Golf News Roundup February 10 2015

Rest in Peace Billy Casper and Charlie Sifford. Both were historic figures, largely overlooked in their time.

Congratulations to this weekend’s winners: Jason Day in a playoff at the Farmers Insurance Open and Sei Young Kim at the Pure Silk Bahamas Classic. Anirban Lahiri, a five time winner on the Asian Tour, won for the first time on the European Tour at the Malaysian Open.

The BBC has lost the rights to broadcast the Open Championship to Sky Sports. The BBC has broadcast the Open Championship for sixty years. Sky Sports reportedly offered $22.5 million, a significant bump over the BBC’s $10 million. I hope they know what they’re doing. The pursuit of the almighty dollar has had deleterious effects more than once.

Rory McIlroy has settled out of court with his former agent. That should allow him to concentrate fully on his game this spring. Other golfers hoping to win a Major were dismayed.

Tiger is finished. I’ve been saying it for five years, but is just now that people are beginning to come around to my way of seeing things. This weekend, the Golf Channel engaged in endless speculation about the yips, his butt muscles and what’s gotten into his head. They talk about where the bottom of his club is on the chips, his spine angle on drives and lots of other technical things.

None of that matters. Here’s what does: Tiger lost his mojo when YE Yang ran him down from behind at the 2009 PGA Championship. That was the moment when every other player on the Tour realize that he was not a superman. He has been a mere mortal since.

At this point, Tiger is 61st in the World Golf Rankings. He was 62nd in 1996, the year he turned pro.

Phil is done too, by the way. I’m much sadder about this, though.

In Australia, Richard Green and Marianne Skarpnord scored an unusual double by winning the men’s and women’s titles on the same course on the same day. What makes it unusual is that the couple is engaged to be married. The Victoria Open is one of a few events in which the men’s and women’s tournaments are contested concurrently. Skarpnord, a Norwegian, first won by two strokes, then watched Green take the men’s title on the second hole of a sudden death playoff.