CNN
 — 

It began with 128 contenders, but now the women’s draw at the US Open is down to just four.

After almost two weeks of grueling action in the searing heat in New York, the semifinalists have been confirmed for the fourth and final grand slam of 2023.

American teenager Coco Gauff faces Czech world No. 10 Karolína Muchová, while world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka takes on local favorite Madison Keys.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the US Open women’s semifinals.

Gauff and Muchová kick off proceedings in Arthur Ashe Stadium at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, with Keys and Sabalenka following them.

Viewers in the US can watch all the action on ESPN, while Sky Sports will broadcast the matches in the UK.

For those eagle-eyed fans, you might remember this specific match-up taking place very recently.

The two took to the court just under three weeks ago in the final of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, with Gauff winning in straight sets to claim to biggest title of her career.

Her victory in Ohio came in the midst of Gauff’s best period of form in her blossoming tennis career, momentum she’s continued into the US Open.

The American’s most recent outing at Flushing Meadows was another impressive performance, beating Jelena Ostapenko with ease for her 10th victory in a row.

It has been somewhat of a coming-of-age tournament for Gauff, who looks like a serious contender to win her maiden grand slam title, but she insists she’s not getting ahead of herself.

“There’s still a lot of tennis left to play,” Gauff said. “I’m still in the mindset that I’m in the beginning of the tournament. Before I would think close to the end, but right now, I have the mentality that I told myself I still have another two weeks to play.

“Right now, I feel emotionally fresh, which I think was the problem in the past in grand slams. I would emotionally be drained.”

Muchová is very much seen as the underdog against Gauff, despite also showing excellent form recently to rise up to a career-high ranking of No. 10 in the world.

The Czech, who lost in the final of the French Open earlier in the year, has only dropped one set en route to the semifinal as she continues an extraordinary comeback season after suffering a series of injuries last year which threatened her career.

“Mental strength … how would I describe it?” Muchová asked. “I always feel that I’m a pretty tough cookie in life. That helps with tennis. But yeah, some days are better; some days not.

She added: “I don’t really want to say all the keys with the tactics. So I’ll just focus on myself. She’s very athletic. She never gives up. Runs for every ball. Doesn’t do many mistakes. She has all the strokes.”

The second semifinal of the day will also see an American with the crowd behind her taking on a European as Keys faces Belarus’ Sabalenka.

No. 17 seed Keys is enjoying a revival at the tournament, having lost in the final to Sloane Stephens in 2017.

She has already beaten three seeded players on her way to the semifinals, most recently blitzing past Wimbledon champion Markéta Vondroušová in the quarterfinals as she continues to draw on the home crowds to inspire her victories.

“I think I have had just a really good mindset going into the matches. I’ve been trying to be maybe just a little bit more emotionally balanced,” Keys said on her US Open success after her victory over Vondroušová.

It was her 26th career victory over a top-10 player and sets up a heavyweight clash against Sabalenka, who is currently the in-form player in women’s tennis having not dropped a set on her path to the semifinals.

The Belarussian eased past Zheng Qinwen in the quarterfinals to reach her fifth consecutive grand slam semifinal and continue her remarkable record in major quarterfinals – she has now won her first seven grand slam quarterfinal matches, second on the all-time list behind Chris Evert who, amazingly, won her first 48.

The 25-year-old will be crowned as the new world No. 1 when the new rankings are released on Monday and, after claiming her first grand slam title at the Australian Open earlier in the year, Sabalenka is the favorite to win her second of the year.

She’s the first woman to reach the semifinals at all four grand slams in a year since Serena Williams in 2016 and says she has learned a lot from her prior results.

“I had a couple of really tough losses this year,” Sabalenka said. “But as I said, we’re not losing, we’re learning. I’m just getting more experience and getting stronger.”

CNN
 — 

When 19-year-old South Korean prodigy Inbee Park lifted the first of her seven major championships at the 2008 US Women’s Open, she became the tournament’s youngest ever champion.

Bella Simões would not be born for around another six years. On Tuesday, she attempted to qualify for the major.

At nine years old, the Brazilian is the youngest player ever to attempt qualification to the tournament, set to tee off at California’s acclaimed Pebble Beach course for the first time in its 78-year history in July.

Simões hit the very first shot of her qualifying group at The Club at Mediterra in Naples, Florida. An impeccable swing technique – posted to the USGA’s Twitter account – drew plenty of plaudits.

Yet that should come as no surprise given Simões’ already-impressive résumé. A US Kids Golf World champion for the under-seven’s category in 2020, she defended her title a year later before clinching another victory in the eight-year-olds competition in 2022.

It’s a youth tournament with pedigree: World No. 7 and 2014 Chevron Championship winner Lexi Thompson was twice a champion before she became one of the game’s elite players.

