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PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoffs: Keegan Bradley’s resurgence, Rory McIlroy’s hiccup, Adam Scott’s quest at BMW Championship

Golf Digest Middle East — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 07:25:28 +0000

By E Michael Johnson
There was nothing to suggest Keegan Bradley would be leading the BMW Championship after the first round. Despite a successful season in which he’s garnered more than $3.5 million in earnings, the 2011 PGA champion had been limping to the finish line like a marathon runner out of gas. Three missed cuts and a T-44 in his last four events left him in need of a big week to get to East Lake and the Tour Championship.

Thursday provided a good start. A seven-under-par 64 (his sixth straight opening round in the 60s at the BMW) was fuelled by a front-nine 29 that saw Bradley roll in a 13-footer for birdie at the first and proceed to keep pouring them in. Seven more birdies (he made one bogey) followed, including bombs from 31 feet at the sixth and 39 feet at the ninth. Bradley, who came into the week 90th in strokes gained/putting, paced the field in that stat, picking up nearly four shots on the field. Not bad for a guy that was supposed to be a victim of the ban on anchoring. But when you make a season-high 149 feet of putts, well, there you go.

Bradley didn’t rely solely on flat stick wizardry, though. Looking more like the player that has six top-10 finishes on the year including a fifth at the Players and a T-7 at the US Open, Bradley hit 10 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens, making for a relatively stress-free round on a day when he should have been feeling some heat to play well.

As is his way, though, Bradley preferred to stay focused on the present rather than looking ahead.

“I made a nice putt on the first hole and just kept it going,” said Bradley, who’s last win was the 2018 BMW. “I never look to see what I have to do, because whether I play in this tournament or Sony or any tournament, I always want to do the best I can, whether it’s 35th instead of 36th or first, whatever it is. I never feel like [looking ahead] helps me, I feel like it hurts me, actually.”

For one day, at least, that strategy worked. Come Sunday, that might not be so easy for a guy needing to move up 14 spots to play next week in Atlanta.

McIlroy continues early BMW horsepower despite hiccup

Rory McIlroy. Andy Lyons

We’d haul out the old saw about there being ‘horses for courses’ as it relates to Rory McIlroy and his penchant for getting off to fast starts at the BMW Championship, but the tournament has moved around so many dang times since McIlroy first played it in 2010 that we’d just look silly.

Instead, whether it’s Cog Hill, Crooked Stick (where he won in 2012), Conway Farms, Cherry Hills, Aronimink, well, you get the idea. When it comes to this event, McIlroy acts as if he’s America’s Guest, playing each venue as if he’s on a first-name basis with each blade of grass. In 11 prior first rounds at the BMW McIlroy’s stroke average was 68.91. Take out two duds in 2010 and 2013 and it lowers to a gaudy 67.11.

That trend line continued on Thursday at Wilmington Country Club where McIlroy shot a three-under 68 despite one major hiccup. As usual, the driver was a weapon. Despite a little wildness off the tee, McIlroy hit seven tee shots more than 330 yards, including two bombs in excess of 380. Although the course is a first-time PGA Tour venue, McIlroy got a few extra looks at the set-up prior to Thursday and liked what he saw of the sprawling, but fairly open, layout.

After missing the cut in the first FedEx event in Memphis, McIlroy opted to head to Delaware rather than join his family who were in upstate New York. “I got here Friday night after the missed cut, and I’ve been here, so I’ve been on the course every day since Saturday,” he said. “But it’s been good. It’s nice to get back out and prepare and get to know a new golf course, get a little bit of a head start on everyone else.”

Sitting -6 and just 1 back, Rory McIlroy triple-bogeys the 15th to fall 4 off of the lead. pic.twitter.com/JQPnfxV5Zh

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 18, 2022

Although McIlroy will take the score, it could have been even better. A towering 3-wood from 266 yards on the par-5 third stopped eight feet from the hole but the eagle putt didn’t fall. At the short par-4 11th he wasted a mammoth 365-yard tee shot by looking like a weekend schlub and dumping the approach in the front bunker (he did not look like a weekend schlub in getting up and down from said bunker). Then there was the dunked tee shot (after a bit of a wait and an in-between club choice) into the water on the par-3 15th that wrecked a clean card, leading to a terrible triple.

.@McIlroyRory cuts the corner ?

