‘He left us in the dust’: How Tiger Woods changed golf forever with nine holes at the 1997 Masters

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A drivable par-4 and several of the game’s biggest stars. There’s a lot to love about this week’s PGA TOUR LIVE coverage. Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed are among the names that can be seen this week on PGA TOUR LIVE’s broadcast from the Travelers Championship. There will also be plenty of coverage of TPC River Highlands’ most famous hole, the drivable par-4 15th. PGA TOUR LIVE will broadcast between 7 a.m. Eastern and 6:30 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday. The coverage will switch to Featured Holes at 3 p.m. The drivable, par-4 15th and the par-3 16th are this week’s holes. PGA TOUR LIVE also will be available on Twitter for approximately 90 minutes, beginning at 7 a.m. Here’s a look at this week’s Featured Groups. Click here to subscribe to PGA TOUR LIVE. (Note: FedExCup rankings in parentheses) THURSDAY Brian Harman (10), Jim Furyk (137), Rory McIlroy (69): Furyk will play alongside a fellow FedExCup champ and one of this season’s breakout stars as he returns to the site of last year’s historic 58. McIlroy, the reigning FedExCup champ, is making his debut at this event after missing the cut in the U.S. Open. Harman, who finished T2 at Erin Hills, ranks in both the top 10 of the FedExCup (10) and the U.S. Presidents Cup standings (9). He’s finished in the top 10 in four of his past six starts, including a win over FedExCup leader Dustin Johnson at the Wells Fargo Championship and his U.S. Open runner-up. Tee time: 7:50 a.m. Eastern off 10th tee. Justin Thomas (3), Patrick Reed (75), Jason Day (45): Thomas and Reed are fresh off top-15 finishes at the U.S. Open, while Day is trying to rebound from his missed cut at Erin Hills. Thomas (T9) played in the final group last week after an electric 63 in the third round, while Reed (T13) posted his best career finish in a U.S. Open. Day’s top finish this season has been a runner-up finish at the AT&T Byron Nelson. Thomas and Day will see each other at this year’s Presidents Cup, as well, as both players rank second on their respective team’s point list. Reed, who’s nicknamed “Captain America� for his stellar play in international team events, is 11th in the U.S. standings; the top 10 on Sept. 4 will automatically qualify for the team. Tee time: 8 a.m. Eastern off 10th tee. FRIDAY Bubba Watson (109), Marc Leishman (15), Russell Knox (57): Three past winners of the Travelers Championship are in this group. Knox won last year with a dramatic 12-foot par putt on the last hole. Leishman, the 2009 Rookie of the Year, earned his first PGA TOUR win here in 2012. He earned his second victory earlier this year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. Watson is a two-time winner at TPC River Highlands (2010, ’15) and has finished in the top 10 in half of his 10 starts there. Tee time: 7:50 a.m. Eastern off 10th tee. Jordan Spieth (6), Brandt Snedeker (44), Wesley Bryan (22): Two former PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year, Spieth and Snedeker, are paired with a favorite for this season’s award. Wesley Bryan won the RBC Heritage and has four other top-10s. Spieth, the 2015 FedExCup champ, is making his debut at this event, while Snedeker has finished 11th and 10th in the past two Travelers. Snedeker won the FedExCup in 2012. Tee time: 8 a.m. Eastern off 10th tee.

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FORT WORTH, Texas – Jordan Spieth was walking down the 11th fairway Saturday when his caddie Michael Greller broke the news: The stifling heat had made it impossible for him to finish out the third round at the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational. “This is my last hole,â€� Greller said. So after completing the 11th, Greller left the course to receive medical treatment while Spieth’s trainer Damon Goddard took up the bag. Spieth eventually finished with a 2-under 68 that leaves him at 4 under for the tournament and tied for eighth. He’ll start Sunday’s final round five shots behind leader Webb Simpson, and he said Greller will be back on the bag for the slightly cooler (mid-80s) day. “Mike said he’ll be plenty fine by tomorrow,â€� Spieth said. “[He] just needed to pack it in, otherwise something really bad could have happened. It was a no-brainer situation.â€� Temperatures climbed to 96 degrees – with a heat index of 108 – Saturday on the hottest day of the PGA TOUR season. “Everybody is talking about it,â€� said Stewart Cink, who had the second best round of the day, a 4-under 66 (Emiliano Grillo shot a 65). “It’s like Topic No. 1 in the locker room and on the range. It’s hot. I think the main thing is it’s really the first heat of the year we’ve experienced.â€� Added Simpson: “It’s 100 degrees out there. Knowing that caddies are going down, we were just trying to stay upright.â€� Greller, already feeling ill, knew before Saturday’s round that he might not last, so he confidentially told Goddard – who was already planning to be at the course — to be prepared to take over. Once the round started, Greller made several restroom trips; Spieth thinks it was to find shade and pour water over his head. At one point, Greller said he had stopped sweating, and realized that was a problem that needed to be solved. But not until the 11th fairway did Spieth realize the full extent of the problem. “I was kind of surprised,â€� Spieth said. “I guess he had told Kelly (Kraft, Spieth’s playing partner) at some point during the round. Kelly asked if he was OK. I thought he was acting a little strange, a little quiet. I guess it just got him early on today.â€� Said Goddard: “I saw [Greller} fading a little bit earlier, even in warmups. He’s a trooper. On 12, I got tapped in and we said let’s go.â€� It’s not the first time Goddard has carried Spieth’s bag in an emergency situation. At the 2014 Shell Houston Open, Greller became ill, and Goddard filled in for the first round – with Spieth shooting a bogey-free 2 under. The streak didn’t continue Saturday, as Spieth three-putted the 14th for a bogey. But he bounced back with two birdies on his last three holes. “We actually had a blast towards the end there,â€� Spieth said. “Both of us kind of got a little off for the first few holes in the middle of the back nine there, and then we were able to grind it out and finish strong. “Yeah, it’s a little awkward, but I ended up setting off stuff and doing everything, so kind of slows the pace down a little bit.â€� Besides training Spieth, Goddard trains Kraft, who also lives in Dallas. That gave Goddard a chance to see both players up close in the same pairing. “It was actually good timing for Greller to go down,â€� Goddard. “Now I can see them in game-time scenarios. It was good. It was fun.â€� And it was hot.  

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