LPGA has first major of the year in Houston and PGA Tour has lone team event in New Orleans

THE CHEVRON CHAMPIONSHIP

Site: Houston.

Course: Memorial Park GC. Yardage: 6,811. Par: 72.

Prize money: $8 million. Winner's share: $1.2 million.

Television: Thursday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 6-8 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday, 1-3 p.m. (NBC), 3-6 p.m. (Golf Channel); Sunday, 1:30-2 p.m. (Peacock), 2-5:30 p.m. (NBC).

Defending champion: Mao Saigo.

Race to CME Globe leader: Nelly Korda.

Last week: Hannah Green won the JM Eagle LA Championship.

Notes: This is the first of five majors on the LPGA schedule. ... After three years at Carlton Woods, the tournament is moving to Memorial Park. The public course near downtown Houston just hosted the PGA Tour's Houston Open one month ago. ... The 132-player field has eight amateurs in keeping with tradition. That includes top-ranked amateur Kiara Romero and Asterisk Talley, the 17-year-old who already has played two LPGA events this year. ... Five of the last six winners of The Chevron were first-time major champions. The exception was Nelly Korda in 2024. ... To keep with tradition of the winner leaping into “Poppie's Pond” when it was at Mission Hills in California, Memorial Park is adding a pond down the right side of the 18th. The winner will jump into a makeshift pool for this year until the change is completed. ... Hannah Green joins Hyo Joo Kim as multiple winners on the LPGA Tour this season. Last year, it took until October to have a multiple winner.

Next week: Mexico Riviera Maya Open.

Online: https://www.lpga.com/

ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANS

Site: Avondale, Louisiana.

Course: TPC Louisiana. Yardage: 7,425. Par: 72.

Prize money: $9.5 million. Winner's share: $1,372,720 for each player.

Television: Thursday-Friday, 3-6 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (CBS).

Defending champions: Ben Griffin and Andrew Novak.

FedEx Cup leader: Scottie Scheffler.

Last week: Matt Fitzpatrick won the RBC Heritage.

Notes: The only team event on the PGA Tour features 74 teams, with two additional teams because Brooks Koepka is in the field. Koepka is playing with Shane Lowry, a Zurich ambassador who had played with Masters champion Rory McIlroy the last two years. ... Matt Fitzpatrick is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 3 and will partner with his brother, Alex, who is playing on the European tour. ... The winning team each gets credit for an official PGA Tour victory, but not a spot in the Masters. World ranking points are not awarded because of the team competition. ... Several of the teams have players from the same college (Tyler Duncan and Adam Schenk of Purdue, Zach Bauchou and Sam Stevens of Oklahoma State) or the same country. ... Ben Griffin teamed with Andrew Novak to win last year. It was the first of three wins for Griffin last year. ... A good week for Koepka could move him high enough to earn a spot in his first signature events.

Next week: Cadillac Championship.

Online: https://www.pgatour.com/

VOLVO CHINA OPEN

Site: Shanghai.

Course: Enhance Anting GC. Yardage: 7,168. Par: 71.

Prize money: $2.75 million. Winner's share: $458,333.

Television: Thursday-Friday, 12:30-5:30 a.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday, 12:30-5 a.m. (Golf Channel); Sunday, 12-5 a.m. (Golf Channel).

Defending champion: Wu Ashun.

Race to Dubai leader: Patrick Reed.

Last tournament: Rory McIlroy won the Masters.

Notes: Kevin Na makes his first start on the European tour. The five-time PGA Tour winner was relegated from LIV Golf and his Iron Heads team and has played this year on the Asian Tour. ... Daniel Hillier is the only player from the top 100 in the world ranking in the field. ... The Volvo China Open and the Turkish Airlines Open next week conclude the “Asian Swing” portion of the European tour. Then it will be two full months of the “European Swing,” which includes two major championships held in the United States. ... The tournament dates to 1995. It has been part of the European tour schedule since 2004, except for a three-year period when it was either canceled or not co-sanctioned by Europe because of COVID-19. ... Y.E. Yang (2009 PGA Championship) is the only major champion to have won the Volvo China Open. ... The tournament has been held at 13 courses since its inception. This is the second straight year for Enhance Anting Golf Club.