Thompson became the youngest golfer ever to qualify for the US Women’s Open when she – at 12 years old – made it to the 2007 edition of the major.

Simões still has a few attempts left to usurp that title but will have to wait at least another year after finishing tied-59th in the 67-player field. The Brazilian shot 23-over par, as two players – Lindy Duncan and Brooke Matthews – secured automatic qualification with scores of 10-under and 8-under respectively.

The USGA announced a record number of entries for July’s championship, with 2,107 applicants from 47 US states and 62 countries dwarfing the previous record of 1,874 set last year, when Minjee Lee went on to clinch victory at Pine Needles.

Players must have a handicap index of 2.4 or below, or be a professional, to attempt qualification. Several groups are exempt and receive an automatic invitation, including the last 10 champions and the top 75 players in the world rankings.

Kimberly Williams, a 60-year-old pro from Bethesda, Maryland, was the oldest player to attempt qualification this year, according to the USGA.

CNN
 — 

Golf fans are accustomed to hearing a curling putt described as ‘snaking.’ What they are less familiar with, though, is the sight of a snake dangling off the end of a club.

During the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow on Saturday, Rickie Fowler was on hand to provide a safe demonstration.

Fowler was on the par-five seventh hole of his third round at the PGA Tour event in Charlotte, when his tee shot went careening right towards the waters along the side of the fairway.

While searching for his ball, the American spotted a snake settled amongst some rocks. North Carolina is home to a range of snake species, many of which inhabit the waters of the Tar Heel state. Comments on the PGA’s Twitter post wavered on what species of snake Fowler handled, but it is thought to be a northern watersnake, a nonvenomous species native to North America.

Angling his wedge, Fowler gently hooked the snake to lift it out from between a gap in the rocks before it slithered away. The fact that the 34-year-old is a long-time partner with Puma-Cobra made it a fitting collaboration.

He eventually took a penalty drop but managed to save par, carding a three-under 68 before repeating the score on Sunday to finish tied for 14th at eight-under overall, 11 shots behind champion Wyndham Clark.

It lifts him three places to world No. 50 ahead of the PGA Championship later at Oak Hill this month, where he will again chase a first career major after three runner-up finishes.

Fowler will be hoping to avoid the fate that befell Richard Brand at last year’s event. The English golfer’s second round was derailed when a squirrel raced onto the green to stop his ball and roll it around before scampering away.

To rub salt into the wounds, Bland was not allowed to move his ball or replay his shot under US Golf Association rulings.

Snakes and squirrels have continued golf’s ever growing story of animal run-ins, with dogs, deer, and alligators all penning chapters in recent years.

CNN
 — 

Walking up the final fairway at Quail Hollow on Sunday, victory all but assured, Wyndham Clark made a conscious effort to soak up all the sights and sounds around him. Moments later, the American tapped home to clinch the Wells Fargo Championship and his first ever PGA Tour title.

“You only can win your first tournament once,” Clark reflected, but this was a victory played out in his imagination countless times.

“It’s surreal, I’ve dreamt about this since I was probably six years old,” Clark told reporters in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“Since I’ve been on the PGA Tour, you fantasize about it all the time, and I’ve done it multiple times this year where I catch myself daydreaming about winning.

“To do it at this golf course against this competition is better than I could ever have imagined.”

The manner of victory was the stuff of dreams too, as Clark carded 19-under to seal a four-shot victory over compatriot Xander Schauffele, ranked 75 places above him at world No. 5. It marked the second-lowest score in relation to par in the event’s history, second only to Rory McIlroy’s 21-under in 2015, according to the PGA Tour.

McIlroy, making his first start since missing the cut at The Masters, finished 31st in a star-studded field featuring six of the world’s top 10.

A final round three-under 68 sealed the 29-year-old Clark’s fourth consecutive round in the 60’s, a composed closer after a scintillating 63 on Saturday had given him a two-shot lead over Schauffele heading into the closing round.

Having turned pro in 2017, Clark was five years and 133 PGA Tour starts without a win. After finishing sixth at the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic in March, the American began to think that he might never taste victory.

“I know that sounds crazy because I’ve only been out here five years, but I had a lot of chances to where I was within two or three shots either going into the back nine or starting on a Sunday and I always seem to fall short, and not only that, but seem like I fell back in positions,” Clark admitted.

“There was multiple texts and calls and times when I was so frustrated with people in my camp where I didn’t think I would ever win and I was like, ‘Let’s just stop talking about it,’ because I didn’t want to think about it. I said maybe that’s just not in the cards for me.

“So being in the position this time, I was like, ‘Well, we know what not to do.’”

