Marcoux Samaan named new LPGA Tour chief
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25/05/2021 - 19:14 Mollie Marcoux Samaan will take over as commissioner of the LPGA Tour Dave Kotinsky GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP 2 min
Miami (AFP)
The LPGA Tour on Tuesday named college sports executive Mollie Marcoux Samaan as the new commissioner of the women s tour, replacing Mike Whan, who is stepping down later this year.
Marcoux Samaan, the director of athletics at Princeton University, was unanimously elected by the LPGA s board of directors, a statement said. Mollie understands the power of golf to change the lives of girls and women, said LPGA board chair Diane Gulyas.
At the start of the week, the odds on Phil Mickelson winning the PGA Championship were 280-1. That was probably generous considering the 50-year-old lefthander’s recent form.
In the last two seasons, he’d only managed two finishes inside the top 20. In the six major Strokes Gained categories used to measure performance against the field, Mickelson’s best was 122nd in putting. Most of his game was off and it didn’t seem as if it was coming back any time soon.
There was absolutely no indication that he was ready to beat the best players in golf on one of the hardest courses in the world, the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island. And yet at the end of the week, there he was with the Wanamaker Trophy raised high, a sixth major championship secured. Mickelson has authored some stunning performances during his lengthy career but none were ever as unexpected as this one.
Identical Ford twins rocket into U.S. Amateur Four-Ball match play at Chambers Bay
News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. 1 hr ago Gregg Bell, The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.)
May 24 Chambers Bay just got overtaken by the identical Ford twins from Georgia.
David Ford and fellow 18-year-old graduating high-school senior Kelly Chinn ignored cool winds up to 20 mph and combined for a 7-under par 65 at Chambers on Sunday to move their two-day stroke-play total to a tournament-best 16-under 127 at the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship. They are the top duo of the 32 sides that advanced to Monday s match-play elimination round at Pierce County s sound-side jewel links course.
To point out that 50-year-old Phil Mickelson is now the oldest major champion in golf history doesn’t do justice to the shock of what he pulled off at this year’s PGA Championship.
To say Mickelson was fading from relevance before this herculean win against the world’s best and much younger golfers would be understating it. In fact, entering this weekend, he was verging on afterthought status. He hadn’t finished better than 18
th in a major since 2016, when he was runner-up at the Open Championship, finishing 11 shots ahead of third place but unable to catch Henrik Stenson, who beat him by three at Royal Troon in Scotland. Mickelson didn’t qualify for next month’s U.S. Open and needed a special exemption from the United States Golf Association to make the field something that felt like charity for a once-great legend, a chance to play a marquee event in his hometown of San Diego. He’d started to play senior PGA Tour events, and it seemed like a reasonable idea for him
Published - 2 days By - Tony Webeck
Dread is the predominant emotion among those teeing it up at the US PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Resortâs Ocean Course this week yet Adam Scott is embracing a sense of calm that comes with knowing what to expect.
At 7,876 yards (7,201 metres) itâs the longest course in Major championship history and according to the United States Golf Association boasts the highest combination of Slope Rating (155) and Course Rating (79.6).
Yet given a strong performance at the venue at the 2012 PGA Championship where he was tied for 11th and a preparation that he believes will drag him out of some early-season doldrums Scott says he has the experience to weather whatever Kiawah Island â and the weather itself â will throw at him.