2021 PGA Tour
[Pebble Beach Pro-Am tee times] Sung Kang (SH), 12:52 a.m., Friday, Sangmoon Bae (PB) 1:47 a.m., K.J
김영호 ・ 2021. 2. 11. 3:11
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[Pebble Beach Pro-Am tee times] Sung Kang (SH), 12:52 a.m., Friday, Sangmoon Bae (PB) 1:47 a.m., K.J. Choi (SH) 1:58 a.m., Si Woo Kim (PB) 2:20 a.m., Seung-Yul Noh (PB) 2:31 a.m.*...Anthony Sowell, Ohio man who killed 11 women, dies in prison...
安寧하십니까? 2021年 2月 10日(水) 午前 7時 36分입니다.
오늘은 가장 빨리 나가서 아침까지 먹었는데도 여덟 時가 안 되었습니다. 美上院에서 도널드 트럼프의 彈劾 裁判이 始作되었습니다. 앞으로 一週日이 재미있겠습니다.
(9:35) 200名帶까지 떨어졌던 코로나 바이러스 確診者가 다시 141名이 늘어 444名이 되었습니다 (지역: 414名, 해외: 30名). 부천시 영생敎 승리 제단, 오정 능력 보습 학원(合計 53名) 집단 감염이 원인이었다.
(午後 1時 12分) 잘 자고 일어났는데 2層에서 피닉스 마지막 장명을 JTBC골프로 다시 보았습니다.
(11日, 木, 새벽 0時 17分) 저녁 6時에 자서 지금 일어납니다. (0:58) 어제 코로나 바이러스 確診者는 日本 1,885名 (77%), 中國 14名 (1%), 韓國 444名 (18%), 싱가포르 15名 (1%), 濠洲 11名, 홍콩 43名 (2%), 뉴질랜드 2名, 베트남 27名 (1%), 臺灣 2名 等 10個國 2,443名입니다.
(2:40) on 고치는데 무려 한 時間 40分 [2024.2.11, 日, 아침 7時 26分...How did this f*cking happen?]이 걸립니다.
裵상문이 티 타임을 얻었습니다!!!
Two large container ships and a tanker can be seen under construction in a ship yard close to Busan, South Korea October 25, 2017.
South Korea January jobs fall at sharpest pace in more than two decades
By Cynthia Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s unemployment rate soared to a 21-year high in January, while the number of people employed fell at the sharpest pace in more than two decades, as curbs to contain the coronavirus continue to hurt the job market.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate jumped to 5.4% in January, the highest since 1999, data from the Statistics Korea showed.
Wednesday’s data comes as yet another blow to self-styled “Jobs President” Moon Jae-in, as jobs vanishing at the fastest pace in decades amid the coronavirus pandemic hurt his party ahead of April elections to pick mayors for the two largest cities, Seoul and Busan.
The number of employed declined by 982,000 in January from a year earlier, the fastest pace since 1998, as toughened COVID-19 distancing measures amid a third wave of infections struck businesses.
“Strengthened measures that has been kept in place to contain the third wave of the COVID-19 have led to job losses, especially hurting the service sector,” the finance ministry said in a statement after the data was released.
Breakdowns showed workers at retailers, accommodation facilities and restaurants were the hardest hit, losing 586,000 jobs from a year earlier.
South Korea has been trying clamp down 'on the number of infections by imposing strict social distancing measures, including a ban 'on indoor restaurant dining after 9 p.m. It has since eased that curfew 'on more than half a million restaurants and other businesses outside the capital Seoul after a backlash.
The dating app Tinder is shown 'on a mobile phone in this picture illustration taken September 1, 2020.
Match Group looks beyond love with $1.73 billion Hyperconnect deal
(Reuters) - Match Group Inc has agreed to buy Softbank Group-backed South Korean social media firm Hyperconnect for $1.73 billion, as the owner of Tinder and Hinge looks beyond romantic connections to help users make friends across geographies.
The cash-and-stock deal announced by the companies 'on Tuesday marks the biggest acquisition deal so far by Match, which has kept users hooked to its offerings amid the COVID-19 pandemic by adding a slew of new features.
Seoul-based Hyperconnect was launched in 2014 and offers mainly two apps, Azar and Hakuna Live.
Azar, which has reported 540 million cumulative downloads so far, allows users to connect with others from around the world and instantly translates voice and text messages.
Hakuna Live, a live streaming app that allows a group of people to connect through video and audio broadcasts, has been downloaded more than 23 million times, with strong momentum in South Korea and Japan.
“With more than 75% of usage and revenue coming from markets spread across Asia, their product suite and regional footprint squarely complements our own,” Match Group Chief Executive Officer Shar Dubey said.
Match last week said Japan had become its second-highest grossing market behind the United States, with revenue in the Asian country surging more than 600% in the past five years.
Hyperconnect is profitable, the companies said, adding that it reported a 50% jump in 2020 revenue to more than $200 million.
Match’s flagship app Tinder, with 66 million average monthly active users, dominated the dating market worldwide with 53.8% of the market share during the final quarter of 2020, according to analytics firm Apptopia.
The deal with Hyperconnect is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021, and Match looks to fund the cash portion through cash 'on hand and existing debt.
Kwon Joon looks at a monitor as he checks investing information at his room in Jeju, South Korea, February 8, 2021.
South Korean boy investor with 43% gains is new retail trading icon
By Cynthia Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) - Watching the business news first thing is a new routine for 12-year-old South Korean Kwon Joon, as he dreams of becoming the next Warren Buffett after earning stellar returns of 43% from a hobby picked up just last year: buying stocks.
Kwon pestered his mother to open a retail trading account last April with savings of 25 million won ($22,400) as seed money, just as the benchmark KOSPI index began recovering from its biggest dip in a decade.
“I really talked my parents into it, because I believed an expert who was saying (on TV) that this is a once-in-a-decade opportunity,” said Kwon, who rode the steepest jump by year-end among MSCI’s country indexes..
“My role model is Warren Buffett,” he added, in a reference to the U.S. billionaire investor.
“Rather than short-term focused day trading, I want to keep my investment for 10 to 20 years with a long-term perspective, hopefully to maximize my returns.”
South Korea’s rookie investors like Kwon, who pursues “value investing” in blue chip shares with funds garnered from gifts, trading mini-car toys and running vending machines, have led the blistering rise of retail trade amid the coronavirus pandemic.
More retail investors are teenagers or even younger, making up more than two-thirds of the total value traded in the nation’s shares, versus less than 50% in 2019.
The trend has grown as equity markets lure parents disillusioned with the education system and millennials working from home.
“I wonder, in this day and age, whether a college degree would be all that important,” said Kwon’s mother, Lee Eun-joo, who fuelled his passion by looking to expose him to business rather than tuition, seen as key to getting ahead in academics.
“Because we live in a different world now, it could be better to become an ‘only-one’ kind of person,” added Lee, who feared even a good schooling might not arm her son against dwindling job opportunities.
About 70% of the 214,800 stock brokerage accounts for minors at Kiwoom Securities, South Korea’s most retail-friendly brokerage, with a market share of more than a fifth, were set up in January 2020 or after, its data shows.
Kwon, with time 'on his hands during last year’s school closures for the pandemic, drew up a wish list of purchases, which he made during market corrections.
These ranged from South Korea’s largest messenger app operator Kakao Corp., to the world’s biggest memory chip maker Samsung Electronics Co., and Hyundai Motor.
Kwon’s success also reflects the employment challenges for young South Koreans, with 'one in four out of work by January, the worst level 'on record, despite being among the most highly educated cohort in the OECD club of advanced nations.
Three-quarters go 'on to college after high school, versus the grouping’s 44.5% average, but finding rewarding, creative work is tough. “There aren’t enough jobs for college graduates, so many are opting out to diversify their career path early,” said vocational researcher Min Sook-weon.
That is something Kwon understands.
“Rather than going to good schools like the Seoul National University, I’d rather become a big investor,” he said. “I also hope to do a lot of charity work.”
($1=1,115.1600 won)
The logo of Hyundai Motors is seen 'on a steering wheel 'on display at the company's headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, March 22, 2019.
South Korea regulator sees no grounds now for probing Hyundai exec share sales after Apple deal reports: official
By Joyce Lee
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s financial watchdog sees no grounds currently for a probe after an upswell of investor frustration 'online over share sales by Hyundai Motor executives in the wake of reports of a tie-up with Apple, an official said 'on Tuesday.
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) official said the regulator would need to see factual evidence of share trading based 'on undisclosed information to engage in an investigation. The official declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to media.
“At this point, it is difficult to say this is trading based 'on undisclosed information,” the official said.
Some retail investors expressed concern in online stock forums about the possibility of insider trading after a dozen Hyundai mid-ranking executives sold stock in the automaker 'on the Korea Exchange in recent weeks.
Hyundai’s stock price rose sharply after domestic media reported early in January about possible cooperation between the company and the tech giant 'on self-driving electric vehicles.
An FSS spokesperson said the regulator was “monitoring” the situation. The FSS does not officially confirm whether it is conducting probes into share trading.
Hyundai did not have comment 'on the matter when reached by Reuters. The Korea Exchange said it does not comment 'on individual company stocks.
'On Monday, Hyundai said in a filing it was not now in talks with Apple 'on autonomous vehicles, just a month after it confirmed early-stage talks with the tech giant. Shares in Hyundai had jumped 21% between the initial confirmation and Monday’s announcement that the talks were off.
Since the initial domestic media report of Hyundai-Apple cooperation 'on Jan. 8, a total of 12 Hyundai Motor executives traded about 3,400 shares worth about 833 million won ($747,152), according to Reuters calculations based 'on the company’s regulatory filings.
‘PROFIT TAKING’
Analysts said sales by executives of shares in the company they work for was standard practice.
“It’s a routine procedure that company executives sell or buy their company stocks,” said Kevin Yoo, an analyst at eBEST Investment & Securities.
“The amount Hyundai Motor executives have sold after the media report is not a lot of money, and executives often sell or buy company stocks to turn them into profit.”
In the October-to-December period, before local media reports 'on Apple talks, various Hyundai Motor executives conducted transactions in the company’s shares worth about 580 billion won, Reuters calculations based 'on regulatory filings show.
Hyundai’s smaller affiliate Kia, which had been tipped in media reports as recently as last week as the likely operational partner for Apple’s car project, held an investor day event 'on Tuesday but made no mention of Apple.
Instead, it said it aims to boost its annual electric vehicle sales to 880,000 in 2030, a huge increase from this year’s sales target of 59,000 vehicles.
Chief Financial Officer Joo Woo Jeong said Kia’s electric vehicle business broke even in 2020. “We expect to achieve profitability in line with that of internal combustion engine cars by 2025,” Joo said during an Investor Day event.
Joo noted that Kia plans to pursue cost reductions of 19% for the next two years by standardising battery module structure and expanding procurement through competitive bids.
Hyundai Motor shares closed up 1.1%, compared to a 0.2% drop in the broader market. ($1=1,114.9 won)
A different Pebble Beach Pro-Am without fans or celebrities
PGA TOUR
PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM
Site: Pebble Beach, California.
Courses: Pebble Beach GL (Yardage: 7,051. Par: 72) and Spyglass Hill GC (Yardage: 7,041; Par: 72).
Prize money: $7.8 million. Winner’s share: $1.4 million.
Television: Thursday-Friday, 3-6 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (CBS).
Defending champion: Nick Taylor.
FedEx Cup leader: Xander Schauffele.
Last week: Brooks Koepka won the Phoenix Open.
Notes: The tournament will not have amateurs for the first time because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Without amateurs or spectators, it will be played 'on two courses — Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill. ... Dustin Johnson, No. 1 in the world, withdrew from the field. He is coming off a victory in Saudi Arabia and chose to stay home to rest. That leaves Pebble Beach without a player from the top 10 in the world. ... This is the weakest field at Pebble Beach since the world ranking began in 1986. ... Phil Mickelson and Paul Casey are among those who were playing in Saudi Arabia last week. ... Rickie Fowler is playing the tournament for the first time since 2012. Fowler is No. 63 in the world and not yet eligible for the Masters. ... John Daly is making a rare start 'on the PGA Tour, as is David Duval. ... Jordan Spieth is coming off his first top 10 since the 2019 PGA Championship. ... Will Zalatoris, who earned special temporary membership 'on the PGA Tour, received a late sponsor exemption. He cracked the top 50 in the world last week. ... Kamaiu Johnson, whose first PGA Tour appearance was delayed when he tested positive for the coronavirus at Torrey Pines, was given a sponsor exemption. He is among two Advocates Pro Golf Association Tour members in the field. The other is Kevin Hall, a former Big 10 champion from Ohio State who is deaf. ... Matt Gogel is playing 'on a sponsor exemption. He won the tournament in 2002.
Next week: Genesis Invitational.
'Online: https://www.pgatour.com/
___
LPGA TOUR
Last tournament: Jessica Korda won the ToC.
Next tournament: Gainbridge LPGA on Feb. 25-28.
Race to CME Globe leader: Jessica Korda.
'Online: https://www.lpga.com/
___
EUROPEAN TOUR
Last week: Dustin Johnson won the Saudi International.
Next tournament: WGC in Florida 'on Feb. 25-28.
Race to Dubai leader: Tyrrell Hatton.
'Online: https://www.europeantour.com/european-tour/
___
PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS
Last tournament: Darren Clarke won the Mitsubishi Electric Championship.
Next tournament: Cologuard Classic 'on Feb. 26-28.
Charles Schwab Cup leader: Bernhard Langer.
'Online: https://www.pgatour.com/champions.html
___
OTHER TOURS
PGA Tour of Australasia: Moonah Links PGA Classic, Moonah Links (Open), Fingal, Australia. Defending champion: New event. 'Online: https://pga.org.au/
PGA Championship to allow use of distance-measuring devices
By Frank Pingue
(Reuters) - The PGA of America said 'on Tuesday it will allow distance-measuring devices to be used during competition at the three major tournaments it operates, including the PGA Championship, in a bid to speed up play.
The policy, which also allows for such devices to be used at the Women’s PGA Championship and Senior PGA Championship, will debut with the May 20-23 PGA Championship that will be played at the Ocean Course in Kiawah Island, South Carolina.
“We’re always interested in methods that may help improve the flow of play during our Championships,” PGA of America President Jim Richerson said in a statement.
“The use of distance-measuring devices is already common within the game and is now a part of the Rules of Golf. Players and caddies have long used them during practice rounds to gather relevant yardages.”
According to the PGA of America, the devices allowed can report 'only 'on distance and direction. Devices that calculate elevation changes or that suggest a club for a player will not be allowed.
The rule could mean players and caddies spend less time figuring out tricky yardages as they give competitors the ability to zero in 'on a flagstick or other object in the distance to get a more precise measurement.
The use of such devices had previously been allowed in practice rounds but never during competition 'on the sport’s biggest tours or at its major tournaments.
World number 49 Will Zalatoris, who will be seeking his fifth top-10 finish of the PGA Tour season at this week’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am, said he favoured the new rule.
“I’m hoping it helps, I’m all for whatever makes the game faster,” Zalatoris told reporters. “I don’t really see a downside to it.”
Dustin Johnson watches a shot during the second round of the ToC Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii.
Cognizant sets standard with marketing money in PGA and LPGA
WP/AP, Doug Ferguson, Feb. 9, 2021
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Cognizant set a new standard for golf sponsorship 'on Tuesday when the New Jersey-based professional services company announced a marketing partnership with men’s and women’s golf, an impact that will be felt strongly 'on the LPGA Tour.
For starters, Cognizant becoming title sponsor of the Founders Cup will double the purse at the LPGA Tour event to $3 million.
The company also announced it would become a global partner for the Presidents Cup through 2026, joining Citi and Rolex.
Golf fights for sponsorship dollars all the time, and the PGA Tour has the greatest wealth. So it was a big statement for Cognizant to get involved with both the men’s and women’s biggest tours. Among other companies that have marketing deals with the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour are HSBC, BMW and Perio Inc. (Barbasol and Pure Silk). KPMG, which sponsors an LPGA major, has endorsem*nt deals with the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour.
The Founders Cup was created to honor the 13 women who founded the LPGA Tour, and it had been held in Arizona since its inception. The LPGA Tour moved it this year to Mountain Ridge in New Jersey, a Donald Ross restoration in which 'one-third of the rounds played are by women. It will move from the early part of the year to Oct. 7-10.
“I have to admit that this event is personal, as making sure we never forget the grit, commitment and passion of our founders has always been critically important to me,” LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan said. “I’m so honored and proud to see Cognizant embrace this event and all that it means to young women worldwide.”
“The PGA Tour and LPGA Tour are such natural partners for Cognizant,” said Brian Humphries, the CEO of Cognizant. “They remain two of the most relevant and respected properties around the globe, particularly in many of our key markets, and we’ll now have the golf platform to engage with current and prospective clients in new authentic and engaging setting.”
MEASURING DEVICES IN MAJORS
The PGA of America took a bold step in the modern game by announcing that distance-measuring devices will be allowed at the PGA Championship, the Women’s PGA Championship and the Senior PGA Championship. It will be the first time such devices, known commonly as range finders, will be allowed in competition at events sanctioned by major tours.
The devices are allowed under the Rules of Golf, though the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour have allowed them 'only in practice rounds. They are seen as a way to speed play so caddies and players don’t have to step off yardages.
The rules do not allow for devices that measure elevation changes or anything that interprets distance and targets.
