Tiger: This is my best shot to win another major

Click here to read the full article…

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Sepp Straka and his twin brother Sam virtually came out of the womb competing against each other. Ask him, and Sam will be quick to point out that he’s the elder of the two – by all of two minutes. “He’s proud of that, too,â€� Sepp said, chuckling. And so, it was on Saturday, after Sepp tied his career low on the PGA TOUR with a 63 that included nine birdies and propelled him into a tie for fifth entering the final round of the Barbasol Championship, that his fraternal twin had to put him in his place. Sepp had barely finished signing his scorecard and the requisite interviews when Sam called to tell him that he’d nipped him by a shot – shooting a 10-under 62 at Kinderlou Forest back home in Valdosta, Georgia that day. “He told me, you played great today, but I beat you by one,â€� Sepp said with a laugh. “… I was like, you’re going to ruin a good day like that for me.â€� Sepp and Sam pushed each other in every sport, growing in Vienna, Austria and later in Valdosta. First, it was soccer, where Sam played striker and Sepp was the goalie. When they were 11, though, after a week-long junior golf camp, their focus changed. “He just kind of decided that we’re going to play more golf from that point on,â€� Sepp recalled. “And then I figured that was the way to go.â€� That the brothers would find their way to golf wasn’t really a big surprise. Their mother Mary had gone to Austria with her then-boyfriend, a golf course designer. The romance didn’t work out, but she stayed and was working in a golf shop when she met Peter Straka, the man she would go on to marry. “Sold him a golf glove in the pro shop and it went from there,â€� Sepp said matter-of-factly. When the boys were 14, they moved with their mom to Valdosta to be closer to Mary’s family. Peter, who is an architect, splits time between Georgia and his native Austria. Sepp, who holds dual citizenship and played on the Austrian national junior golf team, tries to get back at least once a year. While Sepp loves Vienna and misses the food – schnitzel’s his go-to meal – he spent summers when he was a kid in southern Georgia, just outside Moultrie. So, going from Vienna, a cosmopolitan city of 1.8 million, to Valdosta, where the population is just under 60,000, wasn’t as much culture shock as it could have been. Plus, he has no accent – his mother spoke English to the boys and German to her husband. The brothers both played collegiately at Georgia, with Sepp red-shirting one season. They roomed together and when Sam left, he originally went into real estate. But he’s since turned pro and is now preparing for qualifying school for the Korn Ferry Tour, where Sepp cut his competitive teeth. “We talk about golf a good bit,â€� Sepp said. “But he doesn’t need a whole lot of advice from me. He kind of knows what my thoughts are on things. If anything, he gets me, he gives me advice. We talk about about all my rounds, all that. “It’s good now that we can talk about his game, too. So yeah, it’s been nice.â€� Sepp has some work to do of his own. The 26-year-old came to Kentucky ranked 143rd in the FedExCup. Another low round on Sunday in the birdie-fest at the Champion Course at Keene Trace could go a long way toward moving him into the all-important and FedExCup Playoffs-bound top 125 with two weeks remaining in the regular season. “Can’t really think about that,â€� Sepp said. “It’s too much going on to really even figure out where you would be if you did what.  So, the key is really just to keep the pedal down and keep making birdies.â€� Sam would surely tell his little brother the same.

Click here to read the full article…

Golf’s future in the Olympics is expected to extend into 2024, thanks to a recommendation by the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board. In a meeting held Friday at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Executive Board approved the inclusion of all 28 sports that were held at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. That includes golf, which made its return to the Olympics program after a 112-year absence. The recommendation is scheduled to be ratified by all IOC members at the 130th IOC Session held on Sept. 13 in Lima, Peru. That’s also when the host city for the 2024 Summer Games will be announced – either Paris or Los Angeles. The International Golf Federation released a statement Saturday: “The IGF is gratified to learn of the IOC Executive Board’s decision to include golf in its recommendation for the Olympic Games Programme in 2024. We look forward to learning the outcome of the final vote at the IOC Session in September. “We were always confident that golf would deliver exciting men’s and women’s competitions in Rio de Janeiro and even at that, it exceeded our expectations. Now, we are excited to build upon the success from last year as we prepare for the 2020 Games in Tokyo and, hopefully, beyond.â€� Golf had previously been approved for 2020 in Toyko, with the men’s and women’s competition held at Kasumigaseki Country Club. Golf’s return to the Olympics in Rio was considered a success, especially by the players involved. Justin Rose (gold), Henrik Stenson (silver) and Matt Kuchar (bronze) were the medalists in the men’s competition, with Inbee Park (golf), Lydia Ko (silver) and Shanshan Feng (bronze) grabbing podium spots on the women’s side. In a non-traditional golf country, players were pleased to see a significant amount of fans at the new Olympic course designed by architect Gil Hanse and his team. “To look at the support that was out here, to look at the guys that came through, won medals – I think it speaks for itself,â€� Kuchar said after winning bronze. “This event has gone over, I think, fantastically well.â€� The fan support should be larger in Tokyo. According to a 2015 study by the R&A, there are 2,383 golf facilities in Japan, second most in the world next to the United States. Included among the estimated 10 million golfers in the country are Hideki Matsuyama, the fourth-ranked men’s player in the world, and Harukyo Nomura, ranked 18th among all women’s players. Korean golf fans, who made up a big contingent for the women’s event in Rio, should have an even larger presence in Japan, its next-door neighbor. Eight of the current top 14 women’s players in the world are from South Korea. If Los Angeles gets the 2024 Olympics bid, the host venue is expected to be Riviera Country Club, the annual site of the PGA TOUR’s Genesis Open. If Paris gets the bid, the host venue will be Le Golf National, the host course at next year’s Ryder Cup.

Click here to read the full article…