From the golden age of shortstops to a historically weak group of catchers, here is the state of every position.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - Two first-time contestants have prevailed in the nearly three decades of THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Hal Sutton did it in 1983, the tournament's second year at the Stadium Course, and Craig Perks won in 2002. The Stadium is intimidating, but also subtle. Mark McCumber, 1988 PLAYERS champion and father of 2021 first-timer Tyler McCumber, spoke for many when he said in a recent Florida Times-Union story, "It took me a while to get comfortable in this tournament." And yet these might be the best odds for a first-timer to raise the trophy since Jack Nicklaus won the first PLAYERS in '74. With the 15 rookies in 2020 who made it back this week - second-time first-timers, if you will, after playing just one competitive round - and this year's 16 players who haven't played at all, there are 31 PLAYERS first-timers. And some are among the game's elite. "I feel like it'll be my second time," said world No. 4 Collin Morikawa, who won in his last start at the World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession. "I realize I only got one round in, but it doesn't mean I didn't do any prep." Although the Masters Tournament gets the most attention as being the one that's hardest for the uninitiated to win, THE PLAYERS isn't far behind. If it's behind at all. Rory McIlroy, who will be this week's defending champion of sorts since he won the last time the tournament got in all four rounds, in 2019, has said he didn't really like TPC Sawgrass for the first few years he played it. He didn't even really like any Pete Dye courses. Now, though, after winning the PGA Championship at Kiawah, the BMW Championship at Crooked Stick, and THE PLAYERS at TPC Sawgrass, he has learned to like them very much. "They’re like beer when you’re younger," McIlroy said last year. "You sort of don’t like it, but then you think it’s cool to drink it and then you sort of acquire a taste for it." Justin Thomas said this week that it took him a long time to learn the course and how it played in May, which was the tournament date when he registered his best finish, T3, in 2016. Since 2019, he added with a laugh, he's had to learn how it plays in March. "If you drive it well," he said, "being in March, it’s always going to be softer, the fairways and the greens, and you can make so many birdies out here. You have four par-5s, a lot of short scoring clubs into holes. But if you get it out of play, you’re missing the fairways, you get it out of play on the par-5s, it’s tough to shoot under par out here." Webb Simpson missed the cut in four of his first six PLAYERS starts but won in 2018. "I just learned that you have to respect the golf course," he said. "There’s trouble on every hole." This year's true rookies include but are not limited to Cameron Percy, 46, the oldest first-timer not to get in via a win at the Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS. Scott Harrington isn't too far behind at 40. Maverick McNealy co-owns the career wins record at Stanford (11). Lefty Robert MacIntyre comes from Oban, Scotland. Tyler McCumber has Sawgrass in his blood. Will Zalatoris, 24, is the most highly regarded true newbie. He's climbing up the world ranking (47th) and coming off a T10 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. The second-time first-timers, though, are truly dangerous. Last August, Morikawa won the PGA Championship, becoming the ninth player to win the PGA in his debut. He shot a 4-under 68 in the first round of THE PLAYERS last year and is riding high after capturing the WGC-Workday Championship with his new "saw" putting grip. As for the notion that he'll have to pay his dues at the Stadium, don't be so sure. "I did my normal prep Monday through Wednesday," he said of 2020, "and was able to play Junior PLAYERS, even though I was never in contention. It's not like I'm showing up having played just one tournament round. I've seen it quite a bit now. For me, every week I see the same guys, and that's what helps me no matter what the tournament is called." Norway's Viktor Hovland looks ready to win, too. Top-five finishes in four of his last six starts, including a win at the Mayakoba Golf Classic presented by UNIFIN, have him up to No. 3 in the FedExCup. What's more, he also shot 68 in his one and only competitive round here. "I haven't thought much about that," he said, when asked whether he feels more like a first- or second-timer. "I guess it will be my first because I only got one round in. It was a good round. "I have good memories of that day," he continued, "I'll try to build on it. I haven't played there much. I played Junior PLAYERS. It's a fun track; I'm looking forward to playing it again." Scottie Scheffler also got his first look at Sawgrass at the Junior PLAYERS. He, too, shot an opening 68 last year. "I feel like I know the course pretty well," he said. So does South Africa's Christian Bezuidenhout, who scorched Sawgrass with a 65 last year. That round notwithstanding, he said, he still feels like a newcomer this week. "THE PLAYERS is the one everyone wants," he said. "It's the biggest PGA TOUR event apart from the majors. I'd like to play that course four rounds and finish off on Sunday." As would they all - and this year they will. We're about to see what happens when one of history's most extravagantly talented rookie classes takes the biggest stage on TOUR.
