Schools are now free to begin paying their athletes directly, marking the dawn of a new era in college sports brought about by a multibillion-dollar legal settlement that was formally approved Friday.
Judge Claudia Wilken approved the deal between the NCAA, its most powerful conferences and lawyers representing all Division I athletes. The House v. NCAA settlement ends three separate federal antitrust lawsuits, all of which claimed the NCAA was illegally limiting the earning power of college athletes.
Wilken's long-awaited decision came with less than a month remaining before schools are planning to start cutting checks to athletes on July 1. READ MORE
Charlie Woods made a substantial leap in the latest Rolex AJGA Rankings by virtue of his recent victory in the Team TaylorMade Invitational.
Woods, the 16-year-old son of Tiger Woods, rocketed from 609th to 14th in the boys’ ranking, which was updated last Tuesday. The rise following his victory at Florida’s Streamsong Resort means he will likely qualify for the Junior Players Championship as one of the top 58 players in the ranking as of July 8. The Junior Players is slated for Aug. 28-31 on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
Woods is also in position to qualify other top-level AJGA events and is eyeing the chance to play in the Northeast Amateur, one of the country’s top amateur tournaments, which starts on June 18. READ MORE
Bailey Davis became the first amateur to win the John Shippen Women’s Invitational last Wednesday, earning a berth in this week’s Meijer LPGA Classic as well as the tour’s Dow Championship later this month.
Davis, a 22-year-old Maryland resident who recently completed her senior season at the University of Tennessee, shot 68-76 at Plum Hollow Country Club in Southfield, Michigan, to win by four strokes.
The John Shippen National Invitational is a series of competitions created to provide playing opportunities on the LPGA Tour and PGA Tour for the nation’s top Black amateur and professional golfers. The events are named after John Shippen Jr. (1879-1968), who was believed to be the first American-born golf professional and the country’s first Black golf professional. READ MORE
Tap-Ins
Muirfield will host the British Women’s Amateur for the first time next year, the R&A announced. The championship is slated for the famed links in Gullane, Scotland, from June 22-27. The 2026 British Amateur will be staged at Royal Liverpool and West Lancashire from June 15-20. READ MORE
Missouri’s Big Cedar Lodge will open its sixth course, an 18-hole par-3 layout called Cliffhangers, on July 4. READ MORE
St Andrews Links Trust will soon break ground on a £10.5 million multiyear irrigation project. Work to install 1,500 new sprinklers across the Old Course is scheduled to begin in winter 2025-26, more than doubling the current number of 800. READ MORE
Compiled by Mike Cullity