By John Feinstein
It was a remarkable weekend for the United States Ryder Cup team. The Americans bolted to a 3-1 lead Friday morning and never looked back, cruising to a dominating 19-9 victory. For once, the World Ranking turned out to be a harbinger: eight of the top 10 were on Steve Stricker’s American team and only one—No. 1 Jon Rahm—played for Padraig Harrington’s European lineup.

The euphoria was unbridled and justified. Europe had gone 7-2 since the turn of the century coming into the matches and almost always found a way to out-compete the U.S. when it mattered most. Stricker proved to be a perfect captain, calm and able to keep all the turbulence of the summer out of the team room and off the golf course. He went young and it paid off. He didn’t select Phil Mickelson to put a wise old head in the team room, even though some (like me) thought the U.S. needed that. Instead, he put Mickelson in the team room as a vice-captain. He got that one right, too.

The U.S. team was full of young stars—eight of the 12 players were not yet 30; the oldest was 37-year-old Dustin Johnson. Four of the Euros were older than 40 and while four were younger than 30.

Now, many of my colleagues—especially those who work in TV—are convinced the U.S. is about to embark on a new era of dominance.

Maybe. Or maybe not.

It is worth perhaps going back to what was said and written after the U.S. beat Europe 17-11 five years ago at Hazeltine National. The vaunted Ryder Cup Task Force had turned things around after Medinah meltdown in 2012 and the Gleneagles debacle in 2014. Phil Mickelson, who played a major role in that 2016 win on and off the golf course, declared that the U.S. had “cracked the code.” In short, the Team USA by adopting many of the methods used by Europe, had gotten the best it possibly could from its players and the result had been an easy victory.

“I can’t wait,” Rory McIlroy said as he watched the American celebrate on that Sunday in Minnesota, “to get to Paris.”

Two years later, when McIlroy and his teammates got to Paris, the result was almost identical—only in reverse. Europe won 17½-10½.

When projected future victories now for Team USA, it is worth remembering how important playing at home has become in the Ryder Cup. Dating to 1997, when Europe won the matches in Spain, the home team has gone 10-2 and it would have been 11-1 if the U.S. hadn’t blown what was once a 10-4 lead at Medinah. In fact, the last four Cups have been routs: Europe winning easily at Gleneagles and Le Golf National; the U.S. winning by wide margins at Hazeltine National and Whistling Straits.

Some of this has to do with course set-up. The home team always chooses the venue and has a good deal of say in how it will play. When the matches are in the U.S., the fairways are wider, the rough is lower and the greens are firmer and faster. Both Hazeltine and Whistling Straits played like average PGA Tour layouts—long-hitting Americans racking up birdies on all three days. Smash and dash was the Americans strategy, and why not?

In Europe, the fairways are narrower, the rough higher, the greens not nearly as quick. It wasn’t a coincidence that Mickelson and Tiger Woods, who couldn’t find fairways all weekend, were a combined 0-6 in Paris. Or that DeChambeau, not as long then but still a banger, went 0-3.

There’s also this: Two years is forever in golf. So much can change in that time. Among the stars for that U.S. team in 2016 was Rickie Fowler, who was 27 at the time and billed as a lifelong Ryder Cupper. Where is he now? Patrick Reed, who was 26 then and already dubbed “Captain America,” remains a solid player but as we saw this year he doesn’t have a permanent place on the roster, either. If not for COVID delaying the matches this year, Jordan Spieth would not have been on this American team considering the prolonged slump he was in from 2017 until early this year.

Europe’s highest point total at Hazeltine was turned in by 24-year-old Thomas Pieters, who went 4-1 in his Ryder Cup debut. Five other Euros on that team were in their 20s, all of them seemingly getting ready to be the next generation of Ryder Cup stars. Only two, however, Rory McIlroy and Matthew Fitzpatrick have played in the matches since then. Pieters is currently ranked 110th in the world.

Which is why Greg Norman always liked to say, “There’s a reason why golf is a four-letter word.”

It is entirely possible that the young Americans who looked so dominate in Wisconsin will continue to star the next two years—or more—and show up in Italy ready to win the Cup on European soil for the first time since 1993. Or, there might be injuries or personal issues or a loss of confidence for some. Europe’s gotten old and needs to retool since so many of the youngsters from five years ago haven’t lived up to the potential they flashed back then.

When I first brought all of this up on Monday on Twitter, a lot of people said, “Can’t you just let us enjoy this win?”

Two years is forever in golf. Among the stars for the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2016 was Rickie Fowler, who was 27 at the time and billed as a lifelong Ryder Cupper. Where is he now?

Absolutely. It should be enjoyed and embraced. I remember being at the RSM Classic in 2016, which is hosted by Davis Love III. Love spent most of the week walking around carrying the Ryder Cup, showing it to people, posing for photos and just basking in the moment.

No one ever deserved it more. Stricker deserves the same victory lap. As someone Stricker said himself tearfully after the win on Sunday, “I’ve never won a major, but this is my major.” Winning a Ryder Cup as the captain IS a major victory, just different than the four majors played every year.

But thinking the code has been cracked—again—will only lead to another disastrous outcome on European soil. The U.S. needs to choose a captain and, while it’s a safe assumption that Mickelson will captain at Bethpage Black on Long Island in four years, there are a number of candidates for Rome. Zach Johnson appears to be a front-runner, having been a Ryder Cup vice-captain in 2018 and 2021 and an assistant captain for the 2019 Presidents Cup. If Tiger Woods can’t play anymore, he might be the choice. Justin Leonard has been a Ryder Cup hero in the past, and David Toms is highly respected by everyone in the game. I’d throw in the name David Duval, if only because he’s about as smart and tough as anyone in the sport.

Richard Heathcote
Zach Johnson, a vice-captain on the last two U.S. Ryder Cup teams, looks like a front-runner to captain the Americans in 2023.

One of the good things for the Europeans about having four players who are 40-plus on this year’s team, is it gives them plenty of choices for their next captain: A potential choice, given the venue, is Francesco Molinari, who was 5-0 in Paris but didn’t play on this year’s team. If Molinari, who will only be 40 when the matches are next played, decides to try to play instead, there’s always Lee Westwood or Ian Poulter or Sergio Garcia—the latter pair being two of the great European Ryder Cuppers.

The larger point is this: The U.S. did what it was supposed to do this past weekend—and it did it emphatically, led by DJ brilliant 5-0 weekend. But the Americans haven’t really come close to winning in Europe since Wales in 2010, so any notion that they will cruise in Italy is probably optimistic—at best.

My guess is McIlroy is already looking forward to Rome. He’s 32 and, even though he had the worst weekend of his Ryder Cup career, anyone who thinks he’s done is likely to be proven wrong.

The same is true of Europe. Meanwhile, the Americans should enjoy the victory … for a while.

The post Let’s slow down declaring this the start of an American Ryder Cup dynasty appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Feinstein
There’s no doubting Sunday’s finish to the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis was about as crazy as any seen on tour this season. Just when it looked as if Bryson DeChambeau would chase Harris English to the finish line, both men had epic back-nine meltdowns. English was 20 under par at TPC Southwind for 63 holes, Dechambeau was 18 under. Playing in the final group, they had opened a gap between themselves and the rest of the field. And then, remarkably, both men forgot how to play golf. English double bogeyed two par 3s and limped home with a back-nine 40. That made him low man in the twosome. DeChambeau threw in a triple bogey and shot 41.

Wow.

Enter Abraham Ancer, who ended up winning a three-man playoff with a birdie on the second sudden-death hole to beat Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama and Sam Burns for his first PGA Tour victory. All three spent most of the day thinking they were playing to finish in the top five before English and DeChambeau began playing like 8-handicappers.

It was great theatre, but it was also very different from the hold-your-breath drama that was playing out in Truckee, Calif., at the Barracuda Championship or what we will see this coming week in Greensboro. Ever since the Wyndham Championship became final regular-season event on the PGA Tour calendar in 2007, it has become a place where players come to try to save their seasons—and keep their golf careers alive.

