A year later, Tiger Woods has adjusted his goals

LAS VEGAS - Bryson DeChambeau knows some people consider him a one-dimensional player solely obsessed with distance. He thinks that is an unfair characterization of his game, however, and he used Friday's post-round press conference to defend his groundbreaking approach to golf. This week's Shriners Hospitals for Children Open is DeChambeau's first start since his six-shot victory in the U.S. Open. He shot a 9-under 62 in Thursday's opening round at TPC Summerlin and added a 67 on Friday to sit just one shot off the lead. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Fowler makes putter switch | Hole-out eagle has Garcia back in contention DeChambeau's incredible length has been on display again this week. No one had driven TPC Summerlin's seventh green in the ShotLink era until DeChambeau did it Thursday. He repeated the feat Friday and made eagle, then added another eagle at the par-5 16th, where he had just 148 yards to the hole. Distance isn't the only factor in his success at TPC Summerlin, though. He's third in greens hit (32 of 36) and 17th in driving accuracy (21 of 28). He also leads the field in driving distance, averaging 352.2 yards. Hitting it that far takes incredible strength. There's no denying DeChambeau has packed on the pounds in the past year. It was at this event a year ago that he announced his intentions to bulk up in a quest for increased length off the tee. But hitting a golf ball as hard as DeChambeau does, and keeping those tee shots in play, also takes skill. And while long tee shots help him shoot lower scores, there's more to the game than just hitting it far. That's something DeChambeau thinks his critics are missing. He replied to the latest round of criticism after being told that Matthew Fitzpatrick, a fellow former U.S. Amateur champion, said Friday that DeChambeau's play makes "a bit of a mockery of the game." DeChambeau responded, "I appreciate that comment. It’s a compliment to me honestly. I think he’s looking out for certain set of players, and I appreciate that. My whole goal is to play the best golf I possibly can, and this game has given me the opportunity showcase something pretty special. "A year ago I wasn’t hitting in anywhere near as far as I am today. It took a lot of work, a lot of hours to work through the night to figure out a lot of this stuff... from my perspective, I think it takes a little bit more skill to do what I’m doing, and that’s why there are only a few people doing it out here... and albeit my fairway percentages are a little bit down, I’m still believe I’m hitting it straighter than what I was last year with the distances that I was hitting back then. "I feel like I’ve started to go down a path that’s allowed me to have an advantage over everyone, and I think that is a skillset when you look at it. For me out there today, I was still able to hit a lot of fairways at 360 yards. That’s tough to do with drivers." Fitzpatrick is listed at 5 feet, 10 inches and 155 pounds. He finished 121st in driving distance last season but has won five times on the European Tour thanks in part to his incredible work on the greens. He was second on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting last season. He shares the 36-hole lead in this week's European Tour event, the BMW PGA Championship, with reigning Open Championship winner Shane Lowry. It was after his second round at Wentworth that Fitzpatrick made his comments about DeChambeau. "I'm biased because I'm not quite the longest. But in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, fair play to Bryson, he won and shot six under. But the fairways were tight as hell. I drove it brilliantly and actually played pretty well but I was miles behind. He's in the rough and miles up and he's hitting wedges from everywhere. It just makes a bit of a mockery of the game," Fitzpatrick told reporters after getting into a tie for the 36-hole lead at Wentworth. "I looked at Shot Tracker yesterday, to see some of the places Bryson hit it (in Vegas). He was cutting corners. And when he's on, there's no point. It doesn't matter if I play my best. He's going to be 50 yards in front of me off the tee, and the only thing where I can compete with him is putting. Which is just ridiculous. "In my opinion, it's not a skill to hit the ball a long way. I could put on 40 pounds. I could go and see a bio-mechanist. I could gain 40 yards; that's actually a fact. I could put another two inches on my driver. But the skill is to hit the ball straight. That's the skill. He's just taking the skill out of it in my opinion. I'm sure lots will disagree. But it's just daft." But what Fitzpatrick and others have overlooked is DeChambeau adds finesse with his power game. Last season, he ranked 10th on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting and at Winged Foot he ranked inside the top three in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (2nd), Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green (1st) and Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green (3rd) on his way to victory. He joined Vijay Singh (2008 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational) as the only two winners who ranked inside the top three in these three categories since 2004. "I would love to have a conversation with him about it and say, Hey, man, I would love to help out. Why couldn’t you do it, too? You see Rory and DJ doing the same thing, too. They’re seeing that distinct advantage, and I feel like it’s great are for the game of golf," DeChambeau said. "I don’t think it takes less skill. I’m still putting it great; still wedging it mediocre, the same, maybe a little bit better. It shows out here that I’m still hitting fairways. "I do hit a couple errant shots like on 9 today, but I do hit a lot of fairways, I still hit great irons, and I make a lot putts. I still think there is a lot of the skill in that."

