On the Monterey Peninsula, and particularly at Pebble Beach Golf Links, everything just feels better when the sun shines. The changing shades of blue and green in the water are more stunning. The sand on the beach looks whiter, the grass on the course greener.

For the first two days of the first US Women’s Open played on this historic seaside locale, the mood was dampened somewhat by the clouds that refused to give the sun a peak until it was about time to set. It’s not overstating to say it was gloomy, and the play seemed to mirror that at times, with some of the world’s best players looking cold and glum.

That all changed when Saturday dawned with bright skies and the prospects for a memorable weekend. Pebble Beach truly emerged as the wondrous golf jewel it is, each turn on the course more stunning than the next (as the drones so masterfully captured), and the players responded with their finest golf.

Allisen Corpuz, an accomplished amateur and second-year LPGA player who, on the outside at least, seemed almost too meek to make a huge statement, did exactly what you need to do in a US Open. She steadily and without disaster shot 71-69 on the weekend, bleeding the resolve out of her chasers, including final-group playing partner Nasa Hataoka, who led Corpuz by one at the outset and ended up six shots behind her.

The golf got more compelling as the weekend went on. We should always remember that Hataoka took her lead with a stunning Saturday 66 and that Charley Hull on Sunday missed a birdie putt for 65 that would have tied her with Tiger Woods and Gary Woodland for the lowest round in US Open history at Pebble.

And, finally, as Corpuz stood on the 18th green with the trophy, the first woman to hoist the prize on this shoreline, the sun shone on her face, just as everybody envisioned.

In this case, Pebble Beach won, too.

The expectations for the week were incredibly high, and both the players and the course rose to the occasion. A winning score in the mid-single-digits under par seemed reasonable, and Corpuz did even better at nine-under 279. She left the rest to scuffle at finishing in red numbers, with only seven players pulling that off.

It was by no means a blood bath, and that’s exactly as the USGA hoped. The setup, with nasty rough for the women’s game but manageable yardages and green speeds, drew nearly universal praise, other than maybe some quibbles with most of the par 5s not being reachable in two. But considering that’s seen virtually every week on the LPGA, that extra challenge was absolutely necessary for the national championship.

The biggest buzz beforehand was how this first US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, shown in primetime on the east coast, might attract fans and viewers who hadn’t connected with the women’s side of the game. On-site, the event drew 45,000 spectators over five days, including 11,000 on Saturday. The USGA was happy with that, as it was with the overnight ratings for Thursday’s first round on USA Network. The average total viewership over six hours was 367,000—making it the most-watched first round of the Women’s Open since Pinehurst in 2014 and 119 per cent better than Thursday last year at Pine Needles.

The television ratings numbers for Friday aren’t expected to be released until Monday, and the weekend numbers should be out on Tuesday. But the USGA’s belief is that they will be among the best in the history of the event.

Other takeaways from the week:

The Rose Zhang factor is real

Rose Zhang signs her autograph for a young fan prior to the 78th US Women’s Open. Harry How

We could chalk it up somewhat to the fact that Rose Zhang went to college 90 miles north of Pebble Beach at Stanford, but the large galleries that followed her—by far the most for any player during the week—say something much more. Zhang has become the “it” player in the LPGA after opening her professional career with a victory at Liberty National and contending into Sunday in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship earlier this month.

Pebble is not an easy walk, but parents dragged their little ones, or put them on their shoulders, to follow Zhang from hole to hole, probably so they could say that they saw her before her popularity truly exploded. At least it feels that way, with Zhang not winning, but once again showing that all of her top-level amateur success will translate beautifully on the pro circuit.

Zhang wasn’t able to create a true buzz at Pebble because she opened with a 74, got somewhat back into the mix with a 71 but fell back again with a 72. Eight shots off the lead heading into Sunday was a bit too much to ask, even after she came from six back at Liberty National, and Zhang closed with another 72 to finish at one-over 289.

Still, that’s now a win, and T-8 and T-9 in subsequent majors in Zhang’s first three pro starts. Happily, for women’s golf, this is just a palate cleanser for what we’re going to see for weeks and months to come.

A caddie and husband’s big payday

It’s definitely a unique arrangement. Jennifer Kupcho is one of the top players on the LPGA and her husband, Jay Monahan, is the caddie for Corpuz. Monahan never saw himself as a full-time looper, but then Corpuz needed him in a pinch at the end of January 2023, and they have been a team ever since.

That’s all well and good, but how about when the husband is the first to be part of a major championship win? While Monahan figures to make about 10 per cent of Corpuz’s winnings—or $200,000—Kupcho didn’t make the cut at Pebble and was paid only $8,000 by the USGA for expenses.

