Golden State Warriors basketball star’s appearance in the Ellie Mae Classic is borderline offensive to those battling in the tough world below the main toursImagine the scenario. Golden State Warriors are locked in a fierce play-off battle when Jordan Spieth – inspired by his brother’s basketball success and a capable player in his own right – decides he wants to feature in match five. Spieth’s overtures are accepted, thereby handing the golfer a key spot in another sport’s top domain.Ludicrous, right? It certainly should be but while the circumstances are not identical there is cause to wonder about the legitimacy of the web.com Tour’s dispensation as given to Steph Curry. The Ellie Mae Classic in California will feature Curry –...
Using a new course in Erin Hills two years after Chambers Bay’s questionable debut hurts the US Open’s identity in a sport where playing in the greats’ footsteps draws us inChange may be afoot in golf’s calendar but the US Open’s position remains nonnegotiable. The United States Golf Association, in moving towards a series of championships around this time of year, has made it both publicly and privately clear that its biggest one of all will continue to conclude on Father’s Day.Elsewhere, confirmation may not be slow in arriving that the US PGA Championship will revert to May from 2019; a long-awaited scenario which would have knock-on impacts for both the European and PGA Tours. The US Open, therefore, would...
Keith Pelley, the European Tour’s chief executive, has introduced new ideas but is looking to push boundaries further to stop UK participation tailing offThe problem with highlighting golf’s struggles is that those at the summit of the game have never had it so good. The US Open this week offers a record prize fund of $12m (£9.5m). One must look seriously hard at the PGA Tour’s schedule to find a tournament which does not bestow immediate millionaire status on the winner.And yet the feeling persists that golf is a sport from a bygone age, being left behind by those considered more trendy. Other obvious realities play a part; golf remains time-consuming, not always easily accessible and generally expensive. Related: Sport...
For all the personal turmoil this is a new nadir for a sporting great – let’s not forget what joy he brought to golf and how impossible this downfall once seemedThe celebration of that chip-in at Augusta National’s 16th in 2005. His tears on the final green at Hoylake after winning the Open the following year, two months after the death of his father. Winning the US Open in 2008, when in such physical distress he barely had the use of his left leg.In a parallel universe these would be the lingering snapshot memories of Tiger Woods but on Monday, regardless of all the glory and the 14 major titles, the image which will inevitably become a Tiger Woods reference...
When the Under-17s lost a final they had all but won with a couple of misses from 12 yards it again underlined that English football’s version of the yips needs a long-overdue cureThe yips can take more than one form. Usually we think of the phenomenon in terms of an individual submitting to a technical meltdown: a golfer seizing up at the sight of a six-inch putt, a tennis player suddenly incapable of tossing the ball up for a serve accurately, or a bowler losing the ability to land the ball anywhere near the cut strip.Jon Lester is one of the stranger variations. A recent issue of Sports Illustrated carried a long and absorbing feature on the 33-year-old left-handed pitcher...