But no one appeared to want to win on Sunday at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth. With windy conditions blowing in during the afternoon, Scheffler, Harold Varner III, Scott Stallings, Brendon Todd and Davis Riley, all tied for the lead at one point, all faltered down the stretch.

Enter Sam Burns. The 25-year-old Louisiana native had wrapped up his final round nearly two hours ahead of the leaders, and his five-under 65 gave him a clubhouse lead at nine-under. It was good enough to get into a playoff with Scheffler, who posted a two-over 72 but got up-and-down from a bunker for par on the 18th hole. And after making a 38-foot birdie from off the green on the first extra hole, Burns claimed his third win of the 2021-22 season and fourth career win, all in the last 13 months.

With the victory, Burns claimed a first-place prize money payout of $1.512 million from an overall purse of $8.4 million (up from $7.5 million in 2021). Here’s the prize money payouts for each golfer who made the cut at Colonial

Win: Sam Burns, 271/-9, $1,512,000
2: Scottie Scheffler, 271/-9, $915,600
3: Brendon Todd, 272/-8, $579,600
T-4: Tony Finau, 273/-7, $353,500
T-4: Davis Riley, 273/-7, $353,500
T-4: Scott Stallings, 273/-7, $353,500
T7: Cam Davis, 275/-5, $246,540
T7: Kevin Na, 275/-5, $246,540
T7: Mito Pereira, 275/-5, $246,540
T7: Patrick Reed, 275/-5, $246,540
T7: Jordan Spieth, 275/-5, $246,540
T-12: John Huh, 276/-4, $178,500
T-12: Matt Jones, 276/-4, $178,500
T-12: Pat Perez, 276/-4, $178,500
T-15: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, 277/-3, $132,300
T-15: Tyler Duncan, 277/-3, $132,300
T-15: Sungjae Im, 277/-3, $132,300
T-15: Chris Kirk, 277/-3, $132,300
T-15: Russell Knox, 277/-3, $132,300
T-15: Andrew Putnam, 277/-3, $132,300
T-21: Beau Hossler, 278/-2, $98,700
T-21: Viktor Hovland, 278/-2, $98,700
T-23: Daniel Berger, 279/-1, $77,700
T-23: Max Homa, 279/-1, $77,700
T-23: Zach Johnson, 279/-1, $77,700
T-23: Danny Lee, 279/-1, $77,700
T-27: Talor Gooch, 280/E, $56,332.50
T-27: Bill Haas, 280/E, $56,332.50
T-27: Denny McCarthy, 280/E, $56,332.50
T-27: Chad Ramey, 280/E, $56,332.50
T-27: Chez Reavie, 280/E, $56,332.50
T-27: Webb Simpson, 280/E, $56,332.50
T-27: Alex Smalley, 280/E, $56,332.50
T-27: Harold Varner III, 280/E, $56,332.50
T-35: Tommy Fleetwood, 281/+1, $41,832
T-35: Dylan Frittelli, 281/+1, $41,832
T-35: Lee Hodges, 281/+1, $41,832
T-35: Adam Long, 281/+1, $41,832
T-35: Patrick Rodgers, 281/+1, $41,832
T-40: Luke Donald, 282/+2, $30,660
T-40: Lucas Glover, 282/+2, $30,660
T-40: Kurt Kitayama, 282/+2, $30,660
T-40: Collin Morikawa, 282/+2, $30,660
T-40: Ryan Palmer, 282/+2, $30,660
T-40: Ian Poulter, 282/+2, $30,660
T-40: Adam Svensson, 282/+2, $30,660
T-40: Michael Thompson, 282/+2, $30,660
T-48: Lucas Herbert, 283/+3, $22,092
T-48: David Lipsky, 283/+3, $22,092
T-48: Sebastián Muñoz, 283/+3, $22,092
T-48: Nick Taylor, 283/+3, $22,092
T-52: Mark Hubbard, 284/+4, $20,008.80
T-52: Max McGreevy, 284/+4, $20,008.80
T-52: C.T. Pan, 284/+4, $20,008.80
T-52: Rory Sabbatini, 284/+4, $20,008.80
T-52: Martin Trainer, 284/+4, $20,008.80
T-57: Rickie Fowler, 285/+5, $18,984
T-57: Troy Merritt, 285/+5, $18,984
T-57: Matthew NeSmith, 285/+5, $18,984
T-57: Matthias Schwab, 285/+5, $18,984
T-57: Brandt Snedeker, 285/+5, $18,984
T-57: Sahith Theegala, 285/+5, $18,984
T-63: Joel Dahmen, 286/+6, $18,228
T-63: Emiliano Grillo, 286/+6, $18,228
T-63: Austin Smotherman, 286/+6, $18,228
66: Charley Hoffman, 287/+7, $17,892
67: Jason Kokrak, 288/+8, $17,724
68: Aaron Rai, 289/+9, $17,556
69: Harry Higgs, 295/+15, $17,388

