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Royal St. George's in Sandwich, England, will host the 149th British Open in 2020, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews announced. This will be the 15th time the 130-year-old club in southeastern England will host the oldest golf championship in the world, with Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland winning the most recent in 2011.
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"It was an unbelievable feeling to lift the Claret Jug and know that my name was displayed on the trophy alongside so many of the greatest players ever to play the game," Clarke said.
"The Open is what it is all about for me as a golfer, and it is the championship I always dreamt of winning from when I first took up the game as a kid. I have so many wonderful memories from that week at Sandwich, and I will be thrilled to go back there for The Open in three years' time."
Royal St. George's first hosted The Open in 1894, the first time the tournament was played outside of Scotland, and J.H. Taylor became the first English professional to win the title.
Among the winners of the Claret Jug at Royal St. George's have been Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen, Henry Cotton, Bobby Locke, Sandy Lyle and Greg Norman, who claimed a two-stroke victory over Nick Faldo in 1993.
"We are very much looking forward to the return of The Open to Royal St. George's in 2020," R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said. "The Open is a true celebration of sport, and the global spotlight will fall once again on Sandwich.
"Royal St. George's has produced a series of outstanding champion golfers over the last 120 years, and it is a thrilling prospect for golf fans to see the greatest players competing on one of the world's finest links courses."
It is believed that the 150th Open Championship will be played in 2021 on the Old Course at St. Andrews, but that has yet to be announced.
--Jason Day will have to wait a while longer to try to regain the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking that he lost to Dustin Johnson recently.
Day, who missed the last three months of 2016 because of a back injury, withdrew from the WGC-Mexico Championship this week at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City because of an illness.
"I'm truly disappointed to announce that I won't be able to play in (the) World Golf Championship-Mexico Championship," the Aussie, now ranked No. 2, said in a statement. "I have a double ear infection and the flu, which precludes me from preparing for and playing in the tournament.
"I have heard great things about the Mexico Championship and the golf course. ... I look forward to teeing it up there next year."
Day hopes to be able to defend his title in two weeks in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Resort and Club in Orlando, Fla.
Until Day withdrew, the top 50 players in the world rankings were set to play in the Mexico City tournament.
--Johnson Wagner was elected chairman of the Player Advisory Council for 2017 by members of the PGA Tour.
Wagner will succeed Jason Bohn (2015-17) on the PGA Tour Policy Board next year and will a serve a three-year term (2018-2020) as player director along with Charley Hoffman (2017-2019), Kevin Streelman (2017-19) and Davis Love III (2016-18).
The 16-member PAC advises and consults with the PGA Tour Policy Board and commissioner Jay Monahan.
Wagner, 36, who lives in Charlotte, N.C., is in his 11th season on the PGA Tour. He has three victories on the circuit, the 2008 Shell Houston Open, the 2011 OHL Classic at Mayakoba and the 2012 Sony Open in Hawaii.
The 2017 Players Advisory Council includes Wagner, Paul Casey, Roberto Castro, Ben Crane, Andres Gonzales, James Hahn, J.J. Henry, Billy Hurley III, Matt Kuchar, Geoff Ogilvy, Rod Pampling, Jordan Spieth, Steve Stricker, Justin Thomas, Harold Varner III and Tim Wilkinson.
--Roberto Diaz earned a spot in the field for this week's World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship as the highest-ranked Mexican player in the Official World Golf Ranking.
The 30-year-old Diaz, a graduate of South Carolina-Aiken from Vera Cruz, Mexico, wrapped up his spot in the field despite losing in a playoff to Ethan Tracy in the Web.com Tour's Club Colombia Championship three weeks ago.
After Diaz seemed to wrap up the victory with a 7-under-par 64, Tracy holed his 101-yard approach shot from the fairway for an eagle to force the playoff.
Diaz's career-best runner-up finish helped him jump 257 spots in the world rankings, and he locked up his spot in the WGC-Mexico Championship with a tie for 19th in the Web.com Tour's Panama Claro Championship, climbing to No. 472 in the rankings.
Diaz beat out countryman Rodolfo Cazaubon (No. 510) for a spot in the field at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City, and he will be playing his fourth PGA Tour event.
A new eligibility qualification category allowed the top-ranked Mexican player in the world rankings to qualify for the tournament, which moved this season from Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami.
Other players who had not yet qualified for the WGC event made it into the field by being inside the top 50 in the rankings on the same date, including Thomas Pieters of Belgium, Jon Rahm of Spain, Fabrizio Zanotti of Paraguay and Pablo Larrazabal of Spain.
--Peter Jacobsen, a seven-time winner on the PGA Tour and a golf analyst for Golf Channel and NBC, was selected by the Golf Writers Association of America as recipient of the 2017 Charlie Bartlett Award for unselfish contributions to the betterment of society.
The 62-year-old Jacobsen, who played on the U.S. Ryder Cup team twice and also has won two majors among on the PGA Tour Champions, owns a company that manages golf tournaments.
"It's fun to be part of this game, and it's a great honor to receive this," said Jacobsen, a native of Portland who played college golf at Oregon. "My dad taught me the game, and when I started out I didn't know how good I was, but I knew I had passion and that the game brought me a lot of joy.
"I love the game, I love the challenge of the game, I love the people in the game and the people you meet through the game. It's like we're all in this together."
Tournaments managed by Jacobsen have contributed more than $40 million to charitable organizations, and his allegiances include Folds of Honor, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Wounded Warrior Project, Summit Golf Foundation and The First Tee and others.
Jacobsen will receive his award at the 45th GWAA Annual Awards Dinner on April 5, the night before the start of the Masters in Augusta, Ga.
