It started, like so many underdog stories, with a near disaster. On the first hole at TPC San Antonio, Spaun blundered his approach shot into the left rough, hacked out to 60 feet, and ended with a double bogey. Before the rest of the leaders had even posted a single score, he had dug himself an early hole. To his great fortune, though, the rest of the leaders would falter through a painful Sunday, while Spaun’s day would only get better.

“Honestly, it didn’t bother me as you would think,” he said after the round. “If anything, it kind of calmed me down. … I knew there was still a lot of golf and I’d rather double the first hole than the last hole, if I was patient and plugged away, I might put myself in contention.”

Beau Hossler, in the final group, was seeking to become the first player to win on the PGA Tour with a sponsor’s exemption since Martin Laird in 2020, and to complete a rapid turnaround after slipping below 400th in the World Ranking earlier this season. He played a strong front nine to reach 12 under, including a chip-in birdie at six, but a bogey at 10 knocked him back. He then lived out a nightmare on 14, butchering the par-5 to the tune of a double bogey:

From 2 back to 4 back.

Beau Hossler takes an unplayable and makes double after hitting it over the green at the 14th. pic.twitter.com/LrPAr3XKma

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 3, 2022

He finished the day right where he started, at 10 under, which marks his second excellent result of the year after a third-place finish at Pebble Beach, but which will come with its share of regrets for what might have been.

Those regrets also will plague Brandt Snedeker, who came off five straight missed cuts to vault into a share of the lead after a 66 on Friday and 67 on Saturday. In his last 18, though, he couldn’t make a single birdie, and a three-over 75 performance to fall to T-18 ended in mild embarrassment with a rushed three-putt on the last hole.

Like his playing partners, Dylan Frittelli was also at a loss, answering every birdie with a bogey until a rough stretch midway through the back nine ended his chances.

In the absence of any fireworks among the other leaders, Spaun regrouped after his double bogey and began his slow rise to the top of the leader board. A brilliant approach on six yielded his first birdie of the day, and an up-and-down birdie on the par-5 fifth brought him back to even. Then on the ninth, trailing Hossler by two, Spaun responded to a bad break (his ball hit an NBC microphone) by pitching in from 50 feet:

Up and in

Perfection from @JJSpaun below the green. pic.twitter.com/l3JMREGf5s

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 3, 2022

As the leaders collapsed around him, Spaun played a steady back nine highlighted by a birdie at 11 and another at 14. By the time the endgame came around, Hossler was nowhere in sight, Frittelli and Snedeker were even further afield, and all Spaun had to worry about was a late charge from Matt Kuchar. (Matt Jones shot a field-best 66 to reach 11 under, two shots off the eventual winning score, and was one of the few players to best Jordan Spieth, who shot 67 in his final round before the Masters.)

The last moment of real drama came after Kuchar’s birdie on 17 to bring him within two shots heading to the par-5 18th. There, Spaun seemed to open the door just slightly with a pulled drive into the native area. But Spaun recovered safely into the fairway, forcing Kuchar to go for the green in two from 284 yards. His miracle attempt faded too early, and too much, and when the ball splashed into the water, Spaun knew a par would be plenty to seal the deal. His approach left a bit to be desired, but a terrific lag from 50 feet guaranteed his maiden Tour win.

Spaun has struggled with health issues in recent years after doctors told him he had diabetes but misdiagnosed the kind. Carmen Mandato

Spaun became the first player to win after making double at the first hole since Tiger Woods at the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Unlike Tiger, Spaun needed this badly for his career. After reaching the PGA Tour for the first time in 2016, he put together three steady but unspectacular years. Then in his fourth full season, he endured unexpected weight loss. Diagnosed with diabetes, Spaun changed his diet and routine, but wasn’t feeling any better, later learning he was misdiagnosed with Type 2 when he suffered from Type 1. He stumbled to a 185th-place finish in the FedEx Cup points race in the 2019-20 season and followed that with 174th a year ago. Now, he’s got his full exemption, financial security, and a spot at Augusta. It marks quite a change of fortune, and he knows it.

“I think a year ago … I would have been telling you I have to do a lot of work to [stay on tour],” he said. “But to be here and overcome a lot of things and finally get a win? It’s everything you dream of.”

Dreams were a big theme of his post-round remarks, when Spaun admitted that the prospect of Augusta had floated into his thoughts on Saturday night.

“It’s something you dream of as a kid, playing at the Masters,” he said. “I was thinking about it last night, but there was still so much to be done. You’ve got to do your best to stay in the present. That’s what guys who win do that week, they take it one moment, one shot at a time.”

With a taste of success like this, Spaun will undoubtedly stick to the plan for the rest of the season, but it’s a good bet that despite the benefits of a zen mentality, he might take a moment sometime on Sunday to think ahead to what awaits him at Augusta National. For all the benefits of staying in the present, there are days when the future’s not so bad either.

The post How J.J. Spaun got past a horrible start, became a PGA Tour winner and is now going to the Masters appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

With that, let’s look at the most remarkable statistical feats of the 2019-’20 season, from the impressive to the heartbreaking to the weird.

1. Jon Rahm wins the strokes-gained crown in a down year

Jon Rahm’s average strokes gained against the field, in 57 measured rounds, was a very solid 1.823, nosing ahead of Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Webb Simpson and Bryson DeChambeau. But what’s interesting about Rahm’s total is that it’s the lowest winning number since Steve Stricker was No. 1 in 2010 with 1.818. Only twice in the last 10 years has the strokes gained/total leader won with a number lower than 2 (the average for the last 10 winners, including Rahm, is 2.22). It’s hard to know exactly why this happened; perhaps the tournaments that were cancelled due to COVID-19 trended a bit easier. In any case, it’s Rahm’s first overall SG crown, and it adds a subtle reason his fellow tour pros might consider him for PGA Tour Player of the Year.

• • •

2. Bud Cauley makes the “2/3” sand-save club

It’s one of the oddities about sports that for certain feats, there are seemingly arbitrary numbers that turn out to be useful cutoffs for separating the good and the great—like, for instance, a .300 batting average. For sand saves, it turns out that anyone who averages better than 66.67 percent, i.e. someone who makes better than two out of every three sand saves, has attained an elusive level of excellence. That’s what Bud Cauley accomplished in 2020, going 69/103 from the sand for a 66.99-percent rate. Before him, the list of those who had beaten the “2/3” mark this millennium is short: Rickie Fowler (2017), K.J. Choi (2013), Tim Clark (2007), Franklin Langham (2001) and Fred Couples (2000).

