Free Republic

The Players Championship will go on, but the tournament will play the final three days without spectators in an attempt to combat the coronavirus pandemic, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said on Thursday. It’s an unprecedented move and no doubt disappointing on all accounts for the Tour and area fans at one of the PGA’s marquee events of the year.

For over eight decades sports fans have dreamt of attending the Masters, golf’s best event held on the sport’s most exclusive grounds, Augusta National in Georgia. Amen Corner. Blooming azaleas. Towering loblolly pines. Pimento cheese sandwiches. Witnessing Tiger Woods march up the hill on No. 18, the way Hogan, Arnie and Jack once did. This is golfing heaven. The problem is getting in. You either need to know someone, get lucky in the low-odds ticket lottery or hit the overheated secondary market where a one-day badge routinely soars over $2,000 and sometimes $3,000. Well, welcome to 2020 and what could...

Former pro golfer Paige Spirinac has slammed what she says is rampant “stuffiness” in the sport, claiming she's been shunned “because of her cleavage” and shamed as “a sl*t.” Spirinac, 26, emerged as a college golf star while at university in Arizona and San Diego, before briefly playing professionally on the women’s Cactus Tour in 2015-16. However, the budding blonde star decided to leave the professional ranks as her social media popularity soared, also featuring in magazines such as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition. (snip)

President Donald J. Trump will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Annika Sorenstam and Gary J. Player on March 23, 2020. They will join Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Charlie Sifford, and Tiger Woods as the only golfers to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This prestigious award is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, which may be awarded by the President to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. The world knows Annika on a first-name basis...

Getting a little exercise this morning!

I did not imagine things could get much worse for Patrick Reed, but it appears that they have. One month after Reed's bunker incident at the Hero World Challenge, where he was filmed moving sand from behind his ball with his golf club, it was revealed that he recently sent a letter to Brandel Chamblee of Golf Channel warning him about using the word "cheating" on air. According to Eamon Lynch of Golfweek, Chamblee received a letter from Reed's lawyer warning him about some of his language following the Hero World Challenge. Here's what Chamblee said: "To defend what Patrick...

Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., may have been distracted on Thursday during the marathon impeachment hearing focused on President Trump. Richmond appeared to have been watching a golf tournament on his laptop during a procedural roll call, which aired in full-view on CNN. "What on earth is Democrat Rep. Cedric Richmond watching on his laptop during this impeachment markup?" GOP rapid response director Steve Guest asked. "To me, it looks like Rep. Richmond is watching the President’s Cup golf tournament. Richmond’s actions are a DISGRACE."

The Trump Organization has promised to fund a new school and a health centre in order to win permission for a luxury housing estate near Donald Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf resort. The local council’s head of infrastructure, Stephen Archer, recommended councillors approve plans from Trump Golf Scotland to build 550 luxury homes and holiday villas in the first phase of a new development. Archer said the Trump Organization had agreed to part-fund a new health clinic in the town of Ellon, about eight miles (13km) away, plus a primary school and a new waste and recycling centre in nearby Balmedie. It...

MIAMI — Golfers who quit their memberships at Trump National Doral after the property’s namesake became president were aiming to lose their link to a man they do not support. Turns out they could be waiting for Trump to pay them back for the rest of their lives.

Champion golfer John Daly defended President Trump on Tuesday over allegations the commander-in-chief is one of the most prolific cheaters when he plays a round of golf. Daly golfed with Trump at the president’s New Jersey club on Monday and told TMZ Sports that he doesn’t believe claims that the president cheats. “It's funny how these people say, 'Does he cheat?' Well, when he goes out and plays, if he hits a bad shot, he might hit a Mulligan, but he doesn't count it when we're playing the match,” Daly said.

