Change of season a blessing here
As I sit in my living room Saturday afternoon watching the snow and rain mix come down outside, I think back to the day before when I played a very comfortable, short-sleeved round of golf on a spectacular mid-November day.
What is the relevance of that? Only that the change of seasons – even as quickly as this one – are another reason why we’re blessed to live in an area like Western Pennsylvania.
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This almost sounds too good to be true, as if it might have been written in Hollywood.
They said they had no idea what the other was doing, but Phil Mickelson and his caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, had surgery on the same day recently.
On Oct. 19, Mickelson had sports hernia surgery, Mackay had both knees replaced. Mackay is probably the most recognized caddie in the game and he expects to be back on Lefty’s bag when he makes his first start of 2017 in January.
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Over the years, the European Tour has suffered from something of an inferiority complex to the PGA Tour.
Arnold Palmer made it cool to go across the Atlantic to play in the British Open in the 1960s, but few Americans made the trip over there to play in regular tour events. It was expensive, the fields weren’t that great, the purses were even less great and the courses they played weren’t the equal of those on the PGA Tour.
It even got to the point that Europe’s best started to play as much and more over here than at home.
European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley decided to take the issue head-on earlier this week when he announced the Rolex Series, a seven-event deal designed to improve the tour’s appeal among players.
The idea is to target specific weeks to go head-to-head with the PGA Tour, events that will feature larger purses.
Among the events are the DP World Tour Championship, last week’s Nedbank Golf Challenge and the Turkish Airlines Open, all of which rival or exceed the strength of fields of PGA Tour events the same week.
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I’ve not been there, but St. Simon’s Island, site of this week’s RSM Classic, looks like a spectacular place. The golf club there has a pair of courses, the Plantation and the Seaside, and both are used on the first two days of the tournament.
The Seaside is exposed to the conditions more and it’s used for the final two rounds.
The boys made a lot of birdies the first two days, but conditions turned more difficult Saturday and expected to be worse today and the course will show its teeth.
Located off the coast of Georgia, the general area is visually stunning and has a pair of really nice courses.
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It’s not been much of a year on the golf course for Stewart Cink. It’s been even less of year for him off the course.
In late April, his wife Lisa was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer and began aggressive treatment and appears to be progressing nicely. She was doing well enough to accompany Cink this week at Sea Island and walk with him as he played.
Cink didn’t play much this year, saying the only way he would was if she was good enough to be with him.
It’s a very tough situation, obviously and unless you’ve lost a loved one to this horrible disease, you really can’t know just how difficult it is.
Going into Sunday’s final round, Cink was in a tie for ninth.
What a great Thanksgiving present a victory would be for the Cink family.
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If you have an interesting story about your club or course or an individual who has done something special, let me know. Send your story ideas to mike.dudurich@gmail.com.