5 Things: Tiger out, women in and DJ on that shot penalty at Oakmont

1) Open watch: Tiger out…

The least surprising news of 2016 other than a general lack of appetite for golf in the Olympics came last week when Tiger Woods formally withdrew from the 145th Open Championship.

The three-time champion has now missed three Opens because of injury and his return remains a mystery. Every other week it seems he makes some sort of positive noises about his comeback from multiple back surgeries but then the only glimpses of him hitting a ball are on a simulator or fatting a succession balls into water with a wedge.

This will be the first time he has missed three straight majors in his professional career.

Woods will be replaced by Marcus Fraser of Australia, Luke Donald moves up to first alternate.

 

2) Open watch: And women in…

Common sense can be very underrated and there was a large dose of it as Royal Troon voted ‘overwhelmingly’ to welcome women to the club.

A review of the club’s membership policy – it shares its facilities with the Ladies Golf Club, Troon – was not due to be resolved until later this year but was brought forward to before the Open to avoid the pre-Championship press conferences being dominated by such questions. And rightly so.

Instead we can all now focus on the golf and Troon can look forward to their continued presence on the Open rota. Likewise Royal St George’s voted last year to admit women members and The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews opted to end its 260-year-old male-only membership policy in September 2014. Muirfield, meanwhile, plans to hold another vote on female membership just weeks after members rejected the proposal and were quickly struck off the rota.

Troon club captain Martin Cheyne said: “We have said a number of times recently that it is important for golf clubs to reflect the society in which we exist and the modern world that looks to us.

“Therefore, I am delighted with the decision taken by Members of Royal Troon this evening and look forward to welcoming women to our great Club. It is the right decision for the Club today, and for the generations of golfers that will follow.”

 

 

3) Dustin – The shot penalty ‘didn’t matter either way’

Dustin Johnson is wired differently to many of us.

Speaking on the eve of the Bridgestone he insisted that he shouldn’t have been penalized a shot for his ball supposedly moving in the final round of the US Open. The new Major champion admitted that he tried to protest his innocence to the USGA but, after playing the last seven holes not knowing what his score was, he had had enough and just took the shot, and the trophy.

“I was arguing with them because I still don’t believe that I did anything to make the golf ball move,” Johnson said. “But at that point I was ready to sign my scorecard and get my trophy, so I just said, ‘Give me the penalty, let’s go.’”

And then came the real nugget, and the prime reason why he finally turned a collection of Major malfunctions into that prized W – his ability to not overthink things.

“At that point, I mean, to me it didn’t matter either way. I was playing golf, and I didn’t want to be bothered by it at the moment, so I said we’d figure it out when I got done.”

Jordan Spieth, who was the benefactor of Johnson’s last-hole three putts at Chambers Bay indicated that he wouldn’t have hit another shot until the penalty was decided.

Shane Lowry, who led by four going into the final round, admitted that he had definitely been unsettled by the uncertainty of it all.

“I did my interviews afterwards and I said it didn’t affect me at all,” Lowry said. “But when I look back on it, it did.”

The Irishman added that, had things been different and the result still in question, the penalty outcome might have been a little different.

“He (Dustin) might have got away with that penalty shot if he really needed to. I mean, it would have been interesting to see if the two of us had been tied, or I would have won by one, whether Dustin would have got penalized that shot or not. I think we might have had a different scenario then.”

Dustin Johnson Ball Movement On 5th Hole (Vine by @TheCauldron) https://t.co/pwRhocI6ic

— Rickard Bergquist (@sportblogg) June 19, 2016

4) At least no women have withdra…oh

In case you missed it the World No 1 Jason Day and Shane Lowry pulled out of the Olympics last week due to the threat of the Zika virus. The Australian wasn’t a huge surprise, given some of his previous comments, while Lowry got married on the way home from Augusta and is hoping to start a family in the near future.

They joined a growing list – Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Graeme McDowell, Vijay Singh, Marc Leishman and Miguel Angel Jimenez – and everyone then quickly pointed to the fact that no women had done the same.

And then Lee-Anne Pace withdrew this week. The South African broke the mould when she became the first female golfer to pull out having been a certainty to represent her country.

“After weighing up all the options and discussing it with my family and team, I have decided that due to the health concerns surrounding the Zika virus, I will not be participating,” she said. “I hope that everyone can understand that this was a very difficult decision to come to, however my health and my future family’s health must come first.”

5) A new concern for Rio – security

As things stand no Americans have yet pulled out of Rio and last week at Firestone the four in position to make the team met with USA Golf officials – and the meeting generated some positive noises for a change.

In the hot spots at the moment are Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson and Rickie Fowler (there is a maximum of four from each country though they must come from the world’s top 15) but the quartet’s discussions focused mainly on security rather than the Zika virus.

“I thought the meeting was good. It cleared up a lot of things,” Johnson said. “Still waiting to hear back on a couple things that all four of us had a concern about, but we’ll have some answers early next week. They are just

security concerns, I think they’ve got it covered pretty well. We talked very, very briefly about Zika, but it was mostly all security concerns.”

So can we at least pencil in one big name, Dustin?

“I mean, at this point I’m going to go to the Olympics and represent my country. “I’m looking forward to it.”