Veteran Nick Watney knows this, but he did it anyway on the par-3 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass during the first round of the Players Championship on Thursday afternoon on the way to one of the sloppiest efforts you’ll see on the famed island green.

Watney, who has had little success in the Players — just one top-10 finish in 12 appearances — walked off Pete Dye’s signature creation with a quadruple-bogey seven that featured zero quality strokes.

His troubles began when he flew his tee shot from 125 yards well past the front pin and watched his ball bounce hard and then motor over the green, becoming the 13th player on the day to find the water. From the drop area, the 41-year-old Las Vegas resident pitched from 82 yards, and that was also too strong, leaving a tricky downhiller of 29 feet. His first putt was not better than most, veering four feet beyond the cup.

Ranked 160th in the FedEx Cup standings and coming off six missed cuts in his last seven starts, Watney pushed his putt for double-bogey, and it went eight inches by the cup. Then came the one-hander, which actually broke left and never touched the hole. Regripping with two hands, he finally tapped in to end the agony.

As he was casually making that one-handed stroke, NBC broadcaster Mike Tirico interjects: “Stop. Stop! Well, when you’re running hot …”

There are no gimmes on the PGA TOUR.

Nick Watney cards a quadruple bogey at 17th hole. pic.twitter.com/3omjPExJHY

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 9, 2023

Watney, who began his round with a triple-bogey seven at No. 10, failed to gather himself sufficiently on the difficult 18th hole. He found the water again when he pulled his tee shot to the left and ended up with a bogey to complete an outward 43, and left the course on Thursday evening with three closing holes still to negotiate after bad light stopped play.

The post Nick Watney’s careless missed putt of 8 inches at No. 17 was not better than most appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Golf Digest Editors
Not since 2001 has there been a year in which the golf world was so profoundly impacted by something “outside the ropes” as 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. From the moment late in the evening of Thursday, March 12, when a stunned Jay Monahan, commissioner of the PGA Tour, announced the cancellation of the Players Championship after just one round—the first of several similarly profound (and surreal) declarations from executives throughout the golf community in the days that followed—our sport has been shaken at every level. The saving grace of the coronavirus is that golf has been able to serve as a salve in so many ways for a general public longing for order and comfort and the familiar. Participation in the recreational game skyrocketed, golf becoming an outlet for those in need of distraction as it proved to be among the safer sports to play. And consumption of the competitive game increased as well, Monahan bringing back the PGA Tour in June, the LPGA and European Tours returning shortly after, the majority of the men’s and women’s majors played successfully at later dates, without fans but not without fanfare.

While the days run together during a pandemic, the calendar professes 2020 is coming to a close (finally!). Which means it’s time to embark on our annual review of the last 12 months. As always, our “Newsmakers” package aims to revisit the year in golf and retell the stories that helped define the sport. In counting down the top 25 during the next several days, many entries have been directly touched by the spectre of COVID-19. But you also might be surprised at how many of our favourite people, events and moments rose above the pandemic and stood out for what they said about the individual or the group. As always there were a few clear choices—spoiler alert, Bryson DeChambeau is pretty high on our list—but also some characters who are less obvious yet, we think, no less worthy, once again, of our collective appreciation. —Ryan Herrington

• • •

No. 1: THE ‘NEW’ GOLFERS

J.D. Cuban

Two decades ago, a golf boom was spurred by a magnetic young star named Tiger Woods and an expanding real estate market. The 2020 version, borne from a pandemic in which no one could do much else, was never part of anyone’s grow-the-game strategy. But a year in which COVID-19 disrupted so much of life provided an unlikely opening for golf. According to the National Golf Foundation and Golf Datatech, there will be some 50 million more rounds played in 2020 than 2019, an increase partially attributed to good weather, but mostly the serendipitous ways golf fit a social distancing world. Those who couldn’t go to work or the gym could still meet up with friends and play 9 or 18. Handshakes were replaced by elbow bumps and a whole new cottage industry arose in developing creative ways to safely extract a golf ball from the hole. Other than that, the game remained blessedly intact. While the year-end statistics point to an encouraging influx of new players—about 20 percent more beginners and junior players, respectively—the surge appears to have been driven more by core golfers who were simply afforded the chance to play more. Yet one could argue those of us who had played all along were still “new” golfers this year. Because we were suddenly around to play at Wednesday at 2. Because we stored our masks and our hand sanitiser in the same golf bag pocket as our keys. And because every trip to the golf course was a welcome refuge from a distressing new world. We might have always loved golf, but in 2020, we savoured it like never before. —Sam Weinman

• • •

No. 2: BRYSON DECHAMBEAU

Chris Keane

Where do we begin? There’s so much to talk about with Bryson DeChambeau that we created a separate list of 101 things that happened to him in 2020. But first and foremost, Bryson became one of the game’s biggest stars. Literally. A process of putting on pounds that began in 2019 revved up even more during quarantine, and when DeChambeau returned, he was some 40 pounds heavier than the previous year. And the gains were apparent in places other than the scale. DeChambeau overpowered golf courses—and even driving ranges—in ways we hadn’t quite seen before. The 27-year-old wound up leading the PGA Tour in driving distance in the 2019-’20 season and, more importantly, strokes gained/off the tee. But Bryson didn’t just drive for show, he also putted for some serious dough by improving to a career-best 10th in strokes gained/putting. Not surprisingly, that dangerous combination eventually led to a pair of wins, first at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July and then his maiden major title at the U.S. Open in September. Winged Foot’s treacherous rough was supposed to be this golf zealot’s kryptonite, but it proved to be no problem for mighty Bryson as he swatted driver after driver on his way to a dominant six-shot victory. And in doing so, he may have ushered in a new era in which extreme length isn’t just an advantage, but a necessity. “What he’s done in the gym has been incredible,” Tiger Woods said at the Masters in November. “What he’s done on the range and what he’s done with his entire team to be able to optimize that one club [driver] and transform his game and the ability to hit the ball as far as he has and in as short a span as he has, it’s never been done before.” Beyond all the results, though, was Bryson’s knack for creating buzz. From those booming drives to his crazy diet to an aggressive shirtless photo to run-ins with rules officials to continued run-ins with Brooks Koepka, DeChambeau was constantly in the news. And whether you’re a fan or not, this overpowering and analytical golfer isn’t going anywhere. In fact, there will undoubtedly be a lot more like him to follow. —Alex Myers

• • •

No. 3: GOLF’S STAKEHOLDERS

If golf were Gotham and every leader in the game had a red Bat Phone on the desk, the ringing would have been incessant on Thursday, March 12, 2020. In the hours after sunset that day, the PGA Tour decided it could no longer safely stage one of its prized events, the Players Championship, and shut it down after only one round. It was golf’s COVID-19 reality check. The coronavirus wasn’t going to be a mild inconvenience. It was going to rock our world at every turn, and the stakeholders in competitive golf would have to face it head-on. It was a daunting proposition, considering there are so many voices in the choir—the PGA Tour (led by Jay Monahan), PGA of America (Seth Waugh), USGA (Mike Davis), Augusta National (Fred Ridley), R&A (Martin Slumbers), LPGA (Mike Whan) and European Tour (Keith Pelley). They all have personal interests and agendas, with cumulative billions of dollars at stake. But in a fairly remarkable accomplishment, golf’s presidents and CEOs and COOs and tournament directors—along with the medical community and the athletes themselves—glued the year’s broken pieces back together into a one-of-a-kind mosaic. Recalling those manic moments of March and April, Slumbers, chief executive officer of the R&A, told Golf Digest, “In those 13 to 14 days, we covered ground that in normal time would have taken a year’s worth of thinking.” To be sure, there were sad casualties, the most wrenching being the Open Championship’s cancellation for only the fourth time in its 149-year history. But golf also served as a model of cooperation and ingenuity. Prime example: The Ryder Cup was postponed to 2021 (as was Olympic golf), and the PGA Tour agreed to push back the Presidents Cup to 2022, thus permanently altering the rotation of the men’s biennial events as well as the women’s Solheim Cup. Also, the PGA Tour and European Tour came together late in the year to announce an unprecedented strategic alliance. The three other majors were shuffled around—the most jarring being the Masters’ move from April to a display of fall colours, not flowers, in November. And while the PGA Tour lost 11 events due to the pandemic, it didn’t cut the prize money and put together a COVID-19 protocol plan that proved to be one of the most successful in all of sports. The effects of the virus will be felt well into 2021, particularly with few or no fans in attendance in the early part of the schedule—a development that will further drain the coffers of tournaments around the country. Still, as the calendar turns, there is optimism, considering what already has been accomplished in the most trying of times. “I’m hopeful we’re going to get through next year,” Monahan said at the Tour Championship in September. “We’re going to get back to normal fast, and that puts us in a position where we continue on the normal growth pattern that we’re projected to be on this year, that unfortunately, we were not able to be on because of the events associated with COVID.” —Tod Leonard

BONUS READ: Where do preparations stand for the men’s majors and the Ryder Cup for 2021?

