PGA Tour in Ohio, US Women’s Open returns to Pine Needles
By The Associated Press
PGA TOUR
MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT
Site: Dublin, Ohio.
Course: Muirfield Village GC. Yardage: 7,533. Par: 72.
Prize money: $12 million. Winner’s share: $2.16 million.
Television: Thursday-Friday, 2-6 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, Noon to 2:30 p.m. (Golf Channel), 2:30-6 p.m. (CBS).
Defending champion: Patrick Cantlay.
FedEx Cup leader: Scottie Scheffler.
Last week: Sam Burns won the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Notes: The Memorial, with Jack Nicklaus as the host, is among three elevated tournaments on the PGA Tour with a $12 million purse and a three-year exemption. … Patrick Cantlay is a two-time winner of the Memorial. He won last year in a final round that was missing Jon Rahm, who had a six-shot lead on Saturday and had to withdraw because of a positive COVID-19 test. Rahm won in 2020 and is in the field again. … Bryson DeChambeau again is entered and hopeful of playing. He withdrew the last two weeks while waiting for his left hand to fully heal from hamate surgery. … Collin Morikawa won at Muirfield Village in 2020 when it held a one-time replacement event, the Workday Charity Open, during the pandemic. … PGA champion Justin Thomas and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, both coming off three straight weeks, are not playing. The field features seven of the top 10 in the world, missing Thomas, Scheffler and Colonial winner Sam Burns. … Rickie Fowler and Jason Day had to rely on sponsor exemptions. … Rory McIlroy begins a stretch of four straight tournaments, meaning he will skip the Irish Open.
Next week: RBC Canadian Open.
Online: https://www.pgatour.com/
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UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION
U.S. WOMEN’S OPEN
Site: Southern Pines, North Carolina.
Course: Pine Needles Lodge and GC. Yardage: 6,638. Par: 71.
Prize money: $10 million. Winner’s share: $1.8 million.
Television: Thursday-Friday, 1-3 p.m. (Peacock), 3-8 p.m. (USA Network); Saturday, noon to 2 p.m. (Peacock), 2-3 p.m. (USA Network), 3-6 p.m. (NBC); Sunday, 1-3 p.m. (USA Network), 3-7 p.m. (NBC).
Defending champion: Yuka Saso.
Last year: Saso became the first Filipino golfer to win a major when she defeated Nasa Hataoka in a playoff at The Olympic Club. Lexi Thompson played the final seven holes in 5-over par and finished one shot out of the playoff.
Notes: The purse has nearly doubled to $10 million, the richest in the history of women’s golf and among the largest prize funds in women’s sports. … Nelly Korda, who started the year at No. 1 in women’s golf, is playing for the first time since early February while recovering from a blood clot in her left arm. … Inbee Park has withdrawn from the field. … Cristie Kerr won the Women’s Open when it was last held at Pine Needles. Other winners at Pine Needles include Karrie Webb (2001) and Annika Sorenstam (1996). The 51-year-old Sorenstam is playing this year. She is exempt from having won the U.S. Senior Women’s Open last year. … Michelle Wie West is playing for the first time since the season-opening Tournament of Champions in January. She won her only major at nearby Pinehurst No. 2 in 2014. She is exempt for two more years if she chooses to play. … Eun-Hee Ji won the Women’s Open in 2009. She qualified for this Open by winning the LPGA Match Play on Sunday.
Next year: Pebble Beach.
Online: https://www.usga.org/
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EUROPEAN TOUR
PORSCHE EUROPEAN OPEN
Site: Hamburg, Germany.
Course: Eagle Golf Courses. Yardage: 7,633. Par: 72.
Prize money: 1.75 million euros (U.S. $1.87 million). Winner’s share: 291,667 euros.
Television: Thursday-Friday, 7 a.m. to noon (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 7:30-11:30 a.m. (Golf Channel).
Defending champion: Marcus Armitage.
DP World Tour points leader: Rory McIlroy.
Last week: Victor Perez won the Dutch Open.
Notes: Tommy Fleetwood and Adri Arnaus of Spain are the only two players from the top 50 in the world ranking. … Paul Casey typically plays the tournament except that he is still out with a back injury. Casey has not played since he withdrew from matches in Texas at the Dell Match Play in March. … Ryder Cup captain Henrik Stenson and two of his vice captains, Thomas Bjorn and Edoardo Molinari, are in the field. … Adrian Meronk became the first Polish golfer to crack the top 100 in the world ranking. Meronk, who last year became the first Polish player in the U.S. Open, is coming off a third-place finish in the Dutch Open and a sixth-place finish in Belgium the previous week. He already has six top 10s this year on the European tour. … Green Eagle is the ninth course to host the European Open dating to its start in 1978. It was in the U.K. or Ireland until moving to Germany in 2015. … Bobby Wadkins, who never won on the PGA Tour, earned his first victory on a major tour in the 1978 European Open at Walton Heath.
