HAYWARD, Calif. — Stephen Curry, the two-time MVP in the NBA, is set to test his golf game against the pros.
The Web.com Tour said Wednesday that Curry, who recently won his second NBA championship with the Golden State Warriors, will play in the Ellie Mae Classic. The event runs from Aug. 3-6.
It will be the first PGA Tour-sanctioned event for Curry, who has competed in various celebrity events and pro-ams. The Web.com circuit is a feeder program for the PGA Tour.
Curry will maintain his amateur status, competing on an unrestricted sponsor exemption.
Also Wednesday, Nissan’s upscale Infiniti brand announced that Curry would be its global brand ambassador.
SENIOR OPEN: A water polo player-turned-swimsuit model who didn’t pick up a club for decades, Kurt Van Hees told himself during a near-death experience, “If I get out of this alive, all I’m going to do is play golf.”
On Thursday, he will tee off in the U.S. Senior Open.
Van Hees, a 51-year-old Californian, was added to the field as an alternate Sunday and hopped on a red eye to Boston that night, fighting off the migraines and stiffness he still feels from a 2010 attack – he was hit from behind by a steel pipe – that left him unable to play more than four holes at a time.
“I just always felt like if I tried hard enough, I might be able to get to somewhere like this tournament,” Van Hees said before his practice round at Salem Country Club. “It’s amazing, the guys that I’m seeing that I’m playing with and stuff just blows my mind. So it’s been a pretty cool thing.”
PGA: The Quicken Loans National is doing its best to press on without Tiger Woods – who has attended even when not playing – but the buzz surrounding the event – which this year comes to Potomac, Maryland, for the first time – has faded.
“We all would love for him to be here, but at the end of the day, for him to put his foot down and go ahead and take care of himself and try to get better, that’s more important than playing golf or being here for a tournament,” Patrick Reed said. “We all wish him the best and we want him out here, every one of us.”
Rickie Fowler, who has an endorsement deal with Quicken Loans, is the only player from the world’s top 10 in the field, and just two more are inside the top 20: Justin Thomas and Reed.
LPGA: So Yeon Ryu wants to halt what has resembled a game of musical chairs on the Tour this season.
The newly minted world No. 1 will be going for her third win when the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship – the second major of the season – tees off Thursday at Olympia Fields, Illinois, on her 27th birthday. She comes in off a dominating win last week in the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, which made her the first repeat winner in 16 events this season.
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