(Presented by @CDW) pic.twitter.com/boWzQMYWAG

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 18, 2022

“Yeah, just that one tee shot on 15,” McIlroy said after the round. “I felt like I had probably half a club too much, so I was trying to hit like a cut in there over the water, and I just double-crossed it and then compounded that by the three-putt. … [I was between a] 5- and 6-iron. I tried to hit like a high, soft, cut 5 and just double-crossed it. … I’ve just got to reset tonight and forget about that swing on 15 and go again tomorrow.”

Scott keeps movin’ on up

Adam Scott. Rob Carr

If Adam Scott is off to LIV Golf as has been rumoured, he doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to get there. Standing 80th in the FedEx Cup ranks starting last week, a T-5 jumped him to 45th and into the field for the BMW Championship. Now, after a first-round 66, it appears as if the Aussie might hang around another week if he can continue his good play.

History says Scott should probably book a ticket to Atlanta. One of only two players (Matt Kuchar is the other) to qualify for all 16 FedEx Cup Playoffs, Scott has made the Tour Championship eight times in the FedEx Cup era. And if he makes the 30-player field, the 42-year-old Scott doesn’t plan on just enjoying being there.

“One of the beauties of the playoffs is that there is enough volatility that you can have a couple good weeks and get yourself right in the mix,” Scott said. “No matter where, if I was at East Lake starting 10 back or five back or six back, I’d be there thinking I’ve got a chance to win the whole lot.”

Certainly it’s a lot easier to think that way coming off a round where Scott hit 15 greens despite only finding the fairway 28.57 percent of the time (four of 14). A hot putter, however, made up for any stray shots as Scott picked up 3.657 strokes on the field on the greens.

Playing with Keegan Bradley, who shot a seven-under 64, Scott did not deny the pairing had a positive effect on his play.

“I think I was drafting off him,” he said. “He shot six-under on the front and was running. Sometimes it’s good to see that and you can draft off each other, but also just to know that it’s really out there. When you get off to a slower start sometimes, you can make the course harder than it really is, and Keegan made it look easy today, so I tried to take advantage of that, as well.”

Enough to get to East Lake? “I think that’s a fun thing to think about,” said Scott, who won there in 2006, the year before the playoffs began. “But in three more days.”

Bubble Boys lose ground

Kevin Kisner. Andy Lyons

With four players outside the top 30 projected inside it after the first round of the BMW Championship, it was critical for the “bubble boys” to be on top of their respective games to maintain their position.

Um, yeah. That didn’t really happen.

In the projected rankings, Davis Riley dropped from 26 to 37 after a 77 (only two scores were higher). Sahith Theegala went from 27 to 38. Kevin Kisner’s 71 left him at 39th after starting at 28. Corey Conners needed two birdies on the back nine to only drop a spot from 29 to 30. The man on the bubble, JJ Spaun, rallied with four birdies over his last eight holes to only drop to 31. Aaron Wise fell from 31 to 36 and Maverick McNealy went from 32 to 40th.

Since the points structure changed in 2009, no fewer than two players and no more than four have moved from outside the top 30 to advance to the Tour Championship from the BMW. However, with four players projected to move into the top 30, including three currently in the top 10 on the leaderboard, this group clearly has some work to do.

The post PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoffs: Keegan Bradley’s resurgence, Rory McIlroy’s hiccup, Adam Scott’s quest at BMW Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

LOOK: This graphic showing how much Rory McIlroy outdrove his playing partners is pure comedy

Golf Digest Middle East — Fri, 24 Jun 2022 06:19:51 +0000

ESPN

By Alex Myers
To be clear, there were plenty of factors that went into Rory McIlroy outdriving his playing partners by a Connecticut country mile on his final hole on Thursday at the Travelers Championship. But the main reason is that Rory hits a long ball. And boy, was he locked in during the opening round.

The par-4 ninth hole at TPC River Highlands is a 405-yard, dogleg right. But it plays much shorter if you take an aggressive line at the houses down the right side. And being McIlroy’s last hole of the day after starting on the back nine, and with him playing the previous 17 holes in seven-under, the four-time major champ was feeling good as he reached the tee.

When he reached his ball, he may have been feeling bad for the guys he was playing with. That’s because he outdrove Webb Simpson and Kevin Kisner by a combined 163 yards. Yep, we double-checked the maths on that.