Christian Blyden says he wasn't so sure he was going to like "chasing a ball around a field of grass." The 13-year-old didn't have a lot of options when it came to sports, though. He's a hemophiliac, which means his body has trouble making the clots that stem the bleeding when he's cut or injured. Kids like Christian bruise easily and have an increased risk of bleeding around the joints. So, kickball and softball and soccer and other contact sports weren't exactly on the agenda. But Larry Bonner, the man who would eventually become his stepfather, suggested to Christian's mom, Sarah, that he might enjoy golf. "Have you ever heard of First Tee," he asked her. She hadn't but Sarah did the research that night, immediately enrolled her son, and the following weekend, she took Christian to buy some golf clubs. He's been hooked ever since. In fact, the entire family now plays golf. They even have a practice area in the backyard where Christian, who has also been diagnosed with ADHD and depression, can work on his putting and chipping - even at night under motion sensor lights. "And if they’ve had a rough day at school or at work, they’ll just go outside and chip and putt," Sarah says. "They don’t have to go to the golf course. They just go outside and just joke and laugh." But as much as he likes golf, Christian, who lives in Pensacola, Florida, has never been to a PGA TOUR event. He wanted to see the game he watches almost constantly on the Golf Channel played up-close-and-personal - and maybe even get a chance to see his favorite player, Dustin Johnson. That's where Dreams Come True, a non-profit based in Jacksonville, Florida that grants wishes for kids with life-threatening illnesses, stepped in. Partnering with the TOUR, it arranged a VIP experience for Christian on Wednesday at THE PLAYERS Championship. And while he's at TPC Sawgrass, Christian hopes to get to meet Johnson, who sent a surprise video message with the invitation last week. Christian watched the screen of his tablet intently, without saying a word so as not to miss anything, as Johnson talked. When it was over, his face broke out into a big smile. "Dat be the DJ," Christian said excitedly, as he turned to his parents, who were filming the interaction. Christian has always liked Johnson because of his unflappable demeanor. The teenager says he's been raised to look for the good in life, so he is drawn to players like the world No. 1 who don't get rattled by errant shots and missed putts. "I used to get really upset when I would hit into the trees," Christian said in an email. "My dad would tell me, son, it’s OK, we will call that a mulligan and not count it. You’re still learning. It’s not a big deal. Remember it’s just a game and we are out here to have fun and learn the game. "So, it took me a little while to get over not getting upset at myself when I made a bad shot and to see DJ not get upset at all, I want to be like that. So, I have been working hard. Sometimes I do good, other times not so good. "But when I watch DJ play golf I he is always calm and never upset about any trouble shots, and that’s why I like him." Looking for the good in life hasn't always been easy for Christian and his family, though. He was born 27 weeks early and weighed only 2 pounds, 9 ounces at birth. He stayed in the neonatal ICU at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola for three months. At the time, Sarah lived in Fort Walton Beach, which was about an hour away from her only child. She drove to see Christian every day after work and stayed "until they kicked me out," she says. She'd spend the weekends in the Ronald McDonald House near the hospital. "I would bring all my laundry and everything, all on my laundry soap, anything I had that I needed to get done," Sarah recalls. "I would pack it in my car, and I would drive an hour and get everything done whenever he was napping or whenever the doctors had to do their stuff. … "So, it was definitely a juggle. That was an interesting three months for sure." Small wonder, Sarah battled postpartum depression. Making matters worse was the hemophilia, although as it turned out, Christian would not be diagnosed for nearly a year. He had his first blood transfusion at two weeks, though — luckily his biological father was a match. But the signs were there all along. Sarah remembers walking into his room one day and seeing an IV line sticking out of Christian's head. "I was like, what is he doing to my kid?" she says. "And they were like, well, hold on, hold on, mom. It’s okay. He just lost too much blood. That’s the only place we could get an IV." At nine months, Christian had grown enough that he was able to be circumcised. The bleeding continued