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Shari Duval, step-mother of golfer David Duval, dies

Shari Duval, step-mother of golfer David Duval, dies

Golfsolutions February 05, 2021
Shari Duval, step-mother of golfer David Duval, dies https://ift.tt/2MXjiIH

Shari Duval, who founded and built the Ponte Vedra-based K9s for Warriors veterans nonprofit into a national presence, has died after a battle with cancer.

She was 75.

“I’m heartbroken,” CEO Rory Diamond wrote on Twitter. “She had been valiantly fighting cancer over and over and winning and this last bout was just too much.”

Duval founded K9s For Warriors in 2011 to train shelter dogs as service dogs and pair them with veterans suffering service-connected post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and military sexual trauma. As of January the nonprofit has “rescued” 1,268 dogs and 650 veterans, according to the website, at no charge to the veterans.

“Shari created K9’s for Warriors through sheer grit, love and a tenacity that I’ve never knew existed,” wrote Diamond, who is also a Jacksonville City Council member. “She pioneered how to love on our warriors and stop veteran suicide. Like so many others, she changed my life forever. … As one of our warriors just said, ‘St. Peter is standing at the Pearly Gates and when he sees Shari he will surely open wide the gates of heaven and say ‘no introduction is needed to a saint such as yourself.'”

Hayden Reed, manager of canine support operations at K9s for Warriors, introduces support dog Sully to then-second lady Karen Pence as she toured the facility with the nonprofit’s founder, Shari Duval, in 2020. (Bob Self/Florida Time Union)

Staff and warriors alike called her Mom. In December the K9s for Warriors main campus was renamed “The Shari Duval K9s For Warriors National Headquarters.”

Diamond’s fellow council member, Brenda Priestly Jackson, wrote on Twitter that he and fellow K9s staff and supporters “will continue the act of creating together & continue her legacy of services for veterans.”

In 2017 Duval was named a Florida Times-Union EVE award winner for her work with veterans. She told the paper that she started K9s after her son Brett, a veteran K9 police officer, returned from two Army tours in Iraq a changed man, with severe post-traumatic stress syndrome.

“I would have lost him to suicide,” Duval told the paper. “His body came home, but he didn’t … My son was still in Iraq.”

Doctors couldn’t help, but she found research on post-traumatic stress disability that showed service dogs could. When Simon began working with a Belgian Malinois named Reagan, the “old Brett” emerged and K9s for Warriors was born.

In the beginning, she had no financial resources except her own, no facility and no dogs. But Duval grew the nonprofit into what she said was the largest, most successful service dog program in the United States for veterans with the Ponte Vedra Beach headquarters and other campuses in Alachua County and San Antonio.

“The best way we could help these deserving warriors was to … train and give service canines to assist our warriors’ efforts to return to civilian life with dignity and independence,” Duval said on the K9s website. “We have been honored to serve these brave men and women that have given this country so much.

“We are a small charity doing huge work and making a difference. Our men and women of our military fought for our tomorrows, so we fight for theirs,” she said. “Our program has been successful, with documented recovery from the debilitating horrors of war, but the need is critical and overwhelming.”

After K9s posted news of her death on Facebook, hundreds of people commented on the impact she made and the lives she saved. They said she was an angel on earth.

“My husband Daniel was K9s for Warriors’ first graduate. You helped him soooooooo much and paired him with Sarge the first graduate pup. Thank you for everything you did,” wrote Valeria Dorantes Harasim.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/36LD2WI
Alex Fitzpatrick leads Jones Cup with opening 64 as many others try to make a Walker Cup case

Alex Fitzpatrick leads Jones Cup with opening 64 as many others try to make a Walker Cup case

Golfsolutions February 05, 2021
Alex Fitzpatrick leads Jones Cup with opening 64 as many others try to make a Walker Cup case https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Expect Walker Cup selectors to be eyeing the Jones Cup, this week’s major amateur event at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia, quite closely. That goes for the Great Britain & Ireland team just as much as for the U.S. team and on Friday, a GB&I player stole the show.

