Tuesday notebook: Notes, nuggets from PGA Championship

The ballots are out for PGA TOUR Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year, and we gave out season superlatives last week. But not so fast. Here were some other unforgettable moments and achievements from a brilliant 2018-19 season. Best New Way to Watch a Tournament: BMW Championship It was tailgating without the tailgate for four Medinah Country Club members who rented out a 350-square foot “tinyâ€� house just to the right of the 14th tee. The house featured two lofts with queen-size beds, plenty of windows, a full bathroom, a couch, and a galley kitchen with four-burner stove and microwave. It also came with a private chef and bartender.  “If this takes off, we want to be able to say we were the first,â€� said John Christopher, a financial planner and one of the four club members who rented it. You could feel the breeze come off an especially vigorous practice swing, and a few of the players, like Ryan Palmer, even came under the ropes to sit in their Adirondack chairs. Toughest start: Rory McIlroy Hit his first shot out of bounds and made a quadruple bogey at the Open Championship at Royal Portrush, the first Open in Ireland since 1951. Best finish: Rory McIlroy He started five back but won the TOUR Championship to become the only other player other than Tiger Woods to win the FedExCup. Biggest turnaround: Rory McIlroy After going into the final round of the World Golf Championships – FedEx St. Jude Invitational one ahead of Brooks Koepka and losing by six, McIlroy went into the final round of the TOUR Championship one back of Koepka and beat him by six.  Best Social Media Follow: Phil Mickelson This is a hot field with Max Homa taking the veteran Mickelson down to the wire, but in the end the countless calf flexes and “Phireside with Philâ€� chats bring Mickelson the award. If you haven’t seen what the Hall-Of-Famer is bringing to the table, you’re missing out. Better-Than-Most Award: Jhonattan Vegas On Sunday at the PLAYERS Championship, Eddie Pepperell thrilled the crowds at the iconic par-3 17th island green with a 50-foot birdie bomb. Vegas then stepped up and connected for birdie from 69-feet, seven-inches, the longest made putt on 17 since official records began in 2003. Patience-is-a-Virtue Award:Charles Howell III Augusta native won the RSM Classic to break a win drought of 11 years and nine months, or 333 starts. Robert Gamez (15 year, six months) still has the longest gap between wins.  Family Ties Award, Part I:  Charles Howell III and his kids, in tears, after Howell won the RSM.  Family Ties Award, Part II:  After his first major win in 11 years at The Masters Tournament, Tiger Woods embraced his kids just off the 18th green at Augusta in almost the identical spot a young Woods embraced his father, Earl, after his incredible 1997 Masters win 22 years earlier.  Family Ties Award, Part III:  Nate Lashley and his sister Brooke embracing after Lashley, the last alternate into the field, won the Rocket Mortgage Classic. His first PGA TOUR win came 15 years after their parents – and Lashley’s then girlfriend – died in a plane crash after watching him play in a college tournament. Best Home Performance: Shane Lowry Northern Ireland and Ireland are not the same country, but it was epic to see Lowry, an Irishman, take out the first Open Championship in Northern Ireland since 1951. Lowry admitted to crying in the carpark after missing the cut at Carnoustie a year earlier as he felt his game was gone. But in front of massive crowds he destroyed the competition. His new mission is to have a celebration drink with everyone on his home island. We wish him well.  Biggest Shocker: Jim Herman Herman won the Barbasol Championship after having made just three cuts in 19 starts. Best Forgotten Finish: Patrick Rodgers Rodgers fired closing rounds of 61-62 at the RSM Classic, the best closing 36-holes in PGA TOUR history, to get himself into a playoff against Charles Howell III. Nostradamus Award: John McLaren Paul Casey’s caddie donned a bib that said “CHAMP” in the Wednesday pro-am before Casey successfully defended his title at the Valspar Championship. Clean-Sheet Award: J.T. Poston Poston got his first win at the Wyndham Championship and became the first player to win without a bogey over 72 holes since Lee Trevino at the ’74 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Boldest-Beginning Award: Collin Morikawa At the Barracuda Championship, Morikawa, who just months earlier had been finishing up his degree at Cal-Berkeley, became the first Special Temporary Member to win on the PGA TOUR since Shane Lowry at the 2015 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Best Sponsor Return for Investment: 3M Open  The new 3M Open decided to give young gun Matthew Wolff and a handful of other young studs sponsor invites in Minnesota. Wolff paid them back by winning with an epic eagle on the 72nd hole, beating Collin Morikawa, another invite, by a shot.  Iron Man Award: Sungjae Im Rookie played a PGA TOUR-high 35 events and barely took a week off on his way to be the only rookie to make the TOUR Championship. That’s the most starts since Danny Lee (36) in 2015.  The Zoolander Blue Steel Award: Brooks Koepka It was a no contest once the ESPN Body Issue photos of Brooks Koepka were released. Koepka reportedly lost 25 pounds to feature in the nude photos.

Click here to read the full article…

ORLANDO, Fla. – Rory McIlroy is a glass-half-full kind of guy. The defending champion at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard remained upbeat on Sunday despite suffering another final-group fade out. In what has become a worrying trend for the former FedExCup champion, he has now failed to win the last nine times he has played in the final group on Sunday dating back to the start of 2018. McIlroy did win at Bay Hill a year ago but came from well back to do so. It remains the 14-time PGA TOUR winner’s most recent triumph. Starting one shot back in second place, McIlroy could only manage an even-par 72 on Sunday to fall to T6, four shots off the pace. Of the top 14 on the leaderboard, he was the only one who failed to shoot under par. “My Sundays haven’t been what I would have liked, but I’m putting myself in that position, so good golf is good golf, I keep saying that, at the end of the day,â€� McIlroy said. “It was a tough day, tough to get it close to the hole. I feel like I really didn’t play that badly. I missed a couple of shots, but I felt like I was hitting good shots to 30 feet all day and it’s hard to sort of shoot a score.â€� While winner Francesco Molinari needed just 25 putts, making 146-feet, 9 inches worth, it wasn’t as pleasant for McIlroy on the greens. He needed 30 putts and made just 61 feet, 11 inches worth. On the plus side, McIlroy has now finished inside the top six, without winning, in his last six starts on the PGA TOUR. Rather than dwell on the missed chances, the Northern Irishman has already turned his focus to THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass. “I’m playing well, I’m getting myself into contention every week, (I need to) continue to do that, going into next week, that’s the great thing about golf, you don’t have to wait too long to get back on the horse,â€� he said. “So I’m happy with everything, I just think today I could have played the par 5s better, but really apart from that it was an unbelievable round from Francesco to shoot what he did. “I would have needed to go out there to shoot 67 to better him, which would have been one of the best scores of the day, and anything under 70 out there this afternoon was a great score.â€�

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…