Welcome to another episode of Hitting the Links, our weekly look at, well, the week in golf.
We are really getting down to the last few weeks of any “serious” golf now on the major tours. Even though the PGA TOUR is technically a few events into it’s 2013-2014 season and the European Tour will hold it’s season-ending event this week, make no mistake – there’s still a lot of “silly” in the season, as our seventh “hole” below illustrates.
Hole #1: 365 Starts, 0 Wins
Chris Kirk won the McGladrey Classic, as well as the 500 FedExCup points, $990,000 and Masters invite that come with it. But the bigger story is that Briny Baird came in second, just missing out on his first win. Baird has the dubious honor of earning the most prize money ($13.18 million) and having the most PGA TOUR starts without a win. Still, we think we could make do with the $13 million. [Link]
Hole #2: Theresa Lu Wins by Two
Theresa Lu, who gave up her LPGA Tour membership in 2010 and now plays the Japan LPGA Tour, won the Mizuno Classic Sunday by birdieing the last two holes to outpace Chella Choi, who finished second. [Link]
Hole #3: Dubuisson Bests Big Names
Frenchman Victor Dubuisson beat several of golf’s most famous players to win the Turkish Airlines Open. Tiger Woods and Justin Rose finished T3. Jamie Donaldson rode a final round 63 into second, finishing two shots behind Dubuisson. [Link]
Hole #4: Scott Gets Happy Homecoming
Sunday, Adam Scott won the Australian Open by four strokes in his first tournament on his home soil since he won the Masters in April. Rickie Fowler finished second. [Link]
Hole #5: China Rising
Look out, Chinese golfers are expected to be medal contenders at the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020 and to begin popping up on leaderboards at the world’s top tournaments soon after. China is building golf courses at a record rate, and its junior golf program is currently growing by leaps and bounds. [Link]
Hole #6: Dyson May Face Punishment After All
Simon Dyson skipped the Turkish Airlines Open this past weekend and is awaiting his day in “court” this December with a three-man European Tour tribunal. Despite the story HtL pointed to last week, Dyson may still face a suspension or other punishment for his spike-mark-fixing incident at the BMW Masters in China. [Link]
Hole #7: Tiger Misses Europe
In what can only be described as a quintessential “silly season” event, Tiger Woods spent part of last Tuesday afternoon trying to hit a golf ball from Asia to Europe across Istanbul’s Bosphorous Bridge. During the photo op, Steve Elkington quipped on Twitter “Unfortunately, [he] snap hooks into Africa.” [Link]
Hole #8: The End of Edwin’s?
In another down note for the U.S. golf industry, Edwin Watts Golf Shops, which has 90 stores in the U.S., has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. [Link]
Hole #9: Golf Thanks Veterans
On Staten Island, 450 golfers played at four courses Monday, Nov. 11, to raise money for the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ Building for America’s Bravest Foundation, which constructs homes for the severely wounded U.S. service members. [Link]