Now, to be clear, those guys aren’t bombers like Rory. And they took less club and a more conservative route off the tee. Still, it’s hard not to look at this graphic and not laugh:

Rory McIlroy is playing a different game ? pic.twitter.com/z8rMEJftzv

— GolfBet (@GolfBet) June 23, 2022

You could literally build a car park between those drives! And a supersized one, at that.

Most importantly, McIlroy got up and down after his mammoth blast for one last birdie to cap an eight-under-par 62. Here’s a look at his incredible drive and beautiful pitch that nearly dropped for an eagle:

Meanwhile, the other two guys in the group only managed par, although Rory’s gap on the leaderboard over Simpson, who shot 64, isn’t quite as big. Kisner had a solid day as well with 67.

McIlroy is tied for the lead with JT Poston and one ahead of Xander Schauffele and Martin Laird. The World No. 2 won his last regular PGA Tour start at the Canadian Open two weeks ago and finished T-5 at the US Open last week.

Despite not having won a major in almost eight years, Rory remains the favorite to win the final one of 2022 at next month’s Open Championship at St Andrews. With rounds — and drives — like this, it’s not hard to see why.

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Why reimagining the PGA Tour’s autumn schedule is more complicated than you think

Golf Digest Middle East — Tue, 10 May 2022 07:10:17 +0000

By Dan Rapaport
The Premier Golf League re-entered the chat with a publicly leaked letter on Wednesday, reminding golf fans that Greg Norman’s Saudi-backed LIV Golf venture isn’t the only new kid on the block hoping to loosen the PGA Tour’s grip on professional golf. Both the PGL and LIV Golf Investments envision a landscape where the world’s top players can compete on multiple tours. But those golfers outside the PGL/LIV Golf scope — your “rank-and-file” players, so to speak — believe there are already two tours at the elite level.

“I joke with Kevin Kisner that I’m always home [in Aiken, S.C.] when he’s playing majors and WGCs, and he’s always home when I’m playing in regular tour events,” says Matt NeSmith, a third-year PGA Tour member who is No. 175 in the World Ranking. “There’s absolutely an A-tour out here and a B-tour out here.”

A-tour guys hand-pick their schedules, star in commercials and play in featured groups. Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, to name a few. B-tour guys take their starts where they can get them, sign modest deals with companies you’ve never heard of and have the first tee time off No. 10. The divide between A-tour players and B-tour players has been spotlighted by the recent talk of breakaway tours, which hope to entice A-tour players with massive guaranteed paydays — and by discussions about the future PGA Tour schedule.

Speaking generally, A-players want a defined offseason, which would give them the freedom to take a few months off after the Tour Championship in August without worrying about beginning the next calendar year too far behind in the growingly lucrative FedEx Cup. They want to start their seasons in Hawaii in January, as the tour did for decades before switching to a wraparound season for the 2013-14 campaign. These players hold significant sway on tour given their stature and the attention they bring to the sport. As such, there’s been a push to reimagine the fall season, which currently features nine events that all carry full FedEx Cup points.

In recent months, a number of different proposals that could go into effect as early as the autumn of 2023 have been dissected at Player Advisory Council meetings, most with one commonality: divorcing those autumn events from the FedEx Cup race. Being discussed is an idea where the tour establishes an autumnal mini-series for the biggest stars, with those not qualifying for them playing in separate fall events to improve their standing on tour. Or the tour could continue staging its current tournaments but not have them count toward any season-long points race.

While appealing to elite players, a bunch of the rank-and-file guys, however, simply aren’t down with that, which is what’s making the discussion about how to handle the autumn so tricky. These rank-and-file players view the fall season events as vital for their job security as well as a crucial avenue for up-and-comers to establish themselves on tour. They want more playing opportunities, not less.

Differing opinions have turned some discussions about the autumn “rather contentious”, according to one source familiar with proceedings. “Excluding 25 guys, it’s one of the most important parts of the year,” NeSmith says. “It’s helped me keep my card the last three years. If guys don’t want to play, that’s their choice. They don’t have to play. The option’s there. I get it — we all want an offseason. I want an offseason, too. But it’s our job. It’s what we do. It’s our livelihood. If you want to be out here, it’s part of it.

“Is playing three events in five months that difficult?” NeSmith asks, somewhat rhetorically. “I’ll always advocate for the Korn Ferry guys and the rookies. They need those starts, and they need those starts to count.”

