Each week, GolfChannel.com takes a look back at the week in golf. Here’s what’s weighing on our writers’ minds.
On the possibility of no PGA Tour event at ‘Hogan’s Alley’ …
Since 1946 there’s been PGA Tour golf in Fort Worth, Texas. That was the year Ben Hogan won the first Big League event at Colonial Country Club, one of five victories for The Hawk at the layout that would be nicknamed “Hogan’s Alley.”
Now, some 70 years later, that legacy may be nearing an end. According to various reports, Dean & DeLuca is poised to duck out of its sponsorship of the annual Tour stop and the outlook doesn’t appear great for a replacement.
Tour events come and go and with the dramatic schedule makeover on tap for 2019 and beyond, perhaps Colonial seems expendable; but history deserves better. Colonial deserves better. – Rex Hoggard
On the parity at the top of the LPGA …
Shanshan Feng’s victory at the Blue Bay LPGA Saturday gave women’s golf its fifth different No. 1 in 2017, the most in a single season in the 12-year history of the Rolex Women’s World Rankings. A year ago, the season ended looking as if Ariya Jutanugarn and Lydia Ko might take turns dominating as No. 1s for the foreseeable future. This year ends looking as if the top spot may be up for grabs among a half dozen or more players for the foreseeable future. – Randall Mell
On the Ryder Cup heading to The Olympic Club in 2032 …
The Olympic Club should be a great Ryder Cup venue, and the thought of matches airing in primetime on the east coast is certainly tantalizing – at least for those on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. But the golf landscape will certainly look quite different by the time the 2032 matches roll around.
Phil Mickelson’s run of making consecutive Ryder Cup teams will be long gone by 2032, when Lefty will be 62 years young. “El Nino” Sergio Garcia will be 52, while the next generation of Spanish talent, Jon Rahm, will be 38 and likely one of the key veterans on a team captained by a player currently in his prime.
Even the American young guns of today, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, will both be 39 years old and decades removed from their time together at AJGA events.
A 15-year advance creates plenty of question marks about what California’s first Ryder Cup since 1959 will look like. Although admittedly, the thought of captain Patrick Reed qualifying for his own team at age 42 is tempting enough to reach for the fast-forward button. – Will Gray
Source: Internet