“We’re always interested in methods that may help improve the flow of play during our championships,” PGA President Jim Richerson said. “The use of distance-measuring devices is already common within the game and is now a part of the Rules of Golf. Players and caddies have long used them during practice rounds to gather relevant yardages.”
The PGA Championship is May 20-23 at Kiawah Island in South Carolina. The Senior PGA is a week later at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, followed by the Women’s PGA in June at Atlanta Athletic Club.
AUGUSTA NATIONAL WOMEN’S AMATEUR
The Augusta National Women’s Amateur returns with an even stronger field for its second edition, this 'one delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The field of 85 players features Rose Zhang, the U.S. Women’s Amateur champion and No. 1 female amateur in the world ranking. She is among nine players from the top 10 who will be at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, which starts March 31 at Champions Retreat for the opening two rounds. After the 36-hole cut to 30 players, and a practice round Friday, the final round will be April 3 'on Augusta National.
The final round will be televised by NBC Sports.
Jennifer Kupcho won the inaugural event in 2019 after a back-nine charge to beat close friend Maria Fassi. The tournament was canceled last April, when it was announced the Masters would be postponed to November.
The the 'only player from the top 10 missing from the Augusta National Women’s Amateur is Gabriela Ruffels, who won the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 2019 and was runner-up to Zhang last year. Of the top 25 in the women’s amateur ranking, 'only Ruffels and Ye Won Lee (No. 23) are not playing.
Ruffels was among six amateur who played in the ANA Inspiration, the LPGA major postponed to September. She tied for 15th. Zhang was low amateur and tied for 11th.
OLYMPIC QUEST
Justin Rose tied for second in the Saudi International, his best finish in just over the year. He earned 27 world ranking points, his most since he tied for third in the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. So a good result was a long time coming.
“That was the best golf I’ve played in quite some time,” he said after closing with a 65.
He still has plenty of work to do. Rose was No. 3 in the world when he tied for third in the 2019 U.S. Open. He was at No. 38 going into Saudi Arabia and moved up to No. 33. But with the possibility of the Olympics looming this summer, he currently is not in position to defend his gold medal.
Rose is at No. 5 among British golfers behind Tyrrell Hatton (No. 5), Paul Casey (No. 17), Matt Fitzpatrick (No. 20) and Tommy Fleetwood (No. 21). Two qualify for each country, with a maximum of four if ranked inside the top 15.
Henrik Stenson was No. 4 in the world when he won his silver medal in Rio de Janeiro. He now is No. 80, though still the highest-ranked player from Sweden.
WATCH WARS
The PGA of America is back with Rolex, ending a decade of the so-called watch wars.
The partnership this week returns Rolex to the PGA of America’s three majors, starting with the PGA Championship, and the Ryder Cup when it’s in America.
The PGA in 2011 left Rolex for Omega. The two Swiss-based watchmakers have a rivalry fiercer than anything the U.S. and Europe produce in a Ryder Cup. That meant Rolex could not have a presence in the Ryder Cup in the U.S., and Omega could not be at the Ryder Cup in Europe (which has a longtime deal with Rolex).
As part of the deal, Rolex will be the “presenting partner” of the PGA’s three player-of-the-year awards, along with the PGA Professional Championship.
DIVOTS
Justin Rose and his wife, Kate, announced a $1 million donation to the “Blessing in a Backpack” Orlando chapter to help feed elementary school students who might otherwise go hungry 'on the weekend. ... Andrew Putnam became the second player this season to play a PGA Tour event without a bogey. Putnam tied for seventh in the Phoenix Open. Mark Anderson played bogey-free in the Safeway Open to start the season last September. He tied for 36th. ... Dustin Johnson has 21 victories worldwide the last 10 years, second 'only to Rory McIlroy (24) during that stretch. ... Saudi Arabia is extending its support of women’s golf by creating the Aramco Team Series this year 'on the Ladies European Tour, a a series of four team events in New York, London, Singapore and Saudi Arabia. Each event will have a $1 million purse. Four-player teams will have a captain that drafts 'one professional, gets another randomly and the fourth will be an amateur. Prize money is split among the three pros.
STAT OF THE WEEK
Mexico never had a player in the top 50 in the OWGR going into 2019. Now there are two with Abraham Ancer (No. 27) and Carlos Ortiz (No. 45).
FINAL WORD
“I approach every tournament the same. I don’t try to get my game just ready for the majors. I want to be ready each and every week I play.” — Dustin Johnson.
Golf - The Masters - Augusta National GC - Augusta, Georgia, U.S. - November 15, 2020 Dustin Johnson of the U.S. celebrates 'on the 18th green after winning The Masters
Golf: Johnson withdraws from AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am to rest
(Reuters) - World number 'one Dustin Johnson, fresh off his triumph at the European Tour’s Saudi International, has withdrawn from this week’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am, his manager said 'on Tuesday.
Johnson, whose latest win marked his ninth European Tour title, felt it would be best to enjoy a week at home before competing at the Feb. 18-21 Genesis Invitational and Feb. 25-28 WGC at The Concession.
“Other than being a bit jet lagged, he is feeling great and looking forward to the weeks ahead,” Johnson’s agent David Winkle said in a statement.
“While he is disappointed to miss the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which is always 'one of his favorite weeks, he feels his decision is for the best.”
Johnson won the Saudi International for a second time in three years after he closed with a two-under-par 68 to finish at 15-under, two shots ahead of his fellow American Tony Finau and Englishman Justin Rose.
Since picking up his second major title with a victory at the Masters last November, Johnson’s 'only PGA Tour start came at last month’s ToC in Kapalua where he finished in a share of 11th place.
Dustin Johnson withdraws from Pebble Beach Pro-Am
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Fresh off his victory in Saudi Arabia, Dustin Johnson decided Tuesday to withdraw from the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, leaving the tournament without a player from the top 10 in the world ranking.
Johnson is a two-time winner at Pebble Beach. He typically plays with his de facto father-in-law, hockey great Wayne Gretzky, except that amateurs are not in the field this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Johnson has played the Saudi International and Pebble Beach in consecutive weeks each of the last two years, and this was the second time he has won in Saudi Arabia.
His manager, David Winkle at Hambric Sports Management, said the world’s No. 1 player decided he would be better off enjoying a week at home before going to Los Angeles for the Genesis Invitational at Riviera. The following week, he is scheduled to play a WGC event on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
“Other than being a bit jet-lagged, he is feeling great and looking forward to the weeks ahead,” Winkle said. ”While he is disappointed to miss the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which is always 'one of his favorite weeks, he feels his decision is for the best.”
Patrick Cantlay at No. 11 is the highest-ranked player at Pebble Beach, which is likely to have its weakest field since the world ranking began in 1986.
In this Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019, file photo, Dustin Johnson, left, and Wayne Gretzky stand on the seventh tee of the Pebble Beach GL during the third round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, in Pebble Beach, Calif. The Feb. 11-14 tournament will not have celebrities for the first time because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sorenstam to return to LPGA Tour for Gainbridge tournament
By DOUG FERGUSON, February 9, 2021
More than a decade after Annika Sorenstam won her last LPGA Tour event, she’s ready to tee it up again.
The LPGA Tour announced on Twitter the 50-year-old Sorenstam has committed to play the Gainbridge LPGA in Orlando, Florida, scheduled for Feb. 25-28 on her home course of Lake Nona.
It will be her first official event since she missed the cut in the season-ending ADT Championship at Trump International in 2008, her final season of a Hall of Fame career that included 72 wins on the LPGA Tour and 10 majors. Her last victory was the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill in 2008, and a month later she announced she was retiring.
Sorenstam recently played the PNC Challenge in December with her father, Tom. She said then her son was starting to play and motivating her to get back on the golf course. Sorenstam had said she was interested in a few senior events but did not hint at playing an official LPGA event.
She was part of the celebrity field at the season-opening ToC last month.
Sorenstam has kept busy since retirement, with two children at home and a foundation that includes a focus on junior golf. She also was appointed president of the International Golf Federation, which oversees the Olympics. She took over for former R&A chief executive Peter Dawson.
Sorenstam received heavy criticism for accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom from former President Donald Trump on Jan. 7, one day after a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol as Congress was certifying the election victory of President Joe Biden. Trump faces impeachment for “incitement of insurrection.”
Sorenstam and Gary Player accepted the medals from Trump. They were supposed to received the award in March 2020 until it was postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sorenstam later told Golf Channel that “I’m not one to second-guess,” and that while she referred to the insurrection as a dark day in American history, she did not say she regretted receiving the medal.
“I like to look forward, not spend energy on what could have been,” Sorenstam told Golf Channel. “It’s all about opening doors. That’s one thing I’ve learned. I’ve heard from a lot of people – you can imagine, a lot of opinions, a lot of comments. I hear clearly what those people say. I know they see it differently. But I listen and I embrace them all.”
Annika Sorenstam, of Sweden, hits her tee shot on the second hole during the final round of the ToC, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Celine Boutier, left, of France, and Annika Sorenstam, of Sweden, chat while walking down the 17th fairway during the final round of the ToC, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Golf - Ryder Cup - 2020 Ryder Cup Press Conference - Wentworth GC, Virginia Water, Britain - September 18, 2019 The 2020 Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington during a press conference
Golf: Ryder Cup captain Harrington tests positive for COVID-19
(Reuters) - Padraig Harrington, who will captain Team Europe at the Ryder Cup in September, has tested positive for COVID-19 and withdrawn from this week’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the PGA Tour said on Tuesday.
The 49-year-old Harrington, who missed the cut at last week’s Phoenix Open after carding rounds of 71 and 73, must self-isolate before he can return to competition, the PGA Tour said in a statement.
The Irishman, who won back-to-back British Opens from 2007 before winning his third major at the 2008 PGA Championship, was appointed Europe’s Ryder Cup captain in 2019.
His debut as captain in the hotly-contested biennial team competition between the United States and Europe, was originally scheduled to be last September but the event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2021 Ryder Cup will take place from Sept. 25-27 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
EXPERT PICKS: PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM
EXPERT
LINEUP
WINNER
COMMENT
SM
Daniel Berger
Patrick Cantlay
Cameron Tringale
Will Zalatoris
Paul Casey
Francsco Molinari
Patrick Cantlay
The last time we saw him, he was torching PGA West for a final-round 61. He’s been almost unstoppable in California this season.
RB
Patrick Cantlay
Paul Casey
Jordan Spieth
Kevin Streelman
Daniel Berger
Jason Day
Patrick Cantlay
For the last time this season, course rotation could influence my final decisions, so this lineup remains subject to change until tee times are released.
BE
Jason Day
Paul Casey
Cameron Davis
Patrick Cantlay
Matt Jones
Jordan Spieth
Jason Day
J-Day has seven top-6 results here from 11 starts. He will win this eventually. Koepka just won off some missed cuts. Now Day will do the same.
MG
Paul Casey
Jason Day
Jordan Spieth
Will Zalatoris
Daniel Berger
Kevin Streelman
Jason Day
Continues to pound the top 10 (seven times) from 11 events and has never missed the cut. #HFC
JS
Cameron Davis
Jason Day
Max Homa
Harold Varner III
Andrew Putnam
Kevin Streelman
Jason Day
Like Koepka, a former No. 1 player coming off a few MCs and returning to a tourney where he owns some success.
CM
Daniel Berger
Patrick Cantlay
Matt Jones
Will Zalatoris
Francesco Molinari
Kevin Streelman
Will Zalatoris
Has the game, is unafraid, and comes in playing well after Phoenix.
Jason Day has seen plenty of success at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Fantasy Insider: Pebble Beach Pro-Am
Because it seems obvious, at least to me, I never make comparisons between professional golfers and weekend hackers or even single-digit handicaps. You might be a good stick, and I understand the attraction of giving it a go on any PGA TOUR course in tournament conditions – I’d love to take BP at Wrigley with the flags whipping toward the direction of Kenmore – but those who play at a level high enough to make it a profession are built differently, both for the short- and long-term.
This is to say that while it’s probably on your bucket list to play Pebble Beach (in any conditions) if you already haven’t, touring professionals come at it from a much different perspective. It’s their job, so the correlation is within that headspace. Given the plethora of early withdrawals from the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a review of the phenomenon is timely.
One of the influences to go to work is the weather. For those who elect not to play, this week’s forecast cannot be ruled out as a deterrent. It’s going to be chilly (mid-50s throughout) and it’ll feel colder with steady winds off the ocean that will intensify by the final round. Rain also is all but certain to fall on everyone at some point.
But even if conditions were perfect, a potentially more influential wrinkle triggered by the pandemic may be behind at least a couple of the decisions.
Last week’s Phoenix Open was the finish line to qualify for The Genesis Invitational via the special FedExCup points list that was extended from the beginning of the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season. Typically, the season-ending top 125 automatically qualify for select invitationals, Genesis included. However, because of the loss of three months of competition, membership agreed to modify the qualifying process.
In a sport with constant adjusting to personal scheduling, K.H. Lee is a perfect example. His share of second place at TPC Scottsdale launched him into 85th position in the ranking. Come Monday, he withdrew from Pebble Beach. But now, we should expect to see him at Riviera next week.
In Notable WDs below, I cite finishing placement in the special points list. All referenced inside the top 125 were virtual locks to retain position, but it’s always easier to withdraw from the next tournament after confirmation of qualification.
Granted, there were quite a few early WDs this week, and not all were due to this reasonable explanation, but it has happened before and it probably will happen again to some degree. The other two invitationals that will be using a special FedExCup points list are THE PLAYERS Championship (top 125 through the WGC at the Concession/Puerto Rico Open) and the Heritage (top 125 through the Texas Open).
As it concerns PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, it’s the last multiple-course tournament of the season, so shot-level data will not be used for golfers on either course because Spyglass Hill isn’t lasered by ShotLink. Therefore, only actual scoring and bonus points will be contributing to fantasy scoring.
PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf
My roster for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am (in alphabetical order):
Daniel Berger
Patrick Cantlay
Paul Casey
Jason Day
Jordan Spieth
Kevin Streelman
Others to consider for each category (in alphabetical order):
Scoring: Sam Burns; Cameron Davis; Max Homa; Peter Malnati; Cameron Tringale
Driving: n/a
POWER RANKINGS WILD CARD
Scott Piercy … After an enthusiastic opening to the season during which he went 6-for-6 with three top 20s to enter the holiday break, he returned in January and promptly missed the cuts at Waialae and at PGA WEST. The 42-year-old then withdrew early from the last two tournaments. While curious, it’s possible that he was waiting out the deadline to qualify for The Genesis Invitational, which he did at 116th on the special points list. So, expect him to embark on at least a fortnight of action beginning at Pebble Beach where he’s 4-for-4 since 2017 with top 20s in the last three years.
DRAWS
Nick Taylor … Prevailed at Pebble Beach last year and just four months after his first child, Charlie, was born. I wrote about the potential impact of the life experience in a Father’s Day special. Concerning the new daddy’s prospects as he defends his second PGA TOUR title, that he’s reconnected with some form since the holiday break is encouraging. He also already had registered a T10 among three cuts made in this tournament prior to the phenomenal performance a year ago. The clincher is that the weather may make the Canadian actually feel like he’s on vacation in February!
Alex Noren … Hasn’t let up since returning to the FedExCup Playoffs last season, but he’s still a bit of a tease on the weekly. Three top 20s this season but just 99th in FedExCup points. If you took a moment to review his statistics, you’d pass and move on, but he makes most cuts, he’s a seasoned, 38-year-old veteran and his talent plays strongly enough to consider in all formats. Also finished T32 in his tournament debut a year ago.
Cameron Davis … From Jason Day to Matt Jones to Aaron Baddeley, Aussies have made a lot of noise at Pebble Beach over the years. Davis is building a career and a track record worthy of joining the club. His results on the course have improved gradually to a T38 in his third appearance last year, and he’s currently 46th in the FedExCup thanks to seven paydays in eight starts. He can ease off the throttle on the tee and focus on his blend of hitting greens and converting par breakers.
Sam Burns
Stewart Cink
Branden Grace
Maverick McNealy
Andrew Putnam
FADES
Si Woo Kim … I was a believer at Torrey Pines immediately coming off the victory at PGA WEST, but after missing that cut and finishing a pedestrian T50 at TPC Scottsdale, he presents as a classic recent winner who’s experiencing a relative letdown. Finished T4 in this tournament at Pebble Beach in 2019, but it’s his only impressive showing in five tries.
Rickie Fowler … Slotted as a quintessential Wild Card last week and missed the cut. TPC Scottsdale was the best place for a snapshot of his progress, especially since the crowd made noise and generated a connection that he covets. He finished T43 at the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, but this is his first appearance in the non-major held here since 2012.
Brandt Snedeker … Suffice it to say that he’s had ample opportunities to flash his old self this season but it’s been a challenge. Now, three of his four rounds at Torrey Pines provided some evidence, but a third-round 77 on the South Course also was the latest example of how much oil he’s been leaking. Twice a winner at Pebble Beach (2013, 2015) and loves himself the Poa greens, but he also missed the cut in the last two editions.
Brian Harman … He’s been a contributor and regularly endorsed on this page for a while, but I’d prefer him on a surface other than Poa. It’s also his first tournament appearance in seven years.
Ryan Moore … If you subscribe to the notion that the conditions prevent everyone from firing on all cylinders, then there’s reason to be hopeful that he turns a corner after resuming competition 0-for-3. However, it’s his first visit since 2016 and he’s unlikely to find his game with the challenge the elements are promising.