The job, then, for the tour’s leadership is to find a middle ground that works for both sets of players. The good news for NeSmith and Co is they’ve got a willing listener at the top.

“You’ve got 200-whatever members that you’re trying to keep everyone somewhat happy,” says McIlroy, former chairman of the Player Advisory Council and one of four players on the PGA Tour’s policy board. “I guess it’s sort of trying to find a balance of that. It’s hard. it’s very hard for me to stand here and say I’d like all the fall events to go away and play three or four of these suggested tournaments that they’re thinking about because that’s good for me, but that’s not good for the entire membership.”

LIV Golf’s challenge to the PGA Tour has gifted the top players leverage, and the PGA Tour has had no choice but to respond with additional dollars — some that’s being distributed across the spectrum of players, but the bigger increases going to the stars.

Rory McIlroy says that with many new programmes on the PGA Tour benefiting top-ranked players, the fall schedule is one where the interests of other groups might need to come first.

“I have to try to look at things that are going to benefit the entire membership and the entire tour and not just what benefits me or the top players,” McIlroy says. “I think there’s enough programmes in place that benefit the top players right now, PIP program, the Comcast Top-10, the FedEx Cup bonus, all of those things are designed to funnel more money into the top players’ pockets. You play the best and the cream should rise to the top by the end of the year. That’s why Comcast Top-10, FedEx Cup bonus money is so high. And then you add the PIP in there for the people that make the biggest impact on the Tour.

“So I think the top players, we’ve gotten a lot of things our own way the last couple years and I think for us to talk about just taking the fall events away for the guys that sort of need them and need those opportunities would be very, very selfish. It’s a delicate balance. It always has been on the tour with a membership that’s this big because you’re trying to accommodate so many different people and so many different scenarios. So it’s hard for me to sit here and say this is the way I would like the fall because the way I would like the fall probably isn’t the common consensus among the membership.”

Only there is no common consensus; that is what’s making the process difficult. Perhaps, as is often the case with negotiations, the best solution is not one that pleases everyone — it’s the one that leaves all parties the least upset.

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Watch: How not to play foursome golf, via Kisner and Brown at the Zurich Classic

Golf Digest Middle East — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 07:59:47 +0000

By Ryan Herrington
Foursome golf — alternate shot for the average golf fan — is all about minimising mistakes. They’re going to happen, and when they do, you have to make sure they don’t go from minor to major. The fewer times you can “sorry” to your partner, the better.

Unfortunately, for Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown, there was a little too much “sorry partner” on the par-3 ninth hole on Sunday at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. The duo was one under for the day in their final round at TPC Louisiana, tied for 26th at 16-under for the tournament, when they got to the tee box on the 183-yard hole, with water left and front of the green.

Brown began with a towering tee shot that moved just a little too much right to left. It hit land but bounced in the water forcing the pair to take a drop.

“Sorry partner.”

Kisner played next, hitting the team’s third from 92 feet away. Sadly, his ball got too much air, hit the front bank and also bounced into the penalty area.

“Uh, sorry partner.”

Now playing their fifth shot, Brown proceeded to … well … there’s no real polite way to say other than he chunked the chip and hit it again in the penalty area.

“Uh … uh … sorry partner.”

Finally, Kisner hit the green with the team’s seventh shot, leaving Brown with a 12-footer. To Brown’s credit, he put all the trouble in the past and rolled the ball into the centre of the hole.

But the damage was done: a quintuple-bogey 8. It’s all right here to see:

An 8 on the par 3 9th ?

Golf is hard. pic.twitter.com/oTJdyiUht2

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 24, 2022

While the duo made two birdies on their back nine, they finished the day with a two-over 74 and in 35th spot.

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Scottie Scheffler’s flubbed chip—followed by a holed bunker shot—sums up his WGC-Matchplay brilliance

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 01:35:51 +0000

Gregory Shamus

By Ryan Herrington
Scottie Scheffler was looking invincible in the 18-hole final of the WGC-Dell Matchplay Championship on Sunday, holding a 3-up lead against match-play menace Kevin Kisner through 11 holes. The only way it appeared Scheffler would be rattled at Austin Country Club is if he made a mistake of his own doing, which didn’t look likely … until it happened.

On the par-5 12th, Scheffler was just to the right of the green in two with a short chip to set up a birdie try after Kisner had hit his approach to seven feet. But for the first time seemingly all weekend, Scheffler stumbled—flubbing the chip as it rolled meekly into a bunker just five feet ahead of him.

