The teenage granddaughter of former US president Donald Trump has made an early commitment to join the University of Miami’s golf programme.
Kai Trump, who is 17 and has two years left of her high school education before making the move to university ranks, thanked her grandfather for “giving me access to great courses and tremendous support” in announcing her intentions to attend the University of Miami (from which Cork’s Sara Byrne, and soon-to-be professional, has just graduated.)
The daughter of Donald Trump jnr and his former wife Vanessa has earned a reputation as a fine golfer on the Florida junior circuit. Incidentally, Kai attends the same private high school near Jupiter, Florida, as another much-vaunted teenage golfer, Charlie Woods, son of Tiger, where annual tuition touches $40,000.
Jordan Spieth to go under the knife after disappointing year
Time to finally accept his fate and go under the surgeon’s scalpel for Jordan Spieth, whose failure to make it to the second phase of the FedEx Cup playoffs has prompted him to get medical treatment for a wrist injury that has plagued him for the past 16 months.
Spieth has been playing with a wrist injury – a torn sheath in his left wrist that holds the tendon in place – since last year’s US PGA Championship, playing on in the hope that various non-surgical treatments would work.
They haven’t. Spieth was 10th in the world rankings when he suffered the injury and has slipped to 43rd in the most recent standings.
“I’ve got to have it operated on ASAP and then I’ll go through the process of what I’m supposed to do from there. If I don’t have a reason to try to rush back, which I don’t, I’ll probably just take it as slow as I can,” said Spieth, who has been given an estimated three-months recovery timeline to get back playing again following surgery.
In Numbers: 6-6-6
That’s the devilish sequence of numbers which Tom Kim took in the last three holes of the FedEx St Jude Classic (five over par for the closing stretch) which saw him slip outside the top-50 on the FedEx Cup standings. Kim started the week in 43rd but that bogey-double bogey-double bogey finish saw him slip to 50th in the tournament and to 51st on the updated FedEx Cup standings and brought an end to his PGA Tour season. “I feel like 2024 has really kicked me in the butt,” said Kim.
On this day: August 20th, 2000
Tiger Woods just kept on winning Majors in his great standout season, adding the Wannamaker Trophy at Valhalla to the US Open and the Claret Jug he’d already won as summer turned into autumn.
Yet, it was his US PGA win which proved the hardest of all – he won the US Open by 15 strokes at Pebble Beach and the Open at St Andrews by eight – only coming after a three-hole playoff with Bob May.
And, thanks to a two-way on-air conversation between CBS Sports commentators Ken Venturi and Jim Nantz, it provoked a topic for conspiracy theorists after Woods ball on the final playoff hole (the 18th) took a wild deflection which saw his ball come back into play. Off a tree? Or by some other means?
It went like this:
Venturi: “What happened with that ball?”
Nantz: “Do you think someone either kicked it or threw it back in that direction?”
Venturi: “I don’t know. It, it didn’t ...”
Nantz: “It didn’t react naturally, did it?”
Venturi: “No, it didn’t at all.”
Nantz: “I sure hope someone didn’t slap it back.”
Venturi: “It could have been someone jumped up and hit it with their hand.”
No outside influence, however, was found. And Woods’s dominant season saw him produce rounds of 66-67-70-67 for 18-under-par 270 and ultimately fend off May in the playoff to defend his PGA title.
Word of Mouth
“I knew I had it in me, [it was] more to show myself I can do it. It will definitely increases my confidence a lot but not too much, because I knew I had it in me. It’s just to do it in the end, I’m very happy.” – 19-year-old Thomas Abom after defeating Richard Sykes, a member of the home club, in the final of the AIG Irish Close Championship at Dún Laoghaire Golf Club. Abom – one of a hugely talented family of golfers from Edmonstown Golf Club – is due to start his university studies at Maynooth University in October.
X-Twitter Twaddle
“Thanks to @TitleistEurope & @LETgolf, thousands of golf balls from the range will be donated to juniors in the local community” – @Women’s_Scottish on the initiative which sees top quality range balls recycled for junior golf at events on the Ladies’ European Tour. American Lauren Coughlin continued her rich vein of form in winning her second LPGA Tour win in three events at Dundonald links.
“I love Chick-fil-A” – Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama tweets about eating at the fast food franchise to celebrate any tour win.
“Champagne shows all around. Greenbrier is SMASHED” – in contrast, Brooks Koepka with a rather more sparkling approach to celebrating wins after his success on LIV at The Greenbrier.
In the Bag: Hideki Matsuyama (FedEx St Jude Classic)
Driver: Srixon ZX5 Mk II LS (9.5 degrees)
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
5-wood: Cobra King RadSpeed Tour (17.5 degrees)
Irons: Srixon Z-Forged II (4-9)
Wedges: Cleveland RTX 4 Forged prototype (48, 52, 56 and 60 degrees)
Putter: Scotty Cameron Handcrafted Squareback Bullet Bottom prototype
Ball: Srixon Z-Star XV
Know the Rules
Q: During the first round of a 36-hole strokeplay competition which was scheduled to be played on one day, a player, having holed out at the third hole, plays a practice putt on the third green. What is the ruling?
A: There is no penalty in this situation. The permissions for practising in Rule 5.5b override the prohibitions set out in Rule 5.2b in that a player is allowed to practise on or near the putting green of the hole just completed even if he or she will play that hole again on the same day.