“The last chance saloon,” was what Ernie Els dubbed Greensboro when he played it in 2011, needing a high finish to make the playoffs. Even Tiger Woods showed up to play in 2015 to make a last-ditch effort to get into the postseason. He was treated like royalty showing up at a fast-food counter and contended for three days to the delight of the locals—and the tournament’s directors and sponsors. But a T-10 finish wasn’t enough to get him on the right side of the top 125.

The Barracuda, colloquially known as an “opposite” field event, gives players who didn’t make the WGC field a place to play and the chance to take the suspense out of Greensboro. Or, in some cases, to play well enough to get into Greensboro.

When all was said and done Sunday, Erik van Rooyen had won for the first time on the PGA Tour. He beat Andrew Putnam by five points in the Modified Stableford scoring system the tour uses for the event. Van Rooyen is a 31-year-old South African who went into the week 139th on the FedEx Cup points list. The victory jumped him to 78th—but more important gives him a two-year tour exemption.

The money in Memphis was three times what it was in California: $10.5 million with no cut for a field of 66 players, first place earning Ancer $1,820,000, the three golfers in last grabbing $42,000 apiece. The total purse at the Barracuda was $3.5 million, with Van Rooyen winning $630,000.

In all, 132 players teed it up at Tahoe Mountain Club. Sixty-two missed the cut and walked away without making a dollar—or scoring a FedEx point—and the last-place finisher among the 70 who made the cut, Camilo Villegas made $7,500 and scored three FedEx points.

A handful of those who played in Memphis will be in this week in Greensboro—some because they’ve had success there in the past; some because they like Sedgefield Country Club; some because they want to improve their standing going into the playoffs.

Most of the Wyndham field, though, will come from the Barracuda. Putnam’s runner-up finish jumped from 104th to 75th on the points list—he’s safe. So is Adam Schenk, who finished fourth and went from 113th to 95th. But Scott Piercy, who finished third, still has work to do after moving from 144th to 126th. Piercy is 42, a four-time tour winner, who finished T-2 at the U.S. Open in 2016. You could almost see his beard getting grayer as Sunday’s round went on. It may be all gray by sundown in Greensboro on Sunday.

Alex Goodlett
Scott Piercy’s third-place finish at the Barracuda jumped him 18 spots in the FedEx Cup points list but still leaves him one spot outside the top 125.

As the 2019 U.S. Open champion, Gary Woodland didn’t have to worry about exempt status on tour for next season but didn’t want the embarrassment of missing the top 125. So, he played last week and finished T-7, moving him from 119th to 108th on the points list, meaning he’s safely into postseason. Bo Van Pelt is 46 and playing this year on an exemption earned for being in the top 50 in career earnings. He moved from 149th to 146th last week and will need a high finish in Greensboro to be fully exempt next season.

Van Pelt is one of those guys other players root for because of his self-deprecating sense of humor. In 2010, at the opening playoff event, Jim Furyk’s cell-phone alarm didn’t go off and he missed his pro-am tee time. Under the rules back then, he was disqualified from the tournament. As luck would have it, Van Pelt was first alternate in the pro-am and was sent to the tee (shotgun start) to replace Furyk.

“I know how disappointed Jim is,” he said later that day. “But you should have seen the looks on the faces of the amateurs when I showed up to take his place. Not a happy group.”

No one will be watched more closely this coming week than Rickie Fowler—who usually plays under a microscope anyway because he’s Rickie Fowler.

He chose not to play in the Barracuda, and his ranking in the FedEx Cup standings dropped from 125th to 130th. In his 11 full years on tour, Fowler has never missed the playoffs and, clearly, neither he nor his many sponsors want to see that happen. He has his PGA Tour card through the 2022-23 season thanks to his victory at the Players Championship in 2015, so he doesn’t have to worry about that part of missing out on the top 125. But missing the Playoffs after missing the Masters and the U.S. Open this year would be painful for him, as will being passed over for his fifth Ryder Cup team.

Matt Kuchar is also a four-time Ryder Cupper and is a nine-time tour winner. He missed the cut last week and dropped to 124th on the points list, meaning he needs to at least make the cut in Greensboro. Kuchar was the tour’s leading money winner in 2010 and has top-10 career finishes in all four majors, including his runner-up to Jordan Spieth at the 2017 Open Championship. Now, at 42, he’s had his worst season since he had to go all the way back to second stage of Q-school after the 2005 season.

There are plenty of other stories coming out of California and going into Greensboro. Bill Haas, the 2011 FedEx Cup champion, who played his college golf a few miles down the road from Sedgefield at Wake Forest, moved from 205th to 197th on the points list. He’s in the Greensboro on a sponsor’s exemption and needs a performance like the one Jim Herman produced last year when he came from nowhere (192nd on the points list) to win at Greensboro and jump to 54th.

Matt Kuchar is No. 124 entering this week’s Wyndham Championship, but needs to play hard to stay inside the “125 bubble.”
Ben Jared

It IS the “last chance saloon.” Barracuda was the second-to-last chance. The drama continues.

The post Forget Memphis’ wild finish. For true high-stakes tour drama, Barracuda and Wyndham are where it’s at appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Feinstein
About a month before the just-completed U.S. Open, Mike Davis, the outgoing CEO of the USGA, called Rocco Mediate to invite him to be a guest of the governing body at Torrey Pines. After all, the 2008 Open, played at the same golf course, had been the site of Mediate’s most famous moment—if not his most joyful.

“He told me that he really appreciated the invitation, but it would be a little too tough for him to be there just to watch,” Davis said. “He said he’d be watching at home and appreciated being invited. I understood completely.”

There’s no doubt that if Mediate had been invited to play, he would have jumped at the chance. After all, he last played in a U.S. Open in 2010 and no doubt would have enjoyed hearing the cheers that would have followed him around the golf course. But watch other guys play? Be subjected to a barrage of questions about his 19-hole playoff loss to Tiger Woods some 13 years ago—again? No thanks.

I wrote a book about Mediate’s experience at that Open, so, needless to say, we spent a LOT of time together in the six months following that championship. It was Rocco who gave the book it’s title—sort of. He suggested, “Are you Blanking Kidding Me?” That was the title minus the Blanking. I liked his version better because it fit.

Even though we hadn’t talked for several years, I tried to call Rocco over the weekend, figuring (forgive my ego) he might be willing to talk to me. I was wrong. He never called back.

Honestly, I don’t blame him. When you look back on a career—in any sport—and realize you had one real chance to become part of the pantheon and it didn’t happen for you, regardless of the reason, it has to hurt. It’s one of those things where the pain may become more distant, but it never goes away.

I thought about that briefly on Sunday when seeing the look on Louis Oosthuizen’s face after he had finished second in a major for the sixth time. A moment before he holed his final, but meaningless, birdie putt on Torrey Pines’ 18th hole, NBC’s Dan Hicks commented that only two active players had more second-place finishes in majors than Oosthuizen: Phil Mickelson with 11 (including six at the U.S. Open) and Tiger Woods with seven. Of course, Mickelson won six majors and Woods won 15, so that has to dull the pain of those runner-up finishes considerably (Mickelson’s Winged Foot meltdown in 2006 aside, perhaps). There’s also Jack Nicklaus who had 19 second-place finishes. The 18 major wins no doubt dulled that pain considerably.

At least though, Oosthuizen does have one—his memorable performance in 2010 at the Open Championship at St. Andrews when he won by seven shots. One is a LOT more than none. It holds off many critics in the ongoing debate about Oosthuizen’s legacy in majors. As Sunday’s disappointment of another loss morphed into Monday’s reality, the sting just isn’t the same. We can empathise for the 38-year-old South African, but know there isn’t the same void that lingers with others.

