By Joel Beall
RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico — The security guard—a smaller, older gentleman, his posture drooped by time—proclaimed it the best parking lot in golf, which seemed odd. Yes, it was a beautiful space, a sprawled-out field dotted with palms trees hugging the sand and waters. Still, his words sounded ominous in the moment, like a restaurant boasting not of its menu or service or views but its napkins. Thankfully, they would prove to be anything but.

The Puerto Rico Open bills itself as the “most fun tournament on the PGA Tour.” (Shots fired, Phoenix.) A banner greets spectators with this motto in the fan zone, and that spirit is pervasive throughout the grounds. It is an official Tour event that carries alternate status with the WGC-Mexico Championship being played nearly 2,200 miles away. Yet nothing feels minor about it.

Indisputably, things are different, drastically so in some cases, from a “normal” Tour event. Almost all those variances are positive. After spending a week in Rio Grande, here are five observations—more like revelations—from the Puerto Rico Open.

A distilled experience

The ambience of the Puerto Rico Open is less like a Tour event and more like your club’s member-guest. There are no grandstands, just one set of suites on the 18th hole. Only a handful of scoreboards can be seen on the grounds at the Grand Reserve at Coco Beach. Prior to the weekend, on any given hole there are no more than 10 fans to be found … many with none at all. (More on this in a moment.) During Wednesday’s pro-am, players rode in carts. Oh, and there is no media center. Instead, a room in the clubhouse located right across from player dining is the de facto hub. That doesn’t mean much to you, dear reader, but given there’s a bathroom between the two, this layout on a weekly basis would lead to multiple player-writer incidents, mainly them dunking us in a toilet.

Which is not a bad thing! (Not the bullying, but the rest of the paragraph.) Intended or not, the spartan approach leads to a distilled, refined focus on what’s happening inside the ropes rather than out. “Pure” and “professional sports” are rarely compatible in 2020. Puerto Rico is one of the beautiful anomalies.

Unparalleled access

Tuesday to Friday, there is no Tour stop that has fewer spectators than Puerto Rico. That includes the Hawaii events, the Tour Championship, even other alternate events. Early in the week, I asked a man in the service crew what was going on, and he replied it’s not good for Puerto Ricans to take a weekday off. “We have to work,” he noted, said in earnestness and instantly making me feel guilty for playing hooky the past decade during the first week of March Madness.

This is fantastic news if you’re a zealous fan. No, the big names weren’t there, but you could follow budding star and eventual winner Viktor Hovland; up-and-comers like Maverick McNealy, Kristoffer Ventura, Doug Ghim, Robby Shelton and Will Gordon; 2018 Ryder Cupper Alex Noren; and the man who defies all labels, Kiradech Aphibarnrat. Hell, watching any player good enough to be on a Tour range is mesmerizing. Due to the aforementioned lack of crowd, in Puerto Rico it’s often just you and them. Much as I detest autograph hounds, for those seeking someone’s signature, this is the place to go.

Swag. Oh, the swag

Here’s the dirty secret of Tour apparel: It’s all the same. Same brands, same designs, same colors. The only change week-to-week is what corporate-sponsor logo is plastered on the side of a sleeve or cap.

That is what makes the volunteer ensembles at the Puerto Rico Open nothing short of a masterpiece. The hats have white crowns with the tournament name in neon lettering, hugged by aqua blue netting panels. The bill has palm trees and a sunset, with the commonwealth’s flag plastered on the back. Somewhere, Duffy Waldorf smiles.

The shirts aren’t too shabby either, a strip of palm trees separating radiant green and white. As a volunteer noted, you don’t have to squint too hard to see the design as a beach sequence.

View of the 13th tee at the Puerto Rico Open. (Joel Beall)

Some may see it as tacky, but it’s distinctive and innovative without getting too experimental or abstract, and perfectly on brand. Your move, Travelers Championship.

What’s on the line

What spurred my trip to the tournament was not entirely altruistic. There’s not much access to players during major weeks, and their availability at rank-and-file events varies. Knowing I’d be likely the only mainland writer at the event, I figured I had the field at my disposal.

However, while many players were generous with their time, I noticed they weren’t exactly taking in the island’s casual vibes. Check that: Most had an edge to them, usually only seen at Augusta (because it’s the Masters, yes, but also because no one wants to get in trouble) or the weekend of the U.S. Open. On Wednesday, I walked with a player who I have a fairly good relationship with and asked him what was the deal.

“No one wants to be here,” he replied. “We are here because we have to be, because we don’t have status for next season. And there aren’t many points or money up for grabs. You have to be good this week, no lapses, to make it worthwhile.”

He is partially right: Only Martin Trainer, last year’s Puerto Rico Open winner, has exempt status after 2020, and he was back because he’s in a slump something fierce, missing 23 of his last 25 cuts, with one of those made weekends at the 34-player Tournament of Champions (he finished 34th). And obviously players would rather be at the WGCs, or already have enough FedEx Cup points to take a week of rest, than grinding it out in an alternate event.

There’s also another component in the equation. Most players who earn their tour card via the Korn Ferry Tour remain low on the priority ranking, only getting into events that those in the FEC 125 or recent winners pass on. There’s also a contingent of journeyman without cards trying to take advantage of one of the few opportunities they get to compete in a meaningful tournament. Innately they may not want to be in Puerto Rico, but they are glad for any tee time thrown their direction. That tension is palpable. Their careers, to an extent, are on the line. To watch who performs, and who panics, in this cauldron is as illuminating a competition as you’ll see.

A celebration, not a commercial

Because the tournament is sponsored by Puerto Rico’s tourism board rather than a company, there’s no product to push or insurance to sell. The island uses the event as a golf and travel vehicle, sure. But the essence of the tournament is a celebration of Puerto Rico.

Mentioned before, the event is relatively quiet at the start. Come the weekend, however, it’s a festival, a mix of golf fans and folks who stumbled into a fiesta. After all, you don’t hang a “Most Fun Tournament on Tour” banner in jest.

They are out to enjoy the weather and express pride that their island is hosting a world-class league. And, unlike Phoenix or other Ryder Cup events, they’re not obnoxious or rude or crass. The only charge is they’re occasionally overstimulated, not sure who to watch when, which leads to some movement in a player’s sight-line. If that’s a crime, lock up 95 percent of fans.

Best of all, come nightfall, the fan zone is rocking. Other events have their versions of this, all of which are nice. Conversely, there’s a lack of commercialism with Puerto Rico’s set-up. It is a party of the people, by the people.

Sitting on a car hood Saturday night, watching the sun escape over the beach as music and spirit permeate the Caribbean air, the security guard’s declaration returned. The Puerto Rico Open does have the best parking lot in golf. And does a lot of other things right, too.

The post Five revelations from ‘the most fun tournament’ in golf appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico — Conquerors begin small. Napoleon seized Toulon, Alexander claimed Chaeronea, Tiger vanquished TPC Summerlin. It takes time and continued victory until the title is earned, before fear is instilled. For posterity, should these sentiments come to pass, let it be known that Viktor of Oslo’s first dispatch came against Josh of Kentucky, a battle contested off the sands of Puerto Rico.

Irrefutably, it was a battle. Against a valiant effort from journeyman Josh Teater. Against the elements, the skies unleashing torrential rain and unrelenting gusts on his final holes. Against, in moments, incurious observers, with fans moving in his sight-lines and a cart firing off its motor during a backswing. But Viktor Hovland is a Norseman, the 22-year-old’s youthful visage belying a stone-cold vigour. His putter serving as his Stormbreaker, Hovland dropped a 25-foot birdie on the final hole at Grand Reserve in Coco Beach, becoming the first Norwegian winner in PGA Tour history.

“It is incredible,” said a sly-grinning Hovland after closing out a Sunday 70 to finish at 20-under 268, one lower than Teater. “I don’t even know. I couldn’t quite believe it.”

The war cries have been sounded, sure. Capturing the 2018 U.S. Amateur, winning low am at the Masters, breaking Jack Nicklaus’ record for lowest amateur score in the U.S. Open, nearly grabbing his PGA Tour card in just five events and promptly securing it in the second Korn Ferry Playoff event. Yet more so than other sports, golf’s highly touted prospects aren’t guaranteed acclaim at the next level. Former World Am No. 1s like Peter Uihlein, Patrick Rodgers and Maverick McNealy in this week’s opposite-event field are proof of that. The breakthrough is only evident in hindsight.

But the breakthrough did happen, and in style. Even if there was some slight skidding along the way.

The coronation wanted to begin after the 10th hole. Entering the day with a one-stroke lead over Martin Laird, Hovland made the turn in one under as Laird went sideways, growing his advantage over the field by three thanks to a chip-in birdie at the 10th. One slight problem: Soon as the red carpet was rolled out, Hovland tripped on the runner something fierce.

At the par-3 11, a hole he had birdied the first three days of the tournament, Hovland misjudged the wind, his ball coming up short and to the right of the green. In theory, it shouldn’t have been a problem. Pitch it on the green, two-putt at worst, maintain your rule.

Except, well, take it away, Viktor …

“I looked at the shot and thought, ‘Yeah, I’m going to chunk this,’” Hovland said.

Hovland put those thoughts into existence, excavating half of Puerto Rico with the first chip. The third followed suit. His fourth found the green, but his putt for double could not find the hole. For those scoring at home, that’s a triple-bogey 6, which dropped him back into a tie with Teater and Kyle Stanley.

“I just suck at chipping,” Hovland admitted. “I definitely need to work on my short game, and I was 100 percent exposed there. I can get away with it sometimes, but over 72 holes I really need to tighten that up.”

He did, bouncing back with pars on the 13th and 14th, then hitting one of the longest drives of the day on the par-5 15th. It is the rare par 5 on Tour that’s not a given to reach in two, but Hovland’s nuke left him a 2-iron in. He flared the shot, but only slightly, leaving him about 10 yards or so off the green.

From there, Hovland’s chipping, the bane of his existence (he wasn’t being dramatic; Hovland ranks 230th in strokes gained/around-the-green) delivered, his pitch coming to rest in the cup. Eagle, back up one.

“To be honest, I missed my spot by a few feet,” Hovland admitted. “But it took a big jump forward, and I got lucky.”

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

The luck ended there, as someone in the heavens turned on a faucet. For the next two holes, Hovland played in blistering rain. The 20mph wind did not help matters, nor was the television cart that revved its engine during his swing at the 17th. Hovland managed pars in the wet, but Teater converted a birdie on the 17th. All tied with one to play.

With the weather preventing players from reaching the par-5 18th in two, Teater put his third from 100 yards out within 10 feet, leaving a sought-after uphill putt. But the greens softened drastically from the storm, and Teater failed to recalibrate the speed. The attempt, and charge from the 40-year-old, finished just short.

Watching Teater miss from the fairway, Hovland hit his approach, which was devoured by the wind, leaving 25 feet or so for the birdie and the win. While the approach was short, his putt was not. In just his 12th official PGA Tour start as a professional, Viktor Hovland was a PGA Tour champion.

“I just whacked it,” Hovland said. “I wasn’t going to leave it.”

Hovland joins fellow Oklahoma State product Matthew Wolff and Collin Morikawa as young guns to win within the past year since leaving college. And one doesn’t have to squint too hard, with his power off the tee and mouth-watering approach game, to see what could be on Hovland’s horizon. But Hovland has no stomach for such comparisons or projections. “I want to join that group [of Wolff and Morikawa] but all expectations and pressure come from myself,” Hovland said. “I just try to stay within myself and get better every day.”

It’s worth noting that while the putt on the 18th secured the trophy, to Hovland it was won on the 11th. He has a reputation of running hot, letting small mistakes turning his attitude south, his attention elsewhere. Not in Puerto Rico. His performance was one of patience and fortitude and calm.

“This week I’ve been ice cold,” Hovland said. “Even after the triple, I thought, ‘Crap, this is not ideal,’ but I knew that if I just played well on the back … I can be right in it.”

That should serve as a warning to the rest of golf. For there is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself.

The post Hail Viktor Hovland. Norwegian conqueror, Puerto Rico winner, golf’s newest next big thing appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
It’s no secret that PGA Tour pros would rather be playing in this week’s WGC-Mexico Championship than the Puerto Rico Open. The former is a no-cut event offering free ranking points and a purse nearly four times the size. What will surprise you, though, is that tour pros in Puerto Rico might be better off not winning.

Golf Channel’s Will Gray noticed a pretty wild trend among winners of the opposite-field event at Coco Beach Golf Club in its 11-year existence. Instead of a victory being a stepping stone to more tour titles, the exact opposite has happened.

Peculiar stat: across the 11-year history of the @PuertoRicoOpen, no winner has gone on to win any other Tour event after their PR triumph. Only '09 winner Michael Bradley won again…in Puerto Rico two years later. And yes, that includes '16 champ Tony Finau.

— Will Gray (@WillGrayGC) February 18, 2020

Perhaps, we’ve finally found the reason for Tony Finau being stuck on one career PGA Tour win: The Curse of Coco Beach.

Adding to this strange stat is fellow Golf Channel writer Ryan Lavner’s list of golfers who came close to claiming the event.

Best thing that ever happened to Day, Spieth and Bryson was finishing 2nd.

— Ryan Lavner (@RyanLavnerGC) February 18, 2020

Little did that threesome, which has since combined to win 28 PGA Tour titles, realize how much better it was to finish runner-up.

Of course, we kid. We think. This week’s winner will earn a check for $540,000 after all. And yes, most of the tournament’s winners have been journeymen like two-time champ Michael Bradley, George McNeill, and Alex Cejka. Oh, and Scott Brown, who CBS’ Dottie Pepper infamously forgot had won anywhere during a 2017 interview.

Also, while the winners of this even never win anywhere else, it’s not like they never play well. Finau has been in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking and played in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup the past two years. Brown is coming off a T-2 at Riviera on Sunday. And last year’s winner at Coco Beach, Martin Trainer, um. . . wow. . . well, he just made his first cut in (gulp) 22 events. OK, on second thought, you’re definitely better off finishing runner-up this week.

The post Why PGA Tour pros might want to think twice about winning the Puerto Rico Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
Martin Trainer has a 9:29 a.m. PST tee time in the third round of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club on Saturday. If that doesn’t seem like that big a deal, well you might not be familiar with the recent record of Martin Trainer.

Last February, the 28-year-old won the Puerto Rico Open in just his ninth start on the PGA Tour. It was a celebrated victory for a tour rookie still trying to find his way in pro golf. And yet Trainer has struggled to follow up that momentous moment.

Having made the cut in three of his next five starts after the win (best showing a T-41 at the Players Championship), Trainer proceeded to either miss the cut or withdraw from 21 of his next 22 starts. And the one tournament in that stretch in which he played all four rounds was the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January, which technically had no cut and which he finished 34th … out of 34 players.

Returning to a familiar place in Los Angeles and Riviera—Trainer played college golf at USC, graduating in 2013, and the Trojans regularly had practice rounds at the George Thomas gem—appeared to have a calming effect. Trainer, ranked 391st in the Official World Golf Ranking, shot rounds of 72-71 to make the cut on the number at one-over 143.

That said, Friday was not without an anxious finish. Playing his final hole of the second round, the famed par-4 18th, and needing only bogey to get to the weekend after making birdie on the 17th, Trainer drove his ball way right into the trees. He managed to punch his second shot short and left of the green, a little more than 30 yards from the pin, but when he chipped his third shot, it speedily ran past the hole on to the fringe on the other side of the green.

Facing a slick, downhill 18-footer for par, Trainer proceeded to hit his ball five feet past the hole. If things had gone the way they had the previous 22 starts, Trainer would have missed the bogey putt. Mercifully for him, he holed it, making a cut in an event that has a cut for the first time in 45 weeks.

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By Brian Wacker
For all of Tony Finau’s otherworldly physical talents — he averages just shy of 310 yards a pop off the tee and is one of the game’s best ball-strikers, having honed his skills as a teenager hitting off a thin piece of carpet in the family garage during cold winter days in Utah — he has all of just one victory in 150 career starts in what is now his fifth season on the PGA Tour. And that win came in an opposite-field event, the Puerto Rico Open, four years ago.

These are facts and Finau is well aware of them.

“No doubt,” he said when asked point blank if he feels like he needs to win this year. “I’ve been close in the past.”

After a sizzling nine-under 62 in Saturday’s third round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open to take a one-shot lead over Webb Simpson, the 30-year-old is close again. Now the question is, can he close?

Since that lone victory in Puerto Rico, Finau has 31 worldwide top 10s, which include four runner-up finishes in 2018 as well as two in the last few weeks, at Torrey Pines and in Hong Kong. To put that in perspective, only Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Justin Rose and Dustin Johnson have more top 10s in the last three years.

Heady company. But it’s also a dubious distinction when you don’t have any trophies to show for it — a sign of promise as much as the dreaded curse of underachievement.

Finau’s play on Saturday was certainly the former. In a span of five holes in the middle of the back nine at TPC Scottsdale, he made three birdies and an exclamation-point eagle on the par-5 13th, where he striped a 326-yard drive, hit his second from 230 yards to 18 feet and sank the putt in a display that was illustrative of his abilities.

Three holes later, he showed that he’s capable of living up to the big moment, too. Wearing the jersey of his boyhood idol, Kobe Bryant, who was killed in a helicopter crash last Sunday, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others, Finau stepped to the tee inside the stadium that surrounds it, with 20,000 well-lubricated fans in full throat, and nearly aced the par 3.

“I had a perfect number for a sand wedge and go ahead and fire right at the pin,” said Finau, who stuck his shot to five feet before rolling in the birdie putt. “That would have been pretty sweet with the Kobe jersey on. But I like that shot.”

He also likes the way he’s putting this week, and for good reason. Putting, long the Achilles heel of his game, Finau spent his brief offseason working with coach Boyd Summerhays on standing slightly closer to the ball and moving his hands a little higher on the grip. The result was fewer putts peeling off to the right.

Last season, Finau ranked 125th on tour in putting. Through three rounds this week, he’s 15th in the field and has missed just three out of 49 putts from inside 10 feet. He’s also made a half dozen from outside 10 feet, including three between 20 and 25 feet.

“Whenever you’re rolling it nice, it seems to take pressure off the other parts of your game and that was definitely the case [on Friday],” he said after a second-round 66.

To Finau’s point: He’s gone 50 straight holes without a bogey, with his last coming on the fourth hole on Thursday.

It would also be fitting, if not ironic, for Finau to end his drought at TPC Scottsdale. For one, he wasn’t even planning to play in the tournament after originally committing to the European Tour’s Saudi International this week. He pulled out of that event, though, because he and his large family, which includes four kids, recently moved from Utah into a new house nearby. For another, he has missed the cut in his last four appearances at the Waste Management, with a T-22 in 2015 his best result.

A victory would also come a week after the shocking and tragic death of his basketball hero. All week, Finau has been wearing a Bryant jersey on the 16th hole. He has tried to embrace his Mamba mentality, too.

“Just simply put in hard work and love for your craft,” he said when asked what that mantra means to him. “I think that’s what Kobe preached and what he continues to preach. I think that’s his lasting legacy.”

Kobe had another one, too: Winning.

The post Tony Finau leaning on Mamba mentality and better putting in an effort to shed underachiever label appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Feinstein
Erik Compton was in his car Sunday afternoon, driving across Florida from Sarasota—where he had just finished T-47 in the Web.com Tour’s LECOM Suncoast Classic—to his home in Miami.

“I’ll have time to do my laundry, re-pack and then wake up at 2:30 to catch a flight to Puerto Rico,” he said with a laugh. “I hope my eyes will be open on the first tee.”

Compton was pushing himself to try and qualify for the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open. While the tour’s stars will be in Mexico this week for the WGC-Mexico Championship—with more than $10 million on the line and no cut—the tour’s non-stars will tee it up in Puerto Rico for a $3 million purse.

Compton was hoping he could be one of the non-stars in that field. “It’s 19 for one,” said the 39-year-old Florida native, referencing the fact that 19 players had entered the Monday qualifier with one spot in the field available. “Odds are against me, but heck, I’m used to that. I’ve done it before, maybe I can do it again. It’s been a while since I got a start on the PGA Tour.”

And it would continue to be so, Compton shooting a one-under 71 at TPC Dorado Beach on Monday that left him tied for fourth, three strokes back of medalist Alexander Hicks.

Compton’s last PGA Tour start was in October 2016, when he missed the cut at the Sanderson Farms Classic. He had just lost his full status on the PGA Tour after finishing 173rd on the money list that year in 24 starts. Even though he finished tied for second in the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, he has no status on the tour currently and can only get into a field by Monday qualifying or by receiving sponsor’s exemptions.

“There are times when I feel forgotten,” Compton admitted. “Then, other times I see people wondering why I withdrew from an event or questioning whether I’m really still committed to playing. I guess the good news is that they’re noticing that I am playing. Believe me, I’m committed, I’m grinding.”

The questions about his commitment date to the end of the 2016 season when he went to the four-event Web.com Tour Final Series and failed to play his way back to the PGA Tour. Walking to his car after dropping from a tie for sixth to a tie for 24th during the last round of the Nationwide Children’s Championships in Columbus, Ohio, Compton told Golf Digest’s Dave Shedloski: “I’m thinking about packing it in. I just can’t get it done anymore.” A moment later he added, “I’ve become a three-round player.”

The last comment was important and instructive. Although people in golf seem to have somehow forgotten, Compton has been through two heart transplants—one at 12 and one at 28. His profile on the PGA Tour’s website makes no mention of the two transplants although it does say that he visits severely ill children almost every week he plays on tour—PGA or Web.com.

Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Compton’s runner-up finish at the 2014 U.S. Open remains a headlight of his career.

Compton takes major doses of medication every day of his life—often between 20 and 30 pills. His meds are constantly being adjusted by doctors who monitor his heart regularly to try to prevent his body from rejecting the transplanted organ. The meds affect him in different ways, but fatigue has often been a problem during his career. Compton doesn’t like to complain about it, but there have been times when he has been forced to withdraw from tournaments—even when playing well—because he’s simply too sick on a given morning to play 18 holes of golf.

“Right now, I feel good,” he said Sunday. “In fact, I’m playing well. I’m hitting the ball very well, but struggling with the putter. The difference between succeeding out here [on the Web.com] and the big tour isn’t very much. The golf courses are different; you never know what you’re going to get from week-to-week. But you have to play very well out here to succeed, same as on the PGA Tour.”

It didn’t take Compton long after his “I may pack it in,” comment to realize he had no desire to pack it in. He still loved to play and compete and was a long way from being ready to become a full-time motivational speaker.

“I was in a very bad place in my life when I said that,” Compton said. “I was going through a divorce, and I’d played badly all year. Did the divorce affect my golf? Probably, but a lot of guys go through those kinds of issues.”

But NO ONE in golf—check that, no one in professional sports—has ever gone through the health issues Compton has faced, and still faces. He had his first transplant at 12 after contracting viral cardiomyopathy, which ended his career as a promising young baseball player. Instead, he became a very good golfer, going to the University of Georgia and then turning pro after two years of college, nervous his pro career would be played on borrowed time.

Compton was working his way up the professional ladder when he had a heart attack in the fall of 2007 while in his car. He drove to the emergency room and called his parents to say goodbye before being taken into surgery because he thought there was a good chance he wouldn’t survive.

He did and then had to wait six months until doctors could find a heart to replace the one that had failed after 16 years. He knows he’s likely to face another crisis at some point in his 40s, but refuses to obsess about it.

“All I can do is worry about how I feel today,” he said. “I have to go in for a heart check-up again soon, but that’s just part of my life. For now, I’m trying to focus on my daughter [Petra] and my golf.”

His golf steadily improved after the second transplant. He won the Mexico Open on the Web.com Tour in 2011 and that helped him finish 13th on the money list for the year, elevating him to the PGA Tour in 2012. He finished 163rd on the money list that year, but finished T-7 in the Q-school finals that year (arguably his most impressive performance since he had to play six rounds) to get his status back for 2013.

“There are times when I feel forgotten. Then, other times I see people wondering why I withdrew from an event or questioning whether I’m really still committed to playing. I guess the good news is that they’re noticing that I am playing. Believe me, I’m committed, I’m grinding.”

His performance at the Open at Pinehurst in 2014, helped him finish 64th on the money list with just almost $1.8 million in official money and allowed him to live his dream of playing in the Masters. He made the cut there in 2015 and finished T-51.

But his health soon became an issue again. The doctors kept adjusting his meds to lessen the side-effects, and the grind of tour life made it difficult for him to play with any consistency.

“I always knew I was never going to be one of those guys who’s on a leader board every single week,” he said. “But I can pop up there every once in a while, especially on difficult golf courses when I’m feeling good. That last year still on tour [2016] was just difficult in a lot of ways.”

In addition to his “normal” health issues, Compton had a bout with gout (initially misdiagnosed) that led to a serious problem with arthritis in his foot. By the time the year ended, he was a hot mess.

After he and his wife, Barbara, separated, Compton lived over his parents’ garage for a while. He had made a lot of money during his five full years on the tour, but much of it—and his house—went away in the divorce. Now, he has a new house, a new girlfriend and spends a good deal of time with Petra—who’s now 10. She was with him this past weekend in Sarasota.

Stacy Revere

Five years ago, after he and Rickie Fowler finished tied for second at Pinehurst, Compton was a media darling. There were calls about potential documentaries on his life, and he became the “Tuesday story” for the local media at almost every tour stop. It had been that way early in his career, when he often received sponsor’s exemptions (30 in all) before he was an exempt player because of the uniqueness of his story.

Now, it seems as if tournament directors who once saw him as a potential ticket-seller, have forgotten about him. He’s stopped writing to ask for exemptions because he knows what the answer will be.

But he’s a long way from packing it in. A year ago, he finished 59th on the Web.com Tour regular-season money list, with three top-15 finishes, including a T-3 in Portland.

In the second tournament of 2019, he shot 69-65 the first two rounds of the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic to take the lead. He was still tied for the lead after three rounds but then blew to a final-round 83, dropping him to a tie for 25th.

“I don’t think it was fatigue,” he said. “It’s more about anxiety because I never know day-to-day how I’m going to feel. That round was very disappointing to say the least. I got off to a bad start, two three-putts the first four holes in the wind. Then, it went completely bad on the eighth hole.”

Compton hit his drive way left on that tee and ended up making a quintuple-bogey 10 after taking two unplayable lies on the hole. The rest of the day was almost as disastrous.

“But I know I can still play,” he said. “That’s what I took away from that week. I’ve already beaten the odds in my life in a lot of ways. I don’t think I’m done doing that yet.”

And so, even if nobody is noticing these days, Erik Compton keeps grinding. There’s no give-up in him. If there was, he probably wouldn’t still be around.

The post Erik Compton isn’t done chasing his dream appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

His infectious enthusiasm and willingness to please after making it all the way to the penultimate group in the season’s penultimate major suddenly made him the well-rounded centrepiece of a media circus. Though he handled the distractions with aplomb, what the eventual 8th place finish at Troon and new-found fame didn’t help Beef achieve was to keep his eye on the ball career wise.

A top-10 at the lowly Puerto Rico Open was the solitary highlight of a year spent bouncing uncomfortably between the European and PGA Tours with his next best a T-27 at last summer’s Open at Royal Birkdale.

Beef knew it was “100 percent” time to “wipe the slate clean” and he’s started the process well with a pair of 68s at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA to be right in the mix halfway through the Desert Swing opener.

“When I finish my season, I look back at it and I was just like, it was so crazy, so many distractions, and I probably drunk too much, as well,” the 28-year-old Englishman admitted.

“You’ve gone to too many parties and you get invited here and there and stuff and you’re burning the candle at both ends. I was like, all right, that’s it. Once Christmas, New Year’s is done, just get back to basics and take it nice and easy. I feel great.”

And why not. Johnston is just four shots out of the lead and is sure to see his galleries on The National swell if he can keep the momentum rolling.

There’s no reason to believe he can’t with the big stick behaving.

“Drove the ball lovely,” Beef said after his bogey-free second round. “Hit a lot of fairways and you can put yourself in good positions to hit a lot of wedges and 9-irons in on the par 4s and stuff, so you can give yourself some chances. The putter went a bit cold on the back nine, but you just have to stay patient.”

Regardless of what transpires over the weekend, Beef won’t allow himself to be undercooked in one vital area this season – on the range.

“I didn’t put enough work in last year, it’s simple. It showed. So just get down, knuckle down and practice hard.”

The post Fresh cut of Beef appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
There’s being a family man, and then there’s what England’s David Skinns did with a PGA Tour card on the line on Saturday at the Web.com Tour’s Albertsons Boise Open.

Skinns, 35, got into the Web.com Tour finals for the first time in his career this season thanks to his T-2 finish at the WinCo Foods Portland Open in late August. After missing the cut at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, the first event of the finals, Skinns came out strong in Idaho, opening with rounds of 69 and 66 to get to seven under for the tournament. At the end of 36 holes, that was good enough for T-9.

If he had two more low rounds over the weekend, low enough to finish inside the top-5, Skinns could have earned his PGA Tour card, something the journeyman has never done. He’s played in just three PGA Tour events in his career, missing two cuts and tying for 29th at the 2014 Puerto Rico Open.

Even with a potentially life-changing weekend ahead of him, family came first for Skinns, who withdrew on Saturday morning to head home to Georgia and be with his wife:

Family man.

Entering the weekend @Boise_Open inside the top 10, @skinnsygolf WD'ed

His wife went into labor, their second child on the way pic.twitter.com/QSuPJjDg6J

— Korn Ferry Tour (@KornFerryTour) September 16, 2017

While it certainly hurts to miss on a big chance like this, Skinns will still have two more opportunities to earn his card at the DAP Championship and Web.com Tour Championship the final two weeks of September.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen family come first for a professional golfer this season. Phil Mickelson made headlines when he skipped the U.S. Open at Erin Hills, the only major he’s yet to win, to be at his daughter’s high school graduation. Then there was Martin Piller, who also put his PGA Tour hopes on hold to be with his wife Gerina at the Solheim Cup.

The post With PGA Tour card on the line, David Skinns withdraws from Albertsons Boise Open after wife goes into labour appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.