Golf

America’s Brandt Snedeker carded the 10th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history with an opening 59 in the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina.

He’s what you might call the quiet man of Scottish golf. As an amateur, Craig Howie went about his business effectively but almost always under the radar. It’s been the same in his first season as a professional.

Sergio Garcia will need a top-20 finish in the Wyndham Championship to keep his streak of qualifying for the FedEx Cup play-offs alive.

“My name is Lawrie, Paul Lawrie”. No, the Aberdonian isn’t fancying himself as rival to Idris Elba to take over from Daniel Craig as the next James Bond. It does seem appropriate, though, given that his latest venture in the golfing world is as an agent.

Niall Horan, the One Direction band member, has handed the beleaguered Ladies European Tour a much-needed boost for next season by being behind a new Northern Ireland Ladies Open.

United States captain Jim Furyk will select another vice-captain if, or more realistically when, he names a “priceless” Tiger Woods as one of his Ryder Cup wild cards.

I’m almost embarrassed to admit it but feel I have to: I didn’t see a single shot hit in the US PGA Championship, the event’s 100th staging, at Bellerive Country Club in St Louis. And, by the sounds of things, I wasn’t alone.

It certainly wasn’t the highlight of a packed programme of top-class summer golf in Scotland but, at the same time, the inaugural European Team Championships was a lot better than many people, this correspondent included, expected.

On-form Euan McIntosh has been left out of Scotland’s three-man side for next month’s World Amateur Team Championships at Carton House, near Dublin.

Brooks Koepka held off the challenges of a resurgent Tiger Woods and Adam Scott to win his second major of the season at the US PGA Championship.

So much for being the Great Britain “underdogs”. Michele Thomson and Megan MacLaren walked away with two medals – one silver and one bronze – from the inaugural European Golf Team Championships at Gleneagles. Add in picking up £31,285 each for those two successes and it was a week to remember for the personable pair.

Both Great Britain women teams suffered semi-final defeats in the inaugural European Golf Championships at soggy Gleneagles this morning.

Paul Lawrie is hoping this week’s ground-breaking mixed professional golf event at Gleneagles is a taste of things to come in the European game.

They say you never remember who finishes second, but the Great Britain quartet of Michelle Thomson, Meghan MacLaren, Liam Johnston and Connor Syme provided an example why that it is not necessarily the case in the inaugural European Golf Team Championships at Gleneagles.

It was exactly the type of moment Michele Thomson had dreamt of when she decided to give up pounding the beat as a policewoman in Aberdeen to have a second crack as a professional golfer.
“You don’t get many chances
to win a gold medal in the police force,” said the 30-year-old, sporting a huge smile.

Scotland yesterday won the Ladies Home Internationals for the first time since 2010, beating hosts Ireland 6-3 
after a thrilling conclusion at Ballybunion.

A change of shirt paid dividends for Tiger Woods as he recovered from a nightmare start to his opening round of the 100th US PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club.

It was the sort of nerveless display Catriona Matthew, the European captain, will be looking for from her players in the Solheim Cup at the same venue in just over a year’s time. Three crucial putts at the last three holes all confidently knocked in. Matthew has made a habit of rising to the challenge in her glittering career and did so again on the second day of the inaugural European Team Championships at Gleneagles.