Alex Fitzpatrick, a Wake Forest junior from Sheffield, England, started on the back nine with birdies at Nos. 11 and 12 at Ocean Forest and never let up. After five back-nine birdies, he added three more on the front for a tournament-record 8-under 64.

Interestingly, it didn’t give him much space at the top of the leaderboard. Five other men dove below 70 in the first round, including Georgia fifth-year senior Spencer Ralston, who is close on Fitzpatrick’s heels with a 7-under 65.

Scores: Jones Cup

Fitzpatrick already has been named to the R&A’s Walker Cup practice squad. He was part of the 2019 GB&I Walker Cup team that competed at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England two years ago. Fitzpatrick provided some stability for his side that week, going out as the lead man in every session. He played to a 2-2-0 record.

Tee times were moved up at Ocean Forest on Friday in anticipation of inclement weather moving through in the afternoon, and several players used the opportunity to score.

A year ago, Fitzpatrick, who is ranked No. 31 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, finished 31st at the Jones Cup. This week, he is coming off a fourth-play finish across the country at the Arizona Intercollegiate with his Wake Forest team.

Plenty of U.S. Walker Cup hopefuls are in the field, too. Put Ralston, winner of the 2019 Players Amateur and quarterfinalist at the 2019 U.S. Amateur, on that list.

A pair of twins, Maxwell Ford and David Ford of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, represent the junior contingent high up on the leaderboard. Maxwell Ford fired a 5-under 67 for solo third. His brother David, ranked No. 1 in the Golfweek Junior Rankings, sits in solo sixth at 3 under.

William Holcomb V, a fifth-year senior at Sam Houston State, has made no bones about his mission this week: He wants to play on this year’s Walker Cup team. Holcomb got hot early, making birdie on his first three holes to shoot to the top of the leaderboard. Another birdie followed at No. 6, but Holcomb had some missteps, too – bogeys at Nos. 7 and 11, and a double-bogey at No. 17.

Holcomb finished with a 2-under 70, good for a share of seventh with Ford Clegg, Davis Thompson and Cole Hammer.

Of note concerning the latter two in that group: Hammer is coming off a win in December at the South Beach International Amateur and Thompson is defending champion this week. Thompson is also No. 2 in the WAGR and, if he can hold that position through this week’s event, would secure an automatic selection to the U.S. Walker Cup team next week.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3cI2EaI
Justin Thomas cards nine birdies Friday at Waste Management Phoenix Open

Justin Thomas cards nine birdies Friday at Waste Management Phoenix Open

Golfsolutions February 05, 2021
Justin Thomas cards nine birdies Friday at Waste Management Phoenix Open https://ift.tt/36NfCjx

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Justin Thomas has had a double bogey in each of his first two rounds at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, but on Friday, he took advantage of the scoring opportunities on the back nine and posted nine birdies en route to a 65.

Thomas left the course Friday tied for 10th and put himself in position to win in the desert. He’s finished third the last two years and is looking to finally break through this time around.

If only he could get a handle on the three par 5s at TPC Scottsdale this week.

“I’ve played the par-5s horrendous,” he said on Friday after bogeying the third, parring the 13th and birdieing the 15th. On Thursday he parred all three par 5s. “They really are great par-5s out here. I think that they have a lot of great risk-reward and you can make bogeys pretty quickly. I’ve had it in really good spots except for the tee shot on 15 yesterday, which wasn’t even a bad tee shot. I usually should be 4 or 5 under on those and I’m even.”

Waste Management Phoenix Open: Photos | Leaderboard | Tee times, TV info

Thomas missed the cut last week at the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, his first tournament since uttering a homophobic slur during the third round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January.

But this week is a nice bounce back inside the ropes.

“I’m very, very close to playing some really, really good golf,” he said.

And he likes being at a course he enjoys playing.

“I just like the golf course. I come in knowing that I don’t need my best stuff to win, which I think is huge. But I also know that I can do what I did the last 15 holes today, or whatever it is, 14, 15 holes. I really feel like I can reel off nine birdies in an 11- or 12-hole stretch, but I also understand and respect the golf course and kind of take what it gives me. If I get out of position or if it’s an uncomfortable pin or yardage.

“I also know if you get a day like today where it’s perfect, soft conditions, when you’re in position you’ve got to attack because everybody else is.”

