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Former world No 1 Lee Westwood has confirmed he has no plans to represent Great Britain in this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Westwood is currently behind Tyrrell Hatton, Matt Fitzpatrick and Paul Casey in the race for a spot but has no intention of playing if he qualifies for the two-man team.
“I have already pulled out, I have given notice that I’m not going to play in the Olympics,” the 48-year Englishman said ahead of last week’s PGA Championship. “(There are) many, many reasons, a few family commitments, and I already proved a few weeks ago playing seven in eight weeks is not good for me.
“There are already a lot of tournaments crammed in around there – the Scottish Open, the Open Championship – I need a couple of weeks off between there and the FedEx (WGC event) in Memphis (Tennessee) and then there’s another week off and I could be playing three FedEx (Cup) events, the PGA, another week off and the Ryder Cup.
“I want to be in good shape for all of those and I think going to Japan a week before Memphis, with all that is going on, is a bad idea. I’m at an age when I need to make a plan and stick to that moving forward or else my game suffers.”
Lee-Anne Pace extended an impressive run of South African successes when she won the recent Investec South African Ladies Open at Westlake Golf Club.
The 40-year-old Pace’s win in the curtain raiser on this year’s Ladies European Tour was the ninth time in two months that South African players have won on the European Tour, the Challenge Tour and the Ladies European Tour.
That run started back in March when Justin Harding won the Magical Kenya Open and he was followed quickly into the winners circle by Daniel van Tonder (Kenya Savannah Classic), Garrick Higgo (Gran Canaria Lopesan Open and Canary Islands Championship) and Dean Burmester (Tenerife Open).
This season’s Challenge Tour started with three successive South African victories from Brandon Stone (Limpopo Championship), JC Richie (Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open) and Wilco Nienaber (Dimension Data Pro-Am) before Scotland’s Craig Howie ended that sequence with a win in Sweden in the Range Service Challenge.
Pace’s win at Westlake made her the first four-time winner of the South African Ladies title and it was all the more welcome because it was her first victory on the LET since 2014.
The other bonus was that Pace and her nearest challengers – Germany’s Leonie Harm and Karolin Lampert plus South Africa’s Nicole Garcia – all earned spots at the forthcoming US Women’s Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, California.
“I really wanted that US Open spot so I’m super happy about that,” she said. “I love the US Open. It’s such a challenge. I’m looking forward to that and very grateful that we had those spots.”
2021 GB&I Walker Cup team member Barclay Brown was forced out of last week’s NCAA Albuquerque Regional tournament after testing positive for COVID-19.
Stanford team-mate Henry Shimp also suffered the same fate. The pair had been named as No 1 and No 2 in their college’s line-up and previously had missed only three events between them all season.
Stanford officials were unable to comment on individual players but issued a statement confirming the following: “Two members of Stanford’s men’s golf programme will not compete in the NCAA Albuquerque Regional due to COVID-19 testing and contact tracing protocols. Their status will be updated at a future date for NCAA Championships.”
With their two best players unavailable, Stanford failed to qualify for the NCAA Championship.
Eight European players are included in the final watch list for the Annika Award which honours the player of the year in women’s college golf in the United States.
The list of finalists comprises Sweden’s Linn Grant (Arizona State), Ingrid Lindblad (LSU), Maja Stark (Oklahoma) and Beatrice Wallin (Florida State); Denmark’s Karen Fredgaard (Houston); Spain’s Ana Peláez and her French college team-mate Pauline Roussin Bouchard (both South Carolina); and Austria’s Emma Spitz (UCLA). The other players shortlisted were Americans Allisen Corpuz (USC) and Rachel Heck (Stanford).
The winner of the award voted on by college golfers, coaches and members of the college golf media will be announced after the NCAA Women’s Championship which takes place 21-26 May at Grayhawk Golf Club in Arizona.
