Short putting is where pros make their money, and the rest of us shave strokes off our handicaps.

There truly are few areas of golf more important that your putting performance between five and 10 feet. Hit a couple of iron shots six feet closer during your round and there’s a good chance your scores won’t show it. Start holing a couple of extra six footers during your round, and the payoff will be instant.

Simply put, there’s a direct correlation between how good you are from inside 10 feet, and how low your handicap is. The more the better.

But knowing they’re important is important. How do you actually get better at it?

That’s what I asked Denny McCarthy, on the ground at the FedEx St Jude Championship this week. McCarthy currently ranks 27th in the FedEx Cup standings. Long regarded as one of the best putters on tour, he currently ranks third in SG: Putting this season, and leads the tour in putting inside of 10 feet.

Good short-range putting, McCarthy says, ultimately comes down to good speed control. Whereas on longer putts you can get away with less-than-perfect green reading if your speed control is good, on shorter putts, your goal is to match the right line with the right speed. You need both to make those shorter ones consistency.

Here’s his advice to help you find both.

1. Don’t lock into one speed

What’s the perfect speed to hit your putts? Some players will tell you they prefer to die their ball slowly into the hole. Others prefer to roll it in firmly, with pace. To each their own. But McCarthy says for him, the best speed depends on the putt itself.
“I don’t have a formula,” he says. “I used to struggle with speed as a junior. But as a professional, I learned to hone and trust my instructs. I stuck to my own process. The more I did that, the better my putting got.”

Denny McCarthy. Andy Lyons

Part of that process, he says, was learning to work backwards from the putt itself. What’s the ideal way of hitting the specific putt in front of him?
“If I have a downhill putt or am putting on slippery greens, I’m not going to risk running it seven feet past because I want to make it,” he says. “I never go into a putt thinking about how hard I want to hit the putt. I’m letting the slopes dictate the speed to me.”
Sometimes he’ll opt for a firm roll. Other times, a softer roll. It all comes down to the slopes, which hold the key to speed.

2. Let slopes dictate speed

Letting the slopes dictate the speed is, ultimately, the key tenet of McCarthy’s process when it comes to speed control. McCarthy says that once he sizes up the break, he’ll pick a spot to aim for. Then, he’ll set up to his ball aiming at that spot, and ask himself: Does this feel comfortable?
That’s when he starts mentally moving that aiming spot around.

Denny McCarthy. Stacy Revere

“If I pick a spot, and it feels low, I know that means I’d have to hit that with too much pace in order for it to go in. If it pick a spot way up on a slope, I’ll know I have to hit that pretty soft in order for that to go in,” he says. “I’m basically looking for a spot that feels just right.”
It’s the spot that dictates the pace, he says. And it could be different each day. Some days he may prefer the lower routes. On certain putts, he may opt for higher spots. It’s all about comfort and confidence. And once he’s found his most comfortable one for that spot, he’s found the speed. There’s only one thing left to do…

3. Never think about the consequences of a missed putt

At some point, you’ve done all your thinking and planning. It’s time to commit. For that, McCarthy has a simple approach.
“Never think about the consequences of leaving it short or rolling it past,” he says. “When I’m over the putt, I’m just solely focused on the putt itself. I trust in what I’m doing, and that gives me the belief that I’ll hole the putt.”

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Every golfer knows that one of the most difficult things to do is back up a stupid-low round with another good one. That’s certainly held true at the Travelers Championship, where Patrick Cantlay shot 60 in the second round in 2011 and followed it with a 72. Mackenzie Hughes did only slightly better in 2020 when he opened with a 60 and backed it up with a 68. (OK, a 72 and a 68 is hardly a chop-fest, but for tour pros its close enough).

Denny McCarthy, however, avoided the dreaded post-60 eff-up. On Friday, McCarthy bushed off a “sloppy bogey” at the second hole and no birdies over the first seven to rattle off six over his final 11 holes to shoot 65 and set the tournament 36-hole scoring record at 15 under par (matched later in the day by Keegan Bradley).