Those lessons were tested immediately Sunday, as Clark opened with a bogey and remained at one-over approaching the eighth tee. However, a subsequent birdie, followed by four more across the first six holes of the back nine, saw him cruise home.

When he rolled home his closing bogey, Clark looked overcome with emotion. After embracing his caddie and Schauffele, he looked to be holding back tears as he saluted the crowd gathered at the 18th.

Victory secured Clark the $3.6 million winner’s prize – dwarfing his previous-best payday of $485,000 – and stamped his ticket to the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in July. It also saw his world ranking soar 49 places to No. 31.

It fulfilled a dream that almost never got off the ground. When a 19-year-old Clark was establishing himself as a talented player at Oklahoma State University, his mother died of breast cancer.

Clark lost his “rock” and seriously considered walking away from the sport entirely.

“I was playing terribly,” Clark recalled. “There’s many times when I stormed off the golf course in qualifying or in tournaments and just drove as fast as I could, I didn’t know where I was going.

“The pressure of golf and then not having my mom there and someone that I could call was really tough for me. Then professionally, I’ve had multiple moments like that where you just, you miss multiple cuts in a row or you feel like your game is good and you’re not getting much out of it and you just contemplate doing it [walking away].

“Max Homa has a great quote: ‘Every golfer’s one shot away from thinking they can win the Masters or one shot away from quitting golf.’ It really is a great quote because that’s the truth. I’m glad I stuck it out and am here now.”

CNN
 — 

In 2013, a 14-year-old Alex Fitzpatrick caddied his older brother Matt to victory at the US Amateur Championship in Brookline, a win that secured the champion an exemption for the following year’s US Open.

The rest is history: Matt Fizpatrick would return to the same site in 2022 to clinch the major, announcing his arrival as England’s premier golfing talent.

Now, the world No. 8 has the chance to return a favor to his younger sibling.

On Thursday, the Fitzpatrick brothers will pair for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a PGA Tour event that will see 80 two-player teams battle it out at TPC Louisiana for a split of the $2,398,000 winner’s purse.

The triumphant pair on Sunday will also receive a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour. Though not a motivation for the field’s elite names like Fitzpatrick, for his 24-year-old younger brother – ranked 705th in the world and forging his path on the Challenge Tour – it could be life-changing.

“That would be incredible for him, there’s no doubt about that,” Fitzpatrick told CNN Sport’s Don Riddell.

“We know what’s at stake and we know what possibilities there are if he does well and, hopefully, we can do that.”

A few months after Fitzpatrick’s dramatic US Open triumph, he found himself pitted in the same field as his younger sibling at the Italian Open in Rome.

After the second round, the junior Fitzpatrick led the major champion in average driving distance by 0.36 yards – a slender gap, yes, but enough to warrant a jab via text. The reply – shared via Fitzpatrick’s Instagram – showed a screenshot of the US Open winner’s name atop the leaderboard, with his brother’s tied-18th position included for good measure.

Yet beneath the cheap shots, it’s all brotherly love, and the pair gel well on the course despite contrasting styles.

“Our games are pretty opposite,” the elder Fitzpatrick said. “I’m a good driver, he’s a good iron player. He’s a good short game and I’m a good putter.

“He wants to do as well as he can, of course he does, but for me his path is probably going to be a little bit different than mine. The golf world is very different from when I started to when he’s playing now so he’s going to focus on the Challenge Tour probably, he’s excited for that.

“Hopefully, he can follow in my footsteps.”

They will be some tough footsteps to follow.

Triumph at the RBC Heritage on Sunday, sealed with a dramatic playoff win over three-time major champion Jordan Spieth, penned the latest glorious chapter in what has been an outstanding few years for Fitzpatrick.

The fact that the victory came at Hilton Head, a long-time holiday destination for the family from Sheffield, made it even more special, as the 28-year-old realized a childhood dream of lifting silverware on the Harbour Town course.

“Moments like that, you wish time travel was real and you could go back and say, ‘This is what’s going happen in a few years,’” he said.

“I would have been amazed, it was always one that I wanted to win and it was very special to do it.”

And as if winning couldn’t have been any sweeter, it arrived in the face of overwhelmingly one-sided crowd support for home hero Spieth, with ‘U-S-A’ chants soundtracking much of the deciding playoff holes.

Spieth gestured to fans for quiet, but Fitzpatrick relished his leading role as a villain.

“It was great … I definitely enjoyed being in it,” he said.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve played in that atmosphere too often, but it’s certainly nice to perform under that pressure and I think that’s what made it mean so much as well.”

Fitzpatrick is looking forward to a role reversal of crowd bias when Italy hosts the Ryder Cup for the first time in September.

Rome’s Marco Simone Golf and Country Club will be the stage for what Team Europe hopes will be a decisive rebound after a bruising defeat at the hands of their American rivals at Whistling Straits in 2021.

