The Quick Hook

After two weeks of co-sanctioned teasing that followed nearly four months of competitive inaction, the British Masters this week marks the first fully endorsed European Tour event since the return to golf, and with all due respect to the Austrian events, the first one we're really excited to follow. It's also the first time that a majority of European Tour card holding professionals will have competed for Official World Golf Ranking points (more on this from The Quick Hook later this week) since March. The British Masters is set to begin on Wednesday, July 22, kicking off a stretch of six consecutive events to be played in England and Wales. Five courses will be used in this stretch, and it appears the selection has favoured, understandably, proximity to a major hotel over prestige and caliber of golf course. Of the six events will be played over five courses, approximately one will prompt even a half baked yearning to go and play it. Hint: it's not Celtic Manor, and it als...

Austria will play host to a second successive European Tour and Challenge Tour co-sanctioned event, as professional golf in Europe moves 50 miles south to Ramsau, and Golf Club Adamstal for the third edition of the Euram Bank Open. The event will have a near identical field to the one that tee'd off at the Austrian Open last week, with Thomas Detry and Connor Syme the two notable names missing after appearing last week.  The best ranked players in the field, per the Official World Golf Rankings, will be Joost Luiten and Adri Arnaus for the second week in a row. Photo from The European Tour GC Adamstal, the host course for this event, is almost comically short for a professional event. From the back edge of every tee, it measures under 6,500 yards, and that's at a not-so-unsubstantial elevation! Ramsau is 3,700 feet above see level, which is enough for most to double-check some carry distances. Average elevation will not be the only issue this week, as there are drastic changes ...

If you were to cast your mind far enough back - a long way back, to the halcyon days of early March - you would recall Jorge Campillo as the last man to lift a trophy on the European Tour, after succeeding in Qatar following a five hole playoff with tour veteran David Drysdale, at what proved to be the final event on Tour before four months of inactivity.  The week before that, Sami Valimaki defeated Brandon Stone in Oman after a three hole playoff, picking up his first win in just his sixth European Tour start. The Middle Eastern Swing had thrown up some remarkable storylines in the first part of the season, but none more so - at least in the eyes of this European Golf fanatic - as subjectively remarkable as the emergence of Valimaki, and the resurgence of Campillo. Embed from Getty Images All of these names, and all of these events sound faintly reminiscent of a grand time - a happier time. They all seem so distant, yet distinct. "Has it really been four whole months?", and...

The Travelers Championship, played at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, is quite possibly the most forgettable main event on the PGA Tour schedule that has had an inordinate number of unforgettable moments.  This event was the site of Jim Furyk's 58, the lowest round in Tour history. In 2017, Jordan Spieth holed out from the greenside bunker to win the event on the first playoff hole, before embarking on one of the most memorable celebrations in modern golf history. Hell, Ken Duke won here. Embed from Getty Images Without those reminders, however, most people would be hard-pressed to describe a single hole on this golf course. This is perhaps because it is distinctive in almost no shape or form. Even the name, 'TPC River Highlands' sounds vaguely reminiscent of one of the fantasy courses from an early-2000's Tiger Woods PGA Tour video game. When it comes to the statistics, this event stands out in the regard that it really does not stand out. No category is ...

It's an uncommon occurrence on the PGA Tour for two consecutive tournaments and golf courses to give no statistical advantage to the longest players in the field. As the Tour moves on to week-two after the restart and Harbour Town Golf Links, one week after resuming play at Colonial Country Club, this is exactly what they should expect. In fact, according to Data Golf, no course is as statistically similar to Colonial CC as Harbour Town is, adding an interesting dimension as these events find themselves positioned in back-to-back weeks on Tour for the first time ever. Adding to the intrigue of the week, is that Harbour Town has never quite seen a field as strong the one that will walk the grounds this week. Embed from Getty Images Depending on confirmation of the final field, there is currently 74 Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points to be awarded to the champion on Hilton Head Island making it, by some distance, the strongest field in the 50 year history of the event. Eight o...

A current total of 37 of the Top-50 ranked players in golf are lined up to be in the field for the 2020 Charles Schwab Challenge, as the top-tier of professional golf gets ready to return to action Thursday, June 11 at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, TX. The first-rate field includes all of the current Top-5 players in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson.  As a result of the abnormal strength of field for this event, spurned by a 13 week absence of competitive golf, there will be 72 OWGR points allocated to the champion at Colonial. This makes the Charles Schwab Challenge the most awarded event in world golf in terms of ranking points since the BMW Championship in August of 2019. Everything is, after all, bigger in Texas. Embed from Getty Images Colonial CC has a historic imbalance of the type of golfer it crowns, making predicting a winner all the more difficult. Subsequently, there is the additional...

The Magical Kenya Open has been postponed as new governmental travel regulations are set in place due to fears over the spread of Coronavirus, meaning we will turn our attention to Florida and The PGA Tour, where TPC Sawgrass lies in wait of the world's best. The European Tour regular schedule looks like it will be on a break until at least late April, with the next two events in Kenya and India both postponed. The two European Tour events that follow this will be the WGC-Matchplay and The Masters, meaning the core tour membership in Europe will be without competitive play for quite some time. Luckily, play in the USA has faced little barrier, and all going well, shall go ahead as scheduled. One of the strongest fields of the season is set to take on TPC Sawgrass, an event that has seen a new name inscribed upon the trophy in 18 of the last 20 years; only Davis Love III and Tiger Woods have become multiple winners of The Players since 2001. There is little in the way of a...