Golf legend Peter Thomson passes away

Saturday will bring another star-studded Featured Group – Tony Finau, Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose – and the opportunity for fans to pick the other threesome they’d like to watch. Voting will take place on the PGA TOUR’s Twitter account. PGA TOUR LIVE will broadcast from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The coverage also will be available on Twitter for approximately the first hour of the broadcast. Here’s a look at this week’s Featured Groups (Note: FedExCup rankings in parentheses; all times Eastern): FRIDAY Marc Leishman (24), Tiger Woods (25), Chez Reavie (26): Woods won here in 2006, the year before the FedExCup Playoffs began. Leishman and Reavie both contended at TPC Boston en route to their best FedExCup finishes. In five starts at TPC Boston since the start of the FedExCup, Woods has finished in the top 11 four times. Leishman finished third at TPC Boston last year, then won the BMW Championship and finished sixth in the final FedExCup standings. Reavie was the runner-up here seven years ago to earn his lone TOUR Championship berth. Tee times: 8:51 a.m. off No. 10 on Friday; 1:16 p.m. off No. 1 on Saturday. Bryson DeChambeau (1), Dustin Johnson (2), Justin Thomas (3): Take me to your leaders. These are the top three players in the FedExCup. Johnson and Thomas also played in this group last week, while DeChambeau moved into this elite company with his win at THE NORTHERN TRUST. DeChambeau is the youngest player to lead the FedExCup standings after the first event of the postseason. Thomas is the defending champion at TPC Boston after last year’s three-shot win. Tee times: 9:03 a.m. off No. 10 on Friday; 1:28 p.m. off No. 1 on Saturday. SATURDAY Tony Finau (4), Brooks Koepka (5), Justin Rose (6): Finau moved into the top five with his second-place finish at THE NORTHERN TRUST. It was his third runner-up, and ninth top-10, of the season. Koepka and Rose both have two wins this season. Koepka’s victories came at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open, while Rose won the Fort Worth Invitational and World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions. Tee times: 1:28 p.m. off No. 1 on Friday; 9:03 a.m. off No. 10 on Saturday. These are the groups that you will be able to vote for on Twitter. One group will be selected as Saturday’s second Featured Group: 8:51 a.m. off No. 1: Austin Cook (36), Gary Woodland (37), Ian Poulter (38) 8:51 a.m. off No. 10: Billy Horschel (14), Aaron Wise (15), Cameron Smith (16) 9:15 a.m. off No. 1: Paul Casey (20), Kyle Stanley (21), Tommy Fleetwood (22) 9:15 a.m. off No. 10: Phil Mickelson (10), Patrick Cantlay (11), Patrick Reed (12)

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SAN FRANCISCO – When it mattered most, being short proved a great advantage for Collin Morikawa. This is not about his diminutive stature but rather his length off the tee. TPC Harding Park was a bombers’ paradise until the critical moment of the PGA Championship on Sunday. When Morikawa reached the short par-4 16th. RELATED: Final leaderboard | The clubs Morikawa used to win | So close but so far for Koepka, Casey, others At 294-yards on Sunday the hole was inviting players to have a crack, particularly as nine of them had been part of the lead during a frantic final round. Someone had to step up. Problem was, in these modern times of big hitters, for most of them, 294 yards is too short to wail away with driver. Bryson DeChambeau hits his drives over 350 yards, so to Tony Finau. Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Jason Day, Matthew Wolff, Cameron Champ … the list of long hitters in contention was long. But they’d have to take 3-wood, or try to take something off their longest club, finesse the ball in the soupy heavy air. Morikawa had the perfect number for his driver. The same driver that had helped him to lead the field in driving accuracy for the week. Funny thing is, pre-tournament he was certain he wouldn’t be going for that green at all. “I told Colt Knost, he saw me Wednesday afternoon practicing on there, and he asked me if I was ever going to go for it. I told him a quick no, it’s too much into the wind, why go for