Charlie Woods, son of golfing legend Tiger Woods, qualified for his first USGA Tournament on Wednesday. The 15-year-old had the best qualifying score ahead of the U.S. Junior Amateur next month.

“I didn’t play great my first two holes, but I played really good for the last 16,” Woods told reporters. “I just told myself not to make any more bogeys or doubles, and I took advantage of some nice birdie looks when I had them.”

Woods has been in the public eye since his earliest days playing golf. At the 2024 Masters, he served as his father’s swing coach, likely an honorary title but a lofty one for the young man. As the son of one of the sport’s legends, he has remained in the back of fans’ minds for a long time as he makes his way through the amateur levels of the sport. At 15, he seems to be well on his way.

On Wednesday at Eagle Trace Golf Club in Coral Springs, Florida, Woods overcame a rocky start to finish 1-under 71 and qualify for his first Junior Amateur. Tiger Woods qualified for his first Junior Amateur at 14 and went on to win the event three times before turning 19. 

The U.S. Junior Amateur has produced countless PGA players since it was first held in 1948. Tiger Woods stands out as the only three-time winner, but Jordan Spieth won the event twice in 2009 and 2011, while Scottie Scheffler won in 2013.

For Charlie, winning an event of this caliber should not necessarily be the expectation, though he has stated that that is his intention. His USGA debut will likely represent another step on a path that many fans hope will lead to a highly successful career in the sport. These are very early days yet.

Dianne Durham was a pioneer in the sport of gymnastics, with her legacy further cemented by a recent announcement from USA Gymnastics that she will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year.

Durham sadly passed away at the age of 52, but the accomplishments she achieved during her life will be inscribed into history books long after her death. 38 years ago, Durham became the first Black gymnast to win the senior national championship, a hallmark of her career. However, Durham’s success extends well beyond this singular feat. Durham was crowned a junior national champion in both 1981 and 1982. Just one year later at the age of 15, Durham then won the senior national title. While she was unable to compete at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles due to a series of unfortunate injuries, Durham continued to greatly impact the sport of gymnastics. Serving as a coach, gym owner and judge of gymnastics in Chicago, Durham continued to create a legacy of advancing the sport in terms of both its popularity and its quality of competition.

Durham will be inducted into the Hall of Fame with four other individuals, as well as the 2004 men’s Olympic squad. She will be remembered as a figure whose uniquely vibrant and technically magnificent routines were unparalleled during her time as a competitor, and whose career and life serve as inspirations to push gymnastics to be a more skilled and more diverse sport.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced many sports to change around their schedule, and the PGA Tour is no exception to that. The PGA Tour suspended its season following the first round of the Players Championship back in March. One of the biggest events on the golf calendar every year is the U.S. Open. The tournament considered ‘America’s Championship’ is now making drastic changes, aside from moving from June to September.

On Monday, the United States Golf Association (USGA) announced that they will be canceling all qualifying events for the U.S. Open. The USGA said that given the COVID-19 situation it would be too difficult to have qualifying events.

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One of the things that makes the U.S. Open great is that anyone can qualify for the championship, regardless if they are a professional or an amatuer, with more than half the field typically being players who qualify in the week leading up to the tournament. 

Last night on Golf Central, John Bodenhamer of the USGA spoke about the decision. “As you can imagine, this was an incredibly difficult decision, as qualifying is a cornerstone of the USGA championships,” he said. “We take great pride in the fact that many thousands typically enter to pursue their dream of qualifying for the U.S. Open, and we deeply regret that they will not have that opportunity this year. But this structure provides the best path forward for us to conduct the U.S. Open in 2020.”

One notable player who has yet to qualify for this year’s championship is six-time runner up Phil Mickelson, who needs to win the U.S. Open to complete the career grand slam

The U.S. Open will be played this year at Winged Foot in Westchester County, New York starting September 14.

With the multiple new rules of golf implemented in 2019, the USGA has recently been the subject of many negative comments made by players. The many rules changes that came in 2019 were supposed to alter the game in a way that conformed and catered more toward the average golfer and simplified the game. However, there have been some unforeseen negative effects.

As a child, I grew up learning the rules of golf and became more knowledgeable as I played in numerous junior tournaments and high school tournaments. Just as I learned the rules of golf, so did my competitors. The rules of golf, at first glance to the average person, may seem relatively simple; however, in a game where every stroke is valuable, things can become quite complicated. Thus, it can take years for a player to develop a strong understanding of the rules. However, even after years of experience, players tend to make a mistake from time to time that may or may not cost the player additional penalty strokes. Thus, this is a big deal to competitors and stresses the importance of knowing the rules.