“It was a little slow out of the gates,” said McCarthy. “We did a really good job of just settling into the round. I wasn’t hitting any bad, loose shots. Just wasn’t going my way like it was yesterday early on.”

It went exactly his way like Thursday on the back nine, however. McCarthy matched his 30 on the second nine from the day before with birdies on 13, 14 and 15, bookended by birdies on 10 (thanks to a 42-foot putt falling) and 18. It was a fitting display of golf considering McCarthy’s fondness for the incoming nine at TPC River Highlands.

Denny McCarthy walks on the first hole in the second round of the Travelers Championship. Rob Carr

“It’s probably my favorite nine holes on tour because there is such a variety of holes, and it’s fun and entertaining for us players and the fans,” McCarthy said. “You get a short par-3 on 11; 12 is a cool little hole; 13 is a gettable par 5. There is a lot of risk in those holes, too. And, obviously ,15, the drivable one. It’s just a fun nine holes to play. I look forward to it every time I get there.”

Along with a penchant for playing the back nine well, history seems to be in McCarthy’s favor as well. A non-winner so far on the PGA Tour, the Travelers has produced 18 first-time winners in its history, while his 15-under-par total through 36 holes would be enough have been the winning 72-hole total in half of the previous 10 Travelers.

McCarthy, who lost this year’s Memorial in a playoff with Viktor Hovland when a par on the 72nd hole would have won it, knows not to look ahead.

“Yeah, it’s nice, but golf tournaments aren’t 36 holes, unfortunately, so I know there is still a lot of golf left,” he said.

Bradley’s flat stick is on fire

Bradley tied McCarthy’s tournament-record 125 total for the first 36 holes by dropping a nifty 63 in the second round. The fact he leaned on his putter to do it, however, might be a surprise.

Since the USGA banned anchoring in 2016, Bradley, who won the 2011 PGA Championship using an anchored stroke, has struggled on the greens. And that might be saying it kindly.

In 2018 Bradley ranked 174th in strokes gained /putting and was modestly worse in each of the next three seasons, basically dropping a half-shot to the field on the greens in each round. Spotting the field a couple of blows over 72 holes doesn’t often equate to success on the PGA Tour.

In late 2021, Bradley made the move to the AimPoint method of green reading (effectively using your feet to feel the slope, then using your fingers to measure how much break there is) and switching to an Odyssey Versa Jailbird mallet putter. Last season, Bradley finally got on the plus side of the ledger in putting and this season he ranked T-42 coming into the Travelers, gaining a third of a stroke per round on the field.

“I had some pretty dark days with the putter,” Bradley told Golf Channel after the round. “I couldn’t figure out the switch from the belly putter. It was more difficult than I was expecting. It turned out it was pretty simple with AimPoint and [better] alignment. It’s so much more fun to make putts.

Friday merged solid ball striking (17 of 18 greens in regulation, but only 34th in strokes gained/approach) with putting only the bishop from “Caddyshack” could appreciate, rolling in more than 170 feet of putts, including a 58-footer at the third and a 34-footer at the 12th for birdies.

Such success led Bradley to pay homage to his putter by handing it to his caddie as if he were presenting a gourmet meal—level with two hands on it. “You have to pay your respects the putter,” Bradley explained. “She was hot today.”

Hot, but, like the bishop, not everything went down. Had Bradley made one more birdie he would have accomplished something done only once on the PGA Tour since 1983—shooting 62-62 to start a tournament. David Toms accomplished that at the 2011 Colonial, but Bradley couldn’t get a 16-footer to go at 17 or a 13-footer to fall at the last.

Thomas’ best round of the year: progress or a tease?

Max Homa and Justin Thomas had to use their umbrellas at one point in the second round. Patrick Smith

Justin Thomas’ game has been in a funk. How big of one? Consider no top-10s since the WM Phoenix Open in early February. Consider eight consecutive rounds over par coming into the Travelers. Consider a second-round 81 at last week’s U.S. Open, leading to his second straight missed cut.

