From the Bayou to the land Down Under: All eyes on team events in men’s pro golf

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Brooks Koepka can barely bend down to get his ball from the hole. Phil Mickelson is battling father time before our eyes. While the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah was a celebration of youthful virtuosity (Rory McIlroy), the 2021 PGA has become a drama of the human condition. It’s about scar tissue both literal and figurative, and man’s animating quest to catch up to his younger self. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Final round: How to follow, tee times | Details on Mickelson’s new custom driver “I felt I had a very clear picture on every shot,” said two-time PGA TOUR Champions winner Mickelson (70), who despite some shaky moments on the back nine will take a one-shot lead over Koepka (70) going into the final round Sunday. “And I’ve been swinging the club well, and so I was executing. I just need to keep that picture a few more times. “So even though it slipped a little bit today,” he added, “and I didn’t stay as focused and as sharp on a few swings, it’s significantly better than it’s been for a long time.” Louis Oosthuizen (72) is two off the lead, and nine players, including major winners Bryson DeChambeau (71) and Gary Woodland (72), are within five. “I left a lot out there,” said Koepka (31 putts). “I’ve got a chance to win, so that’s all I wanted to do today is not give back any shots and be there tomorrow with a chance, and I’ve got that.” Unlike Mickelson, Koepka, who won the PGA in 2018 and ’19, has non-age-related issues. He won the Waste Management Phoenix Open for the second time in February, but shortly after that had surgery to repair a dislocated kneecap and ligament damage to his right knee. “Even though I’m not 100 percent,” he said earlier this week, “I can still hit the shots.” He was in obvious discomfort and unable to bend down to read putts or retrieve his ball from the hole at the Masters. He missed the cut. He also missed the cut at the AT&T Byron Nelson last week, but was pleased, he said, to be able to hit a variety of shots. Kiawah is a very long walk – at 7,876 yards, it’s the longest major venue ever – but at least it’s not hilly. And he’s proven himself correct; he really has hit all the shots. Mickelson would become the oldest men’s major winner, besting Julius Boros, who was 48 at the 1968 PGA. It would be his second PGA title (2005); sixth major (and first since the 2013 Open); and 45th PGA TOUR victory (first since the 2019 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am). The Ocean Course is a slippery stage, though, and even in his prime, Mickelson – now 115th in the world, 168th in the FedExCup – was one of the most accident-prone superstars. He led by five shots early on the back nine Saturday but showed cracks over the next two hours. The most glaring of these was his wild hook at the par-4 13th hole. The ball never crossed dry land, and although Mickelson made a valiant effort – hitting three from the tee and sticking his next shot to just over 11 feet – he failed to make the putt and carded a double-bogey. His five-shot lead was down to just one over Koepka and Oosthuizen, and although he striped his tee shot to just under 7 1/2 feet at the par-3 14th hole, his birdie try missed badly. The entire sequence – his failure to birdie the par-5 11th to his failure to birdie 14 – took only an hour. Older players have flirted with winning majors. Jack Nicklaus was 58 when he contended deep into Sunday at the 1998 Masters. Tom Watson was 59 when he nearly won the 2009 Open Championship. Fred Couples was 52 when he led after round two of the 2012 Masters. None of them won. With just two victories in the last seven years, Mickelson admits his mental game isn’t what it was. He has tried dietary changes, meditation, and marathon sessions of 36 to 45 holes a day. It’s a work in progress. What remains clear is that he’s having fun. He and Steve Stricker took on Zach Johnson and Will Zalatoris in a practice round earlier this week, and Mickelson birdied the first three holes. “Phil and I were 3-up after three,” Stricker said, “and he said it loud enough so everybody could hear, ‘You know, Strick, I thought we’d be more up at this point.’ And we were 3-up after three. “Typical Phil,” he continued. “It’s good to see him out here. He has such a good time in those practice rounds and seeing everybody it seems like. He still has a tremendous amount of desire to compete at this level, and that’s why he’s doing it and that’s why he’s playing well.” He’s still got one more day of fun, if that’s what this is. He’s still got people watching.

