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 --Jordan Spieth, who won the Masters and U.S. Open this year,
supplanted Rory McIlroy as No. 1 in the World Golf Rankings when he
finished solo second behind Jason Day of Australia in the PGA
Championship early in August.
It didn't seem to bother McIlroy much, who Tweeted out
congratulations to Spieth and Day.
"It is what it is," McIlroy said.
It didn't last too long, because with the Irishman sitting out,
Spieth missed the cut in The Barclays to start the FedEx Cup
playoffs. McIlroy went back to No. 1 without hitting a shot when the
new rankings were released the following week.
Then it started to get a little crazy.
The 22-year-old Speith, perhaps worn out by a brilliant season that
has included four victories and four runner-up finishes, missed the
cut again in the Deutsche Bank Championship two weeks ago while
McIlroy tied for 29th.
When the rankings came out again last week, Spieth was again No. 1,
giving critics of the World Golf Rankings even more ammunition.
"I left school when I was 15, but I understand (how the rankings
work), to a certain degree," McIlroy said.
The rankings are compiled on a two-year sliding scale, meaning
whatever a player's results were on this week in 2013 dropped out of
consideration when the latest results were announced Monday.
McIlroy returned to No. 1, again without hitting a shot.
--Tiger Woods confirmed that he will play in the Frys.com Open,
which will open the PGA Tour's 2015-16 season from Oct. 15-18 at
Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, Calif.
Woods, 39, will play in the event for the second time, after he tied
for 30th in 2011 at CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin, Calif., near
San Jose.
Rory McIlroy also will be playing in the tournament because he and
Woods were among a number of PGA Tour players who received waivers
to play in the 2012 Turkish Airlines World Golf final, an
unsanctioned event that took place on the same week as the Frys.
In exchange for the waiver, they agreed to play in the Frys at least
once in the following three years.
The Frys.com Open field also will include Justin Rose of England,
Webb Simpson, Brandt Snedeker, Hunter Mahan, Nick Watney, Danny Lee
of New Zealand, Paul Casey of England, Brooks Koepka and Charl
Schwartzel of South Africa.
Woods, coming off a second consecutive poor season after back
surgery and swing changes, has not played since he tied for 10th in
the Wyndham Championship last month. He did not qualify for the
FedEx Cup playoffs.
The erstwhile No. 1 player in the World Golf Rankings was down to
No. 272 last week.
--The Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colo., was selected
as the site of the 2018 U.S. Senior Open Championship, the United
States Golf Association announced.
The tournament, which is scheduled for June 28-July 1, 2018, will be
the eighth USGA championship contested at The Broadmoor and the
sixth on the resort's East Course.
"The Broadmoor has been a great partner with the USGA and a friend
to golf on the international, national and collegiate levels since
the 1920s," said Diana Murphy, USGA vice president and championship
committee chairman.
"The U.S. Senior Open is senior golf's most coveted championship,
and we know the East Course will test the players thoroughly as they
compete for the Francis D. Ouimet Memorial Trophy."
The East Course at the Broadmoor was designed by the legendary
Donald Ross and opened in 1918. The course is situated on the
southern edge of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of more than
6,400 feet.
The layout no longer is the exact original Ross design, as it is now
a combination of holes from Ross' course and holes that were
designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. in 1952.
In the last USGA championship played on the East Course at the
Broadmoor, So Yeon Ryu defeated Hee Kyung Seo with birdies on the
last two holes of a three-hole aggregate playoff between South
Koreans to win the U.S. Women's Open.
It was first time the championship used that format to decide the
winner.
In the 2008 U.S. Senior Open at the Broadmoor, Eduardo Romero of
Argentina won by four strokes over Fred Funk.
In 1959, 19-year-old Jack Nicklaus defeated Charlie Coe, 1 up, with
an 8-foot birdie putt on the 36th hole to win the first of his two
U.S. Amateur Championships.
Annika Sorenstam of Sweden claimed the first of her three U.S.
Women's Open Championships by one stroke over Meg Mallon on the East
Course in 1995 by closing with a 68.
Juli Inkster captured her third consecutive U.S. Women's Amateur
when she beat Cathy Hanlon, 4 and 3, on the East Course in 1982.
The Broadmoor's East Course also hosted the 1962 Curtis Cup Match,
when the U.S. defeated Great Britain and Ireland 8-1.
The club also hosted the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships in
1953, 1957, 1960, 1964 and 1969.
--Jay Haas selected his son, Bill Haas, and Phil Mickelson as his
captain's picks for the United States team in the President's Cup,
which will be played Oct. 8-11 at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club-South
Korea in Incheon, South Korea.
