Golf News

BRADENTON, Fla. -- A new leader sits atop the standings after a whirlwind second-round at The Concession Golf Club helped separate a tight field in the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships. Southern California used a team round of 285 (-3) to unseat Illinois for the top spot, holding on to a three-stroke lead on Illinois in second place, and a seven-stroke lead on third place Georgia and LSU. The Trojans started the day hot off of the 10th tee, knocking out nine birdies and an eagle on the back nine to jump to 4-under-par at the turn. Freshman Sean Crocker carded the eagle, a 45-foot putt on 17, and continued his strong play to the front nine with three birdies to shoot 68 (-4) on the 7,483-yard, par-72 course, moving into a tie for fourth on the individual leaderboard. “I feel like we all have been playing well,” Crocker said after his round. “We all have had a good tournament here or there, everyone on our team is so excited to be here and so eager. G...

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images The 2015 college sports season is coming to an end, but not before the men's golf championship takes it turn in the spotlight. Taking place at Concession Golf Club in Florida, the nation's 30 best teams have gathered to determine which one will wear the crown.  One thing that is guaranteed to come from this year's tournament is a new national champion. Alabama, which won back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014, missed the cut after finishing seventh at the Noblesville Regional two weeks ago.  Florida State enters the championship as the No. 1 overall seed, but the Seminoles will have plenty of stiff competition with the likes of Texas (No. 2) and Illinois (No. 3) among many in the field.  Here are the updated daily results from Bradenton , Florida, and a recap of the action.  ...

A par-4 measuring 104 yards? Welcome to the AT&T Byron Nelson Championship, where soggy conditions continue to dominate. The Dallas/Fort Worth area has been beseiged by heavy rains in recent weeks, and the Four Seasons Resort was already on the brink of saturation before tournament play began. While the opening round was completed without a weather delay, the course received more than four inches of rain overnight, rendering a wet course simply unplayable. The PGA Tour announced a three-hour delay to the start of the second round, then followed up with a rather unconventional course setup adjustment: the 14th hole, which is listed on the scorecard as a 406-yard par 4, will instead play only 104 yards during the second round because of water in the fairway. Due to unplayable fairway due to rain on #14 @attbyronnelson, the par-4 hole will play roughly at 100 yards in R2. Still a par-4. #PGATour â€" PGA TOUR Media (@PGATOURmedia) May 29, 2015 While the hole was origin...

By Tom Lang, Special to the Detroit Free Press 3:34 p.m. EDT May 28, 2015 Tee of the 9th hole at Chambers Bay (Photo: Dave Finn) Often times, players in the U.S. Open talk of nervousness and the inability to sleep at night, as thoughts of the next day's round dance in their heads. For the upcoming U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, none of them should be sleepless in Seattle because it should be easy to get a good night's rest after walking 18 holes of the severely up and down terrain at Chambers Bay. About 30 miles from the Seattle-Tacoma Airport, Chambers Bay sits on ground of a former gravel mining operation that was beautifully resurrected by designer Robert Trent Jones II into a much more proper use of precious land butted against the crisp blue waters of Puget Sound. The property has more than a 200-foot drop from the public entry of the property down to the lowest point. The 18-hole walk traverses up and down, back and forth measuring at more than seven miles. Bri...

BRADENTON, Fla. â€" Mariah Stackhouse rallied to beat Hayley Davis in 19 holes to give Stanford its first NCAA women's golf title, 3-2 over Baylor on Wednesday in the match-play final. Stackhouse, a junior from Riverdale, Georgia, won when Davis' 3-foot par putt missed to the right on the par-4 10th hole at The Concession Golf Club. "My heart is hurting right now for Hayley," Baylor coach Jay Goble said. "She has been the heart and soul of our team and she has singlehandedly elevated our team to this position. My heart is really hurting for her right now. This group is amazing and they are winners and we are going to see we did a lot of great things this year." Two holes down after losing the par-4 16th, Stackhouse won the par-5 17th with a two-putt birdie and took the par-4 18th with a 15-foot birdie putt. "I actually thought a lot about it last night," Stackhouse sa...

