Barbasol Championship, Round 2: Leaderboard, tee times, TV times

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – In recognition of his character, sportsmanship and commitment to charitable giving, Justin Rose has been named the 2021 recipient of the PGA TOUR’s Payne Stewart Award presented by Southern Company. Rose will be honored on Tuesday, August 31, at the Payne Stewart Award Ceremony in conjunction with the TOUR Championship. The ceremony will be televised live on Golf Channel as part of a “Golf Central” special from 7-8 p.m. ET at the Southern Exchange in downtown Atlanta. The Payne Stewart Award is presented annually by the PGA TOUR to a professional golfer who best exemplifies Stewart’s steadfast values of character, charity and sportsmanship. Stewart, an 11-time winner on the PGA TOUR and World Golf Hall of Fame member, died tragically 22 years ago during the week of the TOUR Championship in 1999. Southern Company, the “Official Energy Company of the PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions,” was the TOUR Championship presenting sponsor the year of Stewart’s passing. A year later, the PGA TOUR created the Payne Stewart Award in his honor, and Southern Company has supported the annual presentation since its inception. Previous recipients have all distinguished themselves through their respect for the game, the TOUR’s tradition of charity and their ability to make a positive impact in the lives of others. “I am truly humbled and honored to be associated with the enduring legacy of Payne Stewart through this award,” Rose said. “The Payne Stewart Award has become an annual celebration of Payne’s impact on the PGA TOUR and its players. I am forever grateful to be connected to a man who was the consummate professional on and off the golf course and will cherish being a Payne Stewart Award recipient well after my playing days are over.” Rose, 41, was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and moved to Hampshire, England, when he was 5 years old. He met his wife Kate in 2000 through her work at IMG, and the couple have two children, Leo and Charlotte. They established their own Foundation in 2009, and have worked tirelessly with charities in South Africa, the United States, the Bahamas and England throughout that time. “Justin Rose embodies everything the Payne Stewart Award represents,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “Like Payne, he has been one of the premier players of his generation while using his platform to better the lives of those around him. “The inspiring progress that he and Kate have made through their family’s foundation is a terrific representation of how Payne chose to focus his efforts away from the golf course, by giving back and treating people the right way.” Rose’s Charitable Impact In addition to a sculpture by Bob Pack presented to the recipient, the Payne Stewart Award is accompanied by an annual Payne Stewart Award Grant made possible by Southern Company. The $500,000 grant supports several initiatives in Stewart’s name and is distributed as follows: $100,000 to Payne and Tracey Stewart’s primary charity, The Stewart Family Foundation; $100,000 in Stewart’s honor to Payne Stewart Memorial, located in Missouri at Kids Across America, which is affiliated with Kanakuk Kamps; and $300,000 to a charity designated by the winner. Rose has chosen to designate the Kate & Justin Rose Foundation. The mission of the Kate & Justin Rose Foundation (KJRF) is to “feed hungry tummies and curious minds” and has provided nutrition, books and educational experiences to children in Central Florida since 2009. To date, KJRF has raised more than $3 million, provided more than 500,000 hunger-free weekends, and more than 300,000 books to 29,000 children. In 2020, due to the increased need during COVID-19, KJRF agreed to partner more closely with Blessings in a Backpack and start their own Orlando chapter: Rose Blessings Orlando. With an initial gift of $1.2 million to start this chapter, and an additional gift of $1 million, RBO went within the year from feeding 1,625 children to almost 5,000 hungry children on the weekends and during the summer holidays and are on target to achieve their long-term goal of feeding all 16,000 children in need in Orlando by 2030. Overseas, in September 2019, following the devastation in the Bahamas from Hurricane Dorian, KJRF set about rebuilding the Grand Bahamas Children’s Home, which was totally devastated by Hurricane Dorian. Since then, the home has been rebuilt and refitted, and KJRF has created and funded a Mental Health Initiative and employed a full-time therapist for all 40 of the Home’s children who have already been through so much trauma in their young lives. More recently, in their home country of England, Justin and Kate stepped up to support female professional golfers, who found themselves without any playing opportunities in June 2020 following the onset of COVID-19. The Roses created the “Rose Ladies Series,” an eight-tournament swing across the South East of England to provide playing opportunities and visibility for female golfers while their tours were shut down. In 2021, the Rose Ladies Series expanded to include some of the country’s most prestigious golf courses across England and Scotland for 11 daily tournaments to coincide with gaps in the Ladies European Tour season. This is in addition to the “Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Golf Championship” that Justin has personally sponsored for the last few years with the vision of encouraging and growing golf at junior and grassroots level. There is no charge for any amateur under the age of 18 to enter and it is a tournament that has been close to Justin’s heart since he won it back in 1997. Sadly, both Justin and Kate lost a parent to cancer when they were younger, and have been fundraising for Cancer Research UK since 2003, including partnering with popstar Niall Horan every other year for a Horan & Rose fundraiser. “Those who achieve great results in life without regard for their impact on their communities are never as successful as the people who place the needs of others ahead of their own,” said Tom Fanning, Southern Company chairman, president & CEO. “Justin’s professional accomplishments are amplified and multiplied by the tireless philanthropy performed through his foundation. On behalf of the tens of thousands of Southern Company employees who, like Justin, use values like character, charity and sportsmanship each and every day to make their communities better, congratulations, Justin, on being the well-deserved recipient of the 2021 Payne Stewart Award presented by Southern Company.” A Distinguished Career The golf world was first introduced to Rose as a 17-year-old during the 1998 Open Championship, where the upstart amateur holed his third shot from 50 yards on the 72nd hole at Royal Birkdale to finish T4 in his Open debut. Rose has since built an illustrious resume during his PGA TOUR career, having collected 10 PGA TOUR titles since 2010 and the FedExCup in 2018. The week prior to lifting the FedExCup, he ascended to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in his career following a runner-up at the BMW Championship. In 2013, Rose followed in Stewart’s footsteps by becoming a U.S. Open champion with his dramatic victory at Merion Golf Club for his first major championship title. In golf’s return to the Olympic Games in 2016, he brought the gold medal home to England in what was a historic week for the game in Brazil. In addition to his PGA TOUR titles, Rose has 11 career wins on the European Tour, and has represented Team Europe five times in the Ryder Cup (2008, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018), earning a 13-8-2 overall record. In 2017, Rose was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for his accomplishments in the game of golf. He is the second player from England to receive the Payne Stewart Award, joining Sir Nick Faldo (2014). Rose is the 24th recipient of the Payne Stewart Award, joining a distinguished group of respected golfers including Zach Johnson, who was recognized in 2020, and the inaugural recipients Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer (2000). Other recipients include Hale Irwin (2019), Bernhard Langer (2018), Stewart Cink (2017), Jim Furyk (2016), Ernie Els (2015), Sir Nick Faldo (2014), Peter Jacobsen (2013), Steve Stricker (2012), David Toms (2011), Tom Lehman (2010), Kenny Perry (2009), Davis Love III (2008), Hal Sutton (2007), Gary Player (2006), Brad Faxon (2005), Jay Haas (2004), Tom Watson (2003), Nick Price (2002) and Ben Crenshaw (2001).

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Sunday’sTaylorMade Driving Relief match at Seminole finally gave us live golf to watch and discuss. Here are five observations from five PGATOUR.COM writers. McIlroy is still golf’s alpha By Cameron Morfit I’ve been watching a lot of “Billionsâ€� during the pandemic, which is one of Rory McIlroy’s favorite shows. I know this because he’s been golf’s ne plus ultra tastemaker since long before the TaylorMade Driving Relief match at Seminole on Sunday, from reading (his fellow pros have started buying some of his recommendations) to exercise (he leads golf’s Peloton pack). He’s No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking and in ways OWGR doesn’t even begin to measure. We found out Sunday, when McIlroy hit a 121-yard shot closest to the pin – securing his and Dustin Johnson’s 11-7 skins victory over Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff – that even after two months of no competitive golf, that hasn’t changed. The defending FedExCup champ remains the game’s alpha. RELATED: Final scores, pledges made | Team Rory/DJ win | More than $5 million raised so far | How to donate McIlroy made a kick-in birdie from the bunker at the par-4 16th, then a big par putt on 17 to keep the skins carrying over. His final blow in sudden death, the closest-to-the-hole effort from the front tees and with the wind gusting at the 17th hole, earned another $1.1 million (of $1.85 million) for the American Nurses Foundation, his and Johnson’s beneficiary. With that, McIlroy delivered the day’s last fist pump. Fowler-Wolff won $1.15 million for the CDC Foundation. “It’s a huge effort from everyone involved,â€� McIlroy told Steve Sands on NBC. They were talking about how the event, which, with donations from viewers, generated $5.5 million for front-line health workers, came together. Not surprisingly, McIlroy was in the middle of it. UnitedHealth Group, which donated the $3 million for the skins contest, is one of McIlroy’s corporate partners. Gerry McIlroy, his dad, is a member at Seminole. And John Pinkham, McIlroy’s partner in their pro-member victory there, was the one who first hatched the idea for a charity match in the first place, according