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 Joel Beall

Grayson Murray enjoyed a successful rookie campaign in 2017, winning the Barbasol Championship and reaching the third stage of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Despite this performance, the 24-year-old’s name was frequently mentioned for reasons other than his play. He called out Bryson DeChambeau for an injury WD, chided his fellow pros for their boring social-media accounts and beefed with players on the European Tour regarding world ranking points. Clearly Murray does not adhere to the “Rookies should be seen, not heard” adage.

Murray again made waves over the weekend via Twitter, this time for comments aimed at the PGA Tour Champions. In response to the Golf Channel’s Will Gray, who pointed out the shortcomings of the Charles Schwab Cup point system, Murray said in a now-deleted tweet, “Does anyone really care is the real question…those guys were relevant 10 plus years ago.” Murray further stated that, while he agreed the senior players laid a foundation for the tour of today, the circuit loses a lot of money, forcing the PGA to subsidize it.

After several outlets took Murray to task for his opinions, he issued an apology on Tuesday, specifically for any disrespect mined from his remarks.

The post Grayson Murray apologises for taking shot at PGA Tour Champions appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.