The switch to match play was designed to inject energy and excitement into the NCAA championship. Tuesday afternoon's semifinals provided plenty of both, and also assured the sport of a new national champion. Baylor freshman Lauren Whyte defeated Duke's Lisa Maguire on the sixth extra hole at the Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla., to give Baylor a 3-2 win and a berth in Wednesday afternoon's national championship match. Whyte and Maguire finished last and second-to-last through four rounds of stroke play but went hole-for-hole for 24 holes before Whyte dropped in a bogey putt on the 15th holeâ€"the sixth playoff holeâ€"to clinch the win. With Maguire's loss, Dukeâ€"which at one point held a 2-0 lead in the matchâ€"falls just short of a shot at a second straight national title. On the final playoff hole, Maguire's tee shot had sailed into the hazard area but did not trickle into the water, giving the advantage to Whyte, who hit the middle of...

BRADENTON, Fla. â€" After falling behind 4-1 early against seventh-seeded Texas Tech Tuesday morning, the second-seeded Duke women’s golf team rallied to win, 4-1, on its way to advancing to the NCAA Championship semifinals of match play, which will take place today (May 26) beginning at 1:30 p.m. The Golf Channel will feature overage from 3-3:30 p.m. , followed by live coverage from 3:30-7:00 p.m.   There will be post round coverage from 7-8 p.m. , as well. Baylor advanced to the semifinals, after taking down sixth-seeded Tennessee, 3-1, in the morning.  The upcoming contest will be a rematch from earlier this season when the Blue Devils defeated the Lady Bears, 3-2, in the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic. The pairings for today's afternoon match will be Duke’s Lisa Maguire versus Lauren Whyte, Sandy Choi against Giovana Maymon, Gurbani Singh versus Laura Lonardi, Leona Maguire against Dylan Kim and Celine Boutier versus Hayley Davis. In t...

Mini golf is so 1995. Get your fine-motor skills in shape for Larkin Links, Buffalo’s first “nano golf” course, a lighthearted fusion of public art and recreation dreamed up by Buffalo entrepreneur Harry Zemsky. It’s scheduled to open June 17. The course, which will be free and open to the public, features 11 holes designed by local artists and designers. These range from a circular installation made from 2,600 recycled, painted golf balls to a miniature reconstruction of the H-O Oats grain elevator that was demolished in 2006. Zemsky, who will contribute holes based on a skateboarding half-pipe and a long ski with a hole at one end, said the project grew out of his recent obsession with mini golf. “I started just sketching and designing my own holes,” he said, adding that he thought it would be “cool” to design a nano golf course. With the blessing and assistance of his mother, Larkinville “director of fun” Leslie Zemsky, a request for proposals went out in Feb...

Updated MAY 25, 2015 9:32p ET BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) Alabama's Emma Talley won the NCAA women's individual golf championship Monday to become the fifth player to win the title and the U.S. Women's Amateur. Talley holed an 8-foot birdie putt on the final hole after a weather delay for a 3-under 69 and a one-stroke victory over Arkansas' Gaby Lopez and Duke's Leona Maguire. ''It was just an incredible week,'' said Talley, a junior from Princeton, Kentucky. ''I had been playing well up to this point, and everything kind of came together and clicked just at the right time. God's blessed me with so much, and I just took it and ran with it.'' Talley, the 2013 U.S. Women's Amateur champion, finished at 3-under 285 at The Concession Golf Club. Lopez shot a 66, and Maguire had a 68. Southern California took the top spot in the eight-team, match-play field for the team title. Duke was second, followed by Baylor, Stanf...