Matt Sullivan

• • •

3. Martin Trainer and the year of the hellish approach

Since the PGA Tour started keeping SG/approach stats in 2004, no player has ever averaged more than two strokes lost (as in -2) per round for a whole season. Until 2020, that is. Martin Trainer, who was dead last on the 2019 list, too, lost 82.502 strokes to the field in 39 measured rounds, for an abysmal -2.115 average. It’s a big reason why he missed the cut in 19 of 21 starts, and it makes his 2019 win at the Puerto Rico Open look even more anomalous. This is a year he’ll be eager to forget, but as Brendon Todd has shown us, twice, you’re never truly dead in the game of golf.

• • •

4. Bryson DeChambeau hits the sixth-longest putt since 2003

DeChambeau made a ton of news this year, but not much of it for his putting. Still, on the 18th hole Saturday in the PGA Championship, he did this:

Bryson DeChambeau…FROM 95 FEET?!?! pic.twitter.com/MQB1DgneMp

— Golf on CBS (@GolfonCBS) August 8, 2020

The PGA Tour has longest-putt stats going back to 2003, and only five people have made a longer putt than DeChambeau’s 95 feet, five inches. The longest was Craig Barlow at the Buick Open in 2008, and it remains tragic to me that no footage of this exists. For what it’s worth, Bryson missed the top five by two inches—Nick Watney made a 95 foot, seven incher in 2017.

• • •

5. Jason Kokrak is the four-foot prince of the millennium

Every year, there are a group of players who make every single putt from three feet—this year, there were 20, including Phil Mickelson, who went 419-for-419—but once you move back to four feet, perfection is a tantalizing impossibility. Every year since 2003, when Shotlink distances were first measured, no player has made every four-foot putt in a season. The top guys always come close, missing just one or two, but nobody runs the table. This season, Jason Kokrak led all comers, hitting 101 of 102 four-footers, for a 99.02 percentage. As it turns out, that’s the second-best number ever, trailing only Jim Furyk’s 99.12 (113-for-114) from 2011. This is one spot where the COVID stoppage may have kept him from all-time glory—a few more putts, and he would have nudged ahead of Furyk.

• • •

Michael Reaves

6. Beau Hossler is the three-putt avoidance prince of the millennium

This season, Hossler three-putted just 16 times over 1,206 total holes, for a 1.33 percent three-putt rate. Like Kokrak and his four-footers, that was nearly enough to secure the best rate of the 2000s. And like Kokrak, he only fell short of a 2011 performance, in this case Luke Donald and his 15 three-putts in the exact same number of holes. Just one fewer three-putt, and Hossler would have shared the crown.

• • •

7. Jim Furyk tops the GIR list at age 50

Time has clearly not taken hampered Furyk’s maddening consistency, as he proved this season with his tour-leading 74.22 percent greens-in-regulation rate. To find a better percentage, you have to go back to 2001, when Tom Lehman averaged 74.53 percent. Now, going back to sample size, we have to note that Furyk only had 39 rounds, which is about half as many attempts as the typically leader in this category would post. Then again, when you’re twice the age of some of your competitors, maybe you should be allowed to make your point in half the time.

Tom Pennington

• • •

8. Bryson DeChambeau joins an elite driving group

The big man again! Since 2004, when the PGA Tour first began keeping strokes-gained stats, there have been only four men who have averaged more than one stroke gained against the field off the tee for a full season. Three of them are obvious: Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson. The fourth is Sergio Garcia, who squeaked in with a 1.003 SG/off-the-tee number in 2005. This year, Bryson DeChambeau became the fifth in the +1 Drivers Club, with 64.417 strokes gained over 62 measured rounds, for an average of 1.039 per round. Clearly, at least off the tee, his bulking routine paid dividends. Interestingly, Cam Champ came up just shy, with an average of .999.

• • •

9. Webb Simpson wins the scoring average title

In beating Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas for the best scoring average for the season, Webb Simpson did so by dipping (albeit just barely) into 68 territory with a 68.978 average through 52 rounds. That puts him in pretty exclusive company. In the last decade, only Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Sergio Garcia, and Jordan Spieth have maintained a sub-69 average in a single season. McIlroy had the lowest average in 2014, and if you’re wondering if anyone has ever beaten 68, the answer is yes—it’s Tiger, of course, in 2000 (67.749) and 2007 (67.794).

Christian Petersen

• • •

10. Denny McCarthy repeats as SG/putting champ, puts up second-best mark ever

As with the other strokes-gained stats we’ve looked at so far, the PGA Tour’s SG/putting rankings only go back to 2004. In that time, only one man has averaged better than one stroke gained against the field for a full season, and that was Jason Day in 2016. This year, Denny McCarthy got awfully close, averaging .988 per round in another brilliant season, second all-time. He also became just the third repeat winner since the stat was kept, joining Luke Donald (2009-2011) and Ben Crane (2005-2006). Interestingly, those gaudy numbers from McCarthy were only good for four top-10 finishes this season, highlighting his struggles elsewhere. For two years, McCarthy has been the tour’s equivalent of a one-trick pony, but he’s very good at that one trick.

The post 10 remarkable season-ending stats from a strange year on the PGA Tour appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Daniel Rapaport
In this never-ending nightmare of the coronavirus, we’ve become increasingly numb to disappointments. The first few cancellations—sports events, music festivals, in-person classes—hit society quite hard. But when you’re continuously crossing things off the calendar, it becomes the norm, and human beings have a way of adapting to the norm, however bleak it may be.

Still, a particularly depressing bit of news—at least by golf standards—can pull at our collective heartstrings and remind us what a huge bummer this continues to be. Monday’s announcement that the USGA would be cancelling qualifiers for September’s U.S. Open wasn’t much of a surprise, when you really think about it. Running 108 local qualifiers and 12 sectional qualifiers simply isn’t feasible in these times, so the U.S. Open will feature a fully exempt field for the first time in a very long time.