“This is obviously incredible, but I think it’s going to take a while to settle in,” Monahan said on the edge of the 18th green after he’d accepted a sliver plate from USGA CEO Mike Whan. “I felt like since I started working with Allisen I’ve been pretty lucky. She’s a joy to work for and a great player. She’s had a few close calls now, and to see her get over the hump today was remarkable.”

An Irish delight

Amateur Ãine Donegan waves after making par on the second green during the third round of the 78th US Women’s Open. Harry How

The breakout “discovery” of the week was Irishwoman Aine Donegan, an upcoming junior at LSU whose early play—she opened with a 69—and good-natured interviews (and playful brogue) won many hearts. Even when Donegan closed with a 77 on Sunday while battling an illness to finish with a nine-over total, she was exuberant on the 18th green, waving an Irish flag and shedding a few tears.

This is a woman who completely took in stride making a quintuple-bogey 9 on the eighth hole in the third round.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better week,” Donegan said. “My goal was to make the cut.”

What’s up with Lexi?

Lexi Thompson stands on the sixth green during the second round of the 78th US Women’s Open. Harry How

Lexi Thompson has lived for nine years with the question of when she would win her second major. But at only 28 years old, she now seems to be facing a more existential crisis about her golf.

When Thompson dejectedly walked off Pebble Beach’s 18th green on Friday, with no shot at making the weekend after shooting 74-79, she left behind big questions about where she goes from here. She still is ranked 13th in the world, but that’s a precarious position, considering that the 11-time tour winner has played only seven times in 2023 and missed four cuts.

Worse for Thompson, she is ranked 137th in the CME Globe season race after the US Open and a long way to making the top 60 who’ll compete in the November’s Tour Championship.

The top 100 in the CME standings earn their tour cards for next year, and with Thompson possibly not among them, she will have the option to use her tournament winner status or career money list exemption. She’s 10th all-time.

The question is: What’s her desire to play at this point? She has spoken of no injuries, but her play has continued to be mediocre. Maybe she’s reached the burnout stage, or is it just too many disappointments in majors that have taken their toll. She coughed up the 54-hole lead in the 2021 US Women’s Open at Olympic Club and twice finished top-four in majors last season, including losing a two-shot lead with five holes to play in the Women’s PGA.

Maybe the time comes when it’s all just too much to care so deeply about. We’re not saying that’s the problem, but the rest of the season might provide more answers.

The post Pebble Beach a major winner, Rose Zhang’s star quality and 3 other takeaways from US Women’s Open week appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

If you’re going to take a curtain call for a career, you could choose worse places than Pebble Beach Golf Links to do it. Michelle Wie West had played just two LPGA events in the previous 24 months, but was excited to compete one last time, the US Women’s Open making its debut on the Monterey Peninsula, before closing out a memorable career. At 33, she has already begun focusing on life outside the ropes after spending more than two decades making headlines inside them.

Indeed, it’s almost hard to believe just how young Wie West was when she started attracting attention with her game. It was back in 2000, when the Hawaii native was only 10, that she first made national news in becoming the youngest player ever to qualify for the US Women’s Amateur Public Links.

In subsequent years, Wie West showcased her talent by achieving several notable “youngest ever” accomplishments in various women’s amateur and professional events, while also competing against the best male amateur and professional golfers in the world by playing in a handful of PGA Tour events. Critics wondered if she might be better served beating up on players her own age to learn “how to win” a la Tiger Woods. But Wie West gained satisfaction and experience testing herself in other ways. And she did her fair share of winning along the way, grabbing five LPGA titles including her signature victory at the 2014 US Women’s Open.

With several impressive moments during her career to choose from, we’ve highlighted 11 that serve as the most memorable—most for the better—of Wie West’s career.

When the teen became a phenom

Robert Laberge

The Kraft Nabisco Championship always loved inviting amateurs into the LPGA major, but took a chance in 2003 when inviting a 13-year-old Wie, who recently had become the youngest player to earn a spot into an LPGA event. Wie made tournament officials look smart when she became the youngest player ever to make a cut in an LPGA event. A third-round 66 put her in the final pairing in the final round. She finished T-9 to earn low amateur honours. It was her first of six top-10s in the major in her career, three of which would come before age 16.

A national champion

Less than three months later, playing in the US Women’s Amateur Public Links, Wie advanced to the finals at Ocean Hammock Golf Club in Florida. When she defeated former NCAA champion Virada Nirapathpongporn in the final, she became the youngest golfer to win a USGA championship that had no age restrictions.

Making waves on the PGA Tour

Al Messerschmidt

Having wowed several tour pros the previous year with her swing when she competed in the pro-am at the Sony Open—earning the nickname the “Big Wiesy” after Ernie Els sung her praises—Wie did more of the same while playing in the PGA Tour event on a sponsor’s exemption. She missed out on becoming just the second woman (along with Babe Didrickson Zaharias) to make a cut in a PGA Tour event but her second-round 68 was the lowest shot by a woman on the PGA Tour. This was the first of eight starts she made on the PGA Tour and also the closest she came to making the cut.

Working for a Masters invite

John Mummert/USGA

In an April 2004 interview with “60 Minutes,” Wie didn’t beat around the bush: “I think my ultimate goal is to play in the Masters. I think it’d be pretty neat walking down the Masters fairways.” One of the ways to qualify was to win the US Amateur Public Links title. So Wie entered the event in 2005 (which was open to men and women), earned a spot in the championship, then advanced into the match-play bracket. Wie got all the way to the quarterfinals before falling to Clay Ogden (above), the eventual winner.

A pro at Sweet 16

Given all her success as an amateur in professional events, and the following she had in and out of golf, it was only a matter of time before Wie would turn pro. She did so a week before her 16th birthday in October 2005, and signed sponsorship deals with Nike and Sony worth a reported $10 million per year.

An auspicious debut

Wie West made her pro debut at the Samsung World Championship in California, seemingly finishing in fourth place and earning around $50,000. However, officials determined that she had taken a bad drop a day earlier and because she had signed for an incorrect score, she was disqualified from the tournament.

First pro win

Kevin C. Cox

Wie wasn’t a full-time LPGA member until earning her tour card in late 2008. Less than a year later, she claimed her first LPGA title, winning the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico by two strokes.

Getting her diploma

Donald Miralle

You could make the argument the most impressive thing Wie ever accomplished on the LPGA Tour was simultaneously going to college at Stanford starting in September 2007 and earning a degree. She took classes between LPGA events. It provided meaning and purpose for her, in a way perhaps golf couldn’t. And it was definitely an outlet to let Wie be defined by something other than golf. She wrapped up classes in March 2012 and attended graduation in Palo Alto that June.

A major milestone

Getty Images

Given all the laurels she earned as an amateur and the talent she displayed, big wins on the LPGA Tour were naturally expected. It wasn’t until 2014, however, that those expectations were fulfilled at Pinehurst No. 2. Playing a week after Martin Kaymer won the men’s title on the Donald Ross course, Wie was the only woman to break par, beating Stacy Lewis by two shots to claim the biggest title in women’s golf.

Disappointment at Hazeltine

Not long after her US Women’s Open title, Wie experienced the first of a series of injuries. She would sit out stretches of seasons to heal, with hopes that the rest would finally pay off. But often it didn’t, and the frustrations boiled over. They hit their hottest in 2019 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, when she shot a first-round 84 at Hazeltine National after a nine-month layoff entering the event. “It’s just one of those situations where I’m not, you know, I’m not entirely sure how much more I have left in me,” she said at the time, “so even on the bad days I’m just like trying to take time to enjoy it. But it’s tough.” After missing the cut, she took the next 21 months off, during which time she got married to Jonnie West and had a baby.

Return to play as a mom

Nine months after the birth of daughter Makenna, Wie West entered the Kia Classic, the first of six tournaments she played in 2021. She missed the cut by four, but sounded enthused to be competing again and proud of the example she could set for her new child.

“After KPMG in 2019 I thought I was done, especially when I found out I was pregnant later that year,” she said. “I thought that cemented it. I thought there was no chance of coming back. And I told my husband that. He was like, ‘No, no, just think it through.’ But then we found out that Makenna was going to be a girl and that just changed my perspective on everything. It was crazy how just that one little fact changed everything.”

Post-golf life

Michelle Wie West poses with AJGA winner Yana Wilson and LPGA champ Rose Zhang after their victories at the Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National last month, a tournament that Wie West helped launch. Elsa

Injuries and homelife, however, began to take a toll and so just prior to the 2022 US Women’s Open, Wie West announced that her playing career would come to an end after Pine Needles, with the exception of one more start a year later at Pebble Beach.

“I’m so grateful for the past 14 years I spent on tour, travelling the world and competing against the best in the game. Excited to spend more time now on projects that I always wanted to do but never had time for and to continually work to help golf become a more diverse and inclusive space.”

It didn’t take her long to get to work, helping start a new LPGA Tour event, the Mizuho Americas Open, at Liberty National Golf Club outside New York that incorporated a separate tournament for AJGA players. (The event got extra publicity when Rose Zhang won the title in her first start as a pro). Wie West also co-hosts a podcast with Golf Digest’s Hally Leadbetter.

“I hope that I inspire a lot of other girls to make bold and fearless decisions and choices in their careers as well,” Wie West said earlier this week. “I continue to want to help the tour grow female sports in general and do everything in my power to keep empowering the women, closing the pay gap, whether it’s in sports and out of sports,” Wie West said.

The post 12 memorable moments from Michelle Wie West’s career appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

While she doesn’t play a lot of tournament golf in the United States, Alice Hewson tries to visit the country as much as she can while competing on the Ladies European Tour (LET). She has two cats, Clyde and Figaro, that live stateside as well as a fiancé, Stephen, whom she’s hoping to marry sometime next year, a date to be determined based on the 2024 LET schedule.

But this trip across the pond isn’t her typical week-long stopover in between tournaments in Europe or an extended vacation to spend quality time with her future husband. This one is all business as Hewson prepares to tee it up in her very first US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Golf fans on the other side of the Atlantic might remember Hewson from the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown earlier this season that was held at TPC Harding Park, the site of the 2020 PGA Championship won by Collin Morikawa.

She and Liz Young were last-minute additions to the England Team, flying into San Francisco from the United Kingdom on the shortest of notices, and the dynamic duo earned their country’s lone point on Saturday, defeating Ruixin Liu and Yu Liu of the People’s Republic of China, 1 up, after Hewson got up and down for birdie on the par-5 18th hole.

Hewson’s grin stretched from ear to ear long after she and her partner shook hands and traded hugs, and a few months on from that moment, it’s something that the 25-year-old will never forget.

“It was an absolute honour to end up going to the International Crown,” said Hewson, who had only represented England as an amateur until that week in May. “It was just an incredible experience to be a part of that team and represent my country as a professional golfer. That was my first opportunity to do that and it was such an amazing experience. We had a great time with the team.”

Now, Hewson is preparing to play in the US for the second time this season at another iconic venue: Pebble Beach. Historically, the course has played host to numerous USGA championships and PGA Tour events as well as two LPGA Tour tournaments in 1950 and 1951, when the Association was merely a toddler. But it’s the first time a women’s event of this magnitude will be held here, and being a part of that history isn’t lost on Hewson. And the irony of getting to play two of the most well-known courses in the country isn’t either.

“To be playing in my first US Open is really exciting. I’m looking forward to having that new opportunity and seeing how everything works and putting myself out there against the best golfers in the world,” said Hewson, who is 185th in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. “I’ve never even seen Pebble Beach before so that’s such a great opportunity. It’s incredible to see where the women’s game is heading. Even like the (AIG Women’s Open), the venues that we’re going to year on year now are just incredible and it’s so great to be a part of that history.”

Image supplied

But Hewson isn’t just looking for a participation trophy. She’s here to compete and plans to take what she learned from her experience at TPC Harding Park and apply it to this major championship. While she gets to play a wide variety of golf courses on the LET, this type of golf is a different animal, one that Hewson will have to get a handle on in a hurry before her Thursday 1:18 p.m. tee time with Kana Mikashima and Emilia Migliaccio.

“There’s definitely a bit of a different way that you have to play the game around those golf courses,” said Hewson of the conditions at TPC Harding Park. “The rough is quite different versus what we play in Europe, what I played growing up, even what I played when I was over here at Clemson (University). We played a lot of Bermuda over here and that’s very different than what there is on the west coast.”

No matter the result, Hewson will always remember this week as a special one. Stephen and her family will be on-site to watch her play, a treat for Hewson whose parents and sister don’t often get to come out with her on the LET because of work and school. She also has yet another opportunity to live out her dream of playing on the LPGA Tour, something that only happens a few times a year during the European swing. It also gives her a taste of what she’ll be up against once that dream finally comes true, once she finally catches what she has doggedly chased since turning professional in 2019.

“Both my mom and dad work. My sister is at university, so they don’t get the opportunity to come out and watch too often, let alone all three of them,” said Hewson. “So to have all three of them and my fiancé there, to have my four best people with me, it’s just gonna be so special.

“The only LPGA events I get to play are majors and then like the (Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open) and ISPS Handa (World Invitational). My goal is to be on the LPGA at some point so it’s nice to have the opportunity to be among the girls and see where the game is at, see what I need to improve going forward. I feel like the potential is there and need to keep working hard so that one day I can be playing on the LPGA full time.”

The post Hewson happy to play with world’s best in first US Women’s Open berth appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Tod Leonard
If those who lead the USGA needed any reminding about why they have returned to the Pebble Beach Golf Links with their championships so frequently over the past 93 years, they only needed to look out the window on Wednesday for their big announcement on the seaside grounds. Before they were bright blue skies with wispy white clouds and the sun shimmering off Stillwater Cove beyond the most famous finishing hole in golf. On its finest days, Pebble Beach is heaven on Earth, and the USGA knows it has a great thing going there. “Arguably, the greatest walk in golf,” mused John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s chief championships officer.

There are USGA championship sites that fall in and out of favour, become obsolete or lose their lustre. Pebble Beach never has and seemingly never will, and now it has the largest commitment yet from the organisation that seems to cherish it the most.

At a news conference, the USGA announced its single-largest package of championships yet for Pebble. Beyond the already slated 2023 U.S. Women’s Open and 2027 U.S. Open, six more events were added to the calendar that will take Pebble Beach’s association with national championships into the 2040s.

The U.S. Opens are scheduled for 2032, 2037 and 2044. The U.S. Women’s Opens will be played in 2035, 2040 and 2048. The latter of those championships will be played nearly 120 years after the U.S. Amateur, the first USGA event at Pebble, was contested in 1929.

“John [Bodenhamer] has promised that I can be a marshal on the 18th hole in 2044, so I’m pretty excited about that,” joked David Stivers, CEO of the Pebble Beach Company.

Pebble Beach is one of the USGA’s most iconic venues, having hosted 13 championships, including six U.S. Opens. Some past champions are among the game’s greatest: Jack Nickalus in 1972, Tom Watson in ’82 and Tiger Woods in 2000. In 2019, Gary Woodland joined the winners’ group that includes Tom Kite and Graeme McDowell with a three-stroke victory over Brooks Koepka.

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But the Hinkle Tree at the Inverness Club in Toledo was a notorious historical golf landmark for more than 40 years until its demise earlier this week when it was cut down after winds partially uprooted it.

“I was somewhat surprised it lasted that long,” former USGA executive director David Fay said on Saturday, recalling the tree’s appearance overnight at the 1979 U.S. Open. “It didn’t look like it would survive the week.”

The tree had stood sentry by the eighth tee at Inverness since the second round of the ’79 U.S. Open. The eighth was a dogleg par-5, and in the first round, Lon Hinkle played a 1-iron tee shot through a gap in the trees and down the adjacent 17th fairway, leaving him a 2-iron to the green.

The fact that Hinkle was co-leading the tournament helped thrust his shortcut into the news. But by the start of play in the second round, in an effort to block the gap in the trees down the 17th fairway, a 20-foot Black Hills spruce was planted there.

Fay, then the tournament relations manager and in his first year with the USGA, learned about it early the next morning.

“It certainly got the attention of then-USGA President Sandy Tatum, who did have a conversation with Jim Hand, chairman of the championship committee and P.J. Boatwright,” Fay said. “The club was instructed to buy a tree. I got in very early the next morning, 4:30, and Bob Yoder, chairman of Inverness’s green committee, came in with a little smile and a receipt. He held it a little over my desk and it fluttered down. I said, ‘What’s this?’

It was a receipt for $120, “for a tree your people ordered,” Yoder said.

Fay initially thought it was some sort of a joke, “maybe a rookie hazing thing,” he said. Nonetheless, Fay went out to the eighth tee box. “I see this mangy-looking thing. It was pretty rinky-dink. I was flabbergasted.”

Hinkle, meanwhile, learned of the tree via the media before he teed off in the second round. He was peppered with questions that he was unable to answer.

“By the time I got there [to the eighth hole] I was four over for the day,” Hinkle said via phone from his Montana home. “I looked at that little tree and thought, ‘son of a gun, this is what all that noise was about?’ ”

So he went over it with a driver and had only a 6-iron into the green. Hinkle went on to tie for 53rd in the U.S. Open. Though Hinkle, now 70, won three PGA Tour events, he’ll best be remembered for the Hinkle Tree.

“That’s probably true,” he said. “I recognized that pretty quick, that that was something I would have to deal with the rest of my golfing career.

“The best part of the whole deal, as I went back [to Inverness] years later, my picture was on the wall in the locker room along with Hogan and Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead and Walter Hagen. That was pretty cool.”

As for Inverness itself, any mention of it also likely will bring to mind the Hinkle Tree ahead of all the history that has transpired there.

“I suspect that if someone were to say the Inverness Club and the U.S. Open, they wouldn’t be talking about Harry Vardon, who almost won at age 50,” Fay said. “They wouldn’t have remembered it for Bob Jones’ first U.S. Open [in 1920]. They wouldn’t remember the longest U.S. Open of all time, Billy Burke and George Von Elm in 1931. They wouldn’t remember that that was the place the pros finally were allowed in the clubhouse. They wouldn’t know Inverness was where the concept of the USGA Green Section was created in 1920. But they would probably remember the ’79 Open and the Hinkle Tree.”