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/36LD3tK
Scottie Scheffler overcomes four-putt bogey, another cracked club to post 65 at Waste Management Phoenix Open

Scottie Scheffler overcomes four-putt bogey, another cracked club to post 65 at Waste Management Phoenix Open

Golfsolutions February 05, 2021
Scottie Scheffler overcomes four-putt bogey, another cracked club to post 65 at Waste Management Phoenix Open https://ift.tt/36NfCjx

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Scottie Scheffler has tallied more than 120 feet of made putts in each of the first two rounds at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and has posted scores of 67 and 65 at TPC Scottsdale.

If not for a four-putt bogey on the fifth hole during Friday’s second round, Scheffler might have walked off the course tied for the clubhouse lead.

Scheffler, seeking his first PGA Tour win, posted plenty of red numbers in the second round with that double his only blemish. In all, he had four 2s on Friday. He birdied three of the par 3s, including the 16th, when he stuffed his approach to 14 inches.

Too bad so few fans were there to see it.

“There were no more than 10 people in the stands,” he told PGA Tour Radio after his round.

On the par-4 17th, which was playing 320 yards on Friday, Scheffler drove the green with his 3-wood and was pin high, just inside 40 feet away. He then drained the eagle putt.

After making the turn, he collected a birdie at the par-5 third hole to get to 8 under. The double bogey two holes later set him back but he birdied 7 and 8 to get it back to 10 under. Scheffler has put himself in contention heading to the weekend in Scottsdale.

Waste Management Phoenix Open: Photos | Leaderboard | Tee times, TV info

A month ago, he had to say goodbye to a club he’d been using for nearly a decade, a Nike VR Pro 3-wood. He replaced it with a Callaway ahead of the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

On Wednesday this week, he cracked his driver.

“I had traveled with a backup most of the time and luckily the Ping guys were here when it broke Wednesday afternoon, and we put a little extra glue in the toe and started seeing the shot shape that I like, and it’s been good,” he said.

The Sentry was also his last made cut, as he left both the American Express and the Farmers Insurance Open after 36 holes. Scheffler had seven top 10s last season, including a solo fifth at the Tour Championship but his best finish this season is T-13 at the Sentry.

In his second visit to the Phoenix Open, Scheffler is looking for more, perhaps even that breakthrough win at TPC Scottsdale, a course he says he likes.

“I think it suits my game well, especially when I’m driving it good. I think the greens will get firmer as the week goes on, and I hit the ball pretty high, so pretty comfortable out here.”

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3jkXJO6
A love story: Remembering tennis great Tony Trabert and why he loved the Players Championship

A love story: Remembering tennis great Tony Trabert and why he loved the Players Championship

Golfsolutions February 05, 2021
A love story: Remembering tennis great Tony Trabert and why he loved the Players Championship https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — When I read the news of tennis great Tony Trabert’s passing Thursday (via a tweet from colleague David Dusek below), I couldn’t help but think back to our one encounter and golf’s role in his life.

It was while researching the inaugural Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in 1982 for my book on Deane Beman and how the PGA Tour became a billion-dollar business that I acquired a copy of the original CBS broadcast of the tournament’s final round. Lo and behold there was Trabert, a five-time Grand Slam tennis winner and the lead analyst of CBS’s U.S. Open tennis coverage calling the action from the 14th hole tower.

I grew up watching golf on TV with my dad on weekends, but didn’t recall Trabert’s involvement in the game. He used to do 8 to 10 events a year at such tournaments as the Memorial, World Series of Golf and Westchester Classic. It kind of felt like if Nick Faldo popped in for CBS’s coverage of the Super Bowl this week. I decided to track Trabert down for his recollections, which wasn’t too difficult. His home phone number was listed.

When I reached him, he gladly recounted how he visited the then-sleepy community of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, for the first time that year as a member of the CBS Sports broadcast team. (His tennis colleague Pat Summerall also was part of the team as was Vin Scully.) Trabert didn’t witness champion Jerry Pate pushing Beman and Pete Dye into the lake guarding the 18th hole after he won. Instead, Trabert had an even better story to share about how his life changed that week when he met a fetching red-headed local real estate agent.

