- The Players Championship announced this week that their playoff format will be moving away from sudden death and into a three hole aggregate playoff. The move is supposed to combine the pressures of winning a Players Championship with the final three holes of TPC Sawgrass, sometimes known as the best finishing holes in golf. Runner up in the event a few years ago, Paul Goydos, said that the move may be a difficult one for time restraints, and that the event already ends around 8 o'clock. While Goydos has a point, I do not believe the organizers would plan such a move without finding a way to prevent against that. Look for tee times to be moved up. As long as Goydos' fears do not come true, this will be an absolute ideal scenario for the PGA Tour and television.
- Web.Com Tour player Josh Broadway took offense to World Golf Hall Of Famer Nick Faldo leaving the announce booth and teeing it up at the RBC Heritage this week. To quote his Twitter:
:Faldo...REALLY??? Get back in the booth and give the guys a chance to play that are trying to keep their job!! "
While I understand that playing opportunities are hard to come by for some of the Web.com graduates, Faldo is one of the players who have paid their dues over the years and deserves the opportunity to play whenever he would like. It is an odd situation, seeing as Faldo has been commentating full time for the past several years, but I would have a hard time thinking Broadway would say this same thing about Tom Watson, who ALSO tee'd it up this week and ALSO missed the cut. Nick Faldo doesn't owe it to anyone to look out for anybody.
- Golfing phenom Lydia Ko is coming under fire in her home country of New Zealand. While Ko was competing as an amateur, she was able to receive funding through the New Zealand government for certain travel expenses. Now that Ko is a professional, most people assumed that the funding would stop, but a report out this week seems to suggest that Ko could still receive funding through the government because Ko will likely represent New Zealand at the 2016 Olympics. Something to be noted here - the report doesn't actually state that Ko applied for the funding or is currently receiving it; just that she is still eligible to do so. Until it known that Ko is actually accepting this money, perhaps we should hold back on out criticisms of her. There is way more of this story we do not know.
- In what may be the weirdest golf story in a long time, Pablo Larrazabal was attacked by a swarm of hornets during the second round of the Malaysian Open, which caused him to run in terror and jump into a lake. And they say golf isn't a dangerous sport. How many basketball players have ever been attacked by a swarm of hornets? None, I assume! By the way, Larrazabal ended up making the cut, so I'm sure he'll be extra careful walking the fairways this weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment