By Alex Myers
Barring an unforeseen late-career push, Charles Howell III will not make the World Golf Hall of Fame. But when it comes to making money on the PGA Tour, the veteran player is nearly in a class of his own.

Howell’s T-53 at last week’s WGC-Mexico Championship went largely unnoticed, but he didn’t walk away empty-handed, earning $39,100. So what? Well, that chunk of change took him to $1,022,917 in earnings for the season, pushing him over the $1 million marks for a 20th consecutive year.

Only Phil Mickelson has a longer such streak in PGA Tour history with 24 years. And the 49-year-old is in good shape to continue that after his solo third at Pebble Beach two weeks ago that moved him to $686,094 in earnings so far in 2019-2020.

Many predicted Howell would win more when he turned pro after a standout collegiate career at Oklahoma State that included him winning the Haskins Award as the nation’s best player in 2000. But the fact that he “only” has three PGA Tour titles might make his consistent money-making even more impressive.

Howell was made aware of his streak last year. While he’s proud of his consistent play, he also knows he’s been fortunate to avoid injuries.

“I don’t really think about it, I didn’t even know about it until I was asked about it earlier this year,” Howell told GolfDigest.com in November. “But listen, I’ve been lucky to stay healthy and to play. I mean, there are a lot of great players out there, Tiger Woods being one of them, that, unfortunately, injuries kept him from doing that because he easily would have. But yeah, it’s something I’m proud of as far as consistency goes. Like I said, it does take a touch of good fortune and luck to keep doing it.”

Howell looks to keep cashing in as he closes in on a big career earnings milestone. The 40-year-old is less then $300,000 away from crossing the $40 million mark. At this rate, that should only take him a few more weeks.

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A career of controversies be damned, with his victory on Sunday at the WGC-Mexico Championship, Reed now has eight career wins—a Masters and two World Golf Championships among them—and has been, save for 2018, a Ryder Cup stud. And he’s still doesn’t turn 30 until August.

In a week that began with Brooks Koepka saying that yes, he thought Reed cheated in the Bahamas and wondering if he was “building sand castles” in the bunker at the Hero World Challenge, and continued with former CBS broadcaster Peter Kostis saying he saw Reed improve his lie on multiple occasions over the years, it ended with Reed managing to block out all the noise and charge to an impressive victory at Club de Golf Chapultepec.

Of the contenders, which included World No. 1 Rory McIlroy; Jon Rahm, who with a victory had a chance to get to No. 1; Justin Thomas, who was looking for his second victory in two months; and Bryson DeChambeau, it was Reed who was the only one not to make a bogey, at least when it truly mattered. His only hiccup came on the final hole, where he arrived with a two-stroke lead and could afford it.

Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images
Reed plays his third shot on the 18th hole, a bogey at the last still enough to win by one.

Did Reed have something to prove? Yes, but not to you, Koepka, Kostis or anyone else. He heard what they said, and it didn’t matter, even if he conceded this week that at times it has been a distraction to his ultimate goal.

“I felt like I had something to prove to myself coming into this week because I feel like I’ve been playing some really solid golf and just haven’t quite gotten over that hump to get the W,” Reed said. “I knew all I needed to do was continue to try to improve on my golf game, but at the same time just block out all the noise, no matter what it was.

“I feel like I’ve been able to do that really well throughout my career, and growing up I’ve always been able to kind of, when I get inside the ropes around the golf course, just focus on what I need to do, and that’s play golf.”

This week, Reed did that better than anyone else, torching Chapultepec with a second-round 63 before a pair of 67s on the weekend to end one stroke clear of DeChambeau. No doubt, it was better finish than Reed had here a year ago, when he faded against Dustin Johnson with a final-round 73.

On this Sunday, while everyone else stumbled, Reed stayed steady, with 10 pars in his first 11 holes. None was bigger than on the par-5 11th, where, from the middle of the fairway, Reed’s second shot hit a tree on the right, bounced off a cart path and left him 70 yards short of the green and even farther right. He punched out, the ball scooting off the back of the green, but he got up and down for par, knocking in a testy 11-footer to stay within one of the lead.

