Russell Henley rattled in a 19-foot birdie putt at 18 for a eight-under par 62 and a two-shot clubhouse lead in the weather-disrupted opening round of the US PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship on Thursday.

The 32-year-old American used a combination of aggressive approach shots and precision putting for a bogey-free round at Sedgefield Country Club.

“After three weeks off obviously I feel really excited about my score,” Henley said. “I was a little bit rusty with the swing but had a few good breaks. So overall I feel encouraged and hopefully I can be a little cleaner off the tee tomorrow.”

The first round of the $6.4 million tournament was halted because of darkness with about two dozen golfers still on the course.

There was a two hour, seven minute delay in the afternoon session due to lightning storms in the Greensboro, North Carolina, area.

Half a dozen golfers were two shots adrift of Henley, including South Korea’s Kang Sung, Americans Michael Thompson and Ted Potter and Canada’s Adam Hadwin, who was six-under with two holes to play when play was halted.

Some of the biggest names in golf, including FedEx Cup points leader Collin Morikawa, are taking the Wyndham off to rest up for the US tour’s playoffs which begin next week.

Only the top 125 players in the standings will qualify for the first leg of the PGA playoffs.

Henley’s round included an eagle and six birdies and was another example of the solid golf he has been playing.

He had three top 20 finishes heading into last month’s British Open, including a tie for 13th at the US Open in June.

Henley is seeking his fourth win on the US tour, his most recent coming at the 2017 Houston Open where he beat runner-up Kang by three strokes.

Playing in scorching hot conditions, Henley eagled the fifth, then birdied the sixth and seventh.

On the par-five fifth he drilled his second shot to five feet and sank the eagle putt. He sank a 32-footer at the sixth and a chipped in at No. 7.

“Just kind of things got going there,” he said.

He closed his round with back-to-back birdies, including the long bomb at the 18th.

– Heat stroke –

“Definitely glad it hit the hole. I lost a little focus there. I think everybody’s about to pass out at this point, it’s so hot,” he said. “Growing up in the south, I guess I should be used to it.”

Kang had five birdies on his back nine mixed in with two bogeys to finish at six-under for the day. He made three straight birdies, beginning at the par-four eighth, to get to five under with seven holes to go.

Kang said he wasn’t expecting the weather to be such a factor Thursday but is going make sure he stocks up on towels and an umbrella for Friday.

“I had an early tee time, so I didn’t think it was going to be this hot,” Kang said. “It’s really hot. I’ve never really had it this hot in Greensboro.”

South Africa’s Erik van Rooyen, who won last week’s Barracuda Championship for his first USPGA Tour title, was in the clubhouse tied for ninth after a solid 65.

The 2012 US Open winner Webb Simpson also shot a 65 Thursday.

SYDNEY (AFP) – The men s and women s Australian Open golf tournaments fell victim to the coronavirus pandemic Thursday, with both cancelled due to travel restrictions.

Golf Australia had already pushed back this year s men s event in Sydney from November to late January or February, but it has now been called off entirely.

The women s 2022 tournament was due to be played in Adelaide in February, but that too has been canned.

“The decision has not been made lightly but we believe it to be the right outcome under the current circumstances,” said Golf Australia chief James Sutherland.

“The international element means shifting quarantine and travel restrictions wreak havoc on planning and, with our marquee players living abroad, the challenge is even greater.”

It is the second year in a row that the men s Australian Open has not been played.

Won previously by the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman and Rory McIlroy, it was cancelled in 2020 for the first time since 1945.

But Golf Australia said it still intended to run the innovative Vic Open from February 10-13, although without international sanctioning.

The tournament, the only one on the world s professional golf tours where men and women tee off in alternate groups on the same course, is usually joint-sanctioned by the men s European Tour and women s LPGA Tour.

The Australian PGA Championship is also set to go ahead in Queensland from January 13-16.

Australia s international borders remain closed to most travellers, although earlier this month Canberra announced plans to ease the restrictions “within weeks” as 80 percent vaccination targets are met.

In 2019, Ko Jin-young broke a golf legend’s record, and on Sunday, she matched another legend’s record in her dominant Founders Cup victory.

The Korean carded a five-under final round 66 to finish 18-under for the tournament and four shots ahead of Germany’s Caroline Masson in second. In doing so, it was her 14th consecutive round in the 60s which tied the longest streak in the Ladies Professional Golf Association’s (LPGA) history.
Annika Sorenstam — widely considered one of the greatest golfers in history — initially set the record 16 years ago in 2005.

