Inside Tiger Woods’ 2018-2019 season

MELBOURNE, Australia – The last time … well, the only time … the International Team has won the Presidents Cup was 21 years ago here at Royal Melbourne. Louis Oosthuizen was 16 years old at the time. The South African has now played on the last three losing sides, and he’s ready for a change. He thinks the perfect storm for beating Tiger Woods and his high-flying American team could happen this week. “This is probably the best chance we will have with this golf course, this crowd, and I think the way our guys are playing,â€� he said. The action starts Thursday with five Four-Ball matches. RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks THREE PLAYERS TO PONDER THE FLYOVER The Composite Course at Royal Melbourne, created for the 1959 World Cup of Golf, consists of 12 holes from the West Course and six from the East Course. International Team Assistant Captain Geoff Ogilvy of Australia says the par-3 third, par-4 fourth and par-3 fifth will provide plenty of drama early in the round thanks in large part to its “crazy greens.â€� Deep bunkers guard the par 3s, and superintendent Richard Forsyth says the fourth green has the “toughest two-puttâ€� on the course. LANDING ZONE The par-4 472-yard 16th was the finishing hole on the East Course, and it could very well be the finishing hole for many of the matches this week. Tee shots ideally are down the left side, providing players the best chance to land their approaches on a steep green. “It deserves its ranking as one of the greatest finishing holes in golf,â€� Geoff Ogilvy said. WEATHER CHECK From PGA TOUR meteorologist Wade Stettner: “Cool temperatures are forecast on Thursday and Friday with slightly warmer temperatures this weekend. There will be a slight chance of showers on Thursday morning and again on Saturday, but any rainfall will be very light. Southwest winds are forecast from Thursday through Sunday with the strongest winds expected on Thursday.â€� For the latest weather news from Melbourne, Australia, check out PGATOUR.COM’s Weather Hub. SOUND CHECK I don’t think you want to talk about losing too much. It’s like driving down the highway — you don’t want to talk about the truck that’s coming straight at you because you’ll probably drive into it. BY THE NUMBERS 40 – Presidents Cup matches played by Tiger Woods. That ties for second-most all-time with Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. Woods will break that tie and move into solo second behind Phil Mickelson’s 55 with his first match played this week. 39 – Presidents Cup matches played by Australian Adam Scott. With a minimum of two guaranteed matches, Scott will become the International Team leader in that category. 24 – Presidents Cup matches won by Tiger Woods (24-15-1). That’s second behind Phil Mickelson’s 26. 10 – Players who have gone undefeated (no halves) during a single Presidents Cup week. Just two of those 10 players were on the International side – South African Branden Grace in 2015 and Japan’s Shigeki Maruyama in 1998, the only time the Internationals have won. 5 – Players who have gone 5-0-0 during a Presidents Cup week – Grace in 2015, Jim Furyk in 2011, Tiger Woods in 2009, Maruyama in 1998 and Mark O’Meara in 1996. SCATTERSHOTS 2011 Alums: Five players who played in the 2011 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne are back as players this week – Americans Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Webb Simpson and Tiger Woods, and Internationals’ Adam Scott. Captain Ernie Els and assistants K.J. Choi and Geoff Ogilvy also played. Patrick Cantlay, making his first Presidents Cup appearance, is leaning on American assistant captain Steve Stricker for advice on Royal Melbourne. Stricker went 2-2-0 that week and beat Y.E. Yang in Singles. Said Cantley on Stricker: “I like his demeanor … I like his personality. He’s pretty mellow and low-key, and I can relate to that.â€� The Shield: Much has been made of the International Team logo that was commissioned by captain Ernie Els to give his team a more cohesive identity – especially important given that his 12 players come from nine different countries/regions. “I explained to them exactly what it entitles, what’s behind the whole thinking of how we brought the whole thing together, so they like it,â€� Els said. “… We’ve always played under the flag, but we’ve never really had our own identity so to speak.â€� Fly Factor: Monday’s hot weather brought out a lot of files, causing players and fans to do the “Aussie waveâ€� of shooing away the flies. It may not be any kind of issue, especially during windier and milder conditions, but it’s something to be aware of, particularly if a player is on his backswing. “They’re destroying me,â€� Justin Thomas said. “I had on a couple today that were on my face and wouldn’t get off. It’s definitely something I’ve never experienced.â€�

Click here to read the full article…

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – Justin Rose enjoys an annual trip to Philadelphia, usually in the fall when the weather is cool and sweaters are a necessary article of clothing. “That’s my favorite time of year to play golf,â€� he said. “It reminds me of how I grew up playing golf in the U.K.â€� The yearly trip serves as a reminder of his biggest triumph. He takes friends to Merion Golf Club, where he won the U.S. Open in 2013. The club cuts the hole in the same back-left location that was used when he won five years ago. On Rose’s first return, all his companions wore his outfit from the U.S. Open’s final round. They forced him to change into matching clothes. “Slightly embarrassing, but it was fun,â€� he said. Merion is closed this year to undergo a Gil Hanse renovation, so Rose’s trip has undertaken a different context. Instead of playing with friends, he’s among the top contenders for the FedExCup. He’s third in the FedExCup standings with just two events remaining. If he remains in the top 5 after this week, he can clinch the Cup with a victory at the TOUR Championship on Sept. 23. Rose is playing on familiar territory at this week’s BMW Championship. Aronimink, which is less than eight miles from Merion, is on the list of historic venues where he has hoisted a trophy. He won the 2010 Quicken Loans National here. He’s also won at Colonial, Congressional, Muirfield Village, Valderrama and Royal Aberdeen. Aronimink underwent a restoration since the TOUR last visited here in 2011. Hanse, one of the top architects of this era, oversaw the work, which returned the course to its original Donald Ross design. Trees were removed, fairways were widened and bunkers were added. The greens were expanded, as well, to add hole locations. “It’s may be slightly more gentle, a bit more room out there than when I last played in 2011,â€� said Rose, who won the gold medal at the 2016 Olympics on a Hanse design. Rose arrives in good form, as well. He birdied four of his final six holes Monday to finish runner-up to Bryson DeChambeau at the Dell Technologies Championship. It was Rose’s fifth top-3 finish of the season. He has qualified for the TOUR Championship in seven of the past eight seasons, but just once has he been in the top 5 of the FedExCup entering the TOUR Championship. He was third in 2011 (after winning the BMW Championship). He finished T20 at the TOUR Championship as Bill Haas won at East Lake to claim the FedExCup. East Lake, site of the season finale, is a historic venue that would fit in nicely with Rose’s other victorious venues. He has finished second at the home course of Bobby Jones on two occasions (2012, ’15). Even in the midst of golf’s youth movement, the 38-year-old Rose is still having one of the best seasons of his career. His nine top-10s are third-most on TOUR, trailing only Dustin Johnson and Tony Finau. Johnson and Rose are the only players to finish in the top 10 in more than half their starts this season (Rose is 9 for 16). Rose also finished in the top 10 in all four of last season’s FedExCup Playoffs events, giving him 13 top-10s in his last 20 TOUR starts. The biggest improvement in his game has come on the greens. He ranks ninth in Strokes Gained: Putting (+0.51), an improvement of more than 100 spots and 2.3 strokes per tournament from last season. “Sometimes people are afraid to change what they do or how they do it,â€� said Rose’s long-time instructor, Sean Foley. “His lack of satisfaction in what he’s doing has really pushed us to look under every rock.â€� Many players suffer a fall-off in other parts of their game when making such a large improvement in another. They spend so much time practicing their weakness that they neglect their strengths. That hasn’t been the case for Rose, though. He’s remained one of the TOUR’s best ball-strikers while becoming an elite putter. He ranks ninth in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green this season. He’s also in the top 15 of Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green, a testament to the well-rounded game that has made him one of this season’s best players. Rose started using the claw grip in the fall of 2016 and has improved areas like green-reading and alignment. Rose said he employs “three or fourâ€� different strategies, including AimPoint, to read putts. “You can have a perfect stroke and not make putts,â€� Rose said. “The green-reading, the speed control, all of that is a huge factor.â€� This is just the second multiple-win season of his career. The other came in 2010, when he earned his first two PGA TOUR titles in a three-event span. He sandwiched a ninth-place finish at the Travelers Championship – where he shot 75 after starting the final round with a three-shot lead – between wins at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide and AT&T National. The latter was played at Aronimink. Rose started the final round with a four-shot lead. He led by five strokes after eagling the par-5 ninth hole with a 5-wood that stopped inches from the hole. Three-putts on the back nine’s first two holes put the title in tenuous position, though. He made par on the final seven holes to finish one shot ahead of Ryan Moore. Moore’s 65 matched Sunday’s low score. “I knew having not closed out last week, it was important for me to do it today,â€� Rose said after that win. He knows what it takes to win at Aronimink. That experience could help him hoist the FedExCup for the first time.