Kiradech Aphibarnrat
David Hearn
Charley Hoffman
Nate Lashley
Adam Long
Pat Perez
Brendan Steele
RETURNING TO COMPETITION
D.J. Trahan … Back since testing positive for COVID-19 before The American Express on Jan. 19. Since opening the season going 4-for-4, he’s missed his last three cuts. He’s played at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am a dozen times and finished T18 just two years ago. Bona fide flier.
Fabián Gómez … Withdrew during his second round of the Farmers while on the South Course at Torrey Pines. An explanation wasn’t released. (Had opened with 71 on the North.) He’s cashed only twice this season hasn’t recorded a top 55 among three cuts made in seven trips to Pebble Beach.
NOTABLE WDs
Dustin Johnson … Prevailed in Saudi Arabia and opted out of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Monday night. In a statement on Tuesday, his agent, David Winkle, said that DJ is plans to return to competition at The Genesis Invitational next week.
Sebastián Muñoz … Rough week at TPC Scottsdale where he missed the cut by 12 and tied for last. Finished 23rd in the special points list for eligibility for next week’s Genesis but his performance in the desert likely will be reason enough for him to go it alone in fantasy pursuits at Riviera.
Wyndham Clark … Sitting pretty at 33rd in the FedExCup and easily qualified for The Genesis Invitational at 74th in that special points list. The Oregon Duck would have been an intriguing possibility in weather befitting a duck. He also placed T18 here last year.
K.H. Lee … As referenced at the top, he climbed into the field at The Genesis Invitational with his two-way T2 at the Phoenix Open. The only other golfer to play his way inside the top 125 of the special points list at TPC Scottsdale was Jordan Spieth (115th), but he already was exempt at Riviera by virtue of his victory at the 2017 Open Championship. As of Tuesday afternoon, Spieth remains in the field at Pebble Beach.
Aaron Wise … Like Clark, you’d figure a product of the University of Oregon would thrive in less-than-ideal conditions, and he’s 2-for-2 at Pebble Beach with a T15 in 2018. Instead, he’s alternating another week of competition (66th, WMPO) with a week off, just as he did prior to the trip to Arizona. He’ll get back at it next week, presumably, as he finished 96th in the special points list to qualify for The Genesis Invitational.
Matt Kuchar … The 42-year-old has yet to connect for a top 30 this season but he projects to have a better time of it at Riviera where he’s 13-for-14 with a co-runner-up last year than at Pebble Beach where his results have been mixed. His ball flight would have made sense this week, but it’ll make sense next week, too, obviously. Already eligible for Genesis as a member of the 2019 Presidents Cup team but he also finished 97th on the special points list.
Luke List … He pegged it in each of the last four weeks and finished 114th in the special points list, so he’ll enjoy a break before returning to Riviera for his sixth consecutive appearance.
Kevin Tway … Straight strugglin’. Just 2-for-11 this season and 192nd in the 2020-21 FedExCup. Didn’t come anywhere near qualifying for next week’s stop at Riviera.
Padraig Harrington … Tested positive for COVID-19. So, he’ll still have eight starts on his Minor Medical Extension to earn 264.382 FedExCup points and a promotion to the Major Medical category.
POWER RANKINGS RECAP – Phoenix Open
Power Ranking Golfer Result
1 Jon Rahm T13
2 Justin Thomas T13
3 Webb Simpson T42
4 Xander Schauffele T2
5 Daniel Berger MC
6 Ryan Palmer T42
7 Rory McIlroy T13
8 Hideki Matsuyama T42
9 Sungjae Im T17
10 Bubba Watson T22
11 Billy Horschel T53
12 Will Zalatoris T17
13 Gary Woodland MC
14 Max Homa T42
15 Michael Thompson MC
Wild Card Rickie Fowler MC
SLEEPERS – Phoenix Open
Golfer Result
Adam Hadwin T50
Bo Hoag T36
Patton Kizzire T50
Nate Lashley T17
Keith Mitchell MC
TOUR pros and celebs tee off 18th hole at Pebble Beach
Horses for Courses: Pebble Beach Pro-Am
The annual Clam Bake on the California coast resumes for the 84th edition this week as a field of 156 will tee it up at Pebble Beach GL. Unlike the previous editions there will not be 156 amateurs joining their professional partners due to the pandemic. A purse of $7.8 million is on the table and so are 500 FedExCup points and a check for $1.404 million for first place.
For those of you who enjoy the antics of Bill Murray or the quick wit of Ray Romano, apologies. The good news is the show is going on but in a different format this year and will not include six hour rounds. 'Only Pebble Beach GL and Spyglass Hill will be in use as Monterrey Peninsula CC takes a break without the amateurs. Each pro will get a round on each before the tournament is cut after 36 holes. Those surviving return to Pebble Beach for the weekend and a chance for the victory.
Pebble Beach GL and Spyglass Hill have both hosted rounds in this tournament every year since 1978. Pebble Beach will play Par-72 and stretch to 7,051 yards while Spyglass Hill is the same Par-72 but just 10 yards shorter. The greens at Pebble Beach (and the wind) are the main defense as they are the smallest on TOUR. The fairways are some of the widest so that's a clue. Spyglass Hill has slightly below average targets and has ranked inside the top 20 most difficult tracks on TOUR the last three seasons.
Canadian Nick Taylor returns to defend his title and will look to join Dustin Johnson (not entered) as the only repeat champion this century.
Recent Event Winners Stats
Stats/Year 2020 2019 2018
Winner Nick Taylor Phil Mickelson Ted Potter, Jr
Winning Score -19 -19 -17
Margin 4 (Kevin Streelman) 3 (Paul Casey) 3 (Mickelson, Day, Reavie)
Strokes Gained Stats
Pebble Beach ONLY
Distance of All Drives 39 8 T39
Driving Accuracy T7 T48 67
Greens in Regulation T3 T8 T9
Ball-Striking 4 35 T20
Proximity to the Hole T29 T2 3
Putting: Birdie-or-Better % 5 1 4
SG: Off-the-Tee 54 26 15
SG: Approach-the-Green 13 1 19
SG: Around-the-Green 13 31 26
SG: Putting 2 20 24
SG: Tee-to-Green 19 2 7
SG: Total 2 1 T6
Scrambling 30 T51 T19
Bogey Avoidance T2 T16 T16
Par-3 Scoring 1 T17 T41
Par-4 Scoring 2 T2 2
Par-5 Scoring T5 T2 2
Par Breakers T1 1 1
Recent Winners and Notables
2020: Nick Taylor (-19)
Won by four shots for his second victory on TOUR. ... Just the fourth international winner in history. ... 10th wire-to-wire winner but first since Phil Mickelson (2005). ... First 54-hole lead or co-lead on TOUR. ... Chipped in twice, once for eagle, once for birdie in the final round. ... Joins the last three champs in winning by three or more shots. ... Only one of three players to start at No. 1 tee and post a score under-par (70) in the final round. ... Posted 11-under aggregate on Pebble Beach/Spyglass; tied with Streelman for low total for the week. ... Becomes sixth consecutive winner in the top 10 GIR (T3). ... Won in his sixth try... Only one top 10 in his previous seven TOUR events entering the week.
Notables:
Kevin Streelman (2nd) led the field in Strokes-Gained at Pebble Beach as he picked up his third consecutive top 10 finish. ... 5-time and defending champion Phil Mickelson (3rd) played his final 12 holes in 5-over par after beginning the final round one behind. ... Jason Day (4th) signed for his fifth T5 or better in his last six visits. ... Daniel Berger (T5) picked up his second top 10 payday in as many visits. ... Matt Jones (T5) has cashed T11 or better in three of his last six but this was the best of the bunch. ... Maverick McNealy (T5) posted a bogey-free 68 to close, the only bogey-free round of the day. ... 2017 winner Jordan Spieth (T9) posted the low round of Sunday (67) to hit the top 10 for the fourth time in eight visits. ... Patrick Cantlay (T11) opened with 66 at Spyglass but played Pebble Beach 1-over on the weekend. ... Day and Chris Baker (T38) posted 64 on Pebble Beach in Round 2.
2019: Phil Mickelson (-19)
Won for the fifth time, tying Mark O'Meara for most in tournament history. ... 14th win in California ties Tiger Woods for the most in TOUR history. ... Trailed Paul Casey by three shots after 54 holes yet won by three. ... Oldest winner in event history at 48. ... 15th straight winner from USA. ... Played his final two rounds at Pebble Beach (-9) after 68 at Spyglass Hill. ... Fourth winner in five to be first or second in Par-Breakers. ... Fifth consecutive winner to finish in the top 2 Par-4 Scoring. ... Nearly won at The American Express (T2) but MC previous week at WMPO. ... Played Saudi Arabia (T3) before 2020 solo third.
Notables:
Paul Casey (2nd) shared the 36 hole lead with Mickelson and led by three after 54 as he picked up his second consecutive top 10. ... Scott Stallings (3rd) joined Mickelson on 13-under for the three non-MPCC rounds. ... Jason Day (T4) was 7-under aggregate. ... Si Woo Kim (T4) opened with 66 at Pebble and posted 13-under, not including MPCC. ... Kevin Streelman (T7) matched Mickelson with 65 on Sunday. ... Max Homa (T10) closed 68-67 Spyglass/Pebble for his first top 10 at the event. ... Michael Thompson (T10) posted a bogey-free 66 Sunday. ... Due to inclement weather, Lift, Clean and Replace were used all four rounds. ... Consecutive left handed winners.
2018: Ted Potter (-17)
Began the final round in the final group with Dustin Johnson (not entered) and beat him by three shots. ... Played in the final group after 62 at MPCC in Round 3. ... Led the field in Par-Breakers and Birdies (24). ... Last five winners from 2016-2021 have hit the top five in Putting: Birdie-or-Better Percentage. ... Sat T1 after 36 holes here in 2013 before finishing T16. ... Entered the week off 75-74-82 finish at Torrey Pines South. ... Won in his fourth attempt. ... Second win data-on TOUR.
Notables:
Jason Day (T2) claimed his best finish to this day. ... Phil Mickelson (T2) closed with 67. ... Chez Reavie (T2) went on to finish third in the U.S. Open in 2019 and co-led the field in Strokes-Gained: Total at Pebble Beach. ... Kevin Streelman (6th) posted the best non MPCC aggregate by two shots on 11-under. ... Scott Stallings (7th) stormed home with bogey-free 66 to post 9-under on the three courses in use for 2021. ... Paul Casey (T8) also signed for 9-under, co-second-best aggregate. ... Kevin Chappell (T8) co-led Strokes-Gained: Total at Pebble Beach. ... 2014 winner Jimmy Walker (T8) has MC the last two editions. ... Defending champ Jordan Spieth cashed T20. ... First round leader and co-36 hole leader Beau Hossler (T43) opened with 65 at Pebble Beach. ... Weather was perfect.
Key stat leaders
Top golfers in each statistic on the 2019-2020 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week.
* - Top 25 finish here since 2016
Greens in Reguation Golfer
1 *Jim Furyk
2 Kyle Stanley
7 Josh Teater
13 *Henrik Norlander
14 *Paul Casey
15 Harold Varner III
16 *Pat Perez
19 Jhonattan Vegas
20 *Chesson Hadley
21 *Nick Watney
22 *Matthew NeSmith
23 *Russell Knox
24 Chris Baker
25 *Joseph Bramlett
Putting: Birdie or Better Golfer
6 *Daniel Berger
11 Kirstoffer Ventura
12 Seamus Power
14 Denny McCarthy
15 Charley Hoffman
16 *Grayson Murray
17 *Jordan Spieth
19 *Chesson Hadley
20 *Bronson Burgoon
21 *Danny Lee
22 *Patrick Cantlay
25 Rickie Fowler
Scrambling Golfer
1 *Daniel Berger
7 Adam Schenk
8 Mark Anderson
9 Brian Harman
14 Cameron Tringale
15 David Hearn
18 Kramer Hickok
20 Alex Noren
22 *Russell Knox
24 *Tim Wilkinson
26 *Brandt Snedeker
28 *Jason Day
30 *Maverick McNealy
Horses for Courses
Player (Starts/cuts made) Top 10s Top 25s Most Recent (season) Big Finishes
Top 10 last five years
Nick Taylor (4/6) 2 2 Win (2020) T30 or better in four weekends
Kevin Streelman (9/13) 4 6 2 (2020) 3rd straight top 10; Five straight T17 or better
Jason Day (11/11) 7 9 4 (2020) T11 or better six straight visits
Matt Jones (11/13) 3 6 T5 (2020) T23 or better in four of six; T11 or better in three of six
Maverick McNealy (1/2) 1 1 T5 (2020) Only bogey free round (68) Sunday last year
Daniel Berger (2/2) 1 2 T5 (2020) T15 2015; all eight rounds 70 or better
Phil Mickelson (21/24) 12 14 Win (2019) Hit podium in four of his last five visits
Paul Casey (3/5) 2 2 2 (2019) T8 2018; MC last year
Scott Stallings (3/6) 2 3 3 (2019) 7 2018; T14 2017; MC 2020
Si Woo Kim (2/5) 1 1 T4 (2019) T35; MC 2020
Brian Gay (8/12) 2 4 T7 (2019) T8 2018; seven straight paydays here
Scott Piercy (4/7) 1 3 T10 (2019) T18 2020; T20 2018; four straight paydays
Max Homa (3/5) 1 2 T10 (2019) T14 2020; closed with 67 each time
Ted Potter, Jr (2/6) 1 2 Win (2018) T16 2013
Chez Reavie (6/11) 1 2 T2 (2018) T26 or better three of the last five
Patrick Rodgers (1/3) 1 1 T8 (2018) MC last two years
Jimmy Walker (9/13) 5 7 T8 (2018) 2014 winner completed four consecutive top 10s
Kevin Chappell (8/11) 2 4 T8 (2018) 3 of last 5 top 25
Troy Merritt (2/8) 1 2 T8 (2018) T25 2020; MC six straight before 2018
Grayson Murray (1/3) 1 1 T8 (2018) MC before, MC after
Jordan Spieth (8/8) 4 7 Win (2017) T9 2020; seven of eight T22 or better
Kelly Kraft (3/5) 1 1 2 (2017) MC last two years
Brandt Snedeker (8/13) 3 5 4 (2017) 2015 Winner (tournament record); 2013 winner
Rob Oppenheim (4/4) 1 1 T8 (2017) T38 2020 is next best
Cameron Percy (4/7) 1 1 T10 (2017) T57 next best
Vaughn Taylor (7/13) 2 3 Win (2016) T10 2015; quiet after his win
Phil Mickelson is tied for the most wins in tournament history at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Sleeper Picks: Pebble Beach Pro-Am
Cameron Tringale … The 33-year-old – by the way, how is he only 33 with 183 cuts made in 290 PGA TOUR starts as a professional and still winless? – continues to surge from the doldrums of the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons when he missed 31 of 54 cuts. He’s 7-for-9 this season with a solo third (RSM) among four top 20s, including in each of the last two weeks. He’s back to doing what he’s always done best. Currently 21st in GIR, 42nd in Strokes Gained: Putting and 35th in conversion percentage inside 10 feet. He’s also cashed in six of his last seven trips to Pebble Beach dating back to 2012.
Rafa Cabrera Bello … No matter the international member of the PGA TOUR, managing one’s life during the pandemic was multiplied by the additional layer of concern for family abroad. To state the obvious, golfers are humans, too, so it wasn’t surprising that the Spaniard struggled when competition resumed last June. He played out the string with unimpressive results before resetting over the holidays. Returning in 2021 on his home circuit, he went 4th-T35-T33 from Abu Dhabi to Dubai to Saudi Arabia in the last three weeks. While the 36-year-old may travel to Pebble Beach with some fatigue, he brings that renewed confidence and the fact that he recorded top 30s in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2018 and 2019. That experience combined with superb putting come together at a good time.
Brice Garnett … Mixed results at Pebble Beach but he did finish T19 in his first of five trips in 2014. It’s a theme that transcends the entirety of his career on the PGA TOUR, but it overshadows his knack to beat par regularly. Case in point, he ranks T14 with 25 red numbers this season, but his challenge remains connecting enough of them to maintain a lofty position on leaderboards. Currently 26th on TOUR in both fairways hit and Strokes Gained: Putting, as well as seventh in conversion percentage inside 10 feet, so the ingredients are there.
Rob Oppenheim … The light-hitting, 41-year-old journeyman rarely pings our radar. He needs a lot of things to go right to make noise. He relies on precision off the tee and accuracy on approach to get the job done. Every once in a while, that’s exactly what happens and it’s why he’s a PGA TOUR member. In fact, his career-best finish in 87 TOUR starts was a T8 in the 2017 edition of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He’s also cashed in all three of his other appearances. A little luck never hurts, either. He led the circuit with 22 hole-outs last season.
Chase Seiffert … As a rookie and first-timer in last year’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am, he opened with a flawless 6-under 66 on the host course. He was up and down thereafter en route to a T50 (with a 75 on Pebble Beach in the finale), but this is an opportunity for redemption with that experience plugged in. Currently just inside the top 125 in the FedExCup on the shoulders of a pair of top 20s, including a T12 three weeks ago at PGA WEST. Presents nothing flashy but like a man comfortable in his own skin, his bag is balanced.
Cameron Tringale has made seven of nine cuts this season.
Featured Groups roundtable: Pebble Beach Pro-Am
For the first time, the Pebble Beach Pro-Am will be all pro due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is a shame for many reasons but – glass half full – gives us the chance to see the likes of Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill in its purest forms.