Next week: Turkish Airlines Open.

Online: https://www.europeantour.com/dpworld-tour/

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CLASSIC

Site: Duluth, Georgia.

Course: TPC Sugarloaf. Yardage: 7,205. Par: 72.

Prize money: $2 million. Winner's share: $300,000.

Television: Friday, 3-6 p.m. (Golf Channel app); Saturday, 3-6 p.m. (CNBC); Sunday, 3-6 p.m. (Golf Channel).

Defending champion: Jerry Kelly.

Charles Schwab Cup leader: Stewart Cink.

Last week: Stewart Cink won the Senior PGA Championship.

Notes: Stewart Cink already has three victories in five starts on the PGA Tour Champions, along with a runner-up finish. ... Cink played college golf at Georgia Tech and lives in Atlanta. ... Cink's lead in the Charles Schwab Cup is nearly double that of Zach Johnson in second place. ... Ben Crane has not finished in the top 30 in his three previous PGA Tour Champions starts. His runner-up finish at the Senior PGA Championship moved him to No. 7 in the Schwab Cup. ... The TPC Sugarloaf previous held a PGA Tour event until 2009. Among the past champions was Tiger Woods in 1998. He did not go back to defend because it was moved from one week after the Masters to one week before the Masters the following year. ... Johnson is a two-time winner at the TPC Sugarloaf when it was a PGA Tour stop. Other past champions in the field include Crane, Scott McCarron and Paul Stankowski. ... Sponsor exemptions went to Mario Tiziani and Hiroyuki Fujita.

Next week: Regions Tradition.

Online: https://www.pgatour.com/pgatour-champions

Last week: Jon Rahm won LIV Golf Mexico City.

Next tournament: LIV Golf Virginia.

Points leader: Jon Rahm.

Online: https://www.livgolf.com/

Last week: Dylan Menante won the Tulum Championship.

Next tournament: Colonial Life Charity Classic on May 14-17.

Points leader: Ian Holt.

Online: https://www.pgatour.com/korn-ferry-tour

Epson Tour: IOA Championship, Morongo GC at Tukwet Canyon, Beaumont, California. Previous winner: Briana Chacon. Online: https://www.epsontour.com/

Japan Golf Tour: Maezawa Cup, MZ Golf Club, Chiba, Japan. Defending champion: Takanori Konishi. Online: https://www.jgto.org/en/

Asian Tour: Singapore Open, Sentosa GC (Serapong), Singapore. Streaming: Thursday-Friday, 1:30-5:30 a.m. (Golf Channel app); Friday-Saturday, 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. (Golf Channel app). Previous winner: Yosuke Asaji. Online: https://asiantour.com/

Ladies European Tour: Investec South African Women's Open, Royal Cape GC, Cape Town, South Africa. Television: Thursday-Saturday, 7:30-11:30 a.m. (Golf Channel app); Sunday, 8-10:30 a.m. (Golf Channel). Previous winner: Perrine Delacour. Online: https://ladieseuropeantour.com/

PGA Tour Americas: 94 Abierto Telecom del Centro, Cordoba GC, Cordoba, Argentina. Defending champion: Ryan Grider. Online: https://www.pgatour.com/americas

Korea LPGA: Dukshin EPC Championship, Kingsdale GC, Cheongju, South Korea. Defending champion: Minsun Kim. Online: https://klpga.co.kr/

Legends Tour: Barbados Legends, Apes Hill GC, Saint Andrew, Barbados. Defending champion: Scott Hend. Online: https://www.legendstour.com/

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Matt Fitzpatrick, of England, poses with the trophy after winning the RBC Heritage golf tournament Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Hilton Head, S.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

LONDON (AP) — The top official behind the decision to approve the appointment of Peter Mandelson as British ambassador to Washington said Tuesday that he felt political pressure from Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office to rush through the selection, despite security concerns.

