Last year’s US PGA Championship winner shot 11 over par on Thursday having managed just three top-10 finishes this year“It just doesn’t make sense,” said Justin Thomas with a look of genuine mystification on his face. “I’ll hit shots like the No 1 player in the world and then I’ll make a nine on the last hole of the tournament. I made two doubles and a quad. It’s eight-year-old, nine-year-old stuff, not someone who’s trying to win the British Open. I mean, you just can’t do stuff like that!”Thomas, the two-times major winner and indeed a former world No 1, was speaking on Friday afternoon shortly before his failure to make the cut at this year’s Open was confirmed. Just...
Rory McIlroy fared better than his high-profile playing partners, but all three will feel frustration after sloppy errorsThe first tee at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club felt like the place to be at 2.59pm on Thursday afternoon. There, a massed crowd waited patiently for Jon Rahm, Justin Rose and the man known simply as Rory to get their tournament under way at the Open. There were cheers, there was hush and, after the players sent their drives bursting into the sunshine, a slightly lubricated tribute could be heard from behind the cordon: “This is a lovely group!”In the end, the wisdom of the crowd turned out to be largely misplaced. This inaugural gathering of the “Three Rs” failed to match...
The Northern Irishman won at Royal Liverpool in 2014 but has now endured a frustrating nine years without winning a majorOn the evening of 20 July 2014, Rory McIlroy bounced out of the media centre at Royal Liverpool Golf Club. He cradled the Claret Jug, not long after doing likewise to his tearful mother on the 18th green.The final question to McIlroy in that Open champion’s press conference involved Augusta National and how the Northern Irishman planned to establish a level of comfort before the Masters of the following April. That theme ignored the US PGA Championship, which McIlroy had added to his roll of honour by mid-August. With four major titles to his name, McIlroy was on a rocket-fuelled...
Swede’s reappointment for 2025 would offer proof of compromise as LIV joins forces with the DP World and PGA ToursThe only current certainty in elite golf is uncertainty. A month has passed since confirmation that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has joined forces with the PGA and DP World Tours to promote peace on the fairways but nobody apparently has a clue about details for the future. The situation is so stark that golfers who prefer root canal treatment to media duties are suddenly stopping journalists to elicit information about how this all unfolds. This is a wonderful mess.LIV and its much-maligned rebels have understandably seized upon the vacuum. Full steam ahead is the unrelenting message from this tour. It...
Alliance with PGA and DP World Tours sparked talk of an end for the startup but this elite golf element carries momentumAlmost 13 months have passed since the confirmation that a wind of change had swept through golf. In sleepy, leafy Hertfordshire, LIV Golf teed off against the backdrop of intense acrimony and serious doubts. “Golf, but louder” was the chosen advertising slogan.It was golf, but jitterier. Players looked over shoulders, nosy interlopers were concerned about even being spotted in the rebel environment. Partly through concerns over the sportswashing element attached to the LIV plan and partly through the belief that the establishment, the PGA and DP World Tours, could not be overhauled, the tournament at the Centurion Club was...