Click here to read the full article…

Imagine you are 41. Or 71. Or 101. Now imagine life has lately felt like a 1,000-piece puzzle of white space. It’s not supposed to be white space; it’s supposed to be a vivid picture, bursting with color and texture. You’ve just got to see it in your mind’s eye, and so you keep working, piece by agonizing piece, because it’s there, somewhere, and you’ve still got something left to give. Much ink has been spilled on the appeal of Tiger Woods, who this week at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas makes his first competitive start in 10 months. But the appeal of late-career Woods boils down to this: He thinks he still has something left to give, and who among us can’t relate? Regardless of age and circumstances, we ALL think we have something left to give. “I think Tiger will definitely win another tournament,� Hank Haney, one of his former coaches, said on his SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio show on Monday. “I think he’s got a good shot at winning a major. If he practices part-time and he is healthy enough to play 15 to 18 tournaments and is not on pain-killer medication and is able to move freely like he is now, I think he can win golf tournaments.� Woods has 79 TOUR victories, including 14 majors, and we all know these numbers by heart because they have been frozen in time. But could there be more? Tom Brady and Peyton Manning won Super Bowls at 39, Manning after having undergone cervical neck fusion. Jack Nicklaus won the Masters and Johnny Miller the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at 46, Miller after being chased into semi-retirement by the yips. “Handsome� Harry Gant was NASCAR’s oldest to take the checkered flag at 52, his left-turn signal no doubt blinking the whole way at the 1992 Champion Spark Plug 400. You think Woods has no chance? Consider: When he came back at least year’s Hero, his surgically repaired back still not quite surgically repaired (as we now know), he paced the field with 24 birdies. On Monday, news began trickling out of the Bahamas regarding his latest Hero-ics: Woods was outdriving his practice-round playing partner, Patrick Reed, by anywhere from 10-20 yards. Haney went on the air with praise for Woods’ latest swing, and Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee took to Twitter with similarly positive reviews. The pessimist in us says to give it up, seeing as how Woods has made just one PGA TOUR start in the last two years, and he hasn’t won since 2013. The optimist reminds that he won five times that year. And the heart says that it’s better to dream. Always. That might sound preposterous, but then so did the idea that Nolan Ryan would pitch his sixth ho-hitter at age 43, and Sam Snead would win the Greater Greensboro Open at Sedgefield Country Club for the eighth time at 52, and, well, you get the idea. Doug Ferguson of Sports Betting News points out that this marks the 10th time Woods has returned from layoffs of 10 weeks or longer. All but two of those layoffs have been injury-related—balky knee; ruptured Achilles; bad back—and not all of the comebacks have gone well. Last year, despite making all those birdies at the Hero, and shooting a second-round 65, Woods finished 22 shots behind the winner, Hideki Matsuyama. Of the 17 players who finished (Justin Rose withdrew), Woods beat only Russell Knox and Emiliano Grillo. Still, Woods had big plans for 2017. Then he missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open, shot an opening 77 and withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic a week later, pulled out of his next two scheduled starts, and had surgery in April. So here he comes again, and what are we to think? Should we decry our own stupidity for falling for this old ruse again? Nah. Today is a day to appeal to our better selves and remember that Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run at age 40, and Pablo Picasso painted “Guernica� at 55. To accept that Father Time is undefeated, yes, but to accept, too, that we all have something left to give, and the essence of life itself is finding out exactly what that is.

