LPGA hoping to boost LA community after wildfires
Amy Rogers reports from El Caballero Country Club before the JM Eagle LA Championship, which Angel Yin and the LPGA are hoping to use to provide a boost to the Los Angeles community amid wildfire devastation.
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USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
Who's next on Max Homa's bag? The caddie carousel has been busy of late
Who's next on Max Homa's bag? The caddie carousel has been busy of late Trying to keep up with the caddie carousel on the PGA Tour always has been a fool's errand but it has been particularly tricky of late. As is usually the case, all it takes is one domino to fall, and the caddie yard is in a state of flux. It was late March when caddie Joe Greiner split with his childhood buddy Max Homa after six Tour victories together for the good of their friendship. Homa quickly hooked up with veteran caddie Bill Harke, who was working as a swing instructor in the Bay Area and assistant coach to his partner — former LPGA pro Beth Allen — at Division II Academy of Art University in San Francisco. This all came at the recommendation of Jim 'Bones' Mackay. Greiner ended up spelling injured caddie Matt 'Rev' Minister for Justin Thomas at the Masters and when they won together at the RBC Heritage, JT's first victory in three years, rumors circulated that Greiner might go full-time with JT but he put the kibosh on those rumors quickly and Minister, who had replaced Bones a year earlier, returned at the PGA Championship. But it didn't take Greiner long to find a new full-time bag, hooking up with Collin Morikawa, the two-time major winner who has been battling his own winless drought. J.J. Jakovac had been Morikawa's only bagman since turning pro in 2019. JJ turned up as a fill-in on Matt Wallace's bag for one week at the Charles Schwab Challenge before landing a full-time gig with promising rookie Michael Thorbjornsen. (He failed at U.S. Open Final Qualifying and withdrew from the RBC Canadian Open this week, citing a wrist injury.) Jakovac slid into the job formerly held by Lance Bennett, who had been caddying for Tiger Woods before his latest injury sidelined him. Thorbjornsen shares the same management company, Excel Sports Management, as Woods and Homa. After Homa parted ways with Harke on Sunday following the Memorial, he carried his own bag during Monday's 36-hole U.S. Open qualifier and lost in a playoff. Who did Homa ring to handle caddie duties this week at the RBC Canadian Open? None other than Bennett. It's unclear what Homa's plans are beyond this week but stay tuned. The caddie carousel doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon.
USA Today
11 hours ago
- USA Today
RBC Canadian Open tournament director has a special father/son relationship
RBC Canadian Open tournament director has a special father/son relationship Like father, like son. Ryan Paul doesn't only share a physical resemblance to his father, Bill. This week, he steps into his shoes as tournament director for the first time at the RBC Canadian Open, a role his father once held for 23 years. He retired in 2019 after 43 years with Golf Canada. 'It's in the bloodlines, I guess,' Ryan said. Ryan Paul served as the tournament director for the CPKC Canadian Women's Open for the past seven years, and assumes the role previously held by Bryan Crawford, who left to become the commissioner of the Ontario Hockey League. When Paul, 37, attended a meeting of the PGA Tour tournament directors late last year, he realized he was one of the younger people in the room and had joined a fraternity with many of his father's former colleagues. 'It's one of those dream jobs that's almost impossible to get because no one wants to give it up,' he said. It would be easy to say that Ryan was born for this role but as he said, he didn't exactly like golf growing up. Hockey, baseball and team sports were his jam. But he grew up exposed to the golf business and clearly learned a few things through osmosis. In addition to overseeing the Canadian Open for more than two decades, his father served as tournament director of the Canadian Senior Open, the 1992 World Amateur Team Championships and helped secure an LPGA event, which became the CP Women's Open, under the Golf Canada banner. Ryan's earliest memories of the Canadian Open? Sitting on a hillside at Glen Abbey at about age 5 watching the pros float by and tooling around in a golf cart alongside his father as he put out fires. In 2000, when the national championship was held in September, his father took him out of school for the week and let him work the range when Tiger Mania was in full throttle. 'I sold a Sharpie to someone who was dying for his autograph for like 30 bucks,' he recalled. This was the year that Tiger clinched his 'National Open Slam' — U.S., British and Canadian in the same year — hitting one of his most memorable shots – 6-iron from 216 yards in a fairway bunker over water at the par-5 18th – and Ryan climbed the manual scoreboard behind the green to witness it. He would work in other unofficial capacities while his father called the shots but in 2007, his summer job consisted of being on the operations team for both the men's and women's national opens, setting up the signage and slinging ropes as his dad had done years before. He did that for four years and then joined Wasserman, honing his executive management skills from 2011-2016 as an account manager on the agency's key golf accounts for RBC, CN, Shaw, Manulife, and CPKC where he managed operations, experiential activities, and player relations. He returned to Golf Canada midway through 2016 in the championship management department as an assistant director for both events until 2018 when he became the tournament director for Canada's women's open. While father Bill is enjoying retirement, which includes a fair amount of 'Grandpa Daycare' for Ryan's three kids, he will be onsite this week for the first playing of the RBC Canadian Open at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley in Caledon, Ontario, the 38th different venue to host the national championship in its 121-year history. Is Ryan calling his dad out from the bullpen to lend a hand and make sure things go smoothly? Not exactly but he does expect him to be riding shotgun with him around the course on the golf cart like old times. 'He'll probably be there for me when I'm putting out fires just on the other side of the wheel now,' Ryan said.
UPI
a day ago
- UPI
Maja Stark eyes moving from studio after $2.4M U.S. Women's Open win
1 of 5 | Sweden's Maja Stark poses with the USGA Women's Open trophy after winning the the 2025 U.S. Women's Open on Sunday at Erin Hills in Hartford, Wis. Photo by Tannen Maury/UPI | License Photo June 2 (UPI) -- Swedish golfer Maja Stark had one thing on her mind for spending some of the $2.4 million prize money she earned winning the 2025 U.S. Women's Open: moving out of her studio apartment. "I didn't even know that," Stark told reporters, when informed of her prize money and asked what she's do with it Sunday in Hartford, Wis. "Maybe move out of my studio apartment. That could be one thing. I don't know. "I'm very happy with what I have in my life right now. Having the security for the future, I think I'll just be very happy about that." Stark entered the tournament with $130,725 in prize money earned through her first eight tournaments this season. The 25-year-old fired an even-par 72 over her final round at Erin Hills Golf Course to cement her first major crown and claim the Harton S. Semple Trophy. "Before this week, I was worried that I wasn't really going to play decent golf for a while because it felt like it was so far away," Stark said. "This just feels huge. I'm so happy." Stark made her LPGA debut in 2021. She entered the 2025 U.S. Women's Open with just one win on the LPGA Tour, which came at the 2022 ISPS Handa World Invitational. With her first major title, Stark increased her career prize money total to $5.2 million. She earned $1.5 million last season. Stark carded three birdies and three bogies over her final 18 holes of the U.S. Women's Open. She was 5-under par through the first two rounds. Stark carded a 2-under 70 in Saturday's third round. American Nelly Korda and Japan's Rio Takeda tied for second at 5-under for the tournament. Japan's Mao Saigo, China's Ruoing Yin and Korea's Hye-Jin Choi tied for fourth at 4-under. The LPGA season will continue with the ShopRite LPGA Classic, which will be held from Friday to Sunday in Galloway, N.J. The KPMG Women's PGA Championship -- the next major on the calendar -- will be held June 19 to 22 in Frisco, Texas.