Former Foreign Office head Olly Robbins said that Starmer's office had a “dismissive attitude” to security vetting of the scandal-tainted Mandelson. The testimony increases the heat on Starmer, who is facing calls to resign over the appointment of Mandelson, a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, to one of the U.K.'s most important diplomatic posts.

The prime minister fired Robbins last week after the revelation that Mandelson was approved for the job in January 2025 against the recommendation of the government's security vetting agency.

Robbins said that the concerns about Mandelson didn't relate to his relationship with Epstein. He declined to say when questioned by lawmakers what led the government's vetting agency to flag him as a potential security risk.

Mandelson had to resign twice from senior posts in previous Labour Party governments because of scandals over money or ethics. A separate background report prepared before he was appointed ambassador flagged potential business links to Russia and China as a concern.

Robbins said that the vetting agency considered Mandelson a “borderline case” and was “leaning toward recommending against” giving him security clearance. Robbins decided to clear him anyway.

Starmer has called it “staggering” that Foreign Office officials failed to tell him about the security concerns, which he says he only found out about last week.

But Robbins said that the rules bar details of the sensitive vetting process from being shared except in “exceptional circumstances.”

Robbins told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that there was an “atmosphere of pressure” coming from Starmer’s office to approve the appointment so Mandelson could be in the post at the start of the second term of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Starmer announced the choice of Mandelson in December 2024, before intensive security checks were carried out. Robbins said that there was “a very, very strong expectation” that Mandelson “needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible” and “a generally dismissive attitude” to the security vetting from Starmer's office.

Robbins said that he was “very conscious” that refusing Mandelson security clearance would have caused “a real problem for the government and a problem for the country” in relations with the Trump administration.

Robbins insisted that his department “did not bow to that pressure.” He said that his decision to grant Mandelson clearance was based on security advice that the risks could be managed.

Robbins declined to identify any individuals as being behind the pressure. Starmer's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, a protégé of Mandelson, resigned in February, saying he took responsibility for the decision to appoint Mandelson.

The leader of the opposition Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, said that Robbins’ testimony “is devastating to Keir Starmer.”

She said that “it is now absolutely clear that ‘full due process’ was not followed. Keir Starmer has misled" the House of Commons — generally considered a resigning offense.

Starmer, who has denied misleading lawmakers, acknowledged on Monday that he made the wrong judgment when he picked Mandelson for the job. But Starmer said that he would have withdrawn the appointment if he’d known about the failed security vetting.

Starmer fired Mandelson in September, nine months into the job, when new details emerged about his friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.

The U.K. leader has ordered a review into any security concerns arising from Mandelson’s access to sensitive information while ambassador.

Critics say the Mandelson appointment is more evidence of bad judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps since he led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024.

He picked Mandelson as ambassador, despite being warned by his staff that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein exposed the government to “reputational risk.”

But Mandelson's expertise as a former European Union trade chief and contacts among global elites were considered assets in dealing with the Trump administration.

The scandal has caused gloom among lawmakers in Starmer’s center-left Labour Party, already anxious about its dire poll ratings. Starmer already defused one potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to resign over the Mandelson appointment.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said that he had raised concerns about the choice of ambassador, but didn’t think Starmer should resign over the debacle.

“If every time a prime minister made a mistake they resigned, we would shuttle through prime ministers like nobody’s business,” Miliband told the BBC.

Mandelson is under police investigation for suspected misconduct in public office after a trove of Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. Justice Department in January included emails suggesting that Mandelson had passed on sensitive — and potentially market-moving — government information to Epstein in 2009, after the global financial crisis.

British police launched a criminal investigation and arrested Mandelson in February. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He doesn't face allegations of sexual misconduct.

FILE - Olly Robbins walks on Whitehall in Westminster, London, Jan. 17, 2019. (Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP, File)

FILE - Olly Robbins walks on Whitehall in Westminster, London, Jan. 17, 2019. (Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP, File)

Peter Mandelson is seen with his dog outside his home in London, Monday, April 20, 2026 as Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing a showdown in Parliament over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street in London, Monday, April 20, 2026 to face a showdown in Parliament over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)