IN BRIEF (Page 19)
Back to Bethpage: Even though the USGA presumably gave up on Bethpage Black after a second US Open in 2009, the public course on Long Island remains very much in the picture with the 2019 PGA Championship and the 2024 Ryder Cup. And the list keeps growing. New York Gov Andrew Cuomo announced on Tuesday two additional stops for Bethpage Black that feature the world's best players. The Barclays, the opening FedEx Cup playoff event with the top 125 players on the PGA Tour that year, will return in 2021 and 2027. The Barclays first went to Bethpage Black in 2012.
Do the math: The Official World Golf Ranking often gets criticized when someone rises to No 1 without having won a major, such as Lee Westwood and Luke Donald. They played the best golf over a two-year period, consistently had top finishes and won tournaments when no one was dominating the sport. Overlooked in the euphoria over 17-year-old Lydia Ko becoming the youngest golfer at No 1 was how her record the last two years compared with those now chasing her. Ko turned pro 14 months ago, and in the last two years already has four victories and 15 finishes in the top 10. Park In-bee has nine victories and four majors over the last two years and had 17 top 10s a year ago. She is now No 2. Stacy Lewis, the world No 3, has had six victories and one major in the last two years.
Masters update: Augusta National made it through one month without sending any more Masters invitations to PGA Tour players. The Masters prefers to keep its field under 100 players, and it has done that since 1966. There already were 90 players who were eligible and expected to compete when the year ended, and Matias Dominguez of Chile made it 91 by winning the inaugural Latin American Amateur Championship. As for PGA Tour winners, Patrick Reed (Hyundai Tournament of Champions), Jimmy Walker (Sony Open), Bill Haas (Humana Challenge) and Brooks Koepka (Phoenix Open) already were eligible for the Masters. Nine more PGA Tour events remain before the field at the Masters is set.