The 10-time major winner won three of four tournaments during that stretch of 14 straight rounds in the 60s — including a major — and was runner-up in another.

Ko’s compatriot Ryu So-yeon also matched the record in 2016 and 2017.
However, after matching Sorenstam and basking in the glory of her victory — her third in her last six LPGA starts — the world No. 2 wants more.

“I still have a chance (to) beat Annika, and I will try to do my best,” she said.

Two years ago, Ko shocked the golfing world by breaking Tiger Woods’ record of 110 consecutive holes without a bogey.

In the season in which she won her first two majors, she went a remarkable 114 consecutive holes without making a bogey before missing a seemingly simple three-foot putt on the ninth hole at the Cambia Portland Classic.

Ko reacts after sinking her final putt on the 18th to win the Founders Cup.
After setting the record and ending her run, Ko wasn’t downbeat.
“Now, it’s done,” Ko said in 2019. “I’m free.”
Fifteen-time major winner Woods initially set the record in 2000.

The Governing Board of Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) announced enhancements to its Official World Golf Ranking, starting in August 2022, with modern statistical techniques used to calculate the ‘modified’ system.
The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) has been given a significant overhaul in to try and provide a more accurate reflection of players’ performances across the world.

The changes, coming into operation in August 2022 and covering all 23 golf tours recognised by the OWGR, will see modern statistical techniques used to allow eligible players and events to be better evaluated to each other.
Each player in the OWGR system will have a Strokes Gained (SG) World Rating based on their actual scores in stroke-play events, which is adjusted for the relative difficulty of each round played over a rolling two-year period.

An SG World Rating dictates the number of Performance Points the player brings into a tournament, with the sum of all golfers’ points determining an event’s Field Rating – replacing the previous ‘Strength of Field’ system and indicating the total Ranking Points available for distribution that week.

The winner of a major will continue to receive 100 First Place Points and the champion at The Players will be awarded 80, with all other tournament’s having Ranking Points based on the Field Rating. Built-in minimums on offer for other “flagship” events will no longer exist.

Changes to the Field Rating calculation have been designed to ensure fields are evaluated based on the skill level of every player involved, rather than just the world’s top 200, with all players making the cut in an event now receiving Ranking Points.

OWGR chairman Peter Dawson said: “Since 1986, the Tours eligible for inclusion have grown in number from six to 23 and the rankings have been continuously modified to accommodate this expansion and to improve accuracy. We are confident the further enhancements announced today will best position OWGR for the years ahead.”

The changes to OWGR are the result of three years of analysis and consultations with golf’s governing bodies and Tours, while models using the new rating system estimate that the top 10 players in the ranking will likely remain the same and the movement of “two to five players” in the top 50.

The modernized Field Rating calculation and Ranking points will be used for all tournaments from the week beginning August 8, 2022, with the first standings released the following week.

After competing in Minnesota, Japan and Tennessee in the last three weeks, Patrick Reed has decided to take a break ahead of the FedExCup playoffs.

Reed withdrew on Tuesday from this week’s Wyndham Championship, the PGA Tour’s final regular-season event. The three-tournament playoffs begin next week, with The Northern Trust at Liberty National. No official reason was given for Reed’s withdrawal.

Reed is currently 22nd in FedExCup points, with the top 30 qualifying for the finale, the Tour Championship.
He is replaced in the Wyndham field by Josh Teater, No. 193 in points.

Reed was competing in the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities when he learned he was eligible to play for Team USA in the Olympics, following Bryson DeChambeau’s withdrawal because of COVID-19. Reed jumped at the chance, flew to Tokyo and tied for 22nd without a practice round. He then returned for last week’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis and tied for 31st.

It was one of the most dismal nine-hole stretches you could see on the PGA Tour. On the one hand, you had one of the nicest players around get caught under a handful of (justified) slow-play warnings, rush through the back nine in staggering humidity and swirling wind, and lose a lead that looked as close as a lead can come to unassailable. On the other, you had his playing partner, the most controversial player on tour and someone who does himself no favors, enduring what amounts to four-plus hours of bullying that has been openly encouraged by his rival. It was an ugly scene: poor displays of golf, worse displays of behavior, and two contenders who didn’t collapse as much as they imploded.