Then Reed followed with two more birdies over his next four holes before he delivered his best shot of the day, a 51-degree wedge from the left rough on the 16th hole that he drew around the trees and stuck to three feet to set up an easy birdie.

“I’ve always been good at being able to kind of shut it down and get it to come out a little quicker,” said Reed, who tacked on another birdie, which proved crucial, at the par-3 17th. “It was just perfect for me to swing hard and hit a draw.”

Jam Media
Reed’s ability to block out distractions has led to big wins even in the face of vocal criticism.

Reed has always been good at blocking out the chatter, too, because inside the ropes is the place where he feels most comfortable, where the only thing that matters is how few strokes it takes to put the ball in the hole. Until, of course, it became about something else in the Bahamas.

Reed was penalised two strokes for improving his line of play during the third round of the Hero World Challenge in December when he swept away sand from behind his ball as he took two practice swings from a waste area. By the letter of the law, he got what he deserved because intent is not part of the rule, but his actions combined with his words—the blaming of a bad camera angle—are what left a bad taste in the mouth of many.

So much so that a firestorm of criticism followed. From Melbourne to Maui, to Torrey Pines, Reed was taken to task for what he did and said, including by his peers, a rarity in the code of brotherhood on tour.

On the eve of the Presidents Cup and just days after the incident, Cam Smith spoke harshly of Reeds actions to reporters in his native Australia and said that fans should “give it to him” during the matches, sentiments that Smith’s countryman, Marc Leishman, echoed.

The fans did, to the point where Reed’s caddie Kessler Karain got into an altercation with a spectator, resulting in the looper being banned from the bag for Sunday’s singles play. It didn’t matter. Reed won anyway, helping spark a U.S. comeback.

A month later in Maui, at the most laidback tournament on tour, Reed was in a playoff when a fan yelled, “Cheater!” after he stroked his putt. Reed said he didn’t hear the blowhard. A few weeks later at Torrey Pines, the heckling continued. Reed still tied for sixth in the event.

RELATED: How Patrick Reed absorbs criticism and stays focused on the course

Even his victory on Sunday was a reminder of controversies past. Six years ago, Reed won the same tournament when it was played at Trump Doral in Miami. That year, in a taped interview with NBC that aired during the final round, Reed declared himself a top-five player in the world, a remark that came off as cocky and was generally not well-received, considering Reed was just 23 at the time, hadn’t played in a major yet and had started the week ranked 44th in the world.

Since then, Reed has racked up several notable wins, including his 2018 Masters triumph, leaving that misstep a distant memory.

When this latest controversy will wash away, who knows. In the meantime, Reed is now up to No. 8 in the world after his latest victory over a world-class field.

“I think the biggest thing is I’ve grown as a player,” he said. “I’ve not allowed too many things to bother me, the highs and lows in golf, especially through a round of golf.”

And what about the next time he’s paired with Koepka?

Said Reed: “I put the ball in the ground, and I just hit my next shot.”

The post Come at Patrick Reed all you want. The only critic he pays attention to is himself appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Reed responded how he always does, by going out and playing good golf. He opened with rounds of 69 and 63 at the WGC-Mexico, then remained in contention with a Saturday 67. On Sunday, with just four holes remaining, he trailed by a few shots and proceeded to make three straight birdies to reach 19 under. That gave him with a two-shot lead on the final hole, and he was able to bogey his way to a one-shot win over Bryson DeChambeau.

“It’s very rewarding,” said Reed, whose only other WGC win came in this event in 2014, when the tournament was played at Doral. “My team and I have worked so hard through the end of last year and also the beginning of this year. We kept on feeling like we were playing some good golf, just weren’t quite able to get over that hump.

A final-round 67 gives @PReedGolf a 1-shot victory at @WGCMexico. ?#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/wG0YWHtFEM

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 24, 2020

“To come back and win my second World Golf Championship—especially with how I had to finish on basically 15 onwards … the last hole was ugly, but it was what I needed to get the job done.”

Reed often gets the job done in similar situations, having now won by one stroke in seven of his eight PGA Tour wins. The only triumph that didn’t come by one stroke was a two-shot win over Ryan Palmer at the 2014 Humana Challenge.

“Just putting yourself in these positions on Sunday is just unbelievable. It’s a great feeling, and I can’t wait to go home and celebrate it with the little ones and my wife and bring home a trophy.”

DeChambeau looked like he’d run away with the tournament when he reached 18 under at the par-4 14th, but a three-putt bogey at the par-3 17th wound up being the difference. Justin Thomas, who lead by himself after 54 holes, shot a two-over 73 to tie for sixth.

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By Christopher Powers
Justin Thomas has owned Club de Golf Chapultepec in his three appearances at the WGC-Mexico Championship, but there’s just one problem: he hasn’t won the event. In 2017 he finished T-5, then followed with a runner-up finish to Phil Mickelson in 2018. Last year, he finished solo ninth. He’s had his chances.

He’ll get another great chance on Sunday in Mexico City, where through 54 holes he sits at 15-under 198. The former PGA Champion shot a six-under 65 on Saturday to grab the solo lead.

“Yeah, I feel like I played pretty well,” said Thomas, who made eight birdies and two bogeys, one of which came on his opening hole and one that came on the 18th. “I mean, all day — very poor on 1, I didn’t hit a good shot, so I didn’t really deserve to make a par there, but my only other bogey on 18, I just kind of pushed the tee shot, but from there I hit three good shots after that, just nothing worked out. But I played a lot of really, really solid good golf throughout the middle of the day and made some good putts when I needed to and hit a lot of good putts that didn’t go in, as well. Definitely a lot more moves than negatives.”

Thomas has improved each day, shooting rounds of 67, 66 and 65. In 15 career rounds at Chapultepec, he’s 51-under par.

“This place can play so different that you kind of have to take each day for what it is. You get a day like Thursday, and a couple undergoes a long way. But then the golf course was set up the last two days with some pins that you could make a lot of birdies. You know, I felt like you just kind of get it in play or get it on the correct sides of the holes, then you can make a lot of birdies, and I was able to do that making some putts, but didn’t really do anything too crazy out there.”

Thomas began the day two back of Bryson DeChambeau, who started his round birdie-eagle and was poised to run away with the tournament. But a double-bogey at the par-5 sixth crushed his momentum, and he wound up finishing with a even-par 71, putting him four shots back of Thomas heading into Sunday.

One back are Patrick Reed and Erik van Rooyen, who each shot four-under 67s. Jon Rahm, who made a hole-in-one at the par-3 17th, shot a course-record 61 and is tied for fourth at 11 under with DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy.

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By Brian Wacker
MEXICO CITY — The origins of Patrick Reed’s Captain America nickname aren’t entirely clear but there’s no mistaking why he was dubbed with the moniker — his love of country and success in Ryder Cups. A more appropriate superhero comparison, though, would be Wolverine.

A fierce and brawny (OK, one out of two ain’t bad) mutant comic book figure, Wolverine’s healing factor is what allowed him to receive a skeleton made of adamantium, a fictional metal alloy with its defining quality being that of near indestructibility. Which is another way to say that for all the things Reed has been called in recent months, resilient should be near the top of the list, too.

In the wake of Reed’s latest controversy — Bunkergate in the Bahamas, for which he has been roundly criticised by everyone from peers to pundits in a controversy that seemingly just won’t go away — the 29-year-old has managed to block out considerable noise and play very good golf.

Exhibits A, B and C, to use some legal vernacular:

—The day after Reed was penalised two strokes for sweeping sand from behind his ball in a waste bunker at the Hero World Challenge, he shot 66 and eventually went on to finish third.

—A month later during a playoff in Maui when a fan yelled, “Cheater!” after Reed stroked an 8-foot birdie putt that missed he said he never heard the shout.

—Last month at Torrey Pines, Reed was occasionally greeted with jeers during the third round and another “cheater” taunt came after a bogey on the 17th, but he still managed a T-6 that week.

In the weeks since, the noise has only continued, with the latest biting comments coming from Brooks Koepka and Peter Kostis earlier this week. No matter, through three rounds of the WGC-Mexico Championship, Reed is a stroke off the lead of Justin Thomas after a sloppy but still respectable four-under 67.

“The biggest thing for me is any time I go to the golf course, I pop in my headphones, get to work, and just really get in tune with every golf shot I hit,” Reed said when asked how he has been able to block out being put on blast. “Because at the end of the day you can’t listen to what other people are saying.”

That’s not to say he hasn’t heard it, or that it hasn’t affected him.

Asked earlier in the week if he heard what Koepka and Kostis had said, Reed confirmed that he had. Asked for a response, he didn’t have much of one, saying, “I said what I have to say about what happened in the Bahamas. At the end of the day, all I’m trying to do is go out and play good golf and trying to win a golf championship.”

When a follow-up was asked, the interview was ended by an official. But on Friday, Reed conceded after his round that at times this year the condemnation has become something of a distraction.

“I think the biggest thing for me is I just work so hard at [ignoring] it,” Reed said. “My team and I work really hard, and I’m not going to lie, just the whole thing on the outside distracts us from our ultimate goal, and that’s to go out and play great golf and continue to try to improve every day on and off the golf course.”

He’s certainly had enough practice dealing with it, dating to his earliest days on tour.

On the final day of this same tournament (then the WGC-Cadillac Championship) in 2014, Reed, then just 23 years old and having not even played in a major yet, raised eyebrows with a braggadocio declaration during a pre-recorded interview with NBC in which he dubbed himself a top 5 player in the world. He was presumed everything from delusional to arrogant but went on to win the tournament, cracking the top 20 with the victory and within two years the top 10.

But later that year, Reed uttered a homophobic slur after missing a putt in the opening round of the HSBC Champions and was rightfully roasted for it. He apologized, and in his next start the following month at the Hero World Challenge tied for third.

Two years later, the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine. Reed wasn’t entangled in any controversy but did find himself locked in a high-profile and electric singles match against Rory McIlory, the highlight and turning point coming when McIlroy holed a 50-footer on the eighth hole (and yelled to the crowd that he couldn’t hear them) only to watch Reed answer by jarring a 25-footer of his own (and wag his finger at McIlroy) to send the partisan crowd into a tizzy. Reed went on to win 1-up to set the tone for a rare U.S. victory.

Then there was 2018.

Among the noise that year: Many patrons at Augusta National openly rooting against Reed in a final-round pairing with McIlroy (in which Reed again came out the victor); a crack during the Arnold Palmer Invitational while seeking relief in which he said, “I guess my name needs to be Jordan Spieth,” when he wasn’t granted his wish; telling a camera crew at the Porsche European Open their “privileges had been revoked” after Reed claimed one of the operators had jingled coins in his pocket; whining about free Red Sox tickets on the eve of the Dell Technologies Championship being in the “line drive section” of Fenway; and last but certainly not least his highly controversial comments following the Americans’ Ryder Cup loss in Paris.

Thankfully, this week has been void of controversy, though there’s still one more round to go.

No matter, Reed, who grew up idolizing Tiger Woods, will likely show up Sunday in a red shirt, black pants and with headphones planted firmly in ears.

“It always gets you excited anytime you’re in a final group playing with anybody,” he said. “At the end of the day, I put myself in position that I needed to going into [Sunday] to try to win a golf tournament.”

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By Brian Wacker
MEXICO CITY — Jon Rahm’s day was already off to a good start with four birdies, including three from tap-in range, in his first four holes Saturday at the WGC-Mexico Championship.

Then a few hours later, he aced the 17th, the ball one-hopping into the hole on the 158-yard par 3.

It was the second hole-in-one of his career on the PGA Tour and the highlight of a course-record 10-under 61 for the 25-year-old Spaniard.

What a shot. ?
What a reaction. ?@JonRahmPGA one-hops it for an ace at @WGCMexico.#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/6CO6dy3gjz

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 22, 2020

“I had just hit a three-quarter 52 [degree wedge] 119 [on 16], so same thing, same shape of shot,” Rahm said. “I don’t know what to say, it’s just one of those lucky moments where you have the exact same shot afterwards and muscle memory to back it up with.”

Rahm’s last ace on tour came in the 2016 Safeway Open. He also had a similar round at the 2018 Career Builder Challenge, where he opened the week with a 62 at La Quinta before eventually going on to win.

To win this time, though, he’ll have to overcome a four-stroke deficit to leader Justin Thomas. Should he do so, it would be Rahm’s first WGC title and could move him to No. 1 in the world for the first time.

“The main thing I just need to stay focused on what I have to do, know that I’m not going to get as lucky as I did today, and maybe know that I’m not going to make every putt I look at,” Rahm said.“Just stay confident that I’m under control of my golf swing and keep hitting the right shots and hopefully get a decent start and give the leaders something to think about.”

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By Stephen Hennessey
Those arguing on either side of golf’s distance debates might as well press pause for a week with the PGA Tour down at Club de Golf Chapultepec. With the course playing at nearly 8,000 feet above elevation, the pros are hitting some prodigious shots, and we’re prone to seeing some enormous tee shots to make the purists arguing for a golf rollback cringe.

Enter Rory McIlroy on the 12th hole on Saturday. The 412-yard hole plays rather straight away. On the scorecard, it looks like a normal par 4. But Rory showed altitude’s effects with his tee shot … hitting it hole high with a driver blast. We’ve seen big tee shots at Chapultepec in the past, but this will be one of the most memorable of all big-time drives.

Rory just drove the green on a 415 yard par 4 ?#WGCMexico pic.twitter.com/xRQMIcPWUe

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) February 22, 2020

The Shotlink screengrab helps put the prodigious drive in perspective, too:

As our friends at Arccos outlined earlier in the week, the 412-yard hole is essentially playing about 375 yards this week. Still, that’s no par 3. But Rory made it look like one, running his driver up near the hole. An easy two-putt for birdie helped Rory keep pace with the lead in the third round.

Rory shared his adjusted stock yardages earlier this week, which was a lot to wrap our heads around. Four-hundred-plus yards isn’t exactly Rory’s stock driver, but he ran his tee ball right up there, showing what’s possible at Chapultepec. Just another impressive blast from one of the game’s most impressive drivers of the ball.

The post Watch Rory McIlroy drive the green on a 400-plus-yard par 4 (thanks, altitude) at the WGC-Mexico appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
MEXICO CITY — Bryson DeChambeau’s off-season decision to bulk up in order to gain distance has been well-documented. After adding more than 20 pounds and going up a shirt size from medium to large, though, his newfound girth took some getting used to when it came to his swing.

In short, DeChambeau’s accuracy suffered and so did his results. He finished near the bottom of the leader board at the Hero World Challenge in December, missed the cut in Abu Dhabi and finished T-52 in Phoenix. His lone top 10 during that stretch was a T-8 in Dubai.

But DeChambeau seems to be settling in. Last week, he tied for fifth at the Genesis Invitational, and through two rounds of this week’s WGC-Mexico Championship, he leads by one after an eight-under 63 on Friday.

What did he do to turn that part of his game around?

“It’s a secret,” DeChambeau quipped.

Of course with Club de Golf Chapultepec sitting at an elevation of 7,300 feet, length is less important than accuracy. And in that department, he is doing just fine. On Friday, DeChambeau hit nine of 14 fairways, 15 greens and was fifth in the field in strokes gained/off the tee.

But the biggest difference was the shortest club in his bag, with DeChambeau pouring in 143 feet, four inches of putts, which included six birdies in a seven-hole stretch en route to a back-nine 29. Through two rounds, he as made a combined 265 feet, 10 inches of putts and ranks first in the field in strokes gained/putting.