No one’s happy about it. Not the players who were going to get in anyway, not the USGA folks and, of course, not the countless mini-tour guys who relish the opportunity to beat the big boys. This is the U.S. Open after all, a tournament that derives much of its charm from its meritocracy. All you need is a 1.4 index or below, a couple hundred bucks and the ability to take a few Mondays off work, and you could find yourself teeing it up against Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy at iconic course such as Shinnecock Hills or Pebble Beach.

In a normal year, roughly half of the field comes from qualifying, though the vast majority of the guys who make it were exempt from the local stage and went straight to sectionals. The most recent winner to come from a sectional was Lucas Glover in 2009 at Bethpage Black, with Michael Campbell also pulling it off in 2005 at Pinehurst.

It’s much rarer to make it through both local and sectional. Rare, but not unheard of. A number of guys—touring professionals, teaching pros, college players, teenagers, insurance salesman—have made it through both rounds and then left their mark on the Open itself. In light of today’s news, here are a few of the best.

Ken Venturi, 1964
The World Golf Hall of Famer’s career got off to a solid start in the late 1950s, when he broke out on Tour and nearly won a couple Masters. But he experienced such a dramatic loss in form that he had to play in a local qualifier for the 1964 U.S. Open. Good thing he did—after nearly collapsing from oppressive heat during a 36-hole final day, Venturi ended up winning at Congressional, a comeback significant enough to earn him Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year.

Orville Moody, 1969
Moody won exactly one of the 266 tournaments he played in during his pro career: the U.S. Open at Champions Golf Club in Houston, And like Venturi, he did so after playing his way through both local and sectional qualifying. He is the last player to win the championship after such a journey.

Bettmann
Orville Moody waves his cap after winning the 1969 U.S. Open.

John Peterson, 2012
Peterson had a fantastic career at LSU, where he was a three-time All-American and won the NCAA individual title in 2011. But in the spring of 2012, he was just a fledgling pro teeing it up in a local qualifier for the U.S. Open. He played his way through local and then sectional to book his place at the Olympic Club. It turned out to be the best week of his professional career—he made a hole-in-one on Saturday, finished T-4 and made $276,841. Peterson’s had a strange run since then, playing his way to a PGA Tour, then struggling with injuries, then retiring at age 29, and then seemingly un-retiring shortly thereafter. No matter where his roller-coaster golf journey takes him, he’ll always have that week at Olympic.

Jason Gore, 2005
Gore, who actually works for the USGA now as a player relations director, was on the precipice of the impossible 15 years ago. He’d played his way through local qualifying, through sectional qualifying, made the cut at Pinehurst No. 2, and found himself in the final group of the U.S. Open alongside World No. 5 Retief Goosen. Sunday itself was a disaster for the big guy, Gore’s 14-over 84 seeing him plummet all the way to a tie for 49th. He held it together for so very long, but he couldn’t hold it together long enough.

Jared C. Tilton
Local and sectional qualifier Jason Gore played in the last group on Sunday in the 2005 U.S. Open.

Andy Zhang, 2012
A cool thing about the U.S. Open qualification process is there’s no age limit. If your handicap is low enough, have at it. Fourteen-year-old Andy Zhang did so back in 2012, when he made it through local qualifying only to lose in a playoff at Sectionals. Dream over, right? Nah. He got into the field as an alternate when some of his older competitors pulled out with injuries, opening a spot for the youngest player in U.S. Open history. He shot 79-78 to miss the cut by a million, but that’s not really the point.

Beau Hossler, 2012
The 2012 U.S. Open was quite the party for local qualifiers. In addition to Zhang and Peterson, 17-year-old Beau Hossler joined in on the fun. It was actually his second straight year qualifying for the Open—not sure why playing in the U.S. Open doesn’t get you into at least Sectionals for the next year—and he made it count at Olympic Club. Hossler briefly held the solo lead at two-under on Friday before a late collapse saw him tumble down the board and lose low amateur honours to some guy named Jordan Spieth.

The post There are great stories about U.S. Open qualifiers; too bad we won’t have any in 2020 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
With another PGA Tour season starting at this week’s A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, it’s time for our annual tribute to golfers not to be overlooked as we head into 2019-’20. This year’s list of sleepers is a bit different than past editions. While we kept the same criteria—a player has to be younger than 30, with no PGA Tour titles and no appearances in the Tour Championship—the make-up skews younger than years past. And that’s even with Matthew Wolff and Collin Morikawa playing their way off this list thanks to quick maiden victories on tour in 2019.

Although fewer returning PGA Tour players made our cut than normal, most of the youngsters below already have serious name recognition. They obviously have serious game as well. So we’re pretty confident that a handful will join Wolff and Morikawa as PGA Tour winners this season—and add to our prior success (Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Champ, etc., etc.) in picking breakthrough stars.

Viktor Hovland

Streeter Lecka

It almost feels like cheating to include this Norwegian native who turns 22 next week, but technically, he meets our super-scientific criteria. Hovland waited to turn pro in 2019 until after he used his U.S. Open exemption from winning the 2018 U.S. Amateur, then narrowly missed earning his PGA Tour card from his play in the summer while competing on sponsor’s exemptions. He earned his spot in the big leagues through the Korn Ferry Tour Finals and is the frontrunner to win Rookie of the Year. Take a look at these stats!

Strokes Gained leaders since June:

OFF-THE-TEE
1. Viktor Hovland, +1.13
2. Rory McIlroy, +1.09

APPROACH
1. Adam Scott, +1.35
2. Viktor Hovland, +1.01

(minimum 20 rounds)

— Sean Martin (@PGATOURSMartin) September 9, 2019

Like I said, leaving him on this list feels like cheating. Anyway, Hovland has also quickly become a pressroom favourite:

Viktor Hovland is now a living legend. pic.twitter.com/ufA4knxDB2

— Skratch (@Skratch) July 10, 2019

Yep, this kid is going places.

Scottie Scheffler

Richard Heathcote

There was a two-month stretch during the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour season in which Scheffler didn’t finish worse than T-7, winning one tournament and finishing second two other times. The 23-year-old Texas product added another victory in the postseason and is No. 1 on the priority rankings of guys coming from the developmental tour. That means Scheffler is the only 2019 Korn Ferry Tour graduate to be fully exempt on the PGA Tour for 2019-’20, which includes a spot in the Players. If Hovland is the clear favourite for ROY, Scheffler is probably No. 2.

