PGA TOUR renews official marketing partnership with Hawai‘i Tourism Authority

SILVIS, Ill. – The TV cameras had moved on, the lights turned off, and Matthew Wolff, who had just won the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities, piled into a hired van with his friend, roommate and personal assistant, Cole Spradlin, to be driven six hours south to the next event on the PGA TOUR’s Midwest Swing, the John Deere Classic. It was around 8 p.m. Sunday. In front of his mother, brother, manager, best friend, and the world, Wolff had just delivered on a whole lot of potential, the numbers on his scorecards speaking even louder than the hype around his herky-jerky, over-the-top, sui generis swing. An eagle at the last. A 62-65 weekend. Victory. “I took a shower, got on the van about 8,� Wolff said, “and responded to about 200 text messages and had about 500 left.� He smiled. “It was non-stop.� Wolff, 20, had become the youngest PGA TOUR winner since Jordan Spieth, then 19, at the 2013 John Deere. With no TOUR status to start the week in Minnesota, Wolff was now exempt through the 2020-’21 season. He had qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs, World Golf Championships, Sentry Tournament of Champions, and, oh, yeah, the Masters Tournament. Everything had changed. Said Spradlin of their time on the van, “I’d be on my phone, and he’d be on his, and he’d look up and say, ‘I just won a PGA TOUR event.’ I’d laugh and say, ‘Yeah, you did.’� In one sense, a TOUR win is a TOUR win. But in another, some simply resonate louder and further across the sports landscape than others. Count Wolff’s 3M victory among the latter. He had won in fewer TOUR starts than Tiger Woods, at an age that recalled Spieth. His coach, George Gankas, had been promising Wolff would be a disruptor, and now it was happening. “I’ve been saying it since he was a sophomore in high school, he’s going to be the greatest player ever,� Gankas said when reached by phone Wednesday. “The only reason I would say something so stupid is I’ve never seen a kid who could repeat the same golf shot, with the same ball flight, so many times in a row. I was the second person he called. I told him, ‘Get some rest, but you’re not going to be able to because you’re going to be on this high the whole night.’� Meanwhile, the shock waves of Wolff’s victory had already arrived in the Quad Cities. “It changed the narrative,� said John Deere Tournament Director Clair Peterson. “We had held out hope that Jordan Spieth and Steve Stricker might come our way, but both of them right up until late Friday were trying to make their decision. Both of them decided not to for different reasons, and made personal calls to us and explained, so there was a bit of an aw shucks component going into the weekend.� Then came not only Wolff at the 3M, but also Collin Morikawa, who tied for second, and Viktor Hovland, who finished T13. The three, plus Justin Suh, make up one of the most highly touted rookie classes in years, and all had committed to the Deere as sponsor exemptions. Just like that, the Deere had one of the hottest players in the game, if not the hottest, plus others from his rookie class who would surprise exactly no one with a win this week.     “It got everyone here reengaged,� Peterson said. John Deere has long had a commitment to young players, whether they play on the First Tee or are trying to establish a foothold on TOUR. It paid off when Spieth won here in 2013, and when Bryson DeChambeau won in 2017, and now it had paid off yet again. Said longtime John Deere CEO Sam Allen, who was watching the end of the 3M in his study at home: “Now all of a sudden you’ve got this tremendous buzz, and the bookies have them in the top five to win.� Wolff arrived in Davenport, Iowa, at about 2:30 a.m. Monday, and he and Spradlin piled out, bleary-eyed but still buzzing from the events at the 3M. In his hotel room, his coach’s words proved prophetic, as Wolff couldn’t seem to nod off. “So I responded to texts,� he said. “It was a non-stop cycle.� He not only made his pro-am time Monday, he also hit balls on the range next to Korea’s Ho Sung Choi, another pro with a zany swing. That night, Wolff and Spradlin watched the All-Star Game’s home run hitting contest, then crashed shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday morning, as Wolff dabbed on sunscreen in the locker room, he chatted with Hunter Mahan and Daniel Berger about where to practice and play – Wolff is joining the Medalist, but it’s not yet official – and the merits of living in Jupiter, Florida, versus Southern California.    Later, Wolff played the back nine with Cameron Tringale and former world No. 1 Luke Donald, and outdrove Donald by nearly 60 yards, and Tringale by about 30, on the 18th hole. “He’s hitting some short clubs into a lot of these holes,� Donald said. “It’s a big advantage. It’s good to see his game up-close. There’s so many different ways to swing the club, as long as you square it up at impact and hit solid shots. He was world-class in college, and a lot of people had faith in his abilities, and to win as quickly as he did, it proved a lot of people right.� TaylorMade went big on Wolff, signing him to one of the most decorated TOUR staffs in the game, and coach Gankas had said people would “lose their minds� at his star pupil. (Sung Kang, another Gankas disciple, became his first player to win on TOUR at the AT&T Byron Nelson in May.) Now, with Wolff’s performance at TPC Twin Cities, minds were being lost. Wolff had become the third player (Ben Crenshaw, Tiger Woods) to win the NCAA individual title and a TOUR event in the same year. The native of Agoura Hills, California won in just his third professional start, after uninspired results at the Travelers Championship (MDF, T80) and Rocket Mortgage Classic (MC), and had gone from 1,659th in the world to 135th. Was anyone surprised? Not Morikawa, who calls Wolff “an awesome kid.