Just as any junior or collegiate golfer does, professional golfers on the PGA Tour make mistakes as well, just not as often. However, with several new rule changes, it has proven to be difficult for professional players in particular to remember all of the new rules. For example, on Feb. 28 during the first round of the 2019 Honda Classic, Justin Thomas struck his 9-iron against a tree on the 10th hole and was displeased when he realized that he could not replace the club due to a 2019 rule change. As a result, Thomas had to finish the rest of the round without a 9-iron. Furthermore, in the same tournament, professional Alex Cejka was using a yardage book from previous years with green diagrams to read a putt. A competitor noticed his yardage book had diagrams that were larger than what the new rules allowed for, notified an official and Cejka made history as the first player to ever be disqualified from a tournament for violating a new rule that limited green reading materials. Even more popularly, at the 2019 WGC-Mexico Championship on Feb. 22, Rickie Fowler was found in violation of the new rules and was issued a one-stroke penalty after dropping his ball back into play from shoulder height, rather than from knee height.

30 SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2018 – TRIBUTE SLIDESHOW 

It is clear that the new rules of golf have caused a number of problems for competitive golfers. As a current collegiate golfer, I have felt the negative effects of the new rules myself and have incurred my fair share of penalty strokes as a result. However, I can see both sides of the argument for the players and the USGA. I can understand the USGA trying to simplify the game, but I do not feel it was done with the best approach. As for the players, I absolutely agree with their comments expressing their dislike for the new rules, as the radical changes and addition of nearly nine new rules is a bit much for players to handle at one time. I believe it will be interesting to see what new rule violations occur in the weeks to come on the PGA Tour.

American Brittany Lang captured her first major title at the US. Women’s Open at CordeValle Gulf Club in San Martin, California on Sunday in a play-off with Anna Nordqvist after the Swede was handed a two-stroke penalty.

Brittany Lang Wins U.S. Women’s Open After Penalty On Anna Nordqvist

Nordqvist was penalized for touching sand in a bunker with her club on the second hole of a three-hole aggregate play-off with Lang.

USGA officials informed Lang, 30, of the penalty before her third to the last green, but Nordqvist didn’t find out until after her approach.

“I wish the USGA would have told me a bit earlier,” said the 29-year-old Swede afterwards. “They approached me after I already hit my third shot into 18, then kind of ran up to Brittany to tell her that I got penalized.”

Nordqvist then added that she wasn’t sure if knowing earlier would have changed the outcome, but that it would have definitely changed her aggressiveness into the 18th hole.

The penalty was given with the scores level, and was only picked up after television replays showed the Solheim Cup player had moved sand as she went to hit the ball.

Official rules mandate a player ‘grounding a club’ in a bunker will incur a two-shot penalty because they are deemed to have been testing the conditions.

Lang made par on the final hole with Nordqvist three-putting the last green to make a bogey and lose by three strokes. The Richmond, Virginia native expressed her unhappiness with Nordqvist’s penalty, despite her victory.

“You never want to win with a penalty or something like that happen, especially to Anna, who is a friend of mine and a great player and a classy girl,” Lang said. “But it’s unfortunate. It’s part of the game and it happened that way.”

This marked the second USGA-run major to be dominated by a controversial ruling in just three weeks, after Dustin Johnson played the majority of his final round of the US Open at Oakmont not knowing whether he would be penalized or not because his ball moved as he addressed it on the fifth green.

Nordqvist had forced a play-off with a five-under final round of 67, with Lang’s one-under-par 71 leaving both women on six-under for the tournament.

Lang, who was addressed as Bethany by USGA president Diana Murphy at the trophy presentation, said: “I’m thankful they told me before my wedge shot so I could take a little bit more club.

“They should tell you as soon as they know. I really don’t think today was that big of a deal. Anna happened to hit her third shot. They have to go look and check these things. It’s not that easy.”

Lang, who turned professional in 2005, added that she apologized to Nordqvist after the final round.

To make matters worse, the awards ceremony were then rocked by a fiasco of their own, as Murphy incorrectly called Lang ‘Bethany’ instead of ‘Brittany’ several times. Murphy later apologized in a statement, saying: “I have expressed my regret to Brittany personally and explained that in the heat of the moment, I became nervous and made these mistakes.”

World No. 1 Lydia Ko of New Zealand, who was seeking her third major title, shot a three-over 75 to finish in a tie for third on four-under. The 19-year-old sensation made a double bogey and two bogeys in the middle of her round as she went from leading after eight holes to two behind Lang and Nordqvist.

Lang finished as the runner up in the U.S. Women’s Open as an amateur eleven years ago.