Kisner, winner of the championship in 2019 and runner-up in 2018, was no doubt sensing a potential opening. He hadn’t won a hole all match, but if he could do so here, potentially he could grab the momentum. Perhaps Scheffler sensed it, too.

But that opening closed quickly when Scheffler did this:

From whoops to wow ?

Scottie Scheffler remains 3UP thru 12 after a roller-coaster hole. pic.twitter.com/Bi5vFrPb7V

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 27, 2022

Say it with us: The vagaries of matchplay!

Kisner, to his credit, rolled in his birdie putt to tie the hole. But it was a crushing blow that made Scheffler’s eventual 4-and-3 victory feel inevitable.

It was a glorious week for Scheffler in his home state. Of course, he ascended to World No. 1 for the first time in his career—and he did so in rather dramatic fashion in a few of his matches.

Most notably, his hole-out, walk-off chip to defeat Seamus Power in quarterfinals:

A walk-off chip-in to advance to the semifinals ?

Scottie Scheffler defeats Seamus Power 3&2 and punches his ticket into the final four @DellMatchPlay. pic.twitter.com/4QY0xCAdWm

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 26, 2022

And there was this wild birdie—in a critical moment of Scheffler’s Round of 16 victory over Billy Horschel:

Yes, it’s nice to have some luck on your side in match play—and Scheffler certainly had some of it this week. But make no mistake about it: Scheffler was dominant in securing his third victory in less than three months. And his new No. 1 ranking is well-deserved.

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How Matthew Wolff won $1 million at the Wyndham Championship despite missing the cut

Golf Digest Middle East — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 02:48:21 +0000

Sam Greenwood

By Joel Beall
Matthew Wolff missed the weekend at the Wyndham Championship. Yet the fledging star made more money at the Greensboro event than everyone but eventual winner Kevin Kisner.

That’s because Wolff won the Aon Risk Reward Challenge—a season-long competition taking a player’s two best scores on a designated hole each week—which bestowed a $1 million payday to the 22-year-old.

“There’s a lot of money to be made out on tour, but I’m new out here and every little bit helps,” Wolff said. “Just happy that I got it done. And I knew about it kind of the last couple months, so on the Aon holes I was a little more nervous than I usually am, but played them pretty well and just came out on top.”

Granted, there was another year-end money pot dispersed following the Wyndham in the Comcast Business Tour Top 10, in which a $10 million bonus was handed out among the players that end the regular season in the FedEx Cup top 10 (Collin Morikawa took home the top honors at $2 million). However, to finish in the Comcast Top 10 a player wasn’t required to compete in the Wyndham.

But Wolff, in part due to his sabbatical this season, lacked the requisite round minimum to win the Aon Challenge, which is why his participation last week was imperative. Though the Oklahoma State product was out after two rounds at Sedgefield Country Club, his Thursday and Friday rounds were enough to meet the requirement. Coupled with Louis Oosthuizen, the only player who could have caught Wolff in the race, withdrawing from the event Wednesday night, Wolff getting both scores in was enough to clinch the challenge’s trophy and its purse.

“I mean, I’m not happy when anyone pulls out. If I’m going to win the challenge, I want to win it because I play the best golf, not because someone gives it to me,” Wolff said. “I feel like I did that and on those holes I happened to play them really well. I think I was averaging like a stroke under par every single week or according to the contest, so I played those holes correctly, just got to play the rest of the holes right.”

Wolff finished the challenge with a minus-1.048 scoring average on the challenge holes, with Kevin Na—who fell short to Kisner in a six-man playoff Sunday—coming in second at -.935.

Despite an up-and-down year on and off the course, Wolff earned his way into the PGA Tour’s playoffs thanks to back-to-back runner-ups last fall at the 2020 U.S. Open and 2020 Shriners in this super season. Wolff enters the FedEx Cup’s first leg of the postseason at Liberty National this week at No. 59 in the standings, with the top 70 advancing to the second week.

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Kevin Kisner fixes a personal jink by winning six-man playoff in Wyndham Championship

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 23:58:44 +0000

Jared Tilton
Kevin Kisner celebrates his birdie putt on the 18th green to win a playoff in the Wyndham Championship.

By Shane Ryan
GREENSBORO, N.C.—It was a study in how quickly things change, and how important results in professional golf exist on a razor’s edge. Adam Scott stood over a four-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole, everyone seemed to believe it was dead straight, and when he made it, it would send all five of his opponents—a number that tied the PGA Tour record for the largest playoff ever—home with nothing to show.

Narratives unfolded. It would be redemption for Scott, who spoke earlier in the week about his difficult 2021 season, and how being stuck in or kept out of Australia, depending on how the quarantines operated, limited what he could accomplish and affected his mental state negatively. This is someone who was stuck between two countries operating with very different codes.

File all this under “stories that won’t be told,” at least in any depth. Why? Because Adam Scott missed that putt, the victory that seemed so tangible vanished into thin air, and all six players returned to the 18th hole again, where this time Kevin Kisner hit a pinpoint approach, waited around while everyone else made par or worse, and then did what Scott couldn’t by holing his four-foot birdie putt to win the whole thing.

What might happen now? Perhaps Kisner, now with four career tour victories, will go on to win a playoff event and use this confidence to reach the Tour Championship in Atlanta (he moved from 65th to 29th in the FedExCup standings with the win). Maybe he’ll get a Ryder Cup captain’s pick, since wins look so much better than just coming close. It’s not crazy to believe this could have a transformative effect on Kisner’s career, and at the very least it has changed the complexion of what he admitted was a tough year. And a few minutes earlier, when Scott stood over his simple putt, none of it seemed possible.

“It’s a fickle, crazy game that we play,” Kisner said. “The line is so thin between reward, success and jubilation, to just being distraught leaving here. It’s just a crazy wave of emotions.”

Starting the day at 11 under, it didn’t seem especially likely that Kisner would contend for a victory, short of shooting an outrageous number, but Russell Henley gave the field a break by shooting 71 after leading each of the first three rounds. Henley’s brutal bogey on the 18th hole, when he missed a five-footer to make the playoff, completed a nightmarish round and continued this season’s mini-curse of players who have led wire-to-wire after 54 holes failing to win the tournament itself—Henley joining Harris English (Memphis), Louis Oosthuizen (Open Championship), and Sam Burns (Genesis Invitational) in this unfortunate group.

Henley was the only player in the top 35 to shoot over par in the final round, and with him out of the way, a crowded leaderboard clamoured for purchase on a day when the leaders teed off just after 9 a.m. in the hope of avoiding late afternoon thunderstorms. Several players had a chance to win with birdie on the final hole, but in the end, none could deliver the winning blow, and six players—Kisner, Scott, Kevin Na, Branden Grace, Si Woo Kim, and the unheralded Canadian Roger Sloan—eventually found themselves deadlocked at 15 under. (If Henley had made his par putt, it would have set the PGA Tour record for the largest playoff ever. As it is, it was only the third six-man playoff ever.)

With Scott’s short-putt gaffe, all six players made par on the first playoff hole, and it was Kisner who emerged from the pack to take the win.

“I was fortunate enough to have a perfect number into 18,” Kisner said, “and hit a really good shot and have one of those putts you really want to have to win the golf tournament.”

Jared Tilton
Adam Scott of Australia prepares to putt on the 18th green on the second playoff hole.

Kisner, 37, has a strong match-play record, including a title at the 2019 WGC-Match Play when he beat Matt Kuchar in the final, which made it so strange that he had an 0-5 record in PGA Tour playoffs before this week. He joked with his caddie Duane Bock before they began that they were doing themselves no favours in that department with a six-man playoff, where the odds of winning were so low, but it turned out to be his day.

“I haven’t played great this year, and I haven’t been in a great position to make the Tour Championship heading into the playoffs,” he said, “so I knew this week I needed to jump up the board and lock up especially the BMW in the second week to have a shot at East Lake. That’s a huge goal of mine every year to start the year and that means you had a heck of a year, and it sets up the following year every time you make it. You can’t win it if you’re not there.”

Inevitably, as a strong match-play golfer and now a victor in mid-August, Kisner will now face tons of questions about the Ryder Cup, and captain Steve Stricker will face tons of questions about him. Kisner chuckled Sunday when the topic came up and gave a diplomatic answer.

“Here we go,” he said. “I said, ‘How many Ryder Cup questions are we going to have?’ Who knows, man? I’ve never been picked before, so I’m not going to go out there and jump on a limb and say that I’m going to get picked this year. I love Stricker, he’s a great friend and great guy. He’ll do what’s best for the team and the country.”