It won't be hard to come in under par at this golf course. Four sinkholes opened up at the Top of the Rock Golf Course in Ridgedale, Missouri, on Friday, reported the Springfield News-Leader. The largest was 60 feet by 80 feet wide, and 35 feet deep. The biggest sinkhole started near the practice range at about 6:30 a.m., and kept growing, reported NBC affiliate KYTV. No injuries were reported. Inspectors were on the scene, trying to figure out the best way to fill the holes (no word on whether golf balls were suggested as a solution). â€" Elizabeth Chuck First published May 23 2015, 12:57 PM

BRANSON, Mo. â€"   A big sinkhole discovered Friday near the driving range of a southwest Missouri golf course is attracting the attention of geological experts. The hole, which is 80 feet wide and 35 feet deep in some places, was created by two separate sinkholes that formed near the entrance to Top of the Rock golf course near the resort town of Branson, Martin MacDonald, conservation director for Bass Pro Shops, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. The Jack Nicklaus-designed par-3 course is part of the Bass Pro Shops-owned Big Cedar Lodge complex and hosted a Champions Tour event last month. The sinkhole isn't near the main course and won't affect play, MacDonald said. Geologists say such sinkholes are fairly common in the Ozarks because of its karst topography, a feature in which water is constantly circulating through bedrock below the ground. That's why the region has so many sinkholes and caves, including Lost Canyon Ca...

Wes Johnson and Trevor J. Mitchell, Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader 7:08 p.m. EDT May 22, 2015 A large sinkhole opened Friday between the driving range and a putting green at Top of the Rock Golf Course in Branson, Mo. (Photo: Nathan Papes, Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader) SPRINGFIELD, Mo. â€" Mother Nature has added four new holes at a golf course in Branson. Gary Pendergrass, a geological engineer with GeoEngineers, said Friday that four sinkholes had opened at the Top of the Rock Golf Course, the largest of which was 60 feet by 80 feet, and 35 feet deep. Pendergrass said water from a pond near the one of the holes will be to prevent more water from flowing in and making it worse. Martin MacDonald, director of conservation for Springfield-based Bass Pro Shops, was at the course Friday to survey the damage. MacDonald noted that water is constantly circulating through bedrock below the ground in southern Missouri, creating caves â€" and sometimes, sinkholes. Pend...

Rory McIlroy is in the fourth of five weeks of consecutive tournaments and the weariness is taking its toll during this week’s BMW PGA Championship. Rory McIlroy likely faces a fine from the European Tour for throwing a club in anger while carding a 1-under 71 in the first round at Wentworth on Thursday. But the world No. 1 is probably less concerned about opening his well-stuffed wallet than about the mental lethargy that caused the weak club toss and a scrambling start to the defense of his BMW PGA Championship title. "Physically, I’m all right." McIlroy told reporters after a round that featured four birdies and three bogeys. "Mentally, I feel myself getting a bit angry out there, which I haven’t been doing the last few weeks," "I just sort of need to stay in control of my emotions because I feel like that’s one of the things, if I’m a little tired or a little fatigued mentally, I’ll start to be hard on myself and start to get d...

Unlike the last time he jettisoned a club, Rory McIlroy did not find himself in need of a diver Thursday at the BMW PGA. Unhappy with his second shot on the par-5 17th, McIlroy let his 3-wood fly before calmly walking across the fairway to retrieve it. McIlroy would go to make par and turn in a 1-under 71, leaving him six shots back of leader Francesco Molinari.

Another week, another tournament, another time zone, and another round of par or better for Rory McIlroy. Even with a disappointing finish, the world No. 1 shot a 1-under 71 Thursday to sit six shots off the lead at the European Tour’s BMW PGA Championship. The BMW PGA, which kick-started his incredible summer run a year ago, is McIlroy’s fourth consecutive start. He is also playing next week’s Irish Open, an event hosted by his foundation. He has hoisted a trophy two of the past three weeks, but he has also played 265 holes and flown more than 7,100 miles during that span. BMW PGA Championship: Articles, videos and photos Physically, McIlroy said he’s holding up fine. He’s more concerned about his mental edge. “I could feel myself getting a little angry out there,” he told reporters. “Acceptance of bad shots is the thing I have been doing so well, and I feel like my patience was wearing a bit thin today.” His 1-under-par opener at Wentworth was still ...