Next week: Scandinavian Mixed.
Online: https://www.europeantour.com/dpworld-tour/
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PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS
PRINCIPAL CHARITY CLASSIC
Site: Des Moines, Iowa.
Course: Wakonda Club. Yardage: 6,851. Par: 72.
Prize money: $1.85 million. Winner’s share: $277,500.
Television: Friday, 6-8 p.m. (Golf Channel-Tape Delay), Saturday-Sunday, 2:30-5:30 p.m. (Golf Channel).
Defending champion: Stephen Ames.
Charles Schwab Cup leader: Steven Alker.
Last week: Steven Alker won the Senior PGA Championship.
Notes: Senior PGA champion Steven Alker is playing. He already has more than $1.8 million in earnings this year and has won four of his last 11 tournaments dating to the postseason a year ago. Alker leads the Charles Schwab Cup standings by about $730,000 over Miguel Angel Jimenez. … Steve Stricker is in the field after having to withdraw from the Senior PGA Championship last week because of a positive COVID-19 test result. Stricker is the tournament host next week in Wisconsin. He was coming off a win in the first PGA Tour Champions major in Alabama. … Since first going through a Monday qualifier after turning 50, Alker has finished out of the top 10 in just three of his 19 starts on the PGA Tour Champions. He has been among the top five on the leaderboard in 35 of his last 60 rounds. … Stricker has played three times this year while Padraig Harrington has played five times. Both are among the top seven in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.
Next week: American Family Insurance Championship.
Online: https://www.pgatour.com/champions.html
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KORN FERRY TOUR
REX HOSPITAL OPEN
Site: Raleigh, North Carolina.
Course: The CC at Wakefield Plantation. Yardage: 7,269. Par: 71.
Purse: $750,000. Winner’s share: $135,000.
Television: None.
Previous winner: Mito Pereira.
Points leader: Carl Yuan.
Last week: Harry Hall won the NV5 Invitational.
Next week: BMW Charity Pro-Am.
Online: https://www.pgatour.com/korn-ferry-tour.html
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LPGA TOUR
Last week: Eun-Hee Ji won the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play.
Next week: ShopRite LPGA Classic.
Race to CME Globe leader: Minjee Lee.
Online: https://www.lpga.com/
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OTHER TOURS
NCAA: NCAA Men’s Golf Championship, Grayhawk GC, Scottsdale, Arizona. Defending champions: Pepperdine. Television: Tuesday, 12:30-2:30 p.m., 5-9 p.m. (Golf Channel); Wednesday, 5-9 p.m. (Golf Channel). Online: https://www.ncaa.com/sports/golf-men/d1
Asian Tour: International Series-England, Slaley Hall Hotel Golf & Spa Resort, Northumberland, England. Defending champion: New tournament. Online: https://www.asiantour.com/
Japan Golf Tour: BMW Japan Golf Tour Championship Mori Building Cup, Shishido Hills CC (West), Ibaraki, Japan. Defending champion: Ryosuke Kinoshita. Online: https://www.jgto.org/en/
Challenge Tour: D+D Real Czech Challenge, Kuneticka Hora Golf & Spa, Dritec, Czech Republic. Defending champion: Santiago Tarrio. Online: https://www.europeantour.com/challenge-tour/
Ladies European Tour: Ladies Italian Open, Piemonte GC Margara, Piemonte, Italy. Defending champion: Lucie Malchirand. Online: https://ladieseuropeantour.com/
Sunshine Tour: SunBet Challenge, Gary Player CC, Sun City, South Africa. Previous winner: Estiaan Conradie. Online: https://sunshinetour.com/
Mackenzie Tour: Royal Beach Victoria Open, Uplands GC, Victoria, British Columbia. Previous winner: Paul Barjon. Online: https://www.pgatour.com/canada/en_us.html
PGA Tour Latinoamerica: Volvo Golf Championship, Club El Rincon de Cajica, Bogota, Colombia. Previous winner: New tournament. https://www.pgatour.com/la/en/
Japan LPGA: Richard Mille Yonex Ladies, Yonex CC, Niigata, Japan. Defending champion: Ritsuko Ryu. Online: https://www.lpga.or.jp/en/
Korean LPGA: Lotte Open, Bear’s Best Cheongna, Incheon, South Korea. Defending champion: Hana Jang. Online: https://www.klpga.co.kr/
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