PGA TOUR LIVE will offer exclusive early-round coverage of the strong field assembled in Carmel. Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay and Phil Mickelson are among the names that will appear in this week’s Featured Groups.
PGA TOUR LIVE will begin at 11 a.m. ET on Thursday and Friday. To get you ready for LIVE’s coverage, we convened our experts for a roundtable discussion on each group. Enjoy.
HOW TO FOLLOW
Television: Thursday-Friday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel). Saturday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (CBS). Sunday, 3 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (CBS).
PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. ET (Featured Groups). Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (Featured Groups), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Holes). Sunday, 10:20 a.m.-3 p.m. (Featured Groups), 3 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (Featured Holes).
Radio: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, 1 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).
TOURCast: Get shot-by-shot info in real time with shot tracks and video with TOURCast.
TOUR Pulse: Get the PGA TOUR app to utilize TOUR Pulse, which provides users the ability to experience a mix of content, such as video highlights, written hole summaries and stat graphics on every player after every hole they complete.
FEATURED GROUPS
THURSDAY
Jason Day, Si Woo Kim, Patrick Cantlay
Jason Day has seven top-6 results (from 11 starts) at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am without winning it. He enters off the back of two missed cuts. What chance do you give he finishes above Cantlay and Kim this week and if you give him that hope – can he win?
BEN EVERILL: Those who know me know I’d never write off Jason Day. I know he will win this tournament one day and it given we just saw Brooks Koepka win off the back of three missed cuts I would not be surprised to see Day win it all this week. I’ll say he’s right in the thick of it come Sunday – and I expect Cantlay will also be there. But it is time for an Aussie win.
ROB BOLTON: Day can’t win if Cantlay wins. Because Dustin Johnson withdrew, Cantlay rises from No. 2 in the Power Rankings to supplant DJ as a de facto top dog. There’s no reason not to stand by that despite Day’s fantastic track record here.
CAMERON MORFIT: I didn’t recognize the bearded Day when I saw him at TPC Scottsdale last week. And I haven’t recognized his game lately, either. I know Jason is going to shake this slump eventually, and he has a great record at Pebble Beach, but I still like Cantlay to finish ahead of him this week.
Jordan Spieth, Nick Taylor, Rickie Fowler
Jordan Spieth thrilled plenty with a Saturday 61 at the Phoenix Open last week and had a chance Sunday only to falter. He moved to 111th in the FedExCup with his T4 result. Will he make the TOUR Championship this season?
EVERILL: Yes. I went on record at the start of the season saying I expected this to be the rebound year for Spieth and I’m not backing down now. Look, he was erratic again in Phoenix, which is why he didn’t ultimately win, but he also showed the magic. When the fans return, he will find more energy and continue the resurgence. Here’s hoping he’s in the mix this week.
BOLTON: Easy now. Pump those brakes. That 61 was special and unrepeatable. All it did was exempt him into next week’s Genesis and at the buzzer to qualify (via the modified FedExCup points list from the beginning of the 2019-20 season). Even if he was, say, 20th entering the Playoffs, judgment for a return to East Lake will require real-time form more than anything he did on one magical day in early February.
MORFIT: People forget that Jordan made the FedExCup Playoffs for the eighth straight time last season. It’s not like he hasn’t been able to break an egg. But I’m not prepared – yet – to say he’ll be in the top 30. He’s still too wild off the tee (and admits it). That said, I expect he could play well again this week. In fact, my new rule of thumb for Spieth is to expect him to play well in tournaments that have been good to Phil Mickelson. Their games – erratic off the tee, solid iron play, magic around the greens – have never looked more similar.
FRIDAY
Phil Mickelson, Max Homa, Paul Casey
Mickelson and Casey certainly know how to win but do they have another PGA TOUR victory in them this season? Their last TOUR wins came in 2019 although Mickelson tasted success on PGA TOUR Champions and Casey recently won on the European Tour. If your answer is no – do you think they’ll win again on the PGA TOUR at all?
EVERILL: I’m loathe to write off champions but I don’t think they’ll win this season. Mickelson has five wins in this event and from 2016 he’s gone 2-65-T2-1-3 so I wouldn’t be surprised if he is once again at the business end of the event this week. Casey is clearly in some form also. But I’ll say no. I will however take the yes camp on winning again. Surely one of them connects at some point before it is all over.
BOLTON: My man-crush, er, Casey, isn’t done winning on the PGA TOUR, but all wins are bonuses, so I’m not nibbling on that bait attached to this season specifically. He is where every 43-year-old would want to be in his career, and I’d expect my answer to be the same in five years when he’ll be 48, which was Mickelson’s age in his last TOUR title. I always figured that Vijay Singh would have won at least once more at an advanced age, but his last victory on TOUR was as a 45-year-old in 2008. The best part about Mickelson is that he’ll sell us enough to want to continue to believe in something special, and that’s just fine with me.
MORFIT: Fred Funk and Craig Stadler are two of the more recent 50-and-over winners on the PGA TOUR, which is partly why this is an absolute no-brainer. Mickelson, whose gifts and pedigree are beyond those guys and most anyone else, is definitely going to win again on TOUR. He just needs to catch a course that fits him when he’s feeling reasonably in control off the tee. I can never tell with Casey. He’s let a lot of 54-hole leads slip away, but hey, he hasn’t NOT won a Valspar Championship since 2017.
Francesco Molinari, Brandt Snedeker, Stewart Cink
Simple question. Who of these three players wins on TOUR next and why?
EVERILL: Not so simple actually. I’ll throw my neck out on Molinari. I feel his form dips since his incredible run are partly to do with relocating across the Atlantic and once he gets further settled in California he might just hit his straps again. And after all, this is a Ryder Cup year.
BOLTON: Molinari, if for no other reason than he’s the youngest (38) of the trio. A win by any of these guys wouldn’t surprise anyone, even a 47-year-old Cink again this season, but given how Molinari’s trajectory has been impacted since his close call at the Masters in 2019, it’s reasonable to expect him to regain traction now that his relocation is complete and his life is simpler, even during a pandemic.
MORFIT: I agree with Ben in that Molinari seems destined to win again, and soon, given that it’s a Ryder Cup year. However, I’ll say the super-streaky Snedeker wins first. And given his history, I could see Sneds getting it done on either coast.
Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth will be grouped with defending champ Nick Taylor in Rounds 1-2.
The First Look: Pebble Beach Pro-Am
While there will be no pro-am portion to this year’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the tournament will still feature 156 players and a field full of notable names.
Nick Taylor returns to defend his 2020 title, while Phil Mickelson is gunning for his record sixth title at Pebble Beach.
FIELD NOTES: Dustin Johnson, a two-time winner at Pebble Beach, withdrew on Monday… Kamaiu Johnson, who was set to make his PGA TOUR debut at the Farmers Insurance Open but was unable to due to a positive COVID-19 test, will instead tee it up at Pebble. Johnson’s inspiring story -- he was an eighth-grade dropout but found comfort in golf -- caught the eyes of TOUR event organizers… Other sponsor exemptions include 19-year-old Akshay Bhatia, who finished T9 at this season’s Safeway Open, and 2019 U.S. Amateur champion Andy Ogletree. Davis Riley, who sits third on the Korn Ferry Tour’s Regular Season Points List, also is in the field on sponsor exemption. He made the cut at last week’s Phoenix Open… The Prince of Pebble Beach, Phil Mickelson, returns to the PGA TOUR this week and is looking for his record sixth victory at the event… The PGA TOUR Champions will be represented at Pebble Beach. Other than Mickelson, a trio of over-50 major winners – John Daly, Tom Lehman and Jim Furyk – will also be in the field… Past FedExCup winners including Jordan Spieth, Brandt Snedeker, and Bill Haas will also tee it up. Spieth and Snedeker are past winners at Pebble Beach.
FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points.
COURSE: This year, with no pro-am portion of the tournament, the 156 professionals will play only two courses instead of the usual three. The two courses that will be used are Pebble Beach GL (Jack Neville/Douglas Grant, 1919) and Spyglass Hill Golf Course (Robert Trent Jones Sr., 1966). The cut will take place after 36 holes instead of 54.
Pebble Beach GL, par 72, 7,051 yards
Spyglass Hill Golf Course, par 72, 7,041 yards
STORYLINES: The first of three victories for Jordan Spieth in 2017 came at Pebble Beach. Spieth, who won the Travelers and The Open Championship that same year, hasn’t won since. Spieth, who was T8 heading into the weekend in Phoenix, will keep that momentum going into Pebble Beach, a place he’s comfortable… Matt Gogel – who hasn’t played the PGA TOUR since 2007 – is in the field as a Sponsor Exemption. Gogel won at Pebble Beach in 2002 and was a key supporting actor in Tiger Woods’ comeback win in 2000. It was Gogel, then a TOUR rookie, who had the seven-shot lead with seven holes left that Woods eventually overcame thanks in part to a hole-out eagle at the par-4 15th… Jason Day has done everything but win at Pebble Beach. His fourth-place finish in 2020 gives the Aussie six top-6 finishes at the event, but no victories… Nick Taylor’s win in 2020 was the first by a non-American in 15 years. In fact, only four non-Americans have ever won at Pebble Beach (Taylor, Vijay Singh, Brett Ogle, and Bruce Crampton).
72-HOLE RECORD: 265, Brandt Snedeker (2015).
18-HOLE RECORD: 60, Sung Kang at Monterey Peninsula (2nd round, 2016). Pebble Beach record: 62, Tom Kite (3rd round, 1983), David Duval (3rd round, 1997). Spyglass Hill record: 62, Phil Mickelson (1st round, 2005), Luke Donald (1st round, 2006).
LAST TIME: Nick Taylor held off a charging Kevin Streelman to win his second PGA TOUR title. Taylor, whose first TOUR win came at the 2014 Sanderson Farms Championship, was paired with Phil Mickelson for the final round, but Taylor’s 2-under 70 proved to be enough as Mickelson fired a final-round 74. Taylor held on down the stretch making birdies on Nos. 15 and 17 after bogeys on Nos. 11 and 12, and a double bogey on the par-5 14th. Mickelson finished third, Jason Day finished fourth, and Maverick McNealy, Daniel Berger, Matt Jones, and Charl Schwartzel all finished T5. Taylor opened the tournament with a 63 and was in contention all week long before taking it across the finish line Sunday.
Nick Taylor goes wire-to-wire to win at Pebble Beach
Britain tightens travel restrictions with hotel quarantine and prison threat
By Sarah Young
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will require passengers arriving from countries where worrying coronavirus variants are spreading to pay for 10 days of quarantine in hotels, while rule-breakers will face heavy fines or jail terms, under tighter restrictions from next week.
The new travel rules add to restrictions that already ban travel abroad for holidays. The government said the stronger measures were needed to prevent new variants of the virus from thwarting Britain’s rapid vaccination programme.
Airlines and travel companies called for more government aid, saying the new rules would deepen a crisis that has seen them lose nearly all their revenue.
Health secretary Matt Hanco*ck said people could be sent to prison and fined up to 10,000 pounds ($14,000) if they break the rules which come into force on Feb. 15.
“Anyone who lies on the passenger locator form and tries to conceal that they’ve been in a country on the ‘red list’ in the 10 days before arrival here, will face a prison sentence of up to 10 years,” Hanco*ck told parliament.
British and Irish nationals arriving in England who have been in high risk countries in the last 10 days would be required to pay 1,750 pounds ($2,400) to cover the cost of a minimum 10-day quarantine in a designated hotel, Hanco*ck said.
All arrivals into the UK will also have to take further COVID-19 tests on day 2 and day 8 of their quarantines, he said, on top of a pre-departure test already required.
UK's strict travel measures will depend on vaccine success, Hanco*ck says
Britain has rolled out the fastest vaccination programme of any large country. But there has been alarm in recent days after reports that the vaccines it is using may be less effective against some new variants of the virus, such as one that has spread rapidly in South Africa.
NO END IN SIGHT
The government, criticised in recent weeks for being slow to bring in tougher border measures, said the stricter rules could stay in place until it is sure vaccines work against new variants, or booster shots become available.
“Strong protections at the border are part of defending and safely allowing the domestic opening up,” Hanco*ck said.
British airlines and airports issued a new cry for help, the latest of many, urging the government to provide more support to make sure the sector makes it through the year, and to issue a roadmap on how it will ease restrictions.
“Airports and airlines are battling to survive with almost zero revenue and a huge cost base, and practically every week a further blow lands,” aviation trade bodies said.
Hanco*ck said the measures could not be in place permanently and would be replaced “over time with a system of safe and free international travel”.
The government said it had contracted 16 hotels for an initial 4,600 rooms for hotel quarantine and would secure more as needed, with further details due to be published on Thursday.
Quarantines in hotels have been used by Australia and New Zealand as a strategy to sharply limit the spread of the coronavirus.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron (not pictured) after German-French Security Council video talks, in Berlin, Germany February 5, 2021.
Merkel wants German lockdown to continue until March: sources
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to keep restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus in place until at least March 1, participants in a meeting of her own conservative parliamentary group told Reuters on Tuesday.
Merkel and leaders of Germany’s 16 states are due to hold talks on Wednesday to discuss whether steps can be taken to ease lockdown measures which have been in place since November and were tightened in mid-December.
“We have to wait until March 1,” participants in the meeting cited Merkel as saying. “My goal would be not to have to correct steps to open up again with further closing steps.”
Primary schools, nurseries, hairdressers and retail would take priority in any easing but the overall aim was to avoid another lockdown, Merkel said.
Daniel Guenther, premier of the state of Schleswig-Holstein and a senior member of Merkel’s conservative party, openly challenged Merkel’s plea.
He said first steps to ease lockdown measures should be possible this month, and that he had received support for his stance from other state premiers.
While the number of new daily infections has been falling, concerns are growing about the impact of more infectious strains of the virus on case numbers.
Merkel told participants at the meeting that the proportion of coronavirus infections caused by a variant first detected in Britain was doubling every 10 days, and that this could soon become the dominant variant in Germany.
She also urged that a seven-day incidence of 50 cases per 100,000 people should be the benchmark for restrictions to be lifted, participants said.
Germany reported 3,379 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday and a further 481 deaths. The nationwide seven-day incidence was 72.8 cases per 100,000.
Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz holds a news conference as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Vienna, Austria December 18, 2020.
Austria to isolate province in EU's worst outbreak of South African coronavirus variant
By Francois Murphy
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria is stepping up its response to the European Union’s biggest outbreak of the so-called South African coronavirus variant in its Alpine province of Tyrol, by requiring those leaving Tyrol to show a negative test result as of Friday.
A year ago Tyrol, a winter sports hotspot bordering Germany, Italy and Switzerland, was the scene of one of Europe’s worst instances of virus spreading at the ski resort of Ischgl. Thousands of tourists from across Europe were infected.
Despite that damaging episode, the provincial government has resisted pressure from Vienna to do more to curb the new variant that threatens Austria’s vaccination plans. After days of fraught negotiation, the national government said on Tuesday it would screen those leaving Tyrol, starting in three days.
“We have a responsibility throughout Austria to fight mutations against which vaccinations are less or maybe barely effective,” conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz told a news conference, a day after his government asked the public not to travel to Tyrol unless they have to.
Police will require anyone leaving the province to show a negative coronavirus test result no more than 48 hours old, and the measure will last 10 days. It will not apply to East Tyrol, which is separated from the rest of the province, or to children.
So far 293 cases of the variant have been confirmed in Tyrol, and 129 of them are currently active, the government said. The authorities have been unable to explain how it arrived in the province where lockdown measures have kept hotels closed to tourists, though ski lifts are open.
As in much of the EU, Austria’s national vaccination plan relies heavily on the AstraZeneca vaccine and a recent study has shaken confidence in its effectiveness against the South African variant, showing it had little effect against mild disease caused by that variant.
“Almost 50% of Europeans will be vaccinated with AstraZeneca in the coming months. If this drug is less effective then we must be aware that these mutations, that these variants, are extremely dangerous for us,” Kurz said.
On Monday, his government had loosened Austria’s third coronavirus lockdown, letting non-essential shops reopen, including in Tyrol, despite stubbornly high infections nationally.
The opposition Social Democrats criticised the bickering between the provincial and national governments, both of which are led by Kurz’s conservatives, saying in a statement they had “learned nothing from Ischgl”.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki delivers remarks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 8, 2021.
U.S. to scrutinize WHO report that rules out COVID-19 came from Chinese lab
By Jeff Mason, Simon Lewis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration is looking forward to scrutinizing data included in a World Health Organization report released on Tuesday that said the COVID-19 virus did not originate in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
The head of a WHO-led team probing the origins of COVID-19 said bats remain a likely source and that transmission of the virus via frozen food is a possibility that warrants further investigation. He ruled out a lab leak.
Psaki told reporters at a press briefing on Tuesday that the administration was not involved in the “planning and implementation” of the investigation and wants to take an independent review of its findings and underlying data.
She added that even though the administration rejoined the WHO, it is “imperative that we have our own team of experts on the ground” in China.
Peter Ben Embarek, who led the team of independent experts in its nearly month-long visit to Wuhan, where the outbreak first emerged at a seafood market in late 2019, said the team’s work had uncovered new information but had not dramatically changed their picture of the outbreak.
The possibility the virus leaked from a lab - which has been the subject of conspiracy theories - was extremely unlikely and did not require further study, Embarek said.
Asked about the WHO findings during a daily news briefing, State Department spokesman Ned Price said he could not conclusively say that WHO experts had received full cooperation from China.
“Well, I think the jury’s still out. I think clearly the Chinese, at least heretofore, have not offered the requisite transparency that we need,” Price said, adding that the United States would make its determinations based on the WHO data and its own intelligence.
U.S. says jury still out on China's pandemic transparency
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday the “jury’s still out” on whether China has been fully transparent on the coronavirus pandemic, after a World Health Organization report said it was unlikely the COVID-19 virus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
State Department spokesman Ned Price told a daily news briefing the United States looked forward to seeing the full report and would make an assessment based on science and data.
COVID may have taken 'convoluted path' to Wuhan, WHO team leader says
By Josh Horwitz, David Stanway
WUHAN, China (Reuters) - The head of a World Health Organization-led team probing the origins of COVID-19 said bats remain a likely source and that transmission of the virus via frozen food is a possibility that warrants further investigation, but he ruled out a lab leak.
Peter Ben Embarek, who led the team of independent experts in its nearly month-long visit to the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak first emerged at a seafood market in late 2019, said the team’s work had uncovered new information but had not dramatically changed their picture of the outbreak.
“The possible path from whatever original animal species all the way through to the Huanan market could have taken a very long and convoluted path involving also movements across borders,” Embarek told a nearly three-hour media briefing.
Embarek said work to identify the coronavirus’s origins points to a natural reservoir in bats, but it is unlikely that they were in Wuhan.
Investigators were also looking for Chinese blood samples that could indicate that the virus was circulating earlier than first thought, he said.
“In trying to understand the picture of December 2019 we embarked on a very detailed and profound search for other cases that may have been missed, cases earlier on in 2019,” he said.
“And the conclusion was we did not find evidence of large outbreaks that could be related to cases of COVID-19 prior to December 2019 in Wuhan or elsewhere.”
The possibility the virus leaked from a lab - which has been the subject of conspiracy theories - was extremely unlikely and did not require further study, Embarek said.
Liang Wannian, head of China’s expert panel on the outbreak, said there was evidence of coronavirus infections that could have preceded the first detected case by “several weeks”.
“This suggests that we cannot rule out that it was circulating in other regions and the circulation was unreported,” he told the briefing.
FROZEN ANIMALS?
Embarek said the team had identified market vendors selling frozen animal products including farmed wild animals.
“So there is the potential to continue to follow this lead and further look at the supply chain and animals that were supplied to the market,” he said.
China has pushed the idea that the virus can be transmitted by frozen food and has repeatedly announced findings of coronavirus traces on imported food packaging.
“We know the virus can survive in conditions that are found in these cold, frozen environments, but we don’t really understand if the virus can transmit to humans” or under which conditions, Embarek told the briefing.
The team arrived in Wuhan on Jan. 14 and after two weeks of quarantine, visited key sites including the Huanan seafood market, the location of the first known cluster of infections, as well as the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been involved in coronavirus research.
Members of the team sought to rein in expectations for the mission, with infectious disease expert Dominic Dwyer saying it would probably take years to fully understand the origins of COVID-19.
The United States said China needed to be more open when it comes to sharing data and samples as well as allowing access to patients, medical staff and lab workers. Beijing subsequently accused Washington of politicising a scientific mission.
U.S. House lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) becomes emotional as he discusses his and his family's experiences inside the U.S. Capitol building during the siege on Jan. 6 and his daughter subsequently telling him that she never wants to return to the building, as Raskin addresses the U.S. Senate at the start of the Senate's second impeachment trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump, on charges of inciting the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, on the floor of the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., February 9, 2021.
'I don't want to come back:' As Trump trial opens, Democrat recalls daughter's fear during riot
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leader of the Democratic team prosecuting Donald Trump’s impeachment trial welled up in tears on Tuesday as he recalled his 24-year-old daughter and son-in-law hiding in fear in the U.S. Capitol during the rampage by the former president’s supporters.
U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin, now in his third two-year term representing parts of Maryland and a constitutional law expert, was defending the legality of considering impeachment charges against a former president.
When he invited his family to witness the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory, Raskin, 58, was also mourning the Dec. 31 death of his 25-year-old son.
He said his daughter had asked whether they would be safe visiting on Jan. 6, after hearing of plans by thousands of Trump supporters to descend on Washington to try to stop the normally routine proceeding.
“I told them, of course it should be safe. This is the Capitol,” Raskin said as he wrapped up his opening argument.
But when the mob breached the Capitol, in a violent assault that left a Capitol Police officer and four other people dead, his daughter Tabitha and other family members were left to huddle in an office off the floor of the House of Representatives.
Raskin said when he finally was reunited with his daughter and son-in-law, he apologized to them and promised things would be better on their next visit.
“And you know what she said? She said, ‘Dad, I don’t want to come back to the Capitol,’” the congressman recalled.
With the Senate’s 100 members pausing from their note taking and fiddling with papers on their desks, they locked onto Raskin as he spoke tearfully of his daughter’s fear.
At times barely able to speak, he wrapped up his opening statement to the Senate, saying, “Of all the terrible things I saw ... that one hit me the hardest. That and watching someone use an American flag pole, the flag still on it, to spear and pummel one of our police officers.”
Factbox: Six Republicans who said Trump's post-presidential impeachment trial is constitutional
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s impeachment trial opened on Tuesday with a debate about whether the U.S. Constitution allows a former president to face trial after he has left office.
A similar effort led by Republican Senator Rand Paul last month led to 45 out of 50 fellow Senate Republicans voting the trial was unconstitutional.
On Tuesday, one additional Republican senator voted the trial was allowable under the Constitution. Here’s a look at the six Republican senators who backed that argument:
BEN SASSE
The Nebraska senator handily won reelection in 2020 and is considered a potential contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. He publicly denounced here Trump's false claims of widespread electoral fraud and said there was no basis to object to Democrat Joe Biden's Nov. 3 victory.
BILL CASSIDY
The Louisiana senator changed his vote from his earlier one, backing arguments on Tuesday that the trial was constitutional. Cassidy told reporters after the House impeachment managers presented their side that they had “a very good opening.”
LISA MURKOWSKI
Murkowski of Alaska became the first U.S. senator in 50 years to win an election with a write-in campaign in 2010 after losing in the Republican primary. She called for Trump to resign after his followers rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to disrupt the formal certification of the election by Congress.
MITT ROMNEY
Romney, a Utah senator and the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, has been a vocal critic of Trump. In 2020, Romney was the 'only Republican senator to vote for conviction during Trump’s first impeachment trial.
PAT TOOMEY
The Pennsylvania senator announced in October 2020 he would not be seeking re-election. He said in television interviews Trump committed “impeachable offenses” and called on him to resign after the Jan. 6 attack.
SUSAN COLLINS
The Maine centrist was the only Republican senator re-elected in 2020 in a state also won by Biden. She said Trump had incited the Jan. 6 riot.
Dozens trapped in tunnel after Himalayan glacier's collapse, scores still missing
LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - Rescuers raced to free around 35 Indian construction workers trapped in a tunnel, two days after the hydroelectric dam they were helping to build was swept away by a wall of water from a collapsed glacier that barrelled down a Himalayan river.
The workers were among 197 people who officials said were still unaccounted for as the death toll from the disaster - which also broke apart bridges, cut off villages and scarred tracts of mountain landscape - rose to 28.
Packing rocks, dirt and construction debris and thought to have been triggered when a glacier lake fed by India’s second highest peak, Nanda Devi, collapsed, the flood swept down the Dhauliganga river on Sunday.
Officials said most of those still missing were shift workers at either the Tapovan Vishnugad hydroelectric project, where the tunnel was situated, or at Rishiganga, a smaller dam which was swept away in the flood.
Soldiers using bulldozers had cleared away rocks at the mouth of the 2.5-km (1.5-mile) tunnel, and video posted by the Indo-Tibetan border police service showed rescuers checking the water level deeper inside.
Rescuers hoped to open the tunnel up by Tuesday afternoon, said Ashok Kumar, director general of police in Uttarakhand state, where the flash flood occurred.
Officials said thermal imaging equipment had also been deployed to help locate would-be survivors, and Uttarakhand’s chief minister, Trivendra Singh Rawat, said 28 bodies had been recovered so far.
Thirteen villages had been cut off by the floodwaters were being resupplied from the air, Home Minister Amit Shah told parliament.
A government official said many locals had apparently managed to escape the waters by fleeing to higher ground as soon as they heard the rumble of the water racing down the valley.
“The workers in the tunnel may not have heard anything and got stuck,” the official said.
The 520 MW Tapovan project, being built by state firm NTPC, is one of many run-of-river projects being developed to upgrade Uttarakhand’s power network.
Officials have yet to conclusively determine what caused the disaster, though scientists investigating it believe heavy snowfall followed by bright sunshine combined with a rise in temperatures may have triggered the glacier’s collapse.
A clearer picture of the circ*mstances is expected to emerge later this week, officials said.
U.S. safety board cites poor pilot decisions as likely cause of Kobe Bryant fatal crash
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Tuesday cited the pilot’s “poor decision making” as the probable cause of the January 2020 helicopter crash that killed retired NBA star Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others, saying the pilot became disoriented and did not follow rules for flying in cloudy weather.
The NTSB cited pilot Ara Zobayan’s “poor decision to fly in excess of airspeed.” It said the weather conditions were inconsistent with adverse weather training and resulted in the pilot’s “spatial disorientation and loss of control.”
The board also cited Zobayan’s “likely self-induced pressure” to complete the flight.
Zobayan told air traffic controllers that his helicopter was climbing out of heavy clouds when in fact it was descending, immediately before slamming into a hillside near the town of Calabasas in California, the agency said. Zobayan was among those killed in the crash of the Sikorsky S-76B helicopter outside Los Angeles in hilly terrain.
Bryant, 41, an 18-time National Basketball Association all-star with the Los Angeles Lakers, was traveling with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, two other girls and several friends to a youth basketball tournament at the time of the crash. The accident prompted an outpouring of shock and grief from sports fans worldwide.
The NTSB also cited the company operating the doomed helicopter, Island Express Helicopters, for “inadequate review and oversight of its safety management processes.” Lawyers for the company did not immediately comment.
The board said previously an examination of the helicopter’s engines and rotors found no evidence of catastrophic mechanical failure.
NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said Zobayan should not have flown into the clouds.
“Unfortunately, we continue to see these same issues influence poor decision making among otherwise experienced pilots in aviation crashes,” he said. “Had this pilot not succumbed to the pressures he placed on himself to continue the flight into adverse weather, it is likely this accident would not have happened.”
The NTSB urged the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to require simulator training to address “procedures needed to recognize and respond to changing weather conditions” and to convene a panel to address pilot disorientation. It also called on the FAA to require flight data recorders in all charter helicopters.
The FAA said it “takes NTSB recommendations very seriously” and said it was reviewing the feasibility of requiring all charter companies to install such recorders on their aircraft.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price answers a question during a news briefing at the department in Washington, U.S., February 9, 2021.
U.S. closely monitoring India-China border disputes: State Dept
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is closely monitoring border disputes between India and China and backs their peaceful resolution through direct dialogue, the State Department said on Tuesday, while stressing that it stands with allies and partners like India.
“We note the ongoing talks between the governments of India and China,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told a news briefing.
“We continue to support direct dialogue and a peaceful resolution of those border disputes,” he said, and added: “We are concerned by Beijing’s pattern of ongoing attempts to intimidate its neighbors. As always, we’ll stand with friends, we’ll stand with partners, we’ll stand with allies.”
India and China have been locked in a military standoff over their disputed mountainous border and Indian public opinion has hardened against Beijing after soldiers were killed in a clash there.
Price spoke after a call earlier in the day between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
The State Department said the call’s purpose was “to reaffirm the strength of the U.S.-India partnership” and issues of mutual concern, including Myanmar.
Myanmar’s military overthrew the newly elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1 and detained her and other politicians from her National League for Democracy (NLD).
The two also discussed cooperation across the Indo-Pacific, the statement said, adding that they looked forward to expanded regional cooperation, including through the Quad, an informal grouping of the United States, India, Japan and Australia seen as a way to push back against China’s growing assertiveness.
New U.S. President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed in a telephone call on Monday to strengthen Indo-Pacific security through the Quad.
Two U.S. carrier groups conduct exercises in South China Sea
By Se Young Lee
(Reuters) - Two U.S. carrier groups conducted joint exercises in the South China Sea on Tuesday, days after a U.S. warship sailed near Chinese-controlled islands in the disputed waters, as China denounced the United States for damaging peace and stability.
The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group and the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group “conducted a multitude of exercises aimed at increasing interoperability between assets as well as command and control capabilities”, the U.S. Navy said, marking the first dual carrier operations in the busy waterway since July 2020.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the frequent moves by U.S. warships and aircraft into the South China Sea in a “show of force” was not conducive to regional peace and stability.
“China will continue to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard national sovereignty and security and work with countries in the region to firmly safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea,” he said.
The exercise comes days after China condemned the sailing of the destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, near the Chinese-controlled Paracel Islands in what the United States calls a freedom of navigation operation - the first such mission by the U.S. navy since President Joe Biden took office.
Last month, the U.S. military said Chinese military flights over the South China Sea fit a pattern of destabilising and aggressive behaviour but posed no threat to a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike group in the region.
The United States has contested China’s extensive territorial claims in the region, accusing it of militarising the South China Sea and trying to intimidate neighbours such as Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, who have claims that overlap with China’s in the resource-rich area.
“We are committed to ensuring the lawful use of the sea that all nations enjoy under international law,” Rear Admiral Jim Kirk, commander of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, said in a statement.
China has been infuriated by repeated U.S. sailings near the islands it occupies and controls in the South China Sea. China says it has irrefutable sovereignty and has accused the United States of deliberately stoking tension.
China has also been angered by U.S. warships sailing through the Taiwan Strait, including one last week, also the first such operation under the Biden administration.
Speaking in Taipei, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said U.S. ships and aircraft carrying out freedom of navigation operations was reassuring.
“This demonstrates the clear U.S. attitude towards challenges to the security status quo in the Indo-Pacific region,” she said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of their meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China August 31, 2016.
China poses serious strategic threat to Canada, says Canadian spy agency head
By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA (Reuters) - China poses a serious strategic threat to Canada, both through attempts to steal secrets and a campaign to intimidate the Chinese community, the head of Canada’s spy agency said data-on Tuesday in a rare public appearance.
The remarks by Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Director David Vigneault mark the second time in a few months that Ottawa - mired in a broad diplomatic and trade dispute with Beijing - has identified China as a problem actor.
Vigneault told an online forum that hostile activity by state actors seeking among other things to purloin business secrets and sensitive data “represents a significant danger to Canada’s prosperity and sovereignty” and singled out China.
“The government of China ... is pursuing a strategy for geopolitical advantage on all fronts – economic, technological, political, and military – and using all elements of state power to carry out activities that are a direct threat to our national security and sovereignty,” he said.
The biopharmaceutical and health, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, ocean technology and aerospace sectors were most at risk from state-sponsored hackers, he said.
China regularly denies it is trying to steal secrets.
Vigneault also said China had used its Operation Fox Hunt - a search for what Beijing says are corrupt officials and executives who have fled abroad with their assets - to routinely threaten and intimidate political opponents in Canada.
“These activities ... cross the line by attempting to
undermine our democratic processes or threaten our citizens in a covert and clandestine manner,” he said.
Last November, the Communications Security Establishment signals intelligence agency identified state-sponsored programs in China, Russia, Iran and North Korea as major cyber crime threats for the first time.
The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa was not immediately available for comment.
Shoppers walk past the Giordano store, a popular Hong Kong clothing store with a branch inside of the Aberdeen Centre, in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada January 26, 2021.
For Hong Kongers, Canada is beaten path out of China’s grip
By Sarah Wu
TORONTO (Reuters) - A second generation of Hong Kongers is heading to Canada for refuge from political uncertainty, but unlike their parents in the 1980s and 1990s, this time seems for good.
Cities such as Vancouver and Toronto are a magnet for those looking to escape as China tightens its grip on the territory of 7.5 million people. Some 300,000 already have Canadian citizenship after many families initially moved there ahead of Hong Kong’s return from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
Back then, many families separated, with one parent staying in Hong Kong for work, usually fathers who were dubbed “astronauts” as they soared through the sky on visits. Among those who went to Canada, many eventually returned, lured by the booming economy and what still seemed to be a relatively free environment.
Things have changed.
With recent pro-democracy protests virtually snuffed out and Beijing enshrining control last year via a national security law, bags are being packed once more.
“Staying in Hong Kong is not an option anymore,” said Maria Law, 39, who moved to Vancouver last year with her two girls ahead of her husband. “I’d rather have a free future for my daughters instead of making money while they have to keep their mouths shut.”
For Law, a former flight attendant, history has repeated itself.
She is part of a rare cohort of double political emigres.
Taken to Vancouver when she was 12, Law remembers daily speakerphone calls from the living room with her father, who was earning the family bread as a hotel chef back in Hong Kong.
Enthusiasm for the calls waned as it became clear he was staying. Yet like many such “satellite” children, separated from one or both parents, Law eventually followed in her father’s footsteps to return to Hong Kong herself for work in 2004.
“When I was young, I asked my father why I had to move. But now I am in his position, I understand,” she said. “He sacrificed more than we did. He’s the one who had to be alone.”
LEARNING FROM MISTAKES
Thanks to Canada’s liberal immigration system, 335,646 Hong Kongers moved there between 1984 when Britain’s handover was declared and 1997, according to the Canadian International Council think tank. That was most of the half-million exodus.
This time, Britain may take most Hong Kongers as it offers visas to potentially 300,000 people.
