Matt Kuchar said he plans to call caddie David Giral Ortiz later Friday to apologize. In the meantime, he has paid Ortiz the $50,000 he requested, and pledged a donation to the Mayakoba Classic charities.
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• COURSE: Glen Oaks Club (Composite), 7,350 yards, par 70. Founded in 1924, Glen Oaks Club began on land carved out of the William K. Vanderbilt estate south of Long Island’s Lake Success. A need to expand in the late 1960s sent the club to a 250-acre site in Old Westbury, where Joe Finger was brought in to design three nine-hole loops. The layout remained largely unchanged until 2011, when members approved a major renovation and hired Craig Currier away from Bethpage State Park to oversee the project. The PGA TOUR came calling two years ago when seeking a site to step in for Liberty National, which was set as host until being awarded the Presidents Cup. The tournament course will draw from all three nines – Nos. 1-3 and 6-9 of the White course, Nos. 4 and 5 from the Red and the entire Blue layout. • FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 2,000 points. • CHARITY: The Tackle Kids Cancer program is the official charity of The Northern Trust, helping provide care for young patients and fund pediatric cancer research. Other donations are made to the American Red Cross, the YMCA of Long Island, The First Tee of Metropolitan New York and Birdies for the Brave. • FIELD WATCH: FedExCup points leader Hideki Matsuyama and new PGA Championship king Justin Thomas head a lineup currently set for 120 at the opening playoff stop. … Defending FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy is entered, after hinting of taking a long break after the PGA Championship to rest a rib flareup. … Masters champ Sergio Garcia will sit out the playoff opener for the third consecutive year, while Adam Scott is awaiting the birth of his second child. Brandt Snedeker (ribs), Scott Piercy and Dominic Bozzelli (both undisclosed) are the other absentees. … Summer winners Xander Schauffele (Greenbrier Classic) and Grayson Murray (Barbasol Championship) head up the list of dozen rookies expected to crack the 2017 playoff lineup. • 72-HOLE RECORD: 261, Bob Gilder (1982 at Westchester CC), Jason Day (2015 at Plainfield CC). • 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Brandt Snedeker (3rd round, 2011 at Plainfield CC). • LAST YEAR: Patrick Reed picked up a playoffs victory and a Ryder Cup berth in one fell swoop, overcoming an early two-shot deficit to take control on the back nine and end a 55-start winless drought. An early bogey left Reed two shots behind Rickie Fowler at Bethpage Black, but he birdied three of his next four holes to pull even. He pushed in front with Fowler’s bogey at No.11 and never looked back, able to absorb a closing bogey for a one-stroke win over Sean O’Hair and Emiliano Grillo. The victory locked up a Ryder Cup return for Reed, who delivered a rousing performance in the U.S. win at Hazeltine. Fowler’s closing 74 dropped him to seventh and out of an automatic Ryder Cup spot, though Davis Love III later made him a captain’s pick. • STORYLINES: Matsuyama, Thomas and No.3 Jordan Spieth are separated by just 198 points atop the FedExCup points race, with a gap of 205 points down to Dustin Johnson in fourth. That quartet also stands as the only men to claim multiple victories during the regular season. … Thomas tees it up for the first time since becoming a major champion, which also happened to be his first top-25 finish since June. His first three wins of 2016-17 came in a 12-week span that bookended the Christmas break. … Though Johnson has cooled off since back-to-back-to-back wins just before the Masters, he’s been no worse than 17th since returning from the Open Championship. … At the back of the points list, entrants endeavor to crack the top 100 for a berth in the Dell Technologies Championship outside Boston. Typically, a half-dozen play their way into the second playoff stop from outside the top 100. • SHORT CHIPS: Jim Furyk, whose 34 FedExCup playoff starts are tied for No.7 all-time, won’t be around at all this year after failing to qualify for the postseason. He had just one top-10 finish in 18 starts. … Spieth last year became just the second defending FedExCup champion to make it all the way back to East Lake 12 months later, placing ninth in the final standings. Snedeker was the other, returning in 2013. • TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 1-2:30 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS). Sunday, noon-1:30 p.m. (GC), 2-6 p.m. (CBS). • PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. (featured groups), 3-6 p.m. (featured holes). Saturday, 8:10 a.m.-6 p.m. (featured groups). Sunday, 8:20 a.m.-6 p.m. (featured groups). • RADIO: Thursday-Friday, noon-6 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).