Click here to read the full article…

It’s not like Morgan Hoffmann could just go to the drugstore and get a prescription filled and he’d suddenly feel better. Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy doesn’t work that way. There’s no known cure for the progressive neuromuscular disorder that the PGA TOUR veteran has. For five years, Hoffmann had consulted more than two dozen different doctors in an effort to find out why his right pectoral muscle seemed to be deteriorating. He could tell his swing speed had decreased and he could see the atrophy in his chest when he looked in the mirror. In December of 2016, Hoffmann received the life-altering diagnosis of FSHD, which primarily affects the muscles of the face, chest, shoulders and upper arms. There is no treatment to halt or reverse the progression of the disease that reportedly affects one in 15,000-20,000 adults in the United States. Hoffmann eventually went public a year later, writing a first-person essay in The Players Tribune that touched on not only the diagnosis but also his desire to raise awareness of the disease and continue his long-time mission to promote health and wellness for kids in need. “All the doctors in the U.S. told me there was no cure and pretty much (said) good luck,â€� Hoffmann recalls. “… That’s pretty unfortunate to hear what the doctors had to say, but I don’t believe that.â€� So, Hoffmann, who is playing in this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship, decided to take control of his body and his health. One of the first things he did was go to Nepal for four months to undergo a series of herbal and holistic treatments. Hoffmann actually had been to Nepal before. He and one of his Oklahoma State teammates, Sean Einhaus, whose mother is from Kathmandu, had played 108 holes to raise money to send some computers to a school that his family had built there. Several years later, Hoffmann got to see the technology put to use. This trip was different, though. The actual treatment lasted for 90 days. He’d stretch out on a bed each morning, and therapists would rub herbs and plants mixed with water on him. The mixture would dry and soak into his body, then at night he could finally shower. The next day, they’d do it all again. “I just laid there,â€� Hoffmann remembers. “I kind of like learned the language a little bit. I had a translator and he kind of taught me a bit every day. That was cool.â€� Hoffmann thinks the treatments slowed the progression of the disease. He has also adopted an alkaline diet – eating only fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds – that proponents feel can rid a person’s body of acids that promotes disease and increases inflammation. “I just take it day by day,â€� Hoffmann says. “My muscles aren’t as fast as they used to be, and my energy is pretty good. I think my diet has a lot to do with it.â€� Hoffmann also has established a foundation to raise money to build a health and wellness center, likely in Florida, where people can learn about everything from nutrition to meditation. Two fundraising pro-ams in the span of 14 months have raised a phenomenal total of nearly $2.6 million. “We’re not raising money for research because you don’t know where it goes exactly,â€� Hoffmann says. “… We’re going to just build a health and wellness center and try to educate people on how to eat properly and make sure that they can alkalize their body and get rid of disease that way.â€� As far as golf is concerned, Hoffmann is playing this season on a major medical extension. He has six more events, counting this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship, to earn 232.40 FedExCup points so he can retain his TOUR card. Last week, Hoffmann opened A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier with rounds of 66 and 65 but shot a pair of 71s on the weekend and ended up tied for 31st. He says he has worked on getting his legs more active in his swing, and he’s excited to see some speed coming back. Most importantly, his attitude is positive. He is not stressing out about whether he can fulfill the requirements of his medical extension. He knows there are more important things in life. “I don’t see it as pressure anymore because it’s just golf and it’s something that I love and I’m just trying to have fun,â€� Hoffmann says. “I’m trying to enjoy the process.â€�

Click here to read the full article…