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The post From Burns to Higgs: Here’s the prize money payout for each golfer at the 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Paisley
A few months ago, Lauren Stephenson quietly took a shot at a dream she has had since seeing Brittany Lincicome compete at the PGA Tour’s Barbasol Championship in 2018. The 24-year-old South Carolina native, still searching for her first LPGA win in four years on tour, wrote a letter to tournament director Steve Wilmot at the RBC Heritage requesting a sponsor’s exemption into the PGA Tour event she attended in her youth at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island.

“I grew up playing high school boys golf. I’m used to playing long yardages because I had to play from the same tees as them,” Stephenson said in explaining why she would have been well suited to become just the seventh woman to compete in a PGA Tour event. “I think it’d be really cool because I’m from South Carolina. It’s an invite-only tournament. It’s a tournament I grew up going to. I know a lot of people from around the area. Why not at least ask?”

Laura Stephenson. Sarah Stier

Indeed, the worst the tournament could say was no, which it did when it respectfully declined her request, noting interestingly she was not the first woman to try to get into the field.

News of Stephenson’s bid to play in a PGA Tour event leaves unanswered the following questions: When will a woman again tee it up with the men? And who might it be?

When thinking of such a feat, and with the PGA Tour at Colonial Country Club this week in Fort Worth, what immediately comes to mind is Annika Sorenstam memorably joining the field at the then Bank of America Colonial. It’s was 19 years ago that Sorenstam was paired with Dean Wilson and Aaron Barber for the opening two rounds, missing the cut by four shots but making news and shining a spotlight on women’s professional golf.

Only one woman has made a cut in a PGA Tour event, and that happened before the LPGA had officially formed. Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who first played in a PGA Tour event at the 1935 Cascades Open, made three 36-hole cuts in 1945: first at the Los Angeles Open (a third-round 81 kept her from making the field for the final 18 holes), a 33rd place at the Phoenix Open and 42nd at the Tucson Open.

Along with Zaharias, Sorenstam and Lincicome, Michelle Wie competed in eight PGA Tour starts from 2004 to 2008 and the late LPGA founder Shirley Spork finished 105th at the no-cut 1952 Northern California-Reno Open. Additionally, Suzy Whaley earned a start in the 2003 Greater Hartford Open after winning the Connecticut PGA Section Championship the previous autumn.

Sorenstam had remained a substantial figure in the women’s game, running her Annika Foundation and serving as a mentor to multiple players. Interestingly, trying to make a start on the PGA Tour is not a common topic when her pupils ask for advice. “I’m really not surprised [six women have played on the PGA],” Sorenstam said via email expressing that, “it is hard to do. You have to be at the top of your game, and then you need to get the invite and then have the courage to go through with it. It’s easier said than done.”

WOMEN WHO HAVE COMPETED IN PGA TOUR EVENTS

Babe Didrikson. Underwood Archives

« ‹ of 6 › »

Like Sorenstam, Lincicome says no players have asked for advice on trying to make it into a tour field and what the experience felt like.

“It is kind of crazy,” Lincicome said about the fact she remains the last to have played. “I think it’s just a distance thing. Those guys hit it 320 [yards], 330 consistently or even fly it that far. The golf courses are just so long. As long hitters on the LPGA, our bread and butter are the par 5s you can get to in two and try to make some eagles on. Obviously, playing in a men’s event, there aren’t many opportunities to do that.”

A two-time major champion, Lincicome pointed out that for players to have a chance to make the cut in a PGA Tour event, not only would they need to average around 280 yards off the tee, but they would likely need to flip their practice regimen. Instead of focusing on short irons, as Lincicome does for her approach practice, they’d need to dedicate themselves to working on long irons into greens for a potential PGA start.

“Lexi [Thompson] could definitely go do it,” Lincicome said, noting the 11-time LPGA winner’s impressive length. “Ariya Jutanugarn, if she ever were to hit a driver, she hits it plenty far enough, she could definitely do it. We don’t normally talk about it.”

Jutanugarn actually contemplated making a run at a PGA Tour start when she was World No. 1 in 2018. She won three times that year, including the US Women’s Open for her second major title and joked about the possibility with her caddie as she felt her game was in a good place. One of the first stories her parents told her about playing professional golf was Annika’s start at Colonial when Jutanugarn was seven.

