Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Postponing of Ryder Cup could hurt Shriners Open
Local tournament could lose some European players
The announcement Wednesday that this year’s Ryder Cup has been pushed back a year not only impacts golf ’s premier team event, but there is a trickle-down effect on other tournaments and players. is not a Ryder Cup,” Waugh said. “It is one event that is uniquely about the fans.”
“We didn’t want to dilute the magic of a great occasion,” said Guy Kinnings, deputy CEO of the European Tour.
Kinnings noted one silver lining of pushing the event back a year is it gives both teams the chance to field their best teams with a full season of qualifying. With half of the 2020 tournaments wiped away by the pandemic, the number of opportunities for golfers to play their way onto the team were limited.
Having a full season to earn points will certainly help a number of players, including a handful of newcomers already making their mark on the PGA Tour. At the top of the list is Las Vegas resident Collin Morikawa, who left California-Berkeley last summer, turned pro and almost immediately won the Barracuda Championship. He’s added three second-place finishes and is in contention again this weekend at the Workday Charity Open.
Despite his success, Morikawa is only 16th in the U.S. points race and had little chance of making this year’s team. With another year to build his resume, Morikawa’s chances of making the Ryder Cup team greatly improve.
Chip shots
■ When the PGA Tour returned in early June, initial plans called for the first four events to be played without fans. But now five weeks into the schedule there still are no fans, and none coming in the foreseeable future. The next five weeks will be played on empty courses, including the PGA Championship in San Francisco. It will be mid-August at the earliest before the first spectators are allowed, but even that remains a question mark.
■ All of the game’s biggest stars have been playing throughout the PGA Tour’s return — with one big exception. That changes next week as Tiger Woods is in the field at the Memorial, an event he’s won five times. Which Woods will show up is the big question. He has played just twice in 2020, in San Diego in January where he tied for ninth, and in Los Angeles in February where he finished 68th, last among all players who made the cut.