From July 19 golfers in England will once again be able to remove flagstocks and rake bunkers. England golf has updated its ‘Play Safe, Stay Safe’ covid protocols to define what can be expected after the lifting of restrictions.
Its revised guidelines state “all golf course furniture may be returned for normal use, including the removal of flagsticks, standard hole cups, bunker rakes and ball-washers”.
However the guidelines recommended that clubs provide hand sanitiser stations on the course and around practice facilities to ensure that golfers can regularly clean their hands. Also that online booking for tee times and registration of players details continue.
Pro shops, with the wearing of masks at the discretion of the member or visitor, return to normal as do driving ranges and indoor areas such as simulators,.
Any alterations to the rules and handicapping provisions that enabled competitive golf to be played during the pandemic are also set to be removed.
As of July 19 there will be “no restrictions on the golf course with regards to course furniture, sharing equipment, touching golf balls or the size of groups, beyond those set by the club”. This is subject to the Government confirming on July 12th that all restrictions will be lifted.
At the time of writing, there is no change to the Covid-19 guidance for golfers in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
I was looking through social media to see what was happening in golf when I came across a post which said something like this:
“Having to listen to husband going on about his golf swing when all I want to do is slob out and watch Love Island”.
I thought this was funny and looking at this woman’s twitter account she was quite hilarious about other things so I decided to follow her because I had spotted that she was followed by one of my favourite actors, Adrian Lester, and although there wasn’t any clues as to who she was I ssupected that she must be a public figure, a professional comedian, because the wit was so sharp. I thought this would liven up my news feed.
She saw that golfweloveit had followed her and she took a screen shot of my account and wrote this:
“My husband has joined twitter and is catfishing me”.
Catfishing, as I learned from the sorry tale of Jane in Neighbours, who was conned out of her life savings, is when someone pretends to be someone else for an ulterior motive. So golfing husband was supposedly pretending to be me… Anyway, she had nearly 3,000 followers who all saw my blog and digital skills advertised for free, so thanks for that.
This however, happened just a day after someone thought it was a joke to contact me on messenger pretending to be Martin Kaymer. I soon pulled the plug on that.
It was a dramatic week in Detroit last week. First Bryson De Chambeau parted company with his long time caddie, which prompted Sam Harrop, reportedly ‘golf’s premier parodist’ to turn this into a song.
Then the Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama withdrew, having tested positive for Covid. When his playing partner in the first round, Rickie Fowler, was asked how he felt he said he was vaccinated, wasn’t worried but had a discussion with the press about the five pages of protocols sent by the R&A to players travelling to Royal St Georges to compete in The Open.
“We’re jumping through hurdles and dodging bullets and they’re bringing in 32,000 fans a day”.
He complained. But this will be just one week before all restrictions on sporting events are lifted in England, though I expect every one of the 32,000 – and especially me – will treasure every moment of being there.
Then two South Korean players Sung Jae Im and Si Woo Kim, both in the top 50 in the world, announced that they were dropping out of The Open to concentrate on their preparations for the Tokyo Olympics. The incentive for them winning and Olympic medal is strong as both are due for compulsory military conscription before the age of 28, a major career disruptor. Remember Sang Moon Bae, who had 20 months in the military between 2015 and 2017, and hasn’t recovered his form. Winning an Olympic medal would exempt them. Im, who is 26, has just this chance. Kim, who is 23, has another shot in 2024, but should this be their motivation for skipping a major? Their places in The Open have gone to Emilliano Grillo and Keegan Bradley.
But the biggest drama of the week. Leave it to Phil.
Every year, there is a pearl. We thought that him unexpectedly becoming golf’s oldest major champion at 50 would be enough attention for one year, without having to stir up some kind of controversy. But obviously not.
In Detroit he vowed never to return after a local newspaper ran a story about a court case when a bookie placed one or more very large bets for Mickelson, but was unable to pay the $500,000 he owed.
Mickelson got his lawyer to speak to ESPN saying that the newspaper shouldn’t have dredged up a case that was over 20 years old and the sole purpose of doing so was to embarass Phil.
He also took to twitter and carried on drawing attention to the story, which was published behind a pay wall.
Several media representatives present at the tournament thought that he wasn’t really justified in being upset, taking aim at the media, and threatening to boycot the tournament as payback, he is after all, a current major champion gracing this event for the first time.
Perhaps, as he often has done, he realised that he’d been, once again, silly, and unreasonable to keep poking at this, and the following day made a U turn, asking people to do random acts of kindness, then he would return.
Whether it was immature and a tad egotistical, seemingly pointing out the tournament were lucky to have him there, or not, what this was was yet another pearl of Phil. Every year, there’s something.
What is concerning is this. He said of his Twitter account, which until now has been mostly Phireside irony
“when stuff happened this week, it was nice to have a voice”.
Now that is a portent of things to come. When he inevitably becomes Ryder Cup Captain, we had better hold onto our hats for a huge twitterstorm, there will be something.
Spectator tickets for the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews next year will be sold through a ballot. Applications are open now until Monday 4 October, exckusively theough the free to join One Club at theopen.com.
Up to four tickets per day from Monday to Wednesday practice days and Thursday to Sunday championship days can be applied for. Tickets for adults for the championship days are £95, half price 16-24 year olds and under 16s accompanied by an adult go free.
The R&A are looking to allocate the tickets to every generation and also to fans from all over the world.
Unbelievably, hospitality packages for the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool are available for advance sale to members of the One Club now and will go on general sale later this month.
