Simpson flagged after accidental ball movement

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SHANGHAI, China — The PGA TOUR, the world’s premier membership organization for touring professional golfers, is once again partnering with the China Golf Association and is announcing the TOUR will operate PGA TOUR-China in 2018. The PGA TOUR-China schedule will consist of a full schedule of tournaments and will begin in spring 2018, with each event offering a prize purse of at least 1.5 million RMB, up from 1.2 million RMB in 2016. As is the case with all three PGA TOUR international developmental Tours, PGA TOUR-China will provide players a path to the PGA TOUR through the Web.com Tour, with the top-five money-winners at season’s end earning 2019 Web.com Tour membership. In addition, there will be at least 15 additional players who will have access to the latter stages of the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament. This past season, China’s Zecheng Dou and Xinjun Zhang became the first players from China to earn PGA TOUR cards after their strong 2017 Web.com Tour seasons, where Dou finished 17th on the money list and Zhang placed 21st. Australia’s Brett Drewitt PGA TOUR membership in 2016-17. “The essence of PGA TOUR-China is what the PGA TOUR offers, namely a world-class brand, global credibility and Web.com Tour access that gives players a path to the PGA TOUR. In addition, we’ve seen several players who have played in China move to the Web.com Tour and then advance to the PGA TOUR. It was thrilling to watch Zecheng Dou and Xinjun Zhang both realize their dreams by following this path all the way to the highest level of golf, the PGA TOUR,â€� said Ty Votaw, Executive Vice President of PGA TOUR Global Business Affairs. “We are excited to partner with the CGA in this endeavor going forward and appreciate the CGA and its cooperation, assistance and collaboration. We are playing a strong tournament schedule, with significant purse sizes. This will allow us to maintain in China what we’re already doing in Latin America and Canada, running PGA TOUR-quality Tours that allow players to continue improving their games.â€� Prior to the start of the 2018 regular season, PGA TOUR-China will hold Qualifying Tournaments at to-be-determined sites, for players from Mainland China and players from the rest of the world, respectively. As golf continues to grow, PGA TOUR-China expects to attract a truly international membership, with the majority of the players coming from Asia. “We believe PGA TOUR-China will weekly present outstanding competition played at strong golf courses throughout the country. Our 2018 season ensures that we’ll continue providing exceptional playing opportunities for our players,â€� said Greg Gilligan, Managing Director of PGA TOUR Greater China. “Sport is undergoing reform in China, and we think it is an important and positive reform. We are very pleased to be working in concert with the China Golf Association and are happy we are in a position to offer playing opportunities on a high-level Tour played to PGA TOUR standards, the same quality players and fans have come to expect. “We strongly feel PGA TOUR-China is good for golf in China and for Chinese and international players,â€� Gilligan continued. “We are very happy to again operate in 2018 and beyond.â€� Gilligan emphasized the Tour’s long-standing relationship with the China Golf Association and its contributions to the sport. “We have enjoyed our long-standing partnership with the CGA and are especially thrilled that it will continue as both entities seek to grow the game in China.â€� “We are delighted to cooperate with the PGA TOUR again on this new tour. It not only provides a broader platform for Chinese players but also enriches the existing men’s professional golf tournaments in China,â€� said Xiaoning Zhang, President of the CGA. The PGA TOUR China Series began in 2014, five months after then-PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem and the CGA’s Zhang announced its formation at a press conference at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions. It immediately added credibility in a country where golf is still a relatively young sport. In the three years of its existence, PGA TOUR China Series has sent players to the Web.com Tour and subsequently the PGA TOUR, with players also winning on the European Tour and performing well on the Asian Tour. PGA TOUR China Series immediately established itself as a high-quality golf tour, a place where up-and-coming players could hone and display their talent.    “PGA TOUR-China will certainly raise the competitive bar in China, giving Chinese players the opportunity to gauge their games against international players. The sport has already identified numerous outstanding golfers from China and throughout Asia and Australasia and facilitated their move to the global stage. Haotong Li, Zecheng Dou and Xinjun Zhang are perfect examples of that, as are Jeunghun Wang of South Korea and Brett Drewitt of Australia,â€� added Votaw. “We know there are more young players out there, and our anticipation is that PGA TOUR-China will create opportunities for these players to realize their dream of one day playing on the PGA TOUR.â€� In 2014, then 19-year-old Li won three tournaments in China and advanced to the Web.com Tour and held membership on that circuit before moving to the European Tour after winning the 2016 Volvo China Open. He represented China at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil. Earlier this year, Li had the highest PGA TOUR finish by an alum when he was third at The Open Championship in England. Following in Li’s footsteps has been Dou, another 19-year-old from China, essentially doing the same thing. Dou, from Henan, won four 2016 PGA TOUR-China tournaments, earned Player of the Year honors moved on to the Web.com Tour. In July, at the Digital Ally Open outside Kansas City, 20-year-old Dou became the first player from China roots to win on the Web.com Tour. His three-stroke victory was worth enough money that secured him membership on the 2017-18 PGA TOUR. By virtue of his Web.com Tour money-list finish, Zhang also secured his PGA TOUR membership and both players played in the PGA TOUR’s season-opening event, the Safeway Open in California.  

