Nike golfers are playing really well now just weeks after company announces they won't be making clubs anymore

On August 3, 2016, Nike announced that they would no longer be making clubs, balls, and bags due to, basically, not enough sales. Nike will still continue producing apparel. This came as a huge surprise to the golf world, especially because two of golf's biggest names, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, are Nike players. As a result, it will be fascinating to see where all the Nike staff players land.

Despite the disappointing news, several "swoosh" players have been playing really well. American Paul Peterson was an Asian Tour player who had conditional status on the European Tour when he won the D+D REAL Czech Masters last week. Englishman Tom Lewis just shot 62 (-9) yesterday in the first round of the Made in Denmark tournament and it could have been a lot lower had he parred his way in after he was -12 thru 13 holes. Scotsman Scott Jamieson has had a pretty poor season by his standards but shot a 67 (-6) yesterday.

As far as where certain Nike players will land, it is difficult to predict. Some might stay with Nike clubs and balls for another year or two then sign with a new company. Of course, some players might stick with Nike apparel but play a full set of another company's irons or a mixture of irons from different companies. It will surely be interesting.

Open Championship: News & Notes

The 145th Open Championship begins Thursday at Royal Troon, and there are a few talking points to discuss:

1. 1999 Open Champion Paul Lawrie is back with Wilson Staff after playing Titleist clubs for the past year and a half. Lawrie has played the majority of his career with the equipment company that has won more majors than any other iron brand. The 47-year-old Scotsman has struggled this season with his putting, which has lead to a lack of confidence with all other facets of his game. Lawrie has also battled a four-year-old foot injury that will require surgery later this year. Hopefully a change of clubs will give him some optimism for this week.

2. Colin Montgomerie will hit the first tee shot in what is going to be a special moment for the 53-year-old Scot. "Monty" is a member of Royal Troon and learned how to play the game there. His father was the club secretary for 20 years and he still considers it his home course. The current PGA Tour Champions player qualified through one of four 36-hole qualifiers two weeks ago and it would not surprise me at all to see him in contention over the weekend.

3. American Brooks Koepka withdrew from the championship, citing a wrist injury. Koepka was a European Tour member the previous two seasons but gave it up this season. He has a lot of talent and should be a major winner very soon.

4. Look out for Padraig Harrington this week. The two-time Open Champion has played well the past two weeks, finishing T30 in the French Open and T21 in the Scottish Open, respectively. The 44-year-old Irishman seems to always play well on links courses and I really like his chances this week.

Challenge Tour implements interesting strategy to include amateurs in rankings

With the Challenge Tour beginning its 2016 season in Kenya this week, it is important to discuss the interesting new strategy that the Tour is implementing. Amateurs will be included in the season-long rankings list, which will now be converted to a points list, with each euro earned equating to one point. In previous years, the Road to Oman was a money list and amateurs were not able to be included because they are not able to earn prize money. With this new initiative, amateurs who play a minimum of four tournaments and pay a membership fee will be given a ranking.

The creation of this new initiative is designed to make the transition from the amateur ranks to the professional game easier. Many times, players will play well in amateur events or even a select few pro events, but they struggle to make it onto a professional tour once they turn pro due to finances, performance, etc. Scotland, in particular, has struggled with its amateurs making the transition to the pro game. With this new strategy, the requirement to start over from scratch once they join the paid ranks is over.

This strategy, no doubt, has another objective: to keep European amateurs in the European professional golf system. While the number of European amateurs attending college in the United States will always stay consistent, this new initiative gives those players more incentive to play Challenge Tour events during their summers and offers them a place to play once they graduate instead of turning pro immediately. While there will always be some European amateurs who choose to stay in the United States after graduation and ply their trade on mini tours, this new strategy gives them a viable alternative and another option to consider.

I feel that this initiative will be extremely popular among amateurs and the Challenge Tour will be reaping the rewards almost immediately.