This is the story of Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau, who entered the back nine on Sunday at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational at 20 under and 18 under, respectively, well clear of the other contenders, the best of whom sat at 16 under and would stay there the rest of the round. A classic match-play dual had unfolded, and it was obvious to anyone watching that the eventual winner would come from this final duo.
That story began to crumble for good on the 11th hole, a par 3 guarded on three sides by water, but it was precipitated by slow-play warnings that started on the sixth hole. That’s where DeChambeau found himself in an odd situation with a ball lodged beneath a fence, half inbounds and half out, that required precious minutes to resolve. They were on the clock a hole later, and that would take its toll on English, who afterward felt that rushing his routine cost him the tournament.
“We were warned on the front nine,” he said, “kind of got behind, felt like we were running pretty much the whole round and that really caught up. So you’re having to run between the green and the tee and it’s hard for me to slow down.”

All of which led to the 11th hole, when English’s tee shot landed miles short of the green, dunking it in the water. He made double bogey. With a huge window of opportunity now open, DeChambeau responded, however, by launching his tee shot over the green, into the water. He hit his third shot from the drop zone, only for the ball to land in a front bunker, leading to an eventual triple bogey.
Needless to say, this didn’t help the pace of play. It compounded their need to rush, and though English still held a two-shot lead as he walked to the 12th tee, he found the water again on the next par-3, the 14th, with what is likely one of the worst shots he’s hit this season—a weak, inexplicable fade that started right of the green, got worse, and never had a chance to avoid the pond that is, unlike 11, eminently avoidable. English showed his first visible bout of frustration when he hammered his wood into the tee box after an errant drive on 17, but his lead had been so big that he still had a shot to make the playoff later won by Abraham Ancer on 18. After pulling off an aggressive approach into the 18th green, he failed to read enough break on his birdie putt and came up one shot short. His back nine total: 40
DeChambeau, somehow, fared worse. By the time his back-nine nightmare was over, he had posted 41, and when he met his caddie and manager behind the 18th green, he lamented his round in language that was, to put it mildly, colorful.
Let’s talk about bullying. It’s no secret that a feature of DeChambeau’s PGA Tour life these days is being called “Brooksy” or “Brooks” by fans in the gallery. It’s an odd development of his feud with Brooks Koepka, and when the harassment started at the Memorial with fans shouting Koepka’s name at DeChambeau, and at least some of those fans were ejected, Koepka ramped up the tension with a video online subtly offering free beer to anyone who partook of the odd ritual.
Since then, it has evolved into fans calling DeChambeau various forms of Koepka’s name, with “Brooksy” being a favorite. On the surface, this may sound ridiculous, minor, and even funny. In reality, when you follow DeChambeau for even half a round, and you see the faces of the people taunting him for a mean little thrill, it looks crueler and more intense than would come across on TV or in written reports. It clearly makes DeChambeau miserable, but he’s locked into an unwinnable position where if he reacts, he looks thin-skinned and inevitably makes the abuse worse. Yet staying silent doesn’t help, either. After staring down several fans throughout the course of play on Sunday—a long glare, accomplishing nothing, before he marched away—he finally broke down on the 17th tee when a female fan shouted, yet again, “Brooksy!”

“Good one!” he shouted back, but he looked bitter, and tired, and defeated, and the only thing you could feel for him in that moment was pity.
DeChambeau is not a figure who elicits much sympathy, especially from his detractors, and incidentally I tend to agree with a lot of the reasoned criticism directed his way, particularly on the recent subject of vaccinations. Nevertheless, there is a marked difference between disagreeing with someone, perhaps even disliking him, and supporting the kind of psychological abuse that he now endures in every single round he plays, which is effective in that it’s nearly impossible to police (DeChambeau and his caddie even approached the literal police walking with their group on Sunday to complain) and which shows no signs of abating.
“It’s not real fair for them to call him ‘Brooksy’ a lot,” English said, having witnessed the shouts all day. “It kind of sucks, and obviously he hears it and it affects him a little bit. He doesn’t like it, and I think that causes them to do it more. It just sucks that that’s out here right now, that they’re trying to irk people like that. It’s just unfortunate.”
“It’s not real fair for them to call him ‘Brooksy’ a lot,” English said, having witnessed the shouts all day. “It kind of sucks, and obviously he hears it and it affects him a little bit. He doesn’t like it, and I think that causes them to do it more. It just sucks that that’s out here right now, that they’re trying to irk people like that. It’s just unfortunate.”

The 31-year-old from Cape Town scored 16 points in the fourth round for a 50 point total and a five-shot win over runner-up Andrew Putnam of the United States at the Old Greenwood Course in Truckee, California.
South Africa’s Erik van Rooyen birdied the 18th hole with the help of a lucky bounce to win the 2021 Barracuda Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the US PGA Tour.