An opening even-par 70 this week seemed to merely continue the troubling trend, but Thomas found some of the game on Friday by firing a six-under-par 64—his lowest round the year, besting his final-round 65 at the Waste Management.

Thomas flashed his strong tee-to-green game by leading the field in strokes gained in that category in Round 2, knocking many approaches close. On the greens, he benefited from a 53-footer for birdie at the par-4 fourth that got some positive momentum going.

However, JT had to be frustrated by his finish. Standing at eight under on his round going to 17, he went long on his approach on 17, then found the fairway bunker off the tee on 18, both miscues leading to bogeys.

So is Thomas back or just teasing us. The weekend at TPC River Highlands could answer that question.

Connecticut club pro makes the weekend in his backyard

Andrew Svoboda isn’t just any club professional. The head pro at Great River Golf Club in Milford, Conn., a short jump up the Merritt Parkway to I-91 and TPC River Highlands, not only is comfortable playing PGA Tour events, but doing well in them.

Svoboda shot 65 Friday and finds himself T-22 heading into the weekend. The round could have been better, save for a tee shot that found the left rough on the side of a hill on 17 that led to him dunking his second in the water. Svoboda, however, rebounded to make bogey.

Such steeliness is borne out of 79 previous PGA Tour starts, including three top-10s with a runner-up at the 2014 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, helping him to a season where he won $1.17 million.

Since 2015, however, Svoboda—a legend in the PGA’s Met Section—has just three PGA Tour starts, making this week a special one in front of the home fans and family, including his sister and niece and a bunch of Great River members.

“It’s just kind of cool to be part of that,” Svoboda said. “I’m a new head pro there. I’ve been working there for like three months. So, yeah, there was a little bit of pressure with all the members watching.”

And pressure to continue doing well. Asked how much time he had to be club pro if he kept doing well at tournaments, Svoboda didn’t blink.

“Yeah, well, unless I get a top-10 this week I’ll be back being club pro next week.”

The post Denny McCarthy goes low again, Keegan Bradley’s putter is on fire, and Justin Thomas teases with a strong round appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Shane Ryan
Adam Hadwin looked mad, but mad in that exhausted, beaten-down way where he knew that his anger was ultimately directed at something so powerful that any frustration he felt, or vented, was ultimately impotent. Adam Hadwin, born and bred on the prairies of Saskatchewan, was mad at the heat.

“I would not wish this on my worst enemy,” he said, hat pulled low as he hugged the shade near the scoring room on Saturday at the Wyndham Championship. He had just carded a third-round 66, good enough to surge into the top 15 with one round to go, which felt downright courageous under the circumstances. His brain, though … his brain wasn’t registering anything but the heat.

“It was the only thing I had on my mind the last three or four holes,” he said. “You just stay upright, get through the round, and figure it out after that.”

It’s not like he didn’t know it was coming. With temperatures in the 90s and the heat index over 100 for the third straight day—not mention the punishing humidity that rarely dips below 50 percent and that ratchets up into the 90-percent range when the heat subsides, creating a stagnant, muggy bog-like feeling that seemingly never goes away—Hadwin knew he had to prepare, and like many of his fellow golfers, he drank Pedialyte with water in an attempt to hydrate. How did that work out?

“It’s not enough,” he said, and with that he trudged off to find air conditioning.

He was not alone.

MORE: Russell Henley trying to go wire-to-wire in Wyndham

“You see this?” Denny McCarthy asked, pointing to the small space of light gray fabric at the bottom of his pants, near the foot. “This is the actual colour of my pants.”

He didn’t need to say the rest: Every other part of the pants was a darker gray, from belt to below the knee, soaked through with sweat.

“I sweat a lot to begin with,” he said, “so these, these are tough rounds for me. You gotta be really mentally tough. I switch between two or three gloves, I keep a thing of baby powder in the bag, I’m putting baby powder in the gloves, I’m icing my hands to cool them off every tee box, wiping with a towel, asking my caddie to give me a towel before every shot, and even the ball in my pocket gets soaked.”

