Donald Trump's Turnberry resort in Scotland remains in the mix to host the British Open again, though it wouldn't happen until 2022 at the earliest.
Turnberry's Ailsa Course has hosted golf's oldest major championship four times, most recently in 2009, when Stewart Cink out-dueled Tom Watson in a playoff. Yet there were reports that the Royal & Ancient Golf Club privately decided to remove Turnberry from the Open Championship rotation after the controversial Trump bought the property in 2014.
Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R&A, said at this week's British Open that Turnberry remains one of nine courses in the championship rota. Trump, the presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee, said he's spent about 170 million pounds ($225 million) on improvements and refurbishments at the luxury property he purchased for 34 million pounds ($45 million).
"Turnberry was and is part of the pool of courses for the Open Championship," Slumbers said this week after being asked whether the upcoming presidential election might impact Trump Turnberry.
Future British Open sites have been determined through 2019 and Slumbers said the R&A is close to announcing the sites for 2020 and 2021. One of those will be at St. Andrews in Scotland while the other will be at a to-be-announced venue in England.
"We don't have to consider beyond that for a couple years," Slumbers added.
So Turnberry won't welcome the Open Championship back for at least the next six years.
In the meantime, Trump will host major championships at several of his other golf properties. Trump National Bedminster in New Jersey will be the site of the 2017 U.S. Women's Open (and 2022 PGA Championship), while Trump National Washington next year is home to the Senior PGA.
Here's a new way to cruise the fairways in style.
Danish company Garia has partnered with Mercedes-Benz to launch a new luxury electric golf cart. The Mercedes Benz style Garia Golf Car features leather seats, a built-in refrigerator, glass and bottle holders, and a 10-inch touch-screen with an on-board computer that will show distance to the current hole, weather information, speed and battery life.
The cart also comes with a speaker system, allowing golfers to stream music and phone calls via Bluetooth.
It all started three years ago when Mercedes-Benz called on golf and automobile fans worldwide to pitch ideas for a golf cart of the future. The best submissions in the design competition were the spark for the development of the new cart.
CALLAWAY'S BIG WEEKEND
It was a pretty good weekend for the folks at Callaway Golf, who enjoyed some major network TV exposure with the final-round showdown at the British Open between two of their biggest tour players: Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson.
Sunday's action at Royal Troon was essentially a match play final as the two had separated themselves so much from the rest of the field before Stenson pulled away for his first major title at the age of 40. Mickelson made four birdies, an eagle and no bogeys in a closing round of 65 -- and lost. Stenson made an astounding 10 birdies in shooting a 8-under-par 63 that tied the lowest round ever in a major championship.
Just how good were they?
These two shot a best ball score of 59 today.
Thanks for the show, fellas. #TeamCallaway #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/dFjwmQLiL0
— Callaway Golf (@CallawayGolf) July 17, 2016
It only got better for Callaway as their top player sponsor on the LPGA side, Lydia Ko, won the Marathon Classic in a playoff.
CHRISTIE'S FINE WINE
Christie Kerr's nose knows wine.
The two-time major winner on the LPGA Tour just launched her second wine label, Kerr Cellars, featuring limited micro-production vintages handcrafted from vineyards in Napa and Sonoma in California. Kerr began production in 2013 with winemaker Helen Keplinger and is now beginning to sell them publicly.
"I love working with Cristie on this project – she has incredible drive and a terrific palate," says Keplinger, who was voted 2012 Winemaker of the Year by `Food and Wine' magazine. “We have a shared philosophy that wines should have their own unique identity, which these stunning wines certainly do.”
Kerr in 2006 created Curvature Wines, with proceeds from sales used to fund breast cancer research.
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