life – Golfing Networks

Nelly Korda is about to play the most important round of her life

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 06:48:48 +0000

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Most weeks we have no clue who will win. The oddsmakers list their educated guesses, but it’s all based on single-digit percentages. But some weeks, the storylines coalesce around a single character. At the U.S. Women’s Open, that’s Nelly Korda.

The question Korda faces Sunday is the same one she faced Thursday morning when she played her first hole. It’s the same one she faced Tuesday morning when she gave her pre-tournament press conference. It’s very simple:

Are you able to summon a victory the one week you need it the most?

Why does she need this one most? Because form isn’t forever. Because she’s playing the best golf of her life. Because she’s won a Gold medal but never her national championship. Because the next U.S. Women’s Open at historic Riviera isn’t on the calendar and these moments can pass by quickly if you don’t stamp your name all over them.

For more than 10 years, Rory McIlroy failed to get the job done at Augusta National, and stayed one victory shy of the career Grand Slam. Then the dam broke. He’s now won there twice in a row.

Lydia Ko could just accept the podium at the 2024 Olympics. She needed to be on top of the podium at the Paris Games, to not only join the LPGA Hall of Fame, but to polish off the medal slam. Silver in 2016, Bronze in 2021, it was Gold or nothing in 2024. She won the Gold. Then she won at St. Andrews a couple weeks later.

Scottie Scheffler will have (it seems) a bunch more chances to win the U.S. Open, starting in two weeks at Shinnecock — in order to claim his career Grand Slam — but until he does it, we’ll be wondering, can he do it? When he’ll do it. IF he can do it.

That’s how it goes with the game’s best players. They go through valleys and reach peaks all the time. It comes and goes and they understand that. But when the golf is great, how great can it be? These are the questions we ask. In press conferences, in clubhouses and in Hall of Fame speeches 20 years from now. How memorable will this stretch of Nelly Korda golf be? It starts Sunday afternoon, in a position not too dissimilar from where we were 12 months ago.

When she turned to the back nine, last year at Erin Hills, Korda was one stroke back of Maja Stark. In hindsight, all she needed was one under on the finishing stretch. She shot one over.

“I really, really wanted it,” Korda said Saturday night, thinking back. “And the more you want it, sometimes the more you stiffen up and you get a little bit more nervous.”

She says she plays her best golf when she’s free. When she’s joking around and happy. That’s the attitude she wants to bring to the final round. But how possible is that? Her game hasn’t been perfect this week. She’s been working through different swing thoughts and advice from her team.

When it kicks off Sunday, a journey of sorts will have narrowed to a really tight place. The biggest crowd of the week will be following her and they’ll pinch in around the 1st tee in front of the historic clubhouse. If you rewound the clock to January 1 and asked her to visualize her 2026 season, she’d imagine herself teeing off for the final round at Riviera with the lead. She’s there now, and it’s no accident. The days between Jan. 1 and June 7, at least golf-wise, have been nearly perfect. Three wins, three second-place finishes, top 10 everywhere. It’s indisputably the best golf of her life and some of the best golf we’ve ever seen.

But what if it doesn’t end in a victory?

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Callaway Chrome Tour Retro balls bring Rule 35 back to life

admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 17:31:58 +0000

Callaway’s Chrome Tour Retro balls revive the Rule 35 look with modern speed, flight consistency and greenside control.

There’s something fitting about Callaway reaching back to where it all started at a time when its golf ball lineup feels so complete.

In 2000, the company started in the ball market with Rule 35, a simple idea dressed up with a bit of personality. Instead of overwhelming golfers with options, Callaway offered two: the softer Blue and firmer Red. The company even added its own unofficial “35th rule” to the game: Enjoy it.

Now, more than two decades later, Rule 35 is being revisited through a modern lens.

Callaway’s new Chrome Tour and Chrome Tour X Retro Collection golf balls take that original Rule 35 aesthetic and pair it with the technologies in the company’s current flagship balls, Chrome Tour and Chrome Tour X. The result is a limited-edition release that leans on nostalgia while giving golfers modern performance.

The connection to Rule 35 is more than cosmetic because these balls are meant to give golfers clear choices. Chrome Tour is for players who prefer a slightly softer feel and a more balanced performance profile, while Chrome Tour X has a firmer feel, higher speed and a more penetrating flight.

On the outside, both balls look vintage, but under the hood, they’re both as modern as any golf balls on the shelf at your local pro shop.

Both models feature Callaway’s Tour Fast Mantle, a layer designed with a higher flex modulus that acts more like a spring to increase ball speed and overall distance. They also feature Callaway’s Seamless Tour Aero pattern, which is built to stabilize flight and maintain consistency, particularly when conditions aren’t perfect.

Around the greens, both balls rely on a thin urethane cover to help increase spin and control on approach shots, chips and pitch shots.

And then there’s the broader idea that ties this all together.

For golfers who remember Rule 35, this release will feel like a callback to a moment when Callaway was trying to prove it belonged in the ball category. For everyone else, it’s simply a Chrome Tour or Chrome Tour X with a different look and a bit of history baked in.

And that’s probably the right balance.

Because at the end of the day, nostalgia might get your attention, but performance is what puts the ball in play.

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“Golf saved my life” Pat shares amazing story – Golf News

admin — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 17:38:57 +0000

The 67-year-old disabled golfer Pat Duke, who has battled a number of challenges over the past 12 years, enjoyed a very special moment on Monday 8 December that will stick with him forever.

“I’m not very good at golf, but it’s saved my life,” said ‘Pat’.

