- Golf Channel
McIlroy eyes four playoff starts with caddie Diamond
After contemplating shutting things down for the balance of 2017, Rory McIlroy is in the field this week at The Northern Trust. Speaking to reporters at a media event Tuesday, McIlroy detailed his plans to play in all four playoff events - two of which he won last year - despite a rib injury that has nagged him all season and twice led him to take time off. After a T-22 finish at the PGA Championship, McIlroy lamented his inability to shake the injury and offered up the notion that he might skip the postseason on both the PGA Tour and European Tour in an effort to get healthy for 2018, when he will renew his quest for the final leg of the career Grand Slam. "I have a good bit of time to get healthy and address a few things going forward," McIlroy said at Quail Hollow.
- Devil Ball Golf
Billy Payne will step down as head of Augusta National
Billy Payne, the chairman of Augusta National, has announced he’ll be stepping down from his perch atop the kingdom of green jackets. Payne took over leadership duties at the famed home of the Masters in 2006, following the departure of former chairman Hootie Johnson. It was under Johnson that Augusta National feuded most openly with women’s groups about the club’s all-male policy, and it was under Payne that the club finally relaxed that policy, admitting its first two female members in 2012.
- New York Post
The old club that Henrik Stenson can’t quit
With the world of modern equipment at his disposal, Henrik Stenson pulled the cover off his 8-year-old 3-wood with no embarrassment or hesitation. “I think quite a few [players] would like to hit like I end up,” he told The Post on Tuesday at Glen Oaks Club, where The Northern Trust will start Thursday and kick off the first of the four-tournament FedExCup playoffs. Stenson’s personal whuppin’ stick has become a thing of legend, hitting it so often and with such proficiency that he didn’t even pack a driver in his bag last week while winning the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina to vault him from No. 75 to No. 23 in the playoff rankings. The 41-year-old Swede credits a lot of that to his most reliable weapon, a 2009 Callaway Diablo Octane.