Along with all these rituals, McCarthy estimates that he drinks 15-20 bottles of various fluids within the round itself, from water to Gatorade to Pedialyte, much of it mixed with Liquid I.V. And those are just the physical elements. McCarthy confirmed the suspicion that it’s far easier to become angry and frustrated during extreme weather, and staying calm after a bad shot or a tough break.

“If you lose it, your mental fortitude for a hole or two, this course can jump up and get you,” he said.

Russell Henley, the leader heading into Sunday, struggles like McCarthy with keeping his hands dry, but he doesn’t resort to baby powder.

“I just wipe my hands on a towel,” he said, “and if the towel’s dirty, I get mad at my caddie.”

Electrolytes are a common solution for almost everyone who commented on this story, with brands like Pedialyte, BioSteel, Liquid I.V., LivPur, and All Sports being name-checked specifically, along with various other mysterious concoctions kept in packets for readily mixing with water. As Kevin Kisner said, “You can’t just have water.” Nor is the hydrating solely on the course—over and over, players emphasized the need to hydrate far in advance, and immediately after losing water due to sweat.

Just as important? Don’t spend longer than necessary outside.

“You don’t warm up as long and definitely don’t practice after so you can rejuvenate for tomorrow,” Kisner said. “With a quick turnaround now for the morning”—tee times will be early on Sunday due to bad weather forecast in the afternoon—”there will be a lot of fluids tonight to get ready.”

Kevin Kisner waves as he walks off the 18th green during the third round of the Wyndham Championship. Jared Tilton

And if you think the players have it bad, marching for around five hours in extreme heat, imagine being a caddie tasked with carrying that player’s bag. Mookie DeMoss, a former player at the University of Georgia, happens to be caddying in his first full PGA Tour event this weekend after Keith Mitchell’s usual looper tested positive for COVID1-9. Mitchell called up his old teammate and childhood friend as a last-minute replacement. On Saturday, on the range, Mitchell and DeMoss were laughing about the old Nick Saban story, where he ran a summer camp and had this advice for his players: “It’s hot outside. It doesn’t need to be said again.”

Yet as the hours passed, they couldn’t help talking about the heat. By the 18th tee, they had each chugged huge amounts of water and were shocked at how much they were sweating. When DeMoss tried to read his yardage book, he found that he had sweat through his back pocket, and the edges were soaked and in danger of falling apart. By the end of the day, DeMoss was putting Greensboro up there with a PGA Latinoamerica Tour stop in Cancun and the 2015 NCAA championships in Florida as the hottest places he’d ever played.

Cole Pensanti caddies for Kiradech Aphibarnrat and has been on the bag for LPGA stars like Lizette Salas and Danielle Kang.

“I’ve been in worse,” he said, showing a stoic resistance to the heat. “It’s pretty bad today, and there’s no breeze, which makes it worse. Overall, I give it an 8.8 out of 10 for the worst I’ve ever been in.”

What was the worst? According to him, Malaysia. According to Kisner, Erick Van Rooyen, and several others, the answer is also Malaysia. Brian Vranesh, who caddies for Si Woo Kim, gave Tokyo a nod, while Tyler McCumber name-checked the Puntacana Resort in the Dominican Republic. In the continental U.S., answers ranged from Bradenton, Fla., to Omaha, Neb., to the Barbasol in Alabama.

Aphibarnrat, a native of Thailand, has struggled through hot weather for his entire life, and his key battle is with the mental side of the heat.

“Everyone wants to stay as calm as possible,” he said. “When you make a little mistake, they tend to just pop up in your head because the temperature really heated up and you didn’t concentrate as much as you can do. I did it today. I missed a putt, and I wanted to be done, I wanted to walk off the golf course.”

Amazingly, Aphibarnrat named Greensboro, this week, as the hottest place he’s ever played. Perhaps it was the recency bias—he had just emerged from the cauldron—but he insisted on it, and added that it wouldn’t surprise him if a player or caddie passed out.

Van Rooyen, coming off a win at last week’s Barracuda Championship, and no stranger to intense heat as a South African, has a simple formula for coping: “Get sweaty. Eat good. Drink good.”