“I met Vicki at a cocktail party,” Trabert said.

It was game, set, match made in heaven. Trabert soon moved to Ponte Vedra to court Vicki – I guess he knew someone in real estate to help with that! – and they married in 1984.

“She had three children from a previous marriage and didn’t want to move them out of school,” he told me at the time. “I made my living getting on airplanes so I moved here and Ponte Vedra has been our home ever since.”

Trabert had 106 match wins and 18 titles in the 1955 season, which remains one of the greatest single seasons in tennis history, but his greatest achievement may have been wooing Vicki. He came up aces.

Trabert was 90. You can read about his incredible tennis accomplishments and impact on the game here.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/36I8QM0
Fitness with Averee: The two iron warm up

Fitness with Averee: The two iron warm up

Golfsolutions February 05, 2021
Fitness with Averee: The two iron warm up https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Have you ever been in a crunch to make your tee time? You begin to rush and you begin to pray to the golf gods that your group will allow you a “breakfast ball” because you didn’t have time to hit the range?

We have all been there and know the wave of panic that comes over you before you tee off. In the latest episode of, “Fitness with Averee,” Averee Dovsek demonstrates how to utilize a warm up technique that will only take a couple of minutes and will save you strokes. 

Combine what you learn through “Fitness with Averee” with Steve Scott’s instruction series and you will be a different golfer on and off the course.

Watch this episode of “Fitness with Averee” above and check here for previous episodes.

Golfweek‘s latest newsletter, Get Better which covers everything Instruction and Fitness related, is up and running. Sign up for Get Better here.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/39Of9zz
Bryson DeChambeau angry with putt that drops; weather delays Saudi International

Bryson DeChambeau angry with putt that drops; weather delays Saudi International

Golfsolutions February 05, 2021
Bryson DeChambeau angry with putt that drops; weather delays Saudi International https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A lengthy lightning delay and then fading sunlight forced the second round of the Saudi International to be suspended early, but some big names were near the top of the leaderboard as Friday’s action concluded.

Ryan Fox shot his second straight 65 and is officially the leader at 10 under, although Stephen Gallacher has the same score after completing 10 holes of his second round.

Action will resume early Saturday morning and the third round will be a two-tee start as organizers try to get caught up at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City.

Dustin Johnson is in a four-way tie for second at 8 under, two shots off the lead, although he had an interesting moment when he struck a marshal with his drive midway through the round.

Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose are both 7 under while Viktor Hovland, Tony Finau and Tyrrell Hatton are among those at 6 under.

Bryson DeChambeau struggled on the day, posting a pair of late bogeys before play was halted, and is currently 4 under 32 holes of play.

The reigning U.S. Open champ did have one of the funnier moments of the day, however, as he was upset with a par putt on the 6th hole and started to follow the ball angrily.

He was happy with the result, however.

Others who are still in the hunt include Phil Mickelson and Martin Kaymer at 5 under, and Sergio Garcia, who sits with DeChambeau at 4 under.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/2MWw9L1
Watch: Dustin Johnson's drive in Saudi Arabia drills a volunteer (who drops like a rock)

Watch: Dustin Johnson's drive in Saudi Arabia drills a volunteer (who drops like a rock)

Golfsolutions February 05, 2021
Watch: Dustin Johnson's drive in Saudi Arabia drills a volunteer (who drops like a rock) https://ift.tt/3muUKmc

One thing’s for certain if you’re working a professional golf tournament — make sure you keep an eye on those teeing off on the hole you’re working.

That advice was lost on a volunteer at the Saudi International who wasn’t watching when World No. 1 Dustin Johnson pulled out his booming driver during Friday’s second round of European Tour action.

Johnson, who shot a 67 in Thursday’s opening round, was playing well again through the front on Friday when he scorched a drive long and left on the 10th hole.

A volunteer working the event was struck in the back and dropped immediately after being hit.

Fortunately, the volunteer popped right back up and seemed OK, although the commentators reminded us that this might leave a mark.

“You can take away the pain, but you can’t take away the swelling.”

There’s no official word yet on his condition.