The challenge of following through would be the pressure, as Jutanugarn imagines playing on the PGA Tour would come with more nerves than competing as the No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings on the LPGA, a spot she held for 23 weeks in her career. Even averaging 262 yards off the tee so far in the 2022 season without using a driver, she’s unsure she’d hit the ball far enough.

“I think about it,” Jutanugarn said. “It’s always too big. I don’t know how to deal with all the spectators, the pressure, so I end up with stop thinking about it.”

Danielle Kang noted she has a couple of prerequisites before ever considering a PGA start. First, the six-time LPGA winner would want to become the No. 1 player in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. She nearly accomplished that in 2020, climbing as high as second after winning the LPGA Drive On Championship at Inverness Club in 2020 and then winning the Marathon LPGA Classic the following week. Now 11th in the Rolex Rankings, Kang also would need to find a tournament where she could compete with her 251-yard driving average.

“I’d be very careful on what golf courses to pick, where I can go low, how I can play to my advantage,” Kang said. “Maybe the straightness would help. It’d be really hard to compete on a 7,000-yard golf course when I don’t even hit it as far as [PGA players] hit a 4-iron.”

While some of the shorter PGA Tour setups hover around 7,000 yards, with the Sony Open (7,022 yards), RBC Heritage (7,121 yards) and the Colonial (7,209 yards), Hannah Green won the 2019 KPMG Women’s Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club that played at 6,807 yards. Since then, the Australian added 17 yards in driving distance off the tee, averaging 255 in 2019 to 272 this season.

POTENTIAL CANDIDATES FOR A FUTURE PGA TOUR START

Ariya Jutanugarn. Christian Petersen

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Green has had success competing against men as well. In February, she became the first woman to win a 72-hole mixed men’s and women’s professional event at the TPS Murray River in Australia. However, even with the CV and length to hold her own, she hasn’t attended a PGA event. Once Green’s coach Rickie Smith watched Scottie Scheffler win the WGC-Dell Technologies Match play event and mentioned how good the skill level was, Green put away any potential thought of competing on the PGA.

“After he said that, I don’t think I could compete against them,” Green quipped.

Mel Reid competes against Jupiter, Florida, neighbor Brooks Koepka in money matches, but that’s as far as she plans to go towards a potential PGA Tour start. The 34-year-old remembered watching Sorenstam at Colonial, and Vijay Singh’s comments that he’d withdraw if paired with the Swede. The Englishwoman understands the challenge of someone trying to overcome a seven-club difference between drivers, with some of the longer PGA Tour players hitting it 370, nearly 100 yards further than the longest on the LPGA.

Reid believes that to take that step and tee it up on the PGA Tour, a player needs to showcase herself as a preeminent star on the LPGA over an extended period. After all, Sorenstam won 43 times on the LPGA before teeing it up in Fort Worth.

“I totally get why Annika did it,” Reid said. “She completed dominated, won all these majors, and didn’t miss cuts, and was winning all the time. I think somebody like Nelly [Korda] and Jin Young [Ko] definitely could [make a PGA cut], but I think that’s in the future and definitely not right now.”

Like Reid, Patty Tavatanakit plays with PGA Tour members for practice. Her 323-yard average off the tee at her 2021 ANA Inspiration victory, albeit in Palm Springs desert conditions, optimal for the ball to run out, puts her in a category to have the necessary distance to compete on the PGA.

Tavatanakit brought the thought of trying to make a PGA start to her coach, former PGA Tour pro Grant Waite, as she enjoys going up against fellow Thai native Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Korn Ferry Tour members Curtis Luck and Ryan Ruffels in money games in Florida. However, making history didn’t occur to her until being asked about it.

“I’ve never thought about that [being the first LPGA member to make a PGA cut] actually,” Tavatanakit said, “I just come out here [the LPGA] to try to win tournaments, try to win majors.

“That’s something I could put on my list for sure.”

Others too are worthy of consideration: Maria Fassi tried her hand competing against men on the Moonlight Tour in Florida during the LPGA’s COVID-19 pause in May 2020. She missed the cut at Champions Gate, which played around 7,300 yards during the week. But the experience fueled her appetite for more, as she’s been in touch with the Mexican tour, trying to line up dates for a start there. The 2019 NCAA individual champion viewed the mini-tour experience as more of a mental challenge than physical, aiming to stay within her 274-yard driving average and not swing out of her shoes. She’d enjoy the challenge of taking a run to be the first woman to make the cut on the PGA Tour in the LPGA’s lifetime.

