Watching a Jordan Spieth round nowadays is like being on a roller coaster.
For one golf fan during Friday's second round at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, watching Spieth also came with a surprise bruise.
As the Texas native teed off on the 16th hole, his tee shot went so far right that he hit a spectator directly on the elbow. Luckily for Spieth, the ball bounced off the fan's elbow right onto the green.
The spectator was thankfully O.K., even though he is walking away from the tournament with a huge welt near his elbow. Spieth gave him a signed ball and glove to apologize for the injury but also thanking him for help on the shot.
The fan appeared to be in good spirits despite the unfortunate injury.
Spieth ended up bogeying the 16th hole even with the fan's help to put him on the green. He missed the cut for this week's tournament after finishing four-under par.
Jack Nicklaus helped kick off the 2024 Masters tournament as one of the former champions selected to take an honorary tee shot ahead of the first tee time. It turns out he wasn't satisifed with merely one swing at Augusta.
The golf legend spoke to reporters in Dublin, Oh. this week ahead of the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village and revealed he stuck around Augusta after Scottie Scheffler won to play a few rounds. Nicklaus said he played three times and shot an 88, 90, and 91. He gave a good quote about it, too. Per Golfweek's Todd Kelly:
âI shot 88, 90 and 91. Thatâs a 269 for three rounds, which is a pretty good four-round score,â he said. âThatâs what I play anymore. They donât have any forward tees at Augusta. I canât play 6,400 yards. I hit the ball 190 yards anymore, if I kill it. I played once last year, once the year before, and Iâve played four times this year already.â
Not too shabby for an 84-year-old to break 90 in tournament conditions at one of the hardest courses in professional golf. And it's hard to imagine there aren't too many folks of a similar age still able to pipe it nearly 200 yards down the middle off the tee. Not to mention having the skill required to break 100 at Augusta in April, something great amateur golfers 50 years younger than Nicklaus struggle with.
USGA CEO Mike Whan wants any golfer who's good enough to qualify to compete in the U.S. Open.
Yes, that includes everyone from LIV Golf.
Per U.S. Open tradition, players not exempt into the field must earn their spot through qualifying events. Anyone with a USGA Handicap Index of 0.4 or less can enter a local qualifier, advance to a 36-hole regional event and earn a spot. (Many top pros not already in the U.S. Open field are exempt from local qualifying and only need to advance via a 36-hole event.) Since 2004, the U.S. Open field has averaged 74.2 players who have advanced through one or both stages of qualifying.
Speaking with Sports Illustrated at Lancaster Country Club, host of the this year's U.S. Womenâs Open from May 30âJune 2, Whan said heâs proud of the USGAâs uninhibited embrace of LIV Tour players competing in the U.S. Open and continues to welcome them "with open arms."
âOne of the advantages we have versus most other championships in golf is, a lot of other championships call themselves open but we are the most open, meaning half of the spots in the U.S. Open are not held and are going to be filled by qualifying players,â Whan said.
âThere is a good chunk of LIV players and other major winners who are already in and have played since LIV started playing and we're proud of that. But there are a lot of great players on the DP World Tour, the PGA Tour, the Korn Ferry Tour, and the Asian Tours that aren't in either and they have to go play 36 holes and try to qualify.â
LIV players Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith, Martin Kaymer, Tyrrell Hatton and Adrian Meronk are exempt and expected to play in the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort on June 13-16.
Former major champions and current LIV players Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel, Henrik Stenson and Graeme McDowell are among 35 players from LIV who will attempt to earn a spot in the field through final qualifying.
âWe saw it last year, we had a pretty consequential amount of LIV players go to qualify,â Whan said. âWe had players who went to qualify and got in and some went to qualify and didn't. The same will be true this year.â
One LIV player who isnât attempting to qualify is Talor Gooch. He made waves ahead of the Masters by saying if Rory McIlroy were to have won the tournament to complete his career grand slam, âthereâs just going to be an asterisk.â Gooch's reasoning was he and other LIV players werenât in the field.
Gooch could have competed for a spot in the U.S. Open through qualifying. The USGA confirmed he did not enter and Gooch confirmed Thursday he will not attempt to qualify.
âWhen people talk about other majors, some of those majors are kind of full and the only way to get in is an invite,â Whan said. âIn our case, half of our field is not only not full, it's wide open. If you're good enough to get in, we welcome you with open arms.â
Tiger Woods is making the rounds promoting his new clothing line this week. On Tuesday he appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. After explaining why his clothing line is called Sun Day Red (He wears red on Sunday. Get it?), Woods and Fallon looked at some tree memes.