Joaquin Niemann

Andy Lyons

Welcome back, young fella! Although not the youngest player on this list, Niemann, who turns 21 in November, is certainly the youngest with a full PGA Tour season under his size-28 belt (we don’t know his actual belt size, but the kid is skinny). And it was a solid season at that. After getting off to a slow start to his official rookie campaign (Niemann earned his PGA Tour card through sponsor’s exemptions the previous year), the native of Chile found his form once summer rolled around. Starting with back-to-back T-5s at the Travelers Championship and Rocket Mortgage Classic, he finished worse than T-31 only once over his final eight starts while racking up four top-15s.

Beau Hossler

Michael Reaves

Another returner, Hossler is breaking a record he didn’t know existed by making our list for a third time. In a way, that’s not a good sign for his career—when’s he finally going to make good on his potential? But in another, it bodes well in that so many people still believe he’s going to turn into a big-time player. Hossler briefly lost his PGA Tour card this past season, but he quickly got it back with a runner-up finish in the first Korn Ferry Tour Finals event. And now he’s back on this list. Again. So congrats on the record, Beau. Until you break it again next year …

Robby Shelton

Steve Dykes

Like Scheffler, this former college All-American broke out this past season with two Korn Ferry Tour titles. Shelton struggled trying to earn win No. 3 and that battlefield promotion to the PGA Tour, but the 24-year-old still enters this season No. 4 on the priority list of the top 50 grads. In other words, he’s in good shape to get a lot of early starts. We look forward to Shelton and Justin Thomas bragging about how good Alabama football is all season. (Kidding. We’re not looking forward to that.)

Wyndham Clark

Andy Lyons

Clark’s solid rookie season on the PGA Tour finished with top 20s in four of his final seven starts, including a T-5 at the 3M Open. The University of Oregon golfer certainly has the skills for success in today’s tour. Clark ranked fifth in driving distance and eighth in strokes gained/putting this past season. Only 25, there’s plenty of upsides here. And plenty of opportunities for cheeky Wyndham Rewards commercials.

Doug Ghim

David Cannon/Getty Images

The University of Texas golfer (yeah, this list is getting a bit Longhorn heavy) became the latest example of the razor-thin margins at golf’s highest ranks. At the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, Ghim converted an eight-foot curler on the 72nd hole to earn his PGA Tour card and give us one of the best reactions of the year in sports.

For a @PGATour card…. pic.twitter.com/x7wdT33Dqu

— GOLFTV (@GOLFTV) September 2, 2019

In addition to being the low amateur at the 2018 Masters, Ghim has had four top 25s in his 11 starts as a pro on the PGA Tour. That proves the 23-year-old can hang with the big boys—and that clutch stroke certainly won’t hurt his confidence going forward.

Tyler McCumber

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The son of 10-time PGA Tour winner Mark McCumber has steadily climbed pro golf’s ranks the past few years. First, through the PGA Tour Latinoamerica, then with a dominant three-win campaign on the PGA Tour Canada in 2018 and, finally, a solid rookie effort on the Korn Ferry Tour in which he finished 24th on the regular-season money list despite no victories. At 28, he’s the old man on this list, but he’s also got great genes from his old man.

Maverick McNealy

Michael Cohen

Yes, this is the guy who tied Tiger Woods’ record for victories at Stanford. Yes, he’s the son of a billionaire. Yes, he’s the dude dating LPGA star Danielle Kang. In many ways, McNealy has already established himself as a known commodity in pro golf, but he’ll get his first full-time crack at the PGA Tour after finishing 23rd on the Korn Ferry Tour’s regular-season money list. He’s certainly got the talent to be a star, and if this whole golf thing doesn’t work out, we’re pretty sure he’ll be OK.

Kristoffer Ventura

Steve Dykes

Another stud from that incredible Oklahoma State 2018 title team, Ventura graduated and spent this past season trying to make it as a pro. With no status on any tour as of June, a trip to Q school looked like a given until he turned a sponsor’s exemption at the Korn Ferry’s BMW Charity Pro-Am into a T-3. Three weeks later, Ventura won the Utah Championship and added another victory at the Pinnacle Bank Championship the next month. Quite a heater. Between Ventura and Hovland, Norway is suddenly a golf powerhouse.

Akshay Bhatia

Matt Sullivan

He’s definitely the youngest player on this list, and he probably won’t earn any PGA Tour status this season, but … just in case … we don’t want to be late to the party when it comes to predicting big things for this 17-year-old phenom who is turning pro this month. The clear-cut top-ranked junior golfer in the country, Bhatia became the youngest player ever to earn a spot on the U.S. Walker Cup team. He begins the 2019-’20 season with no status on any professional tour, but the lanky lefty should get his full allotment of sponsor’s exemptions. Hopefully, he has his driver’s license as he begins life on the road.

The post 11 PGA Tour sleepers to watch in the 2019-’20 season appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By E. Michael Johnson
Rickie Fowler is a trend setter, but Fowler’s use of a Puma stand bag to house his clubs last week at the Farmers Insurance Open isn’t the reason Jon Rahm, Jimmy Walker and other TaylorMade and Titleist players are allowing their caddies to lighten the load at this week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Rahm and Walker will be using stand bags from their respective companies as part of a product launch for the bags. Titleist is introducing its Players 4 Plus bag and as part of its introduction made bags for each player, putting their names and sponsors logos on the carry bags and allowing players the option to use them. Similarly, TaylorMade rolled out its FlexTech and FlexTech Lifestyle stand bags with Rahm, Beau Hossler and Chez Reavie expected to lighten their caddies’ load by employing the bag in Scottsdale. The FlexTech and FlexTech Lifestyle bags utilize a design where each main side pocket is built into the center of the bag to create a single piece construction that allows for more storage without adding weight.

As for why the Waste Management Phoenix Open, it’s likely not a coincidence. The event has a decidedly relaxed vibe, making it easier to get players to agree to do something outside the norm. Additionally, the heavier staff bags that tour caddies routinely lug often are stocked with plenty of rain gear. Scottsdale is perhaps the most likely tour venue on the schedule to avoid wet weather, making the use of the smaller bags more viable as the likelihood of inclement weather is minimal.

