The Masters Tournament officially welcomes five late additions to the 2022 field, including first-time participants Harold Varner III, Cameron Young and Séamus Power.
Players ranked in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking after the conclusion of Sunday’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play qualified to compete at the season’s first major championship, April 7-10 at Augusta National.
Thomas Pieters of Belgium (No. 34), Power of Ireland (41) and Americans Varner (40), Russell Henley (42) and Young (47) moved into the top 50 since the start of 2022.
England’s Richard Bland, at age 49, just missed becoming the oldest professional to qualify for his first Masters. He needed to beat Dustin Johnson, the 2020 Masters champion and former world No. 1, to reach the Match Play quarterfinals to climb in from No. 60 last week, but he lost, 3 and 2, and settled at No. 53.
Cameron Tringale (52) missed out on the deadline once again after standing No. 51 in the 2021 season-ending rankings. He fell out of a top-50 spot, which he’d held since top-15 finishes at Torrey Pines and Riviera, after missed cuts at Bay Hill and the Players and a T62 at the Valspar Championship. He needed at least two match wins in group play at the WGC to hold on to a top-50 spot but got only one.
The Masters field stands at 91 players. That includes Tiger Woods, who has not played an official event since the 2020 November Masters, and Harris English, who hasn’t played since January due to a nagging injury to his right hip. Each player has until the start of the tournament to decide whether to play or withdraw.
The winner of this week’s Valero Texas Open, if not otherwise qualified, receives the last invitation to this year’s Masters.
One month after fire destroyed the clubhouse at Oakland Hills Country Club, the storied club in suburban Detroit got some good news from the USGA. The USGA committed six future national championships to the club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, including two U.S. Opens, officials announced Tuesday.
Oakland Hills will be the site of the 2034 and 2051 U.S. Opens, plus four key amateur events: 2024 U.S. Junior Amateur, 2029 U.S. Women’s Amateur, 2038 U.S. Girls’ Junior and 2047 U.S. Amateur. Earlier this year, the USGA had awarded the 2031 and 2042 U.S. Women’s Opens to Oakland Hills. Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club had been scheduled to host the 2034 U.S. Open but instead has been awarded the 2033 edition.
Oakland Hills’ South Course, a 1918 Donald Ross design dubbed “The Monster†and renovated by Gil Hanse in 2021, has hosted six U.S. Opens, three PGAs and a Ryder Cup. The club’s North Course also was designed by the late Ross. Damage from the Feb. 17 clubhouse blaze was estimated at $80 million, though a significant part of the club’s trophy case and original artwork reportedly was saved by firefighters (READ MORE).
The Walker Cup will move to even-numbered years, beginning in 2026, to avoid conflicting with the World Amateur Team Championships, the USGA and the R&A announced. The WATC men’s and women’s events will be played in odd-numbered years, beginning in 2023.
John Bodenhamer, who oversees USGA championships, cited “a ripple effect on the overall golf calendar†since golf returned to the Summer Olympics in 2016 after a 112-year absence. Added the R&A’s Phil Anderton: “The Walker Cup is at the forefront of men’s amateur golf, and we want to ensure that its status is reflected in its position in the golf calendar.â€
The biennial Walker Cup pits the top male American golfers against their counterparts from Great Britain and Ireland in a match-play, Ryder Cup-style event. The U.S. leads the series, 38-9-1.
The 2023 Walker Cup will be played Sept. 2-3 at St. Andrews’ Old Course in Scotland. The 2025 matches will be played at Cypress Point in Pebble Beach, California, before the switch to even-numbered years in 2026 at a course to be determined by the R&A (READ MORE).
A Pennsylvania ticket broker was sentenced to six months in prison and ordered to reimburse the USGA nearly $1.3 million for his role in a conspiracy to sell stolen U.S. Open tickets.
James Bell, 70, of Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, who owns and operates Sherry’s Theater Ticket Agency, pleaded guilty in November to multiple counts of fraud involving a scheme to profit from 2017-19 U.S. Open tickets that he conspired to steal from the USGA. Robert Fryer, a former USGA employee who was implicated in the scheme, was charged and convicted separately.
Bell agreed to pay $1,282,247 to the USGA and was ordered to forfeit $598,000 in fraudulent profits, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Bell admitted that he paid Fryer $324,000 for tickets to the 2017, 2018 and 2019 U.S. Opens that had a face value of more than $1.2 million.
“Fans should remember that any item with a low price that seems ‘too good to be true’ should be cause for caution and concern,†U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said (READ MORE).
TAP-INS
Morgan Pressel has been selected as the first assistant captain for the U.S. team in the 2023 Solheim Cup, the LPGA and captain Stacy Lewis announced. Pressel, 33, a two-time winner on the LPGA, has played in six Solheim Cups, compiling an 11-8-3 record in the biennial series against Europe’s top female professionals. The 2023 matches are scheduled for Sept. 22-24 at Finca Cortesin in AndalucÃa, Spain. The U.S. leads the series, 10-7, but the Europeans have won the past two matches (READ MORE). … Waverley Country Club in Portland, Oregon, will host the 2023 U.S. Senior Women’s Open, the USGA announced. The tournament dates will be Aug. 24-27. Waverley has been the site of seven USGA tournaments, including the 1993 U.S. Junior won by Tiger Woods. Waverley will join Merion as the only clubs to host a USGA championship in each of the past eight decades. Merion, in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, has hosted USGA events in 13 consecutive decades (READ MORE).
Staff and Wire Reports