The European Tour returns to Perth

ISPS Handa Perth International (Perth, Australia)
February 25-28, 2016
Prize fund: A$1,750,000 (€1,147,592/US$1,264,707)
Course: Lake Karrinyup GC
Yardage: 7,143 yards

The ISPS Handa Perth International returns after a one-year absence. The event, now tri-sanctioned with the Asian Tour and the PGA Tour of Australasia, will be played at Lake Karrinyup GC for the fourth year running. This is a classic course, with plenty of trees and bunkers, not to mention the kangaroos who frequent the course. The wind usually is a factor in this part of western Australia.

The winning scores have been better than average, with Thorbjorn Olesen winning at -17 in 2014, Jin Jeong winning at -10 in the preceding year and Bo Van Pelt winning the first edition at -16. This year's field is headlined by Louis Oosthuizen, ranked 21st in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR). Other notable players include Perth's own Brett Rumford, last week's winner Marcus Fraser, Victor Dubuisson, Olesen, Stephen Gallacher, and impressive rookies Paul Dunne and Ricardo Gouveia.

It's nice to see two Australian tournaments (Australian PGA Championship took place in December) on the European Tour schedule. If there can be some kind of partnership between the two tours where a few more tournaments could be co-sanctioned, that would be great. The courses, fans, and weather are fantastic but the country presents a similar option to South Africa. The Rainbow Nation stages five tournaments co-sanctioned with the European Tour. Maybe one South African tournament could be taken off the schedule in favor of the addition of one Australian event.

MENA Tour is growing at a rapid pace

Picture courtesy of SunshineTour.com

Although this topic does not pertain to the European Tour, it is something I have wanted to write about. The Middle East North Africa (MENA) Tour was created in 2011 and has grown from four events in its inaugural year to 11 last season to 20 this season. Before this season, all the events were staged in the Middle East and North Africa. This season, showing the rapid growth of the Tour, events will also be staged in Spain and South Africa. The Tour staged Qualifying School earlier this week which gives them the opportunity to become eligible for Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points. Former European Tour players Andrew Marshall, Jamie Elson, and Peter Gustafsson, along with Challenge Tour player Duncan Stewart, were among those to get playing rights for this season.

The Tour will boast more than $1 million in prize funds over the course of the season. In an agreement signed with the Sunshine Tour, the top-five finishers on the MENA Tour Order of Merit will have full playing privileges on the Southern Africa-based Tour in the following season. Players ranked 6-15 on the MENA Tour Order of Merit will be exempt into the stage of Sunshine Tour Qualifying School. The partnership is a welcomed move forward for MENA Tour players. In past seasons, they were granted exemptions into Asian Tour Q-School. Spots in the European Tour's Omega Dubai Desert Classic and Trophee Hassan II have been available to top finishers on the MENA Tour money list in the past few seasons. This season, the Maybank Championship Malaysia gave 2015 Order of Merit winner Thriston Lawrence a spot in the event. Lawrence won $27,679 over the course of the season. At 19 years old, the South African is a definitely a player to watch. He made the cut in this week's European Tour event in Malaysia and he will also get a start in the Trophee Hassan II event in Morocco in May.

Darren Clarke, the 2016 European Ryder Cup team captain, is a patron of the MENA Tour and he has high hopes for the Tour in the future. "A lot of fresh talent coming up through the ranks over the last few years, but the opportunities to play are limited," the 2011 Open champion said during a press conference in Dubai two weeks ago. "This exchange program with the South African tour will provide another platform for young professionals to develop and showcase their skills on a global basis. This MENA Golf Tour is the fastest growing professional golf tour in the world. With the help of the Sunshine Tour and, indeed, all the events that we have had already, I think this is going to go in one direction."

Although the Tour is made up of primarily Europeans, there are a growing number of Middle Eastern players who will be making significant progress in the coming years. The future is bright for this rapidly expanding Tour. The first event on the MENA Tour will be later next month in Morocco.

Follow the MENA Tour at https://menagolftour.com/home.