Deputies arrested a 27-year-old Ohio man early Monday after an apparent drunken night at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort. Andrew Hall, of Mentor, Ohio, was arrested after being rescued by a Walt Disney World marine unit, which found him struggling to stay afloat in the middle of Bay Lake, according to an Orange County Sheriff's Office arrest report. Before that, deputies said Hall was drinking at the resort's restaurant and attempted to leave on a bicycle, according to the report. A manager at the restaurant said Hall had trouble staying balanced and fell numerous times, so the manager drove a golf cart to catch up and help. When the manager got to Hall, he ran toward the cart, jumping and crashing through the plastic windshield, the report states. Hall then got in the driver's seat and headed for Bay Lake, where he crashed into a pier, the manager told deputies. There, he jumped into the wate...

Every Sunday night, GOLF.com conducts an e-mail roundtable with writers from Sports Illustrated and Golf Magazine. Check in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors and join the conversation in the comments section below. 1. Rory McIlroy coasted to an easy win at Quail Hollow and pulled away from the field with a course-record 61 on Saturday. We've seen what can happen when Rory gets on one of these runs. What are your predictions for Rory's summer at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay and British Open at St. Andrews? Michael Bamberger, senior writer, Sports Illustrated:  I wouldn't want to go beyond the U.S. Open. Luck of the draw can mean everything in the British Open. But at the U.S. Open, I don't see how he won't be right there. Win or not, who can say, but confidence like he has, and swinging and putting the way he is, doesn't just disappear in a matter of weeks. Jeff Ritter, senior editor, SI Golf Group (@JeffRitter): R...

Wells Fargo champion and No. 1 player in the world Rory McIlroy joined the Dan Patrick Show on Monday morning and inadvertently dropped two potential ideas about growing golf that didn't feel hackneyed or forced. After Patrick juxtaposed McIlroy's level of fitness with the perceived history of golfers as unathletic, McIlroy answered:  “I think golf has progressed a lot and it has become more of an athletic sports. You look at some of the moves guys make at the ball nowadays, and you need to be strong in certain areas. You don’t need to be built like a linebacker, but you need to have stability and strength in certain areas in your body. "And, of course, if more golfers look athletic, it portrays a much better image for the game, and that maybe encourages kids to pick up the sport or pick up a club. Maybe it encourages their parents to get into golf as well, because maybe 15-20 years ago the image of golf wasn’t athletic. It wasn’t what it is now. And Tiger h...

Fire destroyed the main building of a Beaver County golf club Monday morning, firefighters said. At least half a dozen fire departments battled the blaze at the Harmony Ridge Golf Club, which began just before 6 a.m., for three hours. “It was pretty intense from the beginning,” said Harmony Volunteer Fire Lieutenant Dave Zeranick. “Pulling up and having heavy fire already is always a difficult task.” No one was injured, he said. Golf club assistant manager Shane Miller said he was driving to work and fire crews stopped him at the bottom of the hill leading up to the club. “I seen smoke and fire trucks and I knew something was going on,” he said. Miller, who has worked for the club for four years, said the club's main building was on fire. That building houses many of the club's amenities, including a bar, restaurant, banquet room, ballroom, meeting room and music equipment, he said. Zeranick said crews did exp...

It is McIlroy's second victory in the past three weeks and his 11th on the PGA Tour. He won the Match Play Championship this month in San Francisco. He has six top-10 finishes in his last eight PGA Tour starts. "It's impressive," Phil Mickelson said about McIlroy's tournament. McIlroy got off to a shaky start with a three-putt bogey on No. 2 â€" his first in 167 holes â€" but quickly pulled it together. He didn't have another bogey until the 17th hole, when he had built a seven-stroke lead and outcome was already decided. Simpson failed to capitalize on McIlroy's early mistake, shooting 37 on the front nine that included a double bogey on the par-3 sixth when he three-putted from 8 feet. That dropped the Charlotte resident six shots back and he never was in contention again. McIlroy reached 20 under on No. 12 when he knocked his approach shot from 132 yards to 2 feet of the cup for a tap-in birdie and it looked as if he mig...