Regardless, the caddies who get to carry the lighter bags will rejoice, but don’t expect the bags to stay in play for longer than this week. Sponsors like to see their logos on television—and they like to see them in big, bold letters.

The post Why do Jon Rahm, Jimmy Walker and others have stand bags at the Waste Management Phoenix Open? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
Our definition of the word “sleeper” has changed through the years—this year, we’re going with any golfer younger than 30 who hasn’t won a PGA Tour event or qualified for the Tour Championship—but our penchant for picking guys before they truly breakout as stars hasn’t. OK, so there have been plenty of whiffs along the way, and some of our past picks (like Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau) were no-brainers. But there also have been others like Jimmy Walker in 2013 and Aaron Wise last year who have made us look good (Thanks, guys). Anyway, here’s who we’re predicting (in no particular order) to have big seasons in 2018-’19.

[divider] [/divider]

Beau Hossler

Tim Bradbury

It almost feels like cheating to include Beau on this list for a second consecutive year, but technically, he still meets our criteria. However, no one mentioned here came as close to a PGA Tour title as Hossler, who basically had a victory stolen from him at the Houston Open by Ian Poulter. But for a young man who putts this well (Hossler finished fourth on tour in strokes gained/putting as a rookie), there will be plenty more opportunities.

[divider] [/divider]

Joaquin Niemann

Minas Panagiotakis

It took this 19-year-old Chilean just five starts this past summer to earn a special temporary membership on the PGA Tour. Then he needed only three more to lock up full playing privileges for this coming season. Niemann is both the youngest golfer on this list (he turns 20 in November) and the one who most screams future superstar.

[divider] [/divider]

Sam Burns

David Cannon/Getty Images

Golf fans got their first good look at this former LSU star when he outplayed Tiger Woods in the final round of the 2018 Honda Classic. The resulting T-8 was one of several successful PGA Tour cameos, but he spent most of his time this past year finishing fourth on the Web.com Tour’s regular-season money list. With full PGA Tour playing privileges for the first time, expect to see the 22-year-old for college golfer of the year in more late-Sunday pairings this season.

[divider] [/divider]

Cameron Champ

Matt Sullivan

What a name, what a talent. Able to produce ball speeds of more than 190 miles per hour, Champ arguably will be the longest hitter on the PGA Tour as a rookie. But he’s not just a bomber. While averaging 391 yards (Yes, 391 yards) off the tee during the Web.com Tour’s Utah Championship, Champ, 23, also hit two-thirds of the fairways on his way to picking up his first pro win. Previously, this Sean Foley student drew notoriety as an amateur when he was T-8 through two rounds at the 2017 U.S. Open. With his jaw-dropping power, Champ should be an instant fan favorite on the PGA Tour.

[divider] [/divider]

Cameron Davis

Michael Cohen

Another long-hitting Cameron, this 23-year-old Aussie was eighth on the Web.com Tour in driving distance (320.5), third in putting average and second in birdie average. His rookie season on the developmental tour also included a Nashville Open win and finishing sixth on the Web.com Tour Finals money list. But his biggest win came in his home country at the 2017 Australian Open.

[divider] [/divider]

Sungjae Im

Steve Dykes

The South Korean native won the opening event of the 2018 Web.com Tour season and never relinquished the top spot on the money list, capping his fantastic year with a second win at the regular-season finale. In addition to that pair of four-shot victories, Im also had three runner-ups to earn a whopping $534,326. Again, that’s on the Web.com Tour. Yeah, we’d be flashing a thumbs-up as well. Making Im’s accomplishment even more impressive is that he turned 20 in March and is the second-youngest player on this list to Joaquin Niemann.

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Abraham Ancer

Andrew Redington/Getty Images

The surprise 54-hole leader at the Dell Technologies Championship in the FedEx Cup Playoffs should become a more familiar name on the leader board following a second PGA Tour season in which he finished strong. Even with a disappointing Monday in Boston, Ancer’s T-7 was one of three top-10s over his final eight starts thanks in large part to his improved driving. The 27-year-old Mexican is only listed at 5-foot-7 and 160 pounds, but he has plenty of pop as evidenced by ranking 41st in strokes gained/off-the-tee.

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Julian Suri

Warren Little/Getty Images

A European Tour winner in 2017, Suri played a split schedule in 2018, but managed to make nine cuts in the 10 PGA Tour starts he made. A T-8 at the Houston Open was his best result in the U.S., but he also finished T-19 at the PGA Championship. Since Suri, 27, didn’t finish in the top 25 of Web.com Tour Finals (35th), he’ll play on multiple tours again, but that won’t keep him from capitalizing on PGA Tour opportunities. And it hasn’t kept him from earning one of the tour’s most unique partnerships, a sponsorship deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Like that franchise, Suri’s stock is on the rise.

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Denny McCarthy

Michael Cohen

A former Junior Ryder Cupper with Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. A former Walker Cupper with Bryson DeChambeau and Beau Hossler. McCarthy, 25, will get a second full season playing against his old teammates on the PGA Tour after winning the Web.com Tour Championship in dominant fashion. Considering how well he played with his job on the line, we’re guessing his second go-round in the big leagues produces more than four top-25s and one top-10.

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Kramer Hickok

Michael Cohen

Just when that whole Jordan Spieth-Justin Thomas best buddy narrative was dying down, golf fans will undoubtedly get sick of hearing about Hickok, 26, being a former roommate of Spieth’s after he graduated from the University of Texas. That’s where the two also played together on the golf team before Spieth put down the books and started picking up major trophies. Now this geography major might just find his way to a PGA Tour winner’s circle as well after finishing second on the Web.com Tour’s regular-season money list in 2018.