But it was Van Rooyen’s perspective on the mental aspect of the heat that was the most profound, at least in its brutal wisdom. When asked if it made things more intense, more frustrating, and led to more bouts of anger—in short, is it easier to get pi#### off?—he only shrugged.

“No,” he said, “it’s pretty easy to get pi#### off anyway. That’s the honest truth. Golf is already at the max.”

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By E. Michael Johnson
As Rickie Fowler continues to search for answers on the course, he also appears to be seeking the right equipment combination to jumpstart his game. We identified some key changes made by players atop the leader board—plus Fowler’s change—at the Honda Classic last week in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Fowler continues to mix it up

Rickie Fowler has shuffled up his bag in a pretty significant way over the past couple of events. At the Players, Fowler changed irons, going from his RF Rev 33 prototype blades to Cobra’s King Forged CBs in his 5-iron through pitching wedge, in addition to using the company’s AMP Cell Pro CB 4-iron and a Cobra King F9 4-iron more as a utility iron. According to Cobra, Fowler felt the irons, which had more offset, would help him with his start line.

At the Honda Classic, Fowler switched up the driver, too, changing to a Cobra Radspeed XB Palm Tree Crew edition driver. The XB head has a higher moment of inertia, making it a touch more stable. “Typically, Rickie hasn’t liked that feeling,” said Ben Schomin, PGA Tour rep for Cobra. “But so far his misses have been a little tighter.” Fowler, who has been known to apply generous amounts of lead tape to certain clubs, did so with this driver as well, adding weight up front and to the sides on the sole of the driver.

RELATED: Rickie Fowler responds to Nick Faldo’s Masters/commercial dig

Fowler made the cut at PGA National, but a third-round 78 sent him way down the leader board. He finished T-65.

A couple of Wise decisions

Jared C. Tilton

Aaron Wise shook up the long and short end of his bag, putting in a 9-degree TaylorMade SIM2 driver with a Graphite Design Tour AD DI 6X shaft and an Odyssey Toulon Las Vegas mallet putter at the Honda Classic. Both moves worked well as Wise got off to a fast start before settling for a T-13 finish.

The putter, in particular, was working well in the early rounds. Wise, who ranked T-4 for the week in putts per green in regulation, made an impressive 230 feet of putts during the first 36 holes, leading to rounds of 64-64.

“We have been working on things for a while, and the stroke felt really good,” Wise said after the second round. “Obviously, the putter change might have just clicked it into the next gear. But overall, my technique’s felt good for a while. It was just finding a putter that suited my eye and I felt comfortable with and so far, it’s been working great.”

RELATED: Aaron Wise’s shocking three-putt from three feet on Sunday at PGA National

McCarthy’s driver switch

Jared C. Tilton

Denny McCarthy got our attention with a hole-in-one at the Players, but his T-3 finish at the Honda Classic was more lucrative. McCarthy made a driver change at PGA National, opting to go to a 10.5-degree Titleist TS2 with a Fujikura Ventus shaft, giving his TSi3 a break for now.

For the week the move worked. McCarthy hit 73.21 percent of his fairways (41 of 56) to rank T-7 for the week—an important stat to do well on given the number of water hazards on the Champion course, where finding fairways is key to success.

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By Joel Beall
There will be no cart controversy at TPC Harding Park.

On Sunday night the PGA Championship announced that John Daly has withdrawn from the event.

Daly rose to fame at the 1991 PGA Championship, capturing the Wanamaker as a ninth alternate at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind. However, Daly, 54, has made just three cuts this century at the event, and—as is often the case in his career—has made headlines at the tournament for matters other than his play.

At last year’s PGA Championship at Bethpage, Daly caused a stir by using a cart during competition. Though he was granted permission to do so under the Americans with Disabilities Act, others felt Daly’s knee injury didn’t fall in the spirit of the law. Daly was unhappy with the response—particularly from a jab by Tiger Woods and criticism from the Golf Channel—stating he wished people had “all the facts” about his problem.