“Anytime you get a chance to be part of history … I would be lying if I’d say that’s not tempting,” Fassi said when asked about a future attempt from the Mexican native. “The more that we see women doing different things, it’s also going to attract different people to the game, and that’s only going to help me and everybody else on the LPGA Tour. One hundred percent that would be something that drives me to want to do it.”

Other players Golf Digest talked with generally echoed Fassi’s thought that the accomplishment could help validate the LPGA’s talent on a larger stage and potentially grow the game to PGA fans who otherwise don’t watch. Notably, it was Kang who holds reservations given the stark contrast in playing styles between the LPGA and PGA.

“It’s just something where they’re two completely different games, two completely different tours,” Kang said. “I can’t really compare the two and what it would mean. I don’t know if it’d grow the women’s game in a sense/not grow the women’s game in a sense. It shouldn’t really matter whether someone makes the cut or not. I think if they want to try it, they can try it.

“With that being said, Annika did it after she was World No. 1, she has made her name, and she has dominated on this tour and excelled at every level. I think that’s pretty respectable she gave it a go at a 7,000-plus yard golf course. It’s just a challenge, a different challenge.”

While the next woman may not become the first to make a PGA weekend in the modern era, Sorenstam confidently believes someone else will eventually accomplish the challenge she set for herself at the Colonial.

“I think it would be great, and I’m sure it will happen one day.”

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The post Two decades after Annika played Colonial, LPGA pros ponder taking on the PGA Tour men again appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

And that’s why what happened on the par-4 17th hole, the 71st hole of the PGA Tour’s return to golf, deserves a viewer’s discretion label. Schauffele had less than three feet for par to remain at 15 under, tied for the lead with Daniel Berger and Collin Morikawa. Put the 4 on the board and get the man to the 18th tee.

Except …

Unbelievable.

Co-leader Xander Schauffele’s ball lips out on the 17th hole.

He makes bogey to fall 1 back with 1 to play.

Golf is heartbreaking. pic.twitter.com/1X90JNiQpk

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 14, 2020

Seriously?!?

Schauffele had waited three months to play again and that’s the break he gets coming down the stretch at Colonial.

Suffice to say, Schauffele couldn’t make a 24-foot birdie on the 18th and had to settle for a T-3 finish on the week.

OK, so as if our eyes weren’t permanently blinded from seeing that, along comes Morikawa. The XX-year-old has been a pro less than a year, but already has a PGA Tour win and still hasn’t missed a cut in a pro event. Now he finds himself in a playoff with Berger for the chance to grab victory No. 2. The two of them head out to No. 17 for the first sudden-death playoff hole. Morikawa hits a bad tee shot, chops out his second to short of a greenside bunker then hits his third to three feet. While Berger is already in the hole for par, Morikawa just needs to clean this up and they’re off to the 18th tee.

Except …

What a way for the tournament to end.

Collin Morikawa’s putt lips out to give @DanielBerger59 the victory.

Golf is hard. ? pic.twitter.com/FjWnTgopW8

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 14, 2020

Seriously?!? AGAIN ?!?

Welcome back, guys. Just in case you didn’t remember, winning golf tournaments is still hard.

The post The lipouts that cost Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa the Charles Schwab Challenge will leave you grimacing appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
Moving day at Colonial was as entertaining as you’d expect. That 36-hole leader board wasn’t going to have it any other way.

Sunday’s final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge will almost certainly be more of the same. But before that madness gets rolling, here are our five takeaways from Saturday’s third round at Colonial.

The Jordan Spieth comeback is almost complete
For the third straight day, Spieth did his best impression of that dude from “Man on Wire.” During the early portion of the broadcast, every time they cut to him he was punching out from behind a tree or giving himself a stern talking to after a poor shot. He hit three fairways and five greens on the front nine, and still managed to shoot a three-under 32.

The back nine was equally chaotic, though instead of making miraculous birdies he was scrambling his face off to save pars. Somehow, he finished with a two-under 68, his lowest third-round score since last July’s WGC-FedEx Invitational. He’s part of the logjam of players at 12 under, one off the lead of Xander Schauffele. The most encouraging sign of all is that Spieth ranks 10th in the field in strokes-gained—off-the-tee (he entered the event ranked 195th on tour), despite the fact it looks like he’s hitting it all over creation.

If I had a bet on him (I don’t) or if I was rooting hard for him (I’m not), I’d be absolutely terrified about Sunday’s final round. But if it’s anything like the last three days he’ll be right there coming down the back nine. Make sure you have a three-pound bag of popcorn nearby, just in case.