for several days and despite multiple trips to the urologist, bloody diapers in hand, and even to the emergency room, Sarah's concerns kept being dismissed. "I was like, okay, well I guess I’m just crazy," Sarah recalls. The next red flag appeared when Christian started cutting teeth. The people who worked at the day care he attended put Christian in a plexiglass crib and separated him from the other children because of the mouth bleeds he got. Sarah became a fixture at the pediatrician's office. "They eventually got tired of seeing us," Sarah says. "They did lab work and they sent it out to Pensacola, and that’s whenever we found out that he had hemophilia. I was like hemo, what? I had no idea what hemophilia is. And they sent us out here to speak to hematologist." Hemophilia is a rare blood disease that generally affects males. According to the Hemophilia Federation of America, approximately 400 babies with the condition are born each year and roughly 20,000 people like Christian, who has the severe form, are living with it in the United States. The condition is caused by a deficiency in the clotting protein factor VIII, which is manufactured by the liver. At first, Christian was treated with a factor replacement therapy that was administered through an IV by a home health care worker - but only after considerable physical gyrations. "I would have to hold him in my lap and have to put one leg over his legs and one arm over his forehead and then hold his other arm down and have one arm shoved behind my back because he would kick and scream and fight," Sarah recalls. "Mommy, why are you letting them do this to me this hurts? And he would just scream and cry. And, and it’s like, but you need your medicine. You just bleed without it — without this medicine, the bleeding doesn’t stop." But even though he needed to take precautions, Christian was still a kid. He'd go out and play with his friends at recess and roll his ankle or trip and fall and he'd have an ankle bleed. When that happened, his ankle would swell up three of four times its normal size. "So, there’s no weight bearing," Sarah says. "There’s no running, there’s no walking, there’s nothing. So, he would just spend the whole year in a wheelchair." Christian ended up having two surgeries on his ankle, performed by Dr. Cynthia Gauger, who is a pediatric hematologist oncologist at Nemours Children's Specialty Center in Jacksonville, Florida, and has formed a strong bond with the teen, who sees her every three months. He had to repeat first grade because of the class time lost during his three-month recovery period. "By the time he got back, they were on adverbs and pronouns and he didn’t know what they were talking about," Sarah says. "So, he just kind of shut down and fell into depression." Christian has been through nine different clotting agents, but the most recent one appears to be working well because he hasn't had a bleed in two years. He can give it to himself with an epi-pen. If he has an active bleed, there is another medication that is given through an IV - and while it makes him "extremely nervous," Sarah says, Christian can administer that, as well. And Larry is a nurse - "How lucky did I get," laughs his wife, who had sold her house and moved to Pensacola, where she met her future husband, with Christian to be closer to a pediatric emergency room. The social environment at school has been good for Christian, who his mom describes as super shy and super quiet. Golf has had a similar affect on the dark-haired teenager. Larry suggested it would be a good outlet to get a kid with ADHD to focus and slow down. "He’s not the kid that’s rushing downstairs, first thing Christmas morning and surprised to see what Santa brought," Sarah says. "He’s your very laid-back, quiet kid. So, so whenever he took an interest in golf, his stepdad and I were like, hey, he’s interested in golf. Let’s feed this golf energy because that’ll get him to socialize more. That’ll get him out of his shell. "And it has, because whenever he’s on the golf course, he’ll make small talk with the other people behind us like at the tee box waiting for the people in front of us. And before he wouldn’t talk to anybody." Sarah says Christian was concerned about playing golf at first. What about my ankles? What if I have another bleed? She told him he could learn at his own pace and stop if he needed to. They went and got clothes, clubs, shoes, even a Garman watch to measure distance. "Then he hit it off with some of the other boys at the First Tee," Sarah says. "And then next thing I know here we are. Every weekend I’m taking him out to go play golf with the other kids. He absolutely loves it." And Dustin Johnson, of course.