There is a postscript to the ’79 Open, incidentally. In 1980, the U.S. Women’s Open was played at the original course, now defunct, at the Richland Country Club in Nashville. During Wednesday’s practice round, Fay was out on the course and saw Beth Daniel severely cutting a dogleg, “straight-lining it,” Fay said.

He reached Boatwright on the radio and asked him to venture out to have a look.

“He ambles out of the cart and takes a look,” Fay said. “He said, ‘David, go over to the shop and get another tee sign prepared.’ He said, ‘walk forward. I’ll tell you when you to stop.’ I went 18, maybe 20 paces. ‘We’re going to play it from there.’

“He looked at me and smiled and said, ‘We aren’t going to need any f***ing tree this week.’ And he starts laughing.”

The post The notorious Hinkle Tree from the 1979 U.S. Open has died, but the legend lives on appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

While most of his fellow PGA Tour members were playing getting beaten up by the Bear Trap at the Honda Classic, Mickelson chose friendlier (and cosier) confines to hit golf balls. The 49-year-old stopped by short-game guru Dave Pelz’s house and cued up Pebble Beach on the screen. Then he did something he’s always wanted to do: drive the green on the opening par 4. Well, sort of.

Mickelson claims he’s been called off through the years and always hits iron off the tee. It might be the only hole he’s always played it safe, but there’s no laying up on a simulator. Check it out as Mickelson unleashed his latest “bomb” and pulled off a spectacular shot:

 

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Stopped in Austin to work a bit with Pelz before playing these next two weeks. Had some fun too. ? #SingleTake

A post shared by Phil Mickelson (@philmickelson) on Mar 1, 2020 at 9:25am PST

That looks like a kick-in eagle. Pretty impressive, especially since he claims this was a single take. Turns out, these guys are also good on simulators.

Also spectacular was how Phil delivered that intro:

“With a course that I’ve done very well at over the years. I’ve won there four—oh, five times.” Nice.

Mickelson nearly made that six times last month before coming up short to Nick Taylor in Sunday’s final pairing. And now he might have discovered the perfect strategy to get back in the winner’s circle next year.

The post Phil Mickelson is even better at playing Pebble Beach when using a simulator appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

For context, Mickelson sailed his approach on the par 4. Actually, “sailed” is being kind; more like “put it on a plane for Sacramento and it landed in Seattle” long. His ball was found, but it was behind a set of trees, a camera tower, the gallery and Jim Nantz’s backyard hole (not, really, but you get what we’re trying to say).

And yet, there was somehow an opening, because there’s also an opening for wizardry. Which is how Mickelson the magician waved his wedge and pulled this “Did you see THAT!” shot out of the Monterey marine layer:

“He’s not giving up yet.”

Phil continues to thrill. Wow.#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/ENryORGr4M

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 9, 2020

By golf scribe law, we’re obligated to say the putt was impressive in itself, which it was. But my word, even for a short-game sorcerer like Mickelson, this is an escape that would make David Blaine blush.

The post Even by Phil standards, this Phil Mickelson scramble will blow your mind appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Phil Mickelson came out on the business end of Pebble Beach on Sunday, facing the brute of the Pacific winds in a two-over 74 round. Pebble was particularly sadistic, as its wont, after the seventh, Mickelson playing the final 11 holes five over. The rough ending dropped Mickelson to third on the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am leader board, a standing which ultimately kept him out of the WGC-Mexico Championship in two weeks.

“I got outplayed today,” Mickelson said afterwards, giving the nod to champion Nick Taylor.

However, Sunday wasn’t a total loss for Mickelson. In defeat, he accomplished something only two players have done in PGA Tour history.

Mickelson’s third-place finish was his first top 10 of 2020, giving him at least one top 10 in 30 consecutive seasons.

Phil Mickelson is the third player in PGA TOUR history with at least one top-10 in 30 consecutive seasons. pic.twitter.com/zlUsspWC6H

— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) February 10, 2020

This honour wasn’t the lone feat for Phil on Sunday. He’s expected to jump to No. 55 in the Official World Golf Rankings after falling to a three-decade low No. 86 after the Farmers Insurance Open. An important rise for Mickelson and his pursuit of earning his way into the 2020 U.S. Open field at Winged Foot.

Mickelson is scheduled to play in this week’s Genesis Invitational at Riviera, where he is a two-time champ.

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And it worked again on Sunday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Only it was Nick Taylor who made it work. The Canadian journeyman beat Mickelson at his own game—doing more Phil things than Phil—to win by four strokes and register his career second tour title. And he did it right in front of the five-time major champion.

It was at times flashy, at times frazzled, but Taylor’s tour of Pebble Beach Golf Links was fine enough in increasingly gusty conditions to finish off a two-under-par 70 and complete just the second wire-to-wire win in the tournament’s history. His 19-under 268 total was four strokes better than Kevin Streelman, while Mickelson, the defending champion, finished five-stroke back after starting the day just one behind.

As expertly as he imitated Mickelson, you’d have thought Taylor had done this kind of thing before. Except that Taylor had posted just 10 top-10 finishes in 159 previous tour starts and hadn’t won anything save for the 2015 Sanderson Farms Championship during his rookie year when that tournament was the undercard to the World Golf Championship in China.

This time he fought in the main event, getting in the same ring with Mickelson in the day’s final pairing, and he only had two missed cuts and two finishes outside the top 30 in his last four starts to buoy him.

The late Bob Rosburg would have said that a player ranked 229th in the world, and with such a thin résumé, has no shot against Mickelson, coming off a T-3 showing the previous week at the Saudi International. But golf is the ultimate charlatan. It’s more unpredictable than an Iowa caucus recount. Taylor built a five-stroke lead through nine holes, watched it dwindle to two and then he chipped in for birdie on the par-4 15th hole to blunt Mickelson’s rally.

Taylor, 31, a native of Winnipeg, became the first Canadian to capture the Crosby Clambake and halted a streak of American winners that started in 2005—the year Mickelson won wire-to-wire.

“Last couple of years I feel like I’ve been fighting for my card, so things have changed,” Taylor said with a big smile, after adding $1.4 million to his bank account, sewing up a two-year exemption, and now, possibly, planning to sleep under his mailbox in British Columbia until his first Masters invitation arrives.

As for Mickelson, he might share the record for wins at Pebble Beach with five, but for the second time in four years he found out that he can’t overcome, um, Taylor-made precision. In 2016, it was Vaughn Taylor who bested the left-hander by a stroke. Mickelson has finished no worse than Sunday’s third place in four of the last five years at Pebble.

Harry How/Getty Images

Phil’s issue was hitting bombs. Usually, he’d love that, but not on this day, not with some short irons in his hands. He flew over more greens than the blimp. In the freshening breezes, Mickelson, despite his five wins and 12 top-10 finishes in 24 appearances, couldn’t figure out how to counter Pebble’s rebellious streak.

It cost him when Streelman closed with a 68 sneak into second place and keep Mickelson out of the top 50 in the world by one spot. Which means the lefty does not qualify for the WGC-Mexico Championship in two weeks, an event he won two years ago.

“It’s disappointing certainly to have not won, but I got outplayed,” Mickelson said after carding two-over 74 and a 273 total. “Nick played better than I did. He holed a couple of great shots. That eagle on 6, the putts he made on 4, 5 and 7, and he just really played some great golf.”

A consolation, if you can call it that, is that Mickelson became just the third player in tour history to finish with at least one top-10 finish in 30 consecutive seasons, joining Sam Snead and Ray Floyd, who, respectively, did it 34 and 33 years in a row.

So the Mickelson game worked for Mickelson, too, though more so on Saturday when he holed out or nearly did so from everywhere but downtown Carmel. But Taylor kept doing him one better in the final round. Phil led in strokes gained/around the green for the week, but he was 34th on Sunday, while Taylor was sixth.

The first dagger Taylor threw at Mickelson came at the par-5 sixth when he was bunkered short of the green while Lefty was sizing up a 40-foot eagle putt. From 47 feet, Taylor blasted it up and in for a 3 to actually gain a stroke when Mickelson missed his putt. That completed a three-hole stretch for Taylor of birdie-birdie-eagle. Then he got up and down from the front bunker at No. 7 after sinking a 13-footer.

Taylor was rolling. And then stumbling. And then saving himself at just the right moment at 15. “That was by far the bigger moment. That was obviously massive,” he said.

Obviously.

Not so obvious is that Taylor had felt like he had been playing well for some time before putting all of the pieces together at Pebble. But as he noted, there is such a fine line.

“I knew coming in this week that my game’s been great for almost a year now. Really driving it great,” he added. “And I think my coach, caddie, we have talked about it, really trying to minimize the mistakes that we make that shoot ourselves in the foot and not necessarily execution errors, just kind of maybe more strategy errors. And we did a good job.”

Taylor has competed in just two majors as a professional. His win Sunday gets him into the Masters and PGA Championship. He almost admitted that he was used to fighting for his card and was rather satisfied just keeping his card every year.

“If you told me for 15 years I would finish 110 on the FedEx Cup, I think I would be fine with that,” he said with a shrug. It wasn’t that he didn’t have goals, but he was having trouble taking the first steps towards them. Sunday’s proceedings should help.