Ron Jenkins

The Daniel Berger comeback is (also) almost complete
For a guy like Spieth, the pandemic may prove to be a blessing in disguise. For a guy like Daniel Berger, it could not have come at a worse time. We’re obviously speaking in terms of their golf games and nothing else.

Berger, a two-time winner of the FedEx St. Jude Classic, was just beginning to round into his pre-wrist injury form in late February/early March. He returned from that injury at the 2019 Desert Classic, but went on to have a below-average year, a T-2 at the Puerto Rico Open as the only highlight.

But 2020 has been a much different story for the former Florida State Seminole. Just before COVID-19 hit, Berger finished T-9 at the Waste Management, T-5 at Pebble Beach and T-4 at the Honda Classic. Through three rounds at Colonial, he sits at 11 under. His Saturday 67 was his 27th consecutive under par round on the PGA Tour, a streak that dates back to the opening round of the Zozo Championship in October.

This comeback of sorts has been brewing for some time, and Berger, one of the fiercest competitors on tour, would love nothing more than to extend that under-par round streak to 28 on Sunday and spoil a lot of other made-for-Hollywood storylines on the leader board.

Darren Carroll for Golf Digest

Rory McIlroy had an uneventful moving day
Statistically, Sunday is the day Rory usually can’t get it rolling (79th on tour in fourth-round scoring average). But this week he went quiet a day early, posting a one-under 69 that has him three back at 10 under. It didn’t look like that’d be the case early, when McIlroy laced a drive, then hit his second to 15 feet and two-putted for birdie at the par-5 first. Not much else went right after that for the pre-tournament favourite, though he did pick up a late birdie to at least keep himself in striking distance. Perhaps he’s saving his best for Sunday this time around. If so, that’d be one hell of a statement in the first tour event back for World No. 1.

No cheering in the press box, except for HV3
The Spieth comeback tale would be special, as would a McIlroy come-from-behind win or Bryson hulk-smashing his way to victory or Patrick Reed coming out of nowhere. But there’s no question the best story would be Harold Varner III picking up his first PGA Tour win in the first event back post-coronavirus and amidst all of the racial unrest in America. At 11 under for the week, he’s in position, but it’ll take something pretty special to get it done on Sunday. As Varner has shown in the recent past, the pressure of a tense final round can get to him (final-round 74 at Riviera; final-round 81 at the PGA Championship). I speak for many when I say I hope this Sunday is different for HV3. A winning smile from him would be a pleasant sight in Fort Worth.

Darren Carroll for Golf Digest

The potential show-stealers
If golf’s storyline gods are looking down on us, Varner, McIlroy, Spieth, DeChambeau, Reed or Justin Thomas will don the plaid jacket tomorrow. But there’s a very strong chance it’s none of the above, which would be fine too!

Xander Schauffele has the solo lead and has the alpha male quality that should serve him well in a big spot on Sunday. As does Gary Woodland, who showed some serious stones at Pebble Beach during his U.S. Open victory. Branden Grace, who is among the group at 12 under, is more than capable of stealing this tournament. And of course, as I wrote above, Berger might be the sneakiest show-stealing candidate of them all. And this is before even getting to lurkers like Abraham Ancer, Corey Conners and some guy named Justin Rose. It’s quite the board.

The guy I’m betting on? Collin Morikawa, who is also a part of the five-way tie at 12 under. Both his game and demeanour would lead you to believe he’s not one to shy away from the moment. He got his first victory already, though it came in an opposite-field event at the 2019 Barracuda Championship. So while a win on Sunday wouldn’t technically be his “first,” it would certainly be his first BIG one.

The post Jordan Spieth provides more chaos and four other takeaways from Day 3 at Colonial appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
It was welcomed as a farce. That was the consensus among golf fans, media and yes, fellow players, at Bryson DeChambeau’s physical transformation last fall. DeChambeau’s eccentric ways have always been susceptible to ridicule in the conservative sport, and his zeal only intensifies the derision. Amusement grew as DeChambeau did the same into 2020, and when Bryson made his first post-lockdown appearance on Thursday looking very much like a man who shunned Netflix for a Bowflex, Twitter—tough crowd, that Twitter—turned the sport’s Re-Opening Day into a field day against DeChambeau. (That DeChambeau’s social account released a 15-minute video featuring a “Rocky IV” workout montage before he teed off didn’t help.)

Only, by the end of his first round at Colonial Country Club, those social slights were silenced, in their stead an unspoken realization: The fear that all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.

A buffed-out DeChambeau is near the top of the Charles Schwab Challenge leaderboard, shoving Colonial into a locker with a five-under 65.

“Yeah, it was awesome. It’s great to be back,” DeChambeau said Thursday. “I’m excited to be back, and shooting five-under is nice. That’s never a bad thing. Really didn’t know what to expect today to be honest, and very excited to get out with a five-under off the bat.”

It was a performance fueled by might. Bryson’s newfound power allowed him to cut Colonial’s notoriously tight quarters, acting as a cheat button of sorts and a sight that, had he not died 23 years earlier, would have sent Ben Hogan to his grave.

When he wasn’t flying it over trees, DeChambeau settled for flying past competitors. His playing partner Dustin Johnson—who has finished no lower than sixth on tour in driving distance since 2008—averaged 302.7 yards off the tee Thursday … a mere 40 yards shorter than DeChambeau (345.4 yards, to be exact). DeChambeau picked up two strokes against the field off the tee, best among the morning wave.

Fact is, DeChambeau was disappointed that he couldn’t fully utilize his strength against Colonial, one of the shorter tracks on tour.

“There’s only a couple holes I can use it, No. 11 and No. 1, and No. 2 really,” DeChambeau said, begrudgingly.

Should Thursday’s show feel like a surprise, well, you’re forgiven. It’s been a busy few months. But in this time of uncertainty, DeChambeau’s success is far from surprising.

What went mostly unsaid this season was that DeChambeau’s get-big-to-win strategy was working. When golf went into its pandemic-induced sabbatical at the Players Championship, DeChambeau had four top fives in seven starts on the year and ranked first on tour in distance and third in strokes gained/off-the-tee. He added over 19 yards (321.3) to his average drive.

“It has been pretty cool to see. I was really playing well before COVID arrived,” DeChambeau told Golf Digest in May.

Darren Carroll for Golf Digest

What spurred DeChambeau’s journey into the gym is simple. Despite winning six times in an 18-month span and ranking as high as No. 5 in the OWGR, DeChambeau felt he was falling behind bombers like Koepka, McIlroy and Thomas. It wasn’t just their distance; it was that they seemingly had wedges in their hand with every approach.

“Stokes gained has proved to be a big statistic for me,” DeChambeau told us. “I believe having shorter clubs into longer holes will provide me a significant advantage.”

DeChambeau said he doesn’t have a target weight, and it shows. Since we last saw him at TPC Sawgrass, the former U.S. Amateur and NCAA champion has doubled-down on his metamorphosis, gaining an extra 20 pounds in the past three months, focusing on speed training to increase ball speed. The distance, the lbs. are not so much ambitions as they are elements of a process.

“Just want to continue to improve and be the best that I can be,” DeChambeau told us. “Going to see what my body can tolerate.”

The question is, will golf tolerate him?

Sure, as we have seen with Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, weight training remains a taboo in some sectors of the golf world. DeChambeau’s unconventionality—the one-length clubs, his pursuit of the scientific and analytical, dabbling in stippling—also paint a target. Moreover, DeChambeau’s gusto and earnestness can be confused as vanity. (Again, the training montage did no favors.)

But golf has forever complained about the lack of individuality in its sport. Here comes Bryson with a colorful, disparate manner, and he’s considered divisive for it. That spirit, that independence … isn’t that what the game wants?

For his part, DeChambeau pays the criticism no heed. “I have really enjoyed the journey to get to this point,” DeChambeau told Golf Digest. “I am going to continue to work hard and see where it takes me.”

Of course, prosperity can do a number on aversion, and the box scores don’t lie: Bryson’s gains aren’t confined to the gym. Nine months into the experiment, the “Mad Scientist” doesn’t seem so mad after all.

The post A buffed-out Bryson DeChambeau shoved Colonial in a locker on Thursday appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kevin Robbins
On the 10th tee at Colonial Country Club Wednesday, Mike “Fluff” Cowan stood apart from the golfers and caddies in his group, some of whom were getting reacquainted in slightly closer proximity. Cowan practised the standard six feet of recommended social distance—“two club-lengths,” according to the signage around the Charles Schwab Challenge, which puts the advice in language everyone could understand.

There wasn’t much room, not with a brick wall on one side of the tee and the cart path on the other. But Cowan made it work.

“Fluff, social distancing,” said Mike Greller, who caddies for Jordan Spieth.

“I’m trying,” Cowan replied.

That’s what the caddies can do this week as the PGA Tour returns in uneasy times: They can make an effort, a gesture, a multitude of concessions. The Tour is asking caddies to change the way they work, from keeping their distance from others, to delegating who touches what, to liberally using the three packs of 10 sanitizing wipes the tournament provided to them in the weirdest kind of gift bag.

