It’s not quite the equivalent of Taylor Swift cheering the NFL’s Chiefs, but the LPGA will tap into the surge in popularity behind one of America’s brightest stars.
Caitlin Clark, the sharpshooting phenom who has elevated the WNBA – and women’s sports in general – to new heights, will participate in LPGA legend Annika Sörenstam’s tournament next month in Florida.
Clark, the 22-year-old rookie of the year with the Indiana Fever, will serve on a women’s leadership panel on November 12 and play with Sörenstam in the pro-am the next day before the Annika Driven by Gainbridge event at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.
Asked recently about her offseason plans, Clark said she intends to play more golf before quipping that she might “become a professional golfer.” As this video clip from her college days at Iowa would attest, she’s got game beyond the hardwood.
Clark is sponsored by Gainbridge, a life insurer based in Zionsville, Indiana. READ MORE
American Lauren Stephenson, who was one of 15 players this season to earn promotions to the LPGA Tour, was named player of the year on the developmental Epson Tour. Stephenson, 27, won the Twin Bridges Championship among eight top-10 finishes on the Epson Tour to earn a return to the LPGA, where she competed for five seasons and was the 2019 rookie of the year. READ MORE
As Hurricane Milton approached Florida last week, the LPGA postponed its Q-Series qualifying stage, which had been scheduled for October 13-18 at Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice. The tournament was reset for October 20-25. READ MORE
Ramsey Cardy, Sportsfile via Getty Images
Last week’s inaugural Black Desert Championship, which was the PGA Tour’s first tournament in Utah in 61 years, featured a handful of players with ties to the Beehive State.
Jay Don Blake, a 65-year-old from St. George who won in 1991 at Torrey Pines, got a sponsor exemption to make his 500th career start. Rookie Patrick Fishburn and Zac Blair, both from Ogden and former teammates at Brigham Young, joined another BYU alumnus, Mike Weir of Park City, at Black Desert Resort in Ivins.
However, the most prominent Utah product on tour, Tony Finau, wasn’t there. Finau, a six-time tour winner who is No. 24 in the Official World Golf Ranking and a member of the recently victorious U.S. team in the Presidents Cup, accompanied his 12-year-old son, Jraice, to Frisco, Texas, for the 13U PGA Junior League Championship.
After conceding that he was “under quite a bit of pressure” to play, Finau added: “I can’t miss my son’s tournament.”
Finau and his wife, Alayna, have five children and live in Scottsdale, Arizona. READ MORE
The selection criteria were released in concert with a news conference that captains Keegan Bradley of the U.S. and Luke Donald of Europe held last week to mark the one-year-out timeline for the Ryder Cup, which Global Golf Post’s Ron Green Jr. chronicled for GGP+. READ MORE
Three sites from the PGA Tour’s first stage of Q-School were completed last week, with more qualifying set for the next two weeks. READ MORE
France’s Grégory Havret, a three-time winner on the European Tour and runner-up at the 2010 U.S. Open, retired as a touring professional and has accepted a role with the French Golf Federation.
Havret, 47, conceded to feeling “a huge mix of emotions” before he signed for a 1-under 70 on Sunday at Le Golf National in the Open de France and a 61st-place finish. It was his 560th career tournament, ranking second among Frenchmen only to Raphaël Jacquelin’s 681 starts on the tour.
Though Havret won the 2001 Italian Open, the 2007 Scottish Open (in a playoff against Phil Mickelson) and the 2008 Johnnie Walker Championship, his fondest memory might be the runner-up finish to Graeme McDowell in the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Havret was paired with – and outplayed – Tiger Woods while coming up one stroke short.
“A win is a win, but I would say the U.S. Open one because this is the last round my father saw me play,” Havret said. “He passed away a few months later. Having him, this memory, Tiger Woods, Pebble Beach, having a chance with a 6-footer on the last to force a playoff maybe, was something.
“We turn the page. It’s a new chapter, but that chapter was good.” READ MORE
TAP-INS
The Showdown, a made-for-TV match that will pair the PGA Tour’s Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler against LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, has been set for December 17 at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will air on TNT, Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch reported. READ MORE
LIV Golf’s Cameron Smith will return to his native Australia to play four consecutive tournaments Down Under, ending with two late-November stops that are co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia: BMW Australian PGA at Royal Queensland and the ISPS Handa Australian Open at Kingston Heath and Victoria Golf Club. Smith also will play the Queensland PGA and the New South Wales Open. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon