WiretoWire: Hideki Matsuyama’s Hawaiian heroics at Waialae

Now in its second year, THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES is the first regular-season PGA TOUR event to be held in Korea. Here are six things you should know about this week’s tournament on Jeju Island. 1. TOP PICK. Based on critical reviews, Nine Bridges is the best course in Korea. Golf Digest has ranked it No. 1 in Korea for seven consecutive years and listed it at 23rd among the world’s greatest 100 courses (a year earlier, it was ranked 79th). The magazine noted that architects Ronald Fream and David Dale utilized a site with “natural streams edged with massive Japanese Maples and 20-foot-tall Korean Azaleas, but they also transplanted 300 mature evergreens like Kryptomeria and cedars for additional color.â€� Golf magazine, citing Nine Bridges’ “tranquil setting, with holes etched into pine-clad, rolling topography,â€� listed it 41st among its biennial top 100 world list. Chi Chi Rodriguez once called it the “Taj Mahal of golfâ€� because every hole looked like a postcard. 2. FIRST-TIMER. Surprisingly, Korea’s most famous and successful golfer had never played Nine Bridges until last year’s inaugural event. K.J. Choi, an eight-time TOUR winner – including the 2011 PLAYERS Championship – grew up in Wando, an island that’s just 60 miles north of Jeju Island across the Yellow Sea. When Choi earned his TOUR card in 1999, he moved to the United States; meanwhile, Nine Bridges did not open until 2001. Thus, while Choi has visited Jeju Island many times in his life, he never had a chance to play the course until a practice round on Sunday. Any other reasons why he’s never played the course? “Very exclusive membership,â€� Choi said with a smile. “Only members and guests.â€� He is not among the 13 Korean players in the field this week, but one player who is actually grew up on Jeju Island – Sungjae Im, a PGA TOUR rookie whom this week was named the Web.com Tour Player of the Year. (For more on Im’s return home, click here.)  3. PRO EXPERIENCE. Nine Bridges now hosts an annual TOUR event, but it’s not the first professional event at the course. The CJ Nine Bridges Classic, Korea’s first LPGA tournament, was played there from 2002-05. Fittingly, legendary Korean golfer Se Ri Pak – who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007 – won the inaugural event, battling poor conditions for a six-stroke win. At 3 under, she was the only player under par. The 2005 event, also played in tough weather (cold temperatures, wind and rain) was won by Jee Young Lee, who was then 19 years old and one of 12 players in the field from the Korean LPGA. 4. COOL TROPHY. The tournament trophy is engraved with the names of every player in the field, utilizing the Korean alphabet known as Hangeul. The names are showcased using Jikji, which was confirmed by UNESCO in 2001 as the world’s oldest metalloid type. Last year’s winner, Justin Thomas, had his name accentuated in gold. The wooden bridge at the base of the trophy symbolizes the bridge to the 18th hole at Nine Bridges. 5. MOUNT HALLA. At 6,400 feet, the highest mountain in South Korea is Mount Halla, the massive shield volcano in the center of Jeju Island. According to ExtremeScience.com, shield volcanos are “the more quiescent, lumbering giants of the volcano world,â€� with gently, sloping sides formed by lava eruptions. If you’ve ever seen the sunrise at the top of Haleakala in Maui, then you’re quite familiar with shield volcanos. It’s also why some have referred to Jeju Island as the “Maui of Korea.â€� The course, which consists of two nines (the Highland Course and Creek Course) is near the base of the mountain. 6. EIGHT YOU CAN CROSS. If you happen to find yourself at Nine Bridges, you may notice there are just eight bridges on the course. Each of the actual bridges is made of stone and provides access over one of the course’s water features. As for the ninth bridge? It’s actually a metaphoric one — the bridge between the club and its golf-playing members and guests. Editor’s note: Portions of this story originally appeared last year in a story posted on PGATOUR.COM.

