Welcome to The Break, my recap and reaction feature available several times per week. Catch up on everything happening in the golf world in an easy-to-consume format to get your day started.
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In today's edition:
- Tiger Woods' ankle is fine
- Gary Player isn't a fan of the Augusta National Women's Am
- Deal of the Day
- Shout Outs
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Tiger Woods' ankle is fine
Tiger Woods was on the bag for his son, Charlie, as he played in the Notah Begay III Junior National championship recently. The Big Cat caddied for four days, walking 72 holes with his son as he took part in a big event. For all the weird accounts that follow and analyze his every movement, it was great content. For golf fans with a cursory interest in whether Woods will ever make one last run at the PGA Tour, it might have offered a glimmer of hope for that comeback.
Woods told the Associated Press that he's in pretty solid shape after getting around for 18 holes for four days in a row, all while doing the harder walking job of carrying the bag as a looper.
“My ankle is fine. Where they fused my ankle, I have absolutely zero issue whatsoever,” Woods said Tuesday. “That pain is completely gone. It’s the other areas that have been compensated for.”
Several outlets ran with aggregated stories using this quote. However, Woods has said this since he first spoke after that 2021 single-car wreck that could have killed him. The key part isn't the ankle; it's everything else.
“But all the surrounding areas is where I had all my problems and I still do,” Woods added. “So you fix one, others have to become more hypermobile to get around it, and it can lead to some issues.”
Woods is practicing again, per Stewart Cink, and that's great. He might play the Hero World Challenge and/or the PNC Championship with Charlie. If he does, awesome. If he doesn't, don't despair. Any chance we get to see Tiger play golf at this point is a bonus -- at least until he turns 50. Then hopefully he smokes the PGA Tour Champions here and there.
Gary Player isn't a fan of the Augusta National Women's Am
The DP World Tour was having a great little Thursday at the opening round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa. Nine-time major winner and noted South African Gary Player, whose name is on the host venue for the penultimate event of the DP World Tour season, stepped into the booth to provide some commentary. And that's when he made thinks quite awkward.
Come on Gary ????????♂️????????♂️ @NoLayingUp #NGC2023 pic.twitter.com/x5BAbbV9kY
— Matt Hillier (@wingazz) November 9, 2023
Player and the DP World Tour commentator were talking about Annika Sorenstam joining Augusta National Golf Club.
"They never allowed women there, and now to see a woman there as a member, I think it's fantastic," said Player. The club has had female members for about a decade now, but it's great for one of the greatest golfers of all time to be a member of the club.
And the commentator was going to take it a step further, adding, "And everything they're doing with the Augusta National Women's Amateur as well."
And that's when things got awkward. Player replied, "I don't agree with you on that." The next five seconds of silence were pure pain.
Player didn't offer any secondary remarks to explain what he might not like about the Augusta National Women's Amateur. It could very well be that he doesn't like that the tournament is played at all. Being more charitable, it could be that he thinks it should be played a different time of year, or that all of the rounds should be played at Augusta National. I'm not sure. But without that context, most people are going to assume he just doesn't like the tournament existing -- and that's bad.
GNN Deals
You have no doubt noticed that all kinds of major retailers are promoting early Black Friday sales that are starting this week -- if they haven't started already. That tells you what they're expecting this holiday season, so we're getting started early, too, with our annual list of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.
In addition to that list, you can follow our @gnngolfdeals account on X (or Twitter) with updates on the latest and greatest sales every day of the year.
Shout Outs
A shout out to Angel Yin, who is on the verge of making $1 million. You see, she's the current leader in the LPGA Tour's version of the Aon Risk-Reward Challenge, in which players are competing for the lowest average score on hand-selected holes at most LPGA events. Players have to compete in a minimum of 40 rounds on the participating courses to qualify, and the lowest average score against par wins $1 million. It's a huge amount of money anyhow, but it means even more on the LPGA Tour.
Yin leads with just two events left on the schedule. Atthaya Thitikul and 2019 winner Carlota Ciganda are right behind her. It'll be a fascinating finish.
