USA TODAY International Edition
December jam- packed with meaningful golf play
Seventy- two hours.
That’s the length of time between Jon Rahm being crowned the big winner of 2019 on the European PGA Tour and the circuit’s debut of its 2020 season, which started Thursday with the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa.
Charl Schwartzel, the 2011 Masters champion, made his return Thursday from a wrist injury that sidelined him since June in his native land.
The Euro Tour then continues its African sojourn at the Afrasia Bank Mauritius Open, but the eyes of the golf world will be on the Bahamas, where Tiger Woods hosts the Hero World Challenge.
Last we saw Woods he was polishing off a vintage performance in Japan and hoisting his record- tying 82nd PGA Tour title. Winning the Hero won’t count as an official victory, but count Woods in for at least a top- 20 finish. That’s because it is only an 18- man field. It is a star- studded field, to be sure, with several members of the U. S. Presidents Cup team among the contestants, including defending champion Rickie Fowler. Don’t forget about the PNC Father- Son in Orlando, where golf fans can drink in the nostalgia of watching Jack Nicklaus ( and grandson), Gary Player,
Tom Watson and, for the first time, Annika Sorenstam ( with her father) team up in a two- person scramble format.
Meanwhile, most of the Presidents Cup International Team will be getting acclimated to life in Oz at the Australian Open. Aussies Jason Day, Marc Leishman, Adam Scott and Cameron Smith return home to face the test of The Australian Golf Club.
That takes us to the Presidents Cup, Dec. 12- 15, at Royal Melbourne, where the International side will seek its first win since 1998, when the biennial competition was held at none other than Royal Melbourne. Woods will serve as the first playing captain since Hale Irwin in 1994. The Presidents Cup is going to air in prime time in the U. S. on the East Coast.
For the golf junkie that week, the daytime matinee is the QBE Shootout at Tiburón Golf Course in Naples, Florida. The Greg Norman- hosted team competition has a lot of the usual suspects, including defending champs Brian Harman and Patton Kizzire, but the team worth tuning in for is rookies Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff.
The European Tour has last call that week, too, before calling it quits for 2019 on the Gold Coast of Australia at the cosanctioned Australian PGA Championship.