Roger Federer has remained on top of his sport longer than anyone expected. Tiger Woods’ downfall has been harsher than anyone could have imagined.
Click here to read the full article…
| Having problems finding out how match bonuses work? Check this guide on match deposit bonuses at our partner site Hypercasinos.com! |
BRADENTON, Fla. - Collin Morikawa has almost always excelled from tee to green. It was the putting that was an issue. Thanks to a lesson from a World Golf Hall of Famer, that was far from the case at the World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession, where Morikawa shot a final-round 69 to beat Brooks Koepka (70), Billy Horschel (70) and Viktor Hovland (67) by three. RELATED: Final leaderboard | What’s in Morikawa’s bag? "Short game and putting - I mean, that's it," J.J. Jakovac, Morikawa's caddie, said of the big difference in his man this week. "He always hits the ball exceptional. I mean this week was really good, I'm sure he finished number one in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green, but that happens often. But it's just putting making those putts. I mean he putted beautifully all week." Morikawa did lead the field in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green. Also in SG: Tee to Green. His work on those greens, where he was 213th in Strokes Gained: Putting on the season, made the difference. He was 10th in SG: Putting at the WGC-Workday, not only holding his own but gaining strokes on the field. And he did it using a "saw" putting grip, rotating his right hand around to push the club through the hitting zone, that he picked up from Mark O'Meara. He also got a chipping lesson on site from NBC Golf analyst Paul Azinger. "I heard about Mark O’Meara using this saw grip," said Morikawa, who like the PGA TOUR Champions pro is a member of The Summit Club in Las Vegas. "And out of the blue for 18 holes at TPC Summerlin, I was like, let’s give it a shot. And I made nothing. Like I made zero putts. "But for some reason, I couldn’t sleep," he continued. "And that’s never happened to me. I’ve never thought about putting or golf this much in my life, because it felt so good. It just felt so different on how I was putting that I knew I was heading down the right path." Added caddie Jakovac, "He said it felt so good it freaked him out." Morikawa saw O'Meara at the club the next day, and they spent around an hour together. "He felt comfortable with it," O'Meara said from the Cologuard Classic in Tucson, Arizona, where he finished T8. "He said it's the best he's felt on the greens. I'm not surprised to see the kid win. He's got an unbelievable future ahead of him. Look, I had mentors, a lot of the great players before me helped me along the line, and I'm always there to help young players." Most young players would love to have Morikawa's problems. But while he had won the Workday Charity Open in July and the PGA Championship in August, Morikawa, 24, had cooled considerably. He'd missed the cut at the U.S. Open and the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, his hometown tournament. A T44 at The Masters Tournament was underwhelming. He wondered aloud whether he was working hard enough. "I got complacent," he said Sunday. "I was getting lazy." Eager to shake things up, he used his new saw putting grip from start to finish at The Genesis Invitational in L.A. Although Morikawa finished T43, he still felt encouraged. "He was dead last in the field in putting," Jakovac said, "but he was like, ‘It felt really good.' He just kept saying that. He's like, ‘Are you worried about it?' I'm like, ‘Not at all. Your stroke has great flow to it. It looks better to me like that, you're releasing the putter through the ball.'" The new stroke was golden at The Concession, where Morikawa averaged 27 putts per round and gained nearly four strokes on the field. His impeccable ball-striking kept him out of trouble on a course where disaster lurked around every dogleg and doomed the chances of several players. Hovland might have won outright, or at least forced a playoff, were it not for his quadruple-bogey 8 on the ninth hole, his last of the day, in the second round Friday. Cameron Smith was in contention until suffering a third-round 77. Bryson DeChambeau, who won the 2015 NCAA Men's Championship at The Concession, opened the tournament with a 77. Morikawa kept the big numbers off his scorecard, making worse than bogey just once, a double-bogey 6 at the 16th hole Thursday. He led the field with 27 birdies. "His advantage is superior ball-hitting on a course that has massive penalties for missing it," Jakovac said. "It's being in control of your golf ball, which he was, and then you add on top of that he started to make putts and chip it good, it's a good combination." The WGC-Workday wasn't just Morikawa's fourth win, it was also a reminder of the brotherhood of the TOUR. Players wore red and black to honor Tiger Woods, who suffered compound leg fractures in a single-car accident in L.A. Woods said on Twitter that he was touched; players at The Concession said it was the least they could do for a man who transformed the game. O'Meara himself was a beneficiary. Having sharpened his game while living in Orlando and practicing with Woods, O'Meara captured the 1998 Masters and Open Championship - the last two victories of his 16-win PGA TOUR career. Morikawa has been a beneficiary, too. As with many players his age, Woods inspired him to pursue golf. They now share an agent, Mark Steinberg, who told Morikawa to go close out the tournament the way Woods would. "I think I did," Morikawa said.