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C.T. Pan

Kevin C. Cox

Pan, 26, nearly made himself ineligible for this list with a win at the PGA Tour regular-season finale in Greensboro, but was undone by a disastrous double bogey on the 72nd hole that dropped him to T-2. He added a T-4 at the Dell Technologies Championship and finished 35th in the FedEx Cup standings, nearly qualifying for the Tour Championship. A former World No. 1 amateur during his time at the University of Washington, Pan certainly has the pedigree to be a star. He just might want to work on being more complimentary of his wife when she fills in as his caddie …

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The post 11 PGA Tour sleepers to watch for in the 2018-’19 season appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

With so many interesting storylines developing, it’s the kind of situation where several players who are having compelling years to date aren’t getting the attention they likely deserve. We’re talking about seasons that would’ve ordinarily garnered far more buzz that are simply not getting much love. So, in an attempt to offer credit where it’s due, here are eight players we’d like to salute for their accomplishments thus far.

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Tim Bradbury

8. Jason Day
Admittedly, Day may be a stretch to include in this list, but it’s worth remembering that the Australian hadn’t won in almost two years before this season. But with victories at Torrey Pines and Quail Hollow, he’s one of seven players to grab more than one title in 2018. Plus he has a T-5 at the Players Championship, fifth in the FedEx Cup standings, and leads the tour both in strokes-gained/around the green and strokes-gained/putting. He’s not back to his best just yet, but he’s very close.

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Sam Greenwood

7. Patton Kizzire
His recent form—which has been nothing short of dire—is the reason he’s not higher on this list. But thanks to his early season hot streak, with wins at Mayakoba and Honolulu, the history books will read that in the 2017-’18, Kizzire proved he could play against maybe of the game’s best.

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Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images

6. Chesson Hadley
The Georgia Tech grad’s lone PGA Tour win came as a rookie in 2014 and seemed to signal bright things ahead, but the dawn never lifted. He finished 159th on the FedEx Cup points list in 2016 and 211th in 2017. This season, however, he’s up to 18th, thanks to his 20 made cuts in 25 events, including two top-threes and 11 other top-25s.

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Jeff Gross/Getty Images

5. Beau Hossler
The former college player of the year at Texas has been getting some hype, but his first season on the PGA Tour has been genuinely impressive in lots of different ways. The 23-year-old is currently on a streak of 12 made cuts and co-leads the tour in most rounds in the 60s with 41.

Related: The contradictions of Bryson DeChambeau

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Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

4. Brian Harman
Harman is having a legitimately impressive season and warrants more Ryder Cup buzz than he’s getting. He’s registered a top 10 in almost half his starts this season (nine of 20), the second most on tour. This includes three in three starts at WGC events.

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Jamie Squire

3. Henrik Stenson
A lack of wins is keeping him from ascending any higher, though his good play perhaps warrant more attention, especially considering his recent injuries. The consistent Swede has eight top-25s in 11 PGA Tour starts, is fourth in total scoring average and third in strokes-gained/tee-to-green.

Related: Our top 13 picks to win the PGA Championship

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Francois Nel

2. Justin Rose
At 37, Rose is squarely in the prime of his career—and he’s playing like it. He ranks second in money won per start on the PGA Tour ($438,581) and top-10s. He’s made every cut in his 13 PGA Tour starts, boasts eight top-10s and has two wins. You could make a solid case he’s currently the best player in the world. Yet it seems like we don’t hear much about him.

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Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

1. Webb Simpson
The only real narratives surrounding Simpson since his 2012 U.S. Open win have centered around trying to get comfortable with the anchoring ban. But this season he’s come out of obscurity and looks even stronger than he did when he won a major. He ranks sixth in strokes-gained/putting and 14th in strokes-gained/overall. His results show the improvement: He won the Players in a stroll, has finished T-10 and T-12 in his last two majors and has five other top-10s. Simpson is playing some truly excellent golf, one deserving of a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team.

The post 8 PGA Tour pros whose 2018 seasons have been going far too under the radar appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
Beau Hossler knows the drill. When he was a junior golfer growing up in Southern California, he had talent, but it took some time for him to find his way. Eventually, he put in the work to become a Rolex Junior All-American.

A little later, he went off to the University of Texas, where he struggled as a freshman. But he adapted to campus life and went on to earn national player-of-the-year honors.

Hossler prepared to be humbled once more after settling in Dallas (where he plays out of Trinity Forest) and embarking on his pro career in February 2017, seven months later than he expected because of a freak injury. Only this time, the learning curve has turned out to be even shorter.

In just 11 Web.com Tour starts, Hossler earned enough money to secure his PGA Tour card for 2018. And since then, he has made a habit of finding his name on leader boards, contending in Las Vegas, Phoenix and Pebble Beach in the early days of his rookie season on tour. A playoff loss to Ian Poulter at the Houston Open cost him a spot in the Masters but was the latest sign that the 23-year-old is posed to join fellow Longhorn Jordan Spieth and contemporaries Justin Thomas, Daniel Berger, Bryson DeChambeau and Xander Schauffele in becoming a mainstay on tour.

Most golf fans first heard of you at the 2012 U.S. Open, when you were 17, still in high school, and made the leader board at the olympic club. how often do people bring that up?
There are plenty of people who still recognise my name from that. I’m very fortunate to have had that experience, and it’s helped me with exposure for sure. But the biggest challenge has been to make sure that doesn’t become the defining moment of my golf career.

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You needed one year after turning pro to earn a pga tour card and join a lot of other twentysomethings in making the quick jump from college. why has this become so common?
We’re all friends and have had success at the amateur and college level, so once you see one of them break through in the pros, it becomes something we all feel like we can do. Jordan Spieth kind of opened the floodgates for our generation. The guy won his Masters when he was 21 and has three majors at 24. Well, we all played against him as juniors and amateurs, and we all held our own.

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Is there something, though, about your development that explains your collective success?
In my generation, there are more amateurs who played in professional tournaments before they turned pro. When you have experience at that level—when you’re not playing for any money but you’re learning and you’re seeing how the courses are—that’s invaluable. I played in three U.S. Opens by the time I was 21. I knew exactly what I was getting into when I got out here. Now, did I learn things since I’ve gotten out here? Of course, but the reality is, I wasn’t shell-shocked when I showed up as a pro.

‘You’re rooting so hard that you don’t even really enjoy watching the games.’

What has been the biggest surprise playing on the tour full time?
Just how much each week takes out of you, not physically but mentally. There’s a lot going on at the tournament outside of the golf. It’s kind of a traveling circus that keeps you busy all the time. I played six weeks in a row earlier this year, and that was a lot. That last week, it was Riviera, my favorite course, and the tournament I was most looking forward to. Well, I was exhausted and played terrible. From that point on, I vowed I was going to do my best not to play more than three in a row.