The flow to Canada may also be large, with existing Canadian passport-holders in Hong Kong from the first wave and new immigration pathways for the younger generation.
A Hong Kong government spokesman said concerns about erosion of freedoms were “totally unsubstantiated” and that the security law had stopped chaos. “People’s decisions to remain in or leave Hong Kong, or anywhere for that matter, are based on many factors including job situation, schooling, business and investment opportunities or personal/family reasons,” he added.
China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, and the Hong Kong Liaison Office, Beijing’s top representative body, did not respond to requests for comment.
The scars of the first uprooting are informing the second.
“I’m not going to make the same mistakes as my parents, like having a satellite family,” said Tsang, a 36-year-old legal compliance officer who did not want to give her first name because she was yet to resign from work in Hong Kong.
Her parents’ marriage did not survive separation, but Tsang hopes to do better. Her daughter and husband move to Vancouver this month and she is to join them after selling their home.
In Law’s case, she is eagerly waiting for her husband, for whom it is a wrench to leave his wider family and career as a university IT officer, to rejoin the family in Vancouver.
In October, she gave him the sponsorship paperwork and urged him not to miss their girls’ growing up. To her relief, he returned the forms on Jan. 1. While he waits to travel, he watches his younger daughter’s growth spurt via a screen and waits for both girls to say hello before he sleeps.
It is hard to track exactly how many Hong Kongers are moving to Canada as so many can travel freely between the two.
New visa applications from Hong Kong rose more than 20% to 10,819 in 2020, Canadian immigration says.
The Hong Kong government did not have data, but the Security Bureau estimated 7,000 people may have emigrated in 2019, 1,300 to Canada. However, that methodology is based only on applications for documents showing no criminal records, which many departing Hong Kongers do not in fact request.
BUNS AND NEWSPAPERS FROM HOME
Social media posts about paperwork, schools, real estate and jobs abound for Hong Kongers returning to Canada.
One frequently-asked-questions group by the “Return Vancouver” Facebook page has 5,800 members.
Miu Chung Yan, a University of British Columbia professor of social work, and himself from Hong Kong, said those returning to Canada were often giving up better-paying jobs at home but had long known they would return for children’s education or retirement.
Violent scenes of blazing streets and protesters clashing with police in 2019, plus China’s subsequent response, hastened their decision-making.
Pre-handover immigrants created ethnic enclaves with strip malls featuring Hong Kong-style cafes, Cantonese-speaking dentists and Chinese supermarkets.
In Richmond, a Vancouver suburb, 21.9% of residents counted Cantonese as their first language, followed by 20% for Mandarin, the main language in the rest of China, in a 2016 census.
In Markham, just north of Toronto, the vast Pacific Mall shares the same name as Hong Kong’s centrally-located Pacific Place shopping centre.
Pacific Mall’s corridors bear the names of major arteries in Hong Kong, such as Hollywood Road or Hennessy Road.
In nearby plazas, those nostalgic for Hong Kong fare can pick up warm pineapple buns with a cold slab of butter and Chinese-language newspapers Sing Tao and Ming Pao.
Jason, who plans to move back to Canada with his wife and nine-year-old twins, acknowledges he is “a little bit confused” about his identity.
His father moved to Hong Kong during Mao Zedong’s rule after four of 10 siblings starved to death in mainland China, he said. His parents sent him to high school in Canada in 1993 at 13.
But in 2001, his father’s construction company was struggling and he had to drop out of college to return to Hong Kong, where he later became a furniture salesman.
Over the years he noticed Hong Kong transforming: the luxury flats he fitted were increasingly owned by mainland Chinese. Mandarin became the more common language with customers in the famous IFC and ICC commercial towers.
“It’s kind of sad,” said Jason, who did not give his full name as he is yet to tell his twins about leaving. “Every time I have a gathering with friends or chit-chat with colleagues, the only topic is ‘where are you going to live’?”
U.S. senators revive bill to make refugee status easier for Hong Kong protesters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of senior U.S. senators reintroduced a bill on Tuesday to make it easier for people from Hong Kong fearing persecution after joining protests against China to obtain U.S. refugee status.
The 12 senators, led by Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Bob Menendez, said the bill was a response to a draconian national security law introduced by China in Hong Kong last year that was the focus of mass street protests.
The Hong Kong Safe Harbor Act would make “Hong Kongers who participated peacefully in the protest movement and have a well-founded fear of persecution” eligible for processing as refugees in Hong Kong or a third country.
Refugees from Hong Kong would not be subject to a numerical limitation, a statement from the senators said.
The proposed law would also make it easier for dissidents to seek asylum by waiving provisions that make suspected intent to immigrate or a criminal record disqualifying factors for non-immigrant visas.
Additionally, it would make Hong Kongers who have their residency revoked eligible for refugee status as victims of political persecution.
“The U.S. must do all it can to assist those Hong Kongers who have courageously stood up to defend the city they love from the CCP’s persecution and open our doors to them,” Rubio said.
Menendez said the aim was “to reiterate to the Chinese Communist Party that the United States stands foursquare with the people of Hong Kong” and to show they would not “fall through the cracks of our broken immigration system... .”
The bill was reintroduced because a previous version expired when a new Senate was seated last month.
The new Biden administration’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said the United States should accept people fleeing the Hong Kong crackdown.
“If they’re the victims of repression from Chinese authorities, we should do something to give them haven,” he told NBC news late last month.
Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen speaks at Taiwan Stock Exchange in Taipei, Taiwan, February 8, 2021.
Taiwan wishes China happy new year, but says won't yield to pressure
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen wished China a happy Lunar New Year on Tuesday, but said she would not yield to Chinese pressure and reiterated a call for dialogue to resume with Beijing, which China rejected.
China, which claims democratic Taiwan as its own territory, has increased its military activity around the island in recent months, responding to what Beijing calls “collusion” between Taipei and Washington, Taiwan’s most important international backer.
Speaking after a meeting with senior security officials, Tsai said Taiwan was in close contact with “relevant countries” about the situation in the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from its huge neighbour.
Chinese military aircraft and warships operating around Taiwan are not conducive to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, she added.
“I would like to reiterate that Taiwan’s consistent position on cross-strait relations is neither to succumb to pressure nor to advance rashly when we get support,” Tsai said.
Taiwan wants “meaningful talks” with China on the basis of equality and mutual respect, as long as Beijing wants to ease the stand-off, she added.
“Cross-strait peace is not a unilateral issue for Taiwan. The key lies in China’s hands. Historical experience has proven that verbal attacks and military threats against Taiwan will not help cross-strait relations.”
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office again rejected her outreach, saying the island’s government was “distorting the facts” and colluding with foreign forces to seek independence.
“The current severe situation in cross-strait relations is entirely caused by the Democratic Progressive Party authorities,” it said, referring to Taiwan’s ruling party.
Tsai has repeatedly said Taiwan is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its formal name.
Taiwan and China this week both mark the Lunar New Year, traditionally the most important holiday of the year for both, marking the arrival of spring.
“We would also like to wish the people on the other side of the strait a happy new year and hope to jointly promote peace and stability on both sides of the strait,” Tsai said.
Africa's miners and winemakers toast China's row with Australia
By Joe Bavier, Tanisha Heiberg, Emma Rumney
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - For South African winemaker Vergenoegd Löw, the pandemic could have been a disaster but a bitter trade war between China and Australia has thrown the 325-year-old estate a lifeline.
Bottles of its reds, whites and roses piled up when South Africa banned alcohol sales under a strict lockdown and visitors who once flocked to the vineyard near Cape Town to sip wine and snap photos of its famed Indian Runner ducks vanished.
That changed when Beijing slapped tariffs of up to 212% on Australian wine in November after Canberra led calls for an inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan.
It wasn’t just wine. Beijing hit a range of Australian goods with punitive duties, created new layers of red tape and banned some Australian imports outright, giving African suppliers of anything from coal to beef to copper a boost.
“We can now get much greater volumes of sales,” said Shaun McVey, marketing manager at Vergenoegd Löw, which has signed a new Chinese deal. “Instead of sending maybe three or four containers in a year, we’ve upped that to 15 to 20 containers.”
Chinese drinkers bought nearly 40% of Australia’s wine exports before the long-simmering tensions between Beijing and Canberra boiled over and brought the trade to an abrupt halt.
Over the past three months, exports of South African wine to China jumped 50%, according to the Wines of South Africa trade body, and hopes are high for even more sales once Australian stocks are polished off during China’s Lunar New Year holiday.
Martyn Davies, Deloitte’s managing director for emerging markets and Africa, said a protracted trade war would create a wide window of opportunity for miners and other sectors such as agribusiness, though seizing the potential would take work.
The Chinese market presents a range of obstacles, from language barriers and inscrutable bureaucracy to tailoring marketing to its unique social media ecosystem, analysts said.
“Many African companies are significantly behind the curve,” said Deloitte’s Davies. “Australian companies have been engaging China for 35 years.”
BAUXITE BOOST
The lack of trade deals between China and countries in sub-Saharan Africa also means exporters may face an uphill battle.
Despite its increasingly important role as an investor on the continent, China only signed its first free trade agreement with an African country, the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, in January.
So while some African products may leapfrog Australian goods in the pecking order, they remain at a disadvantage when competing against exports from countries with preferential Chinese trading terms such as Chile, Peru or New Zealand.
In the mining sector though, China has spent the past decade ramping up projects in Africa to safeguard the flow of raw materials to the manufacturing juggernaut.
Those investments are now paying off and African producer countries are pocketing the royalties as exports to the world’s second biggest economy get a boost at Australia’s expense.
Last year, state-owned Aluminum Corp of China Ltd, known as Chalco, shipped the first bauxite cargo from its Guinea project, and a prolonged trade war between China and Australia is only likely to help the West African country’s economy.
Australian shipments to China of the rock used to make aluminium dropped 22% in the final quarter of 2020 while imports from Guinea leapt 70%, according to Chinese customs data.
That’s after Guinea tripled its bauxite output between 2015 and 2019 as mining projects came online, with most of it going to China. Over the same period, Guinea’s gross domestic product jumped 40%.
Chinese copper concentrate imports from Australia, meanwhile plummeted to zero in December 2020. At the same time, exports rose 17% from Democratic Republic of Congo, another country where Chinese companies such as China Molybdenum have invested heavily to secure key mineral supplies.
South Africa’s coal industry has also got a much-needed boost. Australian sales to China of thermal coal, which is mainly used in power plants, and metallurgical coal for steelmaking, slumped to zero in December.
The first shipment of South African thermal coal to China in five years landed last month and exporters are hopeful sales will increase further in 2021.
‘INNOVATIVE AND BEAUTIFUL’
To overcome the lack of trade deals with China, South Africa’s Standard Bank, which is partly owned by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, has sought to level the playing field.
Africa’s largest bank measured by assets is using online platforms and events to match its customers with Chinese buyers in a bid to boost exports.
Those efforts, however, now face challenges unique to the coronavirus pandemic, such as a shipping squeeze due to global trade distortions that have sparked a bidding war for container space and pushed prices to record highs.
“You get a lot of interest. And then when people see the cost of logistics at this point in time, they end up not concluding on the transaction,” said Philip Myburgh, Standard Bank’s head of Africa-China banking.
Still, wine is one African export Standard Bank considers a good bet. So does Edouard Duval, chief executive of East Meets West Fine Wines, one of China’s biggest wine importers.
If South Africa can capture just 1% of the 38% market share Australian imports are rapidly vacating, it would double its exports to China, he said. “The potential is there ... it’s a very dynamic and fast-moving market.”
South Africa typically exports less than half of its wine and earned 9.1 billion rand ($616 million) from overseas sales last year, with Britain buying by far the most. Sales to China came to just $19 million.
Even though Chinese tariffs wiped out Australian wine sales in November and December, its exports to China alone still came to A$1.01 billion ($779 million) last year.
At his “Cheers” wine store in Beijing, Lin Lulu is not too concerned about the impact of the trade war with Australia.
“South African wine now has great advantages over Australian wine because of the new tariff situation,” he said as he stocked his shelves with South African reds. “South African wines are more innovative and beautiful.”
($1 = 1.2962 Australian dollars)
($1 = 14.7621 rand)
GM 2020 profit drops, but it makes $6.43B despite pandemic
By TOM KRISHER, February 9, 2021
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors’ profit fell 4.5% in 2020, but a strong second half more than offset the effects of pandemic-related factory closures and a costly air bag recall.
The Detroit automaker said Wednesday it made $6.43 billion as demand for its vehicles surged late in a year dominated by coronavirus upheaval. In the fourth quarter, the company made $2.85 billion.
After GM’s North American factories reopened in May, the company ran many of them flat-out but couldn’t make up all the lost production. As customers returned to buying again, inventory was short and GM’s U.S. sales for the year fell 12% from 2019. But because buyers bought more expensive trucks and SUVs and loaded them with options, the company was able to turn a big profit.
Excluding one-time items, GM earned $4.90 per share in 2021, beating Wall Street estimates of $4.40. Revenue for the year was $122.49 billion, which also passed estimates of $120.83 billion, according to FactSet.
For the fourth quarter, the company earned $1.93 per share, also ahead of analyst expectations of $1.60. Revenue was $37.52 billion, surpassing estimates of $36.18 billion.
But there are new challenges ahead. The company predicted that a global shortage of semiconductor chips will cost it $1.5 billion to $2 billion before taxes this year due to lost production. Still, GM expects pretax income for the year of $10 billion to $11 billion, or $4.50 to $5.25 per share.
The shortage has forced GM to cancel shifts at several factories, but CEO Mary Barra said it won’t affect GM’s most profitable vehicles that are in high demand. She expects the chip shortage, which is hitting the entire auto industry, to be resolved this year, but it was too early to predict precisely.
“We’re doing everything possible,” Barra said. “We won’t lose any production throughout the year as it relates to full-size trucks and SUVs.”
GM could build vehicles without chips and install them when the parts become available, she said.
Also Wednesday, the company released more details about its aggressive push into electric vehicles.
GM already has pledged to spend $27 billion developing 30 new global electric vehicles and on autonomous vehicle research by 2025, with two-thirds of the EVs coming to the U.S. The company said Wednesday it would spend more than $7 billion on electric and self-driving vehicles in 2021 alone.
After rising over 33% this year, GM shares fell 3.6% to $54.05 Wednesday.
CFRA Analyst Garrett Nelson, who has a “hold” rating on GM stock, wrote in a note to investors about the near-term risk of the chip shortage. He also sees “significant operational and profitability related risks” from the company’s planned transition to all-electric light vehicles in the coming years.
GM has set a goal of making all light vehicles it sells run on batteries by 2035.
Barra said in a letter to investors that a mix of pickup trucks and SUVs helped the company to its largest U.S. market share gain since 1990. The U.S. is by far GM’s most lucrative market. The company ended last year with 17.1% of U.S. new vehicle sales, up 0.6 percentage points from 2019.
In North America, GM’s primary profit center, the company made just over $9 billion before taxes last year. That means about 44,000 members of the United Auto Workers union will get profit sharing checks of around $9,000 later this month.
The fourth-quarter and full-year results took a $1.1 billion hit from a gigantic recall involving 7 million big pickup trucks and SUVs worldwide with dangerous air bag inflators made by Takata.
In November, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration denied GM’s attempts to avoid the recall, and the company said it would comply. The automaker had petitioned the agency four times since 2016 to avoid recalls, contending the air bag inflator canisters have been safe on the road and in testing. But the agency said the inflators still run the risk of exploding.
Takata used the volatile chemical ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion and inflate the air bags in a crash. But the chemical can deteriorate when exposed to heat and humidity and explode with too much force, blowing apart a metal canister and hurling shrapnel into drivers and passengers.
The problems caused the largest string of vehicle recalls in U.S. history involving 19 automakers. At least 27 people have been killed worldwide.
In this April 23, 2018, file photo, the logo for General Motors appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. General Motors’ net profit fell 4.5% in 2020, but a strong second half more than offset the effects of pandemic-related factory closures and a costly air bag recall. The Detroit automaker said Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021 it made $6.43 billion as demand for its vehicles surged late in a year dominated by coronavirus upheaval.
Toyota profits up amid solid recovery from pandemic fallout
By YURI KAGEYAMA, February 9, 2021
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota reported a 50% jump in its October to December profit Wednesday, underlining a solid recovery at the Japanese automaker from the damage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Toyota Motor Corp.’s fiscal third quarter profit totaled 838.7 billion yen ($8 billion), up from 559 billion yen the previous year.
Quarterly sales rose to 8.2 trillion yen ($78 billion) from 7.6 trillion yen.
Although its business operations are still suffering because of the pandemic, cost cuts and other efforts including online marketing campaigns helped boost its bottom line, Toyota executive Kenta Kon told reporters.
Toyota said it expects to sell 7.6 million vehicles globally for the fiscal year through March, down from nearly 9 million vehicles the previous fiscal year.
But the latest projection is better than the earlier forecast to sell 7.5 million vehicles.
Global vehicles sales are rebounding in the latest quarter, with Toyota selling more vehicles in the U.S., Japan and Europe, compared to the previous fiscal year.
Toyota raised its annual profit forecast to 1.9 trillion yen ($18 billion), up from an earlier projection for a 1.4 trillion yen ($13 billion) profit.
That’s still lower than the 2 trillion yen profit the maker of the Corolla subcompact, Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models raked in the previous fiscal year.
Takaki Nakanishi, an equities analyst at Jefferies, sees an “upward trend” for Toyota, which he thinks will grow stronger this year.