Well now that The Kardashians has been cancelled, what better way to fill up her spare time than to start playing golf. Kim Kardashian announced to her 216 million Instagram followers that mama Kardashian, Kris Jenner, had bought the entire family golf clubs for Easter. And to show willing Kim took hers to the nearest driving range.
The Olympic mens golf competition begins at Kasumigaseki Country Club on July 29th and concludes on August 1st. The womens event, at the same venue, runs from August 4th to the 7th. All competitors must come from the top 60 of the Official World Golf Rankings. Notable absentees are Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, Louis OOsthuizen, Martin Kaymer, Tyrell Hatton, Matt Fitzpatrick, Lee Westwood Charley Hull and Georgia Hall.
The 2016 Rio Olympics mens golf medalists Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar will also not be competing.
Mens Event
Argentina Emilliano Grillo
Australia Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman
Austria Matthias Schwab and Sepp Straka
Belgium Thomas Detry and Thomas Pieters
Canada Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes
Chile Joaquin Nieman and Mito Pereira
China Can Yuan and Ashun Wu
Colombia Sebastian Munoz
Czech Rep Ondrej Lieser
Denmark Rasmus Hijaard and Joachim B Hansen
Finland Kalle Samooja and Sami Valimaki
France Victor Perez and Antoine Rozner
Germany Maximillian Kiefer and Hurly Long
Great Britain Paul Casey and Tommy Fleetwood
India Aniriban Lahiri
Ireland Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry
Italy Francesco Molinari and Guido Migliozzi
Japan Hideki Matsuyama
S Korea Sung Jae Im and Si Woo Kim
Malaysia Gavin Green
Mexico Abraham Ancer
Norway Viktor Hovland and Kristian K Johanssen
New Zealand Ryan Fox
Paraguay Fabrizio Zanotti
Phillipines Juvic Pagunson
Poland Adria Meronk
Puerto Rico Rafael Campos
Slovakia Rory Sabatini
South Africa Garrick Higho and Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Spain Jon Rahm and Rafa Cabella Bello
Sweden Alex Noren and Henrik Norlander
Taiwan C T Pan
Thailand Jazz Janewottananonand Gunn Charoenkul
USA Justin Thomas, Bryson de Chambeau, Xander Shauffele
The United States team, led by Walter Hagen, won the inaugural Ryder Cup match at Worcester Massachucets. Thet beat the team from Great Britain and Ireland 9.5 points to 2.5 points.
Tiger gave an exckusive interview to Daniel Rappaport of Golf Digest.
Three months after sustaining serious leg injuries in a single-car crash outside Los Angeles, Tiger Woods finds himself in a familiar routine: rehab, rehab, rehab.
“This has been an entirely different animal,” Woods said of the post-crash injuries. “I understand more of the rehab processes because of my past injuries, but this was more painful than anything I have ever experienced.”
The rehab is focused on strengthening his right leg, which suffered traumatic injuries when he lost control of his vehicle on the morning of Feb. 23. According to a report from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Woods was speeding when he crossed over onto the wrong side of Hawthorne Avenue and eventually struck a tree off the side of the road. Authorities said there was no sign that Woods was impaired while driving and declined to press charges in connection with the accident.
Woods’ injuries included comminuted open fractures to both his tibia and fibula bones in his right leg. Those required immediate surgery at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center before he was subsequently transferred to Cedars Sinai and, finally, back to South Florida in mid-March to continue his rehab from home. Still unclear is whether additional procedures will be necessary, or if Woods can expect to regain full mobility and strength in his leg.
Asked about his hopes of playing golf again, Woods had no comment, but said, “My physical therapy has been keeping me busy. I do my routines every day and am focused on my No. 1 goal right now: walking on my own. Taking it one step at a time.”
Woods is no stranger to long-term recoveries. At the time of the crash, the 45-year-old was recovering from a microdiscectomy procedure he underwent in December. It was Woods’ fifth back operation overall and the first since his spinal-fusion surgery in April 2017.
Woods has also had five surgeries on his left knee—the one he famously tore before winning the 2008 U.S. Open—and most recently an arthroscopic procedure to clear scar tissue in August 2019.
A number of fellow PGA Tour players have visited Woods in recent months, and the general consensus is that the 15-time major winner is in good condition and spirits, all things considered. Prior to his win at the Players Championship in March, Justin Thomas described encouraging texts he received from Woods, who was watching from home.
“I’m happy and I hope he’s happy, and I always appreciate his help,” Thomas said. “If you would have told us when we were 15, 20 years old that Tiger Woods was texting us the night before we have a chance to win the tournament trying to inspire us, that’s pretty cool.”https://www.instagram.com/p/COBhSUNj95S/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=13&wp=1194&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.golfdigest.com&rp=%2Fstory%2Ftiger-woods-speaks-about-recovery#%7B%22ci%22%3A1%2C%22os%22%3A1594%7D
Shortly after the Masters, Woods posted a picture to his Instagram page showing himself smiling, on crutches and in a walking boot.
“It’s funny because in that photo, the crutches definitely make my shoulders look big!” he said. “Maybe it’s the workouts, too. It’s been nice having the ability to still stay strong and work out my upper body.”
One motivating element Woods did acknowledge was the outpouring of support he’s received from around the world.
“It’s been incredible,” Woods said. “I have had so much support from people both inside and outside of golf which means so much to me and has helped tremendously.”
Woods also took note of Phil Mickelson’s historic performance at the PGA Championship, describing his longtime rival’s win as “inspirational” in a congratulatory post.
“Truly inspirational to see @PhilMickelson do it again at 50 years of age. Congrats!!!!!!!”
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