“If I win, the rest of my life, I’m introduced as, ‘U.S. Open champion Mike Donald,’ not just as ‘a former PGA Tour pro,’ Mike Donald once said to me, referencing his near-miss at Medinah in the 1990 U.S. Open.

Donald led for almost the entire weekend but was caught by Hale Irwin when Irwin holed a 45-foot birdie putt on 18 and Donald bogeyed 17 not long after, putting the two of them into a Monday playoff. Donald led almost the entirety of the extra 18 holes until making bogey on the last 18—his par putt coming up about two inches short. He then lost on the first hole of sudden death to an Irwin birdie.

It was Irwin’s third U.S. Open victory. Chances are he would still be in the Hall of Fame if Donald had denied him that third title.

(Getty Images) After losing to Hale Irwin in a playoff at the 1990 U.S. Open, Mike Donald looks on at the trophy presentation.

It’s worth noting that neither Mediate nor Donald was really the same player after their near moments of glory. Mediate never again finished in the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings after 2008, though he did somehow pull it together late in 2010 to win the Fry.com Open, going wire-to-wire. That came at the end of a year in which he started 25 times but missed 13 cuts and had two WDs. The out-of-nowhere victory kept him exempt until he reached the 50-and-older tour in 2013, where he promptly won his first start. He went on to win the 2016 Senior PGA and has been a solid player on the PGA Tour Champions.

It was worse for Donald. His play nose-dived after Medinah. He lost his exempt status after 1993 and never got it back. He made it through qualifying for the ’93 Open, which would turn out to be the last of the 16 majors he played in. I remember standing with him in the locker room at Baltustrol prior to the start of that Open. The USGA was playing past Opens on an endless loop on the locker room TVs and, as luck would have it, the ’90 Open was on at that moment.

Tom Watson walked over and glanced at Donald, who was staring at himself standing over the 15-foot putt in the playoff that would have made him an Open champion. “How does it make you feel to watch this again?” he finally asked—as the putt came up just short—again.

“Good,” Donald answer. “Because it reminds me that once upon a time I was a pretty good player.”

You have to be better than pretty good to come that close to winning a major. The saddest case may be Doug Sanders, who missed a 3½-foot putt on the 18th green at St. Andrews in 1970, to cost himself the major title that would have made him a lock Hall-of-Famer. Sanders won 20 times in all. Make that number 21 with a major and he would have to have been in the Hall.

Doug Sanders short miss on the final hole during the 1970 Open Championship cost him a win in regulation.

Instead, I still remember him standing outside the ropes by the clubhouse at Augusta National several years back, trying to get someone’s attention so he could get inside the ropes and stand under the famous tree with the luminaries and non-luminaries who gather there every April. Had Sanders been a Hall-of-Fame member is there any way he would have been denied that access?

It reminded me a little bit of Jay Haas, another superb player who never won a major. Haas never came as agonizingly close as Sanders or Donald or Mediate, but he did have eight top-five finishes in majors, including a T-3 in 1995 at the Masters.

I remember Haas and his best friend Curtis Strange sitting in the locker room a few years later before the tournament began. “You know something Curtis, we need to get a move on here,” Haas said. “If we don’t win this thing soon, there’s going to come a time when we aren’t going to be able to come back here anymore.”

Neither man ever won the Masters. Strange, who does TV during the tournament every year, is an invitee each spring as two-time U.S. Open champion. Haas also got to come from 2010 to 2017, when his son Bill qualified to play.

Bill’s best finish a Augusta was in 2015, when he finished T-12. On Saturday afternoon, after Bill had finished his front nine, Jay hustled into the clubhouse to grab a quick bathroom stop. Instinctively, he headed for the locker room.

“I’m sorry sir,” the guard at the door said, pointing at his “player family” badge. “Players only in the locker room.”

Haas had played in 22 Masters. Because he is one of the world’s nicest human beings, he laughed and said, “Sorry, I forgot,” and went to the bathroom in the grill room. My only regret was that it hadn’t been his pal Strange who had been stopped that way. I suspect his response might not have been as polite.

Icon Sportswire
Thirteen years removed from the playoff loss to Tiger Woods at Torrey Pines, Rocco Mediate turned down the USGA’s offer to watch the 2021 U.S. Open in person.

Golf is, of course, littered with near-misses at major championships. It also has those one-time moments: Jack Fleck beating Ben Hogan in the 1955 U.S. Open; Orville Moody winning the U.S. Open in 1969; Ben Curtis winning as a PGA Tour rookie at Royal St. George’s in 2003 and Shaun Micheel, who never won on tour before or after, winning the PGA a month later at Oak Hill.

As I said, I spent hours and hours with Mediate after Torrey Pines in 2008. He repeatedly insisted that being so close and losing that way to the world’s best player was a joyous memory he would carry forever.

I know he’s still carrying the memory. But, as with Donald and Sanders and others who came so close without getting a major victory, I suspect there’s more pain than joy in that memory. The pain does get farther away, but it never goes away.

The post Louis Oosthuizen’s seconds are adding up, but his heart hasn’t been broken like other near-miss major winners appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

In fact, it doesn’t always take place on the PGA Tour. Sunday was an example. While Sam Burns was strolling up the 18th fairway at the Valspar Championship with a four-shot lead en route to his first tour victory, there was very real drama taking place about 1,000 miles away at The Woodlands, outside of Houston, where the final round of rain-delayed Insperity Invitational was taking place.

This is no knock on Burns, who had been close to victory in the recent past and, at 24, clearly has the potential to win some more in the next few years. It wasn’t his fault that Keegan Bradley went sideways on the back nine, turning a quality duel into a coronation. This is about real golf theater, involving characters everyone who follows golf is familiar with, although very little of their success has taken place in the recent past.

Four players had a chance to win the PGA Tour Champions event. Three of them were past major champions:

• David Toms, who won the PGA in 2001, beating a then majorless Phil Mickelson down the stretch.

• Mike Weir, who became the first Canadian and the first lefty to win the Masters in 2003.

• And John Daly, whose golf and non-golf resumes can’t possibly be captured in one sentence. Long story short, Daly won the 1991 PGA after getting into the field as the ninth alternate and then won the Open Championship at St. Andrews in 1995 when he was the 108th-ranked player in the world. There’s no need to relive Daly’s off-course issues and there’s also not enough time or space to do so here. Put it this way: Daly’s official PGA Tour profile mentions his three children, but none of his four wives. Easier that way, no doubt.

Daly turned 55 last week and has won once—at this same senior tournament in 2017—since turning 50. In the last 16 months, he’s played 16 times and, coming into the weekend in Houston, had one top-10 finish—a T-9 at the Cologuard Classic just before the pandemic shut the tour down last March. He last won on the PGA Tour in 2004, although he lost a playoff a year later to Tiger Woods in a WGC event.

Nowadays, Daly is sporting a long white beard, which, combined with his less-than-lean body, makes him look like Santa Claus in sunglasses and outrageous pants. He’s had health issues, diagnosed last September with bladder cancer that required surgery. But, when he’s feeling up to it, and the mood strikes him, he can still play.

And, he’s very much a draw. So much of the crowd was with Daly’s group—the second-to-last—coming down the stretch Sunday that Golf Channel’s Bob Papa commented that Weir, Petrovic and Toms, the final group, “are playing in almost complete privacy.”

Weir turned 50 last May and had to wait out the pandemic to get his chance to play against the senior set. He last won on tour in 2007, although that same year he beat Woods in a Presidents Cup singles match, an outcome that is still looked at in Canada as one of sport’s great moments even though the U.S. easily won the Cup.

Harry How
After a bladder cancer diagnosis last September, John Daly has returned to play on the PGA Tour Championship and in February at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Since winning the Masters 18 years ago, Weir has been through a divorce, numerous swing changes, serious injury and all sort of setbacks and frustrations. But he’s found happiness the last five years with girlfriend Michelle Money and a swing he can trust since hooking up with veteran instructor Mark Blackburn.

