Minjee wins in Playoff

Aussie Minjee Lee is your winner of the Queen City Championship, after a 2-hole playoff against Charley Hull. Lee, who had a five-shot lead with eight holes to play, made double-bogey on the 12th allowing Hull back into the tournament when she also made three consecutive birdies. The two finished at 16-under and had to play the 18th hole three times (twice in the playoff) to decide the winner. Lee finally sealed the deal with a brilliant wedge shot from the left rough that landed within half a metre of the pin. She made the birdie putt and celebrated her first LPGA Tour victory in 15 months.

Lee, who won the US Women's Open in 2022, showed some true Aussie grit and nerve to bounce back from her setback on the 12th and clinch her seventh career title. She also moved back into the world's top 10 and earned $US300,000 ($A470,000) for her win.

Min Woo and Rory stumble

At the Irish Open, Vincent Norrman claimed his second DP World Tour title in two months. The Swede shot a final round of 7-under 65 to edge out Hurly Long by one stroke at The K Club. Norrman pocketed $1.02 million for his victory, while Long earned $660,000 for his runner-up finish.

Two of the crowd favorites, Min Woo Lee and Rory McIlroy, both had chances to win the tournament on the final day, but they stumbled and ultimately finished down the leaderboard. Lee, who won the Scottish Open in 2021, started the day one shot behind the leader, but he could not find his rhythm and carded a 2-under 70 to end up T7 at 11-under. McIlroy, who was playing in front of his home fans, hit 5 balls in the water in 3 rounds and made a triple bogey on the 16th hole enroute to posting a 2-over 74 to finish T16. Both players will tee it up again on the DP World Tour this week at the BMW PGA Championship.

The tournament was important for hometown hero Shane Lowry, who silenced some of his critics after being picked as a wild card for the Euro Ryder Cup team. The Irishman showed his class by shooting a 6-under 66 in the final round to join the tie for third at 12-under. Lowry said he was pleased to "shut a few people up" with his performance and he was looking forward to representing Europe in the biennial contest against the USA.

Quick Bites

Team golf coming hot - it is the season of team golf with the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup coming in hot toward the end of September:  

• The Solheim Cup will kick off next week (22-24 September) at Finca Cortesin, Adalucia in Spain. The event will see the 12 best European players from the Ladies European Tour (LET) and the 12 best U.S. players from the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour duke it out in Matchplay. The teams have been announced and include the likes of recent major winners Celine Boutier, Lilia Vu and Allisen Corpuz. Team Europe secured a second victory on US soil as they clinched a 15-13 win over Team USA in the 2021 Solheim Cup at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. However, the US team holds a 10-7 advantage in overall Solheim Cup competition.

• The Ryder Cup takes off in late September at Marco Simone Golf Course in Rome, Italy (29 September to 1 October). This past week, almost the entire US team made a reconnaissance trip to Italy to scope out the course (which is a strong contrast to last time on Euro soil at Le Golf National). 9 of the 12 US players saw Marco Simone in conditions close to what they’ll likely experience in a couple of weeks. The only players missing appeared to be Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele, and Patrick Cantlay. Meanwhile, the European players will join with the Team Captains (Donald, Harrington, Bjorn, Molinari) in playing the upcoming marquee tournament at Wentworth (details below). Full team lists can be found here.

Golf From a Woman’s Perspective - The latest video going viral in the golf world—and beyond—is a comedic take on golf and traditional on-course etiquette from a woman’s point of view. The short-form sketch was produced by Golf Digest’s Hally Leadbetter for GolfPass and is titled “Other Foot C.C. (The All-Female Country Club).”. Poking fun at several stereotypes, the video follows a male golfer as he encounters a series of common scenes that women face on the course and at the club. Take a look and a laugh:

Schedule for the Week

The PGAT returns this week with the commencement of the “Fall Season”. However, all the big names will be playing on the DPWT at the BMW PGA Championship. This includes Aussies Adam Scott and Win Woo Lee, along with the entire Euro Ryder Cup team (McIlroy, Rahm, Hovland, Fleetwood, Fitzpatrick, Hatton, Aberg, Rose, Hojgaard, McIntyre. Straka and Lowry).

Your golfing schedule for the week, and how to watch is below:

• PGAT: The Fortinent Championship - Silverado Resort (Napa, CA), $8m purse, Friday 15/9 to Monday 18/9 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 8am Friday.

• DPWT: BMW PGA Championship - Wentworth Club (Surrey, England), $9m purse, Thursday 14/9 to Sunday 17/9 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 5.30pm Thursday (today).

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Thanks again for your support and readership. We’ll be back next week with our debrief of the BMW PGA Championship, but we leave you with our “Shank of the Week” - the Golden Bear showing us even the great ones do it from time to time.