Austin is a gateway city to the storied Texas Hill Country—home to German beer, Texas wines, barbecue and some excellent golf courses. The rolling hills, dotted with lakes, limestone cliffs and caverns, natural springs and stands of cypress and oak, make for dramatic and challenging layouts.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) Tommy Fleetwood broke the course record at Carnoustie by shooting 9-under 63 to tie for the lead with defending champion Tyrrell Hatton after two rounds of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on Friday.

Hatton also tamed the tough British Open venue, shooting 65 to move to 11 under par for the tournament. The English golfers were a stroke clear of Nicolas Colsaerts, and two ahead of Paul Dunne and Marcel Siem.

Playing his first event since becoming a father for the first time last week, Fleetwood birdied six of the last eight holes to complete a bogey-free round and beat the course record by a shot.

Carnoustie is regarded as the most difficult of the three courses that stage the tournament. Kingsbarns and the Old Course at St. Andrews are the others, with players alternating between the three in the first three rounds before playing at St. Andrews again for the final round.

Fleetwood holds a big lead in the Race to Dubai rankings despite playing in ..

It took Justin Thomas a couple seasons to shed the label of “Jordan Spieth's buddy” and establish his own identity on the PGA Tour (Winning a major and Player of the Year helps). Now, Tom Lovelady is in a similar position when it comes to Justin Thomas.
RELATED: Justin Thomas wrote down his goals for 2017. And then he nailed them.
The former college teammate and more recently, roommate of Thomas made his PGA Tour debut on Thursday. And to prove just how little people know about the Alabama product, his name was spelled wrong on the board being carried around by the standard bearer during the first round at the Safeway Open. Whoops.
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As you can see, Lovelady laughed it off, and he got off to a solid start with a two-under-par 70 at Silverado Resort & Spa. And why wouldn't he be in good spirits? After earning his PGA Tour card last month by finishing in the top 25 of the Web.com Tour regular season money list, Lovelady is just glad to be playing in the b..

Breaking news on the John Daly front, folks. It turns out the two-time major champ can cover a famous song that's NOT Bob Dylan's “Knockin' On Heaven's Door.” Well, sort of.
Daly joined Gavin DeGraw on stage for a rendition of Tom Petty's “I Won't Back Down” during the Safeway Open's Thursday night concert following Day 1 of golf at Siverado Resort & Spa. DeGraw did the heavy lifting in terms of playing the piano and crooning, but to the delight of the crowd, Daly sang along for the tribute to the legendary rocker who suddenly passed away on Monday. Check it out:
https://twitter.com/SafewayOpen/status/916179587247235072
Nicely done, guys. Earlier in the evening, Daly shared a clip of DeGraw performing his hit “Not Over You”:
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Good call, JD. That guy certainly crushes on the piano. Remember his theme song for One Tree Hill? Straight fire.
As for Daly's golf, he shot a disappointing two-over-par 74 in the first round. But if..

How a group of New Orleans natives moved past the destruction brought by the 2005 hurricane and revitalized a community thanks, in part, to golf

The Major Series of Putting is coming to Las Vegas at the end of October. And it looks like its new Las Vegas venue is ready for its closeup. On Thursday, event ambassador and eight-time PGA Tour winner Brad Faxon shared this stunning aerial photo of the stadium:
https://twitter.com/BradFaxon/status/915760632015749120
Pretty sweet. Here are a couple other images shared on the MSOP's Facebook page:
FacebookPinterestFacebookPinterestAnd here's a promo video about the 18-hole putting course, which was created by Nicklaus Design and built adjacent to Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Vegas strip:
In case you haven't heard about the MSOP, the two-week event will feature a variety of putting contests for big stakes. Competitors can either get into contests through qualifiers or by plunking down their own entry fees, similar to the World Series of Poker, which is held every year in Sin City. For more information, check out MSOP.com.
And Faxon, always considered one of the..

Justin Thomas loves shoes. Often opting for FootJoy ICONs on the course and Air Jordans or Yeezys off the course, you'll never see JT wear a blasé pair of kicks. Even considering all that, his latest pair of shoes might be his most unique.
FacebookPinterestFootJoy partnered with Kickasso Kustoms, a company that specializes in turning shoes into art, to create JT's one-off kicks. When the 24-year-old won at TPC Boston in early September, FootJoy approached Kickasso to chat about a possible Player of the Year design. Kickasso used JT's 2017 as inspiration, then went wild.
FacebookPinterestKickasso integrated some highlights from JT's season into the shoe's design (his 69.4 scoring average, his Presidents Cup appearance, FedEx Cup win, CIMB Classic victory, etc). FootJoy said that Kickasso (the nickname of the company's founder, Troy Cole) is “an incredible talent who does his homework before jumping in to a project, so it's been a lot of fun to work wit..

America’s fast-casual dining establishments are dying a slow, grim death. CEOs are publicly shaming millennials on the internet, F&B coordinators are experimenting with mozzarella stick-topped chicken parm, and the barkeeps at Applebee’s have launched their final distress flare: $1 margaritas—ahem, Dollaritas—available every day, open to close, all month long (or until the FDA shuts this whole thing down).
There is no catch. There is no limit. This is not a drill.
FacebookPinterestWhether or not converting friendly Neighborhood Bar & Grills across the nation into street-clothes Hooters will help to pluck the brand from the fanged maw of capitalism remains to be seen, of course, but given America’s apparent fondness for soiling itself while taking a breathalyzer test on the side of a highway at 4pm on a Tuesday, all signs point to maybe.
In other news, Chili’s will add select waitresses to their new “Late Night” menu while TGI Friday’s has announced plans to launch a resale program for ..

FacebookPinterestJamie McCarthyO.J. Simpson, shown here at a charity event in 2004. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/WireImage for Brand Seven Marketing)

Would you play golf with O.J. Simpson? How about President Xi Jinping of China? Or North Korea’s Kim Jong Un?
Gary Player, golf’s indefatigable world ambassador, addressed these questions when he was interviewed by TMZ in a baggage claim area at Los Angeles International Airport.
TMZ, naturally, has been aggressively pursuing the story of Simpson’s release from prison and has reported that he is living temporarily in a friend’s home on a golf course in Las Vegas.
So a TMZ reporter at the airport encountered Player, who was asked about Simpson’s release from prison.
“Well, good for him,” Player said. “When a man has served his term, he must be forgiven. He must go ahead now and live his life.”
But would Player play golf with O.J.?
RELATED: O.J. Simpson already back playing golf, has backyard putting green at new home
“I would play golf…the th..

Jason Day, the former world No. 1 and a TaylorMade loyalist since turning pro in 2006, has emerged as modern golf's poster boy for long irons because of the astonishing distances he hits them, so it's no surprise he's often the go-to club tester for TaylorMade's Senior Director of Iron Creation, Tomo Bystedt.