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Do you have to be a little cocky to be a pro golfer?
Inwardly, yes. Obviously you don’t want to act that way on the outside, but if you’re not confident, you’ve got no chance.

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So are you a little cocky?
Certainly at times when I’m playing well. At all times you’re trying to play your best golf. And when you’re in that killer mind-set to win a tournament, that’s where you want to get to when you tee off on Thursday.

Harry How/Getty Images
Hossler’s first splash for many golf fans came when he was in contention as a high schooler at the 2012 U.S. Open.

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What was the toughest part of the transition to the pros?
It’s going to sound strange, because you don’t have classes to deal with anymore, but finding time to practice. You turn pro, and you go from being an All-American basically back to ground zero. You’re starting at nothing. You have your résumé, but that’s it. So then you run around trying to play wherever you can to earn status. I played nine straight weeks on the Web.com Tour last year. The challenge then is time management and how you prioritize things when you’re home. You’re there really for very short periods of time, so you don’t have enough time to accomplish what you need to. There’s a fine line between being home and getting away from golf, and being home and accomplishing things to be ready for the next tournament.

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You decided to have a childhood friend, Jordan Guilford, be your full-time caddie rather than hire a veteran. Why?
It’s about being comfortable out there, and I think having someone you have a really good relationship with is very important. Particularly when you’re playing and it’s new, you want to be able to look and see a familiar face on your bag. He’s gone from a very good friend and a good caddie to obviously still a very good friend and an extraordinary caddie.

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At the 2016 NCAA Championship, you tore the labrum in your left shoulder in the middle of the semifinal match. you’re one day away from the finals, two days away from turning pro. How difficult was that?
Yeah, I had everything pretty planned out in terms of that summer with tournaments and sponsors. It was a very emotional high just getting to that point, and then when I got hurt it was a bummer. I tried to keep a good attitude, but I had never had a major injury before. Fortunately, everything worked out. But when you have your career really in jeopardy over something like that, because you don’t know how bad it is until [the doctors] get in there, and it was bad. But you have to keep a long-term approach and realize the No. 1 priority is just getting healthy.

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You had surgery and a layoff before you finally started your pro career. You had no web.com status, but you had sponsors’ exemptions lined up. Was your game ready?
Not really. I was basically in a spot where I had six months to get healthy, but there’s a difference in getting healthy and getting tournament ready. Healthy means I go play golf and my shoulder doesn’t hurt. Tournament ready is, I’m going to play golf, and I’m totally dialed in. And I was not near that. I was literally, Let’s just physically get ready to go play 72 holes. I was just a shell of myself for most of the year.

I didn’t have the ball speed I normally have. But once I got some status, I wasn’t going to stop playing. I wanted to do whatever I could to earn a PGA Tour card.

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When did you feel like OK, I’m back?
It’s going to sound crazy, but not until the Sony in January. Even though I missed the cut that week, I was absolutely bombing it off the tee. And I was like, This is where I should be. And that whole stretch on the West Coast swing, I played some really, really good rounds, and I played some poor ones, too, but for the most part I felt I had my game back.

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In hindsight, was there a benefit at all to the delay rather than jumping into a pro career right away?
No doubt about it. I’m a better person because of it. I have more realistic expectations. I certainly appreciated golf a lot more than I ever had in my life when I came back.

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There is now a rule in college golf, dubbed the Beau Hossler Rule, that allows teams to substitute for an injured player in match play at the NCAA Championship. Do you get a kick out of having a connection to that?
Honestly, I’m not really a big advocate for the rule, and I’ll tell you why. I think a substitution makes sense, but there’s a slippery slope with how it’s set up. A coach can basically claim anything to be an injury and swap out a player who’s not playing well. I think that’s crap. It needs to be a situation where we can all agree that this guy is actually hurt. If they can make it work where it’s really used for the right reasons, I think it’s a great rule. But I’m just saying it’s kind of hard to monitor that, isn’t it?

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What would you say is your perfect nongolf day?
Going to Game 7 and watching the Dodgers win the World Series.

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What was it like to watch the world series last year? (The Dodgers lost to the Astros in game 7.)
It was one of the most frustrating experiences of my life. You know how difficult it was to get to that point. It’s one of those things, you’re rooting so hard that you don’t even really enjoy watching the games. You just want it to be over, and you want them to win, because it’s so stressful to watch. I was so focused on the result, I didn’t even get to really appreciate them playing in the World Series.

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More stressful to watch them in the World Series than play in a U.S. Open?
Oh, for sure. Way more. Put it this way: I was playing in the final group in Las Vegas that same week, tied for the lead in my third PGA Tour start as a member, and I was way more nervous watching them play in Game 7 than I was playing.

Photo by Justin Keena

If you could have a mulligan for anything in your career so far, what would it be?
That’s tough. You change one shot and you totally change the experience from what you learned, and I’m not sure I’d want to do that. I guess it would be getting injured in the final of the NCAA Championship rather than the day before [in the semifinal], so I could have played in the championship and we maybe could have won. I wouldn’t even need to avoid the injury—just wait one day.

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Is there a hobby you’d like to try?
I don’t think there’s anything I’d do all that seriously until I was actually done playing golf. If I’m going to do something, I want to be all in on it. But I think it would be really cool to take a golf course that’s struggling and create your own golf club. Where all you have is the locker room and a lounge area; you don’t have a pool or tennis courts or anything like that. And you have a limited membership where you don’t make tee times. They keep the golf course in a players’ condition with a little bit of rough and the greens are firm. Where you can have really good players look forward to going out there and being challenged on a daily basis.

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Is there a place you’re thinking you’d model it after?
There’s a club near Palm Springs called Plantation Golf Club. They just have a small, regular clubhouse and keep the course in exquisite condition. And they have cool practice areas and a really good playing membership. I think stuff like that is pretty cool, where you can go out and have a game with anybody.

What’s the first website you check out each morning?
I go on Twitter for pretty much all of my news.