“Might have been a different comment,’’ Daly said to USA Today Sports. “As well as the Golf Channel Wednesday morning, when they bashed me pretty good, and a few others [who criticised me].” Daly ultimately missed the cut at Bethpage Black.

The PGA Championship stated health concerns as the reason for Daly’s WD. The two-time major winner played Sunday at the PGA Tour Champions’ Ally Challenge in Grand Blanc, Mich., finishing T-58.

Denny McCarthy will take Daly’s place in the PGA Championship field.

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By Tod Leonard
Trying to adapt and maintain protocols in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic is a challenge for any workplace, and the PGA Tour is no exception. It has refined some of its rules after it restarted play on June 11, and it also has circumstances arise that require clarification.

That situation arose on Wednesday when the tour issued a statement on its Health and Safety Plan. Terming the release a clarification, the tour laid out its protocols for players or caddies who test positive for COVID-19:

Following CDC guidelines, players or caddies who are asymptomatic may return to competition if they return two negative tests a minimum of 24 hours apart.

The tour affirmed that players and caddies who were symptomatic are allowed, per CDC guidelines, back to competition if 10 days have passed since they first starting feeling symptoms, and they have gone at least 72 hours since recovery without a fever or other respiratory symptoms. The tour noted, in bold letters in its printed guidelines, that if a player continues to test positive after the 10-day period, he may resume competition.

That distinction became important to note this week because there are three players in the field of the Workday Charity Open whom the tour has identified as continuing to test positive beyond the 10-day period—Dylan Fritelli, Denny McCarthy and Nick Watney. With the tour citing an abundance of caution, the trio has been grouped together for the first two rounds at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. The other option, the tour said, was for them to play as singles.

Fritelli, 30, is the most recent to have to withdraw from a PGA Tour event due to a positive test. The tour announced his positive result on Sunday, June 28, after the South African missed the cut in the Travelers Championship. Fritelli underwent the test because he was supposed to be on the tour’s Monday charter flight to the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, but instead had to withdraw and isolate.

Watney, 39, was the first tour player to test positive for COVID-19 after not feeling well after the first round of tour’s first event back—the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head, S.C., in mid-June. He has since said he suffered from mild symptoms and is making his return this week. Also back for the first time since his illness is McCarthy, 27, who withdrew from the Travelers Championship on June 26 before playing the second round.

While being issued nasal swab tests, the three players have since tested positive for the coronavirus, but according to Dr. Tom Hospel, the tour’s medical advisor, that is not unusual.

“As time passes and as symptoms resolve and the patient or individual doesn’t have any fever and 10 days have passed, at that point the thought and theory is that this virus, this particle that’s being detected in the nasopharyngeal swab is no longer active or contagious or can potentially cause ongoing infection,” Hospel said on Wednesday in a call with reporters.

“What we have learned along the way is that in some instances, individuals can continue to test positive for weeks if not months beyond when their illness started, and the thought is that those individuals are no longer contagious, but you’re picking up dead virus.”

In explaining the tour’s approach, Andy Levinson, senior vice president of tournament administration, said, “The mindset is that they have complied with the guidance from the CDC. They have met the medical requirements for isolation, and with respect to the opinions of our medical advisors, including infectious disease experts and the CDC, they’re clear to play. They’re clear to return to work, whether it was a player, a caddie, you or me.”

Heading into Thursday’s first round of the Workday Charity Classic, no new COVID-19 cases have been reported at a tournament—the first time since the tour’s return that has been the case. A total of six players and two caddies have tested positive over the first four weeks of tournaments, though at least one questioned his results. Cameron Champ has said he believes he received a false positive when he tested on June 23 at the Travelers Championship and had to withdraw. He subsequently was tested three days in row and all results came back negative.

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By Joel Beall
Four more players have tested COVID-19 positive at PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour tournament sites this week.

On Tuesday, the PGA Tour announced Chad Campbell has been withdrawn from the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit. Campbell, 46, was not yet in the field as he was listed as the tournament’s first alternate. Alex Cjeka now takes his place.

In a statement, Campbell said that while the positive test is “unnerving” he feels physically fine and is asymptomatic. “I support the tour’s protocol during this time and will be quarantining myself to protect others until I am well,” Campbell said.