A proud Irishman, who moved to England in the 2000s, Pat used to enjoy Gaelic football, rugby, soccer and cricket, and was a very competitive sportsman, while he worked in the road surfacing industry for over 30 years.

But his life changed dramatically one evening on 8 March, 2012.

In his role as a Road Surfacing Operator, while operating a chipping machine, Pat’s jacket got caught in the auger, which dragged his arm into the machine.

He said: “I was trapped in it for two hours and never lost consciousness. I refused to close my eyes because I thought I was going to die.

So, because of that, I’ve got post-traumatic stress disorder. I’ve got phantom pain and phantom sensation forever now – it’s like unbelievable pain for 15 seconds, like your fingers have been crushed, your wrist and your arms are being broken, and I feel it in my nerves, in my stump. It’s just mental torture.

“I ended up in St. Mary’s in Paddington and when they wheeled me up the ramp, I was talking to the paramedic, and the surgeon was absolutely gobsmacked that I was alive. He said: “I can’t believe this gentleman is talking to us.” Then I was 14 hours in the operating theatre.”

Sadly, Pat’s accident meant he lost his arm, and his road to recovery has been an extremely challenging one, going on to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

“I was in a really bad place,” said Pat. “It’s improved, obviously, but it’s still there. I lost a relationship because of the PTSD. I’m not the same person as I was before. I’ve had to do this on my own. I do have bad days, but I handle it a lot better now.

“I was recently told that what happened to me is impossible now with all the guards and kill switches, and they have elastic on the wrists of the jackets so they’re not baggy anymore, which is what caused my accident.

“Somebody asked if I’d come and talk at a health and safety conference, but I didn’t have the courage, I wasn’t in a good place. I was struggling with PTSD and was self-loathing. I had suicidal thoughts.”

FINDING GOLF

Despite his challenges, Pat was one day speaking to a friend, who urged him to try golf. But it wasn’t a sport Pat was interested in, until 2018…

“Golf wasn’t really my game, I thought it was for old people!”, admitted Pat. “I’d never played golf in my life. I’m 6’2 and about 20 stone. I was never interested when I was able-bodied. When I lost my arm, a friend asked what I was doing, and I said: “Not a lot.”

“He said: “Why don’t you just go and try it?”, to which I said I wasn’t interested. I couldn’t see the point of it. But I went around the corner from me to Overstone Park, and I said: “Who do I see about trying golf?”

They directed me to Brian (Mudge, PGA Pro) at his simulator, and he asked if I’d ever hit a golf ball, to which I replied: “Never!”.

I had six lessons off Brian. He said to me: “Don’t copy anybody else because you’re the only disabled golfer here. So what works for you won’t work for anybody else, and what works for anybody else won’t work for you.

Just play the way you play. You’ll never hit it as far as everyone else, but just try and keep it on the fairway and that’s what I’ve been trying to do!

“He introduced me to some older members who showed me around and gave me the confidence to get on the course. I thought I’d be holding everyone up and I’d be an embarrassment, but it wasn’t the case.

“I’m not good at golf, but at least I can do it. I can hit the ball 200 yards down the fairway thanks to Brian.”

RECOVERY

Pat started playing several times a week and has made dozens of friends at Overstone Park.

And he is adamant that golf has helped save his life.

He said: “It’s a self-confidence thing. It’s the most frustrating game I think I’ve ever took part in and having been really competitive with other sports, only having one arm playing golf I found really frustrating to begin with, but it teaches you so much. I

It helped me – and the people I’ve met in the game are absolutely phenomenal.

“To come from having suicidal thoughts, self-worth going out the window, no courage, no confidence, no nothing – and then to find golf and friendship, I think everything happens for a reason.

“To start playing golf, to meet Brian Mudge, and to meet the people at Overstone, is it fate? I don’t know.

“I don’t know the ins and outs of golf, to be honest, but it’s helped me a hell of a lot. It actually saved my life. It got me out and about.

It gave me self-worth, confidence, and I feel better about myself. People were saying how amazing it was that I could hit the ball, and it meant a lot.

“All the people I’ve met, the social side of it – the people coming up paying you compliments, it’s just lovely. It gives you the will to live.

If I felt a bit down, depressed or lonely, I just picked the phone up and asked if they (Overstone Park) could fit me in. They are always obliging people and it’s so nice.”

HOLE-IN-ONE!

Despite the setbacks, Pat remains upbeat and continues to use golf as a tool to keep him active and socialising – and was recently rewarded with a moment he will never forget.

On Monday 8 December, Pat was playing with friends on the 120-yard par-3 4th hole at Overstone Park, Northamptonshire, where he struck his 7-iron. The rest is history…

He recalled: “There’s a pond to the left of the green and it gets in my head usually, as seven times out of 10 I put it in there! But I thought to myself, I’m just going to ignore it. I caught the 7-iron well – next thing, it dropped just past the pin and span back in the hole!

“I was gobsmacked. I just stood looking at it to be honest, but Kevin O’Connor (playing partner) kept saying: “That’s in, that’s in the hole!”, even when it was in the air – as it was straight at the flag.

The people on the 5th started clapping and those on the 4th were congratulating me. I had a round of applause when I went back into the clubhouse. I’m not used to stuff like that.

“I was really touched and absolutely humbled by the amount of people who congratulated me.

Brian sent me an email asking if I knew that I was in an elite club. He explained that I am one of very few, who have just one arm, to have enjoyed a hole-in-one – so I was amazed!”

Asked about what he did with the ball, Pat admitted: “I lost it today playing a round!”

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