But will they? There’s no rule, per se, so there is nothing to enforce. As one caddie put it: “Is there a stroke penalty?”

No. Nor distance, either. But there is risk, which is something Tour officials are trying, as much as they can, to mitigate as they prepare to play their first competitive round in three months on Thursday.

It’s all new and different to caddies such as John Curtis, who works for Dylan Frittelli. The Tour sent a text Wednesday morning to players, reminding them and their caddies to practice social distancing, avoid physical contact, wipe clean the flagsticks and bunker rakes and even golf bags. High fives? Highly discouraged. Curtis hasn’t shaken a hand since he returned from South Africa to go back to work at Colonial.

“I haven’t touched a flag all week,” Curtis said. (Frittelli putts with the stick in, which helps.)

Habits are hard to break, and caddies have many of them. Tim Tucker and Bryson DeChambeau suddenly must decide who touches the clubs. Paul Tesori and Webb Simpson now have to figure out who fetches a fresh ball. Who flips through the yardage book—Harry Diamond or Rory McIlroy? And Ricky Elliott and Brooks Koepka really need to talk: What happens if they win? Do they wave at one another? Do they bow? Text?

Never has the caddie-player relationship been so complicated in such a very human sense. “I feel like I want to respect everybody’s distance,” said Geno Bonnalie, the caddie for Joel Dahmen. “I want golf to stick around. If that means going overboard on precautions … ”

He didn’t finish the thought, sounding like someone ready and willing to go overboard.

And one truly is. Cursory surveillance Wednesday identified one such caddie observing absolute social distancing at Colonial, pandemic-textbook stuff. That example was Todd Montoya, who works for Brian Stuard. Montoya wore a mask. He let no one near him. When Stuard needed a club, Montoya put the bag on the ground, fairway or fringe, and ambled away. He also declined to discuss with Golf Digest his choices, which certainly merits respect under such conditions. In these circumstances, nothing’s safer than saying nothing at all.

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By Kevin Robbins
FORT WORTH — The morning began at Colonial Country Club as it has since Hogan ruled its fairways. In the 75-year history of the tournament on the Trinity River, now called the Charles Schwab Challenge, few spectators came for the Tuesday practice rounds anyway, and especially not early. Nothing looked amiss with no one out to watch just yet.

The difference this time is that’s the way it stayed all day, and how it will remain for this landmark but bizarre week in golf history.

Many in the field of 148 practiced and played with so few witnesses it looked like the first day of a member-guest. As a precaution during the coronavirus pandemic, the PGA Tour will play its first five events since March 12—when the Players Championship was cancelled after one round—with no spectators and limited staffing. Everyone wondered what that would look like. They found out Tuesday: surreal.

The return of golf meant an empty golf course. Besides no fans, there were no bleachers, no concessions, no merchandise area, no corporate hospitality tents. Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy played together in near-solitude. Their only companions were a photographer and a bluejay.

It meant that Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm conducted the first two pre-tournament interviews remotely, answering questions from reporters sitting at desks more than six socially-distant feet apart in an entirely different building on club property.

They used words like “different” (Rahm) and “crazy” (Thomas) to describe the sensation of preparing for competition with no one watching, no one shouting their names or inquiring about signing a hat bill. They didn’t use the word lonely. But they’ll likely feel that word soon.

“The atmosphere will definitely be different,” Thomas said.

Colonial has seen its gatherings. The Wall of Champions alongside the first tee tells you that. Jack Nicklaus won here. So did Ben Crenshaw, Phil Mickelson, Arnold Palmer, Jordan Spieth, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson. Three of those champions are Texans. All of them did their winning in front of thousands and thousands of souls.

You might remember the Colonial in 2003. That’s when Annika Sorenstam played in the spring invitational. The curious were a dozen deep that Thursday around the tenth tee, leaning over the famous brick wall to see her begin her quest to play with the men. Sorenstam hit her shot—a fairway metal, right in the fairway. The place shook.

Nothing shook Tuesday. The leaves of the enormous pecans waved in the frisky winds out of the south. It was really the only sonic presence at Colonial.

“Expectations?” asked Rahm. “Who knows?”

Rahm has never played in a professional golf tournament that looks like a Sunday skins game. He actually hasn’t even played golf in seven weeks, he said, so the matter of expectations isn’t only about what Colonial will look like, or sound like, when the shots matter Thursday morning.

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But it’s what he was thinking at his remote press conference (also a first). “Can you imagine if somebody makes a 30-foot bomb on 18 to win the tournament? Nothing? Crickets?” said Rahm, the 2017 champion at Colonial who, like everyone here, had more questions Tuesday than answers.