True, the on-ramp will arrive earlier and the exit number will be altered, but competitors will have no problem next year recognizing a familiar mile marker when they make their way along the Quail Hollow Club for the 2021 Presidents Cup. Danger and treachery are impossible to disguise. Especially when you’re talking about a stretch of three holes as heralded as those that conclude your round of golf at Quail Hollow. “Just great, great golf holes,� said Mark Russell, the PGA TOUR’s Vice-President of Rules, Competitions and Administration. So great, in fact, that when the match-play format of the TOUR’s biennial team competition was taken into consideration, there was unanimous agreement that “they are such a supreme challenge, we’ve got to get them into the mix,� said Johnny Harris, the president of Quail Hollow. In other words, it was imperative to get next year’s Presidents Cup matches to these demanding tests – the 16th, a par 4 of 506 yards; the 17th, a white-knuckle par 3 of 223 yards over water; and the 18th, a 494-yard par 4 that is guarded entirely on the left by a small creek that looks wider than the Atlantic Ocean. The Green Mile is the nickname that has stuck for 16-17-18 since it was born on a radio talk show live from the playing of the 2004 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow more than 15 years ago. A caller suggested it was like the Stephen King novel turned into a Tom Hanks movie by the same name, a tale about that final walk from death row. A bit grim, perhaps, but the Green Mile has since remained part of the dialogue on annual trips to Quail Hollow. Sadly, the visit was bypassed this year as this week’s Wells Fargo Championship was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. But when it returns to the PGA TOUR landscape in 2021, Quail Hollow will bring all its glory to the Presidents Cup, albeit with a different routing so that players get the full package of pressure and fans the complete complement of entertainment. (Next year’s Wells Fargo Championship will be played at TPC Potomac as Quail Hollow prepares for the Presidents Cup.) Thanks to the new routing, the Green Mile (annually, 16-17-18 rank the three toughest holes at the Wells Fargo Championship) will play as Nos. 13-14-15, and if you’re looking for the definition of “no-brainer,� consider this: At the 2019 Presidents Cup in Australia, all 30 matches reached the 15th hole at Royal Melbourne, but 18 of them failed to get to the 18th. “It was probably part of our first conversation with the TOUR and Adam (Sperling, executive director of the Presidents Cup) and his team,� said Johno Harris, Johnny’s son and chairman of the 2021 Presidents Cup. “Everyone was on board and it was an easy conversation to have; we were all thinking that we wanted 16-17-18 to be in play.� (After playing the Green Mile as holes 13-14-15, the adjusted routing will take you to 16-17-18 – what is currently the par-5 10th, then the par-4 11th, then over to the par-4 ninth.) For all the passionate care he pours into Quail Hollow, Johnny Harris concedes that “it was almost by accident� that the re-routing will be seamless for the 2021 Presidents Cup. When players complete the short, dogleg right par-4 eighth hole, rather than turn left and head to what is the ninth tee, they’ll proceed to what is presently the tee box at the par-4 12th and close out their outward nine at a very tight driving hole that features a demanding approach to an elevated green. (The par-3 13th will serve as the 10th hole.) The path that is roughly 80- to 100-yards long meanders behind what is the 11th green and sets up beautifully. While making No. 12 the ninth hole will accommodate the desire to get 16-17-18 earlier into the mix, there is significantly more to the back than the Green Mile. The fun really starts when players step into a unique amphitheater beginning with the tee shot at the par-4 14th, which will be the 11th hole for the Presidents Cup. It’s a 344-yard par 4 that will entice players to try and drive a green that is protected on the left by an expansive body of water that will put a headlock on players’ attention. The water also serves as the centerpiece to an amphitheater designed by Tom Fazio that will be the source of electricity. “You have to step back and marvel at what Tom did to create that amphitheater,� said Johno Harris. “Players (on the 11th) will be looking across the water to see players (at 13 and 14). Crowds will be listening to crowds. That’s what’s going to be fun,� added Johnny Harris. “I’m not sure you get such a wide view anywhere else.� This dynamic stretch of holes – from the short 11th, to the par-5 12th that moves uphill right-to-left and will be reachable in two, then to the famed Green Mile stretch at 13-14-15 – brings water into play, but also the coveted risk-reward mentality. “Every one of those holes creates excitement,� said Johnny Harris, who has been at Quail Hollow since the day it opened and would be on a short list if you jotted down the most passionate and influential supporters of golf. Quail Hollow has hosted PGA TOUR tournaments dating to the 1960s, including annually since 2003, and he was the force behind the PGA Championship coming here in 2017, the first major held in Charlotte, North Carolina. Harris was 11 years old when his father, James, pitched the idea of Quail Hollow to a group of influential North Carolina businessmen. The guest speaker at the gathering in James Harris’ home was a man named Arnold Palmer, who had recently won the 1958 Masters. Not only did the evening help raise the funds for James Harris to build Quail Hollow, it poured the foundation to Johnny Harris’ lifelong friendship with Arnold Palmer. Not a bad introduction into a lifetime love affair with golf, eh? It’s one that Johnny Harris doesn’t take for granted and one that leaves him qualified to pass judgment on what works and doesn’t work in golf. And what works at that stretch of holes that will be played as Nos. 11-15 in 2021 is the “go or not go� mentality. Do you try to drive the green at 11? Go for 12 green in two? How aggressive will you be with your approach to 13 green, with water looming? Ditto your tee shot at the par-3 14th. Rip a driver at the tight 15th or lay back with a safer shot? “Those holes present a huge advantage or huge disadvantage in a match play environment,� Johnny Harris said. “The fans will love it.