Kisner has more left to prove, and he knows it, but he also knows this was an enormously important result, and he probably wasn’t getting into either the Tour Championship or the Ryder Cup without a win. The fact that he leaves Greensboro with a trophy is a testament to great play under pressure and perseverance, but it’s also a testament to the strangeness of golf, and how victory can materialize—or vanish—when you least expect it.

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Energy drinks, baby powder and plenty of gloves help tour pros make it through brutal Wyndham heat

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 05:34:03 +0000

Justin Rose plays his shot from the 11th tee during the second round of the Wyndham Championship. Jared C. Tilton

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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Kevin Kisner plays final round in just 150 minutes because this ain’t no hobby

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 18 Jul 2021 18:07:13 +0000

Andrew Redington

By Joel Beall
Kevin Kisner had an open course in front of him on Sunday at Royal St. George’s, and the man did not let the opportunity go to waste.

Kisner, playing by himself in the first game of the final round of the Open Championship, traversed the property in just 150 minutes Sunday morning. If that sounds fast, you’re right: Kisner finished an hour ahead of the group behind him.

Better yet, it wasn’t as if Kisner was chopping it just to get the hell out of Dodge, er, Sandwich. The 37-year-old made four birdies on the day and turned in consecutive 34s for a two-under 68 for his best score of the week.

Then again, maybe Kiz really did want to bounce. While his game seems conducive to links golf, the results say otherwise. Aside from a runner-up at the 2018 Open, Kisner has finished no better than T-49 in seven other starts, and this week won’t improve that standing, currently in 73rd as the leaders make their way to the first tee.

Still, 150-minute round. This, truly, ain’t no hobby for Kevin Kisner.

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DeChambeau-Spieth, a trio of bombers and a bad-blood pairing highlight our 11 favourite groups at Royal St. George’s

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 03:48:52 +0000

PAUL ELLIS

By Joel Beall
There are a number of players missing from this Open Championship, but—with all respect to those not making the trip to Sandwich—most of the game’s marquee names remain in the field at Royal St. George’s, and a pack of them will be paired together during the Open’s first and second rounds.

Before you ask, no, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau are not in the same group. As discussed at Torrey Pines; this is for the best; better to let that rivalry manifest over the weekend when it matters most rather than during the fleeting nature of a Thursday or Friday. So as we wait and pray for that heavyweight battle to come to fruition, here are 11 pairings to keep us entertained during the first two rounds of the Open Championship.

7:41 am local Thursday/2:41 am EDT — Viktor Hovland, Ryan Palmer, Thomas Detry

Hovland is making his Open debut, and historically this is a tournament that favors—and arguably requires—experience. Conversely, what has made Hovland so good so early in his career is a blissful disregard to his surroundings, beholden to an inner command known only to him. Better yet, compared to the other majors, lights-out putting is not a prerequisite for contention, pacifying one of Hovland’s few weak spots. Throw in Palmer’s continued late-career revival and a red-hot Detry (two T-2s in past four starts) don’t be surprised if these names are on the early board.

8:03 am/3:03 am — Brooks Koepka, Jason Kokrak, Garrick Higgo

There’s a “weapons of mass destruction” joke in here, but these three are more than muscle. Kokrak is fighting like hell for a U.S. Ryder Cup captain’s pick and a top-five finish would move him from the “charming story that, realistically, doesn’t have a shot” category to “about to burst some star’s bubble” list of contenders. … Higgo is in a bit of a slump with three missed cuts in his last four starts; he’s also won three times since late April so maybe we should keep an eye on him, yes? … As for the third player, let’s save our words for later in the week. Because this is a major and this is Brooks Koepka, so you better believe we’ll be talking about him in greater capacity come Saturday.

9:25 am/4:25 am — Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau, Branden Grace

Aspiring gamblers could find a worse dark horse than Grace, who is back from the wilderness with a win earlier this year along with a fourth-place finish at the Memorial and T-7 at the U.S. Open. … Augusta National is his playground but the Open has been just as kind to Spieth, and Royal St. George’s profile and past point to that providence continuing this week. The only thing keeping him from contending come Saturday will be finding himself in the wrong weather wave. … As for Bryson, this week ends with DeChambeau winning by three, forcing the R&A to convene an emergency session to declare persimmon and balata will be mandated at next year’s Open at St. Andrews OR Bryson becomes so flummoxed by the wind and ground game that he walks off the course and into the sea. There is no in-between.