While working with Blackburn has been important, Weir says a real turning point for him came when he played on the Korn Ferry Tour for two years ahead of turning 50. It wasn’t the results that mattered, it was that Weir was able to find real joy on the golf course for the first time in years.

“A lot of the guys knew who I was [a Masters champion] and approached me looking for guidance on how to get from where they were in the sport to where I had been,” he said. “I never felt uncomfortable out there, even playing with kids who were hitting it 75 yards past me off the tee. We’d sit around during breaks and they’d ask me, What was it like when you won the Masters? What did you do to get there? I felt a little bit like the wise old man telling the kids the secrets to success in life. It was fun.”

There’s also hockey—an important part of Weir’s life for as long as he can remember. He was a natural left-handed shot as a kid even though he was right-handed and that’s why he’s always played golf left-handed. Beyond that though, for better or worse, is the hockey mentality that was—and is—an important part of who he is.

“In hockey, you get knocked down you don’t just lie on the ice,” he said. “You break a collarbone, a wrist, whatever it is, if you can get up, you skate to the bench and, if you can, you play through it. I think that’s in the DNA of all Canadians. That’s why I kept playing when I first got hurt [in 2011] because you should always be able to play through pain. But I couldn’t do it. I needed surgery.

“Now though, I think the hockey mentality was what kept me going through all the bad times. I never would have forgiven myself if I’d just said, ‘too tough,’ and walked away. I needed to give myself this chance.”

Weir has played in 14 PGA Tour Champions events. He’s finished in the top 10 in six and has been in the top four in four of the last eight. He’d finished second twice before Sunday and found himself locked in a four-way battle on the back nine. The tournament had been shortened to 36 holes because of weather, and Weir, Daly, Toms and Tim Petrovic all took turns at the top of the leader board.

Daly seemed to have gained control when he eagled the par-5 13th for a two-shot lead, but, a moment later, Weir hit his second shot at the same hole to three feet and matched the eagle, tying Daly for the lead. Weir bogeyed the 14th, Daly leading again by one. But then Daly parred the par-5 15th and Weir birdied it and they were tied again. Petrovic was a shot back by then, Toms two shots behind.

It all came down to the 18th hole at The Woodlands, one of golf’s most entertaining finishing holes. To get anywhere near the flag, a player has to take on the water with his second shot, regardless of where he puts his drive. Daly blasted a driver and had only 141 yards to the flag. He took a 9-iron and appeared to catch a wind gust, the ball splashing into the water well short of where it needed to land. From there, Daly made double-bogey 6.

Special moment for @mweirsy after winning the @InsperityInvtnl. pic.twitter.com/YWeEcAHI4F

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) May 3, 2021

Knowing that Daly had gotten wet, Weir also took driver and hit a bomb of his own—not Daley-esque, but more than respectable. He had 161 yards to the flag and hit a perfect shot, the ball landing just short of hole-high and 15 feet left of the flag. Weir almost never shows emotion on the golf course, but he shook his fist when he saw where the ball had ended up. Weir knew unless Petrovic made a miracle putt from across the green or he somehow three-putted, he was going to win for the first time since the Fry’s Electronics Open in October 2007. And when he closed out the victory, it was indeed cause for celebration.

Suffice it to say, Daly-Weir duel, with Petrovic and Toms chasing, was wildly entertaining. The quality of the golf—Daly’s second shot at 18 aside—was excellent. There were no five-minute conversations between players and caddies or anyone marking a two-foot putt and pulling out his greens book. The ending had real drama, especially since it involved two players who have known the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in golf.

It was good for Daly; better for Weir and terrific for the sport. One more rain delay early in the day pushed the finale back until 8 o’clock eastern time. It was worth the wait.

The post Mike Weir and John Daly show senior golf still provides great theater appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Feinstein
The media frenzy surrounding Tiger Woods’ terrifying accident on the morning of Feb. 23 wasn’t surprising. Woods is one of a handful of iconic athletes on the planet who have transcended their sport. Think Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Tom Brady, Serena Williams. Soccer fans might insist Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo belong on the list, and tennis fans will want to add Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. I would say not quite, but that’s not the point here.

Woods’ accident became the news headline around the world that day. And, as soon as it became apparent his injuries weren’t life-threatening, the speculation began. If I had a dollar for every time I was asked in the last week if I thought Woods would play competitive golf again, I wouldn’t be writing this column. I’d be retired on the money I’d made.

Here’s the answer to the question: Not only do I not know, not only do all the orthopaedic surgeons being quoted based on past experiences with other patients not know, but the doctors who operated on Woods don’t know.

And, as Rory McIlroy, frequently the voice of reason in golf, pointed out on Wednesday: It doesn’t matter. What matters is whether Woods can walk again without a limp and live a normal life. If he can play golf for fun, that’s a bonus. If he can come back to play competitively, that’s a mega-bonus.

Of course, a natural follow-up question surfaced: What happens to the overall health of golf if Woods doesn’t return? And here a contingent of observers voicing fears that the sport is about to face ruin, also not surprisingly, got a little bit over the top with their concerns.

Arnold Palmer, the most important player in the history of golf, retired and the game went on. Jack Nicklaus, arguably the greatest player in the history of golf, retired and the game went on. Woods, arguably the most iconic glass-ceiling breaker in the history of golf, didn’t play or was a non-factor in golf for several years, and the game went on.

Woods will retire someday. It might be now because of the accident, or it might be in 15 years after he adds a dozen senior titles to the 15 majors he’s already won. Either way, the game will miss him. Either way, his legacy is absolutely secure. Which is why I don’t understand why people are wailing about how difficult it will be for “golf to go on.”

Montana Pritchard/PGA of America
Golf has seen legends Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer age on to the senior tour and eventual retire and yet the sport moved forward and continued to thrive and grow.

There were actually stories this past week that wondered how players would be able to tee it up on Thursday for the WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession. Seriously? Let’s make this clear: Frightening as it was, Woods did not die. In fact, according to the police, although he was very lucky, his life was never in any real danger.

What’s more, athletes often compete in the wake of sad events. Why? Because it’s what they do. In many cases, competing is actually cathartic for them. Brett Favre threw for 399 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Green Bay Packers to a 41-7 win over the Oakland Raiders the day after his father died in 2003. NBA players all went back to work in the wake of Kobe Bryant’s death in January 2020. One game was postponed—the Lakers next game. Everyone else played.

There are plenty of other examples. Players play. It’s what they do.

There is no question that Woods has fascinated people—for reasons both good and bad—in ways that no other golfer fascinates. On the golf course, there was a time when he could do no wrong. And then there was a time, when his back injuries surfaced, where he could do no right. Remember the day his glutes didn’t fire? The time when he had as many mid-round walk-offs as wins?

Were ratings affected by his absence from leader boards? Sure. But McIlroy won four majors during that stretch and Brooks Koepka won four more. Jordan Spieth won three before his 24th birthday and was, in his own way, almost as popular as Woods. When Spieth came out of his deep slump a few weeks ago to finish T-4 in Phoenix and third at Pebble Beach, the TV networks seemed pained to even mention the players who won those tournaments (Koepka and Daniel Berger).

A handful of players inspire that kind of reaction. In 1975, Gary Groh won the Hawaiian Open, his only PGA Tour victory. Arnold Palmer finished third after being tied for the lead after 54 holes. Bob Green, the long-time golf writer for the Associated Press, wrote this as his lead: “Arnie lost again.”

Several years later, I asked Groh about that lead. He shrugged. “I won $44,000 that day,” he said. “It probably wouldn’t have been half that if not for Arnie.”

A similar case can be made for Woods, which is one reason today’s players have so much respect for him.

Ryan Young
No matter whether Tiger has hit his last shot on the PGA Tour not, his legacy is complete and his place in the game secure.

