Golf News 708

PGA Tour says COVID-19 tests results will be delivered in 2-4 hours

15 hours ago Golf News, , , , , ,

More details were unveiled on Wednesday regarding the PGA Tour’s “layered testing” component that will be the cornerstone of the circuit’s return to competition next week at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Sanford Health was named the circuit’s COVID-19 on-site testing provider, with plans to deploy three testing units that will arrive at tournaments the Saturday before the first round and will remain on-site through Thursday.

The RT PCR tests that every player, caddie and many officials will be required to take when they arrive in each tournament city will take less than five minutes and the results will be returned within two to four hours. The Tour estimates it will administer around 400 tests each week.


BY Rex Hoggard


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A PGA Tour memo to players on Monday said at-home COVID-19 testing is actually “strongly encouraged,” but not required.

“We are extremely pleased to partner with Sanford Health and to utilize their expertise in testing our players, caddies and personnel going forward,” said Andy Levinson, the Tour’s senior vice president of tournament administration. “Not only will Sanford Health’s mobile laboratories enable us to deliver test results in a matter of hours so that our athletes can properly prepare for competition, but they will also allow us to implement our testing program without utilizing critical resources from the communities in which we play.”

Each of the mobile units will be deployed this season to PGA Tour events as well as Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Champions tournaments for testing.




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Three-time champ Annika Sorenstam named ambassador for 75th U.S. Women’s Open

1 day ago Golf News, , , , , , , ,


Annika Sorenstam will serve as ambassador in the USGA’s build up to the 75th U.S. Women’s Open, the organization announced Wednesday.

Sorenstam, a three-time winner of the championship, will preside over the event and the initiatives celebrating the milestone.

Originally scheduled to be played this week, the championship was rescheduled to Dec. 10-13, still to be played at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas.

“The championship means a lot to me and my career, and I look forward to celebrating and reliving moments that have meant so much not only to me, but the sport of golf as a whole,” Sorenstam said. “It’s truly a special occasion for so many of us.”

Sorenstam won the U.S. Women’s Open in 1995 and ’96, and again in 2006.

The championship’s big moments are celebrated in an immersive timeline with photos, videos and stories on the USGA’s website.

“The U.S. Women’s Open has played a significant role in the advancement of the women’s game for the last 75 years,” USGA CEO Mike Davis said. “As we reach this monumental occasion, we want to thank and honor everyone who has been involved in the championship from the start – from the fans, volunteers and staff to the champions and players themselves, by reliving memorable moments and celebrating in Houston this December.”




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PGA Tour gauging interest in potential replacement feeder tour

2 days ago Golf News, , , , , ,

Could the PGA Tour be creating a temporary feeder tour?

That’s the plan, according to an email that was sent by the Tour to members of its international tours – the Mackenzie Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamerica and PGA Tour China – gauging interest in a potential U.S.-based replacement tour that would help make up for playing opportunities lost because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The proposed idea, per the email, which was obtained by GolfChannel.com, calls for approximately six 54-hole tournaments, each with 36-hole cuts, to be played from August to mid-October. The goal is for two to three consecutive tournaments to be played in the same region. Members of those three aforementioned tours would have first priority to enter.

The email also states that the “hope” is to have $100,000 purses for each event.

“This idea is very much in the exploratory phase, but we are trying to assess player interest before further developing a plan, contacting potential venues and trying to secure the appropriate sponsorship monies to help run the events,” the email read.


BY Carson Williams


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The Mackenzie Tour announced Friday the cancelation of the remainder of its 2020 season amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Players were asked to fill out an anonymous survey by June 8 that included questions about preferred tournament locations and number of events they would play.

The potential host regions: Carolinas/Georgia, North Florida, South Florida, Northeast Texas and Arizona.

The Mackenzie Tour canceled its entire season last week while PGA Tour Latinoamerica, which got one event in before the pandemic shuttered professional sports around the world, and PGA Tour China have yet to announced restart dates. The Tour said in the email that it “will continue to monitor the situations in China and Latin America as we try to start/restart our seasons later this year.”




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Sahith Theegala fires 62 in first round as a professional

3 days ago Golf News, , ,

Sahith Theegala’s pro career is off and running – or sprinting.

The Pepperdine product, who won the Haskins Award last month as the player of the year in Division I men’s college golf, fired a blazing 9-under 62 Monday in the opening round of the Outlaw Tour’s Lone Tree Classic. It was Theegala’s first round as a professional, and he shares the lead with Andrew Funk.