The R&A has reacted to current COVID-19 travel restrictions by overhauling its pre-qualifying system for this year’s AIG Women’s Open at Carnoustie.
The Santander Golf Tour Zaragoza (22-24 July) on the LET Access Series and the Rose Ladies Series tournament at the JCB Golf & Country Club (5 August) will be used for qualification purposes with a minimum of six spots available at Final Qualifying at both events.
These tournaments replace the traditional pre-qualifying event, previously scheduled this year for Sandy Lodge on 12 July.
“Pre-qualifying for the AIG Women’s Open always attracts a strong international field and due to the ongoing uncertainty regarding international travel we want to maintain a pathway into Final Qualifying for those players,” said Zoe Ridgeway, tournament director for the AIG Women’s Open. “Competing in a major championship is a real dream for all golfers and we believe these changes to pre-qualifying will ensure that they have the opportunity to achieve their goal of playing in this year’s AIG Women’s Open at Carnoustie.”
The qualifiers from the two events will join exempt players at Final Qualifying at Panmure on Monday 16 August. A minimum of three places into the AIG Women’s Open will be on offer at that event.
Hannah McAllister is to become the first female chief executive officer of Wales Golf.
McAllister, 42, the organisation’s current development director, succeeds Richard Dixon, who is retiring after 30 years at the top of the Welsh game. Her promotion makes her one of the first women to become a CEO of a merged national golf union anywhere in the world.
The mother of two has played a key role recently in bringing more than half a million people through schemes run by Wales Golf, as well as improving and increasing the ways the governing body works with member clubs.
McAllister is determined to build on the stronger links Wales Golf has forged with member clubs during the pandemic.
“I can build on Wales Golf’s strong foundations, grow and develop it further and lead our established team through the changes and challenges that lie ahead,” she said. “I will be looking to provide stability and create sustainability.
“It has been a tough year but, in some ways, there has never been a better time to take over. I feel I have got the experience, I just need to take the next step now and I am really looking forward to it.”
Gabby Cowley extended her impressive start to the 2021 season when she claimed a second victory in four starts on the Rose Ladies Series at its latest event at the Berkshire.
Cowley did it the hard way by carding a 1-over-par 72 in wet and windy conditions and then beating Whitney Hillier, Becky Brewerton and Alice Hewson on the fourth hole of a sudden-death play-off.
Brewerton was chasing her second successive victory in the series but both she and Hillier were eliminated on the first extra hole leaving Cowley and Hewson to battle it out for the title and the £10,000 first prize.
The two remaining competitors bogeyed the second extra hole and then halved the third in pars before Cowley rammed home a 10-foot putt for a birdie on the next to beat Hewson and move to the top of the Rose Ladies Series money list.
The series now takes a three-month break to coincide with the start of this season’s Ladies European Tour before returning in August with events at Hillside, Royal Birkdale and the JCB Golf and Country Club.
The Highlands of Scotland can look forward to an influx of National Health Service and care staff following the announcement the famed Royal Dornoch Golf Club are offering them free rounds on both its courses during the remainder of May and all of June.
The club has made the gesture as a thank you for the sterling work done by key health staff during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
It entitles them to play one round on both the Championship course, rated No 6 among courses outside the United States by Golf Digest magazine, and the Struie Course, which is included among the top 50 links in GB&I. The offer is open to health staff who are currently members of a golf club and have a valid WHS handicap index. Rounds must be booked in advance.
“We’ve done this in recognition of the outstanding contribution of NHS and care workers to saving lives since the beginning of the pandemic,” said Royal Dornoch general manager Neil Hampton. “This is also timed ahead of the anticipated national ‘Thank You Day’ on 4 July.
“It has been a hugely challenging period for so many and this is our way of thanking those who have been on the front line in the fight against COVID-19. We invite health staff from near and far to come and enjoy our wonderful links courses and look forward to giving them our friendly Royal Dornoch welcome.”
Colin Callander and Alistair Tait