SYDNEY, Australia – South African Louis Oosthuizen fell just short of winning the Australian Open but has positioned himself as the potential spearhead for Ernie Els ahead of the Presidents Cup. Already the only player on Els’ International Team with a winning record in the biennial team competition against the U.S., Oosthuizen produced a huge eagle on the final hole at The Australian Golf Club to make local Matt Jones sweat. RELATED: Inside the International’s dominating 1998 win | Internationals hoping for South African omen Jones – a former winner of the Houston Open – ultimately survived a drama-filled trip down the par-5 18th to secure his second national championship at the course he grew up on. Oosthuizen’s eagle left him with the round of the day, a 5-under 66 and finished at 14 under. But Jones dropped in a testy 5-foot par put after going from bunker, to woodchips, to a tight lie short of the green to win by a shot. Still, Oosthuizen showed he will be a force at this week’s Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne against Tiger Woods and his formidable U.S. Team. “I used this week as preparation for next and obviously I’ll take a lot of confidence out of this and hopefully we can pull it off next week,â€� Oosthuizen said. “I’m ready. Game face is on now and I’m ready.â€� Marc Leishman was the next best member of the International Team and finished in a tie for 10th. Cameron Smith was tied for 27th and defending champion Abraham Ancer was 33rd. “We’re ready to go, and looking forward to it,â€� Leishman said. “I’m pleased with the way I drove the ball and then the way I chipped. I putted well; I just wasn’t reading the greens awesome, but off the tee and around the greens I was pretty pleased with. “If I could take that over into next week and sharpen my irons up a little bit, should be good to go. It’s been a pretty easy week this week energy-wise, so we are excited about next week and hopefully we can play well.â€� Adam Scott and C.T. Pan failed to make the cut although Els was not concerned with their form. Byeong Hun An, Joaquin Niemann, Hideki Matsuyama, Haotong Li, Adam Hadwin and Sungjae Im all rested this week. “My long-term view is long-term form. I’ve picked guys who have played well for a long term. One week or one round is not going to change anything in my view,â€� Els said. “The guys are quality players; they’ve made great strides in making the team and I believe in them. If they have a bad round or a bad tournament, it’s not changing my view on that.â€� Jones, fellow Australian Aaron Pike and Japanese amateur Takumi Kanaya all booked spots in the 2020 Open Championship at Royal St George’s from July 16-19 as the highest three players not already exempt.
CROMWELL, Conn – CROMWELL, Conn. – Given the disparity of their resumes and PGA TOUR travels, it was easy to look at the final pairing in the Travelers Championship Sunday – Brendon Todd and Dustin Johnson – and find yourself searching for ways to accentuate the contrast. One thought jumped out at me: Todd once missed the cut in 25 consecutive tournaments – nine to end the PGA TOUR season in 2009, all 13 Korn Ferry Tour starts in 2010, then the first three KFT events in 2011. Johnson, meanwhile, has never gone more than 30 PGA TOUR starts without winning. RELATED: Winner’s Bag: Dustin Johnson | Frustrated McIroy says ‘decision-making was terrible’ | Gordon finishes T3, earns Special Temporary Membership Digest that one more time – the biggest drought in Johnson’s 13-year career is 30 tournaments. And that’s only happened once. In fact, only three times has he had winless stretches of 24 or more tournaments. OK, the human spirit loves the underdog, so it was easy – and almost mandatory – to embrace Todd and how he twice has traveled back from the abyss to find success on the PGA TOUR. From the early turbulence in his career, Todd won on the PGA TOUR in 2014. Then over the next four seasons he missed the cut in 43 of 55 starts. Yet here he was again, bouncing back with remarkable character, the winner of two tournaments in the fall portion of the 2019-20 season, at 18-under and leading Johnson by two strokes as they began the final round at TPC River Highlands. What wasn’t to love about how Todd personifies the human spirit? Nothing, of course, except that sometimes you find yourself guilty of taking things for granted and Johnson’s record is one such example. It is, especially in this age of remarkable balance in professional golf, impressive how consistent he has been since joining the PGA TOUR in 2008. I