensational approach and Willett a brilliant clutch putt for a pair of pars that sparked emotional celebrations. Elvira finished with a 65 while Paisley recorded a 68, with countrymen Bland and Horsey signing for rounds of 69 and 65 respectively. Richard Green finished in equal 16th place and the best of the Aussies this week with rounds of 68, 66, 68 and 69. Brett Rumford (T30), Jason Scrivener (36), Andrew Dodt (37) and Marcus Fraser (T61) rounded out the Australians.
Inclement wet weather might have plagued the final women’s major of the year but the conditions on the shores of Lake Geneva did little to stop the In Gee Chun juggernaut at the Evian Championship in France.
Major record falls to IN GEE Chun at Evian CHAMPIONSHIP
WORDS: PAUL PRENDERGAST // IMAGE: LET
The softer conditions assisted the South Korean to post a major championship record – male or female – with her 21-under-par 263 total bettering the all-time scoring record of 20-under-par set by Jason Day at the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, which was matched by Henrik Stenson in The Open Championship at Royal Troon this year. And after blitzing the course all week, Chun had to do it the hard way after missing the fairway on the final hole and being forced to lay up from thick rough. Faced with a shot from just under 100 yards from the green, Chun pitched to 10 feet and drained the putt, like she had done on so many occasions this week, for the record and the victory. “I just cannot believe I won the Evian Championship. I made 21-under-par. I’m not dreaming, right?” the 22-year old gushed. “I was so nervous after the third shot. My caddie told me, ‘In Gee, try and enjoy your walking’, and then he said, ‘You can try to make a par. If you make the par, I buy the dinner.’” Chun’s margin of four strokes over fellow South Koreans So Yeon Ryu and Sun Hyun Park saw her lift a second Major title, to sit alongside the U.S. Women’s Open victory from last year. China’s Olympic bronze medallist Shanshan Feng finished in fourth place at 15-under with another South Korean ,Sei Young Kim, in fifth at 14-under par. Although she failed to feature at the Evian, defending champion and world number one Lydia Ko took some consolation from the week by winning the Rolex Annika Major Award for being the most consistent player across the five women’s majors in 2016. The Australian challenge was headed by Sarah Jane Smith who finished off a solid Major week with a tie for 30th place at 1-under, well ahead of Su Oh (T61st) and Minjee Lee (T67th). The LPGA Tour will now take a week’s break after a torrid schedule over the past few months, before heading to China to begin a stretch of six tournaments across Asia. The Ladies European Tour moves on to Spain for the staging of the Costa Del Sol Open in Andalucia, starting on Thursday.
Long-time Nike sponsored Tiger Woods is rumoured to be linked with plans to purchase rival golf manufacturer TaylorMade.
Australian Ladies Professional Golf (ALPG) has announced it has entered into an agreement with the Thailand LPGA to become a sanctioning partner in the 2016 IDEMITSU-SAT THAILAND LPGA MASTERS. The tournament, which will be the final event on the Thailand LPGA calendar for 2016, will be played from September 21-23 at the Panya Indra Golf Club in Bangkok’s eastern suburbs. This is the first time in the ALPG's 44-year history a sanctioned event has been hosted outside of Australasia. ALPG Chief Executive Officer Karen Lunn said she delighted to be partnering with the event which will host a maximum of 84 players, competing for a prize money pool of AUD $150,000. “The Thailand LPGA Tour is a rapidly growing Tour with fantastic partners and sponsors, and ALPG is very proud to be a partner in this their showcase event.” Lunn said, “ALPG hopes that this is just the beginning of a long and successful relationship between our respective tours"
WORDS: PAUL PRENDERGAST
The US-based TaylorMade was put up for sale earlier this year by Adidas along the the sister golf brands, Adams Golf and Ashworth. News of Woods' possible involvement is being reported by the US-based PGA Tour Radio network after the network picked up rumours from social media. Coincidentally, the news comes just six weeks after Nike Golf announced it was quitting the golf equipment business while retaining the golf attire and footwear side of the business. Then earlier this week World No. 1 Jason Day, and now a very close friend to Woods, had signed a $US 10m deal to wear the Nike logo oh his attire while also re-signing with TaylorMade to continue using the company’s golf clubs and ball. If correct, Woods would join the likes of golfing great Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan and Greg Norman in being financially involved with golf equipment manufacturing.