� It was fitting for them to play together at the 3M on Sunday. They had battled as amateurs, and although this was a TOUR event, they slipped back into an easy familiarity. Wolff knew what to expect, and vice-versa. “I’m fine with talking,� Morikawa said, “whether a playing partner wants to talk or not talk, I don’t care. But Matt needs someone to talk.� Meanwhile, the golf world continues to talk about Wolff. Per Justin Ray on Twitter, Wolff is the seventh player in the last 80 years to win on TOUR before turning 21. The other six have all won at least three majors: Tiger Woods (15), Seve Ballesteros (5), Phil Mickelson (5), Raymond Floyd (4), Rory McIlroy (4) and Jordan Spieth (3). Could Wolff be headed for such rare air? “All things point toward that way,� Donald said. Wolff said he and Spradlin have spent only three nights in their new place in Jupiter since they got it in April. There are still boxes everywhere, and a stuffed caribou head – given to them by the grandfather of one of Spradlin’s friends – lying in the guest bedroom. A stuffed caribou head? Spradlin laughed at the thought of someone stumbling into such a thing in the dark. Their van may have stopped in the Quad Cities, but the wild ride continues.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Charles Howell III (69, 5 under) said he knew he was in the minority, but, “I’m a May guy.â€� Justin Thomas (70, also 5 under) declared himself a May guy even before the tournament began. They tied for 35th. Rory McIlroy is a March guy. Jim Furyk, too. They were 1-2, respectively, at THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass, which returned to March for the first time since 2006. Did they play well because they’re March guys, or are they March guys because they played well? Maybe both. Or maybe, as McIlroy kept saying all week, attitude was everything. “I’m very thankful to the PGA TOUR for putting it back to March,â€� said McIlroy (70, 16 under). To butcher an old saying, whether you thought you were a March guy or not a March guy at this PLAYERS, you were right. Because Furyk (67, 15 under), too, decided the date helped him.      “A long, wide-open golf course is going to be difficult for me to compete on,â€� Furyk said. “Not that I can’t, but my opportunities and my percentage goes way down. But you put a golf course like this where it’s really important to hit fairways — I’m sure I was in the top five in fairways hit this week. It’s about position.â€� (Furyk was indeed T3 in fairways, 44-of-56, for the week.) But it wasn’t just the top two finishers who suggested THE PLAYERS still plays no favorites.   Dustin Johnson (69, T5), who plays like McIlroy, had his first top 10 here. Brian Harman (70, T8), who plays a precision game more of the style of Furyk, matched his career best (2015). “It definitely — 80 degrees on Friday and really cold today, definitely more variables,â€� said 2018 PLAYERS champion Webb Simpson (68, T16). “The golf course played firm, but the rain came in and softened it out a little bit. It’s definitely more of a guessing game in March.â€� For some who had struggled in May, there was no guessing about the move to March. The date change allowed them to clear the cache, as it were. You could clearly hear Johnson’s enthusiasm even after he won the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship last month. RELATED: Rory’s winner’s bag | Tiger leaves PLAYERS optimistic | Furyk shines with runner-up finish |  “I can’t wait,â€� he said of the new PLAYERS. His T5 was his best result in 11 starts here.    Why was McIlroy thankful for the new date? It starts with something Justin Rose (68, 12 under, T8) mentioned early in the week: The look of the newly overseeded course, specifically the two distinct greens, darker in the rough, lighter in the fairway. The course fit his eye better. “The fairways and the rough are defined,â€� McIlroy said. “Where back in May, the fairway and the rough were the same color, so you didn’t have definition in terms of where you were hitting your tee shots, and I definitely drove it better this week on this golf course because of that.â€� The other benefit, he added, also came down to grass. “You get into this Bermuda in May, it takes a lot of skill out of it,â€� McIlroy said. “It’s sort of hit-and-hope and you have to be lucky and you’re guessing half the time, where the way the overseed is around the greens now, you can actually showcase some of your skills and you can play shots pretty certain knowing what it’s going to do, how it’s going to react.â€� Case in point: After his 347-yard tee shot wound up in the rough fractionally right of the 16th fairway, McIlroy lofted his second shot 174 yards to the green, his ball settling 19 feet left of the pin to set up an easy two-putt birdie. The winning margin, as it turned out. McIlroy won despite being 60th in Strokes Gained: Putting (-1.506) in the final round, by far his worst performance on the greens all week (32 putts). He was 45th in SG: Putting for the week (+.663), meaning he helped himself only marginally on the greens. He led the field, though, in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, and was second in SG: Off-the-Tee. And he tied for fourth in driving distance (295.8 yards per pop). He maximized his strengths. Conversely, Furyk excelled by playing his usual precision game. He usually left himself on the short grass off the tee, and by playing from the fairway he helped further bolster his precision iron play as he finished 10th in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green (+4.788). And using his relatively new arm-lock grip, he ranked 15th in SG: Putting (+4.201). “I made my fair share of 15-footers this week,â€� he said. THE PLAYERS in March helped long hitters and short hitters, but it also hurt long hitters and short hitters if they weren’t on their games. It simply demanded total commitment to and execution of one’s strengths, just as it always has. And the X-factor, as always, was attitude.

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