• • •

No. 4: DUSTIN JOHNSON

Ben Walton

Peculiar as it seems in hindsight, Dustin Johnson was trending towards being somewhat of an afterthought halfway through 2020. Heading into the third tournament of the PGA Tour’s restart, the Travelers Championship, Johnson owned a lone top 10 in a full-field tour stop over the past year, falling out of the top five in the World Rankings for the first time since 2016. To be fair, Johnson underwent arthroscopic knee surgery at the end of 2019 and showed hints of his former self in the early spring. And yet, as the sport has callously shown, there’s always the possibility of not returning from the wilderness. As we now know, Johnson not only returned, he asserted himself, unequivocally, as the game’s sheriff. The revival started in Connecticut, riding a hot Saturday into contention at TPC River Highlands and staying cool down the stretch for his first win in 16 months. He finished runner-up in August’s PGA Championship, won The Northern Trust by a dominant 11 strokes, could have won the BMW Championship if not for a miraculous Jon Rahm putt in sudden death and captured his first FedEx Cup with a steady performance at East Lake. Even a bout with COVID couldn’t slow down DJ, who returned from quarantine with a runner-up at the Houston Open in his first outing back. Alas, in spite of these accomplishments, Johnson’s career continued to be defined for what it lacked. Specifically, more major titles to accompany his 2016 U.S. Open victory. He couldn’t close out his 54-hole lead at the PGA, the fourth time he had failed to do so at a major, and after entering September’s U.S. Open as an overwhelming favourite, he was never in contention at Winged Foot, his T-6 finish of the backdoor variety. The knock on Johnson, some asserted, was he could not rise to the moment, that the poise that worked so well at rank-and-file events needed giddy-up at the four championships that matter most. Those knocks were forever addressed in November. Johnson’s 65-70-65 Masters start translated into a four-shot lead heading into the final day at Augusta National, and though his 54-hole advantage was nearly wiped away after five holes, Johnson answered when it mattered most. He kept the mistakes at bay, didn’t flinch in tight spots and attacked when given the go-ahead in route to a tournament-record 20-under score to lap the field by five. In resounding fashion, with new wardrobe in tow, Johnson rewrote his legacy in 2020. And rather than wonder what might have been, the only question on Johnson is what he’ll do next. —Joel Beall

RELATED: The highs and lows of Dustin Johnson’s spectacular 2020

• • •

No. 5: A NOVEMBER MASTERS

JD Cuban

If the first wave of tournament cancellations in pro golf due to the surging coronavirus stunned golf fans in March, the news from Georgia shortly thereafter landed like a punch to the stomach. A month before the 84th Masters was to be played, officials announced it was being postponed. Even Augusta National couldn’t escape the wrath of COVID-19. On what would have been Monday of Masters week, there was more news: Golf’s governing bodies released a joint statement outlining an unprecedented plan: a reshuffling of virtually every golf tournament of note, including a Masters in … gasp … November.  November?!? What will the course be like? (Softer). The weather? (Virtually the same). Will there be fans? (Nope). How would Augusta handle exemptions? (Sorry, Daniel Berger). What played out was a tradition unlike any other, unlike any other. Instead of marking the unofficial beginning of the golf season, the Masters marked the end. Instead of back-nine roars echoing through the pines and accompanying fist pumps, there were smatterings of applause and polite waves. Instead of fiery greens that force you to hit the ball high, there were soft putting surfaces that punished you for having too much spin. What resulted was a week of low scoring that broke plenty of records—most notably, the lowest cut in tournament history (even-par 144) and the lowest winning 72-hole score, courtesy of Dustin Johnson’s 20-under 268. Of course, there were other stories, too. There was Bryson saying Augusta was a par 67 for him, only to lose a ball in fantastic fashion and never factor on the weekend. There was Tiger’s title defense, which got off to a hot start then crashed and burned with a career-worst 10. And there was Johnson’s runaway win, a performance that culminated a three-month stretch of dominant golf with a five-shot win that served as a much overdue victory lap for one of the best players of his generation. Still, maybe the most important legacy of the event was that it was played at all, much in the same way the PGA of America and USGA pulled off the PGA Championship and U.S. Open in their altered time slots. Long story short, Augusta National made the most of a bad situation, which is all anyone could have asked for in 2020. —Daniel Rapaport

RELATED: The major that never happened—The story behind the cancellation of the Open Championship

• • •

No. 6: DISTANCE DEBATE

Gregory Shamus

The past year put a lot of things on hold, but the debate over distance in golf continued almost non-stop. In February, the USGA and R&A released their much-anticipated Distance Insights Report. The lengthy document, crafted after two years of research, offered this ominous language in the Conclusions section: “Golf will best thrive over the next decades and beyond if this continuing cycle of ever-increasing hitting distances and golf course lengths is brought to an end.” Then COVID-19 hit and further “research topics” the governing bodies intended to explore were delayed until March 2021. Still, a lot happened to fuel the debate, Exhibit A: Bryson DeChambeau. It wasn’t just his 400-yard drives but the discussion surrounding them. Colin Montgomerie got so freaked out by what DeChambeau was doing at the tour’s re-start at Colonial he stated he was in favour of a tournament ball for professionals that went 80 to 85 percent of the current ball. That’s a position long held by Jack Nicklaus, who spoke up again when the tour visited his Muirfield Village in July, telling Golf Channel, “The USGA and the R&A have got to wake up sooner or later. Guys, stop studying it and do something!” Doing something, however, comes with potential risks. DeChambeau off the tee became must-see TV, particularly after his once-questioned methods resulted in a six-stroke U.S. Open victory. Others, such as Rory McIlroy, started pondering swinging for the fences, posting ball-speed and carry-distance numbers on social media. Then there was Collin Morikawa’s memorable driving of the green to within seven feet on the par-4 16th hole at TPC Harding Park in the final round of the PGA Championship. Distance sells, and there appears to be no reason for the PGA Tour to want less of it. The governing bodies, however, seem to remain steadfast that something must be done. On Dec. 4, the USGA sent a release regarding the association’s commitment to charting a sustainable future for golf courses in collaboration with other stakeholders in the game. Included was language that could be construed as not only pro-rollback for everyone, not just the professionals. “As owners feel the pressure to lengthen courses, they face significant capital expenditures and larger areas to maintain, which have contributed to an average increase of 6.7 percent in maintenance costs.” The takeaway? The rhetoric will continue and don’t expect this nearly 20-year debate to end anytime soon. Stay tuned. —E. Michael Johnson

BONUS READ: Professional golf witnessed first-hand the power of evolution in 2020

• • •

No. 7: GOLF VOICES FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

Golf is often measured in its reaction to social matters, and from afar it may seem that the game was muted in its response to the protests of racial injustice across America in 2020. Yet golf was far from silent. Long Drive champ Maurice Allen penned a moving letter about being Black in a mostly white sport. “Golf is supposed to be an accountable sport. You hit a bad shot, that’s on you. You break a rule, you call it on yourself. Stop making excuses or guessing someone’s intention,” Allen wrote. “Start using that same accountability you apply to golf to racism, sexism and injustice.” Kirk Triplett, who is a white man with a Black son, became the first player to brandish the Black Lives Matter logo on a PGA Tour circuit. “Look, golfers are great with charity, and on the whole are socially conscious,” Triplett told Golf Digest. “But the game never crosses the line into some of the more uncomfortable stuff. Well, this is an uncomfortable time, and we can’t ignore it.” Cameron Champ, one of just four players with Black heritage on tour, followed with his support of BLM and backed up his actions by establishing scholarships at Prairie View, a HBCU in Texas. Augusta National named Lee Elder an Honorary Starter at the 2021 Masters, and announced it will fund golf programs at nearby Paine College. The latest rendition of The Match played the day after Thanksgiving had the proceeds—more than $5 million—also go to historically black colleges and universities. And then there is Harold Varner III. Days before the PGA Tour’s restart at Colonial, Varner spoke of his experiences with inequality. The message was eloquent and passionate, offered perspective and understanding. Then the most remarkable thing happened. Varner, at a juncture where the lines of sport and society are blurred, contended at Colonial. He ultimately did not win the event; didn’t even finish top 10. But with his words and resolve, with a performance that can only be measured against the pain and uncertainty and fear we all face, Varner showed us the best that golf can be. —Joel Beall