Fitzpatrick, a member of that team and the similarly defeated 2016 roster, is yet to win a singles match at the biennial tournament but would touch down in Rome a far more accomplished player should he be selected.

“I’d really like to be one of the top players that week and play really well,” he said.

“I’m just excited for that opportunity and I think that’s what’s really important is to first make the team, and then look forward to it, enjoy it, and go out there and try to win some points for Europe.”

His other main aim for 2023 is to add another major to his trophy cabinet, no easy feat with the caliber of names chasing the same goal.

A tied-10th finish at The Masters signaled a strong start to the major season for the Englishman, who finished eight strokes adrift of dominant winner Jon Rahm.

The Spaniard’s second major title consolidated his reputation alongside Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy in the so-called ‘big-three’ atop the rankings. Yet Fitzpatrick – dubbed the hardest-working golfer on the PGA Tour – has no intention of accepting his place in the food chain.

“I don’t wanna just sit back and be like, ‘They’re all too good for me and I’m just happy with where I am.’ That’s not me as a person,” Fitzpatrick said.

“I’m constantly looking at ways to improve and get better, and that’s what’s really important is to keep pushing myself and try and catch them up.”

CNN
 — 

Tiger Woods could form part of the US Ryder Cup team – or at least, Zach Johnson isn’t ruling it out.

Ahead of the Sony Open in Hawaii, US captain Johnson said he wouldn’t discount selecting Woods to compete in the tournament if the 47-year-old didn’t qualify for the team automatically.

“I would only contemplate having him on the team if he felt – if he was putting up some numbers and some scores, No. 1, where he’s showing some sign of being competitive, “Johnson said at a media conference on Wednesday.

“And then No. 2, that discussion would be had with the other guys that are a part of that team, and specifically him. If there is anything I trust in Tiger Woods, is that he’s extremely invested in this team and the future Cups. Extremely invested. I can’t speak that enough,” added Johnson.

“And then I think you would do anything and everything for the betterment of the team. I assume he would say … I don’t like basing on assumptions … but I’m confident that he would say, ‘Yeah, I can play, or no, I can’t.’”

Last year, Johnson confirmed Woods would be part of the US Ryder Cup “in some capacity,” adding that Woods had made it a “priority.”

“Given who he is and what he’s all about, I can’t tell you right now: I don’t know if he will be here next year, but he will be a part of this team in some capacity,” Johnson said.

However, Woods’ health could complicate this, Johnson conceded.

“He’s gone through some things as of late that make it difficult, whether it’s travel or what-have-you,” said the US Ryder Cup captain.

Injury has hampered Woods’ recent career, his playing time decimated since he suffered serious leg injuries in a car accident in February 2021.

The 47-year-old withdrew from the Hero World Challenge in December citing his foot pain, and at various points had looked to be struggling with movement during the seventh edition of The Match that month.

“I think something that is realistic is playing the tour one day, never full time, ever again, but pick and choose, just like Mr. (Ben) Hogan did,” Woods told Golf Digest after his accident in 2021.

“Pick and choose a few events a year and you play around that. You practice around that, and you gear yourself up for that. And you play. I think that’s how I’m going to have to play it from now on.

“It’s an unfortunate reality, but it’s my reality. And I understand it, and I accept it.”

A biennial competition which alternates between Europe and the US, the Ryder Cup is being played in Italy for the first time later this year – September 25 to October 1 – at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, which is 10 miles from the center of Rome.

Team US regained the Ryder Cup in 2021 following a historically dominant performance over Europe at Whistling Straits.

CNN
 — 

Who would you back to sink a putt to save your life? Tiger Woods? Jack Nicklaus? Ben Crenshaw?

There is a plethora of debatable options, but it is unlikely many would look to a group of women in Fife, Scotland, with no professional golfing experience, many of whom are far more mature than the average Tour player.

Yet perhaps they should, because anyone putting their life in the hands of the St. Andrews Ladies Putting Club would be entrusting it to an organization with over 150 years of short game experience.

Established in 1867, the group is the oldest ladies golf club in the world, a title owed to some perseverant, golf-loving women – and some disgruntled men.

When the daughters of members of the St. Andrews Royal & Ancient (R&A) Club – widely regarded as the historic home of the game – decided they wanted to play golf, it was not a conventional activity for women. Croquet and archery were the traditional choices among the limited options available.

When the women ventured onto the caddy’s putting course, which was used by those manning the members’ golf bags between rounds, the caddies wanted them gone almost immediately.

“They didn’t like it at all, and I don’t think the members liked it very much either,” club archivist Eve Soulsby told CNN’s The Jazzy Golfer.

But the caddies had a problem: As employees of the club, they couldn’t complain to the members. A compromise quickly emerged – to give the women a piece of land next to the iconic Swilcan Bridge that they could use as a nine-hole putting course.

It was a rough area, filled with rabbit holes, divots and sand, but it was a start. One month later, 22 women competed at the St. Andrews Ladies Golf Club’s inaugural tournament.

The word quickly spread. By the late 1880s, the membership had grown to 600, including male associate members. Today, there is an ever-growing waiting list to join the 140-strong membership, a number kept low to ensure tournaments run smoothly.

Soon after, Old Tom Morris, the course’s resident player, and greenkeeper, often referred to as the “founding father of golf,” decided it would be a good idea for the ladies to visit the nearby Himalaya section of the course, so named because of its hilly topography.

Morris prepared the area for the club before retiring in 1895, when he was made an honorary member.

Soulsby believes the club’s early members played a pivotal role in gaining more independence for the women of St. Andrews towards the turn of the century, citing the creation of the women’s course, which – alongside the Himalaya’s putting course – remains playable to this day.

Income raised from visitors to the putting course is donated to local charities, with an exception made last year to give funds to Ukrainian organizations.

Officially named The Jubilee Course and opened in 1897, the fact that the women’s designated 18 holes was coined “The Duffers Course” reflected commonly held attitudes towards women during the period. “We pretend that didn’t happen,” Soulsby added.

Among those carrying the torch for those early pioneers today is Sylvia Dunne, the club’s current president.

A member since 2011, Dunne helps organize the group’s weekly tournaments; a showpiece two-round event on Wednesday afternoons and a one-round competition on Thursday morning for the so-called “oldies” who may struggle to manage multiple rounds.

“It’s the camaraderie and everything too, because if you get older and you can’t play golf, you could be just stuck at home doing nothing all day, and this is really a very social club,” she said.

“The best part is the afterwards because they have coffee and biscuits and a blither.”

Members who won tournaments in the early 20th century may have been lucky enough to take home a royal prize. The club’s first regal donation came from Prince Leopold, youngest son of Queen Victoria, and other trophies later followed from Edward VIII and King George VI.

At one time, R&A captains also donated trophies, but now they face off against the Ladies Putting Club in an annual 18 vs 18 putting competition.

Dunne is one of the most prolific putters at the club, sweeping six trophies in a single season during her best year. However, she admits the putting green can be a cruel mistress, even for her.

“One day recently I was so exasperated,” she said. “We have a prize at the end of the season for the most holes in one – so I suggested, isn’t it time we had a prize for the most near misses?

“There is a lot of skill involved, but there’s also a lot of luck. Some days the ball rolls for you and other days it will not drop in the hole.”

CNN
 — 

Amir Malik is a man in love with golf. Yet golf has not always loved him back.

A devoted sports fan since his childhood in Kingston upon Thames, London, he was fascinated with golf long before he took his first swing. But knowing nobody else who played, Malik settled for a sideline view.

That all changed in 2012, when his former boss invited him to try his hand at a driving range.

“From the first ball I thought, ‘This is it. This game is incredible,’” Malik, now aged 38, told CNN.

“I’ve played a lot of sports, but there aren’t too many when you go to bed thinking about it and you can’t wait to get up to go back and play again.”

Eventually, Malik was ready to take his game to the next level. Joining a municipal club in 2017, he began competing in Sunday morning tournaments.

It was at these events that the “ugly side” of the game was swiftly revealed to Malik, who felt isolated by the jarring clash of club culture and his Muslim faith.

The discomfort would begin before a ball was struck, as Malik says he drew questioning looks at his refusal to partake in wagers over in-house competitions, as gambling is forbidden in Islam. Out on the course, stepping aside to observe salat – ritual Islamic prayers performed five times a day – further heightened his anxieties.

“You would feel scared, intimidated. How are people going to react?” he recalled.

“We always made sure we were out of the way, but you were made to feel very, very uncomfortable.”

His unease was exacerbated by the commonplace tradition of clubhouse drinking after competitions. As Malik doesn’t drink alcohol, he was left to hand in his scorecard and make an early exit.

As he improved and played more prestigious courses, discomfort often escalated into outright hostility. Malik, who is of Pakistani descent, said he has experienced racism on the golf course.

“You turn up and immediately you can feel the vibe and the atmosphere, the way you’re spoken to, the way you’re treated,” he said.

“And you’re just like ‘Wow, just because I’ve got a beard, I’m brown, and I don’t look like you, you probably think I can’t play or you don’t think I know the etiquette.

“It used to really frustrate me because you sense it, you feel it, you grow up in it, you know what it feels like. And it’s not until you hit one straight down the middle of the fairway – when you’ve smoked a drive – that people then think, ‘Oh, he can play,’ and it’s too late by then.”

Malik’s passion for golf was not soured by his experiences. On the contrary, they spurred him to scout out other British Muslims who shared his love of the game.

Encouraged by “pockets” of interest he had seen on his travels, in December 2019 Malik put a name to his new venture – the Muslim Golf Association (MGA) – and sent out invitations to a charity golf day at The Grove, a prestigious venue just outside London.

The MGA’s maiden event would be open to all religions; prayer facilities would be provided and there would be no alcohol or gambling. Malik was stunned by the response. Within 24 hours, all 72 places had been booked, with over 100 people on the waiting list by the week’s end.

The event, held in August 2020, raised £18,000 for charity, and the sight of over 60 players praying together in the Grove’s courtyard marked a watershed moment for Malik.

“That for me was just amazing,” he said. “That we could get guys together, feeling safe and comfortable and just be on our own platform.”

Since then, the MGA has partnered with the Marriott hotel chain to stage a tri-series tournament beginning in 2021, with the winners of this year’s edition securing an all-expenses paid trip to the Turkish golfing paradise of Belek.

“I looked at golf and thought, it’s a sport played by White, old, rich men, period,” Malik said. “We’ve now got an opportunity to actually show the world that non-Whites can play this game and we’re pretty damn good at it.”

The overwhelming response to MGA events among Muslim women has been equally exciting for Malik. After launching a trio of pilot sessions in Birmingham last year, 1,000 players have already signed up to the string of women-only taster events scheduled across the country over the next two months.

Malik believes Muslim women in the UK are being held back from participating in more sports because of a lack of all-female facilities and sessions.

The MGA has no dress code, which means women can play in a niqab (face veil) and an abaya (long robe) if they wish, and it hires sections of courses for its exclusive use for taster events, to ensure a comfortable experience for new players.

“The response has been absolutely incredible, mindblowing,” Malik said. “I say to women, ‘I don’t care what you wear, what you look like, just come with a smile and with a pair of trainers and we’ll take care of everything else.’ We’ve not done anything revolutionary, we’ve just made it accessible, and the demand is incredible.”

To date, MGA events have attracted over 1,300 participants. Looking forward, the organization aims to take its efforts global to reach as many new players as possible.

Growing up, Malik had to look to other sports for Muslim role models, such as England cricketer Moeen Ali. From Muhammad Ali, to Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, to Mohamed Salah, countless Muslim athletes have carved out glittering careers across a range of sports, yet professional golf offers a comparative scarcity of examples.

According to a survey cited by England Golf, the country’s governing body for amateur golf, just 5% of golfers in England are from ethnically diverse groups.

By establishing relationships with groups such as the MGA, England Golf’s chief operating officer Richard Flint believes the barriers that have contributed to a lack of diversity in the game can be understood and broken down.

“No-one should feel uncomfortable walking through the doors of a golf club or facility simply because of their age, race, ethnicity or gender,” Flint told CNN.

“As a modern, forward-thinking organization, we want golf to be open to everyone and change negative perceptions around the game that belong in the past.”

While Malik hopes to soon see Muslim players competing on professional tours, he says he did not form the MGA to produce a Muslim Tiger Woods.

“If that happens as a byproduct, then great,” he said. “But if we can get the golf industry to take a long, hard look at itself and make itself accessible, make itself open and diverse, then that’s a huge achievement.

“The golf course doesn’t discriminate. The ball doesn’t ask what color, race or gender you are … yet it’s been a very closed club that’s been open to very few people.

Malik believes it’s time for change. “Golf has a lot of exceptional values and traditions, which I still think it needs to keep firm, but it has to evolve … if it were to open itself up and let other cultures and traditions bring all that great stuff to this game, it could be absolutely wonderful.”

CNN
 — 

Trying out golf for the first time, something just didn’t feel right about the conventional swing for Eliezer Paul-Gindiri.

Uncomfortable, he adjusted his grip. His solution, quite literally, changed his life single-handedly.

“It was a moment (that) just came out of nowhere,” Paul-Gindiri told CNN. “I held it in one hand and it felt really comfortable and waggly. I was like ‘Wait a minute, let me try this.’

“Now that I think of it, I’m like, ‘what made me do that?’ It’s God. God blessed me with a talent that just came out of nowhere.”

Rotating the club above his head, Paul-Gindiri stepped up to the tee and crushed a devastating drive into the Arizona night sky. Cue dropped jaws among onlooking friends at the driving range, including the one who had just captured the moment on camera.

The footage was far from cinema-standard, and Paul-Gindiri barely gave it a second thought as he posted the clip to his newly created TikTok account that night.

The next morning, he woke to the buzzing of a phone lighting up with notifications. Overnight, the video had surged to 1.5 million views.

That was February 2021. A year and half later, Paul-Gindiri is a certified TikTok sensation putting up engagement numbers as eye-watering as his one-handed swing.

With 1.9 million followers and over half a billion views, the 22-year-old has posted viral hit after viral hit with increasingly audacious and creative variations of his unorthodox technique.

“I think it’s just the uniqueness of it and it being something new to golf,” Paul-Gindiri said. “You’re seeing the same stuff over and over again, it gets boring. So once people saw it, they were like, ‘what the hell?’. They’ve never seen anything like that.”

The account name, Snappy Gilmore, was born after a friend advised incorporating a run-up into the swing. The moniker is a nod to 1996 comedy “Happy Gilmore,” which sees Adam Sandler star as a failed ice hockey star turned pro golfer – with the help of a booming, radical swing.

Whisper it quietly, but Paul-Gindiri had never seen the cult classic before blending the technique with his own. Naturally, that was quickly amended, with Paul-Gindiri soon meeting up with Christopher McDonald, who played the film’s antagonist Shooter McGavin, to show off his skills.

“It was awesome,” said Paul-Gindiri, who coached McDonald to an impressive one-handed attempt. “Really nice guy, we had a blast.”

Meeting the real-life Happy, Sandler, remains on the bucket list, not least so Paul-Gindiri can thank his namesake for the iconic run-up which has increased the distance of his shots. Averaging 250 yards, his best-ever one-handed strike flew 330 yards, he said.

That average sits a mere 50 yards below the 299.6-yard average on the PGA Tour this season, as Cameron Champ leads the way with 321.4 yards.

Read more: The meteoric rise of Brendan Lawlor, the world No. 1 golfer with a disability

Paul-Gindiri has showcased his technique to several Tour players, including fabled big hitter Bryson DeChambeau. The 2021 Tour’s longest driver looked stunned when the pair met up in May, and Paul-Gindiri said this is a common reaction among pros.

“They were trying to figure out how I do it,” he added. “I’ve met a couple of PGA Tour players and they just tell me what I do is crazy sick, and I should just keep doing what I’m doing.”

Incredibly, Paul-Gindiri even used to putt-one handed, though he has since switched to the conventional two-handed hold as he seeks to master both grips and improve upon his personal-best 76 round, achieved completely one-handed. That edges his current two-handed best – a six-over 77 carded last week – by a stroke.

Yet the social media star has his sights set on targets beyond the fairway. A keen footballer and a long-suffering Manchester United fan, Paul-Gindiri dreams of following in the footsteps of his idol, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Having left his family in Nigeria to move on his own to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2017, Paul-Gindiri played for Contra Costa College for two years. A foray into the semi-professional game was cut short by the pandemic and soccer pursuits were slowed upon a move to Arizona, but he is determined to pick up where he left off this year.

Read more: Golf’s history-making schoolboy: The hectic double-life of 15-year-old Ratchanon ‘TK’ Chantananuwat

And while he may not have any tricks up his sleeve as unorthodox as a one-handed swing, his sporting flexibility extends to the football pitch.

“I’m really good with both feet,” he said. “People don’t know if I’m left-footed or right-footed, so I guess that’s my little go-to thing.”

Yet even as he juggles these aspirations with college, his maverick commitments to golf look set to continue. A year and a half on from that fateful evening at the range, Paul-Gindiri is as determined as ever to inspire people to take up the game, especially those for whom the conventional swing may be difficult to replicate – such as amputees or people with disabilities, he said.

“There’s a lot of people … that think they can’t golf and seeing what I do just brings a whole different perspective to the game,” he said. “Not only that, I’m bringing people who would never have had interest in golf. They saw what I do and they’re like, ‘Oh, this is really cool, I actually want to give it a shot.’

“If I never went to the range that night, I wouldn’t be who I am today, so that keeps me going and makes me happy.”

CNN
 — 

With his surname, you could say that David Cannon was predestined for a career behind the lens.

Upon receiving the PGA of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Photojournalism in May, the 67-year-old was lauded for his “technical mastery and artistic proficiency.”

Yet while his first professional camera was a Canon, the Englishman’s journey to becoming one of the world’s leading sports photographers was anything but fated: he never even had any formal training.

Born in Sussex, Cannon was a talented golfer in his youth, boasting a handicap of one. Competing at a host of amateur tournaments, he finished eighth at the British Youths Golf Championship in 1974 and played alongside a young Nick Faldo at the following year’s tournament.

But sharing the fairways with the future six-time major winner extinguished any hopes Cannon had of a professional playing career.

“When I played with him [Faldo], it was like ‘Oh sh*t, I’m not even in the same league,’” he told CNN Sport. “He was just something else.”

Needing a job to cover the lack of financial reward in amateur golf, Cannon worked at a nylon sheet company, but after four years was yearning for a change of pace. When an impromptu conversation with family friend Neville Chadwick, a photographer at the Leicester News Service, offered the chance to snap some local sporting events, Cannon was all in.

Selling his car to fund a small telephoto lens and a camera – naturally, a Canon AE-1 – soon after he was sitting in a rugby stadium for a New Zealand Tour match in November 1979.

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The 24-year-old was armed with just two tips which have served as the basis of his craft ever since: “Focus on the eyes and fill the frame.”

“I was off, that was it. The lightbulb switched on,” Cannon said. “Playing golf suddenly took a massive back seat and every spare minute I had was buying cameras with spare money, taking pictures, going to games.”

In 1983, having covered everything from the Commonwealth Games in Australia to FIFA World Cup qualifiers in Honduras, he joined the esteemed AllSport photography agency. Though acquired by Getty Images in 1998, Cannon has effectively worked there ever since, specializing in golf to quickly become one of the most recognizable names in the field.

“I’ve loved every minute of it,” he said, and there have certainly been a lot of minutes to love.

Cannon has covered over 700 events and almost 200 men’s and women’s majors, according to an interview with the Ryder Cup, the biennial event he has worked at 17 times.

Cannon’s eye-watering estimates of his career stats: 3.4 million frames shot, 2.6 million miles flown, 115 countries visited, 5,000 nights slept in hotels and 13,000 miles of golf courses walked.

Yet Cannon insists it’s a necessary commitment. While sports like football will offer photographers – at the very least – the opportunity to snap celebrations almost every match, the less dynamic nature of golf can make for slim pickings.

“You can go six months at least – probably two years – without getting a fantastic final freeze picture,” he explained.

“Golf is very slow. People don’t realize how physical it is to photograph golf. You can walk 25,000 paces in a day, and all you’re getting is individual shots of golfers hitting the ball and nothing very interesting if they’re down on fairways all the time.”

Fortunately for Cannon, his career has coincided with some of golf’s most iconic players, many of whom he has come to know personally.

Keeping in touch with Faldo, he became good friends with Ernie Els and got to know Greg Norman – a trio with 12 major wins between them – and had a front row seat to the peak of the Tiger Woods era at the turn of the century.

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Photographing Rory McIlroy and newly crowned US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick since they were amateurs, he has had the joy of following their journeys from the grassroots to lifting some of golf’s biggest titles.

Yet one name stands above all others: Seve Ballesteros. “Never meet your heroes,” the adage goes, but Cannon not only had the joy of snapping his all-time sporting idol, he also became a close friend.

A portrait of the legendary Spaniard captured near his home in Pedreña in 1996 remains one of Cannon’s most beloved pictures. And his shots of the five-time major champion’s iconic fist pump celebration at St. Andrews en route to a 1984 Open win are some of the most enduring images of Ballesteros, who died from brain cancer in 2011.

“It’s probably the most defining picture of my career,” Cannon said. “Of a moment, that’s my favorite.”

When Cannon took that photo, his 36-exposure camera afforded him just 25 pictures to choose from the whole sequence. Today, he would have five more pictures to choose from in a single second. Yet while technology has changed dramatically, the principles of sports photography have not.

Cannon was reminded of one of these guiding rules when – caddying for his professional golfer son Chris – he overanalyzed a swing from three holes earlier.

“‘Dad, that’s one thing you’ve got to learn, there’s a 10 second rule in golf,’” Cannon recalls his son saying. “’Ten seconds after you’ve hit the shot, you cannot get it back, you can’t do anything about it, you’ve got to put it out of your mind.’

“That rule works exactly the same in photography. If you miss it, you can’t go back and get it. If you’re at a sporting event, it’s never going to happen again. I find that quite a useful rule.”

One of the craft’s most important skills is to preemptively sense a story or moment and move to prepare accordingly. It’s easier said than done on courses spanning miles of fairway, with multiple games taking place at once, but the advice can offer great rewards.

These were reaped in abundance by Cannon at the Alfred Dunhill Cup in 1999 through his shot of basketball icon Michael Jordan and Spanish golfer Sergio Garcia engaged in a footrace across the St. Andrews fairways, once described as “the greatest golf photo of all time” in Golf Digest.

Overhearing Jordan and Garcia goading each other on the first tee, Cannon decided to stay out and track the duo past the third hole, the point at which the newspaper photographers – reluctant to trek any further from the clubhouse – decided to head back in.

“I heard Jordan say to Garcia, ‘Do you want a running race, boy?’” Cannon recalled.

“It was really good fun to follow them that day, and from that moment onwards, I walked a couple hundred yards ahead of them all the time.”

It is the sort of know-how that has kept Cannon at the top of his field for over four decades. Not bad for someone with no formal training.