would argue that inasmuch as there is hoopla over Bryson DeChambeau’s physique and marvel about Phil Mickelson’s longevity and fascination with all things Tiger Woods and infatuation with the Rory McIlroy’s warmth, what gets the short end far too often is Johnson’s uncanny steadiness. Might we say he’s a freak of nature? Austin Johnson, his brother’s caddie, laughed, but shook his head in agreement. “He is that, for sure.” It was twilight at TPC River Highlands, no more than a hundred people on hand in these strange pandemic days to witness what was Johnson’s 21st PGA TOUR victory. Starting two behind, Johnson made four birdies on the front, turned in 32 to overtake Todd, then seemingly headed into runaway victory with another birdie at the 10th. Ah, but this is the Travelers Championship, where wildness always happens – and it did so again. No surprise that Johnson hit some turbulence coming home – he pulled his drive OB and bogeyed the par-5 13th and he hit a 3-hybrid nearly into water at the short, par-4 15th, then had to roll up his pants and go in and hack his second shot back into play. “I hit (that tee shot) very poorly,” bemoaned Johnson, who did salvage par at the 15th with a deft third shot. “I don’t know what was going on with my tee shots.” He clearly didn’t come up with a remedy, because after a brief delay for dangerous weather, Johnson returned with his worst swing of the week – a sliced tee shot into a bunker at the par-3 16th. His third bogey of the day left him at 19-under, just one ahead of Kevin Streelman, who had burned the edge of the hole from 26 feet at the par-4 17th. Come on, if you know Johnson’s saga, a part of you was wondering if this would be yet another of those squanders. The 2010 U.S. Open, the 2011 Open Championship, the 2015 U.S. Open. Heartache, each one. But here is what sits at the heart of Johnson – he took ownership of all those mishaps and he has never failed to shake it off. But forget the slips at 13 and 15 and 16. What Johnson did at the par-4 17th (fairway, green, two putts from 32 feet) and the par-4 18th (on a day when he hit just 7 of 14 fairways he thumped it 351 yards dead center, wedged it to 18 feet, and two-putted for 67 – 261) speaks to the talent that has stood front and center on the PGA TOUR stage for 13 seasons now. It was career win No. 21 for a guy who arguably is the purest athlete on the PGA TOUR, a guy whose swagger along should be considered one of his 14 clubs. Oh, there were contributing factors on this day (Todd struggled mightily, failed to make a birdie, shot 75, and plummeted into a share of 11th; Streelman couldn’t birdie any of the final five holes; and Mackenzie Hughes produced too little, too late to fall two shy) but don’t dismiss the specialness to Johnson’s win. To start, there is something that shouldn’t get caught up in a logistical tug-of-war. This is Johnson’s 13th season on the PGA TOUR and he’s won at least once in each of them. Only Arnold Palmer (17), Jack Nicklaus (17) and Tiger Woods (14) have started their careers with wins in more consecutive seasons. No, he hasn’t won every “calendar year,” because he didn’t prevail in 2014. What he did do was win the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in the fall of 2013, which was part of the 2013-14 season. But while you’re splitting hairs and tackling either side of that debate, my intrigue shifts over to wonderment. Has this man ever – and I mean ever – played an entire season of shoddy golf? “No,” he said. “I don’t think so – and I hope I don’t start anytime soon. I mean, I put in the work, so I feel that my game should be spot-on all the time.” He indicated that was great to win, because it’s been a while, but guess what? It’s only been 20 tournaments since his last win, the WGC-Mexico Championship in 2019. When he won the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 2016 it ended his worst dry spell, a whopping 30 tournaments. He then went five tournaments before he won again, then he went six before winning not one, not two, but three in a row. His dry spells since then? Nine tournaments, four, eight, two, 11 and the record one of 20. Honestly, enough about guys bulking up, crushing it long, playing into their 50s, and all the other storylines. How about deep appreciation for a guy who consistently provides a high caliber of play? We are told it’s tough to win on the PGA TOUR but the flip side is, it would seem to be impossible not to throw in a clunker of a season here or there. Johnson might be the exception. Offer that great respect.