South Africa is producing young and hungry players who are eager to prove themselves on bigger stages

So far on the 2015-16 season on the European Tour, we have seen the emergence of two young South Africans who look ready to assert themselves in the world of golf. 22-year-old Brandon Stone won the BMW SA Open and 21-year-old Haydn Porteous won the Joburg Open. The two are close friends and it was Porteous who beat Stone in a playoff in the Barclays Kenya Open in 2015 on the Challenge Tour. The victory enabled Porteous to become a Challenge Tour member en route to finishing 20th on the Race to Oman rankings. While he fell just short of the the all-important top-15 who got their European Tour cards, Stone finished one spot inside the qualifying mark and has hit the ground running in his maiden main Tour season. He finished T18 in the Alfred Dunhill Championship before he won his national open. He followed that potentially life-changing victory with a T28 at the Joburg Open.

Both wins carry European Tour exemptions until the end of the 2016-17 season. This is massive for both players in the early stage of their careers. As a result, they aren't under any serious pressure if they desire to make swing, equipment, or coaching changes. Stone and Porteous lead a pack of up-and-coming South Africans who have lots of potential.

Zander Lombard is 21 years old and has had quite the start to this season. In three events, he's finished 2nd, T12, and 4th. With his earnings already he would finish 126th on last year's Race to Dubai. I would expect him to get some sponsor's invitations to future events and would not be surprised if he earns the additional approximately €90,000 that would be needed to earn a card for next season.

Dylan Frittelli has been on the radar for many years, going back to his days at the University of Texas when he holed the winning putt in the 2012 NCAA Championship. He hasn't had the start to his career like he would have hoped, but 2016 could put an end to that. In four events so far this season, he's earned €141,023, mostly courtesy of a playoff loss to Nathan Holman in the Australian PGA Championship. Like Lombard, Frittelli is in a great position to earn full playing rights for next season on the European Tour. He probably needs to earn another €110,000. I would expect him to have five or six more opportunities this season.

19-year-old Thriston Lawrence is player who has taken a different route than most South Africans. He spent most of 2015 on the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Tour, where he was the Order of Merit champion. Courtesy of winning the money list on that Tour, he earned a place in this week's Omega Dubai Desert Classic, where he missed the cut by one shot. He also played five events on the Challenge Tour, but only made one cut. He is managed by ISM (International Sports Management), headed by Chubby Chandler. Lawrence won the 2014 South African Amateur Championship as a 16-year-old. This season, he will get starts on the European, Challenge, Sunshine, and MENA Tours as he looks to make more progress in the professional game.

Web.com top-25 graduates vs. Challenge Tour top-15 graduates

I got to thinking about the Web.com and Challenge Tour graduates and what Tour's graduates are more successful the following season on the main tour. For the purpose of this blog post, I am only counting the top-25 graduates from the regular season money list on the Web.com and the top-15 graduates from the Challenge Tour. I will be using the 2014-15 season as my sample for the 2014 graduates.