Tiger was back on NBC on Wednesday morning for an interview with Carson Daly on TODAY. It turns out that Woods and Daly are old golf buddies. If you didn't know that then Daly leading off the interview saying "we have so much history together," must have been surprising to hear.
Tiger Woods sits down with Carson Daly to talk about golf, growing up in Southern California, his father and his new apparel line, Sun Day Red. pic.twitter.com/2TFbSNxzxq
Woods also explained the meaning of his new logo, saying that the tiger, which he describes as "nice and clean," has 15 stripes to represent each of the major championships he has won. He also said that his goal is to ruin the logo by winning another.
It sounds like he'll take his next shot at making his logo irrelevant later this month at the PGA Championship. Woods didn't specifically commit to any events, but Daly asked if he was still planning to play a tournament a month this year Tiger said, "I have basically the next three months. So I have three majors and hopefully, you know, that all kind of works out."
If he doesn't capture his first win since the 2019 Masters, he should at least try to create another memeable moment so he has something fresh to talk about the next time he has to promote his clothing line.
Last week: Jake Knapp won the Mexico Open at Vidanta.
Notes: The tournament again leads off the Florida swing under a new name. Cognizant takes over as title sponsor of what previously was the Honda Classic. ... Rory McIlroy is playing to beef up his pre-Masters schedule. He last played the tournament in 2018. ... Six of the seven winners on the PGA Tour this year were outside the top 50 in the world ranking. The exception was Wyndham Clark, No. 10 when he won at Pebble Beach. ... This is the last tournament for the leading top 10 in the FedEx Cup and the leading five players in âswing categoryâ to earn a spot in Bay Hill next week. ... Since turning pro after winning The American Express, U.S. Amateur champion Nick Dunlap finished in last place at Pebble Beach and missed the cut at Riviera. He is in the field this week. ... NCAA champion Fred Biondi, who turned pro last year, received a sponsor exemption. ... The field features five of the top 25 in the world ranking.
Last week: Patty Tavatanakit won the Honda LPGA Thailand.
Notes: This is the second of three straight weeks in Asia. The HSBC Womenâs World Championship dates to 2008 and typically gets a strong field. ... Jin Young Ko is going for her third straight title in Singapore. ... Lorena Ochoa set the course record of 268 in 2008, the inaugural year of the tournament. ... The field features eight of the top 10 in the womenâs world ranking, missing only Nelly Korda and Charley Hull. ... Atthaya Thitikul, No. 11 in the world, has an injured left thumb and does not plan to return until the end of March. ... Former U.S. Womenâs Open champion In Gee Chun is playing on a sponsorâs invitation. ... Minjee Lee is in the field, playing for the first time this year on the LPGA Tour. ... Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis has named Paula Creamer, Angela Stanford, Brittany Lincicome and Morgan Pressel as assistants for this yearâs matches in Virginia.
Last tournament: Dustin Johnson won LIV Golf Las Vegas.
Notes: Brooks Koepka is going for his third straight LIV victory in Saudi Arabia. The tournament was played in the fall the last two seasons. ... Anthony Kim is expected to make his LIV debut as an individual. Kim has not competed anywhere since May 2012 at the Wells Fargo Championship. He is now 38. ... Dustin Johnsonâs victory in Las Vegas makes him the first player to win in each of the three seasons of LIV Golf. Among those with a chance to match him this week are Koepka and Cameron Smith. ... Johnson, Graeme McDowell, Harold Varner III and Abraham Ancer have all won in Saudi Arabia outside the LIV Golf League. ... Jon Rahmâs new team is leading the standings after two events. ... Joaquin Niemann was the only LIV Golf player who received a special invitation to the Masters based on his European tour performances in the offseason. ... Patrick Reed is no longer among the top 100 in the world.
Last week: Darius van Driel won the Magical Kenya Open.
Notes: The tournament is co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour of South Africa. ... This is the second of three straight tournaments on the African continent. ... The field features only four players from the top 100 in the world. The highest-ranked player is Rikuya Hoshino, who is at No. 81. ... South Africa only has five players in the top 100 in the world. Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who plays the PGA Tour, is the top-ranked South African at No. 59. ... Only two players from Nos. 126-200 in the FedEx Cup last year are in the field, Matthias Schwab and Jonas Blixt. Dylan Frittelli was in that category until winning earlier this year to get full European tour membership. ... Keita Nakajima, a former world No. 1 amateur, is in the field. He is eligible from winning the Japan Golf Tour money title last year. ... The tournament only became part of the European tour schedule last year.
Asian Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia: New Zealand Open, Millbrook GC (Coronet and Remarkables), Arrowtown, New Zealand. Defending champion: Brendan Jones. Online: https://asiantour.com/ and https://pga.org.au/.
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