Jack Burke Jr., golf’s oldest living major champion, added another chapter to his storied life: centenarian.
Burke, whose 16 PGA Tour victories include the Masters and PGA titles in 1956, turned 100 on Sunday. He’s lived longer than every other major champion. According to Golfweek contributor Art Stricklin, Burke was to have celebrated with a number of golf luminaries Sunday at Houston’s Champions Golf Club, which he co-founded with another World Golf Hall of Fame member and Masters champion, the late Jimmy Demaret.
Though Burke no longer attends the Masters, he still shares a locker with five-time champion Tiger Woods and will be saluted this spring by Augusta National Golf Club officials. READ MORE
For golf historians studying the game’s path years from now, 2022 could represent an inflection point. For the first time, the number of off-course golfers surpassed the number of green-grass players.
A record 41.1 million golfers participated in the sport last year, and for the first time participants at a driving range, entertainment golf or indoor simulation with a club and ball (excluding miniature golf) outnumbered traditional on-course players, the National Golf Foundation reported. Research found that 15.5 million players participated in off-course golf such as Topgolf, Drive Shack, simulators and other ventures compared with 13.2 million on traditional green-grass courses. The NGF found that 12.4 million golfers participated in both categories of the game.
The number of traditional green-grass golfers rose for a fifth consecutive year, which hadn’t happened in two decades. READ MORE
Andy Lyons, Getty Images
Global Golf Post’s Ron Green Jr. will receive the PGA of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism, the association announced. Green, 66, of Charlotte, North Carolina, will join his father, Ron Green Sr., as the first father-son pair to be honored.
In a statement, PGA president John Lindert lauded Green’s “exceptional analysis, insight and storytelling.”
Green called the award “overwhelming” and “a huge honor.”
“I look at the list of people who have won it before and they have been the people I’ve grown up reading and following their careers, seeing how they do things and admiring what they’ve done,” said Green, who joined Global Golf Post in 2013 after 23 years at The Charlotte Observer. “To be included on that list is not something I ever expected to happen. It’s flattering, surprising and very gratifying.”
The award will be presented at the Golf Writers Association of America banquet April 5 in Augusta, Georgia. READ MORE
Global Golf Post’s John Steinbreder won a first-place award in business writing during the International Network of Golf’s media awards. “COVID-19 pummels golf’s global supply chain,” published Jan. 18, 2022, in GGP/Biz, took top honors in the category. Steinbreder’s work also was recognized among “outstanding achievers” in three other categories: opinion/editorial, profile writing and travel writing. READ MORE
TAP-INS
Cabot Citrus Farms will open late this year on the 1,200-acre site of the former World Woods Golf Club about an hour north of Tampa, Florida, and feature a unique 21-hole short course. Cabot, the development company founded by Canadian businessman Ben Cowan-Dewar and Bandon Dunes creator Mike Keiser, retained Kyle Franz to renovate the former Pine Barrens course and, with help from Mike Nuzzo and Ran Morrissett, the Rolling Oaks course. In addition, Nuzzo is creating “The 21,” which features a 10-hole executive course routed next to an 11-hole par-3 course, and a practice facility. READ MORE
TGL, the Tiger Woods-backed primetime golf league set to launch in 2024, has added two major champions to its all-star lineup. Collin Morikawa and Adam Scott will join Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas in the tech-infused team match-play events set for Monday nights, TMRW Sports announced. READ MORE
Ryan Fox won the Seve Ballesteros Award as the DP World Tour’s 2022 Player of the Year in voting by players. Fox, 36, of New Zealand, won twice last year and finished second in the tour rankings. READ MORE
Registration is open for qualifiers into the 2024 Drive, Chip and Putt, organizers announced. Boys and girls ages 7-15 can compete at 340-plus sites in the 50 states to advance to subregional and regional qualifying to determine the 80 participants at Augusta National Golf Club on April 7, 2024. READ MORE
Marcus Byrd has received the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption to compete in next month’s Genesis Invitational, tournament host Tiger Woods announced. Byrd, who turned pro in 2020, won the Advocates Professional Golf Association Tour’s fall series. The Genesis Invitational, to be played Feb. 16-19 at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, benefits Woods’ TGR Foundation. READ MORE
American Michelle Wie West, whose five LPGA victories include the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open, will team with the R&A to promote development of golf worldwide, the R&A announced. She joins soccer star Gareth Bale of Wales and musician Niall Horan of Ireland as global development ambassadors. READ MORE
NBC Sports will televise nearly 150 hours of college golf on Golf Channel and the Peacock streaming service in the coming months, beginning today with the Southwestern Intercollegiate and culminating with the women’s and men’s NCAA Division I championships in late May, the network announced. READ MORE
The PGA of America named Jeff Kiddie of Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, as its Golf Professional of the Year. Kiddie was among 13 PGA members who were honored Jan. 25 at the PGA Show in Orlando, Florida. READ MORE
The PGA Tour hired U.S. Integrity to help monitor gambling and identify any irregular wagering patterns on tour-sponsored events via an expanded PGA Tour Integrity Program. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon