About this time a year ago, Marco Penge of England was outside the top 400 in the world and had just secured his European tour card by making a nervy putt on his final hole.
The last 12 months must feel like a blur.
The European tour suspended him for two months for making small-time bets in 2022 on tournaments he didn't play, before he had gone through the tour's integrity program. Penge owned the mistake and vowed to never do it again.
Instead, he won in China for his first European tour title. He was runner-up in the Scottish Open, won in Denmark and captured his third title in the Spanish Open. That leaves him in range of Rory McIlroy in the Race to Dubai going into the final two events of the season.
Penge is 441 points behind McIlroy going into the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
“I still am in disbelief in a way that I am in the position that I am,” Penge said Tuesday in Abu Dhabi. “Not from the point that I don’t think I’m good enough, just from the point of how fast it’s happened.”
There are other perks. He already has locked up a PGA Tour card awarded to the leading 10 players on the European tour, known commercially as the DP World Tour. Amid chatter he might be a target for LIV Golf, Penge and his wife headed to the United States to start house hunting for the year.
This is a big week for more than just the Race to Dubai. Penge is at No. 29 in the world ranking, and there are some valuable points at stake for next year. The criteria for the $20 million signature events on the PGA Tour include top 30 in the world ranking.
“I’ve looked at the schedule and fully aware that I think that if you’re top 30 in the world before an elevated event, you get into that tournament,” he said. "I’m a numbers guy, so I’ve done a bit of math, worked out where I want to be.
“But yeah, always trying to be playing in the majors and the elevated events and start my season over there and come back over here to play tournaments like this.”
Penge will be playing with McIlroy and Tyrrell Hatton the opening two rounds in Abu Dhabi. It will be his first time playing with McIlroy, who is trying to be Europe's No. 1 for the seventh time, and fourth in a row.
“It’s nothing to be scared of. I just want to enjoy the moment and enjoy the experience, being in this position and playing with the top players of the world,” Penge said.
Back to Lake Merced
The LPGA Tour is returning to Lake Merced in San Francisco for the most unique team event in golf.
The tour said the Hanwha Lifeplus International Crown would be held at Lake Merced in 2027, the second straight time it will be in San Francisco when held in the United States. Thailand won at Harding Park in 2023.
It’s a natural fit for the title sponsor. South Korea-based Hanwha has its AI center in San Francisco. And its joint financial brand, Lifeplus, has been a San Francisco Giants sponsor since 2024.
The LPGA held the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic at Lake Merced from 2014 through 2016, and it had a four-year run with the LPGA Mediheal Championship at Lake Merced. Lydia Ko is a three-time winner at the Alister MacKenzie design.
Previous U.S. courses to host the International crown were Caves Valley outside Baltimore and The Merit Club in the Chicago suburbs.
The best laid plans
James Morrison had spent 15 years and 438 starts on the European tour. Relegated to the developmental circuit now known as the HotelPlanner Tour, the 40-year-old from England had decided that it was time for him to move on.
Recommended for you
And then a strange thing happened on the way to retirement. He shot 65 on Saturday to take the lead, and held his nerve in the final round for a 70 to win the season-ending Rolex Grand Final. That moved him up 30 spots to No. 6 on the points list to secure a European tour card for 2026.
At the trophy presentation, he acknowledged the other 19 players who earned tour cards by saying, “First of all, I’m the oldest player in the field this week and I beat this lot, so you guys have something to work on!”
He mixed humor with pure emotion, especially having 13-year-old son Finley as his caddie for the week.
“When I said this was going to be my last event, it really was going to be, 100 percent,” he said. “This has completely messed that up.”
The new season starts in three weeks in Australia.
“I haven’t got a tour bag. I haven’t got a caddie,” Morrison said. “I’m going to have to figure some stuff out.”
Walker Cup practice
Auburn sophomore Jackson Koivun, the No. 1 amateur in the world, is among 18 players — seven from the winning Walker Cup team at Cypress Point — who have been invited to a practice session next month for the 2026 Walker Cup at Lahinch in Ireland.
The practice session will be at Seminole, Jupiter Hills and MacArthur in south Florida.
Koivun already has locked up a PGA Tour card through the accelerated ranking program for underclassmen but stayed in school. The Walker Cup is moving to even-numbered years, so it will be played in consecutive years. It will be the first weekend in September, and Koivun can still decide to take his PGA Tour membership in June after the NCAA Championship ends.
Agreeing to the practice sessions has no real bearing on that decision. Others invited include high school players Miles Russell, Tyler Watts and Mason Howell, who won the U.S. Amateur to earn his spot on this year’s Walker Cup team.
Divots
Sergio Garcia has his fourth annual charity event called “FORE Kids ATX” in Austin, Texas, this week, and he’s bringing teammates from his Fireballs team on LIV Golf to help him out. Garcia and his wife, Angela, will host the event that already has raised more than $7 million for children’s charities in Texas. The tournament Friday includes Abraham Ancer, David Puig and Josele Ballester. ... The UCLA duo of Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit return as defending champions of the mixed team Grant Thornton Invitational in December. Other teams include the Canadian pair of Brooke Henderson and Corey Conners, Florida State duo Luke Clanton and Lottie Woad, and Nelly Korda and Denny McCarthy. ... The top 10 in the world ranking this week features six Americans and four players from Britain.
Stat of the week
Women's British Open champion Miyu Yamashita became the third LPGA Tour player to top $3 million in earnings this year. Ten years ago, Lydia Ko won the money title with $2.8 million.
Final word
“Probably nine out of 10. Would have been a 10 out of 10 if I had got picked for Bethpage.” — Marco Penge, a three-time winner on the European tour, when asked to rate his year.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.