“You never know when that one break happens,” he said. “I had to battle for my card the last few years; I think some of those rounds to keep my card helped me today for sure.

“I don’t think it’s going to sink in for quite some time,” he added. “I don’t know if I blocked out the last five hours and just played golf, and you know, now I’m here with winning with a trophy, it’s amazing.”

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By Dave Shedloski
PEBBLE BEACH — Golf is not unique among professional sports in pushing its practitioners, men and women who expect to excel at the pinnacle of their respective pursuits, to some dark places. But golf has so many more black corners and deep holes in which to feel blind. Or lost. Or hopeless.

Jason Day is trying to find his way out of a wilderness by following some familiar bread crumbs, ones that scores of players have followed, ones that he already has seen before.

After a winless 2019 campaign and a return of severe back problems, Day started wondering whether his career might be over. A player who has to come back from a back injury has plenty of company, Tiger Woods just being one compadre. It’s a tough road. Tough. Lonely. Did we mention tough?

In December, after having to withdraw from the Presidents Cup in his native Australia, Day, in agonizing pain, told his wife, Ellie, “I think I’m nearly done here.”

Even his good days weren’t very good. And his play suffered, of course.

Which is why this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am has been so encouraging. Heading into Sunday’s final round at Pebble Beach Golf Links, Day is in third place and just three behind the leader, Nick Taylor, after a two-under-par 70 at Spyglass Hill on Saturday left him at 14-under 201. Having drifted back to 46th in the World Rankings, Day seeks his first victory since the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship and his first win at Pebble Beach despite five top-five finishes here in 10 appearances.

“I would like to change the top-five finishes here,” he said. “I would like to win.”

Harry How
Day’s two-under 70 at Spyglass on Saturday has him three off the lead entering the final round at Pebble Beach.

But it’s not a zero-sum game for Day when he tees off at 9:38 a.m. Pacific time at Pebble Beach Golf Links in search of his 13th career PGA Tour title. Just playing is something that he’s grateful to keep doing.

“I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve actually been out there and felt the way that I felt out there today and played well like that,” Day said on Friday after shooting an eight-under 64 at Pebble Beach, his best score in nearly two years. “It’s hard because you compete week-in and week-out and you expect so much of yourself, and everyone does, but sometimes when you’re injured, like for the most part I was all last year, it’s just, it gets frustrating.

“And not only do you get frustrated,” he added, “you don’t get the results and you lose confidence. … And you feel like your world is kind of crumbling around yourself, especially as an athlete who has played, who plays injured. And it’s not a good feeling because there’s some dark moments in there that you got to kind of fight through.”

At that point, most athletes would have to pause and take a deep breath. Day has been taking many of those. Part of his rehab therapy has been blowing up balloons for 30 minutes at a time. The exercise helps align his rib cage, which tends to get out of alignment, adversely affecting his back, and strengthens his core.

Doing that a few times a day gives a man time to think. Which isn’t always a good thing.

“All last year, I would sit there and think, ‘OK, I don’t know how much I can kind of push myself through this.’ I thought maybe I’ll re-evaluate things at 40,” he said. “And I’m like, ‘If I can kind of push it to 35 then that would be good.’ But those are the things that go along in your head. As you’re an injured player, you think, maybe my time is just coming around the corner, and I might have to rack the clubs. And that’s a really terrible way of seeing it because I am only 32.”

On Saturday, Day continued his solid play in what is just his second start of 2020. And he further was buoyed by having his family follow along in the gallery. That included his mother, Dening, who has been in the United States for two months now as she continues to recover from lung cancer with which she was diagnosed in 2017.

Talk about emerging from a dark place.

Day loved seeing his mom and the rest of the family out there. It provided a little more perspective. “I’ve got a lot more gratitude being here,” he said. “I think I’m a lot more happier and that hopefully yields better play [on Sunday].”

Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images
Day’s spirits have been lifted by having his mother, a cancer survivor, in the crowd this week at Pebble Beach.

Regardless of the outcome, Day is just going to keep taking deep breaths, keep moving away from the dark places. So he’s ready for whatever comes his way over these final 18 holes.

“I think a lot of people would probably view it that I’m desperate for a good finish,” he said. “I don’t think I’m worrying about that. I’ve just got to focus on just trying to do the best job I can tomorrow and if it happens, it happens and then if it doesn’t. Then I just build on it and go to the next tournament and try and build and build and build. And sooner or later I’ll have a boatload of confidence, I’ll be able to hit my shots and sooner or later I’m going to win.

“I honestly believe if I keep playing the way that I’m doing, I will win, if not tomorrow then soon.”

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