� The 24 players that week might view it differently, given the pressure they’ll be facing. But it’s not like they aren’t familiar with both sides of the risk-reward nature of those holes at Quail Hollow. Johno Harris points to one of the best shots he’s ever seen, Justin Thomas’ 7-iron at the par-3 17th (No. 14 in 2021) that pretty much sealed his win in the 2017 PGA Championship. Jason Day’s win at the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship was cemented with a brilliant birdie at the 17th. Then there was Rickie Fowler’s first PGA TOUR win at the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship, his approach stuffed tight to a difficult pin on the 18th to beat Rory McIlroy and D.A. Points in a playoff. Ah, but the heartaches have been plentiful, too, starting with David Toms in the inaugural Wells Fargo Championship in 2003. Johnny Harris stood greenside and watched Toms take four putts to finish off an ugly quadruple-bogey – yet win by two. “It’s the only time I’ve been allowed to give a ride to the winner,� he laughed. Phil Mickelson has played Quail Hollow beautifully through the years (a second, two thirds, 10 top-10s) but has squandered chances to win on the Green Mile. He made three double-bogeys at 17 in 2005, bogeyed 16 and 17 on Sunday to lose to Derek Ernst in 2013, and never really recovered from a quadruple-bogey at 18 in Round 3 in 2016. Trevor Immelman, who will be captain of the International Team in 2021, three-putted the 72nd green, then lost the Wells Fargo Championship in a playoff in 2006. But he has always credited that visit to Quail Hollow with doing a lot for his career and embraces the re-routing of the holes. “We know the golf course, from the drivable 14th (No. 11) to 15 the par 5 (No. 12), then the Green Mile. When players have the opportunity in match play a little bit more aggressively,� said Immelman, “I think it is going to provide some pretty good entertainment and a nice opportunity for these guys to show off their skills.� It’s hard to argue with Immelman. But you might add that the entire 2021 Presidents Cup will enable Quail Hollow to flash its character and style.
The PGA TOUR returns to Bermuda for the second Bermuda Championship with a field led by former FedExCup winner Henrik Stenson and defending champion Brendon Todd. FIELD NOTES: Former collegiate stars Will Zalatoris and Justin Suh earned a spot in the field after parlaying sponsor exemptions into the Shriners Hospitals for Open Children into top-10 finishes ... Major champions Danny Willett, Jason Dufner, Stewart Cink, and Padraig Harrington are in the field... Sponsor exemptions include Bermuda's own Camiko Smith, Taylor Funk (son of former PLAYERS Championship winner Fred Funk, who is also in the field), Korn Ferry Tour members John Oda and James Nicholas, plus brothers Ollie and Luke Schniederjans (Luke, the younger brother, just shot a 59 at a mini-tour event in North Carolina in mid-October)... Monday Qualifiers include Danny Walker and Michael Miller, who survived a 4-for-2 playoff two weeks ago that went into Tuesday due to darkness. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: Port Royal GC in Southampton, Bermuda, par 71, 6,828 yards (yardage subject to change). A Robert Trent Jones design, the course hosted the Grand Slam of Golf and underwent a near $15-million renovation in order to welcome PGA TOUR golfers to its facility. The Oceanside course is the longest on the island. STORYLINES: This season's Bermuda Championship will offer full FedExCup points... the Bermuda Championship will be the first event on the TOUR schedule since the COVID-19 break to allow spectators, but are limited to 500 per day... Zalatoris is looking to earn enough Nonmember FedExCup Points to get special temporary member. He has finished in the top-10 three out of his last four TOUR events, including the U.S. Open. He is just three FedExCup points away from earning special temporary membership, which would allow him to accept unlimited sponsor exemptions... Suh has posted back-to-back top-15 finishes on TOUR... Harrington and Dufner are familiar with Bermuda having competed in the PGA Grand Slam when it was contested on the island... Todd will defend his title in Bermuda after a career season in 2019-20 that was kick-started here. He also won the Mayakoba Golf Classic in his next stop. 72-HOLE RECORD: 260, Brendon Todd (2019) 18-HOLE RECORD: 62, Scottie Scheffler (first round, 2019), Brendon Todd (fourth round, 2019). LAST TIME: Brendon Todd broke a five-year winless drought in Bermuda with a four-stroke victory over Harry Higgs. Todd, who won the 2014 AT&T Byron Nelson for his first PGA TOUR title, earned his TOUR card back for 2019-20 at the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. After his win in 2014, Todd missed 37 of 41 cuts from 2016-18 and fell outside the top 2,000 in the world. But in a story of resilience, Todd fought all the way back to the PGA TOUR winner's circle, punctuated with a 9-under-par 62 in the final round in Bermuda. Hank Lebioda, Aaron Wise, Brian Gay, and Scottie Scheffler all finished T3 at 18-under. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Saturday, 12 p.m.-3 p.m. ET; Sunday 11 a.m.-2 p.m. ET (Golf Channel) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. ET; Saturday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; Sunday 9 a.m.-2 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).
