FORMER world number one golfer Nick Price is scheduled to return to action for the first time in almost 10 months, when he tees off in this week’s Encompass Championship at North Shore Country Club in Illinois today.
REPORT BY SPORTS REPORTER
The US-based Zimbabwean golfer, who now competes in the 50 years-and-over Champions Tour, has been out of action since mid-August of last year with torn ligaments in his left elbow.
Price last played on the Champions Tour at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open (August 17 – 19, 2012), but had to withdraw during the second round.
However, Price, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest sportsmen to come out of Zimbabwe, has fully recovered from the injury.
The Encompass Championships’ 54-hole main event begins today.
In the first two rounds, the 81 pros on the championship’s entry list will be paired with an amateur in a two-man, two-day team event. Only the pros will be on the course on Sunday when the $1,8 million purse will be distributed, with the champion receiving $270 000.
Some of Price’s best days in illustrious career on the PGA Tour came in Chicago, where he won back-to-back Western Opens at Cog Hill in 1993 and 1994.
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Price, who recently met US President Barack Obama at the White House ahead of the 2013 Presidents’ Cup later this year is one of the seven World Golf Hall of Famers in the field, the others being Fred Couples, Hale Irwin, Bernhard Langer and Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw and Sandy Lyle.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s top-ranked player in the world at the moment, Brendon De Jonge, will return to action this week after missing out on last week’s US Open.
De Jonge will be part of the star studded field at the Travellers’ Championship at TPC River Highlands Golf Course in Connecticut.
The Harare-born golfer will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Sweden’s Fredrik Jacobson (2011) and Australian Marc Leishman (2012) as international players that scored a maiden win at TPC River Highlands.
De Jonge has eight top-25 finishes this year and currently sits 12th in Greens in Regulation (GIR) percentage and 18th in the all-around ranking.