9:58 am/4:58 am — Shane Lowry, Jon Rahm, Louis Oosthuizen

No matter what happens on the score card, this will be a long-overdue victory lap for Lowry. … Rahm will be treated with just as much love coming off his U.S. Open conquest. And amidst that parade Louis will very quietly put together two solid rounds to find himself near the lead because apparently that’s a bylaw for majors now.

David Cannon/R&A

10:20 am/5:20 am — Dustin Johnson, Will Zalatoris, Justin Rose

With two months to go before Ryder Cup rosters are finalized, Rose is shockingly on the outside looking in. He also has top-10s at the Masters and PGA, and a third this week can justify a captain’s pick against a blah record the rest of the year. … Speaking of Zalatoris, despite his strong season he’s trending to be snubbed for Whistling Straits. Yet if he contends at Royal St George’s, that would be four top-10s—highlighted by the Masters runner-up—in his past five major starts. And that is a hard, hard line to bypass. … Sticking with the theme, Johnson has his Ryder Cup spot locked up. He also hasn’t finished better than T-10 since February, which by DJ standards is a drought. Royal St. George’s is the site of one of Johnson’s major misses; can his putter wake up from its slumber (71st in putting this season) to give the 37-year-old his long-awaited payback?

1:04 pm/8:04 am — Patrick Cantlay, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Ryan Fox

Cantlay has finished no better than T-15 in his last eight major starts. Fitzpatrick hasn’t logged a major top-10 finish in his last 21 outings. Both are too talented for these streaks to continue.

1:26 pm/8:26 am — Collin Morikawa, Corey Conners, Sebastian Munoz

Morikawa leads the tour in SG/approach by a mile. Conners ranks top 10 in the category (eighth). Munoz is a fine player coming off a strong performance (T-4 at the John Deere Classic) but legitimately worried the poor guy is going to quit after watching Morikawa and Conners pepper flagsticks for two days.

2:48 pm/9:48 am — Phil Mickelson, Tyrrell Hatton, Kevin Kisner

In one sense it’s unfair to Mickelson to view what happened at Kiawah as proof the man can still get it done, rather than recognize what he did defied all we thought we knew about age and sport. In other words, to treat that moment for just that, a moment, instead of extrapolating what is next for Phil. HOWEVER, experience matters at the Open. Creativity matters. Understanding bad breaks are inevitable and possessing the fortitude it takes to bounce back from them really, really matters. In short there’s a decent chance the magic from Kiawah comes alive again in Kent, where Mickelson finished T-2 the last time the claret jug visited Royal St. George’s … As for Hatton and Kisner, our only wish is that Kisner pays tribute to Hatton with his own disgusted club toss at some point. Game recognise game, after all.

GLYN KIRK

2:59 pm/9:59 am — Xander Schauffele, Robert MacIntyre, Rickie Fowler

With Rahm capturing the U.S. Open Schauffele is now the best under-40 player to not have a major. That he’s ditching his ill-fated arm-lock experiment should help the cause … Fowler has shown signs of life over the past six weeks, and did contend at the 2011 Open (T-5). Fowler’s success in the wind is a bit overstated but it’s also not wrong, which is why this week could be the turning point so many hope comes … The Euro cognoscenti desperately wants MacIntyre to be the next big thing. He’s not far away from such status, proving his mettle at the 2019 Open (T-6) and playing well at a number of venues this year. His game is not necessary pretty, yet it’s at its best when things get ugly, the type of game that so often decides who grabs the claret jug.

3:10 pm/10:10 am — Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott

I know the golf gods are not just but it seems criminal these three men have a combined two majors.

3:21 pm/10:21 am — Rory McIlroy, Patrick Reed, Cameron Smith

Rory McIlroy is an Open champ. He is the fulcrum of the European Ryder Cup team. He is everything a fan could want in a player avatar. So we have no idea what McIlroy did or who he betrayed to get thrown into the crossfire of Reed and Smith, two players who have an interesting past. (Smith called out Reed for his penalty for moving sand at the Hero World Challenge in 2019, then the two exchanged words shortly after at the Presidents Cup.) But if McIlroy traverses this minefield without incident, no one is stopping him from snapping his seven-year major slump.

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