Tiger Woods said conversations about being the next U.S. Ryder Cup captain will have to wait
Captain Tiger Woods?
Maybe. Stay tuned.
Woods said during a news conference on Tuesday at he Augusta National Golf Club that he will discuss the Ryder Cup captaincy for 2025 at Bethpage State park in New York with PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh after this week's Masters Tournament.
The PGA normally picks the U.S. captain much sooner. Zach Johnson of St. Simons Island, Ga., was announced in Feb. 2022 for the 2023 Cup and Steve Stricker was named the 2021 captain in February of 2019 — although the matches were delayed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re still talking about it,” Woods said. “It’s something that [Waugh] and I are going to sit back and talk about it after [the Masters]. I said I’m going to be busy for a couple weeks, so let me focus on getting through this week and hopefully getting another jacket and then we can sit back and talk about it next week.”
European captain Luke Donald, who led a 16.5-11.5 victory over the U.S. last year in Rome, has already been announced as the captain for 2025.
Philip Knowles makes progress
University of North Florida graduate Philip Knowles posted his best finish as a professional last week with a tie for third in the Korn Ferry Tour's Club Car Championship, at the Landings in Savannah.
He was tied for the 54-hole lead and shot 71 in the final round (with birdies on three of his last four holes) to finish two shots out of a playoff involving winner Steven Fisk and Rob Oppenheim. Knowles shot 12-under 276 and tied with Max McGreevy and John Pak.
Knowles is playing on a medical exemption. His previous best finish was a tie for 16th at the Korn Ferry Tour event in Panama earlier this season.
FSU’s Lottie Woad picks Chevron over ACC
Florida State sophomore Lottie Woad, who won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur last week, will pass on the upcoming ACC Championship to accept one of the spoils of her victory: an invitation to four of the five LPGA major championships.
Woad, a native of England, will play in the Chevron Championship April 18-21 at The Club at Carlton Woods near Houston. The LPGA’s first major of the season bumps against the ACC tournament at the Porter’s Neck Country Club in Wilmington, N.C.
She’s got the full backing of her teammates and coach Amy Bond.
“They’re all telling me to go play the Chevron,” Woad said. “It’s a bit stupid to turn down a major It will be a really cool experience.”
Woad plans on joining the team for the NCAA regionals.
Woad beat Bailey Shoemaker by one shot at Augusta when she birdied three of her last four holes. Woad is fourth on the World Amateur Ranking and hasn’t finished outside the top-eight in a college event this season, with one victory.
Nelly Korda, first on the women’s professional world ranking, is going for her fifth consecutive victory at the Chevron. Nancy Lopez was the last player to win five in a row, in 1978.
Bernhard Langer delays final turn at Augusta
Two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer can't play in the Masters this week because of an Achilles tendon injury he sustained in Februray.
That makes his final Masters next year.
“I plan to play next year,” Langer, the 1985 and 1993 Masters winner, said Tuesday at Augusta National. “That’ll be my last.”
But it's more than just Langer's final Masters. He will be the final Master winner from the 1980s to play on a past champions invitation.
Langer made the cut as recently as 2020.
Information from golfweek.com was used in this report.
PGA TOUR
Event: Masters Tournament, Thursday-Sunday, Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Ga.
At stake: $18 million purse in 2023 ($3.24 million to the winner). The PGA Tour also will award 750 FedEx Cup points to the winner if he is a member of the Tour.
Defending champion: Jon Rahm.
TV: ESPN (Thursday-Friday, 3-7:30 p.m.); CBS (Saturday, 3-7 p.m.; Sunday, 2-7 p.m.).
Area players entered: Harris English, Brian Harman, Zach Johnson, Vijay Singh, Cameron Smith.
Notable: Rahm shot 65 in the first round and went to beat three-time champion Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka by four shots. ... Rahm left the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf late last year. In addition to Koepka, the other LIV players in the field are Mickelson, other past champions Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel, Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson; and Joaquin Niemann. ... The only LIV players in the field off their World Golf Ranking and Smith, Koepka and Niemann. ... Also in the field are two-time Players champion and world No. 1-ranked Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay and Max Homa.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Is Bethpage in the cards for Tiger Woods? He said Ryder talk will wait