Sangmoon Bae of South Korea and Steven Bowditch of Australia were
the captain's picks chosen for the International team by Nick Price
of Zimbabwe.
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"I can't tell you how honored I am to be picked," said Bill Haas,
who finished 11th in the U.S. point standings, one spot out of an
automatic berth on the team. "I really, really wanted to make the
team outright. I can't explain how I feel."
Said Mickelson, who has played in all 10 previous President Cups and
was only 30th in the standings: "This means a lot to me, and I find
that these events are where real relationships are formed with the
players."
Mickelson and Haas join Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Jimmy Walker,
Zach Johnson, Jim Furyk, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Patrick
Reed, Matt Kuchar and Chris Kirk, who made the American team through
the point standings.
"If anyone deserves a pick, it's Phil Mickelson," Jay Haas said. "He
is without question the leader of our team in the team room, on the
golf course. The guys on the team trust him 100 percent."
Bae and Bowditch were added to an International roster that includes
Jason Day of Australia, Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, Adam Scott
of Australia, Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, Branden Grace of South
Africa, Marc Leishman of Australia, Anirban Lahiri of India, Charl
Schwartzel of South Africa, Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand and Danny
Lee of New Zealand, who was born in South Korea.
The U.S. leads the series, 8-1-1, with the only International
victory coming in 1998 at Royal Melbourne in Australia by a score of
20 1/2-11 1/2.
--Oak Hill Country Club in Pittsford, N.Y., will host the 105th PGA
Championship on its East Course in 2023, the PGA of America
announced.
It will be a record-tying fourth PGA Championship at Oak Hill, which
was designed by Donald Ross and opened in 1925. Southern Hills
Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., is the only other facility to host
four PGA Championships.
"The PGA of America is proud to return to one of golf's grand
stages, Oak Hill's East Course, which has tested the game's greatest
champions for nearly 70 years," PGA of America president Derek
Sprague said.
"Oak Hill's membership and the Rochester community have always
embraced major championships. Their enthusiasm for the game and
collective spirit of hospitality is recognized in golf circles
worldwide as something to behold."
Jack Nicklaus won the next-to-last of his 18 major championships by
seven shots at Oak Hill in the 1980 PGA Championship.
Shaun Micheel, nursing a one-stroke lead in the 2003 PGA, struck one
of the greatest clinching shots in golf history, when his 174-yard
approach with a 7-iron on the 72nd hole left him with a two-inch
tap-in birdie.
Jason Dufner posted a second-round 63 during the 2013 PGA
Championship to set the East Course record and went on to claim the
first major championship of his career.
Oak Hill also was the site of the 31st Ryder Cup in 1995, which
Europe captured with a stunning final-day comeback, 14 1/2-13 1/2.
Other championships conducted at Oak Hill include the 2008 Senior
PGA Championship (won by Jay Haas), the 1998 U.S. Amateur (Hank
Kuehne), the 1989 U.S. Open (Curtis Strange), the 1984 U.S. Senior
Open (Miller Barber), the 1968 U.S. Open (Lee Trevino), the 1956
U.S. Open (Cary Middlecoff) and the 1949 U.S. Amateur (Charles Coe).
The 2023 Championship at Oak Hill will mark the 14th time that New
York has hosted the PGA Championship, the most for any state. This
dates to the inaugural PGA Championship in 1916 at Siwanoy Country
Club in Bronxville, N.Y.
--Officials of the BMW Championship, the third of four events in the
FedEx Cup Playoffs, announced that the tournament will be played the
next four years on the famed courses at Crooked Stick Golf Club,
Conway Farms Golf Club, Aronimink and Medinah Country Club.
This year's tournament will be played at in Conway Farms in Lake
Forest, Ill., beginning Thursday.
"Each of these storied venues enjoys a rich history of hosting
top-tier golf championships," said Vince Pellegrino, senior vice
president of tournaments for the Western Golf Association.
"We would like to thank the members at Crooked Stick, Conway Farms,
Aronimink and Medinah for so warmly embracing the BMW Championship.
We look forward to working with them to stage a series of
world-class events."
The BMW Championship was first played in 2007, the inaugural year of
the playoffs, when Tiger Woods claimed the title on his way to
winning the FedEx Cup.
The field includes the top 70 players in the FedEx Cup standings,
who play for the J.K. Wadley Trophy and the $1,485,000 winner's
purse.
The BMW Championship benefits the Evans Scholars Foundation, the
WGA's 85-year-old sister organization, which has provided more than
10,000 caddies with full tuition and housing college scholarships
since 1930.
The tournament has contributed over $19.6 million to the Evans
Scholars Program since 2007.
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