Larry Mize, the hometown boy who leaped into Masters lore with his improbable playoff hole-out to stun Greg Norman and win the green jacket in 1987, told The Augusta Chronicle’s Doug Stutsman that this year’s edition will be his final Masters.
“It’s going to be an emotional week, but it’s time,” said Mize, who will be playing in his 40th consecutive Masters but has not made the cut since 2017. “I know it’s time.”
Mize, 64, who was born and raised in Augusta, worked at the Masters as a scoreboard operator at Augusta National’s third hole as a teen. He won four times on the PGA Tour, but none more memorably than that late Sunday afternoon in 1987 when, having bailed out right with his approach to the par-4 11th hole, chipped in with a 140-foot bump-and-run shot. His celebratory leap after what many golf historians have called the greatest shot in Masters history endures as one of the tournament’s most vivid memories.
In 22 subsequent Masters starts this century, Mize has made only five cuts, with no finish higher than 30th. READ MORE
LIV Golf’s request to drag Augusta National officials into the rival tour’s antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour was denied last week by a federal court judge.
LIV claimed that Augusta National members Condoleezza Rice, a former U.S. secretary of state, and investment banker Warren Stephens asked the Department of Justice not to investigate the PGA Tour. LIV asked the court for third-party discovery of communications involving members of the private Georgia club, which hosts the annual Masters Tournament.
Judge Susan Van Keulen in the Northern District of California called any connection “highly speculative” in denying the request.
The Masters, which is administered by Augusta National and not the PGA Tour, will be the first 2023 tour event in the U.S. to include LIV players, who have been banned indefinitely by the tour but welcomed by the club. Among those invitees for the April 6-9 event will be past champions Sergio García, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel and Bubba Watson. READ MORE
Sebastián Muñoz has signed with LIV Golf and will make his debut on the Saudi-funded rival tour in two weeks at the season-opening event in Mexico, The Telegraph’s James Corrigan reported. Muñoz, 30, of Colombia, has won once in five-plus seasons spanning 134 starts on the PGA Tour and is ranked No. 90 in the world. He went 2-0-1 for the losing International team in his Presidents Cup debut in the fall, including a singles victory against then-No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. As of late Sunday, LIV Golf had yet to make the announcement, and Muñoz was not listed on the player roster on LIVGolf.com. Muñoz would join a growing Latin American contingent to jump to LIV Golf, including No. 23 Joaquín Niemann of Chile, No. 37 Abraham Ancer of Mexico, the winner at the Asian Tour’s PIF Saudi International on Sunday, and No. 44 Mito Pereira of Chile. READ MORE
Nearly four years after Global Golf Post published a story describing how PGA professionals were claiming money from their forgotten Slazenger retirement funds, nearly $2.5 million remains unclaimed.
The Slazenger Founders Club was a program in which the company set aside retirement money for PGA professionals based on how quickly their invoices were paid. Many pros claimed their money before Slazenger ceased U.S. operations in 2001, but a series of unfortunate events led to the remaining PGA professionals no longer receiving monthly statements. Because of this, a large number of golf professionals forgot about the funds.
Tim O’Neal, a former head professional at North Shore Country Club near Chicago, remembered the program and tracked down his funds in 2015. At the time, nearly $5 million of PGA professionals’ money – across nearly 800 accounts – was sitting unclaimed.
Though a substantial amount of money has been claimed, there are still 729 unredeemed accounts totaling $2.48 million. In the case of a PGA professional who has died, the money can be claimed by next of kin.
For more information, contact Sean Fairholm at sfairholm@globalgolfpost.com.
The World Golf Championships have run their course and will conclude with the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play next month, Golfweek’s Adam Schupak reported.
The Match Play, which dates to the dawn of the WGCs in 1999, will not return to Austin (Texas) Country Club after this year’s March 22-26 event, which follows the four-week Florida Swing, according to the report. The Houston Open is expected to fill the coveted spring slot in the run-up to the Masters.