WORDS: MICHAEL COURT
WORDS: BERNIE MCGUIRE // IMAGE: ANTHONY POWTER
TIGER'S TAYLORMADE BUYOUT RUMOURS
Your muscles might ache, your hands and feet telling you to surrender...but the Longest Day of Golf will make it all worth your while. This is an endurance golf event – make no mistake about it. But the biggest winner of this special day, to be run in Victoria, will be the Cancer Council of Victoria as they battle to raise much-needed funds for skin cancer research. The challenge is to successfully complete four rounds of golf between dawn and dusk on a single day in December to raise these much-needed funds. Golf Victoria and the Cancer Council of Victoria are encouraging all Victorian clubs to promote this unique event to club members and support those players who join in this challenging 72-hole golf marathon. All funds raised for the 2016 Longest Day of Golf event will fund a skin cancer research study investigating immunotherapy for more effective cancer treatment that is based at Monash University. To register your club or team visit www.everydayhero.com.au
ALPG to sanction Thailand Masters
LONGEST DAY OF GOLF FOR CANCER
OGILVY TO USE TOUR EXEMPTION FOR 16/17
6-HOLE GOLF COMING TO PERTH
Yet it has prompted Ogilvy, after a good deal of thought, to use his one-time exemption for being top 50 on the career money list at the age of 39 after his exemption from his eighth and most recent PGA Tour victory ran out. Ogilvy even considered having a crack at the Web.com Tour Finals, as fellow long-time Tour member South African Rory Sabbatini has done. Sabbatini made it work in his favour when he finished sixth in their opening event last week, meaning he only had to make the cut to secure his PGA Tour card. And while these exemptions are normally used late in a player’s career to keep their games honed for when they turn 50 and play the Champions Tour, Ogilvy sees it differently. “[Some] guys will take it at the end of their careers as a bridge to the Champions Tour,” he said. “That’s the traditional thought about it. But at that point, I could play enough tournaments to amuse me at 48 while trying to bridge that gap.” “But if you’re just using it as a bridge, you’re not as competitive anymore. That’s what I thought about it.” “This is really what it’s for? To get you through a bad patch.” “What if I never need it again? Then you’d be asking, ‘Why didn’t I take it?’” Of course if Ogilvy does get his ‘A’ game back he may well move into the top 25 in career money and save that one-time exemption for another day. He did admit that the idea of playing four Web.com Tour Finals events appealed to him because he felt he was playing better over the past month or so with three top 25s in four events, his best three finishes of his season. “I felt if I had three or four more weeks, I would have gotten there,” he said. “At first, I thought I might go play the Web.com but I feel like I want to play a full, regular, normal year.” “My golf needs one of those. With a Web card, you’re not getting in all the tournaments.” Ogilvy has amassed almost US$30 million during his PGA Tour career with eight wins and 56 top ten placings.
Lake Karrinyup Country Club in Perth will highlight this world first professional event from February 16-19. It will feature 54 holes of strokeplay before the final 24 players battle it out over a dramatic six-hole shootout for the fourth and final round. Some things will still be similar, such as a regular cut after 36 holes before the field is then further reduced to the top-24 players following 54 holes of regulation play. Any matches tied after the six holes will be decided by playing the new Knockout Hole - a purpose-built 90m hole which will be constructed at Lake Karrinyup, with a new tee placed adjacent to the 18th fairway and utilising the 18th green. The Knockout Hole will be played once and if a winner is still not decided, the competitors will return to the new tee and take on a nail-biting decider, with the victor decided on a nearest-the-pin contest where only the first shot counts. That player will then progress to the next round of the match play or, in the case of the final match, win the tournament. “This is an exciting day for international golf as we launch the World Super 6 Perth; a golf tournament which is set to change the way people view golf,” said CEO Brian Thorburn. “Cricket has Twenty20, Netball has Fast5, Rugby Union has Rugby7's and now golf has the World Super 6 Perth. The World Super 6 Perth also cements the PGA Tour of Australasia's relationship with the European Tour.