RELATED: Maurice Allen—Being Black in a white sport

• • •

No. 8: PHIL MICKELSON

It’s been one of pro golf’s favourite parlour games for years: What will Phil do next? Trying to anticipate the mercurial Phil Mickelson’s next move is a bit like playing charades blindfolded, and there was at least the usual number of questions surrounding Lefty in 2020—most notably because he celebrated his 50th birthday in June. That opened up the possibility of Mickelson venturing onto the PGA Tour Champions for the first time. Phil was coy about it the season’s outset, saying he wanted to focus on the regular tour. But after a pretty lacklustre effort before and after the COVID-19 shutdown (the only highlight was a solo third at his personal playground, Pebble Beach), Mickelson decided the time was right in late August for his senior bow. And boy was it a show. In the Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National, Phil drained 11 birdies and shot 61 in the first round and then cruised to a wire-to-wire victory at 22 under for 54 holes. Tiger Woods’ reaction? “There’s no reason he can’t win every time he plays out there.” To prove that plausible, Mickelson played on the Champions again in mid-October in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic—and won again. Feasting on wide fairways and benign pin placements, Lefty is 2-for-2. Now about still competing with the youngsters … that’s becoming a bit more daunting. Mickelson has posted only two top 10s in his last 21 starts on the PGA Tour. Probably more disappointing was never being a factor in trying to pad his resume of five major victories. In 2020, Phil tied for 71st in the PGA Championship, started the U.S. Open with a 79 to miss the cut, and had no chance on Sunday in the Masters after a third-round 79. Boasting that his swing speed is better than ever, any power gain has been erased by erratic play in virtually every asset. For the 2019-’20 season, Mickelson was better than 75th in only one of the tour’s important strokes-gained categories (around the green). He was poor with his irons (129th, strokes gained/approach) and putter (124th, strokes gained/putting). He’s going to have to get a lot better to contend very often on the big tour. So, what will Phil do now? Here’s betting he beats up more on the graybeards and picks his spots with the kids. —Tod Leonard

RELATED: Our 50 favourite ‘Phil being Phil’ moments

• • •

No. 9: TIGER WOODS

Patrick Smith

That Tiger Woods occupies real estate on this list is a testament to his star power, because he did really very little of note on the golf course in 2020. He played in just nine tournaments and managed one finish better than T-37. He was not a factor in any of the three majors, and he putted miserably. And yet he still commands the attention of the entire golf world in a way no one else can. He began the year ranked No. 6 in the World Rankings and now sits at No. 38, but his status as the game’s biggest star has not diminished. And it’s still not close. As for his golf, as we mentioned, it was a year to forget. He started 2020 well enough, with a T-9 at Torrey Pines. That would prove to be his only top 10. And yet he still did stuff, and people still cared. In no particular order: He sent the golf world into a panic when he pulled out of the Players Championship with a sore back; He, Phil Mickelson, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady produced a highly entertaining trash-talk fest (The Match 2) during the height of the sport-less wasteland; all eyes turned to him to make a statement on the killing of George Floyd, which he did; he opened his first public course design, Payne’s Valley, with another well-received exhibition in Missouri; he gave fans an early Christmas present by announcing he’d play in the PNC Championship this week with his son; and he made a 10 on Sunday at the Masters, the worst score of his professional career. It was, however, the response to that 10 that warrants optimism for 2021. Directly after failing as he never has before, Woods did something he’s also never done before: birdie five of his final six holes at Augusta National. It was a reminder of Woods’ fighting spirit, of his total and complete unwillingness to pack it in. Sure, this was a down year on the golf course. But he’s trudged through way worse and still managed to climb back to the mountaintop. What lies ahead in 2021 is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for certain: We’ll be watching his every move. —Daniel Rapaport

BONUS READ: What’s 2021 look like for Tiger?

• • •

No. 10: SOPHIA POPOV

Richard Heathcote/R&A

There isn’t a story from 2020 that more exemplifies why we love sports than Sophia Popov’s win at the AIG Women’s British Open. A player no one had ever heard of, who wasn’t a member of the LPGA Tour, who was on the cusp of quitting the game a year ago, who struggled with weight loss and other complications as she battled Lyme disease for years, plays her way to a two-shot win over the best players in the world. It’s hard not to root for that story every time. Popov wasn’t even supposed to be in the field at Royal Troon. The 27-year-old had been bouncing around tours since graduating from USC in 2014. She lost her LPGA Tour card in 2019 and was going to be spending 2020 on the Symetra Tour—likely 2021, too, once the pandemic hit, limiting the number of spots Symetra Tour graduates would get on the LPGA Tour for 2021. But LPGA Tour players not wanting to travel during the pandemic opened up some extra spots in the early tournaments when play resumed. Popov caddied in the first event back and then got a start the next week at the Marathon LPGA Classic. She took full advantage, finishing T-9. It was enough to get her into the field at Royal Troon. With her boyfriend on the bag, she started out with a 70, good enough for T-2. At that point, she was just a name near the lead no one had really heard of, the kind of player who has one good round in a major and then falls away. But Popov didn’t go away. She shot 72 on Friday, staying in the T-2 position. A 67 on Saturday gave her a three-shot lead. She remained unflappable on Sunday, winning by two to become the first German woman to win a major championship. She also earned full LPGA Tour status. No more Symetra Tour events, no more considering giving up all together. Popov had finally, officially arrived. —Keely Levins

• • •

No. 11: PREMIER GOLF LEAGUE

Ross Kinnaird

The idea of a world golf circuit to combat the PGA Tour is far from new. Yet few proposed competitors have generated as much interest and curiosity as the Premier Golf League. Tracking its roots to 2014, the PGL’s blueprint., revealed publicly in January, is a league with 48 players divided into 12 teams—which players owning a share of said teams—competing in 18 no-cut, 54-hole events. It boasts shotgun starts (so an entire round could be compacted into a five-hour broadcast) and a team-only finale, with 10 of the tournaments set for the United States. And money. Lots of money—$240 million in prizes, to be exact. A sum the PGL hopes will pry the sport’s superstars to its pastures. However, most of the game’s marquee, in-their-prime attractions (including Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka) have thus far distanced themselves from the PGL, with the strongest rebuke coming from McIlroy, who said he “didn’t really like where the money was coming from,” a nod to the PGL’s alleged Saudi backers. Some big names, though, sounded curious. Phil Mickelson played with PGL financers in January and said the concept was “intriguing.” The recent alliance between the PGA and European Tours added another obstacle for the fledgeling league, as the PGL had sought a partnership with the Old World circuit. Despite an inauspicious rollout, the PGL remains, as Mickelson said, an intriguing—and in the eyes of the PGA and European Tours, formidable—concept, one fan could be hearing more about in the coming months. —Joel Beall

• • •

No. 12: COLLIN MORIKAWA

San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images

In football, pundits often debate whether a quarterback is ready to make “the leap”—loosely defined as the progression from promising up-and-comer to bona fide franchise player. Ideally it happens in the QB’s second year in the league, after he’s had one full season and offseason under his belt. Extrapolated to golf, Collin Morikawa followed the timeline perfectly. The former world No. 1 amateur who graduated from Cal-Berkeley in May 2019 hit the ground running, going T-2/T-4/WIN in his fourth, fifth and sixth starts as a professional. That firmly established him as one of golf’s most promising young players, as did making 22 straight cuts to start his career (three shy of Tiger Woods’ record). That put Morikawa at 44th in the World Ranking when the COVID-19 pandemic halted play in March. Come June, however, when the season resumed—13 months after he turned pro—Morikawa kicked it into an entirely different gear. A shoved three-footer saw him lose in a playoff in the first event back, the Charles Schwab Challenge, and the nightmare nearly repeated itself three starts later at the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village. But that par putt on the 72nd hole lipped in, rather than out, and he beat Justin Thomas in one of the more entertaining mano-y-manos you’ll ever see: Thomas holed a 50-footer for birdie on the first extra hole before Morikawa punched back with a 24-footer of his own, then won it with a par on the next. The true breakthrough came a month later at TPC Harding Park, a short cruise across the Bay from his college stomping grounds. On a typically gray San Francisco Sunday afternoon, Morikawa emerged from a seven-deep pack of contenders at the PGA Championship with a chip-in for birdie on 14 and an eagle for the ages on the par-4 16th, where his tee shot finished seven feet from the cup and he finally sunk an important putt right in the heart. Two closing pars gave him the Wanamaker—and gave golf its newest superstar. —Daniel Rapaport