Click here to read the full article…

Fourteen years ago, an American walked onto a bus in South Korea with $72,000 stuffed in his plastic Subway sandwich bag. It was his reward for winning the country’s national championship over a future World Golf Hall of Famer. The tournament paid its victor in cash, using the currency of his home country. His plastic bag, which had held that day’s lunch, was filled to the brim with rolls of $100 bills. He stuffed the money under his seat for the 55-mile trip from the tournament’s host city, Cheonan, to Seoul. The next day, he headed to the bank to wire home his winnings. The teller quickly recognized the 6-foot-4 Texan who’d just beaten Ernie Els, then the world’s third-ranked player, at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club. Edward Loar had envisioned beating players like Els during his years starring for collegiate golf’s powerhouse program, Oklahoma State. Loar’s achievements seemed to portend quick success on the PGA TOUR, but now he was yet another example of professional golf’s unpredictable nature. He had taken his talents to Asia after failing for several years to put down roots on the PGA TOUR. Loar is now nearly two decades into a professional career that has taken him around the world, but not to the heights he hoped for in his earlier years. And yet, he lacks the cynicism that unmet expectations can so easily produce. At 40 years old, as he prepares to embark on another season on the Web.com Tour, Loar embraces the challenge with a gregariousness that helped him earn the nickname “Big Ed.â€� This year’s opportunity is especially gratifying because his career was on the precipice. When he left for the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament last month, he had a wife, 6-year-old triplets and the financial stresses that come from spending the past two years on golf’s mini-tours, waiting for him at home. He needed to have a successful tournament to justify his continued pursuit of a PGA TOUR card. Earlier in the year, he sat at his kitchen table, tearfully mourning his current lot. He felt out of place competing alongside college players, club pros and 20-somethings at the Texas State Open. “I was the guy that I never wanted to be, … almost 40 years old and still trying to eke it out on the mini-tours,â€� Loar says. He started telling friends and family that he may need to find another line of work if he didn’t earn Web.com Tour status by the end of the year. “I’d have to find something to do to make some money.â€� He tied for 30th at Q-School to earn starts in the first eight events of the upcoming season. His career resumes Saturday, in the first round of the The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay. “Whether or not I’ve achieved what I thought I could up to this point, which I haven’t, I still get to try,â€� he says. “I’ve always been excited to go play the next week because there’s always an opportunity.â€� Loar isn’t the first player whose professional success pales in comparison to his exploits as an amateur. But there aren’t many players who have persevered as long in the face of such a disparity. Loar was one of seven collegians who represented the United States in the 1999 Walker Cup. Only Loar, Jonathan Byrd and Matt Kuchar are still playing professionally. The other two have combined to win 12 titles and $60 million on the PGA TOUR. Loar has spent just two seasons on TOUR since turning pro in 2000, earning little more than $219,000 while missing 41 of 54 cuts. His T18 in his professional debut, at the 2000 B.C. Open, remains his best finish.I’ve gone from having a couple hundred thousand in the bank to having none, then back to having some and then having some credit-card debt. He doesn’t hesitate when asked how many countries he’s competed in, recalling the number immediately. Twenty-eight, on nine different tours, he says. “The credit in this story goes to his tenacity,â€� says Loar’s college roommate, two-time TOUR winner Charles Howell III. “At age 40, he’s still clawing his way back. … I’m not sure if I could have done that.