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The most consistent season of Rory McIlroy’s career culminated with his second FedExCup. He joins Tiger Woods as the only players to twice win the PGA TOUR’s season-long prize. McIlroy had three wins in 2019 – at THE PLAYERS Championship, RBC Canadian Open and TOUR Championship – and finished in the top 10 in all but five of his 19 starts. McIlroy gained +2.55 strokes per round on the field this season, the best mark by a player this decade and best ever by a player not named Tiger Woods. The PGA TOUR’s ShotLink team took a closer look at the numbers behind McIlroy’s incredible season. Here’s what they found: The TOUR Championship was the 17th win of McIlroy’s PGA TOUR career, by far the most of any player currently aged 30 or younger. McIlroy turned 30 on May 4. Most PGA TOUR wins: Players currently 30 years old & younger McIlroy’s 17 wins before turning 31 are the fifth-most on TOUR since 1970. Only Tiger Woods (54 wins), Tom Watson (25), Johnny Miller (18) and Phil Mickelson (18) rank ahead of him. McIlroy is the first player to win THE PLAYERS and FedExCup in the same season. McIlroy had seven consecutive top-10 finishes from the Sentry Tournament of Champions to the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. It was the longest streak of top-10s since Luke Donald had eight in a row in 2011. The TOUR Championship was his fifth win in the FedExCup Playoffs, giving him the most wins in Playoffs history. Most wins in FedExCup Playoffs history Strokes Gained: Total McIlroy is the fourth player to finish a season ranked inside the top 25 in all four Strokes Gained stats (Off-the-Tee, Approach-the-Green, Around-the-Green and Putting). Strokes Gained stats have been calculated since 2004. Three of the four went on to win that season’s FedExCup. Ranking inside Top 25 SG: Off-the-Tee, Approach-the-Green, Around-the-Green & Putting in a season since 2004 McIlroy’s +2.551 was the fourth-best single-season Strokes Gained: Total since the Strokes Gained statistics started in 2004. The top three seasons all belonged to Woods. Best Strokes Gained: Total Since 2004 Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee McIlroy led the TOUR in Driving Distance (All Drives), averaging 304.2 yards off the tee. That was 18.7 yards longer than the TOUR average (285.5 yards). McIlroy also led the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Off-the-tee for the third time. Only Bubba Watson (four times) has led the TOUR in that statistic more times. No player hit more drives 320+ yards in the 2019 FedExCup Playoffs than McIlroy. He hit 57 drives 320+ yards, three more than the next best player (Dustin Johnson, 54). McIlroy hit 25 drives over 320 yards at the TOUR Championship. Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green McIlroy ranked 12th in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, outperforming the TOUR by +0.633 strokes per round on approach shots. McIlroy’s +0.633 Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green average marks the second-best season performance of his PGA TOUR career. He gained +1.002 strokes per round with his approach play in the 2012 season. McIlroy said his most important shot of the season was an approach from the right fairway bunker in the final round of the 2019 PLAYERS. He made birdie from the bunker en route to winning at TPC Sawgrass. From 177 yards, he hit his approach to 14 feet and made the putt. It was his fourth-closest approach from 170+ yards out of a fairway bunker in his career (on ShotLink courses). For comparison, the field at THE PLAYERS had an average proximity of 37 feet, 11 inches from that bunker. Players made birdie just 14% of the time from there. Strokes Gained: Putting McIlroy made a career-high 30 putts from over 20 feet this season. Rory McIlroy: Total putts made over 20 feet He finished 24th in Strokes Gained: Putting (+0.425), the third consecutive season where he’s improved that metric. The 2018-19 season marked his career-best performance in Strokes Gained: Putting. He was 159th in that statistics just two seasons ago. (-0.304). McIlroy has made every putt from 6 feet or less five times in his career (in ShotLink-measured events). He has won three of those events, including two this season (2019 TOUR Championship, 2019 RBC Canadian Open). Rory McIlroy: 100% putting inside 6 feet

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