The 31-year-old from Cape Town scored 16 points in the fourth round for a 50 point total and a five-shot win over runner-up Andrew Putnam of the United States at the Old Greenwood Course in Truckee, California.

“When it is your day, it is your day,” said van Rooyen.

Van Rooyen becomes the third South Africa to win on the PGA Tour this year, joining Branden Grace and Garrick Higgo. This is the first time three different South African’s have won in the same season since 2010 when Ernie Els, Tim Clark and Louis Oosthuizen did it.

“This means everything,” van Rooyen said. “It is everybody’s dream to play here (North America). Look at my career. I started in South Africa. I won in South Africa and Europe and now here. I am over the moon.”

Putnam scored 11 points on Sunday as did third place finisher Scott Piercy at the event which uses the modified Stableford scoring system.

Players receive eight points for an albatross, five for eagle, two for birdie and none for par. A point is subtracted for a bogey, and three points are taken away for a double bogey or worse.

Van Rooyen got a lucky break on 18 when his tee shot sailed way left into a clump of trees. It smacked into one of the saplings with a resounding thud and ricochetted back onto the middle of the fairway.

He hit his 194-yard approach on the green, and drained a 10 footer for birdie, celebrating with a first pump and a scream.

“I got a massive break on 18,” he said. “It was probably the worst shot I hit all week but I got a really great bounce. Sometimes you need a little luck.”

The 2017 runner-up at the Joburg Open already had one victory on the European Tour, capturing the Scandinavian Invitational in 2019.

Van Rooyen dedicated this win to his wife and baby, who was born a month ago. He has been so busy travelling for work that he’s hardly spent any time with his new daughter.

“We had a baby a month ago. I have only been with her for a week so this one goes out to my wife and daughter.”

Putnam, who was seeking to become just the third player to win this event twice, got off to a roaring start by going birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie on his first four holes.

He sank his fourth and final birdie of the day on the par-four 16th but then ran into trouble on 18 when his wayward tee shot landed in a fairway bunker. He won this event in 2018 for his lone PGA title.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A week after having his Olympic dreams dashed because of a positive COVID-19 test, Bryson DeChambeau was back on the PGA Tour – looking leaner and sounding a bit nasally.

DeChambeau said he lost about 10 pounds in the aftermath of his COVID diagnosis, which came July 23, during the first wave of testing ahead of his departure for the Tokyo Olympics. Unable to compete, he withdrew from the competition, allowing Patrick Reed to play for the U.S. Olympic team for the second time.

Asked what he felt watching the Olympics knowing he could have been in Japan, DeChambeau said Wednesday after his pro-am round: “I didn’t feel anything because I wasn’t playing in it. It didn’t matter. It was sad when I tested positive. And then after that, my brain just shifted into a place where, OK, I wasn’t in the Olympics. It is what it is.”

DeChambeau, who was not vaccinated, didn’t begin to experience symptoms – congestion, fatigue, a few “coughing spurts” – until a few days after his initial positive test. He said he still hit balls in his in-home simulator but mostly just rested. He began to feel better over the weekend, and he played nine holes each of the past two days in advance of this week’s WGC at TPC Southwind. Unable to generate the same speed after what was largely a week of inactivity, DeChambeau said he’s lost about 5 mph with his driver.

“I’m not really expecting much,” he said of his expectations. “I’m just trying to get out here and feel good again and get my swing in a place where I’m comfortable. Maybe lower expectations will help me play well this week.”

Ranked seventh in the world, DeChambeau has only one top-10 finish since March.

DeChambeau said that he didn’t know where or how he picked up the virus. He was tested before, during and after the Open Championship, and none of the other people he was around in the days after returning home from England has tested positive.

When asked whether he had any regrets about not getting vaccinated earlier, considering his Olympic withdrawal, DeChambeau said: “The thing is, the vaccine doesn’t necessarily prevent it from happening. That’s where for me, I’m young enough, I’d rather give it to people that need it. I don’t need it. I’m healthy. I’m a young individual that will continue to be healthy and continue to work on my health. But I don’t think that taking a vaccine away from someone that could need it is a good thing.”

Despite DeChambeau’s claims, the CDC has said that vaccines have been widely available in the U.S. since the spring. DeChambeau said both of his parents are vaccinated, including his father, Jon, who is a diabetic.

“As time goes on, if it’s mainstream – like, really, really mainstream – and everything is vetted out, yeah,” he said, “I don’t have an issue [getting vaccinated].”