“It feels great [to be making my pro debut],” Theegala said afterward in an interview posted by the Outlaw Tour on Twitter. “I mean, I was super pumped to get my pro career started. Obviously, it’s not the way that every – you know, COVID is affecting everything, but I just try to make the most of it, and I always just try to have a good time, so I thought no different today starting off and it just worked out.”

Theegala, who played the MSFI 2.0 at Maridoe two weeks ago as an amateur and tied for 20th, birdied his first hole at Lone Tree Golf Club in Chandler, Arizona, and added birdies at Nos. 5-8 before capping his front-nine, 7-under 29 with a chip-in eagle at the par-5 ninth. He holed another shot from off the green a hole later and closed with a birdie on the par-5 18th.

The Lone Tree Classic, a 54-hole event, wraps up Wednesday.

Theegala


BY Brentley Romine


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Sahith Theegala’s Pepperdine career may be over, but at least he and the Waves went out on top, albeit not how they had originally dreamed.

While Theegala had the option to return to Pepperdine for another season thanks to the eligibility relief granted by the NCAA, he decided against it. He redshirted his junior year because of wrist surgery, and this past season, with two wins and a Haskins Award, his stock has never been higher. (Theegala also is a finalist for the Hogan and Nicklaus awards, which will be announced during Colonial week and Memorial week, respectively.)

“As much as I would love to come back and compete for a national championship,” Theegala told GolfChannel.com in late March, “I do think I’m ready [to turn pro].”

Theegala is one of the few college seniors opting to turn pro. BYU’s Peter Kuest, Duke’s Chandler Eaton and Texas’ Spencer Soosman are the other big names not returning to school, while Vanderbilt’s John Augenstein, Baylor’s Cooper Dossey and Oklahoma teammates Garett Reband and Quade Cummins have decided to come back because of fewer available playing opportunities, including no Q-School, and lack of sponsorship dollars.




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Georgia Tech’s Andy Ogletree to play Charles Schwab Challenge

4 days ago Golf News, , , , , , ,

When the PGA Tour returns to action later this month at Colonial, there won’t just be professionals competing.

Georgia Tech senior Andy Ogletree, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, will make his Tour debut June 11-14 at the Charles Schwab Challenge, playing on a sponsor exemption.

“I’ve been dreaming of playing the PGA Tour since I was 5 years old,” Ogletree told WTOK, the ABC affiliate in Ogletree’s native Little Rock, Mississippi. “That’s been my goal and to see a goal achieved and start setting some new goals is really cool for me. Obviously, it’s not going to be what I thought my first PGA Tour event would be like but I don’t really care. I’m just happy to be playing in it. I’m going to make the most of it and try to play as well as I can.”

Andy Ogletree


BY Golf Channel Digital


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U.S. Amateur champion Andy Ogletree joins GolfChannel.com senior writer Ryan Lavner to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed his plans to turn pro and when he’ll compete at Augusta.

With the PGA Tour not allowing fans for its restart in Fort Worth, Texas, Ogletree’s family and friends will not be able to watch him play his first Tour event. They may get to watch him play the Memorial Tournament next month, as that event, which typically invites the previous year’s U.S. Am winner, is currently set to be played in front of crowds.

Ogletree still plans to remain amateur in order to compete in the Masters this November, though Georgia Tech coach Bruce Heppler told GolfChannel.com that Ogletree has yet to make a final decision on whether or not he will return to school for an extra year.




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PGA Tour considering back-to-back events in Columbus as replacement for John Deere Classic

5 days ago Golf News, , , , , , , ,

The PGA Tour continues to search for a replacement event following Thursday’s announcement that the John Deere Classic has been canceled for 2020.

According to numerous sources, that event will likely be played in Columbus, Ohio.

Although sources say the situation is still fluid, the replacement event would be held in Columbus the week before the Tour plays the Memorial at Muirfield Village. Having back-to-back events in one area would reduce travel and make it easier for officials to create a bubble to protect players, caddies and officials from potential exposure to COVID-19.


BY Will Gray


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The John Deere Classic will not be played as scheduled this summer because of ongoing restrictions tied to coronavirus.

The venue for the replacement event remains to be seen, but sources say playing it at Muirfield Village is an option.

Other options for the replacement event include TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, Firestone in Akron, Ohio, and Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, which was scheduled to host the Barbasol Championship before it was cancelled by the pandemic.




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