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It’s probably safe to say that Corey Conners is the only player on the PGA TOUR who can interpret all those mortality tables that show the probability of a person at a certain age dying before his or her next birthday. That’s just one of the things you learn when you pursue a college degree in actuarial mathematics, though. You also study financial theory and statistics, along with math, in order to better analyze and manage risk and its implications, particularly for insurance and pension programs. But Conners didn’t even know what an actuary did when he enrolled at Kent State in 2010. The Canadian was actually thinking about becoming a pharmacist or an optometrist, or maybe even a doctor like his grandfather and his twin sister Nicole, who is currently in medical school. Unfortunately, those three-hour labs for science courses Conners was taking didn’t leave much time to hit the practice range or play a quick 18 with his teammates on the Golden Flashes golf team. Conners’ plans changed when he was a sophomore, though. “Our coach was bragging, we’ve got this smart guy coming in to take a math degree, an actuary, and I started looking up what it was, and I was like, oh, this stuff’s pretty cool,â€� Conners recalled. “Math and finance — two things that I also liked as well as the sciences. “So, I said, well, maybe I’ll look into that.â€� Conners started taking some math and finance courses, liked them and eventually switched his major. His graduating class in actuarial math was pretty small, just seven or eight others, but Conners enjoyed the challenge and the camaraderie. “I’ve always been fascinated by math, and it was a great program to study in college,â€� Conners explained. “It was definitely a lot of work. Had to keep on top of things and be really organized, missing a lot of school when the team would travel. “Hopefully I’ll never have to fall back on that degree, but it’s some fascinating stuff that I really enjoy as well.â€� The 27-year-old plotted his path to golf early. He grew up in Listowel, a town of about 7,000 in southwestern Ontario about two hours west of Toronto that is known for, among other things, its two-week Irish festival called “Paddyfest.â€� Conners played hockey in the winter, a game he still loves — his favorite team is the Toronto Maple Leafs — and then switched to golf in the summer. He didn’t give up on the ice until he was 18 years old and played on a team that won a provincial championship. “I was a center all my life and the last few years, I switched to defense,â€� Conners said. “The coaching staff decided they needed someone with some brains on the back end of it to make some safe plays and keep the puck out of our net.â€� He was equally adept at getting the that little white ball in the hole, though. When Conners was 12 years old, he started working at Listowel Golf Club. The facility had 27 holes and the teenager was there pretty much every day the club was open. As he got more serious about the game, Conners and his father even found an indoor range about an hour away where he could practice in the dead of winter. “It was really cool growing up there,â€� Conners said. “We were really fortunate to have such a great golf facility. … If I grew up in a town without a golf course who knows what would have happened. “I get a lot of support from back home and it feels really special. I’m trying to put it on the map a little bit and make people proud back home.â€� So far the golf gig is working out pretty well, too. Conners heads into this week’s Desert Challenge with momentum on the heels of tie for third at the Sony Open in Hawaii, his second top-three finish of the season. Thanks to those standout finishes, the man who finished 130th in the FedExCup as a rookie last year now clocks in at very solid No. 19. So while his classmates might be working in insurance offices or as consultants, the newly-married Conners is living his dream. “They all have pretty nice jobs right now, as do I,â€� he said with a smile.

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OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – News and notes from the third round of THE NORTHERN TRUST, with Jordan Spieth leading Dustin Johnson by three shots after a 6-under 64. Click here for more from Glen Oaks. SPIETH FLIPS THE SWITCH If Jordan Spieth wins Sunday, part of the credit will be a missed 12-foot birdie putt he had in the middle of his second round Friday. Spieth said the missed putt on the ninth green flipped the switch on understanding the speed of Glen Oaks’ greens. He turned to caddie Michael Greller and said, “I just haven’t hit them hard enough on this front nine. I just need to dial in the speed.� Since then, Spieth has played 27 holes. He’s made 14 birdies. He’s gone from 1 under and on the fringes of contention to now being the leader at 12 under and primed for his 12th PGA TOUR win. Making the proper speed adjustment, Spieth made five straight birdies in that second round, starting with an 11-footer on the 10th hole. “From there,� he said, “I started to fill it up.� He continued his hot putting Saturday, with four birdies on the front and four more on the back. So far, he’s made nearly 327 feet of putts in the first three rounds (only Kevin Tway and D.A. Points have made more). After the first round, Spieth ranked 99th in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. Now he ranks seventh. We should be used to this flip-the-switch ability on the greens from Spieth. It happened at The Open Championship in the final round. It’s not necessarily the way Spieth wants to approach things. He’d much rather have a hot putter for 72 holes. He told Greller as much before Saturday’s round. “I wish I was a lot more neutral with my putting,� Spieth said. “But the fact that I’m able to flip that switch mentally … is advantageous. It’s certainly an advantage I feel I have, that I can do. “But you know, I need to hold steady. I’ve still missed some putts inside of five (feet) this week, quite a few of them, and on afternoon poa annua, it’s likely to happen again.� For now, though, the switch is in the “on� position. If it stays that way Sunday, everybody else is playing for second. REMEMBER EAST LAKE Last year, Kevin Chappell led the TOUR Championship by two shots with two holes to play. But he suffered a bogey at the 17th hole, dropped into a three-man playoff and eventually saw Rory McIlroy win the tournament – and the FedExCup title. Chappell clearly hasn’t forgotten. He calls it unfinished business. “I want to put myself in the exact same situation I was in 350 days ago on the 71st tee on Sunday and we’ll see what happens,� Chappell said. He entered this week 30th in FedExCup points, which makes him the bubble boy for East Lake. Thanks to a 6-under 64 – matching Jordan Spieth for low round of the day – Chappell is tied for eighth at 5 under and leaving no doubt that he wants a shot at redemption. If he keeps playing well, he also may get his first opportunity to represent the U.S. since turning pro. Chappell is projected to move to 10th in Presidents Cup points. If he stays there after next week’s Dell Technologies Championship, he would earn one of the automatic berths for Team USA at Liberty National. For now, his focus is on the FedExCup Playoffs. “Team events are always a result of achieving your individual goals,� Chappell said. “… It’s sort of icing on the cake. If you look at it that way, I’ve never had the icing on the cake, so I look forward to that.� CALL OF THE DAY JUST MOVE CLOSER Paul Casey was with his swing coach Peter Kostis on the range Saturday morning. “You’re standing too far away from the golf ball,� Kostis said. Responded Casey: “After I hit it or before I hit it?� That might have prompted a chuckle, but the simple fix was an effective one. Casey moved an inch closer to the ball, steepened his shoulder plane, and struck it solid for 18 holes. He missed just three fairways and four greens, returning with a 4-under 66 that leaves him tied for third at 7 under. “Wonderful stuff,� Casey said. “… I’ve clearly got two guys ahead of me who are tough. But I’m in a great position. So I’d like to go out there tomorrow and tear it up and maybe do something better than I did today and we’ll see what happens.� QUOTE OF THE DAY Let’s be honest here. I’d rather have a three-shot lead. But it’s not that bad coming from three shots back, either, because that can change in one hole. ODDS AND ENDS Keegan Bradley said he played Glen Oaks a handful of times during his college days at St. John’s. “But I played it before they took all the trees down,� he said. “I don’t really remember many of the holes.� Still, he looks quite comfortable here, shooting a bogey-free 4-under 66 that left him in solo seventh at 6 under … Don’t expect a lot of fireworks from the leaders on the front nine Sunday. Most of the scoring holes are on the back. Tony Finau is 3 over on the front and 4 under on the back. “To me, the three hardest holes on the course are 1, 4 and 8. They all have length. The first hole is ridiculous. That’s just a par 5. If you make a 4 there, you feel like it’s a birdie.� Spieth is 2 under on the front and 10 under on the back. “It’s a difficult nine for somebody to go 4- or 5-under on, no matter how hot they get,� Spieth said of the front. “Then you get to a bunch of wedge holes and you can start really controlling your score from there.� … Tough day for Rickie Fowler, who was one of the 36-hole co-leaders but started with five bogeys in his first six holes. He eventually shot 74 to fall to 2 under and into a tie for 22nd. … Just 20 attempts have been made to drive the green at the short par-4 11th, which played to 297 yards Sunday. Finau has made three of those attempts and is surprised more of the longer hitters haven’t gone for it. But he understands why. “It has nothing to do with distance,� he said. “A lot of guys can get there. If anything, if you roll through the green and into that back bunker, that’s not a good spot.� Said Chappell: “It’s probably not the most enticing drivable hole we’ve seen on TOUR.�  

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