Golfing News & Blog Articles

Just over a year since he flashed a sleeve of golf balls over Lee Elder’s shoulder and got deservedly banished from The Masters, Gary Player’s son Wayne speaks.

GolfDigest.com’s Joel Beall tracked Wayne down and learned this.

“I don’t mind letting people know,” Player says. “To be completely transparent I think it is a cool story because you know, the National never really came out formally and said, ‘Oh, we're, you know, not allowing Wayne Player to come back to the Masters.’ They never ever said that to the media. That's just the way they do it. They don't say much.”

Better than having you sleep with the fishes.

And of course Wayne has thoughts on dad’s endorsement of Saudi Arabia this year.

So many sad stories in the news these days and I hate sharing another.

Seems Brooks Koepka reneged on his charity-raising match with Barstool Sports founder and dream influencer of select governing bodies, Dave Portnoy.

Pausing here to let you take it all in.

At least we know this break up is a clean one. No grey area for this brospat! Essentially, Koepka backed out of their “charity” match due to a wrist injury but played Bryson DeChambeau for The Match.

From Bunkered, with Portnoy explaining how this match made in douchedom fell apart:

Bob Harig at Morning Read/SI had the news first: Trump Doral will host October’s concluding eighth event of the LIV Golf Invitational Series. The famed Blue Monster course was site of the PGA Tour’s annual Miami stop beginning in 1962 and until the PGA Tour left for Mexico City’s WGC event, now defunct.

Harig writes:

After five years away, Doral will get professional golf again under Norman’s LIV Golf banner, the $30 million Team Championship in which the four-man winning team will split $16 million.

As you may recall Commissioner Greg Norman and friends have abandoned a team concept for 7 individual events followed by this concluding tournament. Harig has also reported that 15 top 100 players have registered and may seek releases from their Tours.

Either way, expect former President Donald Trump to add to October’s spectacle, whatever format is used to give out $30 million of Public Investment Fund money. It should be fun.

The L.A. Times editorial board weighted in on the latest attempt by assemblymember Cristina Garcia to help fast track conversion of some California golf courses into affordable housing and in doing so, inadvertently highlighted how bizarre the proposal is.

It’s a sign of how desperate our housing shortage is that lawmakers and some cities are even considering converting golf courses to housing. This should be a last resort given the paucity of open space in many communities. Empty shopping malls and other unused commercial space should be the first places to look.

Yes they should.

Then there is this:

There are 960 golf courses in California, according to the National Golf Foundation, a trade association for the golf industry, but only about 200 are owned by local cities and counties.

They just keep on locking up venues without still confirming 2028 at Winged Foot or 2031 that’ll be coming to a bit of a surprise course already pretty booked up with big time events in the next six years. No one ever said the USGA was original.

Whether this increased use of familiar places on a more regular basis takes some bite out of U.S. Open excitement, remains to be seen.

Of course, locking in these venues years from now mostly seems to remind us of our mortality instead of serving as causes for celebration.

For Immediate Release:

LIBERTY CORNER, N.J. (April 20, 2022) – Building upon a nearly century-long relationship, the United States Golf Association and Pebble Beach have forged a landmark partnership that seeks to benefit the game of golf for generations to come.