As is to be expected, this led to the Twitterverse erupting.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3cRNa3M
Bailey Tardy missed out on her LPGA card by $343. It left her sour, but she's ready to fight.

Bailey Tardy missed out on her LPGA card by $343. It left her sour, but she's ready to fight.

Golfsolutions February 05, 2021
Bailey Tardy missed out on her LPGA card by $343. It left her sour, but she's ready to fight. https://ift.tt/3rkuY6U

Last year Bailey Tardy missed out on an LPGA card by $343.

When the Symetra Tour season was over, Tardy laid in bed at night replaying all the shots she could’ve saved. Holes she would’ve played differently. Putts she’d like to have back.

When she’d go out to the course at home in Georgia, her mind would wander to a tournament, making quality practice nonexistent. She used words like “sour” and “bitter” to describe the mood and likened her predicament to being one number off on the lottery.

“I kind of just removed myself from golf,” she said of the resulting six-week break.

Because the COVID-19 pandemic shortened the Symetra Tour season to 10 events, only five cards were awarded last season. Tardy didn’t have great status on the developmental tour, but because so many international players didn’t come back for 2020, she got into all 10 events. And she made the most of it, finishing sixth on the money list with three top-five finishes.

Typically, 10 cards are awarded each season. And usually if a player finished 11th on the money list, she’d punch a ticket directly to Q-Series with a chance to earn LPGA status. Except Q-School was canceled in 2020. The former Georgia standout finished last season exactly where she started – 151st on the priority list in Category I.

“I still don’t have great status,” said Tardy, who isn’t entirely sure how many events she’ll get in this season.

On Wednesday, the Symetra Tour announced a 2021 schedule of 20 events with $3.8 million in total prize money. As frustrating as the $343 gap turned out to be, Tardy knows that something good came out of those 10 events: confidence.

“I didn’t even play my best golf last year,” she said, “and still was able to contend most of the weeks.”

Tardy can’t put a price-tag on that feeling of belonging. It wasn’t all that long ago that she saw her name on the leaderboard at the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open and nearly broke down crying, she felt so overwhelmed.

“Now,” she said, “I’m getting comfortable seeing it up there.”

Tardy recently headed down to Florida to get ready for the mid-March opener in Mesa, Arizona. She hired a putting instructor over the offseason, fully aware that the number of three-putts she’d had over the course of a three-round tournament, as many as eight, was keeping the former Curtis Cup player out of the winner’s circle.

Mentally, Tardy says, she has taken big strides since college.

“In college,” said Tardy, “I didn’t have a mental game.”

Last offseason she hired Bob Rotella and said the way she looks at her golf game is night and day.

“People would always be telling me, ‘You have one of the greatest golf swings,’ ” said Tardy. “I don’t know why I would never believe that.”

At a U.S. Women’s Open, she’d see people watching her on the range and worry about them nitpicking her swing. It was the same on the putting green.

“No one is even looking at you,” she’d tell herself.

Bailey Tardy and her mother Kim (photo courtesy Alison Palma/Symetra Tour)

A more confident Tardy hit the road last year with her mother Kim, whose real job is real estate agent, as her caddie.

Mom is there for comic relief, said Bailey, and they make a great team.

Two years ago when Florida Tech won the NCAA Division II title, a volunteer assistant coach convinced one his players – who was 6 down through 12 holes – to go into a tree pose to work on deep breathing in the middle of the fairway. Kim Tardy read that story and as a yoga enthusiast, now jokingly tells Tardy to go into a tree pose when she gets nervous.

(By the way, that Division II player rallied to win the match after that yoga pose.)

Mom will be back on the bag for the first part of the 2021 season, at least until work brings her back to Georgia.

Tardy met Sophia Popov for the first time at the LPGA stop in Portland last year, after the Symetra Tour player from Germany broke through with that inspiring victory at the AIG Women’s British Open.

From Symetra Tour player to major champion in the span of one week gave hope to countless grinders who are still waiting for their big break.

“She has fought to get to where she is,” said Tardy. “You may have one setback, but it doesn’t mean anything. I kind of related to that.”

This spring, the fight continues.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/2YQNO9u