it. I didn’t think the pin was going to be where it was,” Morikawa said. But with the tee up and pin sitting in the middle where a ball rolling up onto the green would feed towards it was just too tempting. Particularly given just a few weeks back, at the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village, he’d had similar success when the 14th hole was played from a similar distance. Morikawa decided to go for it. And the rest will live in golf history forever more. His ball landed perfectly and rolled up to seven feet. Soon after Morikawa buried the eagle putt and took a commanding lead he would not relinquish. At just 23 he is a major champion. A three time PGA TOUR winner already in just 29 starts. He has more wins than missed cuts. “Those are moments I’m always going to remember. I want to say it was 278 front, 294 hole. My ball went 291, exactly how I played it. It just had to be a normal driver for me. I didn’t have to do anything special. Thankfully I don’t hit it 330,” he grinned. The only downside was only a small smattering of people were there to see it live thanks to these COVID-19 times. It was a shot that deserved a roar to rival anything Tiger Woods heard in his prime. And he would have received it. After all he’s a California kid who went to college at Cal Berkeley. They would have been going berserk. “This is the one time I really wish there were crowds right there,” Morikawa said. “I heard some claps. Obviously not a ton. But the claps could mean I’m on the green and I’ve got 50 feet. Walking up I knew it was right above the tier, and you had to make it. I had to make that putt. Two strokes is a lot different than one stroke coming down 18.” Indeed it was. It was in the end unassailable for anyone else. And it secured history. At age 23 years, 6 months, 3 days, he becomes the third-youngest PGA Championship winner since World War II, behind only Rory McIlroy and Jack Nicklaus. Woods won a PGA at 23 also. “It’s great company. It’s been crazy, because this entire start of my professional career, I see all the things comparing to Tiger … but Tiger is on a completely different level. I think we all know that,” Morikawa gushes. “But any time you’re in the conversation of the greats, Jack, Rory, Tiger, no matter who it is, if you’re in that conversation, you’re doing something well.” He is also just the third player since 1970 to win a major in two or fewer major starts after his U.S. Open appearance last year and is just the ninth player to win the PGA Championship in their tournament debut. His weekend rounds of 65-64 for 129 sets the lowest closing 36-hole score in PGA Championship history, beating Woods 130 from 2018 and the 64 ties the PGA Championship record for lowest final-round score by a winner with Steve Elkington (1995). The win sent Morikawa to second in the FedExCup standings and fifth in the world rankings. While the golf world continues to be a little taken aback by the quick success, it’s not a surprise to the man himself. “I’ve believed in myself since day one. I haven’t let up from that,” he said. “When I woke up today, I was like, this is meant to be. This is where I feel very comfortable. This is where I want to be, and I’m not scared from it. I think if I was scared from it, the last few holes would have been a little different.” Morikawa was an amateur standout so his confidence is not misplaced. Clearly he has the game to back up any bravado he brings to the course. It’s not arrogance, it’s just pure will to win. And with the FedExCup Playoffs upcoming and another six majors and a PLAYERS among tournaments in the next 11 months he is ready to continue his rise. “It doesn’t stop here. I’ve got a very good taste of what this is like, what a major championship is like,” he said. “The majors are going to be circled in, just like everyone else, but I’ve got to focus on every single week. I’m trying to win every single week. I’m not trying to come out and just win the majors. I’m 23. This is my first full year. “I love golf. I love every part of it. I love being in this position and I love just being able to come out here and play with a bunch of guys that love the sport, too.” The sport loves him back. And will for a long time to come.

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On the PGA TOUR, victories come in astounding fashion, arguably every single day. Sure, one player will be crowned champion each Sunday, but through the unparalleled efforts of its players, so many others reap far greater rewards. Those are the ones who receive the prize of things like food and shelter, medicine – and, even life. More inspiring than the hard-charging assaults TOUR players put on the courses is the collective soft heart they are driven by to turn those courses into platforms. No player on TOUR epitomizes that M.O. more so than Paul Casey. So, here’s the deal with just part of Casey’s commitment to UNICEF. It’s not a well-known tidbit of information, for recognition isn’t what drives the three-time TOUR winner. For every birdie he makes in any professional event – PGA TOUR or otherwise – Casey donates $100 to UNICEF. He doubles the amount for eagles. RELATED: Leaderboard | Amateur with one arm makes hole-in-one | How Phil became a social media star “Paul is a true champion for children in all that he does,â€� said Shanell Mosley, Deputy Director of Sports Partnerships at UNICEF USA. “He wears the UNICEF logo on his golf bag with so much pride and continually educates fans about UNICEF’s work, advocates on behalf of the rights of children around the world and raises crucial funds for the world’s most vulnerable children.â€� Since 2016, Casey has raised more than $300,000 for UNICEF. During the second round of The American Express at PGA West in La Quinta, CA., Casey’s amateur partners were Jimmy Dunne, vice chairman at Wall Street investment banking firm Piper Sandler, and investment banker, Adebayo Ogunlesi, a managing partner at the private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners. An idea entered Casey’s head. “Yesterday, I asked Steve Squeri, the CEO of American Express, if he wanted to match my pledge, since I’m paired with him on Saturday at the Stadium Course,â€� Casey said. “He said, ‘Yeah, brilliant’.â€� Casey made the same ask of Dunne, with whom he has been friends for years.   “He’s such a good guy,â€� Casey said. “So, I pitched the idea to him this morning, and he goes, ‘Yeah, I’m in. But I’m going to do one better than that,’.â€� Dunne would offer $1,000 for every birdie Casey made and $10,000 for every birdie he made. He also pledged $10,000 for birdie he made himself in Friday’s second round. “I made five, but the beautiful thing about this story is that Jimmy’s a good player,â€� Casey said. “He hit some great shots, but this is a difficult golf course, and I could see him, he was trying so hard. He missed a few putts for birdie, but then we got to the 15th hole and that’s when it all changed.â€� Dunne hit his tee just into the right rough, leaving himself 165 yards from the hole. For an eagle, he holed his approach shot. “He comes running up the hill with the biggest smile on his face,â€� said Casey. “He said we had never discussed eagles. I told him that was completely at his discretion.â€� Dunne would offer up $25,000 for the feat. In addition, Dunne secured a matching amount from Ogunlesi. “And it gets better, because on the next hole Jimmy almost flies it in for an eagle,â€� Casey said. “The ball ran to the back of the green and then he holed it for a birdie, which is another $10,000.â€� When the group finished their round, Casey did some quick math and informed Dunne and Ogunlesi that – all in – they were each in for $40,000. Dunne, though, took issue with Casey. “Jimmy looks at me and says ‘We can’t, 40 is no good’,â€� Casey said. “He looks at Adebayo and suggests $50,000 each…to UNICEF. Adebayo said ‘Sure’.â€� “I was immediately stunned when I heard the news,â€� said Mosley. “In fact, I had no words and it made me rather emotional because I could hear the joy in Paul’s voice.â€� “That’s what’s cool about these events to me,â€� Casey said. “Yes, somebody’s going to win at the end of the week, but it’s the impact that it has on people’s lives that truly makes the difference. Golf and the PGA TOUR are the platforms that allow these kinds of things to happen. It’s the coolest.â€� “He has an incredibly big heart and is so passionate about the work that UNICEF does,â€� said Mosley. “He continues to leverage his platform to make a difference for children and it means so much to the UNICEF family. We speak about the resiliency of UNICEF staff in the field and in a very real sense, Paul is an extension of our team. He won’t stop until every child has their basic needs met such as access to health care, clean water, nutrition, and education.â€�  As is the case for every TOUR player, some finishes are better than others for Casey. But, when he knows his every swing helps give children across the world a greater chance of getting into some swing of normalcy, he carries on, head held high. “He continually uses his platform for good and to raise awareness about UNICEF’s lifesaving work for children,â€� Mosley said. “We are also incredibly grateful to the individuals that accepted Paul’s birdie challenge and for their generous contribution. I can guarantee this is a story that many of us will never forget. Who would have thought a round of golf could literally save a child’s life?â€� Apparently, Paul did. For more information or to donate to UNICEF, visit unicefusa.org/wontstop

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