2014 Web.com Tour Top-25 Graduates (2014-15 PGA Tour season money list rank)

1. Carlos Ortiz (106)

2. Andrew Putnam (178)

3. Zach Sucher (212)

4. Adam Hadwin (110)

5. Justin Thomas (37)

6. Alex Cejka (79)

7. Blayne Barber (122)

8. Tony Finau (40)

9. Jason Gore (92)

10. Steven Alker (185)

11. Andres Gonzales (111)

12. Jon Curran (95)

13. Derek Fathauer (158)

14. Cameron Percy (151)

15. Daniel Berger (25)

16. Jonathan Randolph (182)

17. Max Homa (171)

18. Mark Hubbard (176)

19. Steve Wheatcroft (105)

20. Ryan Armour (199)

21. Byron Smith (198)

22. Bill Lunde (204)

23. Fabian Gomez (59)

24. Roger Sloan (203)

25. Kyle Reifers (84)

*top-125 on PGA Tour money list retain their cards for the following season

2014 Challenge Tour Top-15 Graduates (2014-15 European Tour Race to Dubai ranking)

1. Andrew Johnston (70)

2. Benjamin Hebert (65)

3. Byeong-hun An (7)

4. Moritz Lampert (151)

5. Mark Tullo (176)

6. Sam Hutsby (190)

7. Jordi Garcia Pinto (173)

8. Jason Palmer (191)

9. Michael Lorenzo-Vera (78)

10. Oliver Farr (156)

11. Edouard Espana (94)

12. Florian Fritsch (120)

13. Jerome Lando-Casanova (172)

14. Jake Roos (143)

15. Jason Barnes (175)

*top-110 on Race to Dubai retain their cards for the following season

If I compare the number of graduates who retained their cards for the following season, the Web.com Tour had 13 (52%) and the Challenge Tour had 5 (33%). There may be a few reasons for this. First, the Web.com Tour had ten more graduates than its European counterpart. Second, the European Tour has 15 fewer players than the PGA Tour who retain their cards every season. Third, the number of PGA Tour rookies who graduated from the 2014 Web.com Tour numbered 11 (44%) versus 8 (53%) from the Challenge Tour. Lastly, Challenge Tour players are much younger than on its American equivalent. A lot of that has to do with the smaller prize funds, making it harder for players to compete on that tour for multiple years if they haven't yet made it to the European Tour. The financial situation of Challenge Tour players is more of an issue than it is for Web.com players. 

The 2014 Web.com graduate list included Justin Thomas and Daniel Berger (PGA Tour Rookie of the Year), who many project to have stellar careers. The one player from the 2014 Challenge Tour list that is in the same conversation as the two Americans is An. The 24-year-old South Korean won the BMW PGA Championship en route to winning the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award. An is going to be a player who steps up his game in the bigger events.

While the Challenge Tour produces younger players than the Web.com Tour, its graduates don't experience as much success when they reach the European Tour. With the announcement of the 2016 Challenge Tour schedule and an increase from 24 to 27 tournaments, let's hope that Europe's second-tier Tour can continue to produce stars of the future and have a healthy competition with the Web.com Tour.

Why Keith Pelley is going to bring the European Tour back to prominence

Keith Pelley has been at the helm of the European Tour as Chief Executive since August 2015. His first four months on the job has been anything but unproductive. The moves he's made include removing the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational from this year's schedule (because it would clash with the Alstom Open de France) and decreasing the number of tournaments for members from 13 to 5 (excluding majors and WGCs/team events). 

The 51-year-old Canadian took over from George O'Grady, who had been at the helm since 2005. Pelley brings a different outlook to the job, someone who hadn't had any experience in the golf world. He brings more of a business mindset, which is something that the Tour needed. His enthusiasm and drive has been easily noticeable. His relationship with the Tour members will only develop over time, but he's gotten off to a good start in that respect. From an outsider's view, the players have been more open towards Pelley than they were towards O'Grady.  They're confident that he's the man to get the Tour nearer to the PGA Tour. 

Following this paragraph is an excerpt from a TSN interview with Pelley in December 2015 discussing his goals for the Tour going forward, specifically with increasing prize funds. Pelley has lofty goals for the Tour and it's hard not to believe that he'll accomplish those goals. Just based on his career history with media and television in Canada, he views his new job with the Tour as a challenge that he will overcome. A crucial thing is that the Tour seems to be 100% behind him and wants to see his goals come to fruition. I will be very interested to see if and when these proposals come into play. 

Q. To get the players back you’ll need to increase purses. How difficult will that be to do?

A. We have a robust plan in place. We need to provide a viable alternative for our members. We need to be too important to be dismissed by our sponsors, by our stakeholders or by our players, and to do that we are going to have to increase our prize purses. That won’t happen overnight and it’s not necessarily going to happen in 2016. But you’ll start to see it happen in 2017 and come to fruition in 2018. Within three to five years we will definitely have a viable alternative, so that a 17-, 18-, 19-year-old doesn’t necessarily need to go to America to be able to make as much money as he possibly can.

Source: http://www.tsn.ca/pelley-on-his-plans-for-the-european-tour-1.413486