Campbell is the third player attempting to play in the Rocket Mortgage Classic to test positive for COVID-19, joining Harris English and Dylan Frittelli. Seven players dropped out of last week’s Travelers Championship, although only two (Cameron Champ and Denny McCarthy) were the result of a player’s positive COVID-19 test. Campbell is the sixth PGA Tour player to be diagnosed with coronavirus in the past 12 days.

At the Korn Ferry Tour’s TPC Colorado Championship, Brandon Wu, Taylor Montgomery and Jonathan Hodge have withdrawn due to testing COVID-19 positive during the on-site screening process.

“These positive test results serve as a distinct reminder that we all need to continue to be vigilant in this ever-changing climate,” said Korn Ferry Tour president Alex Baldwin. “We will further reinforce the elements of our health and safety plan to all constituents, and deliver our full support to those who test positive for COVID-19.”

Wu, Montgomery, and Hodge are the only players to test positive through the Korn Ferry’s on-site testing protocol.

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By Joel Beall
CROMWELL, Conn. — Two more players have withdrawn from the Travelers Championship due to COVID-19 issues.

Denny McCarthy and Bud Cauley reported symptoms to the PGA Tour on Friday morning, sources told Golf Digest. Per tour protocols, reporting symptoms requires the administration of further COVID-19 testing. McCarthy confirmed in a statement that he had tested positive.

“I was feeling pretty tired and sore after the round yesterday but didn’t think much of it because I had practiced a lot Monday to Wednesday,” McCarthy said. “Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night with additional aches and soreness and sensed something was off. I felt like the only thing to do was get tested at that point before I went to the course.”

Cauley did not test positive, but stated he was withdrawing out of caution.

“I’m very thankful I have tested negative but have decided to withdraw out of an abundance of caution for my peers and everyone involved with the tournament,” Cauley said.

McCarthy and Cauley played together in the first round of the Travelers on Thursday. McCarthy had shot a three-under 67 in the opening round while Cauley turned in a one-under 69. According to health officials, symptoms tend to appear two to 14 days after exposure, so it’s unlikely the pair’s round together was the source of infection. Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., says that the golf course is also believed to be an unlikely source of transmission.

The third member of the group, Matt Wallace, remains in the tournament, and will play on Friday at TPC River Highlands as a single.

McCarthy and Cauley are the sixth and seventh players to withdraw this week from the Travelers with coronavirus-related concerns. Cameron Champ tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, while Brooks Koepka and Graeme McDowell bowed out after their caddies contracted the virus. Webb Simpson withdrew after one of his family members tested COVID-19 positive, and Chase Koepka withdrew due to an “abundance of caution.” Last week, Nick Watney became the first player to test COVID-19 positive in the tour’s return from the pandemic.

In a statement, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said McCarthy has the full support of the tour.

“I know I speak for the entire tour membership in thanking him for doing the right thing in requesting an additional test before heading to the golf course today,” Monahan said. “What Denny, Bud and others are demonstrating is exactly what we asked of everyone—continue to do your part in taking this virus seriously and keeping not only your own health as a priority, but also that of your fellow competitors and those you may come in contact with. Today’s update again demonstrates our rigorous and quick testing, contact tracing capabilities and overall healthy and safety protocols. We will continue to liaise directly with local and state government and health officials this week and throughout our return to golf.”

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Yeah, yeah, it was only a practice round. But anytime someone nearly knocks a ball into a 4-inch-wide hole from 300 yards away, it’s pretty impressive in our book.

And luckily, the cameras were rolling when it happened. Check it out as McCarthy’s ball looks like it’s going in until diving across the hole at the last second:

Tracking… tracking. @_dennymccarthy came within inches of an ace on the par-4 15th in his practice round ?

Watch the @TravelersChamp live now on TV and streaming. pic.twitter.com/myipMbOqqv

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) June 25, 2020

My. Word. As you can see from the clip, McCarthy didn’t even need a putter as he just picked his ball up and took credit for the eagle. Yeah, we’ll give him that one from about an inch away—especially considering he leads the tour in strokes gained putting.