Tiger’s comeback, winning the 2018 Tour Championship and then his Disney-movie win at the Masters in 2019, was the stuff that legends are made of—except for the fact that Woods was already a legend. No doubt though it added to the notion that there was nothing Tiger Woods couldn’t do.

Which is why anyone who writes Woods off completely at this moment is making a mistake. In 2018, Washington quarterback Alex Smith suffered one of the most gruesome injuries ever seen on a football field. He ended up needing 17 surgeries on his right leg and, after several infections set in, he almost lost the leg. Somehow, he came back to play in the NFL this past season. Talk about a Disney movie. If Smith can come back to play football, it’s certainly not impossible for Woods to come back to play golf. On Smith’s first snap, he was sacked by the Los Angeles Rams’ Aaron Donald, who weighs 300 pounds and is generally considered the NFL’s fiercest defender. Woods won’t have to worry about that if he someday makes it back to the first tee.

At the moment though, there is no way to know what Woods will be able to do and not able to do as he recovers from his injuries. More important, it doesn’t really matter. If he never plays again but can walk normally, he’ll be just fine.

So will golf.

When Woods retires, he will be missed greatly—just as Palmer and Nicklaus were missed. Just as Michael Jordan is missed. Just as LeBron James and Serena Williams will someday be missed.

But golf will go on—and, if Woods never takes another swing in competition, his legacy will live on for as long as the game is played.

The post Golf will be fine, with or without Tiger Woods hitting another shot appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Feinstein
One of the most over-used words in sports is unique. The word means one of a kind and there just aren’t that many things—or people—that are unique.

Peter Alliss, who died over the weekend at 89, was unique.

Alliss is in the World Golf Hall of Fame not because he was a very good player (which he certainly was) but because he was absolutely brilliant as a TV commentator. He was funny and irreverent and always willing to speak his mind.

REWIND: Golf Digest Middle East’s 2014 Conversation With The ‘Voice Of Golf’

In today’s TV world, no one ever hits a bad shot—there’s always an excuse. When Alliss saw a bad shot, he called it a bad shot. Occasionally he’d just say, “oh my,” and let the picture tell the rest of the story. You never—I mean NEVER—heard him say, “he hit a good putt,” when someone missed from inside 10 feet.

“A good putt goes in the hole,” he told me one night, rolling his eyes as the thought of anything different.

He also seemed to know just what to say at climactic moments. When Tom Watson needed to two-putt the 18th green at Pebble Beach to win the 1982 U.S. Open and he proceeded to roll in his birdie putt, Alliss said simply: “Did it in one. Elementary my dear Watson.”

I had the pleasure—the honour really—of dining with Alliss on numerous occasions courtesy of our mutual friend Frank Hannigan. After retiring as senior executive director of the USGA in 1989, Hannigan joined ABC as a rules expert and an unofficial consultant on all things golf. He and Alliss, who first worked for ABC in 1974, were good friends, bonded by their love of golf and a frequently sceptical view of the world.

The first time I was invited to join the two men at dinner was at Westchester in June 1994 when I was researching, A Good Walk Spoiled. Hannigan, who frequently informed me that, while I might know something (though not as much as him) about basketball, but nothing about golf, told me en route to dinner that if I was smart I would, “shut up and listen for once in your life because I’m much smarter than you and Peter’s much smarter than me.”

Hannigan was right. What was remarkable about Alliss was that he wasn’t that much different off-air than he was on-air. The language—especially after some wine—was a little saltier, but his ability to make a point in fewer words than most was exactly the same.

When I mistakenly began to warble on about the wonders of the Ryder Cup—I’d been to my first one the previous fall—he cut me off quickly.

“I played in eight of them,” he said. “Back then, even though you fellows [the U.S.] should have almost always beaten us easily, we kept it competitive most of the time because we were playing for God and the Queen. Or, at the very least, the Queen. Now, half the time the players show up because it will help them with their [sponsor] contracts.”

RELATED: Why Peter Alliss will forever be one of golf’s distinctive characters

Having seen the looks of joy and anguish on the players faces at The Belfry nine months earlier, I disagreed. That was a little like trying to stop waves from crashing on a beach. Alliss and Hannigan were both smarter than me.

Warren Little
Golf fans show their appreciation for Peter Alliss during the first round of the 2005 British Open.

Hannigan quickly pointed out that Alliss had been undefeated in Ryder Cup matches against Arnold Palmer. “Only in singles,” Alliss said. “I beat him once, we halved once. Lost to him in a foursomes match.”

A few years later, when Tiger Woods burst on to the scene, Alliss wasn’t the least bit sceptical about his game. Late in 1996—before Woods’ dominant win at the Masters the following April—he said, “he’s not the best young player I’ve ever seen. He’s the best player I’ve ever seen—period. He’ll dominate the game the same way the great man [he always called Nicklaus ‘the great man,’] did, only more so.”

Hannigan, who would tell you sunsets on the beach were overrated, scoffed. “Come on,” he said. “Talk to me when the kid wins something that matters. I’m not ready to crown him king because he wins in Vegas.”

We all know how that turned out.

As you might imagine, I became addicted to dinners with Alliss and Hannigan. It was entertaining and often fall-down-funny, but it was also like getting a Ph.d in golf. Peter was born in 1931 and had been around the game his entire life—since his father had been a successful golf pro himself. If you brought up a name or a golf course or a past major championship, Peter could give a seminar on it instantly, usually with several funny anecdotes to illustrate the facts.

When my book came out, I showed up for dinner one night with copies for Peter and Frank. I proudly handed them over saying something like, “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate …”

Peter cut me off. “Did you inscribe this?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” I said.

Peter shook his head. “I really don’t like a book inscribed unless I consider it worthy. I wish you’d waited.” Then he smiled. “I do appreciate the thought though. Thank you.” A few weeks later, a note arrived at my house. It said simply: “Well done. I will proudly keep this in my library.”

Eight years ago, Peter and Dan Jenkins were inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, meaning that the two funniest men in golf got to speak at the usually somnambulant induction ceremony. Not surprisingly, Dan was terrific. But Peter stole the show.

Alliss was at his witty best during his 2012 World Golf Hall of Fame induction speech.

He began by explaining that his life had been both simple and fortunate: “I waffled along loving the game of golf.” He talked about his playing career, which included those eight Ryder Cups, 21 tournament wins worldwide and five top-10 finishes in 25 starts at the Open Championship. Not winning the event that mattered most to him might have been his one regret. “The thing is, I was good enough to win,” he said one night. “I just never did.”

He was grateful, gracious and funny. Finally, as he wound down, he told the story about the headmistress at his school, describing the last report she’d sent home to his parents. “Peter does have a brain,” he recited. “But he’s rather loathed to use it.” Her conclusion? “I fear for his future.”

When the laughs quieted, Peter said: “If there is such a thing as heaven and if people do look down, well, mom and dad, look at this lot.” He gestured with his hands at the rapt audience. “It’s all fallen into place.”

And then, he added: “And Mrs. Weymouth, if you’re there …” His right arm shot towards the sky, middle finger extended. It was, without question, one of the great mic-drops in history, even though there was no mic for him to drop.

The audience came to its feet, laughing and crying all at once. That was Peter Alliss. You never knew what was coming next, but inevitably, it was smarter and funnier than you could possibly have predicted. Not some of the time, all of the time.

The post Spend time with Peter Alliss and you always came away smarter about golf appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Feinstein
As Dustin Johnson steadily worked his way around Augusta National Golf Club Sunday on his way to a five-shot Masters victory, CBS’s telecast was only occasionally interrupted for commercials. The Masters has a handful of corporate sponsors, one of which is the high-end car dealer Mercedes-Benz. And during the afternoon, Mercedes ran an ad featuring one golfer: Rickie Fowler.

