Inside the Field: Waste Management Phoenix Open

OWINGS MILLS, Md. – Remaining dampness and mud from Tropical Storm Henri has seen PGA TOUR officials enact preferred lies for the opening round of the BMW Championship as the race for the FedExCup heats up. It appeared an odd choice given the pure sunshine around Caves Valley early in the opening round of the penultimate FedExCup Playoffs event, but Chief Referee Steve Rintoul explained the integrity of the competition had to be maintained as the top 70 players vie for the 30 slots in the TOUR Championship where they’ll all fight for the ultimate prize – the FedExCup. “Based on the remnants of Hurricane Henri that brought 2-3 inches of rain to Caves Valley Golf Club over the weekend, combined with extreme heat, high dew point and humidity, the PGA TOUR Competitions Committee has granted players the ability to utilize preferred lies in closely-mown areas for Round 1 of the BMW Championship,” Rintoul said. “Unfortunately, the conditions we’ve been dealt along with no wind to speak of has slowed the drying of the golf course. In some instances, players will be dealing with some extreme mud adhering to the golf ball that will affect its flight in unpredictable ways. THE PGA TOUR has a philosophy in place for using preferred lies for two reasons, one is temporary water and the second is for this exact situation which will allow us to deliver a more-even playing field.” Rintoul understood some fans might be confused with the decision given the sunny weather but insisted while it might appear bone dry on television, underfoot was a different story. And with the possibility of afternoon thunderstorms things could easily get worse quickly. Rintoul said players in Wednesday’s pro-am were picking up a lot of mudballs. “When you pick up material like that, it makes playing shots a little bit of guesswork,” Rintoul added. “It was a very difficult decision, but we made the decision in order for us to not affect the integrity of the competition. We’d like to see a guy drive in the fairway, hit a good iron shot from a decent lie and make the putt and win the tournament. We don’t want a poor decision to predicate the winner.” The committee made the decision early Thursday morning for the opening round only and will reassess each morning hereafter for the last three rounds. While the top 30 is in play for the FedExCup, so are starting positions at East Lake that bring stroke advantages. Ryder Cup spots are also on the line. “Caves Valley has done a great job getting us to this point. For me personally as chief referee I would much rather everyone feel like they came to Caves Valley and had a good experience, and that it was an equitable competition and the right guys advanced to East Lake or got on the Ryder Cup team, whatever they’re shooting for,” Rintoul added. “Our job as a committee is to run the competition on a day-by-day basis and present the golf course, whether it’s through setup or decisions like this, in the best manner we can for the good of the game. I’m very aware there’s a lot on the line here.”

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH – The youth explosion in golf has hit new heights with the top five ranked players in the world all under 30 for the first time in the history of the game. RELATED: WiretoWire: Inside Scheffler’s hot run at Bay Hill Scottie Scheffler’s win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, not far removed from his maiden PGA TOUR win at the WM Phoenix Open, pushed the 25-year-old to fifth in the official world golf rankings. The American now joins fellow youngsters Jon Rahm (27), Collin Morikawa (25), Viktor Hovland (24) and Patrick Cantlay (29) at the pointy end of the standings in the lead up to a highly anticipated PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass this week. Over the last eight years or so there has been a significant shift in the depth of young stars on the PGA TOUR and across the globe. In both 2015 and 2017 the TOUR saw a run of seven consecutive tournament wins by players in their 20s as the likes of Jordan Spieth (12 TOUR wins), Jason Day (12 TOUR wins), Bryson DeChambeau (eight TOUR wins) and Justin Thomas (14 TOUR wins) came of age. They were just the start. Current world No. 1 Rahm has six TOUR victories to his name, including the 2021 U.S. Open. Then came Morikawa and Hovland leading a new wave that included Scheffler plus others like South Korean Sungjae Im, Chile’s Joaquin Niemann and fellow American Sam Burns who all have two TOUR wins apiece. Already this PGA TOUR season, 11 of 19 wins have been by 20-somethings (although Hideki Matsuyama has celebrated his 30th birthday since his two wins). Morikawa has five PGA TOUR wins including two majors and another DP World Tour title. Hovland has three TOUR wins, two DP World Tour wins and an unofficial TOUR win at the Hero World Challenge late last year. Scheffler grabbed his first two TOUR wins in a 21-day stretch. Cantlay is the elder statesmen of the record setting youth set. But if he is to add to his six TOUR wins and a FedExCup title in his 20s, he’ll need to salute at TPC Sawgrass this week. Cantlay turns 30 on March 17. World No. 6 Rory McIlroy and No. 9 Dustin Johnson are the only 30-somethings in the current world top 10 at 32 and 37 years old respectively with Xander Schauffele (28, four TOUR wins), defending PLAYERS champion Thomas (28) and Australian Cameron Smith (28, four TOUR wins) all also in the top 10. In fact, 15 of the current top 25 players in the world are in their 20s.

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Justin Thomas, fresh off his 4-1-0 performance at the Presidents Cup, touched on several subjects as he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday night. The 15-time PGA TOUR winner and two-time major champion appeared at ease talking about an Instagram post revealing his goals for 2022, what it’s like having his dad as his coach, and the Netflix documentary that will air in early 2023. Thomas, 29, even weighed in on Fallon’s celebration after a bunker hole-out (while playing with Justin Timberlake, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce) and taught the host how to club-twirl. “I’ve always liked making goals,” Thomas said of his aims for the season that ended with his fifth-place FedExCup finish in August. “You know, I have some that are more achievable than others, and I have some that are more difficult, but I make everybody on my team do it, so my caddie will do it, my dad will do it, my coach will do it, my putting coach will do it, I’ll do some stuff with my trainer. Because then I make everybody share it with each other so everybody is held accountable.” Among the items he checked off the list: Winning, winning a major (the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, in a playoff), and making the TOUR Championship and U.S. Presidents Cup Team. Among the goals he didn’t achieve: Winning four or more times, finishing in the top 10 in all four majors, and getting back to No. 1 in the world. Fallon asked Thomas what it’s like being coached by his father, the PGA professional Mike Thomas, who is the son of Paul Thomas, also a PGA professional who competed against the likes of Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. Mike Thomas, who also coaches Charlie Woods, Tiger’s son, has said he didn’t want to be as hard on Justin as his dad was on him. As a result, Justin Thomas said, Mike has trended more toward being a father than a taskmaster. “Sometimes I would like him to be harder on me,” Thomas said. “Because he feels like he doesn’t want to interfere. He doesn’t want to mess me up. We’ve had these conversations many a time; I’m like, ‘Dad, we’re out here, you’re my coach, you’re not my dad. You’re here to make me better at golf and that’s what you need to do.’” As for the upcoming Netflix documentary, Thomas said it will benefit from new levels of on- and off-course access. “They had moments where they were in the car with me driving to the golf course, or they’re watching me work out, or having dinner with some guys, whatever it is,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a really cool thing for people to see in.”

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