Haas injured in car accident that left one dead

It was vintage Tiger Woods during the third round of The Open at Carnoustie as he fired a 5-under 66. This is the first major he’s started with three straight rounds of par or better since the 2012 Open at Royal Lytham.

Click here to read the full article…

To say Julie Blum has worked in some non-traditional jobs in her life would be an understatement. In college in the late 1980s, she was a disc jockey in some of the most popular nightclubs on Sixth Street in Austin, Texas. She'd work happy hours and sometimes on weekends, expertly sizing up the crowd to see whether to play rock and roll or techno music or country and western that night. Later, Blum's proficiency in Spanish - as well as Italian, Dutch and even a little Russian - brought her to the city of Houston's protocol department where she worked in the aviation arena. She'd meet with security personnel and help dignitaries like Mikhail Gorbachev, the former president of the Soviet Union, navigate the airport landscape after their planes touched down. And she has spent the last 25 years at Memorial Park golf course, starting out as an administrative assistant and working her way up seven years ago to become the general manager of the facility that will host the Vivint Houston Open for the first time since 1963 this week. As she walked toward her office for a telephone interview on Tuesday, Blum passed Phil Mickelson, who was preparing to tee off in a practice round. She'd seen Jason Day working on his short game for hours. She calls the experience of hosting the PGA TOUR's best players at Houston's municipal gem somewhat surreal. "When I saw all this come to light … the signage, the ropes, the tents, watching the sun rise and seeing all these people working, it’s just been unbelievable to me that this is Memorial," Blum says. "Like how really the dream came true, and what a gift for our Houstonians. "We’re so lucky that we can play this course that the pros play." Truth be told, though, Blum wasn't quite sure what she was getting herself into when she started working at Memorial. She had left the aviation department by then and was the assistant to Houston's director of purchasing, dealing with the city council and the mayor and learning the internal workings of the largest city in Texas. Then she fell in love with her boss' son, Brian Blum, the man she would later marry. Obviously, Blum needed to make a job change given potential nepotism and favoritism concerns given that relationship. Her soon-to-be father-in-law told her there was an opening at Memorial Park for an administrative assistant and suggested she apply. "So, I came to this place in 1995 and it was under renovation," Blum recalls. "It was kind of comical because I showed up in my business attire, which at the time was a suit and high heels. Well. this was a mud pit, and my heels kept getting stuck in the mud. I’m like, what kind of place is this?" During that first push to improve the property, Blum met Nancy Reynolds, a member of the Houston Parks Board who, along with Mayor Bob Lanier, spearheaded the push to upgrade the municipal golf course that is located in the heart of Houston near the Galleria shopping complex and downtown. "She was definitely my inspiration to stay here at Memorial and to fill her wish that this would be a place for definitely keeping our seniors happy and developing the game of golf by making sure our juniors are interested," Blum says. "That was always her goal is to make sure we promote the game of golf. So that was her wish. And I promised her that I would take care of this place for her as long as I was here." Reynolds likely has heard about a young boy named Brian who asked Blum for free range balls one day after school. She put him to work vacuuming the pro shop and doing other odd jobs. He grew up to be a lawyer, invited Blum to his wedding and now brings his three sons to play at Memorial. Blum, who calls herself a recreational golfer, learned about Memorial Park from the ground up - literally - and that helped her gain the respect of the people with whom she works. She helped the maintenance crew edge cart paths and lay sod. She's worked the driving range, rolled greens and figured out how to drive the golf ball picker and maneuver a Skid Steer. And Blum's boss, Jason Harsh, who has a degree in agronomy from Texas A&M has also shared his expertise with the Chicago native and University of Houston grad whose first love was geology. The two, who have worked together for more than two decades, talk chemical compounds, fairy rings, web worms and the merits of Arkansas sand versus river sand, among other things. "So that’s how I learned so much in the past 25 years about golf course maintenance," says Blum, whose hands-on experience also helped her understand the tools her staff needs to do its jobs. She calls grounds crew the unsung heroes of Memorial Park, particularly after the recently completed second renovation, this time done by renowned golf course architect Tom Doak, that brought the layout up to the standard a PGA TOUR event requires. The long hours and hard work will be showcased this week. "Without them we wouldn’t be anything," she says. "So, if there’s anything I want to get out of this conversation is our maintenance guys … doing these jobs in a hundred degrees and this morning it was 46 — hats off to those guys and girls." The eight-month renovation, of course, wouldn't have been possible without the support of the Astros Golf Foundation, which stepped in two years ago to rescue the Vivint Houston Open. Memorial Park, which hosted the tournament from 1951 to 1963, is now PGA TOUR ready again. "To me, it’s just unbelievable to see the metamorphosis, the change going from a local neighborhood, kind of like a "Cheers" bar where everybody knows your name," Blum says "And now … I was watching Jason Day and Phil Mickelson was on the other tee box. "So to me, our values are not going to change. We’re still going to treat everyone with kindness and great communication and encourage development. And we want our locals, but we also want to just maintain that PGA flair that we’ve been gifted. "And we’re very lucky to have the Astros Golf Foundation in our life and great partners." Astros owner Jim Crane appears to feel the same about Blum and her stewardship of Memorial Park. "The other day, Mr. Crane looked at me and he goes, well, Julie, how does it feel to be the CEO of this asset?" Blum recalls. "And I looked at him and I’m like, okay, I never really thought of it that way, but now you just made me a little nervous." While she is more comfortable staying in the background, Blum thinks it's important for women to support each other - "we have to at least let women know that we can do anything," she says. That fact was driven home recently when a PGA TOUR staffer stopped by her office. "She looked at me, she was like, you don’t see this," Blum says. "And I was like trying to see what she was pointing at. And she was like pointing at me and I’m like, I don’t know what you mean. I'm sorry. She goes, you don’t see this — a woman behind the desk. "And she goes, I’ve been to Thailand, I’ve been to California, everywhere, Australia. You don’t see this. And she said hats off to you."

