Brandon Harkins’ gap year leads to success

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When John Feinstein sits down to write a book, the best-selling author has a single focus in mind. “What I’ve always tried to do is not make headlines but explain headlines,â€� he says. And those headlines have been an extremely diverse collection. Feinstein has written about the two teams who played in the 1995 Army-Navy game (a book that is his personal favorite), as well as Bobby Knight and his 1985-86 Indiana basketball team, probably his best-known tome. He even delved into the December 1977 fight between the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers when Kermit Washington landed a punch that left Rudy Tomjanovich bleeding and unconscious. And that’s why when Rory tweeted when the book came out … that reading the book he felt like he was in both team rooms, that I thought it was kind of the ultimate compliment. And of the 26 non-fiction books he has written, nine have been about golf, including the most recent, “The First Major: The Inside Story of the 2016 Ryder Cup,” which was released in October. That’s more than any other sport Feinstein has researched and speaks to an enduring fascination with the game that began when he worked at Gardiner’s Bay Country Club on the eastern end of Long Island as a teenager. “I loved the esthetics of it,” he says. “I loved the fact that you could go out and practice and play on your own. I used to get off work in the summer at about 7 and would just grab a cart and go play nine holes by myself before dark, and I had the whole golf course to myself. “I always loved that.” The first person Feinstein told that he was going to write “The First Major” was Davis Love III. The conversation – the first of many over the next 18 months — came on the same day in 2015 when the soon-to-be-named World Golf Hall of Famer was selected as captain of the U.S. Team. “He said, ‘Oh, here we go again’ because he’s been involved in so many of my golf books, and that’s the great thing, though, (because) he completely understands what I’m doing and what I’m trying to do,” Feinstein recalls. So many, indeed. In fact, Feinstein’s first golf book, “A Good Walk Spoiled,” begins with Love standing in the 18th fairway at The Belfry, a bundle of nerves, knowing that his match with Constantino Rocca would decide the 1993 matches. Feinstein actually wanted to write his latest book two years earlier when Tom Watson was the U.S. captain. The two had become close when Feinstein wrote “Caddy for Life” about Bruce Edward’s struggle with ALS. As he pitched the book to Watson, Feinstein hoped to get access similar to what he had when he wrote “Season on the Brink” about the volatile Knight and his Hoosiers. Feinstein had essentially embedded himself with the Indiana team that year and he hoped to tell the story of Watson’s American team from the inside out, as well. “Tom is always honest,” Feinstein says. “And he said, I know it would be a great book, but if one guy on the team came to me afterwards and said, you know, having John in there was a distraction and we lost 14-13 1/2 or something, I’d never forgive myself, and I understood that.” So instead of focusing on the Americans in 2014, Feinstein decided to write about both teams at the 2016 event. Over the next two years he worked to develop relationships with as many of the players as possible, as well as both captains and their assistants. He’d let them take him inside the ropes and behind the scenes instead. “And that’s why when Rory tweeted when the book came out … that reading the book he felt like he was in both team rooms, that I thought it was kind of the ultimate compliment,” Feinstein says. The author was almost overwhelmed by the reception and cooperation he received in researching the book. Take his quest for a sit-down with Jordan Spieth, for example. “The first thing that happened actually that was funny and tells you a lot about Jordan, he had to postpone twice for legit reasons, and when we sat down, the first thing he did was he apologized for postponing, and I said, Jordan, come on, you’re doing me a favor giving me this time, and he said, well, aren’t you doing me a favor putting me in your book?” Feinstein says. “I’m like, really? Jordan needed to be in my book like I need to gain another 20 pounds. And so I laughed. And so then we sat and we talked for a long time, and at the end, like I said, I said, I’m going to need to circle back to you, and he said, yeah, yeah, let’s just make it simple, take my cell phone number and text me whenever you want to talk. You can’t ask for more than that.” From Oct. 2 of last year, when the matches at Hazeltine ended in a hard-fought U.S. victory, to that Thanksgiving, Feinstein estimates he touched base with 16 or 17 of the players to get their take on the event, as well as Love