Johnson may be the No. 1 player in the world by a wide margin, and Bryson DeChambeau may be the most talked-about player in the game right now, but no one not named Tiger Woods can touch Fowler when it comes to endorsements. Corporate America has loved Fowler since he first turned pro in 2009, and it still does. Yet something tells me Fowler would almost certainly give up most, if not all of those sponsorships, to win one major.

On Sunday, while Johnson and the other leaders were deciding the tournament on the back nine, Fowler was on the front nine, along with other players who had finished 54 holes near the bottom of the leader board. He shot a steady two-under-par 70 that allowed him to move from a tie for 44th place to a tie for 29th—17 shots behind Johnson’s winning score of 20-under-par 268.

And so, Fowler’s 11th full year on tour ended without a major victory—again.

Fowler has contended in majors on a number of occasions, finishing alone in second place or tied three times, finishing third once and in the top 10 in 11 of his 43 starts. He turns 32 next month with time still to win one, if not more, before his career is done. Phil Mickelson was 33 when he won his first major, the 2004 Masters. Ben Hogan was 34 before he won his first major, the 1946 PGA Championship.

There is a difference between the two Hall-of-Famers and Fowler: Mickelson had won 22 times on the PGA Tour before his breakthrough win at Augusta; Hogan had won 30 times when he beat Ed Oliver, 6 and 4, to win the PGA. To date, Fowler has won five times on the PGA Tour, most recently in 2019 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Like most of the country and the world, Fowler had a 2020 he would just as soon forget. After starting the year with a T-5 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui and a T-10 at the American Express in Palm Springs, he didn’t have another top 10. His highest finish since the PGA Tour’s return to play after a three-month stoppage due to the COVID pandemic came in July with a T-12 in Detroit, which had the benefit of keeping one of his sponsors, Rocket Mortgage, relatively happy.

Fowler has missed five cuts since the restart—including at the PGA Championship where he went to tap in a 10-inch putt at the sixth hole on Friday and shockingly almost whiffed, his putter touching the ground and then nudging the ball perhaps an inch. That mistake caused him to miss the cut—by a shot.

A lot of players have struggled since golf began again in June without fans. The case can be made that Fowler feeds off the support of those watching from outside the ropes as much as any player because he is as popular as any player not named Woods or Phil Mickelson.

Photo by Chris Condon/PGA Tour/Getty Images
The biggest win of Fowler’s career remains the 2015 Players Championship.

There are good reasons for this. Fowler’s looks are certainly a factor. In one of his commercials, a woman giving him a lie-detector test makes reference to his “beautiful face.” Fowler has a matinee-idol vibe and a quick smile. He also defines cool—a former dirt bike racer who arrived on tour wearing his cap backwards so often that the look became “a look” with kids who follow golf.

One of the first times Fowler was brought to the interview room at the Masters, he arrived with his cap on backwards. The Augusta member assigned to moderate the interview reached over and turned the cap around. A day later, Fowler was back. This time, he had the bill of his cap up facing front and he made a point of adjusting it so everyone in the media could see that he was very definitely following Augusta National protocol.

There’s also this: EVERYONE likes Fowler. Players like him, the media likes him, fans young and old like him, heck even your grandmother who doesn’t watch golf likes him. He’s the old cliché: women want to be with him, men want to be like him. He is a genuinely nice guy. That’s why his list of corporate sponsors is considerably longer than his list of tour victories.

Fowler arrived on tour with the word “star” practically written across his forehead. In the fall of 2009, shortly after leaving Oklahoma State, he finished T-7 and T-2 in his first two starts as a pro, the second a three-way playoff loss to Troy Matteson at the Frys.com Open. A few months later, he finished second in Phoenix. He played well enough that year, at the age of 21, to be a captain’s pick for Corey Pavin’s U.S. Ryder Cup team.

“It was a great pick,” Davis Love III, a vice-captain for that 2010 team said. “He was great in the team room, a guy who helped everyone relax and then he played great in the singles.”

Fowler rallied in his match with Edoardo Molinari, birdieing the last four holes to come from 3 down and pull out what, at the time, seemed like a crucial halve for the U.S.

Clearly, this was a rising young player. He won for the first time in 2012—still only 23—when he beat Rory McIlroy and D.A. Points in a playoff at Quail Hollow in Charlotte. The endorsements continued to come; the wins didn’t.

JD Cuban
Fowler’s T-29 finish at the Masters was his best showing in 2020’s three major championships.

Fowler has never wanted to be one of those guys who made millions off his name, charm and looks and not off his golf. In 2014, he hired Butch Harmon as his teacher, and his game took off. He finished in the top five in all four majors that year—he had one top five in a major previously—when he finished T-5 Masters, T-2 at the U.S. Open, T-2 at the Open Championship and third, after a back nine duel with McIlroy and Mickelson, at the PGA.

He had arrived … almost

When he came from behind late to win the Players Championship the following May, it seemed he had taken another step forward, that the elusive first major victory wasn’t far off.

Five years—and 22 majors appearances later—he’s no closer. In fact, he is trending in the wrong direction. While he did finish second to Patrick Reed at the Masters in 2018 and was T-6 in 2019 in Ireland when Shane Lowry won the Open Championship, his best post-COVID major finish this year was Sunday’s T-29.

For two days, Fowler hung on the fringes of contention. He shot 70-70 and trailed the quintet of leaders by five shots going into Saturday afternoon’s third round. He was paired with Woods and Billy Horschel, his Walker Cup partner from years ago. A good pairing for a crucial round.

But on moving day, Fowler moved—backwards. He shot a three-over-par 75 that dropped him to a tie for 44th place among the 60 players who made the cut. His only TV appearances on Sunday were in the Mercedes commercials.

Golf is different than other sports. Players peaking in their 30s or even playing close to their best well into their 40s isn’t unusual. Fowler, whose World Ranking now sits at 48th after starting the year at 23rd, has never been one to pout or blame the media or the golf gods for his failures.

But when he tees it up at Augusta next April, bill of his cap pointing forward, hair shorter, a married man, he will be a long way from the long-haired kid with the telegenic smile who charmed the golf world when he first showed up more than 11 years ago.

Fowler still has a lot of golf left to play. He and his legions of fans and corporate sponsors can only hope The Moment he has pursued for a long while now, will arrive sooner rather than later.

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By John Feinstein
Brian Gay is keenly aware of the fact that he’s 48. He also knows that he’s competing with players on the PGA Tour who can hit their golf balls into the next county while his don’t come close to the county line. And yet, on Sunday, he found out that he can compete with them—and, on occasion, can still beat them.

Gay came from nowhere—both in 2020 and on the back nine to win the Bermuda Championship, shooting a seven-under-par 64 on Sunday, then beating Wyndham Clark with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff for his first win in more than eight years.

“It’s easy to doubt yourself,” said Gay, who had missed the cut in nine of his last 11 tournaments and trailed Clark by three with nine holes to play. “The players are so good and so young. A lot of them are my daughter’s age.”

The older of Gay’s two daughters, MacKinley, is 21—the same age as Matthew Wolff, who has already won on tour and finished second at this year’s U.S. Open and T-4 at the PGA. Collin Morikawa, who won the PGA, is 23. Bryson DeChambeau is the old man among the tour’s galaxy of young guns—he’s 26.

But while a lot of people are panting—understandably—about the kids, there are still old guys proving they can still teach the kids a thing or two about competing—and about winning.

So far in this weird 2020-2021 season, three of the eight winners have been 40-somethings.

After the tour’s annual three-day offseason following the Tour Championship, Stewart Cink won the Safeway Classic. This was a story that should have had Disney producers scrambling to start the movie: Cink hadn’t won since the 2009 British Open, when he played the black hat to the white hat of then-59-year-old Watson, beating him in a playoff. Not only had he not won in 11 years since then, he and his family had to endure his wife Lisa’s battle with stage-4 breast cancer, which is just a tad more difficult to live with than a putting slump.

