World No. 1 and No. 2 amateurs Rose Zhang and Rachel Heck will lead the United States and world No. 5 David Puig heads a team from Spain when the 2021 Spirit International Amateur Championship tees off Nov. 4-6 at Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity, Texas.
The field was set Thursday for the biennial event, which this year will be played for the 10th time.
The 2021 tournament will feature 80 competitors from 20 countries. The 54-hole, four-ball stroke-play competition has five concurrent competition categories. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded to the top finishers in each competition.
In addition to the United States and Spain, teams will compete from Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Norway, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland.
France is the defending team champion, having been led to victory in 2019 by Adrien Pendariès and Pauline Roussin Bouchard.
Caddie John McLaren, a veteran on the bag for Paul Casey in the past six years, will put the partnership on hold as he takes “an indefinite mental health break from the game,” according to a story on pgatour.com.
The departure will be for an undetermined period. McLaren will work with Casey through the end of the European Tour season before he steps away, with Casey acknowledging the caddie’s “health and well-being is what’s most important.”
“The accumulation of the last 18 months of travel, the testing, the uncertainty has taken its toll, not only on me, but how I am at home with my family,” McLaren said. “And once that starts to have an impact on my young children and my wife, whom I very much love, then the questions start to arise about the sacrifices relative to what needs to be gained.”
The 55-year-old – who goes by the nickname “Johnny Long Socks” in reference to his colorful on-course footwear – also worked with Luke Donald in the early 2010s when the young Englishman reached No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Europe’s Legends Tour announced Royal Porthcawl Golf Club in Wales will host the Senior Open Championship in July 2023. The 35th edition of the continent’s only major championship for seniors returns to Royal Porthcawl for the third time. Bernhard Langer won there in 2014 and 2017.
Next year’s Senior Open will take place at Gleneagles in Scotland. Welshman Stephen Dodd won this year’s event in July, one stroke clear of Miguel Ángel Jiménez at Sunningdale.
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Former European Tour winner Fredrik Andersson Hed of Sweden died at age 49 after a fight with cancer (READ MORE). ... The late Al Watrous, an early member of the PGA of America and a United States player on the first two Ryder Cup matches, will lead a group of six new inductees into the PGA of America Hall of Fame on Nov. 3 (READ MORE). … With health and safety standards set to match CDC guidelines, local public health guidance and host-venue protocols, the PGA of America and PGA Golf Exhibitions announced the 2022 PGA Show will return as an in-person event, Jan. 25-28 in Orlando, Florida. ... With the implementation of the inaugural Idea grant program, the USGA has sent out $200,000 to 20 First Tee chapters throughout the United States (READ MORE). … In a criminal probe in New York, a district attorney is investigating the finances of the Trump Organization in connection with its golf club in Westchester County (READ MORE)
Staff and Wire Reports