The auto industry has suffered from a shortage of computer chips because of the pandemic, but that is slowly being resolved.
Kon said the shortage has not yet affected Toyota’s production, although uncertainties remain.
On a separate issue, when asked what the company thought of recent remarks by Tokyo Olympics organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori, which were widely criticized as sexist, the company referred to a statement from Toyota Chief Executive Akio Toyoda.
Toyoda did not call for Mori’s resignation. But he stressed that Toyota was a corporate sponsor of the Olympics because it supports the Games’ goals of promoting peace and diversity.
“The comment is different from our values, and we find it regrettable,” Toyoda said.
A woman stands at Toyota gallery in Tokyo on Jan. 15, 2020. Toyota reported a 50% jump in its October to December profit Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021, underlining a solid recovery at the Japanese automaker from the damage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Visitors walk by a Toyota car displayed at its showroom in Tokyo on Nov. 2, 2020.
Visitors walk at a Toyota showroom in Tokyo, on Nov. 2, 2020.
A Tesla for a bitcoin: Musk drives up cryptocurrency price with $1.5 billion purchase
By Subrat Patnaik, Anna Irrera, David Randall
(Reuters) - Bitcoin took another large stride toward mainstream acceptance on Monday after billionaire Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla Inc revealed it had bought $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency and would soon accept it as a form of payment for cars, sending the cryptocurrency shooting higher.
The announcements, buried deep in Tesla’s 2020 annual report, drove a roughly 20% surge in the world’s most widely held cryptocurrency to over $47,000. At current prices, 0.8 bitcoins would be enough to buy an entry-level Tesla Model 3.
Investors anticipated other companies will soon join a list of firms that invest in or hold bitcoin including BlackRock Inc, the world’s largest asset manager, and payments companies Square and PayPal.
Musk has upended Wall Street over the last year and briefly became the world’s richest person as shares of Tesla surged nearly 500% to become the fifth most-valuable U.S. company, leaving other companies and investors eager to follow in his wake.
“If any lesser mortals had made the decision to put part of their balance sheet in Bitcoin, I don’t think it would have been taken seriously,” said Thomas Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital LLC in New York. “But when the richest man in the world does it, everyone has to take a second look.”
The news sparked heavy trading in cryptocurrencies and caused exchanges like Coinbase, Gemini, Binance to experience technical issues, according to Coindesk here.
It also generated discussion data-on Reddit. While discussions of cryptocurrencies are banned on the WallStreetBets community that fueled the GameStop Corp trading frenzy, users in other subreddits posted “to the moon,” expecting more companies to follow suit after Tesla.
A well-known supporter of cryptocurrencies, Musk has weighed in regularly on the past month’s frenzy in retail investment, also driving up prices of the meme-based digital currency dogecoin and shares of U.S. video game chain GameStop.
Experts said they would not be surprised by a closer look from regulators given Musk’s bumpy past with watchdogs.
The Securities and Exchange Commission sparred with Musk and Tesla several times over his use of Twitter to discuss the company, ultimately resulting in his exit as company chairman and a pair of $20 million fines for Musk and Tesla.
“We’re talking about a billionaire with one of the most valuable companies in the history of the world who has seemingly gotten away with poking the SEC before,” said Tyler Gellasch, head of the Washington-based Healthy Markets Association and former SEC official. Still, Gellasch said that “examination doesn’t mean this is likely to be an enforcement case.”
Tesla said in a filing the decision to move nearly 8% of its reserves into bitcoin was part of its broad investment policy as a company aimed at diversifying and maximizing its returns on cash, including holding gold. The report said it ended 2020 with $19.38 billion in cash and cash equivalents.
“We expect to begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future, subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis, which we may or may not liquidate upon receipt,” the company said.
Tesla said it had invested an aggregate $1.5 billion in bitcoin under the changed policy and could "acquire and hold digital assets from time to time or long-term". (bit.ly/3q53p1m) Shares of the company rose 1.3% Monday.
Gold jumped more than 1% Monday while ethereum, another cryptocurrency, surged to a record high.
LONG-TERM STORE OF VALUE?
Central banks remain skeptical of digital currencies, but analysts say the more real world uses appear for bitcoin, the more attractive it will prove as a long-term store of value.
Bitcoin has rallied as far as $47,565 after Tesla’s disclosure. The cryptocurrency is up 1135% since March 2020, thanks in part to interest from institutional investors.
“The argument for bitcoin is evolving. It used to be negative (reasons to buy), but suddenly there are positive reasons, and that’s why you see bitcoin at (new highs),” Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic advisor of Allianz, told CNBC.
Tesla is the latest company to add bitcoin to its corporate treasury, following similar moves by Square, the payments company led by Twitter Inc chief Jack Dorsey and U.S. software firm MicroStrategy Inc.
Apple Inc may be the next big company to enter the cryptocurrency market, both by allowing bitcoin to be exchanged on its Apple Wallet service and investing some of its own reserves in units of the cryptocurrency, said Mitch Steves, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
“If this becomes a trend in corporate treasuries the downside of staying data-on the sidelines will only become costlier over time,” said Maya Zehavi, a blockchain consultant.
Tesla’s move to put some of its corporate reserves in bitcoin may be a signal that it expects the cryptocurrency will emerge as another store of long-term value alongside the dollar and gold, said Graham Tanaka, president and chief investment officer of Tanaka Capital Management in New York.
“Companies are very careful when it comes down to their reserves,” he said. “This doesn’t appear to be a flash in the pan. It appears to be something that may be a fundamental change.”
The GM logo is seen in Warren, Michigan, U.S. on October 26, 2015.
GM extends vehicle production cuts due to global chip shortage
By Ben Klayman
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Tuesday it was extending production cuts at three North American plants until at least mid-March due to the global semiconductor chip shortage, while vehicles at two other factories would only be partially built.
GM’s U.S. rival Ford Motor Co also said Tuesday that it was in limited cases parking partly assembled vehicles due to the chip shortage.
GM, whose shares dipped 1.1% after the announcement, did not disclose the impact on volumes or say which supplier and vehicle parts were affected by the chip shortage.
But it said it would focus on keeping production running at plants building its highest-profit vehicles: full-size pickup trucks and SUVs. GM said it intended to make up as much lost production as possible once the shortage chip eased.
“Semiconductor supply remains an issue that is facing the entire industry,” GM spokesman David Barnas said. “GM’s plan is to leverage every available semiconductor to build and ship our most popular and in-demand products.”
GM said it was extending downtime at its U.S. plant in Fairfax, Kansas; its Canadian factory in Ingersoll, ontario; and its Mexican facility in San Luis Potosi until mid-March when it would reassess the situation, he said.
In addition, GM said it would build but leave incomplete for final assembly vehicles at Wentzville, Missouri, and its Mexican plant at Ramos Arizpe.
GM vehicles affected by the idled plants include the Chevrolet Malibu sedan, Cadillac XT4 SUV, Chevy Equinox, and GMC Terrain SUVs. Vehicles to be left incomplete for now included the Chevy Colorado, GMC Canyon pickups and Chevy Blazer SUV.
This week, GM had said it was idling the three factories where it has now extended downtime and said it would halve production at a plant in South Korea.
Ford’s chief product platform officer, Hau Thai-Tang, at a conference on Tuesday raised the possibility that Ford might have to park vehicles that would need parts added later because of the chip shortage. Kelli Felker, a Ford spokeswoman, later said the company was doing that “in limited cases,” but did not say what vehicles were affected.
The shortage stems from a confluence of factors as auto manufacturers, which shut plants for two months during the COVID-19 pandemic last year, compete against the sprawling consumer electronics industry for chip supplies.
Consumers have stocked up on laptops, gaming consoles and other electronic products during the pandemic, leading to tight chip supplies. They have also bought more cars than industry officials expected last spring, further straining supplies.
The chip shortage has affected many automakers, including Toyota, Volkswagen, Stellantis, Renault, Subaru, Nissan, Honda and Mazda.
VW said Tuesday it expects chip supply to remain tight in the first half of the year.
AutoForecast Solutions on Tuesday updated its estimate for lost production this year, saying the global industry could lose almost 1.3 million vehicles as a result of the shortage. GM could lose an estimated 111,450 vehicles, the forecasting firm said.
Honda and Nissan said on Tuesday they would sell 250,000 fewer cars in total this financial year due to the chip shortage.
Ford said last week the shortage was hitting production of its highly profitable F-150 pickup trucks, saying it could lose 10% to 20% of planned first-quarter vehicle production and earnings could fall by $1 billion to $2.5 billion.
Taiwan, home to the world’s largest contract chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), is at the center of efforts to resolve the shortage. U.S. officials discussed the issue with their Taiwanese counterparts last week.
Chinese officials said on Tuesday they had met with auto and chip companies, asking them to help ease the shortage. French state officials meet with auto and electronics industry leaders on Wednesday to discuss the issue.
The Mexican Automotive Industry Association (AMIA) said this week that chip shortages had hurt national auto production in January, and it would likely dampen output during the first half of 2021.
The Information Technology Industry Council, which represents technology and auto companies, wrote U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday urging action to address the shortage, including providing “substantial funding” to ensure there will be enough chips.
The logo of German carmaker Volkswagen is seen on a rim cap in a showroom of a Volkswagen car dealer in Brussels, Belgium July 9, 2020.
Volkswagen expects chip supply to remain tight in first half of 2021
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Carmaker Volkswagen said on Tuesday that it expects chip supply to remain tight in first half of 2021 but that it would do everything to compensate for delay in production in the second half of the year.
“Volkswagen is continuously working on minimising the effects of the global semiconductor bottleneck on production”, the carmaker said.
Global automakers have been caught off guard by a shortage of semiconductors in the wake of a rapid recovery of the automotive market.
Volkswagen has reduced working hours at several plants and called for public funding programmes to help mitigate chip supply issues.
A visitor is seen at Nissan Motor Corp.'s showroom in Tokyo, Japan November 11, 2020.
Honda and Nissan to sell a quarter of a million fewer cars because of chip shortage
By Eimi Yamamitsu, Tim Kelly
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s second and third largest automakers, Honda Motor and Nissan Motor, will sell a combined 250,000 fewer cars in the current financial year as a global shortage in semiconductor chips hits production.
The automakers made the announcement as they unveiled brighter outlooks for the financial year ending March 2021 as automobile markets, led by China, rebounded from a coronavirus-induced slump. Honda and Nissan also reported better-than-expected results for the October-December quarter.
But Honda cut its sales target by 100,000 vehicles, or 2.2%, on Tuesday to 4.5 million cars, while Nissan lowered its target by 150,000 vehicles, or 3.6%, to 4.015 million units as a chips shortage forced both companies to curb output.
“Popular models that sell well were hit hard by semiconductor shortage,” Seiji Kuraishi, Honda’s Chief Operating Officer said during an online press briefing. “We needed to swap around and adjust production plans. But that wasn’t enough,” he added.
The global automobile industry has been grappling with a chip shortage since the end of last year, which has in some cases been exacerbated by the former U.S. administration’s sanctions on Chinese chip factories.
Asian chipmakers including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co are expanding production to make up for shortages, but have warned that it may take some time to crank up output.
Some companies such as Japan’s Renesas Electronics are also seeking price hikes for semiconductors that control engines, sensors and other automotive systems.
Honda’s Kuraishi predicted that the shortage would ease in the first half of 2021.
His company last month cut output by about 4,000 units, mainly its Fit and Jazz models, and is also reducing output of five models at five facilities in the United States and Canada.
China’s GAC said its joint venture with the automaker had received warnings on supply of certain models.
Nissan said it is reducing production of its best-selling Note compact car, featuring new hybrid technology, at its Oppama plant in Kanagawa prefecture, Japan.
It is also making short-term output adjustments at its North American operations, including three non-production days on the truck line at its Canton, Mississippi, facility..
“We are mitigating the impact if the semiconductor shortage and doing our best to minimize the negative impact,” Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida said during a livestreamed media briefing.
IMPROVED OUTLOOKS
Nissan, which is pulling back from the global expansion pursued by ousted chairman Carlos Ghosn, on Tuesday cut its operating loss forecast by more than a third helped by China sales and cost cuts.
It now expects an operating loss of 205 billion yen ($1.96 billion) in the year ending March 31 compared with an earlier 340 billion yen loss prediction.
Nissan’s revised operating loss is smaller than a Refinitiv SmartEstimate of a 230.1 billion yen loss drawn from analysts.
China’s auto market grew by 6.4% in December as it continued to lead the industry’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp, a junior partner in the three-way alliance that includes Nissan and Renault SA, also cut its operating loss forecast on Feb. 2.
The Nissan-Renault pair were among the weakest global automakers going into the coronavirus crisis, lacking a clear plan for using their alliance to emerge from the slump and share the burden of investing in electric vehicles and other technology.
The latest full-year operating profit forecast from Honda, which is also benefiting from the demand rebound in China and elsewhere, is for 520 billion yen, up from the 420 billion yen profit it predicted three months ago.
($1 = 104.6200 yen)
People wearing face masks following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak are seen at an Apple store as the new iPhone SE goes on sale, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China April 24, 2020.
Apple partners with TSMC to develop ultra-advanced displays: Nikkei
(Reuters) - Apple Inc has partnered with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to develop ultra-advanced display technology in Taiwan, Nikkei Asia reported on Wednesday.
The iPhone maker plans to ultimately use these micro OLED displays in its upcoming augmented reality devices, the report said, citing sources. (s.nikkei.com/3d1UWIz)
Apple is collaborating with TSMC, the sole supplier of iPhone processors, as micro OLED displays are far thinner, smaller and use less power, making them more suitable for use in wearable AR devices, the report added.
The micro OLED project is currently at the trial production stage and it will take several years to achieve mass production, according to the report.
Both Apple and TSMC did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The logo of Australian casino giant Crown Resorts Ltd adorns the hotel and casino complex in Melbourne, Australia, June 13, 2017.
Two directors exit Australia's Crown board after damning report
By Byron Kaye
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Two Crown Resorts Ltd directors with links to major shareholder James Packer resigned on Wednesday, the first heads to roll after the Australian casino operator was deemed unfit to hold a gambling licence for its new Sydney casino.
The upheaval in the wake of a report commissioned by the state gambling watchdog raised speculation among analysts that the A$6.6 billion ($5.1 billion) company was in play as a takeover target.
The report, published on Tuesday, cited Crown’s links to organised crime and the “dysfunctional” influence of Packer as it declared the company unsuitable to hold a gaming licence for the casino in its newly opened A$2.2 billion Sydney waterfront resort tower.
The former judge who headed the inquiry, Patricia Bergin, recommended a 10% shareholding limit for all casino operators in New South Wales state, a condition that would require founder Packer to sell down his 36% stake.
Packer’s private company CPH said the departures of the executives, and the shift by a third director to independent status, would give Crown “clear air to work with (gaming regulator) ILGA in the execution of its announced reform agenda, and become a model casino operator”.
The CPH statement did not address Packer’s shareholding or plans.
Crown’s shares sank nearly 9% in early trading, compared with a slightly higher broader market, but clawed back some losses as speculation grew about the company’s takeover target prospects. The shares were down around 3.5% in early afternoon trading.
“The transaction creates an opportunity for trade buyers or private equity to secure a meaningful stake from a forced seller,” Citi analysts said in a note. They added that increased regulatory scrutiny would mean “constrained revenue and elevated costs” for the company.
Crown has said it planned to work with the NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) after the report indicated that a sweeping overhaul of its board and business could see its licence reinstated.
The company has not commented on the future of any other directors, including Chief Executive Ken Barton, who was heavily criticised in the report.
Crown was granted a gambling licence for the Sydney tower several years ago, but the ILGA suspended it last year pending the results of the year-long inquiry.
As well as rife money laundering, the inquiry heard about a management structure where Packer requested frequent trading updates despite holding no board or management position, while attempting to take the company private - without disclosing the arrangement to other shareholders.
LENGTHY REFORM PROCESS
ILGA chair Philip Crawford said he planned to correspond directly with Crown chair Helen Coonan on a reform process he expected to take months.
“For any regulator and any government, they’re pretty scary terms,” Crawford told reporters about the report’s finding the company had been infiltrated by organised crime. “They’ve got a lot of work to do to satisfy us.”
Crawford cited a newspaper headline which said Crown needed to “blow itself up to save itself” and added: “that’s probably pretty close to the mark.”
($1 = 1.2928 Australian dollars)
Anthony Sowell, Ohio man who killed 11 women, dies in prison
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, February 8, 2021
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Anthony Sowell, sentenced to death for killing 11 women and hiding their remains in and around his home in a case that raised concerns about authorities downplaying the plight of missing Black women, has died in prison of an illness.
Sowell, 61, had been receiving end-of-life care at Franklin Medical Center for a terminal illness when he died Monday, said JoEllen Smith, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The death was not related to COVID-19, she said.
Cleveland police were investigating a rape case in October 2009 when they searched Sowell’s house and discovered two bodies. They eventually uncovered the remains of 11 women.
Most of the victims had struggled with addiction and died of strangulation, prosecutors said. Some had been decapitated, and the bodies of others were decomposed to such an extent that coroners couldn’t be sure how they died.
In interviews with police, Sowell said he targeted women who reminded him of his ex-girlfriend, who had been addicted to cocaine and left him shortly before the killings began.
Neighbors had blamed a stench from the rotting bodies on an adjacent sausage factory, which spent $20,000 on new plumbing fixtures and sewer lines to try to make the smell go away.
