Dude, who are you voting for Player of the Year?

Congrats, Luke, for winning at Disney and the money title! Oh, wait. Sorry, Luke, the PGA Tour season isn’t actually over yet. Even though you were told it was and you put on a ridiculously clutch performance on Sunday to gain an edge in the Player of the Year race, there’s actually another tournament left: The HSBC Champions, a World Golf Championship event, in Shanghai, China, next week, which counts as an official PGA Tour event if a Tour player wins it. (continue reading…)

Bad break for Simpson at No. 15 at Zurich Classic

Golf’s governing bodies, the USGA and R&A, announced Monday they had finally updated several obsolete rules of golf that were implemented in, like, 1931. Perhaps most significant is that golfers will no longer be penalized for their ball moving after it’s been addressed. In recent years this rule has come into intense scrutiny. Just ask Webb Simpson, Rory McIlroy and Padraig Harrington, among others. (continue reading…)

Luuuuuke: FTW!

If for some reason you haven’t read this week’s SI Golf Group’s PGA Tour Confidential, do it now. We kicked around Luke Donald’s come-from-behind victory at the Disney, which also won him the PGA Tour money title and made him the frontrunner in the Player of the Year race.

Other topics include: (continue reading…)

Like I said, I’m late for the group whiskey tasting soiree (we’re staying at a Whiskey Distillery in Cape Breton Island), but I just wanted to post a few teaser pics from my round at Cabot Links this afternoon — which I thoroughly enjoyed despite the cold weather and my back pain. The course isn’t finished yet — only 10 holes opened to the public in July — but we had the privilege of playing all 18. (continue reading…)

Luke's amateur foursomes partner was named Robert Duck, so they were called Donald Duck!

While I was playing Cabot Links in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, (which is unfinished but has been dubbed “the Bandon of the East), I checked the leaderboard for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic. Luke Donald and Webb Simpson had only played about four holes, and Luke was still about T15, trailing Kevin Chappell by roughly five shots. I didn’t look at my phone again until the 12th hole and did a double take when I saw Luke tied for the lead. (continue reading…)

Mystery solved!

There was a rather perplexing (and somewhat alarming) situation over Justin Leonard’s 2012 exempt status Friday afternoon. After Leonard shot a blazing nine-under 63 to take a share of the lead at the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic, his eligibility for the following year came into question during his press conference. Though a former Open champion and 12-time PGA Tour winner, he’s No. 144 on the 2011 money list and hasn’t won since 2008, so it was unclear to the half-dozen reporters (and Tour media officials) under which category Leonard was exempt. (continue reading…)

We need to talk...

Chubby Chandler tells Golf Digest’s Tim Rosaforte that he was given the pink slip from Rory McIlroy during a layover in a lounge at JFK Airport in New York after they got off a plane from the PGA Grand Slam in Bermuda — Rory was headed to Istanbul via London to visit with tennis star girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki and Chubby was off to vacation in Dubai. Chubby also said he was “disappointed and a bit shocked” by the news: (continue reading…)

The hottest property in professional golf.

2011 US Open champion Rory McIlroy has officially parted ways with manager Chubby Chandler and International Sports Management. The 22-year-old will instead join close friend Graeme McDowell and friend of the blog Michael Hoey at Dublin-based Horizon Sports Management. (continue reading…)

Golf heading south before Olympics in Rio

The PGA Tour announced Thursday it will back the launch of a new pro circuit, consisting of 11 events in seven countries across Latin America, including Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru. Organized by the Tour, Tour de Las Americas, National Golf Federations, promoters and host clubs in the region, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica will be staged from September through December 2012.

More details from the media blast: (continue reading…)

Luke: Thanks for messing up my vacation, Webb!

With the wind gusting and swirling at Disney (The Happiest Place on Earth!), six guys, who all played the Palm Course, aka the “easier one,” fired six-under 66 for a six-way tie for the lead in the first round of the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic. Among them were Nos. 2 and 125 on the PGA Tour money list — Luke Donald and James Driscoll. (continue reading…)