• • •

No. 13: THE PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS

Kevin C. Cox

What began as a year focused largely on PGA Tour Champions perennial headliner Bernhard Langer and his assault on Hale Irwin’s record 45 career senior victories quickly made way to a new and “younger” storyline: the tour’s impressive 2020 rookie class. Five golfers playing in their first year on the senior circuit won eight titles in the 14 events contested during the COVID-interrupted year. The headliners were names familiar to golf fans. Ernie Els, in just his third senior start took the title at the Hoag Classic in March, the first of two wins that the four-time major winner would collect. As Jim Furyk turned 50 in May, the tour was still in its COVID-19 hiatus, but when play resumed at the Ally Challenge in July, the 2003 U.S. Open champ won in his senior debut. He also won his next start, the PURE Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach. Meanwhile, Phil Mickelson, who sounded hesitant to join the seniors at first, chose to play the Charles Schwab Series in his debut in July, opened with a 61 and cruised to a four-stroke win. Two months later, he entered the Dominion Energy Charity Classic and won it, too. Impressively, the two other rookie winners, Brett Quigley and Shane Bertsch, also were quick senior studies, each winning in just their second career starts. Suffice it to say, the fivesome helped bring a new energy to the 50-and-older circuit, as did the emergence of former major winner Darren Clarke (who claimed his first senior title in the fall) and the continued success of the coolest senior around, Miguel Angel Jimenez. And, of course, there was Langer, who at 63 grabbed his 41st PGA Tour Champions win, and finished in the top 10 in 12 of 15 starts. —John Strege

RELATED: How the PGA Tour Champions became competitive again

• • •

No. 14: RORY MCILROY

Tom Pennington

“A game of two halves” may be one of soccer’s hoariest cliches, but it is an apt description of Rory McIlroy’s play during the 2019-’20 season and beyond. Between October 2019 and March 2020, the now 31-year-old Northern Irishman won once (WGC-HSBC Champions) and was never out of the top five in seven consecutive PGA Tour appearances. But when the tour returned after the COVID-19 lockdown in June, that high level of consistency was gone. In his next nine starts, McIlroy’s T-8 finish at the season-ending Tour Championship was his only top 10 and his distinction as World No. 1 was no more. Meanwhile, the 2020-’21 season, so far, ranks somewhere between those two extremes. Four appearances contained a T-8 at the U.S. Open and a T-5 at the Masters. Good obviously, but not even McIlroy’s biggest fan would claim he was ever in serious contention to win either. So what to make of it all? In a recent interview, McIlroy—who also became a new father to daughter Poppy, born Aug. 31—gave himself a “C” grade for his play. “I think any year you don’t win a tournament is a disappointment, and that’s why this year is disappointing,” McIlroy said, acknowledging once more his struggle getting comfortable with fanless tournaments. “It maybe took me longer to adjust to it than some other people. Every time I went out there for the first few weeks it felt like a practice round, like it didn’t matter.” Still, the world of golf is trending upward. A virus vaccine is reportedly on the way, and the return of crowds could follow. If the ever-inspirational McIlroy follows that same direction, it would hardly be a surprise to see a fifth major victory—and the first since 2014—added to his resume in 2021. Then again, maybe he won’t do anything of the sort. As 2020 has illustrated, with Rory you never quite know anything for certain. —John Huggan

• • •

No. 15: CHARITY GOLF EVENTS

Mike Ehrmann

Hit-n-giggle events have historically been specks of dust in the golf galaxy. They featured big names and bigger money but the stakes never matter, if they were even remembered to begin with. Their existence was derided as the sport’s “silly season.” But in 2020, these matches moved from the game’s fringes to centre stage. Rather than line the pockets of the rich, a series of high-profile exhibitions generated millions for charities and food banks and HBCUs in a time when every dollar counts. And if these events were just charity generators, that would be well and good. Yet they were entertaining, all in their own rights. Through the TaylorMade Driving Relief charity event fans got their first glimpse of the uber-private Seminole Golf Club. Charles Barkley showed his infamous swing had drastically improved during a Thanksgiving showdown with Peyton Manning, Steph Curry and Phil Mickelson. Speaking of Mickelson … well, he did a bunch of Phil Mickelson things in both two iterations of “The Match.” Fans got to watch him stomp around with Tiger Woods, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning (above) at Woods’ home course, and the PGA Tour’s weekly nine-hole Wednesday games showed us the personalities of players not normally given the spotlight. And while the stakes remained low, they sure felt high. A sentiment best encapsulated by Brady at “The Match II” at Medalist. The Buccaneers quarterback was exposed as a sandbagger, received an ungodly amount of schadenfreude from his competitors and broadcast and social media, and he ripped his pants in the one nanosecond where things weren’t going wrong. Yet his hole-out for eagle the first “Oh-My-Did-You-See-That?!?!!” sports moment since the world shut down in March. Yes, it was a golf exhibition. In the best possible connotation. —Joel Beall

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No. 16: BROOKS KOEPKA

Ezra Shaw

There’s a bluntness to the way Brooks Koepka plays golf, or at least to the force that he delivers to a golf ball. His words aren’t much different either, so when asked recently to sum up his year, he cut right to it: “I don’t know if I could say that without getting fined. Pretty bad.” Such is the standard for a player who won four majors in just less than two years and began 2020 as the No. 1 player in the world only to go winless and dip to 12th, his lowest ranking since 2017. On one hand, it was a disjointed season—pun intended—as the 30-year-old missed two months, including the U.S. Open in September, because of lingering knee and hip issues that also sidelined him for three months in 2019. On the other, his ego wrote some checks his game couldn’t cash, most notably in August at the PGA Championship, where he entered the final round at Harding Park tied for second just two strokes off the lead of Dustin Johnson. Koepka proceeded to offer a dismissive assessment of Johnson and the other contenders, then promptly imploded with a Sunday 74 to tumble to a T-29. He also missed more cuts in 2020 (five) than he had in the previous two years combined (three), had just four top 10s (the fewest in a calendar year of his career) and seemed at times to have trouble adjusting to the lack of buzz without fans in attendance because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then there was his continued trolling of Bryson DeChambeau over everything from ants, to slow play, to more serious insinuations over DeChambeau’s newfound bulk. On the bright side, there was a T-7 at the Masters. On the brighter side, 2020 is in the rear-view mirror. —Brian Wacker

• • •

No. 17: DANIELLE KANG

Mike Comer

When the LPGA Tour returned on July 31 after having not competed since February due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no way of knowing how players’ games would come out of the long hiatus. Danielle Kang, however, made the state of her game immediately clear when she won the first two events, and emphatically put her stamp on the 2020 season. After taking the title at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Inverness Club by one shot over Celine Boutier, Kang gave credit to her coach, Butch Harmon, saying they spent the time off back in Las Vegas working on her 3-wood and wedge game. “Butch was the mastermind behind it,” Kang said. “He knew exactly what I needed to accomplish and work on, and I had the time.” Another one-shot win the next week, this time over Lydia Ko at the Marathon LPGA Classic, made it five career victories and bragging rights over her boyfriend, PGA Tour pro Maverick McNealy. Kang remained one of the tour’s top guns through the rest of the year, finishing top 12 in four other starts and moving up to fourth in the Rolex Women’s Rankings. Always a fiery competitor—she picked up the game at age 12 and 18 months later had qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open—Kang is clearing living up to her potential. With the season’s two biggest events still to come—this week’s U.S. Women’s Open and next week’s CME Group Tour Championship—the 28-year-old California native has the chance to become the first American since Stacy Lewis in 2014 to win LPGA player-of-the-year honours.—Keely Levins

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No. 18: GOLF & GAMBLING

Hispanolistic

Once a back-room taboo topic, the legalization of sports betting continues to transform how we watch our favourite games, golf included. In 2020, golf broadcasts—notably the PGA Tour’s live digital streams and Golf Channel’s coverage—began showing and discussing odds. Made-for-TV exhibitions such as The Match 2 and The Match 3, the TaylorMade Driving Relief Skins Game and the Payne’s Valley Cup at Big Cedar Lodge all included heavy integrations with major sports-betting companies. It might’ve been a bit bizarre for some to hear announcers talking about who to bet on during a telecast, but given how momentum is shifting, it’s a sign of things to come. Consider that when the PGA Tour returned to action in June at the Charles Schwab Challenge, that first tournament was the most-bet tour event in DraftKings history. So what’s next? Prepare to see the PGA Tour continue to embrace the industry, including its partnership with IMG Arena, which will release a live-betting product in the 19 states where legal sports betting is available (with more states to come). The tour’s partnerships with most of the major betting operators will allow it to try almost anything it wants—notably develop new products and TV integrations to continue to engage their audience. There is a massive shift in behaviour—and a way to encourage non-golfers but fantasy golf players or bettors to be watching golf. It might not be the method many envisioned when they talked about growing the game decades ago, but it’s already happening. —Stephen Hennessey

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No. 19: WILL ZALATORIS

Hector Vivas

What if we told you the most consistent men’s golfer in the world didn’t earn status on the PGA Tour in 2020 until November? Such was the case with Will Zalatoris, a former All-American at Wake Forest, who picked the wrong year to light up the Korn Ferry Tour. A record stretch of 11 consecutive top-20 finishes on the developmental circuit, including a first pro win at the TPC Colorado Championship in July, was enough to easily finish first on the money list. But thanks to COVID-19, Korn Ferry Tour players will have to wait until the end of the 2021 season to earn PGA Tour cards. The good news for Zalatoris? The Plano, Texas, native kept his hot play going in the limited opportunities he got in the bigs, most notably a T-6 at the U.S. Open. The 24-year-old’s form was so strong by the time fall came around he was even made the betting favourite at the PGA Tour’s Bermuda Championship. Zalatoris didn’t win that week, but a T-16 was enough to earn Special Temporary Member status on the PGA Tour. In other words, we’re betting you hear a lot more about him in 2021. —Alex Myers

BONUS READ: The best things for golfers to come out of the pandemic

• • •

No. 20: PUSH CARTS

Richard Heathcote/R&A

Golf not only became the “it” participation sport during COVID-19, but walking the course came back in a big way. With golf carts a non-starter in most parts of the country during the early months of the pandemic, golfers who loathed the thought of lugging their bag looked to push carts as a viable alternative. Even pro golfers got into the act; LPGA up-and-comer Lindsey Weaver used one when the tour resumed play in lieu of a local caddie, including at the AIG Women’s British Open at Troon. It all resulted in a sales explosion in the category, a scarcity of supply and, eventually, price gouging on the secondary market with some non-motorized pushcarts going for close to $1,000 on some auction sites. Sun Mountain, a leading producer of push carts, ramped up production 250 percent—and still couldn’t keep up with demand, its pre-sales pushing availability out some three months during the summer. Results were predictably strong at retail as well. Ken Morton Jr., VP of retail & marketing at the Haggin Oaks golf facility in Sacramento, Calif., said the push-cart boom remains strong, with sales in August-September more than double the norm. “And that’s virtual without any inventory,” Morton said. “Everything we get in from the manufacturers is gone within a day or two of it arriving. At one point, we had a waitlist nearly 100 customers long.” Although 2021 will see demand for push carts slow somewhat, it likely will still far exceed pre-COVID levels. Golfers have not only grown used to hoofing it, but many have found they prefer the walk—as long as the bag stays off the shoulder. —E. Michael Johnson

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No. 21: NICK WATNEY

Gregory Shamus

When the PGA Tour resumed its season in June with the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, there were those who figured it wasn’t a matter of if a player would test positive for coronavirus but when. Unlike the NBA, which locked down its league in Orlando, the tour would be playing tournaments at courses around the country, with players, caddies and officials going in and out of “the bubble” each week. And while 40-plus pages worth of safety protocols were in place, they would only go so far. So when Nick Watney tested positive during the second tournament back, the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island, the surprise wasn’t so much that it happened but who it happened to first. The 39-year-old tour veteran with a wife and two kids had the reputation of being a rule follower. “At the time it was extremely surreal because I felt like I had followed all the suggested protocols,” Watney told Golf Digest last week. Thankfully, the five-time tour winner experienced only mild symptoms and returned to play three weeks later. Unfortunately, the rest of 2020 was a struggle, with eight missed cuts in his 10 remaining starts. The tour, meanwhile, played on, confident its plan could limit exposure and keep other players safe. And, indeed, it did. While there were more positive tests among players, compared to other sports (notably the NFL and college football), the numbers were relatively low: 15 in total over a span of 17 tournaments and thousands of tests administered. Watney’s place in history remains, but thankfully it isn’t all that infamous. —Brian Wacker

BONUS READ: The first PGA Tour pro to test positive for COVID-19 reflects on his surreal experience

• • •

No. 22: SHEEP RANCH

Dom Furore

Like the age-old gifting question, What do you get the person who already has everything?, it’s difficult to envision what could possibly make Bandon Dunes better. The golf world received the answer this year: Sheep Ranch, which opened in June and earned Golf Digest’s Best New Course honours for 2020. The trick to enhancing a golf destination that seems to offer everything—including four courses currently ranked among Golf Digest’s America’s 100 Greatest Courses—is to make any new addition distinct. Sheep Ranch accomplishes that by playing across a property that’s unlike anything else on site—a broad, open plain of seaside bluffs to the north of Old Macdonald. Where Bandon’s other courses dip in and out of sandy dunes and forests, Sheep Ranch fans across a mostly naked and ferociously windswept expanse that used to be home to a rustic and secretive 13-green course of the same name. The task for architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw was to find a way to assemble, in limited space, 18 holes that were broad enough to handle balls that would be blowing in all directions. In doing this they were also able to locate a remarkable nine greens along a majestic run of Pacific Ocean bluffs. Sheep Ranch is a gorgeous, bouncy course with its own look and playing characteristics, giving guests a different kind of golf experience and travellers yet another compelling reason to make the trek to southwest Oregon. —Derek Duncan

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No. 23: PAUL AZINGER

Tasos Katopodis

It’s hard to believe now, but in a pre-COVID world the most-heated debate—at least, in the golf world—stemmed from Zinger’s zinger at Tommy Fleetwood during the final round of the Honda Classic in March. For a moment, the NBC commentator sounded more like an American Ryder Cup captain trying to fire up his squad when he said, “These guys know, you can win all you want on that European Tour or in the international game and all that,” Azinger said, “but you have to win on the PGA Tour.” More than what Azinger said, though, was how he said it. Many European players from Ian Poulter to Lee Westwood rightfully found the words condescending, particularly the line, “that European Tour.” To be fair to Azinger, though, even Fleetwood acknowledged the importance of winning in America. And whether it was the pressure of doing so or not, his chances of doing so disappeared when his second shot found the water on the par-5 18th at PGA National. In any event, Fleetwood enters 2021 still in search of a win on U.S. soil, and Azinger remains in the 18th tower for NBC. At the very least, like his predecessor Johnny Miller, Azinger seems to get golf fans—and golfers—talking. —Alex Myers

• • •

No. 24: HOODIES

Ross Kinnaird

Like seemingly every controversy in golf, the heated debate that centred around the acceptability of wearing hooded sweatshirts—aka Hoodies—during a golf tournament was manufactured on social media. While well-known players like Tony Finau, Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy had worn them in competition before, HoodieGate didn’t really “explode” until Tyrrell Hatton won the European Tour’s BMW PGA Championship in September wearing one. And by “explode,” we mean a handful of folks with 26 Twitter followers were upset with Hatton’s Bill Belichick-ian look at Wentworth. Nevertheless, the debate persisted, becoming less of a Hoodie-specific controversy and more of a diatribe on proper golf attire in general. One English golf club doubled down on its no-hoodie rule after Hatton’s victory. Ewan Porter, a former tour pro, told the story of being kicked out of an Australia golf club for wearing black socks. These two situations had many up in arms over golf’s outdated “dress code,” the argument being that if we want to grow the game, forcing people to abide by archaic rules ain’t the way to go. One thing is clear: There is still a divide regarding golf’s dress-code debates, be it on social media or behind the closed gates of an exclusive club. —Christopher Powers

• • •

No. 25: MIKE DAVIS

Scott Halleran

Mike Davis soon will break new ground as he segues into a career in golf course architecture with partner Tom Fazio II. Of course, many would argue—some saying for the better and, yes, more than a few for the worse—that Davis, 55, has been doing that for years during his tenure at the USGA, which will come to a close at the end of 2021. Davis said in September that he’ll be stepping down as CEO of the organization where he’s worked since 1990 and been in charge since 2011, leaving to pursue his first love, because, he said, “I’m closer to 60 than I am 50, and there was almost a sense that if I don’t do this, I’m going to regret it.” During his tenure, Davis oversaw, among many initiatives, the modernization of the Rules of Golf, the launch of the World Handicap System, the creation of the USGA Foundation, the debut of four new championships and plans for a second USGA headquarters in Pinehurst, N.C. He also, with mixed results, took the U.S. Open in a different direction with the selection of new courses like Chambers Bay and Erin Hills, and with the setup of old standbys like Winged Foot, Oakmont and Shinnecock Hills that featured graduated rough and multiple teeing grounds. Critics harped on tests that were either too easy (Erin Hills) or too tricked up (Shinnecock Hills) or simply not of true U.S. Open character (Chambers Bay). In the end, however, he put his stamp on the association, and though he said, “I hate the idea of leaving,” he nevertheless leaves as he served—on his own terms. —Dave Shedloski

RELATED: Who will replace Mike Davis? This is what the USGA is looking for

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Nick Watney talks about being the first player to have to withdraw from a tournament and what happened in the aftermath

By Brian Wacker
Nick Watney became the first player on the PGA Tour to test positive for COVID-19, having done so during Friday of the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head Island, S.C., the second tournament back during June’s return to golf. Suddenly thrust into the spotlight for something other than his play at Harbour Town, the experience was a “surreal” one for the quiet 39-year-old from California not used to the whirlwind of attention that followed. The five-time PGA Tour winner recently spoke with Golf Digest about what that moment was like as well as the days and weeks that followed.

You were the first player to test positive for coronavirus. How would you describe that experience looking back now?
At the time it was extremely surreal because I felt like I had followed all the suggested protocols. I’d worn a mask in public, I’d mostly stayed home and not really gone out. A lot of things happened quickly, though, once I tested positive. We had a lot less information than we do now. I was scared. I have a wife and kids that I was just with. My mind was racing. I had a very mild case in terms of symptoms so the toughest part the first couple of days [was waiting on] all the contact tracing. I’d played practice rounds with guys, been around people. I certainly didn’t want to give it to anyone. When everyone I’d been around tested negative, things got a little easier from that standpoint.

What was the strangest thing that came with being the first positive test?
I’m the opposite of a famous person, so the publicity was strange. I started getting interview requests that I’d never gotten before. At one point I did a spot on “The Today Show.” When I was playing my best golf I didn’t come close to having any of that. And because I didn’t have much to do while quarantining, and I like sports, it was weird seeing my name across the ticker on ESPN every few minutes for something that had nothing to do with me playing golf.

Once you were cleared to return to play on tour, what was that like?
Some guys would do a double-take when I walked by them. That was a little odd and it felt a little awkward, but I don’t blame them. We knew a lot less about the virus at that point. The stigma is a lot less now, I think.

Was it hard to focus on golf and find a rhythm given the need to quarantine not long after the three-month interruption of the season?
I can’t say COVID or the layoff is the reason for my poor play [Watney missed the cut in three of four starts after returning to action and made just two cuts in 12 starts overall during the second half of 2020]. I wasn’t playing how I would’ve liked before any of that.

Jed Jacobsohn
Watney struggled after returning to action from his positive test, making the cut in just two starts through the end of 2020.

Was what happened to you something of a wake-up call for everyone on tour?
It’s hard to say. I played at Colonial the week before and I’d say guys weren’t lax about what they needed to do to be safe. Especially at that point, I think most people in the world were taking it pretty seriously. That’s a great question, though. I can’t speak for others. But in talking with tour officials at the time it wasn’t a matter of if someone tested positive, it was when.

How do you think the tour as a whole has handled the pandemic?
I think it has gone pretty well. We’ve been playing for six months. Obviously, there have been some cases, but—and I don’t mean to say this is any means the same as the flu because it’s not—in a normal year I imagine more guys would have gotten the flu. The most we had in a single week was a few, or maybe even a handful. I think guys are doing what they’re supposed to do and it has gone as well as could be expected. With how smoothly it has gone and the tour as a whole taking it seriously, I think they’ve done a good job with it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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By Tod Leonard
Nick Watney didn’t feel sick, and that was the problem.

He’d risen early and played the first round of the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage on June 18 and was a bit worn out. But he went to bed that night feeling OK, and it wasn’t until he got up on Friday that he sensed something was very wrong. The device he was wearing on his wrist to monitor his breathing showed an alarming spike in the breaths per minute he was taking.

He’d been warned that might indicate he was suffering from COVID-19.

“That is literally the reason why [I got tested],” Watney said, “because I didn’t feel badly in terms of anything. I didn’t feel very rundown. I didn’t feel hot. I didn’t have a cough. I didn’t have shortness of breath, none of that.”

Watney spoke for the first time publicly about his illness on a podcast hosted by WHOOP, the company that makes the health-monitoring devices that the PGA Tour is now widely using to potentially help in the diagnosis of other players with COVID-19. After notifying the tour and being tested on the morning of June 19, the 39-year-old Watney withdrew from the tournament at Harbour Town in Hilton Head, S.C. He said on the podcast that he now feels “fine.”

“Apparently, I got a pretty mild strain, or the effects have been mild, so that’s good, I guess,” Watney said.

Nevertheless, the WHOOP device did detect a significant change in Watney’s breathing on the night after the RBC Heritage’s first round. Watney and the company shared a screenshot [below] of his breaths per minute. While Watney is usually at 14 breaths, his rate rocketed to more than 18 overnight.

“I took a screenshot of the [WHOOP] data,” Watney recalled, “and sent it to my wife and said, ‘This is very alarming,’ just because I had read [an email from WHOOP] when WHOOP had analyzed data from users that had come down with COVID. It was something that jumped out.”

Watney contacted PGA Tour officials, was tested for COVID-19, and because he was not symptomatic other than the WHOOP monitoring, he was allowed by the tour to go to the practice range at Harbour Town.

“I went to the golf course,” Watney said, “social-distanced while warming up, and got a call about 20 minutes before [my round] that said, ‘Your test came back positive. You need to go. You need to leave as soon as you can.’ I said to the doctor, ‘Is this real? I know I saw the data, but …’ He said, ‘This is real. You need to go.’ ”

In the aftermath of Watney being present at the golf course while he waited for his ultimately positive test, the PGA Tour changed its policy as of Saturday at the Travelers Championship. No one who is being tested will be allowed to be at the course until the test results are final.

Watney said he hopes his experience will be helpful to others.

“My wife and I have been talking about this: Is there a silver lining to this?” Watney said. “Can something good come out of this? It was a bit scary, but if people can learn more and this helps anybody else, that can be a good thing, obviously.”

On June 22, WHOOP released findings of a study in collaboration with CQUniversity in Australia that its device’s algorithm has been shown to detect 20 percent of COVID-19 illnesses in the two days prior to the onset of symptoms. The study is awaiting peer review. WHOOP says the PGA Tour has purchased more than 1,000 of its devices and the company began working with larger groups of players at this week’s Travelers Championship.

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By Joel Beall
CROMWELL, Conn. — PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan addressed safety concerns at tour events during an impromptu press conference Wednesday following five players withdrawing from the Travelers Championship in the last two days due to coronavirus-related issues.

“While we’ve been thorough in building and implementing a program that mitigates as much risk as possible, we knew it would be impossible to eliminate all risk, as evidenced by the three positive tests this week,” Monahan said at TPC River Highlands, a day before the first round of the Travelers. “We need to use these developments as a stark reminder for everyone involved as we continue to learn from an operational standpoint.

“We’re making several adjustments to our health and safety plan as noted in the memo sent to players this morning, and we will continuously reinforce to all players, caddies, staff members and support personnel on property at PGA Tour events to adhere to social distancing and other safety professionals that further minimize risk.

Out of the five who pulled out of the Travelers, only one, Cameron Champ, tested positive for COVID-19. Champ, 25, said in an announcement Tuesday that he’s feeling “great physically” and that he was surprised and disappointed in the result. “It’s important now to take the necessary steps and measures to protect others, including my loved ones,” Champ said.

Brooks Kopeka and Graeme McDowell both tested negative for coronavirus upon arriving at TPC River Highlands. However, they took themselves out of competition after their caddies received positive test results in recent days.

“As I’ve said all along, I’m taking this very seriously,” Koepka said in a statement. “I don’t want to do anything that might jeopardize the health of any player in the field or his ability to compete.” Added McDowell: “When I look at the last four to five days, I have experienced some fatigue and muscle soreness myself.”

McDowell elaborated that he believed this tiredness was due to resuming play after being off the past few months. Nevertheless, despite two negative tests on Monday and Wednesday, the former U.S. Open champ said he wasn’t keen on risking the field.

Webb Simpson and Chase Koepka, out of an “abundance of concern for the coronavirus,” according to Monahan, have also withdrawn, but neither player or their caddie have tested positive. In a statement, Simpson said one of his family members had tested positive for COVID-19.

“While my tests this week were negative, I feel like it is my responsibility to take care of my family and protect my peers in the field by withdrawing from the Travelers Championship,” Simpson said. “I am going to return home to Charlotte and quarantine under CDC guidelines, and I look forward to returning to competition after that time period.”

Chase, who earned his tournament spot via Monday qualifying, played a practice round with McDowell and his brother Brooks on Tuesday. “I feel as if this is the best decision to keep all other players, caddies and volunteers safe,” Chase said.

These WDs come a week after Nick Watney became the first PGA Tour player to test COVID-19 positive at the RBC Heritage.

As Monahan noted there will be several adjustments made to the current infrastructure, starting this week. This includes additional testing upon arrival in next week’s tournament market, moving instructors inside the tour’s testing bubble and having players wear masks when they enter fitness trailers, which will now be onsite. Monahan said failure to adhere to these measures, along with the rest of the tour’s safety and health protocols, will lead to significant consequences.

“All of us have an extraordinary responsibility to follow those protocols. For any individual that does not, there will be serious repercussions, and I’m not going to get into the specifics of it,” Monahan said. “But everybody knows and needs to know that our future, our ability to sustain this business and to impact the communities where we play and to create so many jobs is contingent on our ability to follow those protocols.”

Monahan would later add he trusts the players to continue to learn and do their best when it comes to following the guidelines. When asked if he felt let down by some players and caddies not practicing social distancing at times on the course, Monahan replied, “Not at all.”

Despite the five dropouts, Monahan stated he remains confident in the infrastructure the tour has put in place to keep its constituents safe. The tour has administered 2,757 total tests at the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour tournament sites in the last three weeks, registering seven positives in that span.

“You know, [we’re all trying to] learn to live in an environment of COVID-19,” Monahan said. “I’m concerned but I’m also confident in the program and protocols we’ve put in place, and our ability to be able to sustain the PGA Tour and give our players opportunities on both of these tours over the course of the year, so long as we continue to be as diligent as we intend to be.”

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By Joel Beall
CROMWELL, Conn. — Brooks Koepka was one of three players who tested negative for COVID-19 but withdrew Wednesday afternoon from the Travelers Championship due to coronavirus-related issues.

As first reported by Golfweek, Koepka decided to pull out of the tournament in the wake of news that his caddie, Ricky Elliott, had tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.

“I haven’t tested positive for COVID-19, but as I’ve said all along, I’m taking this very seriously,” Koepka said. “I don’t want to do anything that might jeopardize the health of any player in the field or his ability to compete. I was planning to take the next two weeks off anyway, so the right thing to do right now is get home, support Ricky and feel confident that I’m doing what I can do protecting my fellow tour members, my PGA Tour friends and everyone associated with the Travelers Championship this week.”

The tour also announced on Wednesday that Brooks’ younger brother, Chase, and Webb Simpson, winner of last week’s RBC Heritage, had withdrawn. Both players got negative results on their COVID-19 tests upon arriving at the event, as did their caddies. However, both dropped out due to “an abundance of caution,” according to the PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, after having connections to people who had tested positive for the coronavirus.

“Despite being very excited about playing the Travelers Championship, I am electing to withdraw,” said Chase Koepka, who had gotten into the Travelers field by Monday qualifying. “My team and I have all tested negative for COVID-19; however, I was in close contact with someone who tested positive. I feel as if this is the best decision to keep all other players, caddies and volunteers safe. I wish everyone the best of luck this week.”

“In the last 24 hours, I had a family member test positive for COVID-19,” Simpson said in a statement. “While my tests this week were negative, I feel like it is my responsibility to take care of my family and protect my peers in the field by withdrawing from the Travelers Championship. I am going to return home to Charlotte and quarantine under CDC guidelines, and I look forward to returning to competition after that time period.”

A total of five players have withdrawn from the Travelers due to coronavirus issues. Graeme McDowell also voluntary pulled out of the tournament after his caddie, Ken Comboy, received a positive result for a recent COVID-19 test, Cameron Champ was forced out of the competition after his test came back positive on Tuesday afternoon.

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By Daniel Rapaport
The PGA Tour will be giving all players, caddies and other essential personnel on the PGA Tour, Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Champions WHOOP fitness straps in an effort to better detect early signs of COVID-19.

Players received an email Wednesday morning informing them that 1,000 devices—which come in the form of a bracelet or bicep band that monitors the wearer’s heart rate, strain, sleep and recovery patterns—and the accompanying memberships for data recording will be distributed at this week’s Travelers Championship and the Korn Fery Tour’s Utah Championship. Justin Thomas confirmed the news in his pre-tournament press conference at TPC River Highlands on Wednesday, and WHOOP founder and CEO Will Ahmed did so as well in a statement to Golf Digest.

“We are rapidly onboarding everyone in the PGA Tour universe and respect the measures that they are taking to keep the Tour safe,” Ahmed said.

The news comes one week after Nick Watney’s WHOOP provided a key indicator that something might be wrong with his body while competing in the RBC Heritage. Watney noticed an increase in his breath rate in the middle of the night, which studies have shown could be a sign of COVID-19. Watney also developed other symptoms and informed medical staff. He was tested for COVID-19 and became the first PGA Tour player to test positive on Friday morning, forcing him to withdraw fron the event and self-isolate for at least 10 days. Per PGA Tour protocol, he will need two negative tests after that period to return to competition.

“I’ve been wearing a WHOOP strap for more than a year now and I’ve learned to read and understand my data,” Watney said in a statement. “On Friday morning of the RBC Heritage, I saw my respiratory rate had spiked on Thursday night. This was consistent with information shared by the WHOOP community, that it could be an early indication of COVID-19. This alerted me to ask the PGA Tour for a test even though I didn’t have any other symptoms, and I unfortunately tested positive. I’m very grateful to have identified these signs early enough, and I am now following PGA Tour protocol.”

Eleven people that Watney had direct contact with at the Heritage were given an additional test after his positive result, and all came back negative.

On Tuesday, Cameron Champ became the second tour player to test positive and was forced to withdraw from the Travelers Championship. Champ played in the PGA Tour’s first tournament after a three-month stoppage at the Charles Schwab Challenge but did not play in last week’s Heritage. Graeme McDowell also withdrew on Wednesday from the Travelers after he learned his caddie had tested positive.

The distribution of WHOOP bands is one of a number of changes being discussed by PGA Tour personnel after this first wave of positive tests. Also on the table is additional testing, beyond the current system, which mandates a player get a negative test result before boarding the tour charter plane from tournament to tournament, and that all players get a negative test upon arriving at the event in order to compete.

In a press release, WHOOP announced a novel algorithm that has been shown to detect 20 percent of COVID-19 cases in the two days prior to the onset of symptoms, as well as 80 percent of cases by the third day a person is symptomatic. The study has been submitted to a medical journal for peer review and publication.

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As of Sunday’s conclusion of the RBC Heritage, Watney remains the only PGA Tour player to test positive, with 11 people who came in contact with Watney testing negative on Saturday after follow-up COVID-19 evaluations (more on this in a moment). Alarming times as these may be, anyone claiming Watney’s positive test is a catastrophe is, inadvertently or not, a prisoner of fear-mongering. Still while the overriding question remains the same—Can the tour pull this off?—another now precedes it:

After a positive test, where does the tour go from here?

It is not a query that begets a singular, clear-cut answer. However, after speaking with tour and tournament officials, players, caddies and an epidemiologist, the response also is not as ambiguous as it may seem.

Is golf still considered a safe sport?

A positive test at a tournament requires every facet of the tour’s effort to be re-evaluated, starting with the fundamental safety of playing golf. According to Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security, that answer remains yes.

“It is very, very unlikely [Watney catching COVID-19] happened at the golf course,” said Dr. Adalja. “We continue to find out more about this virus every day, but we know outdoor transmission is much less likely than other activities.”

The low probability factors in the occasional breach of social distancing, like players and caddies touching clubs and groups congregating at the practice green. This is not to imply the virus can’t be passed while at the golf course, Dr. Adalja said. Just that the meaningful detective work should begin with where else Watney’s been, and who he was with.

“This is about contact tracing, that is the key,” Dr. Adalja said.

Photo by Ben Jared

Watney, who is now in self-isolation as required by the tour’s safety protocol for at least 10 days pending follow-up tests, has not commented publicly about his positive test or his whereabouts in the days prior, but Sergio Garcia confirmed he gave Watney a ride on his private plane from Texas (they both live in Austin) to South Carolina. Garcia has not tested positive thus far, but that transportation does raise its own point …

Does the tour need to rethink its bubble?

Well, the tour never had a “bubble,” per se. Travelling across the country, rather than picking a de facto home base for operations (like the NBA is doing with Disney World) shattered that notion. Chartered planes are convenient and safe options—players and caddies can only ride following a negative test—yet players and caddies are also making separate air, be it commercial or private, and ground arrangements. While there are designated host hotels, players are allowed to stay elsewhere. Despite the low odds of outside transmission and stringent policing on tournament grounds, the tour’s ecosystem begins and ends at the golf course. Outside those confines, it’s essentially the honour system meets the real world.

In that vein, there’s also the significance of where the tournaments are held. South Carolina and Texas are two current coronavirus hotspots in the United States, and as Justin Thomas noted on Saturday, Hilton Head seemed to be proceeding as if the pandemic was over. As of Sunday, 22 states were experiencing 14-day increases in cases, and the country’s new daily cases on Friday and Saturday breached 30,000, the most in six weeks. (Daily deaths are continuing to slowly decline.)

Now, any direct correlation to the island’s laissez-faire attitude and Watney’s test is a false equivalency. But Thomas’ remarks underscore how little of this is under tour jurisdiction, and control. And that truth is perhaps the toughest swallow, and biggest obstacle, going forward.

“There’s active community spread. Athletes are not immune,” Dr. Adalja said. “These bubbles are not hermetically sealed, and as we said, in the PGA Tour’s case, there is no bubble.”

Still, Watney’s positive has not triggered a massive revamping of the health and safety plan from the tour.

Sources with close knowledge of the subject tell Golf Digest that, while the tour will continue to improve and refine its protocols, it remains confident in the guidelines set forth. Likewise, sources with the Travelers Championship, next on the tour’s schedule, said the tournament is not deviating from its blueprint due to Watney’s test.

There will likely be an update sent to tour constituents on Monday or Tuesday, according to sources, but it will mostly be a reminder of the protocols and the need to maintain social-distancing practices. For now, the plan remains the same.

RELATED: 5 takeaways from the final round at Harbour Town

Do players and caddies trust the safety protocols?

Photo by Kevin C. Cox

Players are not shy when it comes to airing their grievances with the tour and its brass. But publicly and privately, Watney’s positive test has not appeared to have shaken the players’ faith in the tour’s system.

“I feel very safe. I wouldn’t be playing if I didn’t,” Thomas said Saturday. “The tour has done all the protocols they can.”

Thomas was joined by two other megastars in Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka, both maintaining their endorsements.

“Yeah, when I do the things I’m supposed to do and I’m at the tournament site, I feel very safe, yeah,” McIlroy said. Added Koepka: “We’re doing what we can as far as players, the tour—everybody’s doing what they can to make it safe for us, for everybody.”

Not to say the players are oblivious to what’s at hand. Webb Simpson, the eventual winner on Sunday at Harbour Town, went so far as calling the first positive test as a wake-up call of sorts.

“Yeah, it definitely got me thinking about kind of everything that I’ve done this week,” Simpson said. “I’ve tried to be really careful, but I could probably be more careful. I hadn’t really gone out to dinner. I’ve gotten takeout every night. But in terms of even wearing the mask, any time I’m out of my comfort zone away from the golf course, I think it’s smart.

“And really, the six-foot rule I’ve been good about, but I probably could be better.”

Overall though, the players are sticking with the company line. Golf Digest polled more than 20 players and caddies following news of Watney’s test and subsequent WD. Only a handful wavered in their confidence with the measures in place.

“If we didn’t have a positive test, I’m sure [the media] would have said we were hiding something,” a veteran player told Golf Digest. “If you look at how many people we tested, and the number of times we’ve been tested, I think [the positive test] indicates we are doing it right.”

This belief, one championed by multiple players, is not necessarily wrong. The PGA Tour conducted nearly 1,600 tests for golf’s return at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth and the Korn Ferry Challenge at tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, with nearly 900 tests coming at tournament sites. In Week 1, only one Korn Ferry Tour player and three KFT caddies tested positive, all through home results. More than 770 tests were administered this week combined on both tours prior to tournament play, with two KFT caddies testing positive.

“This [positive test] isn’t a knock,” another tour player said. “We have done our part in staying vigilant.”

A quarter of respondents were perplexed why Watney was at the course, or why the tour let Watney come to the course with a pending test. Conversely, Watney’s well-being was their chief concern, none blaming him for his result. How the positive result came to be is a different matter.

Is there a flaw in the tour’s monitoring?

Photo by Angela Weiss

Again, Watney has not publicly spoken on his positive test, but according to McIlroy, it was a fitness tracker that notified Watney his respiratory rates were up, a possible sign of a COVID-19 infection. A source close to Watney confirmed to Golf Digest that the tracker’s data is what prompted a new test.

This is problematic, as Watney had tested negative earlier in the week and under the tour’s guidelines wouldn’t have been tested again until he provided a sample for the chartered flight (which he didn’t use when traveling from Colonial to Harbour Town). One can drive themselves mad with theoreticals, but without the fitness tracker, Watney could have gone along unfettered until taking his arrival test upon getting to the Travelers earlier this coming week.

Also of possible issue are the measures enacted by the positive test.

Upon the announcement of Watney’s result, the tour announced, “For the health and well-being of all associated with the tournament and those within the community, the tour has begun implementing its response plan in consultation with medical experts including working with those who may have had close contact with Nick.” The tour later confirmed that 11 tests were conducted on Friday to those who were around Watney, “with all 11 tests being negative,” a tour spokesperson told Golf Digest on Saturday.

However, preliminary research shows that if someone is tested too early, one day after potential exposure, their viral load may be below the threshold of detection, rendering a negative result.

“You wouldn’t detect someone being positive from exposure that quickly,” Dr. Adalja said. “We often wait several days. We monitor them, even those who are asymptomatic. Testing the day of, even a day after, contact would not show a positive test.”

It begs to ask, even with nearly 2,400 coronavirus tests administered, are more needed for proper surveillance? (Of course, the upshot: Wait too long, and the viral load may also be too low to register.)

There there’s the monitoring of those who have come in contact with Watney. Dr. Adalja says, ideally, anyone who came in contact with Watney would want to isolate for 14 days. Clearly that didn’t happen: Vaughn Taylor, one of Watney’s Thursday playing partners, made the cut and played on the weekend.

“Ideally” is the operative word above. Safety is of paramount importance; in that same breath, is it fair to make someone withdraw from at least two events because they “might” have caught the virus, especially if they ultimately don’t have COVID-19?

“I understand they believe they are keeping with protocols, but one break from the safety protocols can undo them all,” Dr. Adalja says.

Though tour officials maintain this does not change their thinking regarding testing for the upcoming week, they did not rule out additional safeguards being implemented. Expect one area to be addressed: How to prevent a scenario like Watney’s—where a player who is awaiting results is at the course—from happening again.

“We will do what we have to in order for us to safely conduct a tournament and to make sure our players feel safe doing so,” an official told Golf Digest.

What constitutes a critical mass?

As the PGA Tour moves on to Cromwell, Conn., for the Travelers Championship, the hope is that players and caddies protect themselves from the spread of the virus. (Photo by Michael Cohen)

This has been one of the primary questions left unanswered since the tour’s original announcement of its health and safety protocols. As this weekend proved, a single positive test does not suspend a tournament. During a May conference call on the protocols, Andy Levinson, senior vice president of tournament administration, said there’s not a specific number of positive tests the tour has in mind that would enact a cancellation.

“You know, when there is a positive test, there does have to be some contact tracing that takes place, which is why social distancing is … one of the many reasons why social distancing is so important,” Levinson said. “And so we haven’t identified a specific number, but obviously if it was a large number then we would have to evaluate the situation.”

Tour sources tell Golf Digest Levinson’s words remain true.

“There is not a touchstone for when we are going to say ‘That’s that,’” a tour official said. “There is a scenario where the number is low but we feel the environment has changed to the point we can’t safely host players, volunteers, broadcast partners. But we don’t see that [at Hilton Head] and are hearing positive reports from our Travelers Championship team.”

If there’s a main takeaway from Watney’s positive test, it’s that the tour is preaching calm, the players remain committed, the courses are safe. Yet the critical-mass question will likely become the question in the upcoming weeks. There is a chance Watney is an isolated case, but there is mounting evidence to suggest otherwise.

“This is just going to be the deal with someone all the time with professional sports. You saw it the past few days with MLB, NCAA outbreaks,” Dr. Adalja said. “This is something that is going to be the norm.”

The tour proclaimed a successful first step on its tightrope walk at Colonial. The show goes on to TPC River Highlands, and hopefully to Detroit and Columbus. But it’s fair to say the rope wobbled at Harbour Town.

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By Shane Ryan
Following Nick Watney’s positive test for COVID-19 at the RBC Heritage, the PGA Tour said on Saturday that it tested 11 people who may have had close contact with Watney and that all results came back negative.

The Tour didn’t release the names of specific people tested, but his Friday playing partners, Luke List and Vaughn Taylor (along with their caddies), were almost certainly among the 11. In post-round comments, Brooks Koepka noted that he stood next to Watney in the player parking lot on Friday morning, while Rory McIlroy spoke with him from a distance on the putting green and Si Woo Kim walked past him on the driving range. It’s not clear if those three players were tested.

The Tour’s response plan is based on “contact tracing,” which is the process of finding and testing those who came within Watney’s orbit before his positive test.

Watney’s positive test was the first at the RBC Heritage following 369 negative tests conducted prior to the tournament. Watney was among those who tested negative earlier in the week. Last week, at the Colonial, all 487 tests issued to players, caddies, and personnel came back negative.

It is worth noting that it’s possible for a person who has recently contracted the virus to return a “false negative” test, even though he or she has the virus. A Johns Hopkins study released earlier this month found that even when patients began displaying symptoms, the false-negative rate was 38 percent, and remained at 20 percent after one week with the virus. According to the CDC, symptoms typically appear two to 14 days after someone contracts the virus, if they appear at all. The World Health Organisation estimates that the average onset of symptoms is five to six days after contraction.

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