Sergio Garcia’s win at the Sanderson Farms Classic three weeks later may not have been as melodramatic, but it was certainly full of emotion. Garcia hadn’t won on the PGA Tour since the 2017 Masters and he revealed after the round that he had recently lost two uncles to COVID-19.

And now there’s Gay’s victory—his fifth on tour. He hadn’t won since 2013, when he won what was once the Bob Hope Desert Classic under some other corporate name at that time. As a bonus, Gay will get to go back to the Masters—next April—because Bermuda became a full-fledged tour event this fall when the HSBC event in China was cancelled. Gay has played in the Masters only twice—missing the cut in 2010 and finishing T-38 three years later. No doubt he thought his days teeing it up at Augusta were behind him.

John McEnroe, who won seven major singles titles in his Hall-of-Fame tennis career, once said players go through three stages with fans during their careers. “When you’re young, everybody loves you because you’re something new and you’re the underdog, playing against the older guys. Then, when you become a star, people root against you because they want to see the underdog win. And then, when you’re old, they love you again, because you aren’t supposed to be good enough to win anymore.”

Right now, golf is in a period where it has very good players at all three of the McEnroe stages. There are the talented youngsters like Morikawa, Wolff, Victor Hovland and Jon Rahm. All are 25 or under. Then there are the guys just coming into their prime who are already stars: Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele and DeChambeau come to mind. Jordan Spieth is still only 26. He’s won three majors, and when he finds his missing game again it will be a huge story. The barely into their 30s set includes Rory McIlroy, Patrick Reed, Tony Finau and Rickie Fowler—who doesn’t have the record of a star, but has the charisma and sponsor list of one. Throw in Webb Simpson at 35 and Dustin Johnson at 36. Then come the old guys, one of them being Eldrick Tiger Woods, who will be 45 in December.

Sam Greenwood
Sergio Garcia celebrates after making birdie on the 18th green during the final round to win the Sanderson Farms Championship.

Woods isn’t close to being the player he was when he was the best in the world—and arguably in history—but he found lightning in a Rae’s Creek bottle a year ago in April to win a fifth Masters and will be the biggest story when the Masters begins next week because he is always the biggest story whenever he tees it up, whether his golf game merits it or not.

Until he’s out of contention—IF he’s out of contention—Woods will have everyone in TV and the media panting about his every swing, putt and utterance.

And, let’s not forget Phil Mickelson, whose days as a factor on the PGA Tour MIGHT be over at 50, but will undoubtedly make headlines playing with the over-50 set. He’s played twice, won twice on that tour. Knowing Mickelson, he will find a way to compete at least once more either at Augusta or, in another potential Disney movie, at a U.S. Open.

The point here is that golf has probably never been more flush, not just with good to very good to great players, but with wonderful stories.

Morikawa’s victory at Harding Park was something to behold and so was DeChambeau’s victory at Winged Foot, although if he becomes the next role model for young players the average tour round five years from now will be about seven hours.

Ezra Shaw
Collin Morikawa kisses the Wanamaker Trophy after winning the 2020 PGA Championship.

Forgetting the TV executives’ Fantasy Island wishes of a Woods or Mickelson victory at Augusta consider a few possibilities: McIlroy closing out the career grand slam; DeChambeau overpowering the course, forcing the members of lengthen it to about 8,000 yards; Morikawa adding a second major before turning 24; Spieth making a comeback on his favourite golf course; Garcia winning a second major; Koepka finding health and his game; Rahm winning his first major and joining Seve Ballesteros and Jose-Maria Olazabal as Spanish winners at Augusta.

The list goes on.

And it isn’t just at Augusta.

Tournament sponsors tend to think they need the biggest names to play to give their tournaments legitimacy and to ensure TV ratings. No doubt stars on the leader board help TV ratings and, even now, all numbers double if Woods is involved.

But there are new stars now—different ones popping up all the time. If you don’t want to see Morikawa play, you don’t like golf. Same for Wolff, Rahm and Hovland. DeChambeau is certainly unique.

Years ago, the PGA Tour put together a series of PSA’s with the slogan, “These Guys Are Good.”

That has never been truer than it is right now. Gay proved it again on Sunday. He beat Clark—who is all of 26, but certainly not too old to date his daughter. He’s not the only one Gay is competing with who can make that claim. All these guys are good—old, middle-aged and young.

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By John Feinstein
On Wednesday afternoon, shortly before they were scheduled to face the Orlando Magic in an NBA playoff game, the Milwaukee Bucks decided not to play. They wanted to protest the most recent police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., on Sunday. Blake was shot seven times in the back by police while getting into his car—with his three children in the back seat.

Blake is in critical condition and paralysed. His shooting set off protests and national outrage. Since George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis in May when a police officer kept his foot on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, more and more athletes have been speaking out against police brutality.

Once the Bucks made their decision, all three NBA games scheduled for Wednesday were postponed. The WNBA followed soon after, postponing three scheduled games. Three Major League Baseball games were also called off, and past U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka said she wouldn’t play her semifinal match in the tennis warm-up event for this year’s Open before that match was halted by a day. Nine NFL teams called off practices to protest and speak out. On Thursday, the National Hockey League announced a two-day postponement of playoff games in protest of the Kenosha shooting, and seven more MLB games were called off.

Golf?

Cameron Champ, who is biracial, spoke up after showing up to play the first round of the BMW Championship wearing one black shoe and one white shoe. And the tour released a statement saying it supported the actions of the athletes in other sports “and many of our own members [who are] standing up for issues they believe in.” The statement then went on to talk about the work the tour has been doing this summer “to make a deeper and more specific commitment to racial equity.”

The next sentence was the most baffling: “We understand that now is not the appropriate time to highlight our programs and policies but rather to express our outrage at the injustice that remains prevalent in our country.”

Actually, now is exactly the time that the tour should be talking in specifics about what it is doing. Calling off the first round and scheduling 36 holes for Sunday certainly would have sent a message.

Tiger Woods, who along with Champ, Harold Varner III and Joseph Bramlett is one of the four players of colour across all three tours (PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions, Korn Ferry Tour), said he had talked to commissioner Jay Monahan after the other sports announced their shutdowns and that he was comfortable with the tour’s statement being enough. “We’re all on board,” he said.

Tony Finau, who is of Tongan and Samoan descent, said, “We’re in full support of what the NBA is doing,” adding, “If we can learn from each other, listen to each other, I think it’s a big deal.”

Along with the statement issued Thursday morning, the PGA Tour also posted to its website a one-minute video of Champ describing the symbolism of his shoes.

“It was something I knew I wanted to do as soon as I saw the Kenosha video,” Champ said Thursday night after playing his first round. “I mean, my jaw dropped when I saw it. I thought, Not again, but there it was. I mean all I could say was, ‘Wow.’ ”

Champ has worn one black shoe and one white shoe in the past—to celebrate Black History Month. This, however, was different.

“My grandfather grew up in the south when Jim Crow [legal segregation] still existed and the KKK was still feared,” he said. “I know those stories, and I know how difficult it can be to be Black in this country—even now. I think we [in golf] need to use this as a starting point to become more diverse on and off the golf course. It’s amazing that we have only four players of color on tour right now. We need to improve that.”

Champ received a good deal of blowback Thursday on social media for his shoes and for his video, which concluded with him saying, “This needs to end.”

“I’m not naïve,” he said. “I knew that was coming.”

Paul Goydos, who has played on the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions dating to 1993 and once taught school in the inner city of Long Beach, Calif., said he didn’t expect to see many tour players speak out on the current state of affairs.

“That’s not the way we are politically,” he said. “Everyone knows that. The tours are mostly white and lean right. But it’s more than that. Team sports are owner-driven financially. We’re sponsor-driven. I think there’s a reluctance to say or do anything that might upset sponsors.”

Sean M. Haffey
After his round Thursday at the BMW Championship, Tony Finau spoke of the need to continue to have “uncomfortable conversations about systemic racism.”

