Friday, September 12, 2014

News Grab-Bag: 9/12/2014

- Happy Belated 85 Birthday to the King, Arnold Palmer!

- There is a weird controversy surrounding Rory McIlroy this week. In an interview, McIlroy indicated that Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods were in "the last few holes of their career". A firestorm surrounded McIlroy, almost unfairly, as McIlroy didn't really say anything that derogatory. The point of McIlroy's statement was that Tiger and Phil were getting older and that they are going to have to cash in on the opportunities they have, or else they are going to run out of time. Seeing as Phil is in his mid-40's and Tiger has been struggling with injuries, I'm not sure how this is shocking to anyone. McIlroy did say that he expects Tiger to make it back to East Lake for the FedEx Cup finale again, and soon.

- PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem suggested this week that no big changes are likely to occur regarding the FedEx Cup playoff format. The format came under fire when Dustin Johnson, who did not play in the first three playoff events, still managed to qualify for the Tour Championship. Finchem concluded that they are looking into evaluating that particular scenario, but the system will remain relatively the same.

- Best wishes go out to Fabrizino Zanotti, who was struck in the head with a wayward drive at the European Tour's KLM Open and was knocked to the ground. Zanotti was rushed to a local hospital, where all test came back negative. Zanotti is currently recovering.

- Minjee Lee is playing for money! The Australian amateur turned pro prior to the start of her first round at the Evian Championship. Lee was the number one ranked amateur in the world and was the only amateur that competed in the International Crown.

- There were two notable early exits from the Evian Championship this week. The first was Michelle Wie, who withdrew after 12 holes and admitted that she rushed back to the course too early. Wie has been battling a finger injury that has kept her sidelined for the past month. Also going home early is So Yeon Ryu, who was disqualified after she bent her putter in frustration during Friday's round. Rules state that a player can not use a club that has been damaged, and Ryu made her comeback putt with the putter. She would have been unable to replace the club anyway, because she bent the club in anger instead of during the natural course of play. For Ryu, I'm sure this is just going to be one of those "laugh it off" experiences and she'll get back to it when the Asian swing starts. The more concerning story is Wie, whose season seems to mirror that of Jason Day, who won early, then battled thumb injuries the rest of the year.

- Speaking of Wie, she was recently on the cover of Golf Digest. She now has something in common with Paulina Gretsky. Let's hope that's the ONLY thing.

No comments:

Post a Comment