The WGCs, which numbered as many as five of the limited-field, high-dollar events, have faded in significance and number in recent years, with the Match Play as the lone survivor. READ MORE
The PGA Tour acted quickly last year to ban its members who signed with LIV Golf, and now the tour wants to penalize nonmembers from competing on the Saudi-funded rival tour, as well. According to a report by Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard, “any player who has participated in an unauthorized tournament is ineligible to compete in any event sanctioned by the PGA Tour for a period of one year.” READ MORE
PGA Tour Qualifying School will be held in mid-December at Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass and at neighboring Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, Golfweek’s Adam Schupak reported. Q-School, which for the first time since 2012 will offer direct access to the PGA Tour, will award five season exemptions. READ MORE
Donald Miralle, Getty Images
The LPGA won’t have a $100 million year after all.
The women’s tour has canceled the Blue Bay Classic in China for a third consecutive year, citing “ongoing COVID-19-related matters,” the tour announced.
The $2.1 million tournament, which debuted in 2014 on Hainan Island, had been scheduled for March 11-14 as the third event on a three-stop Asia Swing, after stops in Thailand and Singapore. The LPGA has not competed in China since October 2019.
The tour still has a fall stop in China, the Buick LPGA Shanghai, set for October 13-15. The pandemic also has precluded the major men’s tours from competing in China, an absence that dates to the 2019 WGC-HSBC Champions.
The LPGA, which had celebrated the release of its first $100 million-plus schedule late last year, now has 32 events worth $99.3 million set for 2023. READ MORE
Sweden’s Linn Grant likely will miss the LPGA’s first major event of the year, the Chevron Championship in late April, because U.S. travel restrictions ban her entry into the country without proof of COVID-19 vaccination, Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols reported. Grant, who won six times worldwide last year, including four titles on the Ladies European Tour, missed all three of the LPGA’s major championships in the U.S. but contended in the Evian (T8) and Women’s British (T19). She is No. 28 in the Rolex Rankings. READ MORE
The LPGA is on the verge of a potential merger with the Ladies European Tour, four years into a joint partnership with the overseas circuit. A vote among LET players to align their tour with the stronger U.S. circuit remains uncertain, Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols reported, in part because of the LET’s stronger position via Saudi sponsorship. READ MORE
“Drive On: LPGA All Access,” a multi-episode series designed to offer fans a glimpse into the lives of some of the top female golfers, will debut at 8 p.m. EST Feb. 6 on YouTube and LPGA.com. READ MORE
Annika Sörenstam will be among four recipients of the Thurman Munson Award, organizers announced. Sörenstam, 52, a native Swede who won 72 times on the LPGA in a World Golf Hall of Fame career, will be the first touring professional, male or female, to be so honored. The award, named after the late New York Yankees catcher, honors individuals for on-field excellence, community outreach and betterment of their sport. Sörenstam will receive the award Feb. 7 in New York. READ MORE
Angela Stanford, a seven-time winner on the LPGA whose foundation awards scholarships to youngsters whose lives have been affected by cancer, has been named winner of the Golf Writers Association of America’s Charlie Bartlett Award. The honor recognizes a playing professional for “unselfish contributions to the betterment of society.” She will receive the award April 5 at the GWAA’s annual dinner during Masters week in Augusta, Georgia. READ MORE
TAP-INS
The field for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur will feature the top 45-ranked women in the world, including the past two champions, tournament organizers said. American Anna Davis will return to defend her title, with 2021 winner Tsubasa Kajitani of Japan and American Rose Zhang, the reigning NCAA champion from Stanford and World Amateur Golf Ranking’s top female, leading the field. The 54-hole event will begin March 29-30 at Champions Retreat Golf Club in Evans, Georgia, followed by a cut – in a first this year – to the low 30 players plus ties for the final round on April 1 at Augusta National on the Saturday before the 87th Masters Tournament. Another first: all three rounds will be televised, with the first two on Golf Channel and the final on NBC. The winner will earn exemptions into three women’s major championships: Chevron, U.S. Women’s Open and AIG Women’s Open. READ MORE
The USGA will recognize three honorees for volunteerism, innovation and golf literature during its annual meeting February 25 in Napa, California. The honorees: Robin Farran for volunteerism (Joe Dey Award), author James Roth for his book Bless*ed One (Herbert Warren Wind Award) and Roch Gaussoin for putting green construction and management (Green Section Award). READ MORE
The Country Club in Salt Lake City will host the 2034 U.S. Women’s Amateur, the USGA announced. READ MORE
Craig Ammerman, a past president of the Golf Association of Philadelphia and a former member of the USGA Executive Committee, died January 27. He was 74. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon