Stories of interest you might have missed…
Jordan Spieth is playing in the Australian Open this week and not surprisingly has charmed the Aussie media. "Articulate and a self-confessed golf history buff, it is hard to imagine Spieth is still only 21," Adam Pengilly of the Sydney Morning Herald writes. "The American spoke fondly of the Australian Open and turned the table on reporters asking precise details about the history of the tournament, despite it being his first visit Down Under."
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"In a fitting climax, Henrik Stenson turned a good year into a great one, Rory McIlroy took the tape in the Race To Dubai and alongside him in second place on Sunday were his two Ryder Cup team-mates, Victor Dubuisson and Justin Rose…The [European] Tour has never been in a better place since its inception back in the early 70s and it starts the 2015 season with much promise," Ewen Murray of Sky Sports writes.
"Brandt Snedeker was in Japan for the Bridgestone Open. Jordan Spieth was in Japan last week at the Dunlop Phoenix, and he's at the Australian Open this week. Webb Simpson was in Japan. Jason Dufner went to Thailand," Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press writes in this update on PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem's vision of a world tour.
Chambers Bay, site of the 2015 U.S. Open, is in a spectacular setting on the water southwest of Tacoma, Wash., yet it presents a logistical nightmare for the USGA as it searches for ways to transport fans to the site. "The nonprofit USGA had looked into building a temporary Sounder train rail stop within 200 feet of the course," Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times writes in this update on the situation. "But last week, after 16 months of meetings with Sound Transit and railway officials, the USGA said the plan wouldn't be logistically or financially feasible."
"Often called the Jackie Robinson of golf, [Charlie] Sifford might have endured even more than Robinson," William C. Rhoden of the New York Times writes regarding Sifford receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom. "There was no national scrutiny, no daily media, to record his struggles. There was no Branch Rickey to run interference, no teammates to lean on. There was Sifford, walking alone on golf courses where hateful spectators were free to spit, swear and intimidate. It was awful."
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