Former US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy feels his golf game was just starting to turn the corner but sadly it wasn’t quickly enough for the popular Victorian to make the FedEx playoffs which conclude this week at Eastlake.
WORDS: MICHAEL COURT // IMAGE: PGA
Golf has been crying out for something “new” for years and now the PGA Tour of Australasia, in partnership with the European Tour, are set to introduce a new and exciting format of tournament play to fans of the game.
NZ OPEN NAMES NEW SPONSOR
Michael Thomson won the Web.com Tour Finals' Albertson Boise Open on Sunday at Hillcrest Country Club to regain his PGA Tour card.
WORDS: ANTHONY POWTER // IMAGE: WEB.COM TOUR
Good things do come to those who wait. ISPS Handa were content to bide their time and share sponsorship of the New Zealand Open with BMW earlier this year. Now they have been rewarded with sole naming rights sponsorship of New Zealand’s biggest golf tournament, to be played from March 9-12, 2017 at Millbrook Resort and The Hills...Queenstown’s two highly-rated showpiece golf courses. A three-year deal has been struck with this major sponsor and the event will now be named the ISPS New Zealand Open until at least 2019. In more good news for the event, a partnership with the Japan Golf Tour (JGTO) has also been renewed for 2017. The new agreement will be at least 25 Tour players from the JGTO compete in the 2017 ISPS Handa New Zealand Open. “Thanks for BMW this event has grown to become one of Oceania’s premier sporting events since it’s re-launch as a pro-am format in 2014. “With the tournament’s focus on Japan in particular, it is especially exciting to have ISPS Handa on board as a naming rights partner for the next three years."
THOMSON REGAINS TOUR CARD AT BOISE
Thompson finished with his second straight 7-under 64, birdieing five of the first seven holes on the back nine, for a three-stroke victory over Argentina's Miguel Angel Carballo. Thompson finished at 23-under to earn US$180,000 in the second of four events that will determine 25 PGA Tour cards for the next season. "It’s a huge confidence boost, to know that you can do it on such a big stage on a big level,” said Thompson, who secures the top spot on the Finals money list following his victory last Sunday. "These four Web.com Tour Finals events mean a lot to all of us. We all want to get our card, especially the guys that lost it last year. I hope that this continues to breed confidence going forward. I feel good about my game.” Thompson’s victory is his first since his lone PGA Tour victory at the 2013 Honda Classic. Thompson also finished T2 at the 2012 US Open at Olympic Club. This is the second tournament in the Web.com Tour Finals, a series of four events that will conclude at the Web.com Tour Championship in Atlantic Beach, Florida, starting October 6-9. Twenty-five PGA Tour cards were awarded three weeks ago following the WinCo Foods Portland Open. An additional 25 cards are up for grabs during the four Finals events, as well as positioning for all 50 cards. Another player to earn his PGA Tour card was Andrew "Beef" Johnston with the Englishman shooting a final-round 68 at Hillcrest Country Club to finish outright fourth. Johnston burst onto the world scene earlier this year when he won the Spanish Open on the European Tour. An eighth-place finish at the Open Championship also got his name in the news and during the PGA Championship at Baltusrol he drew some of the largest crowds on the back of his layback approach to the game. In response to earning his playing rights in the US, Johnston's reply was typical of his style. “A few sodas! Yeah, I think there will be a Coke or a Fanta or something like that. Nah, there are going to be a few beers, man.” Aussie Rhein Gibson current sits 36th in the rankings with Brett Drewitt sitting at 58th needing to make their move in the remaining two final events to collect a their PGA Tour cards.
DATE
TIME
VENUE
TYPE
20TH
10:00AM-2:00PM
CASTLE HILL COUNTRY CLUB
FIT*
4:00PM-7:00PM
MOORE PARK GOLF CLUB
21ST
9:00AM-1:00PM
OXLEY GOLF CLUB
9:00AM-2:00PM
EVERGLADES COUNTRY CLUB
22ND
1:00PM-5:00PM
BURLEIGH GOLF CLUB
DRUMMOND GOLF PENRITH
23RD
BRISBANE GOLF CLUB
24TH
8:00AM-12:00PM
INDOOROOPILLY GOLF CLUB
8:00AM-1:00PM
HAWKS NEST GOLF CLUB
NORTHERN GOLF CLUB