to NBC’s on-air interview with club president Jimmy Dunne. What’s more, McIlroy had the best one-liners, explaining that he’d won two FedExCups (for a cool $25 million) and wasn’t going to be unnerved by a short par putt at the first hole. After Wolff blew his tee shot into the dunes at the second, McIlroy casually thanked him for social distancing. And while Fowler also has won the Seminole pro-member, it was McIlroy who utilized his course knowledge to intentionally hit his drive at the sixth hole onto the fourth tee on the way to making his first birdie. True, Fowler had more birdies, 7-5. True, Wolff had cooler (rainbow) shoes and a righteous ’stache. But no one came up bigger in the biggest moment than McIlroy, which was just one more reason among many that for an afternoon, at least, all seemed normal and right with professional golf. Golf in the age of social distancing By Ben Everill Admit it. When Rory McIlroy touched his face a few times, you noticed it. This once innocuous move that previously lived outside your field of consciousness is now part of the everyday norm for most of us. And so with the PGA TOUR due back inside a month, the social distancing and health measures on display were one of my main curiosities when tuning in to the TaylorMade Driving Relief match. Just how might the new normal for golf play out? While this was a special event with some special exceptions — like having a personal flag remover in Mark Russell, the PGA TOUR Vice President of Rules and Competitions — for the most part this star-studded quartet played under conditions the rest of us mere mortals must adhere to as golf courses across the world adjust to life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seeing them carrying their own bags was cool ,and it was fitting to see Johnson throw his over one shoulder and saunter around like he was Robin Hood slinging arrows. From the first tee, the combatants stood nicely spread out, doing their best to implement the minimum 6 feet of social distancing recommended by the CDC. With each aerial shot, we could see how the players, and those essential to the broadcast, continued to do so throughout. Matthew Wolff and Rickie Fowler gave us an insight into celebration changes on the 11th hole. As Fowler dropped in a long birdie, the silence was deafening. Usually it would bring huge roars but without fans, clearly the dynamic changes. So Wolff produced a celebration dance thrust for his friend. Fowler still waved to an imaginary crowd. “You hear all those cheers,â€� Fowler smiled at Wolff. “Yeah, I still hear them, they’re going crazy!â€� his partner answered before Fowler joked about going to press play on his speaker for a crowd sound effect (a call-out to his new Travelers ad). With limited production staff, we were treated to players with microphones. The insight was incredible and if that one day becomes a new normal on TOUR, we’d all be cheering. When McIlroy won $1.1 million for charity on the 19th hole closest-to-the-pin tiebreaker, he gave out a cheer, a fist pump and turned to celebrate with Johnson … only to realize a simulated air high five was his best option. “Would have loved to give my partner a real high five, it was a team effort,â€� McIlroy admitted. “It would have been nice to give him one or a little hug or something, but obviously we can’t in these times.â€� Still, it was clearly a fun day and with over $5 million raised for COVID-19 relief, the new normal was something Johnson can get on board with. “It was fun and all for a good cause, so I really enjoyed being out here today,â€� he said. “This is how it is going to be for the most part when we come back. It was nice to get out here and kind of see what it will be like.â€� Golf does its part to inspire By Sean Martin No offense to Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and the other legends of the game, but my 3-year-old son knew something was up. And I’m not sure he liked it. The grainy footage was the first giveaway. As were the smaller clubs they used from the tee. “Is he hitting 3-wood?â€� my son asked as Jack Nicklaus teed off in a Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf match against Sam Snead. I’m only 37, but that number felt like it grew exponentially when I had to explain to him that no, son, there used to be a day when the drivers were made out of wood. How would he know? His clubs already have graphite shafts. So, whenever he’s seen golf on the television in a recent weeks, he’s always asked if I’m watching “old golf tournaments.â€� On Sunday, the answer was finally no. TaylorMade Driving Relief started during nap time, but when he awoke, he quickly spotted his favorite player, Rory McIlroy. “Is that Rory?!?!â€� he said excitedly. My wife once heard him announce himself as McIlroy while hitting shots in our backyard. “Now on the tee, Rory McIlroy,â€� she heard him say before he took a swing with his 7-iron. He’s a Matthew Wolff fan, as well. When he first saw Wolff, back in the 2018 NCAA Championship, he howled. This was back when he associated animals with their noises. Maybe one day he’ll think it’s cool that dad grew up at the same course as Wolff. He loves the game. It’s one of the few things he watches on TV. But I was a bit surprised when he only watched one hole before heading outdoors to hit balls of his own. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he opted for the outdoors. But I thought he’d take more interest in the first live golf in months. But then he reminded me that the real purpose of golf isn’t to get us to sit on our couch. It’s to inspire us. And golf did that today. Seminole makes a splashy debut By Jim McCabe Much of what has been said in defense of allowing and encouraging golf in this pandemic was on display Sunday in the TaylorMade Driving Relief charity event. Four of the world’s best players demonstrated the game is conducive to social distancing, no one needed to hand off rake bunkers or flagsticks, and while the lack of crowd emotion made for a different feel, it didn’t dull the competition whatsoever. Did watching Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson compete against Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff in a team skins game quench our thirst for live golf? Not totally. Our tanks were that dry. But we were thrilled to have it back. There were scores and numbers to report, of course – an improvised 120-yard shootout allowed McIlroy and Johnson to win the skins game, 11 to 7, and money count, $1.85 million to $1.15 million, and more than $5.5 million was raised for COVID-19 causes overall – and that lent an air of competition to the 18-hole match. But in all due respect to the powerful drives and the snippets of elite athleticism shown by McIlroy, Johnson, Fowler and Wolff, the star of the show was the stage, Seminole Golf Club. Prominently positioned in any mention of America’s great golf courses, Seminole is in many ways a mystery to those who aren’t members or those who’ve had the great privilege of an invitation. While it has hosted an annual pro-am for years that is jam-packed with PGA TOUR stars and is famously connected to the iconic Ben Hogan, Seminole is otherwise a blank canvas to many golf fans. That’s because, before Sunday’s competition, the golf course had never been on television. That, of course, cannot be said of Pebble Beach or Augusta National, of Shinnecock and Oakmont, of Riviera and Muirfield Village . . . iconic courses, yes, but all of them have had their share of TV time through the years. Cypress Point and Pine Valley are vaunted courses less known than the above, but even they have had more TV exposure than Seminole. Among the many appeals that sets golf apart from other sports is that the stage needs to be mentioned prominently. For the same reason famed violinist Isaac Stern pointed out a standard in his world: “Everywhere in the world music enhances a hall with one exception: Carnegie Hall enhances the music.â€� This isn’t to suggest that Seminole is to golf what Carnegie Hall is to musicians. But it is to suggest that if you didn’t come away enamored with, or intrigued by, Seminole, then we’ll have to agree to disagree. With a brilliant blue sky, pulsating sunshine, marvelous palm trees (planted with social distancing in mind), breathtaking vistas, and a set of greens that demand everything of your iron play, it was Seminole in all its glory. A little bit rusty, a lot of fun By Mike McAllister I don’t care if they were rusty. Don’t care if all four players failed to make a birdie on the first two holes despite eight approach shots with wedges (those dang Donald Ross domed greens!). Don’t care if Matthew Wolff and Dustin Johnson seemed to take turns off the tee finding the sandy waste areas or the water. As Rory chided Wolff after an early errant drive, “Thanks for doing your part for social distancing.â€� The only thing that mattered was that live golf was back, the first time in 66 days when THE PLAYERS Championship was shut down after the first round. Instead of having to cancel or postpone another tournament, this time the news was good, even if the golf wasn’t exactly crisp at historic Seminole for the TaylorMade Driving Relief match. Really, what did we expect? Johnson said he put the clubs away for nearly two months. No wonder he uttered the phrases “bad swingâ€� and “that’s badâ€� during the telecast. Still, there were enough highlights. • Wolff ripping drives of 356 and 368 yards to win $450,000 for charity on the two longest-drive holes; remember, his competition included two guys who basically cornered the market in Strokes Gained: Off-the-tee the last 10 years. • Fowler heating up with birdies to win skins on three of four holes in the middle of the round. Certainly he’s very familiar with Seminole, having won the Pro-Member three consecutive times. • And McIlroy with the clutch shot of the day to win $1.1 million and the final six skins on a closest-to-the-pin contest from 120 yards on the extra hole, the par-3 17th. It came after Wolff teed off first, challenged by his partner Fowler. “Gotta hit a shot,â€� Fowler told him. “Just being honest. Rise to the occasion. Show me something.â€� Wolff did show something by finding the green; Fowler, alas, followed by missing it. Johnson also missed the green, setting up McIlroy — described earlier in the telecast by Bill Murray as “The Irish Fellowâ€� — with one swing for $1.1 million. He made it count. It was the world’s best golfer coming through in the clutch. After the past 66 days, that’s exactly what we needed to see. We needed to see live golf played by the world’s best players, a small indication of hope that things will get better. “It has been awesome,â€� McIlroy said. “Nice to get back on the golf course and to get back to some normalcy.â€�

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