â€� Loar has faced the gamut of experiences during his unique playing career. There was the time he almost won at St. Andrews, finishing second at the 2006 Dunhill Links while playing in the second-to-last group with two Hall of Famers, Els and Vijay Singh. He beat both his playing companions while finishing five shots behind Padraig Harrington, a three-time major winner. Loar also has appeared on a U.S. Open leaderboard and owns two wins apiece on the Web.com Tour and Asian Tour. He finished second in his first tournament in Asia, the Myanmar Open, while competing on a course lined by soldiers carrying automatic weapons. Experiences like the 2012 Q-School sit on the opposite end of the spectrum. He needed to finish par-bogey to earn his PGA TOUR card, but hit it into the water on the final two holes instead. A clerical technicality kept him from a European Tour card after he nearly won at the Home of Golf. Had he paid something called an “affiliate feeâ€� before the tournament, he would’ve earned a European Tour card. His bank account had been hit hard by Q-School entries, so he didn’t pay the four-figure fee. It was the only thing standing between him and European Tour status. His hardest year was 2014. After finishing fourth on the Web.com Tour money list, and contending at the 2013 U.S. Open before finishing T32, he thought he was prepared for the PGA TOUR. He missed 16 of 19 cuts instead. “I’ve gone from having a couple hundred thousand in the bank to having none, then back to having some and then to having some credit-card debt,â€� he says. Loar has spent the past two years pushing his own cart on the mini-tours, joking that he’s logged enough miles to have the tires rotated. Like most golfers, he still believes he can do better, buoyed by the memory of good shots and low scores. “I know what I can do, and what I have done, and I know there’s still more inside me,â€� Loar said. “Maybe that’s what has helped me get through pushing my pushcart in 105-degree weather at a Monday qualifier.â€� Forty-year-olds like Loar don’t garner much attention at Q-School. Most of the focus is on the prospects for whom the Web.com Tour is a steppingstone on the path to bigger and better things, players like Maverick McNealy and Sam Burns. Few knew the high stakes for Loar last month at Whirlwind Golf Club in Chandler, Arizona. That’s why Ellen Loar could be excused for checking her phone one last time before the Dec. 10 service at the First United Methodist Church of Rockwall, Texas. She may have been better served waiting to look at the live leaderboard, though. Just before putting her phone away, she saw that her son made double-bogey on his third hole of the final round. “Damn,â€� she muttered, according to Edward’s father, Jay. “It’s going to be what it’s going to be,â€� Jay told his wife. Their son made two birdies while they were sitting in church, and another two by the time they finished lunch. He birdied nine of his final 15 holes to shoot a final-round 66. After sitting in 68th place at the tournament’s halfway mark, he birdied 13 of the last 23 holes. His emotions were captured in an on-camera interview shortly after he signed his scorecard. “I was kind of to the point in my career where I was really going to have to evaluate whether or not I could still do it,â€� he said on the video. “But I sucked it up and played awesome golf.â€� Fifteen seconds in, Loar looks away from the camera and grabs the back of his hat. He spends the next 11 seconds trying to hold the tears at bay. “I’m obviously just really happy right now,â€� he added. “I’m really happy for my wife and my kids. They’ve supported me. What else can I say? They’ve just been awesome.â€� Loar calls his wife, Melaney, the family’s “leading money winnerâ€� over the past few years. On the first night they met, she asked her future husband, “So, what are you going to do when you grow up?â€� after learning his vocation. The job title “Professional Golferâ€� sounded a bit dubious, considering she’d never seen him on television. Now she works as a real-estate agent to help her husband fend off a day job. “I will absolutely never be the reason he has to give it up or be the one to say, ‘OK, buddy. Time’s up,’â€� Melaney says. “He’s told me that if he ever felt tired or that he couldn’t do it anymore, he would absolutely give it up. But he still believes that he can do it and he still loves it. “As long as that’s the case, we can make it work.