After firing an opening 67, McCarthy was certainly feeling good vibes in his third trip to the Travelers.

Hopefully more of this the next couple days @TravelersChamp @PGATOUR https://t.co/5ISclOmB9o

— Denny McCarthy (@_dennymccarthy) June 25, 2020

In case you’re wondering, there has only been one par-4 hole-in-one recorded in PGA Tour history. Andrew Magee pulled off the trick in the first round of the 2001 Phoenix Open when his tee shot caromed off the putter of Tom Byrum, who was playing in the group ahead, and into the hole on the par-4 17th at TPC Scottsdale.

In other words, practice round or not, these types of albatrosses are particularly rare birds. So, sorry, Denny. Chances are, that’s the closest you’ll ever come to making one.

The post You won’t believe how close this PGA Tour pro came to making a par-4 hole-in-one during a practice round appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
On Friday of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Denny McCarthy received a two-stroke penalty under Rule 10.2b(4), which does not allow caddies to stand behind players as they line up. It’s one of the notable changes to the Rules of Golf that went into effect at the start of the year. But the PGA Tour announced on Saturday that officials have reviewed that ruling and have rescinded the penalty.

McCarthy’s score from Friday, accordingly, has been adjusted from a 67 to a 65.

In a statement, the PGA Tour said that it worked with the USGA and R&A on how to interpret the new rule, and that Justin Thomas and his caddie faced a similar penalty during the same round. After looking at footage of both incidents, the decision was that neither player should be penalised, resulting in McCarthy getting his two shots back and Thomas not receiving a penalty.

Denny McCarthy’s two-shot penalty from Friday’s round has been rescinded.

Here’s why: pic.twitter.com/RPCck88UMV

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 2, 2019

The PGA Tour’s statement:

“Since the situation during Round 2 of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, which resulted in PGA TOUR player Denny McCarthy receiving a two-stroke penalty under Rule 10.2b(4), the PGA TOUR has been in constant contact with the USGA about how the new rule should be interpreted. During the course of these discussions, this morning a similar situation from yesterday’s round involving Justin Thomas was also brought to our attention.

“It is clear that there is a great deal of confusion among players and caddies on the practical application of the new rule during competition, as well as questions surrounding the language of the rule itself and how it should be interpreted. As a result, with the full support of the USGA and The R&A, the rule will be interpreted whereby the two aforementioned situations, as well as future similar situations, will not result in a penalty. McCarthy’s score has been updated accordingly.

“We will be working vigorously with the USGA and The R&A over the coming days to further analyse and improve the situation with this rule.”

Many took to Twitter to talk about the Friday penalty, including Thomas who at the time called the ruling “ridiculous.”

This is ridiculous… the fact this is a penalty is mind blowing. @USGA this NEEDS to be changed ASAP… there is nothing about this rule that makes the game better https://t.co/wtPmPOcss4

— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) February 2, 2019

The USGA also released a statement on Saturday, saying that the actions of McCarthy and his caddie do not warrant penalty under the new rule.

“Following an ongoing dialogue with players and in cooperation with the PGA TOUR rules team, the USGA and The R&A revisited the penalty assessed to Denny McCarthy during round 2 of the Waste Management Phoenix Open. After an additional review of available video this morning, it was determined that the penalty would not apply in this instance nor in a similar instance involving Justin Thomas. In each of these cases, when the caddie was standing behind the player, the player had not yet begun taking the stance for the stroke, nor could useful guidance on aiming be given because the player was still in the process of determining how to play the stroke. The same would be true for any similar situation that might occur.

“The USGA and The R&A recognize that further clarity on how to appropriately apply this Rule is needed. We are committed to assessing its impact and will provide the necessary clarifications in the coming days.”

These conversations over Rule 10.2b(4) are occurring less than a week after Haotong Li was penalised for his caddie lining him up on the 18th green at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic. The two-stroke penalty moved him from T-3 to T-12 in the European Tour event.

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