and his European counterpart, Darren Clark. He also interviewed all of Love’s vice captains with the exception of Tiger Woods. “But I had so much stuff from other guys on him, talking about how obsessed he became, and to me people always say, what was your biggest surprise,” Feinstein says. “My biggest surprise was definitely how into the whole thing Tiger became, especially given his past Ryder Cup participation when he was clearly just there because he thought he had to be.” Even as he was in the midst of those follow-up interviews, Feinstein started writing some of the background and historical chapters the week after he got back from Minneapolis. The 320-page book was finished on Feb. 1 of this year. “I’ve always said my newspaper training comes in because I can write fast and I can write on a deadline,” he noted. “I knew it was going to be a fast turnaround, but I was mentally ready to deal with it.” While the competition is at the center of the book, the anecdotes Feinstein gleaned from the coaches and players are what sets it apart. Two of his favorites involve Clarke and Phil Mickelson, two long-time friends as well as keen competitors. Clarke lost his first wife Heather to breast cancer shortly before the Ryder Cup matches in 2006. Mickelson’s wife Amy also has fought the disease, and among Clarke’s memories from that emotional year came at the opening ceremonies when members of the two teams walked in together. “That year it was wife, player, player, wife, two from each side walking side by side, and Darren was supposed to walk in with Amy and Phil, and of course he did not have a partner,” Feinstein says. “And so when the music started and they were about to walk in, Amy walked around Phil, got in between Phil and Darren, took both their hands and walked in with them that way. “And of course Darren never forget that, and Phil said that when Amy was diagnosed, the first phone call he got was from Darren saying, you know, I’m here for you.” Another favorite story in Feinstein’s book came from Love, who remembers seeing Clarke and Mickelson deep in conversation into the wee hours on Sunday night after the U.S. victory. “(He was) talking about sitting and watching Darren and Phil talking together at 2 or 3 in the morning and thinking, this is what Sam Ryder would have wanted the Ryder Cup to be, these guys who have been through so much more together than a golf match, coming back together after competing against one another for three days and sitting around and telling stories together,” Feinstein recalls.

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ATLANTA – FedExCup leader Scottie Scheffler will begin Thursday’s opening round of the TOUR Championship with a two-stroke lead over defending champion Patrick Cantlay, who’s coming off a win in last week’s BMW Championship. It’s good to be No. 1 under the unique Starting Strokes format, even though a two-shot lead can disappear in one hole. Xander Schauffele, a three-time winner this season, will start 6 under, four back of Scheffler. Sam Burns, also a three-time winner this season, will begin at 5 under. One of those four will most likely be your next FedExCup champion, but anyone can win, all the way down to No. 29 Aaron Wise, who will start at even, 10 back. Here are Five Things to know before play gets underway at the TOUR Championship. 1. History hangs in the balance Scheffler didn’t have a single PGA TOUR win at the outset of this year. Now he’s got four and is looking to put a bow on a season that’s already been special. With a win this week, he’d be the first player to win the FedExCup with a five-win season since Justin Thomas five years ago. The complicating factors, though, are many. “Yeah, it’s definitely a bit different,” Scheffler said. “I think what’s going to probably work best for me is to look at it like a four-day event and really ignore the Starting Strokes deal and kind of go out there and do my thing and see where it puts me at the end of four days.” Hot on his heels will be Cantlay, 30, who knows what it takes to capture the FedExCup. As the top seed, he went into the TOUR Championship with a two-shot lead over Jon Rahm last year, held that lead all week, and edged Rahm by one to win golf’s ultimate prize. No player, not even Tiger Woods, has successfully defended his FedExCup title. Cantlay chalked that up to bad luck and injuries, and said he feels no special motivation to go back-to-back. That said, he added, “Two is a lot better than just one.” 2. Rory McIlroy could one-up Tiger Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy announced “a new tech-infused golf league” Wednesday, which promises a Monday-night team-golf concept set to begin play in prime time in 2024. No player, not even Woods, has won the FedExCup three times, but his new business partner could get it done this week. McIlroy, who has a lot