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The birdie putt on the seventh hole Sunday was from 24 1/2 feet. When it dropped, Si Woo Kim knew he stood alone atop THE PLAYERS Championship leaderboard. Then something unexpected happened in the pressure-packed environment on one of golf’s most challenging tests. Kim got comfortable. Wait, let’s amend that. Kim – the youngest active player on the PGA TOUR — got comfortable. Comfort is not supposed to be an option, not here, not at TPC Sawgrass, and especially not for 21-year-olds with limited experience in these matters. THE PLAYERS Stadium Course is meant to rattle your cages, test your mettle, fray your nerves. But on a Sunday afternoon when the heat is usually ramped up, Kim became the coolest player on the course. Calm. In control. “Once he got the lead,” said his caddie, Mark Carens, “that was the least pressure he felt.” So for his final 11 holes, while his chasers struggled to keep pace and make him sweat, the Korean-born Kim — who now lives in Dallas, Texas – offered up a steady ship, deftly relying on his scrambling ability to bail him out of any precarious situations. He never stumbled, eventually producing a bogey-free 69 and a 10-under total – good enough to make him the youngest champ in PLAYERS history. The statistic that most reflects his winning round was easy to find: Kim missed 10 greens in regulation, and successfully scrambled each time. “If you are on your game and playing well, that’s the things you do,” said Louis Oosthuizen, his playing partner Sunday. “You up-and-down when you’re in trouble. You don’t give shots away. If you can do that around this golf course, you can outscore everyone. “And he played like someone that was doing it for five or six years, like it was just another round of golf. … Never once did he look flustered.” That’s surprising, given his age. But then, he seems to be a player who’s ahead of the curve. Kim gained his TOUR card through q-school at age 17 1/2 – and then had to wait a half-year before reaching the mandatory age of 18 to play on TOUR. After spending two years on the Web.com Tour, he regained his TOUR card for the 2015-16 season and made a big early impression on his caddie. In his fourth start, he opened with consecutive bogey-free rounds (sound familiar?) en route to a tie for 17th. “It was unbelievable,” Carens said. Then at the Wyndham Championship last August, in just his 23rd start on TOUR, Kim shot a second-round 60 – he missed a 50-foot putt on his final hole for a 59. He eventually won that week in convincing fashion, by five strokes in a final round that seemed eerily familiar to how THE PLAYERS unfolded. Once Kim snagged the lead, he never let it go. He credits the week at Sedgefield with helping him deal with Sunday’s pressure. He said knowing he had a two-year exemption on TOUR freed him up to be more aggressive. (Of course, by winning THE PLAYERS, he now has another five years.) “Because of that experience,” Kim said through his interpreter, “I could be relieved and I could be very stable. I just focused on myself and I didn’t try to think about others’ scores.” There wasn’t much to think about, honestly. Oosthuizen and Ian Poulter supplied the most pressure, both making their biggest moves at the par-5 11th. Oosthuizen eagled the hole to go to 7 under; Poulter birdied it to reach 9 under. But Poulter quickly gave the stroke back on the next hole and Oosthuizen stumbled with consecutive bogeys. Both had the edge on Kim in experience, especially in dealing with intense situations – Oosthuizen’s an Open champ, Poulter’s a Ryder Cup star. But they could not match Kim on Sunday at TPC Sawgrass, instead finishing tied for second. “You have to take your hat off,” Poulter said. “You have to respect some good golf, and that’s exactly what he’s done.” The performance this week speaks for itself, but in some ways, Kim’s win was most unexpected. Consider his Strokes Gained numbers. Ranked 205th on TOUR Off-the-Tee. Ranked 203rd in Approach-the-Green. Ranked 183rd in Putting. Ranked 204th Tee-to-Green. Ranked 203rd Total. His only solid category was Around-the-Green, in which he ranked 41st. The Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee called it “perhaps the greatest upset you’ll ever see” going strictly on statistics. Yet, added Chamblee, TPC Sawgrass “puts everybody on edge, pretty much turns it into a scrambling contest – and he won it.” But perhaps we shouldn’t view this win as unexpected. Perhaps Kim is the next great Korean star, following in the footsteps of another PLAYERS champ, K.J. Choi. After all, at age 21, he’s done something that not even his fellow 20-somethings Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy can claim – winning at TPC Sawgrass. Unlike Spieth and McIlroy, though, Kim must one day put his golf career on hold to fulfill the mandatory military service for his country. Considering how he played this week, how bright his future is now, it will be a shame to see him go. Hopefully it won’t happen soon. Plenty of opportunities – big opportunities – await, including the Presidents Cup later this year. The International Team appears to have a new star to lean on. “He’s still young and he was just so calm today,” said Oosthuizen, an International fixture. “He’s going to be great to have as a teammate.” Having just spent 18 holes with the young man, it’s evident Oosthuizen would rather be playing with him than against him.

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