The Loop

Missing links: Tiger Woods' absence not golf's only problem, and Ernie Els making a difference

May 10, 2014

Stories of interest you might have missed…

Golf without Tiger Woods is a problem, of course, but not the professional game's only problem, Barry Svrluga argues in the Washington Post. "There's an adage in team sports: Your best players better be your best players. And whether Woods is removed from the equation short-term or long-term, this seems to be a problem for golf today."

Ernie Els is more than a figurehead in his Els for Autism foundation, as this story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune demonstrates. At a clinic last month, Els worked extensively with a 14-year-old autistic girl, who has "become so enthralled with golf that her mother…had to buy her a golf glove and golf shoes because she wants to look just like Els."

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Ernie Els at an Els for Autism clinic (Getty Images photo)

Brazil reportedly is far behind in its preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games, but work on the course on which the golf competition will be held has accelerated, according to this story at NBC's Olympictalk.

Padraig Harrington, winner of three major championships who now is lost in his quest to get even better, is not yet ready to surrender. "I'm not going into TV commentary just yet," he tells Philip Reid of the Irish Times.

Are golf courses a detriment to the environment, "too often a crown jewel from the alchemist's workshop," as David Thurnau calls it in his story in the Hotel News Resource?