of good vibes at East Lake, will start the tournament at 4 under par, six behind, but history suggests that might not be too far back. He was five off the lead through 36 holes and won the 2016 TOUR Championship, and (with Starting Strokes) began the tournament five behind when he won it again in 2019. He was nine behind through 36 holes when he won THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT last fall. “I’ve had chances the majority of the times I’ve been here to win the FedExCup,” said McIlroy, who birdied the last three holes to finish T8 at the BMW Championship last weekend. “… I felt like I got my golf game together a little bit better in Wilmington last week and played OK. I need to make a few more putts this week to have a chance.” A victory this week would put a cherry on top of a remarkably consistent season, as McIlroy has finished in the top 10 in nine of 15 starts, including all four majors. 3. The top four are teams of rivals Top-seeded Scheffler regularly rents houses with fourth-seeded Sam Burns. Together they account for seven victories this season, and wound up in a playoff, won by Burns, to decide the Charles Schwab Challenge. They will most likely make up one of the pairings for U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Davis Love III at Quail Hollow next month. Second-seeded Cantlay, meanwhile, is besties with third-seeded Xander Schauffele. They combined to win the two-man Zurich Classic of New Orleans this season, with Schauffele also collecting wins at the Travelers Championship and Genesis Scottish Open. Cantlay hadn’t won an individual tournament this season until last week’s BMW. They have already formed a successful duo in the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, and it was their debut in the 2019 Presidents Cup that strengthened their bond. Schauffele could have helped his friend by making a birdie putt from 7 1/2 feet on the last hole of the BMW. It would have left him alone in third place at 12 under, with Scheffler in solo fourth, one shot behind him. Cantlay would have (barely) become FedExCup No. 1 and taken the two-shot lead entering the TOUR Championship. As it was, Schauffele missed and he and Scheffler tied for third, and the subtle difference gave the Masters champ enough FedExCup points to nudge him past Cantlay heading into East Lake. “A lawyer,” Schauffele said when asked what Cantlay might be good at besides golf. “He’s really good at putting his thought into words, thinking to finality, and he’s very linear.” Thanks to Schauffele’s miss at the BMW, Cantlay will have to make his case for the FedExCup from two behind. 4. Will Zalatoris’ injury changed things It’s been an action-packed last month for Will Zalatoris, who made a caddie change, won the FedEx St. Jude Championship for his first PGA TOUR victory and suffered a back injury. He has two herniated discs and withdrew from the TOUR Championship after missing the BMW. The Zalatoris WD means that only two players are fewer than five back, which may or may not comfort frontrunner Scheffler. It means that the field is now only 29 players who will be sent off as 14 twosomes and a single each day. It also has Presidents Cup implications. At seventh in the Presidents Cup points standings, Zalatoris was all but a lock to be one of the six picks allotted U.S. Captain Davis Love III. It was widely assumed that Love would just pick Nos. 7-12, but now he has a decision to make that could impact anyone from No. 13 Tom Hoge to No. 30 Sahith Theegala, one of two rookies in the field at the TOUR Championship. “I think that there’s so much depth right now,” PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan said Wednesday. “You look at both teams, … I think both captains and both teams recognize that there’s a next-man-up philosophy. They’re prepared for that.” 5. Making the TOUR Championship just got even bigger Players have always made it a goal to reach the TOUR Championship. It sets up the following season, since by making it to East Lake they also punch their tickets to many of the game’s biggest events, including multiple majors. It was announced this week that, effective immediately, players who made it to the TOUR Championship will also get to play in the Sentry Tournament of Champions – historically a winners-only event – and also will receive a two-year exemption on the PGA TOUR, through 2024. The new rule will affect eight players at East Lake this week: Theegala, Cameron Young, Aaron Wise, Brian Harman, Scott Stallings, Adam Scott, Corey Conners, and Collin Morikawa. All can now book tickets to Maui. “It’s cool,” said FedExCup No. 29 Wise, who will go off as a single Thursday. “It kind of makes it feel like, even though you didn’t win, you got a win this season with the two-year exemption and trip to Maui.”

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