Click here to read the full article…

Bryson DeChambeau makes his first PGA TOUR title defense, while Francesco Molinari seeks victory in back-to-back starts as the Quad Cities hosts its annual Open Championship prelude with one berth at Carnoustie still to be handed out. Steve Stricker, still the last man to execute a PGA TOUR three-peat when he prevailed in 2009-11, is back for his 17th appearance at TPC Deere Run. That’s the same as 2012 champion and JDC board member Zach Johnson. FIELD NOTES: Molinari, who breezed to victory at the Quicken Loans National, and DeChambeau (the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide) are among seven of this season’s tournament winners set to compete. … The lineup also includes six of the top 25 in the FedExCup standings. … Davis Love III makes his first PGA TOUR start since May, though he recently tied for 10th at the U.S. Senior Open. Son Dru Love also got an invite to Deere Run. … Dylan Meyer, who tied for 20th at the U.S. Open in his professional debut, and Chilean teen Joaquin Niemann highlight a strong collection of rising talent. … The field also features two of college golf’s top award winners in 2018, now playing as pros. U.S. Amateur runner-up Doug Ghim (Texas) captured the Hogan Award, while Oregon’s Norman Xiong took home the Nicklaus and Haskins awards. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points. STORYLINES: DeChambeau, who owns five top-5 finishes this season and two more top-10s, has a chance to take over the FedExCup points lead if he can repeat as champion. He arrives at Deere Run 435 points behind Dustin Johnson. … Molinari hopes a week off didn’t diminish the form that sparked his runaway at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. His eight-shot margin of victory tied the largest on TOUR this season. … Johnson, a Cedar Rapids native, owns seven top-five finishes in his past nine appearances, with three runner-up slots go to with his 2012 win. He’s a combined 148-under par in that stretch; he’s carded even-par or better in 41 of his past 42 Deere Run rounds. … Stricker, twice a winner on the PGA TOUR Champions, seeks again to become the Classic’s first four-time winner. He owns three top-25 finishes in seven TOUR starts, including a share of 20th at the U.S. Open. … The final berth at Carnoustie awaits the highest top-5 finisher who hasn’t already punched his ticket to Scotland. … A total of 14 entrants at Deere Run already are in next week’s Open lineup, including DeChambeau and 2015 champion Johnson. COURSE: TPC Deere Run, 7,268 yards, par 71. Once the site of a long-ago tribal village and later housed an Arabian horse-breeding operation, D.A. Weibring’s 1999 design offers a risk/reward challenge as it winds along the nearby Rock River. Dramatic elevation changes frame several holes, notably the downhill 14th that measures 361 yards but can be set up as a drivable par-4. Typically a place where birdies come in bunches, Deere Run was the locale in 2010 when Paul Goydos carded what was then just the fourth 59 recorded on the PGA TOUR. Eventual winner Steve Stricker shot 60 that day. 72-HOLE RECORD: 258, Steve Stricker (2010). 18-HOLE RECORD: 59, Paul Goydos (1st round, 2010). LAST YEAR: DeChambeau birdied four of his final six holes to claim his first PGA TOUR victory, punctuated by a 14-footer on the 72nd hole that eventually left him one shot ahead of Patrick Rodgers. DeChambeau’s final birdie capped a 6-under-par 65 and initially pulled him alongside Rodgers, who soon saw a par putt lip out at No.17. He then flew the green with his approach at No.18 – though he nearly chipped in from 50 feet that would have forced a playoff. Victory came in DeChambeau’s 40th career start and flipped the tables on a rough spring that saw the former NCAA and U.S. Amateur champion miss eight consecutive cuts. He also became the 19th player to make the Deere his first TOUR victory, a list that includes his boyhood idol Payne Stewart. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 4-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. (featured groups), 4-7 p.m. (featured holes). RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 1-7 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).

Click here to read the full article…