Golf Links: Friday, June 23 news and updates

Golf Links connects you to Friday morning’s major golf news: this morning 2nd rounds at the Travelers and BMW International Open top the headlines, with Trump’s golf cart caper and a new track in Chicago also making a bit of golf news.

The ProGolfNow Golf Links column provides a quick way to get your Friday morning golf news and stay on top of the game, wherever it’s being played.

The PGA TOUR’s Traveler’s Championship and the European Tour’s BMW International Open play their second rounds today and with some weather luck the LPGA’s WalMart NW Arkansas Championship first round begins.

Thursday at Connecticut, Munich, Germany and Arkansas

At the Travelers on Thursday nobody even got close to Jim Furyk’s 58. Going into the second round Jordan Spieth is leading the way with a first round seven-under 63. But Johnson Wagner and Brett Stegmaier are right behind him with Graham DeLaet and Troy Merritt one shot behind them, so Spieth is by no means starting the second round with an easy lead. Then there’s Xander Schauffele, the rookie who a week ago was a virtual unknown but who this week is making his presence felt for the second week in a row.

Some say the 15 1/2 at the Travelers is the toughest hole in golf. Here’s how it went, all for a good cause!

You can catch the second round action live beginning at 7am ET on PGA TOUR LIVE and Golf Channel begins live broadcast coverage at 3:30pm, with a rebroadcast at 9pm ET. ProGolfNow’s Luke Norris has the second round pairings and tee times.

In Munich, when they were all in the house it was Australia’s Wade Ormsby who set the pace at the BMW International Open with an eight-under 64. Thomas Detry will start the second round trailing Ormsby by one shot. Sergio Garcia, Joost Luiten and Thorbjørn Olesen all signed for 66s and they’ll take another run at the top of the board today. Defending champion Henrik Stenson is chugging along with a first round five-under 67. Look for him to start moving today.

Enjoy the first round highlights.

Golf Channel begins broadcast coverage of the BMW International Open second round at 5:30am ET with a rebroadcast at 9:30am ET.

In Rogers, Arkansas the WalMart NW Arkansas Championship 54-hole event is likely to get off to a soggy start as tropical storm Cindy transits the region. Local fans will be cheering Stacy Lewis and Gabby Lopez, who both played collegiate golf for the Razorbacks, but the field is packed with power and hopefuls – look for Stacy Lewis and Lydia Ko to both play flat out to end their winless streaks. I hope they all have their rain gear.

You can get first round pairings and tee times here and follow the action live on the LPGA electronic leaderboard or you can wait for Golf Channel and get a two hour first round recap beginning at 6:30pm ET.

He Drove His Cart Where?

It appears that President Donald Trump has been driving his golf carts on the greens at Bedminster.

It does seem an odd thing to do, whether or not one owns the golf course.

And there was an altercation in St. Augustine between a World Golf Village employee and a golfer that led to name-calling and an exchange of blows. My goodness, ours is a civilized sport. We generally follow the rules, police ourselves, and put the carts where they belong when we’ve finished with them.

Driving on greens and punching out the cart boy just aren’t daily happenings in the world of golf. Maybe the solar eclipse is disturbing things? Probably not. That’s in late August.

Sandy Tatum

More from Pro Golf Now

This week the game lost one of its icons, past USGA president Sandy Tatum, who died Thursday, just short of his 97th birthday, after a life well-lived on golf courses around the world. A Stanford alum, a Rhodes scholar, member of San Francisco Golf Club and Cypress Point, Tatum’s vision guided the restoration of the city’s most famous muni, Harding Park. His love of the game inspired many and for that will he be best remembered.

A New Track for Chicago

Tiger Woods may be temporarily sidelined while he undergoes treatment for substance abuse but Tiger Woods Designs’ new project is going forward on schedule. The new championship-level course will combine two Chicago South side munis – Jackson Park and South Shore – and the final product will be a 7354 yard par 70 monster that conforms to Tiger’s philosophy of the game: challenge the pros but make the track engaging for players at all levels. Tiger likes to emphasize walkability and playability, as he has at his El Cardinal in Mexico and Bluejacket in Houston. So look for broad fairways and a decidedly urban Chicago vibe for this one, projected to open some time in 2020, and hope the project doesn’t go the way of the first Tiger-designed course in the United States.

Next: Travelers Championship: Top 5 sleepers

Who are you following at the Travelers? What about the BMW International? And how do you really feel about Donald Trump driving his golf cart across the greens at Bedminster?

Home/Golf News