Here’s one answer he did have: “It’s going to be a little weird.”

It already is.

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By Tod Leonard
There won’t be fans on the grounds when the PGA Tour resumes play on Thursday at Colonial Country Club, but the initial pairings certainly guarantee fireworks. The Tour announced its featured groupings on Sunday for the opening two rounds of the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, and they looked like something out of the FedEx Cup Playoffs or a major championship. Or, actually, the first round of this year’s Players Championship.

The top three ranked players in the world—Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka—will play together. They did so on the opening day of the Players in March, which was eventually wiped out when the tournament was canceled on Thursday night at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. (For the record, Rahm prevailed that day, shooting 69 to Koepka’s 70 and McIlroy’s 72.)

Another juicy grouping features members of the Bro Pack—Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth. Byrson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose compose another pairing, and major winners Phil Mickelson and Gary Woodland are joined by defending Schwab Challenge champ Kevin Na.

With the Tour returning to action for the first time in 12 weeks, Colonial drew an impressive field, with 16 of the top 20 in the Official World Rankings jumping in.

McIlroy, the hottest player in the game with one win and five other top 5s in his last six starts, is making his tournament debut. Twice he has won in the same circumstance, at the 2010 Wells Fargo Championship and 2019 RBC Canadian Open. Koepka has played at Colonial only once, but the outcome was rather stunning—he shot a pair of 63s to finish T-2 in 2017. Rahm has two top 5s in the event.

Thomas enters the week No. 2 in the FedEx Cup standings, behind Sungjae Im, and, with wins in the CJ Cup and Sentry Tournament of Champions, joins Brendon Todd as the Tour’s multiple champions this season. Spieth captured the 2016 title at Colonial, and bookended that with runners-up in 2015 and ’17. The Texan remains one of the more compelling story lines of 2020, with only one top-10 finish (Pebble Beach) in five starts since the calendar turned.

Na seized last year’s Schwab by four shots over Tony Finau when it was pushed to a Monday finish, and he won again early in the wraparound season in Las Vegas. Mickelson has two wins at Colonial (2000, 2008), but has dropped to No. 63 in the World Rankings with four missed cuts in his last five starts.

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By Alex Myers
Colonial Country Club will be the centre of the sports universe when the PGA Tour returns next Thursday with the Charles Schwab Challenge. It won’t be the first time, though, the famed Fort Worth track has been under such focus.

Seventeen years ago, Annika Sorenstam made history by becoming the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1945. Teeing off on the 10th hole, Sorenstam striped a 4-wood some 250 yards down the middle of the fairway before firing rounds of 71 and 74.

When the 10-time major champ joined the Golf Digest Podcast, she told us that drive remains the best shot of her illustrious career—but there were plenty of other things to talk about as well.

From what else she remembers about that week to her LPGA record-breaking round of 59 to being named as a U.S Women’s Open ambassador for the 75th anniversary of the major she won three times. Sorenstam, who won an incredible 46 times total from 2001-2006, also shared what it’s like being golf buddies with Tiger Woods, how her golf game stacks up today, and what other sport she’s picked up as a hobby during quarantine.

Plus, Daniel Rapaport and Keely Levins join me to discuss a cool new program by the PGA Tour, a bold new strategy by the European Tour, and Tiger as a swing coach. Please have a listen:

The post Annika Sorenstam on breaking gender—and scoring—barriers, being golf buds with Tiger Woods, and her new quarantine hobby appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
The Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial C.C. is sticking to its plan.

The Colonial, the longest-running PGA Tour event still conducted at its original host site, will be the first tournament back in the tour’s season restart in the second week of June. However, when announcing the sport’s return following the COVID-19 pandemic in April, the tour outlined its first four events back would be without fans.

But last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a revised proclamation to allow spectators at outdoor events up to 25 percent of the venue’s capacity, ostensibly giving the tour and Colonial a chance to welcome spectators on the hallowed Fort Worth grounds.

Nevertheless, both the tour and tournament organisers say Colonial will be conducted as a fan-less competition.

Charles Schab Challenge tournament director Michael Tothe told the Dallas Morning News that there were, “No changes” to report. “No fans. Too late to change,” Tothe said on Thursday. In a statement to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a tour spokesperson said “our focus right now” is hosting a tournament sans crowd.

It’s worth noting the news coincides with the John Deere Classic, the fifth tournament on the tour’s revamped schedule, announcing it would cancel this year’s event, a decision partly made after discovering Illinois COVID-19 guidelines would not allow them to entertain spectators or a pro-am at the tournament.

The Colonial begins on June 11. Kevin Na is the defending champ.

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