INDIANAPOLIS -- The NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Committee announced today the 156 participants that will compete in the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships. The top five teams and the top individual not on those teams from each regional have advanced to compete at the finals which will be held May 29-June 3 at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida. The championships are being hosted by the University of South Florida. The teams and individuals advancing to the 2015 championships finals are listed below. The Sagamore Club -- Noblesville, Indiana Hosted by Ball State University Teams: University of Illinois, Champaign Southern Methodist University University of Nevada, Las Vegas University of California, Los Angeles University of Oregon Individual: David Oraee, University of Colorado, Boulder University of North Carolina Finley Golf Course -- Chapel Hill, North Carolina Ho...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. â€" Dave Stockton Sr. had seen enough. On Monday, the two-time major champion turned putting guru sent Rory McIlroy a simple text message â€" we need to talk. It had been more than a year since Stockton had worked with the world No. 1 on his putting, but after watching McIlroy endure a tough week on the greens at TPC Sawgrass he needed five minutes to work on the Northern Irishman’s stroke. It took less than that. Stockton met McIlroy on Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Championship and after a short talk in the locker room the two went to Quail Hollow’s putting green. “In three minutes he had it,” Stockton said. Essentially, McIlroy was lifting his head up at impact and after a simple left-handed drill and just three minutes of practice Stockton was confident he’d made his point. “When he raises up, his left shoulder goes up and he doesn’t go through it. I want the putter to go through. It wasn’t anything for him to change,” Stockt...

The NCAA Division I men’s regionals wrapped up Saturday at six sites around the country. The low five teams in each regional after advanced to the May 29-June 3 NCAA Championship at Concession Golf Club in Florida. Here are the final results from the Chapel Hill (N.C.), Noblesville (Ind.), Yale (Conn.), Lubbock (Texas), San Diego (Calif.) and Bremerton (Wash.) regionals: Chapel Hill Regional, at Finley Golf Course in Chapel Hill, N.C.: Winner:  Charlotte (-19) Runner-up:  Stanford (-14) Rest of the top 5:  Florida State (-11), Florida (-9) and Clemson (-5) Left out:  Kennesaw State (+2), North Carolina (+6), Wake Forest (+10) Medalist:  Maverick McNealy, Stanford (-9) Skinny:  Only two of the top five seeds advanced out of this regional. Charlotte benefited from the short travel and prior experience at Finley Golf Course to clinch its first NCAA finals berth since 2008. ... Maverick McNealy's two-shot win was his sixth victory of the season, making him a...

The NCAA Division I men’s regionals got underway Thursday at six sites around the country. The low five teams in each regional after Saturday’s final round will advance to the May 28-June 3 NCAA Championship at Concession Golf Club in Florida. Here are the second-round results from the Chapel Hill (N.C.), Noblesville (Ind.), Yale (Conn.), Lubbock (Texas), San Diego (Calif.) and Bremerton (Wash.) regionals: Chapel Hill Regional, at Finley Golf Course in Chapel Hill, N.C.: Leader:  Stanford (-11) Second place: Charlotte (-10) Rest of the top 5: Florida State (-6), Kennesaw State (-3) and Florida (-3) Work to do: Clemson (-1), North Carolina (-1), GRU Augusta (+2), Wake Forest (+6) Individual leader: J.T. Poston, Western Carolina (-8) Skinny: Stanford’s second-round 275 was the best round of the day by nine shots. Still, the Cardinal have only a 10-shot advantage over the sixth-place teams. Charlotte is the No. 9 seed, but the 49ers are holding steady after a ...

When people think of electric vehicles, they think of Tesla. But if you want to see the future of EVs it’s important to look elsewhere. Despite glowing media reports, Tesla is not disruptive, and it will have trouble scaling as it seeks to grow. However, there are disruptive EV companies out there; you just have to know where to look. Those companies are at the bottom of the market, ignored by the mainstream but thriving in applications where customers don’t need all of the features of a traditional automobile, or in specific applications where EVs perform better than traditional vehicles. There are two categories of disruptive EVs: low-speed electric vehicles and electric utility vehicles (EUVs). Low-speed EVs are consumer vehicles built on platforms mostly derived from golf carts and all-terrain vehicles. EUVs come in a range of sizes and formats, from small, light-duty platforms to full-size, heavy-duty trucks, but all are battery-powered and driven by electric motors...