The case was a moment of reckoning for Cleveland. Relatives of the slain women, who were Black, and many Black residents said police didn’t take the disappearance of the victims seriously because of their race and troubled backgrounds, and complained about how officers handled missing-person reports. Police said some victims were never reported missing.
In response, Cleveland police overhauled how they handled missing-person and sex crime investigations based on recommendations issued after the remains were found.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley said his “thoughts and prayers” were with the relatives and friends of the victims of Sowell, whom he called a monster.
“My hope is that law enforcement and the criminal justice system have learned from the mistakes that allowed this diabolical predator to go undetected for so long,” O’Malley said.
Joann Moore, whose sister, Janice Webb, was among the victims, said Tuesday that she was still trying to process a mixture of emotions.
“The ultimate goal was to see this through and see he got justice,” she said. “That was something else we weren’t able to see, him take his last breath.”
What happened more than a decade ago “was a tragic story for the city of Cleveland. It was a tragic story for us that this could go on,” she said.
“I still miss my sister. I know she’s watching down on her son and his kids, and her siblings,” Moore said.
Sowell “could have been stopped years before if we had done our job,” said former Cleveland City Council member Zack Reed, whose East Side ward included Sowell’s house. He said it was regrettable the sausage company was never compensated for the upgrades it made.
Cleveland police failed to connect the dots and realize that missing women, many addicted to drugs and living on the fringe of society, had been murdered by one individual, Reed said Tuesday.
“We didn’t thoroughly investigate those missing women,” he said. “We didn’t take their families and the community seriously.”
Sowell was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to die for killing the women. He was also convicted of raping two other women and attempting to rape another. His execution had not been scheduled.
Sowell was a former Marine who had a brutal childhood and struggled with his mental health, John Parker, one of his defense attorneys, said Tuesday.
“He was not a monster and not evil,” Parker said. “He was damaged by childhood abuse and serious mental health problems. May he rest in peace.”
In 2014, ground was broken on a memorial at the site where Sowell’s victims’ remains were found.
In 2019, Cleveland settled a lawsuit filed by two of Sowell’s survivors. The women claimed that a police detective mishandled the investigation of accusations against Sowell, allowing him to remain free and victimize more women.
Sowell had continued to appeal his case. As recently as May, a three-judge panel with the 8th District Court of Appeals unanimously held that Sowell failed to present enough evidence that he did not receive a fair trial and that his trial attorneys ineffectively represented him during the penalty phase.
The panel also upheld a lower court ruling that dismissed Sowell’s petition for post-conviction relief.
In this Nov. 5, 2009, file photo, Cleveland police stand outside the home of Anthony Sowell on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland. Sowell, an Ohio man sentenced to death for killing 11 women and hiding their remains in and around his home has died in prison.
In this Nov. 9, 2009, file photo, an FBI agent takes photos of the underside of the front porch of the house of Anthony Sowell in Cleveland. Sowell, an Ohio man sentenced to death for killing 11 women and hiding their remains in and around his home has died in prison.
In this May 10, 2011 file photo, Anthony Sowell appears in court in Cleveland. Sowell, an Ohio man sentenced to death for killing 11 women and hiding their remains in and around his home has died in prison. The state Corrections Department says the 61-year-old convicted serial killer was receiving end-of-life care at Franklin Medical Center for a terminal illness when he died Monday, Feb. 8, 2021.
In this Nov. 11, 2009, file photo a woman views a memorial for the victims across the street from the home of Anthony Sowell on Imperial Ave. in Cleveland. Sowell, an Ohio man sentenced to death for killing 11 women and hiding their remains in and around his home has died in prison. Sowell, 61, was receiving end-of-life care at Franklin Medical Center for a terminal illness when he died Monday, Feb. 8, 2021, the Ohio Department of Corrections said. The death was not related to COVID-19, the department said.
A man wearing a protective mask walks past the headquarters of Bank of Japan amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Tokyo, Japan, May 22, 2020.
BOJ policymaker highlights cost of huge asset buying, signals tweak in March review
By Leika Kihara
TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan must be mindful of the potential demerits of its huge asset purchases, board member Toyoaki Nakamura said in a sign the central bank will seek ways to make its asset-buying programme more flexible in a policy review due in March.
Nakamura, a former business executive who joined the board in July, said the BOJ’s purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETF) has helped eradicate Japan’s deflationary mindset by keeping stock markets stable.
But he said the asset-buying programme will be among tools the central bank will scrutinise in a March review, aimed at making its massive stimulus programme more sustainable.
“The BOJ’s ETF purchases ... will remain a necessary tool,” Nakamura said in a speech at an online meeting with business leaders on Wednesday.
“But by buying huge amounts of assets and holding onto them for a prolonged period, the BOJ could affect market functions. That is something we need to be mindful of,” he said.
With the coronavirus pandemic likely to prolong its battle to fire up inflation to its 2% target, the BOJ unveiled a plan to conduct in March a review of its policy tools to make them more “sustainable and effective.”
Sources have told Reuters the BOJ will discuss ways to scale back its controversial ETF-buying programme and allow yields to move more widely around its target, partly to deal with the rising cost of prolonged easing.
“Due to the impact of COVID-19, it’s inevitable for our monetary easing to be prolonged further. If there’s anything more we can do to make our monetary easing more effective and sustainable, we’ll take that into account,” Nakamura said.
South Korea's National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong attends a meeting with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia March 13, 2018.
South Korea's new top diplomat says confident about U.S. coordination over North Korea
By Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s new foreign minister said on Tuesday he was confident about coordinating North Korea policy with the United States despite earlier signs of differences.
Chung Eui-yong, 74, took office as South Korea’s top diplomat, replacing Kang Kyung-wha, who had held the post for nearly four years. As President Moon Jae-in’s first national security adviser until last year, Chung helped facilitate Moon’s summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and sought to meditate between Pyongyang and Washington.
Chung’s nomination came two days after Moon called for U.S. President Joe Biden to hold a dialogue with North Korea to build on progress made by Kim and former U.S. President Donald Trump at their first summit in Singapore.
Chung played an incremental role in arranging the 2018 Singapore summit between Kim and Trump. But he was accused of misleading both Pyongyang and Washington about the potential for agreement ahead of their failed second summit in Vietnam in 2019.
The allies have shown signs of friction since then, with Seoul keen to reopen inter-Korean economic initiatives while Washington urges those projects should keep step with North Korea’s progress on dismantling its nuclear programmes.
Chung expressed confidence in coordinating with the new U.S. administration of President Joe Biden, saying an early denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula is a shared goal.
“Resolving the issue a very key task that can no longer be postponed,” Chung told reporters.
“Basically there is no big difference in the two sides’ positions. Given the solid alliance, I believe there won’t be major problems coordinating even if there are slight differences.”
Biden has not announced any new North Korea policy, but said during a presidential debate in October he would meet Kim only if he agreed to “draw down” the country’s nuclear capacity.
South Korea’s Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told Reuters that the two sides should pursue an interim deal including a halt to the North’s nuclear activity and a cut in its programmes in return for some sanctions relief.
North Korea had offered to abolish its main nuclear facility in exchange for the lifting of key U.N. sanctions, but the United States said Pyongyang should also hand over its nuclear weapons and bomb fuel.
U.N. experts point finger at North Korea for $281 million cyber theft, KuCoin likely victim
By Michelle Nichols, Raphael Satter
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A preliminary United Nations inquiry into the theft of $281 million worth of assets from a cryptocurrency exchange last September “strongly suggests” links to North Korea - with industry analysts pointing to Seychelles-based KuCoin as the victim of one of the largest reported digital currency heists.
A confidential report by independent sanctions monitors to U.N. Security Council members said blockchain transactions related to the hack also appeared to be tied to a second hack last October when $23 million was stolen.
“Preliminary analysis, based on the attack vectors and subsequent efforts to launder the illicit proceeds, strongly suggests links to the DPRK,” the monitors wrote, using North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. They accuse Pyongyang of using stolen funds to support its nuclear and ballistic missile programs to circumvent sanctions.
While the report did not name the victim of the attack, digital currency exchange KuCoin reported the theft of $281 million in bitcoin and various other tokens on Sept. 25.
“This must be the KuCoin hack,” said Frank van Weert, an analyst with Whale Alert – an Amsterdam-based group which tracks large cryptocurrency movements across the internet. “There were no other significant hacks during that period.”
Attempts to reach KuCoin and its chief executive, Johnny Lyu, were not immediately successful.
Industry experts said the hackers were trying to funnel the money through decentralized exchanges - which work by arranging individual-to-individual currency swaps - in a bid to bypass centrally-managed trading platforms, many of which had quickly flagged the stolen money as illicit.
“According to sources familiar with both hacks, the attackers exploited ‘defi’ protocols — i.e., smart contracts that facilitate automated transactions,” the U.N. report said.
North Korea’s U.N. mission in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
KuCoin has previously said that it managed to recover more than 80 percent of the digital currency stolen in September thanks in part to the work of other exchanges who froze the funds as they transited through their respective systems.
CEO Lyu has also said that KuCoin had discovered who the hackers were but said that, at the request of law enforcement, it would only be making their identity public “once the case is closed.” In an update posted to Twitter last week, Lyu said that the hunt for the suspects was still in progress.
North Korea has generated an estimated $2 billion using “widespread and increasingly sophisticated” cyberattacks to steal from banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, the monitors reported in 2019.
In their latest report, seen by Reuters on Monday, they said North Korea-linked hackers continued to target financial institutions and virtual currency houses in 2020. “According to one member state, the DPRK total theft of virtual assets, from 2019 to November 2020” was approximately $316.4 million, the report said.
North Korea has been subjected to U.N. sanctions since 2006. They have been strengthened by the 15-member Security Council over the years.
The latest report by the U.N. sanctions monitors also noted “a clear trend in 2020 was that the DPRK cyber actors have been conducting attacks against defense industries around the globe.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during a plenary meeting of the Workers' Party central committee in Pyongyang, North Korea in this photo supplied by North Korea's Central News Agency (KCNA) on February 9, 2021.
North Korea's Kim lays out paths to take with South Korea, external affairs
By Sangmi Cha
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the paths for his ruling Workers’ Party to take with South Korea and external affairs, state media KCNA said on Wednesday.
Kim called last month for more advanced nuclear weapons and said the United States was “our biggest enemy,” presenting a stark challenge to U.S. President Joe Biden just days before he took office.
Kim, who cemented his power at January’s party congress with his election as general secretary, further discussed Pyongyang’s five-year policy plan on the second day of the plenary meeting on Tuesday.
“The General Secretary in the report evinced the militant tasks to be carried out by the People’s Army and the munitions industry this year,” KCNA reported, “and the direction of future action to be taken by the sector in charge of affairs with South Korea and the sector in charge of external affairs, before underscoring the need to thoroughly carry them out without fail.”
While raising the issue of reshaping relations with South Korea “as required by the prevailing situation and the changed times”, Kim has criticised Seoul for offering cooperation in “non-fundamental” areas such as COVID-19 aid and tourism and said it should stop buying arms from and conducting military drills with the United States.
South Korea’s new foreign minister said on Tuesday he was confident about coordinating North Korea policy with the United States despite earlier signs of differences.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said last month that Biden should hold talks with North Korea to build on progress that former President Donald Trump made with Kim.
Kim’s unprecedented personal meetings with Trump failed to lead to a breakthrough in denuclearisation talks or a loosening of sanctions.
KCNA did not provide further details of the meeting, but said the meeting would continue at least until a third day.
Hole #1, par 4, 381 yards
With the rough grown in on the right as part of the championship course set-up, what was once a soft dogleg par 4 now bends abruptly to the right. Although the fairway slope will help a ball that is hit from left to right, length is not important here. It's the first hole, and the priority is to keep the ball in the fairway to allow a clean approach to a very narrow green. Look for the players to hit long irons from the tee.
Hole #2, par 5, 516 yards
The green on this par 5 is quite narrow, which means you want to leave as short an approach as possible. Even though the fairway is only 30 yards wide, players will be hitting driver as hard and as long as possible.
Hole #3, par 4, 404 yards
This is almost a mirror image of the first hole, but with a sharper turn. Again, the idea is to hit the fairway, probably with a long iron or a fairway wood, to have any chance of birdie. The tee shot sets up nicely for players who hit a draw, which is to say just about everyone in the field. The reverse is true for the approach shot. Because the green slopes softly from right to left, it calls for a high fade.
Hole #4, par 4, 331 yards
A long iron or 3-wood to carry the long bunker in the center of the fairway is your best bet. With the tendency to keep well away from the ocean on the right, a lot of players could end up in the rough and the large bunker to the left. That will leave a short but tricky approach to a green that sits close to the cliffs and slops back to front.
Hole #5, par 3, 195 yards
Although the prevailing wind on this par 3 blows from the ocean, it has a tendency to swirl, which will make club selection perplexing. And watch what happens to players who thinks a ball hit short and left will feed into the green. It looks as though it should do that, but it more than likely will kick forward into the rough or sand, which will leave a very delicate chip to a slick, sloping green. The safest play is to the left-center of the green.
Hole #6, par 5, 523 yards
This hole demands the driver. That's because a ball not hit far enough probably will prevent the player from reaching the second landing area, past the swath of rough, on the second shot. That will mean a lay-up and a blind third shot up a steep slope to a small green and bunkers with a long iron. That's not something to look forward to, so expect to see the field cranking driver here.
Hole #7, par 3, 106 yards
This short, picturesque hole is all about the wind and club selection. In the 1992 U.S. Open, for example, eventual champion Tom Kite hit a sand wedge for his tee shot on Saturday and a 6-iron on Sunday. If the wind does blow, look for players to switch from club to club before hitting.
Hole #8, par 4, 428 yards
It's absolutely crucial to find the fairway with what probably will be a 3-wood or 2-iron hit blind from the tee. However, there's not much fairway to find. Those who hit safely will face a middle iron over the waves hitting the oceanic chasm to a green that slopes severely back to front. Those who don't probably will play for bogey.
Hole #9, par 4, 504 yards
Side hill lies are the norm for long iron second shots so beware of the ocean right. There is a deep-bunkered gully left and short that will punish a timid approach. This is truly the most difficult hole on the course. This is the toughest hole on the golf course. Because the fairway slopes severely toward the ocean, the approach must be hit from a hanging lie. What usually happens is that the player leaks it to the right, or overcompensates and ends up in the left rough or the greenside bunker, leaving a tough up-and-down.
Hole #10, par 4, 495 yards
The last in this stretch of holes along Carmel Bay is another long par 4 that slopes toward the water. It's a tough, tough tee shot. If it lands in the center or right of the fairway, the ball likely will roll into deep rough to the right. A ball hit left should stay safe, but if hit too far left it could find rough or sand. Take enough club on your approach to carry the inlet on the right, but stay short of the bunkers left and long. The green slopes from left to right.
Hole #11, par 4, 390 yards
The prevailing wind blows off the sea and should help the tee shot, yet it still must be hit blind to a landing area that is only 28 yards wide. On the uphill approach, only the front left of the green is visible, so you may have to hit two blind shots in a row. It is not good to hit the approach long here. Because the green slopes so severely from back to front, a chip or even a putt could easily run right off the putting surface.
Hole #12, par 3, 202 yards
The shallow green on this long par 3 will be the tough to hold because it is the firmest on the course. The players will fare best if they can feed their tee shots in from right to left, and do so softly. Just about anything that hits the middle of the green will bounce into rough or sand behind the green. The wind above the trees, which players can check by eyeing the flag on the 11th behind them, may alter tee shots.
Hole #13, par 4, 445 yards
This uphill par-4 plays longer than the yardage. Three fairway bunkers have been added to the right side (in a mirror configuration of those just short of the green), but this hole remains a birdie opportunity. Players over-hitting their uphill approaches will chip back from a closely mown area behind the green to the slickest putting surface on the course.
Hole #14, par 5, 580 yards
The dogleg right is a three shot hole for most players. Rough on the left side of the landing area should take the driver out of play. It is possible to carry the fairway bunker on the right, but that shot runs the risk of going all the way through the fairway and finding the rough. Most players will play two shots, then attack the flag.
Hole #15, par 4, 397 yards
This is one of the more straightforward holes on the golf course, and though the fairway has been pinched in to about 30 yards, players should be able to hit a long iron or fairway wood off the tee and still get the approach close for a true chance at birdie.
Hole #16, par 4, 403 yards
The prime tee shot is hit from left to right with a 2- or 3-iron and carry the island bunker to the upper shelf of the fairway, between 230-240 yards out. A ball hit too long will bound down into a depression and probably into the left rough, while a ball hit too far right will either find sand, rough or have trees interfering with the approach. This is a tricky green, too, as shots tend to slide to the left when they land.
Hole #17, par 3, 208 yards
Conditions can be deceptive here. With a hedge running along the right side, and temporary grandstands to the right of and behind the green, it might seem calm even on a windy day. Players should pay attention to what the flag is doing and expect there to be more wind than they think.
Hole #18, par 5, 543 yards
A new tee further out to sea actually makes the tee shot a little easier, but it still must negotiate the coastline. Only the longest hitters will be able to reach the green in two if they keep their balls in the fairway. The best tee shot and second shot will be to the left side of the fairway to avoid trees. Putts will fall oceanside on the closing hole.
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![[Pebble Beach Pro-Am tee times] Sung Kang (SH), 12:52 a.m., Friday, Sangmoon Bae (PB) 1:47 a.m., K.J (2024)](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8/h8AAvMB+NzmkbcAAAAASUVORK5CYII=)