The R&A wants nothing to do with Greg Norman this week, despite the Australian’s two Open Championship victories.
Norman, whose upstart LIV Golf Invitational Series has driven a wedge into the professional game, was denied a spot at this week’s four-hole “Celebration of Champions†and the Champions’ Dinner at St. Andrews’ Old Course, site of the 150th Open Championship. Earlier, the R&A had denied the 67-year-old Norman an exemption into the field. Norman, the Open champion in 1986 and 1993, has not competed regularly in years. He won the last of his 20 PGA Tour titles in 1997, and his most recent Open appearance came in 2009.
Being excluded from the tournament was one thing; being denied a spot at the table with his former Open-winning colleagues was too much of a snub for Norman.
“The 150th Open is an extremely important milestone for golf, and we want to ensure that the focus remains on celebrating the championship and its heritage,†the R&A said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we do not believe that would be the case if Greg were to attend.â€
Norman said he was “disappointed†in an interview with Australian Golf Digest. “I would have thought the R&A would have stayed above it all, given their position in world golf,†adding that the denial was “petty, as all I have done is promote and grow the game of golf globally, on and off the golf course, for more than four decades.â€
Twenty-three players from the Saudi-financed LIV Golf series were scheduled to compete this week, notably Americans Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka. They and other LIV Golf signees have been suspended indefinitely by the PGA Tour and face a series of sanctions from the DP World Tour.
Four exemptions to the 150th Open Championship this week were awarded through play Sunday on the DP World and PGA tours.
At the Genesis Scottish Open, runner-up Kurt Kitayama of the U.S. joined Scotland’s Jamie Donaldson and American Brandon Wu, who were tied for sixth, in finishing among the top 10 to punch their tickets to the Open at St. Andrews’ Old Course. Trey Mullinax advanced by winning the Barbasol Championship. Both tournaments were co-sanctioned by the DP World and PGA tours and awarded Open spots via the R&A’s Open Qualifying Series.
For a look at the Open Championship field, click here.
The prize fund for this week’s 150th Open Championship has been increased by 22 percent, to $14 million, the R&A announced. The winner will receive $2.5 million. Play begins Thursday at St. Andrews’ Old Course in Scotland. Even with the increase, the Open ranks behind the Players Championship ($20 million) and the year’s three other major championships – U.S. Open ($17.5 million), Masters ($15 million) and PGA Championship ($15 million) – in prize money. The established PGA Tour and DP World Tour have raised their prize funds in the wake of LIV Golf’s debut this year with $25 million purses and multimillion-dollar signing bonuses for players to switch to the 48-man, no-cut, 54-hole events.
Struggling with ongoing back issues, Daniel Berger withdrew from the Open, he announced in a Twitter post, and will be replaced by fellow American Sahith Theegala. The next three players on the reserve list based on their world ranking last week, according to the R&A, are Sweden’s Alex Noren (No. 67), Japan’s Rikuya Hoshino (71) and Australia’s Cameron Davis (75).
Rory McIlroy suggests that it’s time for the PGA and DP World tours to talk with the rival LIV Golf circuit about the future of the professional game.
In an interview with BBC Sport, McIlroy said a meeting “needs to happen†after so much bickering and dissension in recent months as the Saudi-financed LIV Golf Invitational Series has lured away some of the biggest names in golf to play a series of $25 million events.
“It’s unfortunate. It’s messy. I wish it hadn’t got that messy,†said McIlroy, 33, a four-time major champion from Northern Ireland and one of the game’s leading player voices on both sides of the Atlantic. “I understand people's reservations with things but at the same time, if these people are serious about investing billions of dollars into golf, I think ultimately that's a good thing, but it has to be done the right way.â€
For a third consecutive year, the major men’s and women’s professional tours have canceled fall tournaments in China, citing concerns about COVID-19.
The PGA Tour and the DP World Tour scrapped the co-sanctioned WGC-HSBC Champions, which was scheduled for Oct. 27-30. The LPGA called off its Buick LPGA Shanghai, which had been set for Oct. 13-16. Both tournaments were scheduled to be played in the coastal city of Shanghai. The tours made their announcements simultaneously Wednesday.
With the absence of the WGC-HSBC Champions, the Bermuda Championship will be played during the last week in October as a standalone event on the PGA Tour schedule, which has not been released for the fall. The DP World Tour schedule includes no opposite-field event scheduled that week.
The Buick LPGA Shanghai would have been the first of four consecutive events in Asia on the LPGA schedule. The stops in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan were not affected by the announcement. One of those events, the Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA, was canceled in each of the past two years because of the pandemic.
TAP-INS
Mac McLendon, a four-time winner on the PGA Tour in the 1970s, died July 4 in Shoal Creek, Alabama. He was 76. Born Benson Rayfield McLendon Jr. and known as “Mac,†he was a three-time Southeastern Conference champion for LSU in 1965-67 (READ MORE).
Dale Douglass, a former U.S. Senior Open champion who won all three of his PGA Tour titles in a nine-month span in 1969-70, died July 6 in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 86 and had suffered from a long, undisclosed illness, according to the U.S. Golf Association. Douglass played on the 1969 Ryder Cup team and won 11 times on what is known today as the PGA Tour Champions (READ MORE)
Staff and Wire Reports