“I haven’t been putting bad,” DeChambeau said. “I haven’t necessarily been reading them correctly. I feel like this week I’m seeing the greens really, really well, seeing how they’re breaking, how it’s going to go in, what speed I need, and I don’t know, it’s just one of those things where this week they’re going in.”

It helped, too, that he made some adjustments after his first appearance in the event last year.

“I didn’t have the right equipment for me, and this year I do, and at least I’ve got a lot of the pieces of the puzzle for my bag that are working really, really well out here,” said DeChambeau, who finished T-56 in the event a year ago. “I changed balls to a spinnier ball last year, and this year we haven’t.”

As for the rest?

It remains a secret. But he did concede one fact.

Said DeChambeau: “It doesn’t really show it out here, but I’m hitting it straighter than I ever have in two, three years.”

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By Brian Wacker
Rory McIlroy grew up idolizing Tiger Woods. These days, the 30-year-old Northern Irishman and four-time major champ, is the game’s brightest star in the post-Woods galaxy.

In other words, when the current world No. 1 speaks, his words carry gravitas.

“There are only a handful of guys that carry the tour,” Matt Kuchar said. “[Rory] is one of them.”

So when McIlroy said on Wednesday at the WGC-Mexico Championship, “I’m out,” on the idea of the much-publicized but still very much fantastical Premier Golf League, it meant something.

What exactly? The answers span multitudes.

For one, McIlroy’s words had to be sweet music to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan’s ears. The reigning FedEx Cup champ and Player of the Year picking Ponte Vedra over the proposed big-money, 18-tournament, 48-player league that is prepared, according to one source, to throw upwards of $100 million at him, is a statement that the status quo, or at least many elements of it, are the better option. He’s also the first high-profile player to publicly choose sides — unlike Woods, who has been non-commital, or Phil Mickelson, who remains intrigued and expects to have his mind made up by the tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship.

For another, as McIlroy’s fellow countryman Shane Lowry pointed out, if the Premier Golf League can’t land McIlroy and other big names, then it’s dead on arrival.

“The point I’d make to other players is, if Rory’s not doing it, then why isn’t he doing it?” said Billy Horschel, who, along with McIlroy, is a member of the Tour’s Player Advisory Council. “He looks at things from many perspectives.”

Among those perspectives that McIlroy highlighted on Wednesday: The ability to choose his own schedule, that he doesn’t play golf for the money, and that he’d like to be on the right side of history on the matter.

Still, the alter-organization, or at least the ideas it has presented, persists and players remain (as McIlroy noted) very split on where they stand and which side they’d choose.

“It’s intriguing,” Kuchar said of the PGL. “If you could design a better version of the PGA Tour, it wouldn’t look like the current version. What we have is awesome, [but] I think there’s a lot of hope that the tour moves in a direction that is slightly different moving forward, and guys like Rory have an influence on that direction.”

Those directions, according to a source, could include more prize money, potentially fewer events and therefore a shorter season, and the possibility of incentivizing stars for playing in certain events (or, again, for money).

Already, players are starting to reap at least some increased benefits from the tour.

The purse for this year’s Players Championship has been bumped to $15 million, up from $12.5 a year ago — news that came as talk of the PGL ramped up. A new television deal, which could be announced by this year’s Players, would also likely lead to higher purses in other events as well, according to sources familiar with negotiations.

“The appeal for the cash grab is going to be less appealing than it once was,” said Webb Simpson.

So where does the Premier Golf League go from here?

It depends on whom you ask.

“At the end of the day we’re pro athletes and the definition of pro means getting paid, so it’s going to come down to money,” Kevin Na said. “Money tends to persuade players. If the money is that much better, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some players go.”

Even McIlory conceded there might come a day when he might not have a choice, if every one else goes.

And if McIlroy and the game’s other stars don’t?

“It’s interesting but for me it’s not that interesting,” said Bryson DeChambeau. “If you can’t get the top guys, then what’s the point?”

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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.

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