Goydos said he admires the Black Lives Matter sticker that fellow PGA Tour Champions player Kirk Triplett put on his bag two weeks ago. “Let’s face it, there are neighbourhoods in this country where it’s borderline illegal to be Black,” Goydos said. “If I walk down a street, no one will notice. If a Black man walks down that same street, it’s entirely possible people will call the police. I think the most important thing I can do right now—that we can all do—is listen and try to learn.”

Triplett has four children, two of them adopted. One is Hispanic and one is Black/Japanese—his 18-year-old son Kobe. When Triplett put the sticker on his bag he talked about “the talk” he felt compelled to give Kobe—the same talk most fathers feel the need to give their Black children when they become teenagers.

“Think about this,” Triplett said. “When you have a segment of the population that is frightened of those that are there to help with public safety, you have an issue.”

Perhaps the most surprising—and encouraging—occurrence of the past few days was the decision to shut down by the NHL, where 97 percent of the players are white, according to USA Today. The fact that players in a predominantly white league decided to take a stance is a new development. Most of the raised voices of athletes—dating to Colin Kaepernick’s decision to kneel for the national anthem in 2016—have come from Blacks.

Champ, Finau and Goydos are right about what should come next in golf. Everyone needs to listen and understand why there is so much anger and frustration about these issues. And, as Champ says, the tour needs to move beyond words and address the sport’s lack of diversity.

From tragedy, can come progress.

The post Now is the time for golf to have ‘the talk’ about racial inequality appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Feinstein
Charlie Rymer’s voice was a little hoarse and clearly strained on the phone Wednesday afternoon. I asked him if he was certain he was up to a conversation, and he laughed. “I’m always up for talking,” he said. “Especially if I can have a little fun. I could use some fun right now.”

Rymer has always been one of golf’s fun and funny guys. After graduating from Georgia Tech in 1990, he played for four full seasons on the PGA Tour and the (then) Nike Tour, his highest PGA Tour finish a third place at Houston in 1995. He won once on the Nike Tour. By the time he was 30, it was apparent his real future was talking about golf more than playing golf. He went to work for ESPN—when the network still had a full schedule of tournaments—at the end of 1998 and then joined Golf Channel in 2009. Two years ago, he left Golf Channel, moved his family from Orlando to Murrells Inlet, S.C., to take a job promoting golf in Myrtle Beach. He still works 10 to 12 tournaments a year for Westwood One Radio.

Humour has always been Rymer’s staple. But there haven’t been a lot of laughs for him or his family in the past week. Ten days ago, he had driven to Chattanooga to do some promotional work for a new golf course there. On the way home—an eight-hour drive—he began to feel sick. A couple of days before that, he’d done a talk at Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina, so he wondered if he’d just pushed himself a little too hard.

“I was very careful both places,” he said. “Did the social distancing, wore a mask most of the time. I followed all the protocols. But I felt bad enough driving home that I pulled off the Interstate to a Walgreens to get some meds and buy a thermometer. I had a low-grade fever, but my first thought was I just had a bad cold or I was exhausted.”

He got home, but a day later felt much worse: His temperature was climbing, he was having coughing fits and struggling to get his breath back. His oxygen levels were low and his blood pressure was high. When his temperature spiked at 104.7, his wife, Carol, said it was time to go to the hospital. Carol is a registered nurse. Rymer didn’t argue.

“I’m lucky that she’s an RN, which is probably why I didn’t do any manly man stuff and argue with her,” he said. “If we’d waited any longer, who knows?”

Carol took her husband to Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital, one of two hospitals where she works. Because of COVID-19 protocols, she couldn’t even walk him in. Soon after, Rymer found himself alone in a room hooked up to all sorts of IV tubes. The worst part was the loneliness. No visitors allowed.

“I’d be lying if I said there weren’t nights where I lay there alone in the dark thinking some pretty depressing thoughts,” he said. “I mean, I’m 52, and even though I’ve always been, let’s say, a big guy, I’ve always been healthy. I’d never faced anything like this before.

“I knew all the statistics. I knew that only 1.5 percent of people who contract the disease die. That sounds like pretty good odds until you’re lying in a hospital bed all by yourself and you wonder if you’re ever going to go home again. I was absolutely scared. There were a couple of times when I thought it might be time to call the boys and get them to come home.”

Rymer has two sons. Charlie is 23 and lives in Atlanta; Hayden is 22 and lives in Chattanooga.

Scott Halleran

Through it all, there were two lights at the end of the tunnel: The first was the care Rymer was receiving from the doctors and nurses in the hospital. He watched them work, trying to cheer him up, and was awed by what they were doing. “Like the odds, you don’t really think about it until you see it up close,” he said. “I’d read about what the people on the front lines were going through, but seeing the way they clearly cared and how they went about their work, and thinking about all of them doing it day after day, it really hit me how amazing and truly courageous they all are. It certainly makes the protected world of golf I live in seem a lot less daunting.”

The second light was that the meds began to work on him quickly, and he began to feel better. His temperature came down; the coughing fits and the seizures lessened in frequency and length. It wasn’t as if he was ready to jump out of bed after a day or two, but he knew he was getting better. That was nice for his body, but equally good for his mind.

“They’d told me I was going to be there for a week—which would have been Thursday—he said. “But by Tuesday, they said I could go home. I’d been there five days. I think having an RN to take care of me made them feel better about it, but boy, was it a joy just to get home.”

Rymer knows he isn’t all the way back yet. He lost 20 pounds during the ordeal. He tried to go for a short walk after getting home and realized he was still weak. “I probably walked a couple hundred yards, and I had to stop,” he said. “I think there was part of me that thought since I felt so much better and I was out of the hospital, I’d be back up and running in a couple more days. It’s going to take longer than that.”

Not surprisingly, Carol also has tested positive for COVID-19, but she is asymptomatic.

“Boy, am I grateful for that,” Rymer said.

That’s the emotion he feels most often right now: gratitude. He’s grateful to be alive and feeling better, grateful for the treatment he got at the hospital, and grateful to all the people who have reached out to him since he tweeted about his illness after getting home.

I’ve battled COVID-19 for the last 10 days. It’s been scary. Very scary. Thanks to the heroes @tidelandshealth for putting your health at risk to treat patients like me. Because of you I’m headed home today to be with my family. May God bless you!

— charlie (@CharlieRymerPGA) June 30, 2020

Country singer Vince Gill, a very good golfer Rymer has played with often, sent a video that was entertaining and funny. Former Acushnet CEO Wally Uihlein sent a text, and so did Pete Bevacqua, the president of the NBC Sports Group. Quite a few players also got in touch, including Harris English, who recently tested positive for COVID-19.

“I still can’t do a whole lot, so it’s been nice to sit here and read some of the notes and then take some time to respond and say thank you,” Rymer said. “I’d never say this is something I’d want to go through or would want to see anyone to go through, but I think in the end it can be a blessing.”

The only negative that came from the tweets he sent out were some angry responses from people who didn’t like the fact that he urged people to be cautious and understand that the disease is still dangerous. “I have to admit that shocked me,” he said. “I’m just not used to that kind of thing. I talk about golf most of the time. I wasn’t making any kind of political statement. I was just trying to say we all need to be careful.”

Rymer has been making notes about ways to “un-clutter” his life. “I just want to make sure I appreciate every breath I have left—and I hope there are a lot of them,” he said. “Instead of sitting down to watch another TV show, I want to take a walk with my wife, make sure I’m in touch with my sons, see my granddaughter. Be good at what I do—whether it’s my work for Myrtle Beach or getting back on television, if that happens. When you have time to think that you hadn’t planned on having, why not try to make something good come of it?”

Rymer knows how lucky he was and is. “I feel like I’m back among the 98.5 percent,” he said, laughing quietly one more time. “It’s a much better place to be than where I was a few days ago.”

The post Charlie Rymer’s battle with COVID-19: ‘I was absolutely scared’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.