â€� Edward Loar grew up in a golf family. His father was a pharmacist by trade, and a scratch golfer on the side. He later became the head men’s golf coach at SMU, where he coached his youngest son, Nick, and three U.S. Amateur champions (Hank Kuehne, Colt Knost, Kelly Kraft). “He had a nice, natural swing,â€� Jay says of Edward. At 10 years old, Edward shot 30 from the forward tees at their home course, The Shores Country Club. He hit his blue-headed 6-wood about 150 yards, the perfect distance for the 300-yard par-4s and 150-yard par-3s, and holed everything with his wood-shafted Otey Crisman putter. His natural talents served him well through college, where he’d watch seven college football games on a Saturday while Howell headed out to practice. “And then … the next week we would go play a tournament and he’d beat me,â€� Howell recalls. “And it just drove me bonkers.” One of those victories came in 1999 at the prestigious Sunnehanna Amateur, where Edward beat Howell by five shots (and then defended his title the next year). He also won the Southern Amateur, the Southwestern Amateur and five collegiate titles at Oklahoma State. He was a four-time All-American, played in the 1998 Palmer Cup and was a member of the Cowboys’ 2000 NCAA title team. “I would’ve tagged Ed early on to win a whole bunch of PGA TOUR events,â€� Howell says. “He always had a wonderful short game, he’s a big guy, he can hit it forever. “But in this crazy game, you just never know what’s going to happen.â€� If there was one shortcoming, it was a full swing that was too reliant on timing and resulted in a big miss, often at inopportune times. After failing to make it to Q-School’s Final Stage in his first attempt, Loar headed to the Asian Tour. He spent five seasons in Asia, each year returning home for another unsuccessful Q-School attempt. He won twice in Asia before finally earning Web.com Tour status for the 2007 season. “In hindsight, (playing in Asia), kind of masked some of my inefficiencies,â€� Edward says. “I was good enough to, once or twice a year, get into contention, so I thought I was improving. I don’t know if I was improving as much as I needed to. I was playing somewhere that I was just good enough to play.â€� He finally made it to Q-School’s Final Stage in 2006, playing his first Web.com Tour season in 2007. He didn’t keep his card, and spent the next three seasons playing “anywhere they’d take my money.â€� He bounced between the Web.com Tour and PGA TOUR from 2011 to 2015 before returning to the mini-tours for the past two years. Edward still has optimism for his latest opportunity, thanks in part to his work with Las Vegas-based swing instructor Joe Mayo, a teacher whose Twitter handle (@trackmanmaestro) contrasts Edward’s reliance on natural talent. He admits that he may have waited too long to learn more about his swing, which featured too much clubface rotation through impact. Mayo has helped Edward keep the clubface squarer. He calls the upcoming season “the best chance I’ve had in four years.â€� Edward wasn’t bitter watching new pros like Lee McCoy, McNealy or Burns find quick success at Q-School while his career was hanging by a thread. Even though he once sat in their shoes, only for his career to take unexpected turns away from the PGA TOUR, he isn’t overwhelmed by cynicism. “I remember the enthusiasm for turning pro. Honestly, I still feel that or else I wouldn’t still be doing it,â€� Loar says. “Obviously, I look at the guys who I grew up playing with and how successful they’ve been. I think that still kind of drives me. I know I can do better. “I just want to have another good shot at it.â€� Being honest about his failures doesn’t dampen his excitement for the future. A healthy sense of humor helps him keep things in perspective. His self-directed sarcasm seems to be cathartic, allowing him to avoid a pratfall too common in professional golf: taking oneself too seriously. “Ed’s always had this larger-than-life personality, and he has a larger-than-life physique to go along with it,â€� Howell says. He has even inspired a Twitter feed devoted to tracking his progress. @EdLoarTracker is run by a Florida resident who has met Edward just once, but appreciates his subject’s everyman qualities. The handle began as joke, spoofing Edward’s tweets about food and his light-hearted approach to professional golf. Edward often engages with the handle and plays along with its jokes. The 1,050 followers, known as “Loar Loonies,â€� are following a story that has the successes and failures, promotions and demotions, that are common to the human experience. “There are way more guys who can relate to the journey I’ve been on than the guys who get on TOUR in six events,â€� Edward says. “At the end of the day, it really is just a silly game.â€� One that Edward Loar has devoted his life to, through the good times and the bad.

Click here to read the full article…