Sergio Garcia knocked on the door – again! – in his bid to earn a place in the field at the 153rd Open at Royal Portrush . . . without success, missing a three-foot birdie putt on the final hole of the International Series in Macao, where three places to the championship on the Causeway Coast were available.
As it happened, three other LIV players – Carlos Ortiz, Patrick Reed and Jason Kokrak (Garcia’s birdie putt, if made, would have tied him with Kokrak and given him the exemption due to a superior world ranking above the American) – earned the precious tickets, with Garcia, who had competed in 22 straight Opens up to 2022, left to mull on what might have been and to redirect to other pathways.
One of those is through the LIV Golf order of merit which offers one place to the player in the top-five through LIV Dallas in June not already exempt (he is currently third in the standings, behind exempted Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann) or, failing that route, the Spaniard can play in final qualifying.
Graeme McDowell, another without an exemption, also competed in Macao but finished in tied-40th.
The next event in The Open Qualifying Series is the Kolon Korea Open being played at La Vie Est Belle, Chuncheon from May 22nd-25th.
Tiger Woods confirms romance
Tiger Woods hasn’t played a competitive round of golf since missing the cut at the 152nd Open at Royal Troon last July . . . but the 15-time big champion continues to hog the global golf headlines, following on from news of his ruptured Achilles tendon with confirmation that he is in a relationship with Vanessa Trump, the ex-wife of Donald Trump jnr.
Woods underwent surgery on his Achilles tendon injury and is doing rehabilitation.
That tendon injury ruled out any chance of Woods making it to the Masters at Augusta National, just three weeks away, but he took to his social media platforms to announce his new relationship: “Love is in the air and life is better with you by my side,” posted Woods along with photographs of the couple.
Woods’s son Charlie (from his first marriage to Elin Nordegren, which ended in divorce in 2010) and Vanessa Trump’s daughter Kai (the eldest of five children from her marriage to Trump jnr, which ended in divorce in 2018) are both talented junior golfers in Florida and attend the same school.
Kai, indeed, has already committed to playing college golf at the University of Miami.
Word of Mouth
“It sucks not winning when you’re that close and have a great chance, but I just hopefully put myself in the same position at Augusta and finish it off better” – Justin Thomas after letting a three-stroke lead slip away when bitten by the notorious Snake Pit run of closing holes in the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook on the PGA Tour.
By the Numbers: 6/13
European golfers have won six of 13 tournaments so far this season on the PGA Tour: Sepp Straka (AmEx Championship), Rory McIlroy (AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am and The Players), Thomas Detry (Phoenix Open), Ludvig Aberg (Genesis Invitational) and Viktor Hovland (Valspar Championship).
On this day: March 25th, 2007
Tiger Woods’s ownership of the WGC-CA Championship – in its various sponsorship guises – earned him millions of greenbacks.
In winning the championship at Doral in Florida, Woods claimed the title for a sixth time ... and on a sixth different course, to boot (having previously won at Valderrama in 1999, Mount Juliet in 2002, Capital City in 2003, Harding Park in 2005 and The Grove in 2006).
Woods struggled to a 71 in the first round to trail co-leaders Henrik Stenson and Robert Allenby by four shots but a second round 66 propelled him to the 36-holes lead and he never looked back, closing with a 73 in testing, windy conditions for a 10-under-par total of 278, two shots clear of runner-up Brett Wetterich.
Showing common sense rather than any macho inclination to use a driver on the last, Woods laid up off the tee with a 3-iron to avoid the water, hit an 8-iron for his second shot and wedged on to the green followed by a two-putt bogey. That safety-first policy earned Woods another $1.35 million from the event he won seven times in his career, also returning to Doral in 2013 for another triumph.
Social Swing
Closed my defense of @HoagClassic with a 67 to finish t12th. Lots of good stuff just not my week @ChampionsTour – Pádraig Harrington taking the glass-half-full approach form his performance in the Hoag Classic, won by Miguel Angel Jimenez.
European squad is peaking a little too early …..I think ... – Michael Kim has noted the hot form of potential Ryder Cup opponents.
Finally – Short and very sweet from Richard Mansell after the Englishman’s breakthrough win on the DP World Tour at the Porsche Singapore Classic. The win came in Mansell’s 103rd start on the European Tour.
In the Bag
Viktor Hovland – Valspar Championship
Driver: Ping G425 LST (9 degrees)
3-wood: TaylorMade Sim Ti (15 degrees)
Irons: Titleist U505 (3), Ping i210 (4-PW)
Wedges: Ping s159 (50, 56 degrees), Ping Glide 2.0 (60 degrees)
Putter: Ping PLD DS 72 Prototype
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Know the Rules
Q In match play, a player observes a breach of the rules by his opponent but decides not to act on it. What is the ruling?
A If a player knows that the opponent has breached a rule that has a penalty, the player may choose whether or not to act on the breach. This is covered under Rule 3.2d(4) – Protecting Own Rights and Interests: If the player knows or believes that the opponent has breached a rule that has a penalty, the player may choose whether or not to act on the breach. (But if the player and opponent agree not to apply the rules or a penalty they know applies, and either of those players has started the round, they are both disqualified under Rule 1.3b).
