Ping has announced a new lineup of product releases that will be hitting pro shop floors in mid-August. Included are the first forged irons in decades from the company, plus the irons and wedges that Louis Oosthuizen had in his bag at St. Andrews (nice timing, Ping ... or is that Louis?).

There's also the K15 line of super-game improvement woods and irons, a new line of women's clubs, and the Scottsdale putter series. Check 'em all out.

It's a chilly, rainy Round 1 at the Women's British Open today in Southport, England, on the links of Royal Birkdale. Players are bundled up in layers, in jackets, and in rain pants, wearing ear muffs. And, as some of those players pointed out, today was supposed to be the day with the best weather.

Scores, not surprisingly, are high. You can follow the action at the Women's British Open live leaderboard.

Royal Birkdale is one of the best seaside links in Britain, part of the British Open rota. Check out the Royal Birkdale photo gallery.

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Have you played Royal Birkdale? Or, for that matter, any other course in England? Add your ratings of England golf courses.

There has been an explosion of super-low scores in golf recently. As in sub-60s. And there was another one today in the Alabama Golf Association State Boys Junior Championship.

Bobby Wyatt, a few days shy of turning 18, shot a 57 in the second round of the tournament on the par-71 (that's 14-under) Country Club of Mobile in Mobile, Ala. He set a new course record, obviously, and broke the old record by six strokes. How often does a course record get lowered by six shots? Not very often.

The course was set up at 6,628 yards. Is it an easy course? Stewart Cink says no. The 2009 British Open champion tweeted:

"CC of Mobile is a course I know well. One of my favorites. Not a pushover by any stretch of the imagination..."

Wyatt carded a 26 on the front nine and a 31 on the back nine. He was 11-under through 11 holes. Wyatt is finished with high school and will play for the University of Alabama golf team in the coming collegiate season.

See also:

• Lowest 18-hole scores in golf

The Champions Tour is in a stretch of three majors in four tournaments: The U.S. Senior Open this week, the Senior Open Championship last week, and the Jeld-Wen Tradition coming up in a couple weeks. That beats 2009, though, when the same three majors were back-to-back-to-back.

Bernhard Langer won the Senior British last week at Carnoustie, with hardly a tree in sight (although plenty of heather and gorse). This week, the players can definitely see the forest of trees that tightly line Sahalee Country Club in Washington state. It's a course whose majestic trees one led Colin Montgomerie to call it the prettiest place the pros play. (Which might make Sahalee the only thing about America Monty likes.)

The defending champion is Fred Funk, whose straight driving will come in handy again this week. One player who would dearly love to win this week is Fred Couples, a local boy who has long been the biggest champion of Sahalee. And Couples still leads the Champions Tour money list.

Prior to Langer's win last week, the most recent senior major winner was Tom Lehman, who won the Senior PGA in late May; Larry Mize won the Montreal Championship two weeks ago. Nick Price, who might have been a contender, withdrew. Corey Pavin, runnerup to Langer at the Senior British, is another strong contender.

See the U.S. Senior Open tourney page for trivia and notes.

See also:

• U.S. Senior Open winners