John Daly plans to tee it up in a major next week, just not at the PGA Championship.
The biggest quirk of the 2025 schedule is that the Regions Tradition in Birmingham, Alabama — the first of five majors on the PGA Tour Champions — is the same week as the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“I can go there and miss the cut and get $6,000,” Daly said of the PGA Championship, which last year paid $4,000 to players who missed the cut. “But I’m playing Birmingham. I love Regions. They’re a great sponsor. But why are they scheduling Regions the same week as the PGA Championship, where I can see Brooks (Koepka) and all the guys?”
May typically is crowded for golf and the Regions Traditions didn’t want to take this week because it’s tough getting support on Mother’s Day. The week after the PGA Championship is the Senior PGA Championship at Congressional.
Going earlier was tough with NASCAR at Talladega on April 27.
Daly also is not in top form after surgery on his left hand in January. He said his biggest issue remains getting through the ball on three-quarter shots — that and his putting. He finished at 27-over par last week at the Insperity Invitational, a tournament he won in 2017 and was runner-up in 2020.
But he’s not ready to pack it in from playing on the PGA Tour Champions, even with 16 surgeries and bladder cancer.
“I’m like Lazarus — I keep coming back from the dead,” he said. “Waking up is a win for me.”
Daly isn’t the only former PGA champion missing next week.
Rich Beem, who took down Tiger Woods at Hazeltine in 2002, chose not to play this year after a rough go at Valhalla last year. Beem now works for Sky Sports at the big events and felt he didn’t have enough time to prepare this year for a big course. Quail Hollow is 7,262 yards and plays as a par 71.
“I got my (butt) handed to me last year,” he said. “Even though I had success at Bethpage (2019), you lose 10 yards, you might as well lose 100.”
He said he plans on skipping Aronimink next year but will return to the PGA Championship in 2027 in his home state of Texas, where he hopes dry and firm conditions will help.
Davis Love III (recovering from heart surgery) and Y.E. Yang also are not in the PGA Championship next week.
Haeran Ryu leads the charge
It’s not surprising that Haeran Ryu, coming off a wire-to-wire win at the Black Desert Championship, moved to a career-high No. 5 in the women’s world ranking.
The surprise? It’s the first time in more than six months that a South Korean player has been among the top five.
At least one South Korean player had been in the top five 80% of the weeks since the women’s world ranking began in 2006. Jin Young Ko, a former No. 1, was at No. 5 on Oct. 14, 2004.
Ryu now has three LPGA Tour wins in the last 19 months. She was at No. 25 one year ago.
Hyo Joo Kim is at No. 8 and Ko is at No. 9 in this week’s ranking. Americans all have three players in the top 10, and they have six in the top 25, compared with five from South Korea and five from Japan.
Rare bird
So much for the albatross being the rarest shot in golf. For the second time this year, it has happened in back-to-back weeks on the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour.
Stephanie Kyriacou of Australia holed her second shot on the par-5 18th at the Black Desert Championship, the second albatross in as many weeks on the LPGA. It was the 53rd albatross recorded on the LPGA dating to 1971.
Yan Liu had No. 52 the previous week at the Chevron Championship when she holed a 7-iron from 170 yards on the par-5 eighth at The Club at Carlton Woods.
Kyriacou hit a 5-wood from 212 meters (233 yards) into the cup in the final round Sunday.
“My 5-wood carries like 195, so it landed short, bounced up. I was just trying to hit on the green, to be honest,” she said. “Then I smoked it, and it went in. But I kind of stopped watching it, and everyone was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa!’ And then they cheered.
“I was like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty good.’”
The 24-year-old Kyriacou said she made an albatross during a casual round at home in Australia, but it wasn’t the same.
“In a tournament, on camera, there is proof,” she said. “I can now say I’ve definitely had an albatross. If I do that again in my career, I’ll be very surprised.”
Earlier this year, Jake Knapp made an albatross in the second round of The American Express, and the next week Shane Lowry made one on the sixth hole of Torrey Pines (South) in the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open.
East Lake reminder
Matthieu Pavon and Chris Kirk are reminders that only three majors — the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open — have categories that offer spots to players who reach the Tour Championship.
There’s an assumption that anyone getting to East Lake will get into the PGA Championship because they would have made enough money to be among the top 70 in the PGA points list. Pavon and Kirk will be at Quail Hollow next week, but they had to rely on special invitations. Both remain in the top 100 in the world.
It speaks to the state of the game.
Kirk, who finished 27th in the FedEx Cup last year after winning at Kapalua, has gone 14 straight tournaments without a top 10 dating to the BMW Championship. He has made a 36-hole cut five times in that span. He was No. 40 after the BMW and now is at No. 77.
Pavon, who won at Torrey Pines in 2024, has gone 23 straight tournaments without a top 10. He was at No. 20 after the U.S. Open and since has dropped to No. 61.
Roberto Castro made the Tour Championship in 2016 but then played so poorly he did not qualify for the PGA Championship.
Divots
Luke Clanton of Florida State, Jackson Koivun of Auburn and David Ford of North Carolina have been named finalists for the Big Hogan Award that goes to the top player in college golf. They are Nos. 1-2-3 in the world amateur ranking. The winner will be announced May 19 at Colonial. … Mizuho Americas has renewed its title sponsor agreement for five years through 2030 and is raising the total prize money next year to $3.25 million. The Mizuho Americas Open is held this week for the third time at Liberty National. … Alex Noren is in the Truist Championship at Philadelphia Cricket Club, making his first start in seven months because of lingering neck and hamstring issues. … Justin Rose has two wins in the Philadelphia area — the 2010 AT&T National at Aronimink and the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion.
Stat of the week
The five players who have won signature events this year — Hideki Matsuyama (Kapalua), Rory McIlroy (Pebble Beach), Ludvig Aberg (Genesis at Torrey Pines), Russell Henley (Bay Hill) and Justin Thomas (Hilton Head) — are all in the top 10 in the world ranking.
Final word
“I told you it was going to be a steep mountain to climb, and it was. Scottie was practically flawless, which is kind of what you expect from the world No. 1.” — Erik van Rooyen, who started the final round eight shots behind Scheffler, shot 63 and finished eight shots behind in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
