Tiger Woods ties Sam Snead’s record of 82 PGA Tour wins

Daniel Berger used to think he didn’t really love golf… he just happened to be really good at it. But the two-time PGA TOUR winner has upgraded his love of the game over the last 18 months after a persistent injury took him away from the little white-dimpled ball he took for granted. Berger falls into the classic category of “You don’t know how much you love something till it’s gone.� Coming off a sixth-place finish at the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock, where he was part of the 54-hole lead, Berger was hitting a shot at the Travelers Championship when he felt some discomfort in the index finger on his right hand. It lingered. Berger battled through the pain and suited up for six more events that season and even forged top-15 finishes in the PGA Championship and THE NORTHERN TRUST. But the discomfort was stopping him doing his usual preparations and forced him to pull out of the BMW Championship before it began, ending his FedExCup run. The pain was now giving him issues down to the wrist. Inflammation meant only one thing could be done. Rest. RELATED:  What you need to know for The American Express | Power Rankings “I just couldn’t practice. I’d get to a golf tournament and hit just 50 golf balls the whole week and I just didn’t feel like I could do the preparation to where I would feel ready to go,� Berger explained. “At home I couldn’t go hit 500 balls if I wanted to. I never was able to do the things that in the past I was able to do.� Initially, a rest didn’t sound so bad to a young man who had been around elite athletes his whole life and had been working his tail off to become one himself since before he can remember. Berger’s father Jay played top-level tennis, winning three ATP singles titles and getting as high as seventh in the world. He played in the Davis Cup for the United States and then moved to coaching, working with the U.S. Davis Cup and Olympic tennis teams and also was a director of tennis for the USTA. Amongst this environment, young Daniel Berger thrived. “I knew since I was a young boy I would be a professional athlete. I just didn’t know what sport yet,� Berger said. His father, and Berger himself, are believers in the 10,000-hour rule. That being you need to get to 10,000 hours of dedicated practice in something to master it. So Berger’s life has been about putting in the work, and then doing more. So the idea of a break was something of a novelty. Maybe he could enjoy some down time and a more “normal� life for a while. The 2015 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year was excited about getting in the water on his boat and doing other recreational activities that wouldn’t hamper his injury. And he did have fun … until he started to miss his previous way of life. “In the beginning I thought it was amazing. I got to do other things,� Berger said. “But the reality is my whole life all I’ve ever known is hit balls, go to a golf tournament, compete … and suddenly you are unable to do those things you are so passionate about and it sucks. “I have always been a firm believer of the harder you work the better you perform and prior to that I had never had a time in my career where I wasn’t able to do the things I felt like I needed to do. That was the most frustrating part. You know what you need to accomplish but physically you are unable to do that and it just eats you up.� The frustration and annoyance got the better of the 26-year-old. And he came back to competition in 2019 despite things not being 100%. A runner-up finish at the Puerto Rico Open in late February gave him a bit of false confidence that he could battle through things a little. But the entire season he couldn’t quite trust things and his practice time remained well down on his usual standards. He fell to 131st in the FedExCup without a top-10 after Puerto Rico and missed the FedExCup Playoffs. Now though, Berger says he is 100%. The last few months he has returned his practice to the hours he is accustomed to. And in his five starts this season Berger has three top-25 finishes to be currently 79th in the FedExCup. The results might not yet show significant improvement, but Berger knows his ball-striking is returning toward its best. At the Sony Open last week, he was 10th in the field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and 11th in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. And he had his first positive mark of the season in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green. “I have put a lot of work in that I wasn’t able to do before. And that has already been the big difference in the five events I have played this season. I just need to continue to put the work in,� he said prior to The American Express this week in California. “It’s been a blessing to come back and do what I love. I used to always say I never really liked golf; I was just good at it. But when you take some time off, I realized I really like golf a lot. My main goal now is to put myself in contention to win. It is tough out here, so you’ve got to continue to get better. I feel like this offseason I did a lot of good things and I am hitting the ball way better than I have in a long time.� Berger is trying to get those feelings from the 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons where he was Rookie of the Year and won back-to-back FedEx St. Jude Classics. He’s even reverted to the old TaylorMade irons he used coming through the ranks and says it helps him “just feel more like me.� As one of the famed Class of 2011, Berger has also drawn motivation from what Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth have already achieved in the game, knowing he’s always been able to compete on their level. It makes the idea of winning a FedExCup and major championships even more attainable. And watching the recent Presidents Cup on television – two years after he secured the clinching point for the U.S. Team at Liberty National – also put a fire in his belly. “I watched every single shot … and I never watch golf. But I love team sports and I love rooting for anything that’s American,� Berger said. “It is disappointing not to be there but obviously I didn’t deserve to be. To see those guys go out there and play the way they did was impressive and it is certainly motivating. “There are a lot of young guys making a name for themselves and I think you will see 10 or 15 guys playing on the teams for the next 10 or 15 years just like you saw with the Phil’s and Tiger’s. I want to be part of that.� Now that he’s back fit and healthy, there’s a good chance he will be.

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HONOLULU, Hawaii – Just under a decade ago Charles Howell III came to a conclusion not always felt by elite athletes … winning isn’t everything. Having already won twice on the PGA TOUR, Howell III had been bitter about not closing the deal more often. It was bothering him like it would most players. But then he became a father and a sense of reality set in. Does winning define me? Does winning define the person I am or ultimately how successful one is? Of course winning is sensational. Of course we look at Tiger Woods’ 80 PGA TOUR wins in awe. But there’s something to be said for consistent performance also. And there is a lot to be said for being a kind and caring person and a doting dad and husband. Howell did not want golf to ever become miserable. He didn’t want his golf game to dictate his moods. The ruthless would say this attitude contributed to a win drought for Howell III that spanned nearly 12 years. But when he claimed The RSM Classic late last year for his third career win, first in 333 starts, no one begrudged his moment. “I realized you can still have a fantastic career and not win all the time. I don’t mean that as defeatist, because it’s not. It’s just the reality of it,â€� Howell III said of his epiphany. “I think having kids you realize you just can’t do that. It’s like, No, I’m going to go do the best I can do and that’s going to be what it is and I’m going to go home. Work on it in practice, but this is going to be it. “Honestly, that may not sound like the right thing to say, but it is the reality and makes this a lot easier.â€� It was an attitude that has helped Howell III earn over $37 million in on-course earnings in his PGA TOUR career – ranked 20th of all time. It wasn’t like he wasn’t trying to win … it just didn’t always fall his way. “The line between first and second is a big line,â€� Howell III added. “I think Tiger coming along made winning look a lot easier than it really is. “You always really push yourself along to try to get better and improve, and that’s a great thing to do but at the end of the day you have to stop and realize, okay, hang on, it’s really hard to win. “If I’m able to keep staying in the mix and having a nice career, eventually the win will happen.â€� If Howell III is right about the latter line perhaps he should be the red-hot favorite for this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii. Since his first trip to Waialae Country Club in 2002 Howell has made 17 straight cuts in the event. The Augusta native has nine top-10s including two runner ups and two thirds. Clearly it is a course that suits his game and could see him lift his position in the FedExCup up from his already lofty fourth position. “I do love it here. Funny thing is I really can’t give a reason why I’ve had those finishes here, but I do like the golf course,â€� he explains.  “It’s quite a bit different than a lot we play. This is a nice change from the norm. It’s old-style.â€� These days a lot of the courses on TOUR seemingly suit those who hit the ball a long way. At an average 292 yards in driving distance so far this season Howell III is not classed as a bomber by any means. He has seen a shift from his early days on TOUR towards younger and more athletic players. But it drives him. “When I first started on TOUR the best players were the older players. Now I’ve gotten older it’s shifted the other way and the best players seem to be the younger players,â€� he said. “It makes me keep working hard. I know that. It makes me keep trying to find new and creative ways to get better, new ways to push myself along.â€� Howell III has never really been under threat of losing his TOUR card since he began what has now spanned 530 starts. His worst finish in the FedExCup was 97th in 2008. He’s cashed over one million dollars a season since his first full season in 2001. His latest win means he’s exempt through the 2020-21 season which will see him push towards an incredible 600 TOUR starts but he won’t take it for granted. “There isn’t a good player that has come out of college that doesn’t hit it 300 yards and doesn’t putt good,â€� he says. “So if that isn’t motivation enough to practice then I don’t know what is. They’ll take your job from you like that. If you look around, a lot of them keep doing that “If I want to still be sitting here in a few years I need to kick my butt in gear and keep working and practicing.â€�

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Billy Horschel got a rare break at Bay Hill on a day that punished so many others, leading to a birdie on the 18th hole Saturday for a 1-under 71 that gave him a share of the lead with Talor Gooch in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. Horschel was buried in deep rough behind the 18th green and facing a fast chip down the hill. His foot was on a sprinkler head and he received a free drop. From the collar, he was able to use putter and his 30-foot putt trickled into the cup. “To make that putt on 18, to shoot 1 under on a really tough day is really satisfying,” he said. It was a happy moment, and those were hard to find in a third round where Viktor Hovland lost a four-shot lead at the turn, Matt Jones heaved his putter into the water and Rory McIlroy lost momentum with a tee shot out-of-bounds. Scottie Scheffler managed to make a charge. After missing three straight par putts from 6 feet or closer to cap off his front nine, Scheffler made three birdies and a 20-foot eagle for a 31 on the back for a 68, matching the low score of the day. He started the day eight shots behind. He ended it two shots out of the lead. The final group was making the turn when Scheffler finished and he was asked if his round put him back into the tournament. “I didn’t really feel out of it at the beginning of the day,” Scheffler said. He and everyone else had an idea of what to expect on a course that is a strong test in any condition. Add gusts of about 15 mph and greens so baked by the sun there was barely any grass, and this was all the best players in golf could handle. Gooch, the Oklahoman who won his first PGA TOUR title in the final event of last year, was up to the task. He rolled in a 35-foot birdie putt on the tough 15th, followed with a 15-foot birdie on the next hole and was in the lead until a tee shot into ankle-deep rough on the final hole kept him from reaching the green. Gooch and Horschel were at 7-under 209. Hovland suffered as much as anyone. He three-putted from 10 feet on the par-3 second hole, only to recover by holing a bunker shot for eagle on the par-5 sixth with his ball on a slight downslope in the sand and not much green between his ball and the hole. The back nine turned into a slow bleed, twice taking three putts for bogey and missing the fairway on two other holes. He shot 40 on the back nine for a 75. Still, he was only one shot behind. Former U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland overcame three bogeys for a round of 70 and was three shots behind, followed by the group of Chris Kirk (68), Graeme McDowell (69) and McIlroy, whose 76 could have been worse. “I feel like I’ve never had as many 6-footers for bogeys as I’ve had today,” he said. McIlroy, the 18-hole leader, ran off back-to-back birdies early on the back nine and was making up ground until he lost a tee shot to the right on the 15th hole that bounced into a backyard. That led to double bogey, and he bogeyed the last two holes to fall back. “It’s so tough out there. It’s so tricky. It’s just on knife’s edge,” McIlroy said. “You’re literally talking like feet — 2 feet here, 2 feet there from 200 yards can make a huge difference in where the ball ends up.” He was among eight players separated by four shots going into the final round, and with conditions expected to be the same, Bay Hill should be primed for a shootout among survivors. Jones, meanwhile, hit a brilliant approach on the 11th hole to 8 feet only to have the putt slide off line. He reached the cup about the time the golf ball trickled there, tapped in with one hand and then heaved his putter into the lake. Max Homa made an ace on the par-3 14th hole with a pitching wedge from 163 yards, meaning a $200,000 donation by presenting sponsor Mastercard to the Arnold & Winning Palmer Foundation. A year ago on Saturday at Bay Hill, Homa was playing with Jazz Janewattananond when the Thai made a hole-in-one on the 14th hole.

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