Brad Keselowski has won the Busch Pole Award for Sunday's Instacart 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Phoenix Raceway. Series officials released the starting lineup Wednesday morning. Keselowski will drive his No. 2 Team Penske Ford from the pole position with Kyle Larson in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet sharing [...]
Just a few days after making his high school golf team, Dylan Ryan, 14, fainted at practice. It wasn't the first time. Dylan had fainted at another lesson with his coach, Adam Porzak, but, with the dry summers and high temperatures, both Ryan and Porzak assumed this was due to dehydration. What they didn't know was these were early symptoms of leukemia. This particular diagnosis of leukemia has been known to be rare for kids at Ryan's age, and has been commonly found in adults over the age of 65. What started out as a new season on the golf team quickly turned into a block in his career. "I made the golf team, which was an accomplishment, but now with the cancer, I'm just waiting to get back out there," said Ryan. Finding out this news was hard, but golf being taken away from Ryan's everyday life was harder. Coming from a golf family, he began to live and breathe the game at the early age of 1 when he received his own set of Winnie the Pooh golf clubs for his birthday. Ryan's parents knew there was something special with his game when they saw their son hit a plastic golf ball over their neighbor's fence. His love for golf flourished from there. His game only grew stronger at such a young age, getting his first par when he was only 2. "My favorite memory with Dylan was when we played at one of the hardest golf courses at the La Quinta Resort & Club - and he legitimately beat me," said Dylan's father, Scott Ryan. "I shot an 85 and he shot an 82. Seeing Tiger win at The Masters in 2019 had to be close second." Although the change in Ryan's life has taken a toll on his current golf career, Coach Porzak, with his connections in golf, has helped him start each day with positivity. The start was getting Ryan connected with PGA TOUR player Viktor Hovland. "Viktor was incredible in sending along a well thought out message to Dylan, and continues to stay in touch via text," said Ryan Henderson, VP, Marketing & Partnerships for Radegen. Hovland was one of the first TOUR players to reach out, but those to send messages of encouragement since have included Rickie Fowler, Ian Poulter and Justin Thomas. "There's some amazing golfers I'm rooting for right now at THE PLAYERS Championship, because they sent me amazing messages," said Ryan. "Those messages meant a lot to me, sincerely. I'll definitely be rooting for them." "This is the only thing keeping him happy right now," added his father. Though a hospital can lack resources to keep him entertained throughout the day, Dylan and his father found last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard to be the only entertainment they needed. Once the tournament was finished, the two pulled out a 100-foot mat to practice in open hallways. For Ryan, the process of chemotherapy and ridding of leukemia are just the start of the rest of his life. For his Family, this is only the start of paving the way forward. "My vision is for Dylan to use this as a foundation to pay it forward to other kids one day," said Scott. "I told Dylan that not all kids have these connections to receive such wonderful messages. This is an opportunity to be humble and help another kid in the future one day." Between the messages, the surprise gifts from different golf retailers and gifts from strangers - including a 2008 PGA Championship card from Oakland Hills of Tiger Woods as a rookie - these are all parts of Ryan's hope that golf will remain a part of his life forever. "I'm really appreciative of all of the support," he said. "I hope to help other kids like me. It brings a humungous smile on my face and I hope that other kids can get that too." One day, the golf family will be back together, with the father-son duo joining Dylan's two brothers, Taylor, 11, and Royce, 7, all out on the golf course. "Going through this is hard, but, lightening up the day with something golf related has been great for Dylan," said Scott. "I'm looking forward to trying out some new courses once I get through this," said Dylan.
Trent Brown is returning to the Patriots after agreeing to a restructured one-year contract worth up to $11 million, sources told ESPN’s Field Yates.
Trent Williams didn’t commit to a return to the San Francisco 49ers, but he sure hinted at it on the Cris Collinsworth Podcast.
The Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds 5-3 on Tuesday night in a spring training game in Goodyear, Ariz.
Duke, Louisville and Georgia Tech are among the teams jockeying for spots to fill out the expanded field of 68.
The Bulldogs had it tough against BYU, but will enter the 2021 NCAA tournament as the 26-0 team to beat.