President Trump golfed with John Daly today and tweeted out a thank you to Daly for the round of golf. What was even better is the tweet that Daly published thanking President Trump for “One of the greatest days of my life!” I’m proud to be an AMERICAN, especially w/this man leading our country! One of the greatest days of my life! Thx you for a great day #potus #dad ….you are the best! Check out Daly’s shorts:

Another viral video of Bryson DeChambeau’s interminable process illustrates how the social media voices of its audience, and more importantly, its players, will compel the PGA Tour to fix slow play. It won’t happen because the media partners put pressure on the Tour to fix it. No, beyond an exasperated sigh or gentle chiding over a plumb bob, they are there to present the product in as appealing a way as possible. I once overheard Lance Barrow, the legendary CBS producer for NFL and golf broadcasts, bellow out on the patio at Colonial “we’re not journalists, we’re partners!" It came...

According to the Wall Street Journal and the Anti-Defamation League, Donald Trump is largely responsible for desegregating Florida’s wealthy sporting clubs. The story starts back in the spring of 1995, when Trump officially opened the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach. Palm Beach had only agreed to Trump’s plan after placing “restrictions on the club, such as allowing no more than 500 members, to allay residents’ fears about traffic congestion and noise,” the Wall Street Journal’s Jacqueline Bueno reported in 1997. The restrictions placed on Mar-a-Lago stemmed from Trump’s outsider status, explained Palm Beach Society magazine’s publisher, James Sheeran. ... Then...

ARCADIA, Mich. (AP) — An exclusive golf course in northern Michigan has changed its website to no longer encourage players to hit balls into Lake Michigan after a diver hired by a newspaper found hundreds in the water. State environmental regulators said they're investigating what has occurred at Arcadia Bluffs, where a round of golf on the course overlooking the northeastern shore of the lake costs $215 during the peak summer season. A beverage cart employee said she was fired for discouraging players from hitting balls into the lake.

Jim Herman captured the PGA Tour's Barbasol Championship on Sunday, and he said the victory was due in part to valuable advice he received from President Trump when the two used to play together. Herman was Trump's regular golfing partner when he was employed as an assistant professional at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey. The 41-year-old said over the weekend that Trump had urged him to try a different grip on his putter after struggling on the greens. “He gave me a good talking to and told me to use a different style if it’s not working,”...

1.) Rory McIlroy hit his opening tee shot out of bounds - and it got worse from there. [Amazing photo in Comment #1 and at the link]

A 6-year-old girl was killed Monday after she was hit by a golf ball on an Orem course. The child was sitting in a golf cart on the cart path at the Links at Sleepy Ridge, 730 S. Sleepy Ridge Dr., when her father hit the ball that struck her on the back of her neck, according to Orem Police Lt. Trent Colledge. The 911 call came in at about 10:25 a.m., Colledge said. She was taken to a local hospital in critical condition and then flown by helicopter to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, where she died...

An offer has been made to settle a legal dispute over an incident at a York County golf course that made national headlines. But that offer isn’t likely to settle anything any time soon. When police were called about five black women playing at the Grandview Golf Course on April 21, 2018, the complaint alleged against them was that they were playing too slowly. This claim, refuted by other golfers playing behind the women, did not result in any charged being filed. The group of women then filed a lawsuit in response, alleging that the call to police was due...

...As a conservative, I hope other conservatives join me in complaining about Trump’s golf costs. And I make the same complaint as an avid golfer. The problem isn’t that Trump likes golf, or that he finds at least some time to play it. Rogan is right that presidents need relief from the stresses of the job, and golf is a salutary diversion. And the problem isn’t that presidential golf costs more than golf by anybody else, because of course security and other considerations make it so by necessity. snip The president is not a potentate. The presidency does not carry...

Despite his thrilling Masters victory last month, Tiger Woods finished his second round at this week's PGA Championship on the wrong side of the cut line. At 5 over par at Bethpage Black on Long Island, it became clear this wasn't going to be a Masters repeat. The cut was projected to be 4 over, The Associated Press reporter, though there was a chance it could move up to 3 over. By the way, Brooks Koepka finished up the round with a huge lead at the PGA Championship and another entry in the major championship record book.