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Facebook, Twitter Or Instagram: What’s your favourite?
I definitely post the most stuff on Instagram, whether it’s photos or videos. And then I would say I consume Twitter the most. It’s where you can learn more, whether it’s links to articles or direct feedback from people.

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Other apps to kill time?

I use the realtor.com app a lot. I like to keep up with stuff. I’ve always been very entrepreneurial and business-minded. With my sponsors, I’ll do photo shoots with them and try to dive into the business model of what they do and try to see what makes them click. I think it’s fun. The thing we’re really lucky about in golf, whether it’s pro-ams or sponsors with tournaments or your own sponsors, we really have access to a really wide variety of industries, which is cool.

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Who has been your most interesting pro-am partner?
Man, I play a lot and probably will forget some really big ones. I played with this guy Jesse Biter in Hawaii. He lives in Sarasota. He got started in tech. He’s a pretty young guy, and now he’s investing in that whole Sarasota area in different things, real estate and whatnot. He’s done some really good things for the community. And he tries to give back a lot.

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What aspect of your game still needs the most work?
My patience level, for sure. I’m not trying to be perfect, but it’s tough to swallow sometimes the fact that you’re playing 30 weeks and you want to see the results right now. The reality is, sometimes it’s just not always going to be there. But you’ve got to put the work in, and if you stick to a quality process, it will happen.

Jeff Gross/Getty Images
Hossler is more than willing to do the necessary homework to be successful on tour.

The post A Rookie’s Life: Beau Hossler appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
Rare is the scenario in which you can confidently say a golfer should win a certain PGA Tour event. The nature of the game is too unpredictable and fields are too deep to expect a victory these days. But if there was ever a week to do that, it’s this one. Jordan Spieth is hands down the class of the field at this week’s AT&T Byron Nelson, which has drawn only five of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking. On top of that, Spieth is one of the few players familiar with the tournament’s new venue, Trinity Forest, a Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw design that’s being hailed as a modern masterpiece.

While we look forward to seeing the a few of the top players take on this track, and we look forward to seeing Spieth finally win the tournament he contended at as a 16-year-old amateur. Kidding. Sort of. Anyway, here’s our fab foursome for this week:

Related: Read the convincing letter that secured 16-year-old Jordan Spieth his first PGA Tour invite

Jordan Spieth: Forget about that ugly quad on 18 at TPC Sawgrass (Although, boy, that was ugly), Spieth has third-place finishes in his two previous starts. Would I bet on him at 4.5-to-1 odds? No. But I’d have to be crazy not to plug him into the lineup this week. Speaking of betting, how about our Supreme Court coming through and opening the door for nationwide legalised gambling?!

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WATCH NOW HOW JORDAN SPIETH PLAYS GOLF AT HOME

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Adam Scott: Amazingly, Scott is not one of the five top-50 golfers in the field (he’s currently No. 65). But he finally may be back on track after switching back to the long putter at the Players and finishing T-11. Besides, at a venue where most players will be unfamiliar with the greens, Scott’s putting disadvantage shouldn’t be as pronounced.

Branden Grace: Photos I’ve seen of Trinity Forest remind me of Chambers Bay. And when I think of Chambers Bay, I think of Grace, who nearly won the U.S. Open there in 2015. Grace also shot 62 at last year’s British Open, so the man knows his way around a links-style course.

Beau Hossler: Like Spieth, Hossler is another Trinity Forest member and he’s got a great chance to pick up a first PGA Tour title after having his maiden victory snagged away by Ian Poulter in Houston last month. When I touted Beau on the Golf Digest Podcast, he was listed at 40-to-1 odds at Westgate Las Vegas Superbook, but now he’s down to 30/1. Either a lot of people are listening to the podcast or Vegas wised up. I’m guessing it’s the latter.

And for more AT&T Byron Nelson talk, a Players Championship recap, and a fun chat with Webb Simpson’s caddy, Paul Tesori, please have a listen to that podcast:

https://soundcloud.com/user-96678684/webb-simpson-caddie-paul-tesori-surviving-tpc-and-tigers-latest-run

The post Jordan Spieth leads our AT&T Byron Nelson picks (Obviously) appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
Beau Hossler formally introduced himself to the golf world five years ago, at 17 showcasing his potential in the U.S. Open. On Sunday, he will have a chance to cash in on that potential.

Hossler, 22, shot a five-under par 66, the best round of the day, in windy condition at the TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas on Saturday to claim a share of the 54-hole lead in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

He gained seven shots on the 36-hole leader, J.J. Spaun, who stumbled early and late in his round and shot a two-over par 73 to fall into a tie with Hossler.

In 2012, Hossler, a high school junior, actually led the U.S. Open briefly in the second round and was tied for eighth heading into the final round, before slipping to a tie for 29th.

He became a college star at Texas, where in his senior year was named the Fred Haskins Award winner as the best college player. Less than a year-and-a-half later, he could become a PGA Tour winner for the first time, though almost certainly not the last time.

“It’s going to be tough,” he said. “Any time you’re playing on the PGA Tour or even the Web.com Tour, it’s so tough to win. These guys are so good, and the golf courses are very difficult. There is trouble all over. I think it’s so important to have a good game plan and stick it out. You hear people say that, but it’s really the key, especially on days like today. So to make a couple bogeys early, you’ve got to keep your head about you.”

Hossler, who tied for 10th in the Sanderson Farms Championship last week in only his second start as a PGA Tour member, played a bogey-free round in strong gusting winds that wreaked havoc with much of the field.

“It was a struggle out there,” Hossler said. “It was pretty windy. It was one of those days you don’t get wrapped up in the score because it was playing so difficult. You just had to take one shot at a time or you could get yourself in some serious trouble.”

Spaun could attest to that. His tee shot at the par-3 17th, playing downwind, came up short. His pitch rode the wind well past the hole, leading to a bogey that dropped him into a tie with Hossler.

Though he is the early stages of only his second year on the PGA Tour, Spaun is determined to embrace the challenge ahead.

“I’ve had a years experience now on the tour,” he said on Friday, “ and this year it’s taking my game to the next level instead of just kind of being someone that lingers around the cut or like top 20s. It’s time to step up if I want to do something big out here on tour and make a name for myself.”

The post Beau Hossler’s 66 jumps him into tie for lead in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.