Joaquin Niemann sets speed record at TOUR Championship

Legendary golf architect Pete Dye died Thursday at age 94 but leaves an undeniable stamp on the game. As the news filtered through the golf fraternity TOUR players and others who have been touched by his contribution to the world begun reflecting on the World Golf Hall of Famer’s legacy en masse. RELATED: Pete Dye passes away at age 94 “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Pete Dye, a true friend of the PGA TOUR and one of the most important course architects of this or any generation. A 2008 inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame, Pete’s influence is far-reaching, leaving a global imprint on both the amateur and professional games. He designed some of the best known golf courses in the world, though none more recognizable than THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. It was here that Pete masterfully brought Commissioner Deane Beman’s revolutionary stadium golf concept to life, melding Deane’s vision with a brilliantly designed course that is celebrated annually as one of the game’s great strategic courses during THE PLAYERS Championship. Pete, though, was always quick to credit his beloved wife, Alice, with his success, including the concept for his most famous hole, the 17th island green at TPC Sawgrass. Together, Pete and Alice made a formidable team in golf and life, and with sons Perry and P.B., themselves successful course architects, they are recognized as one of the most accomplished families in golf. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Dye family.â€� – PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan “He leaves a huge footprint on the game. One of my best experiences with Pete was playing Whistling Straits one of the first times we went there and I was lucky enough he walked nine holes with me in a practice round and I would ask him, “Mr. Dye why would you put that bunker right there… what were you thinking?â€� and he would look at me and said dryly, “just to piss you off, that’s the only reason.â€� He was a good man who obviously loved golf and just a wonderful course designer who knew how to make difficult golf courses. If you were going to play well around his places you couldn’t fake it and it’s a sad loss for golf. His footprint was at all of his places, undeniably and not a lot of designers can say that. And boy you knew it was going to be tough.â€� – Charles Howell III “Pete and Alice Dye are royalty in golf, no question. My mother was friends with Alice and always enjoyed talking with Pete every chance I could get. I love TPC Sawgrass and my parents were members at The Honors Course which I think is one of his best of all time. He revolutionized golf, changed it, and made it better. We are all lucky to have had him. If you look at the history of golf I’m not sure there is a bigger change in architecture than when Pete Dye came along. It was the most radical change and it was a great change. He is timeless. They’ll be copying him till the end of time.â€� – Jerry Kelly “You can’t mistake a Pete Dye. You knew it was his as soon as you played it. He had a different set of rules when he built golf courses and every single one he built was tough. He built TPC Sawgrass and helped build THE PLAYERS, and Whistling Straits, plus so many golf courses that are amazing. It is sad to lose someone who meant so much to not just the game of golf but to so many of its players as well. I had so many good experiences with him, I learnt a lot from him and he was clearly a very smart man. He will be missed.â€� – Vijay Singh “There’s fingerprints (of influence), and if Pete Dye doesn’t have one of the biggest, certainly in the last 50 years, I don’t know who would rival that. I was fortunate enough to play with him at Hilton Head, one of his gems, in the Pro-Am. It was me and Mr. Dye, Mr. Finchem, and I believe there was another executive of the TOUR. I believe Mr. Dye shot 78 or 79 that day in the Pro-Am and this was within the last 10-12 years for sure. Just hearing the stories, you know, what he did with this hole and that… it was awesome. It was just fantastic to see a golf artist on his canvas he made. Very special. Condolences to his family obviously. He’s a legend.â€� – Zach Johnson “He was an icon when it comes to golf course design. He was a guy who really made you uncomfortable the whole round. And he did it visually. He’d always make you think. He’s one of those guys that you respected him because he built some great golf courses but in the midst of playing them, you hated his guts.â€� – Brandt Snedeker

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – Thursday’s first round of the Wyndham Championship was a back-to-the future kind of day for Webb Simpson and Brendon Todd. The two childhood friends, each with a pair of PGA TOUR victories this season, were paired together alongside Sungjae Im at Sedgefield Country Club, which is about 90 miles from the greater Raleigh area where the two grew up. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Simpson, Tesori form bond beyond the course Simpson had the edge on Thursday, shooting 66 on a course where he won in 2011 and has finished third or better each of the last three years. Todd signed for a 68 that would have been one better had he not missed the green and bogeyed his final hole. “I love playing with Brendon,” Simpson said. “… I feel like we feed off each other and it’s always a good day.” There have been many battles over the last two decades, albeit without stakes as high as the FedExCup points and Wyndham Rewards payout the two are vying for this week. The 35-year-old Simpson is looking for his eighth TOUR title while Todd seeks win No. 4. The dream was always to get to this point, but as we all know life offers no guarantees. So even Simpson, who overcame an early double bogey Thursday with six birdies in his next 10 holes, admits that competing head-to-head now at the game’s highest level each week is “pretty cool.” “I think we could have imagined it then, but you know, to go on to professional golf and have the success that we’ve had, especially his success, you know, we would have pinched ourselves and signed right up for that career, for sure,” Todd agreed. Todd moved to Cary, N.C., a Raleigh suburb, from Pittsburgh when he was 11 years old and almost immediately the two started squaring off in junior events around the state and the southeast. They became good friends, as well as rivals, and pushed each other to succeed. “I think golf’s one of those games where whether you have a best friend you play against in tournaments or whether you’re just out there competing, tournament golf makes you better,” Todd said. “Strong work ethic is really important in this game and that’s something that both of us had from an early age. “With or without each other, I think we could have gotten to this point. I think right now it just makes it more fun to have a childhood buddy out there you’re kind of competing against, pulling for.” Simpson, who has a U.S. Open and PLAYERS Championship on his resume, will candidly say that early on Todd, a three-time state high school champ who went on to play at Georgia, got the better of him more often than the reverse. Todd, on the other hand, was quick to point out the 1999 N.C. Junior where his buddy beat him in the championship match. In recent years, though, Simpson, the former Wake Forest All-American, watched as not once but twice his friend climbed back from golf’s abyss. The seeds of the comeback were sown during the 2018-19 season after Todd finally steadied himself after the full-swing yips had led to a stretch of 38 missed cuts in 42 starts. Todd won twice, consecutively, last fall and finished solo fourth in his quest for three straight victories. He’s continued his solid play since the restart after the COVID-19 break, too, holding the 54-hole lead at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Toss was the first-round pacesetter at last week’s PGA, as well. “I think it shows kind of what he’s made of,” Simpson said. “To be a great player and to go for quite a bit of time struggling and to come back and then, you know, get to the position he’s in now. Last fall having two victories, a chance to win the next week in Sea Island, it’s really admirable. “You take your hat off to these guys, these star players who are just really good and they’ve been good their whole career. I applaud them. But to see a guy go through what he went through, I feel like that’s a story that isn’t talked about enough out here or really in sports. “It’s hard to go from where he was to now on top of the world in the game of golf, or close to it. So, it’s really cool to see and I’m happy for him.” Todd appreciates his friend’s support – and his success. Simpson came into the week at the Wyndham Championship ranked third in the FedExCup and sixth in the world. He opened the season with top-10s in his first four starts, including a playoff victory at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and a playoff loss at The RSM Classic where Todd finished fourth. A win at the RBC Heritage in the second tournament after the COVID hiatus kept Simpson’s momentum on high. “We’re great friends and always have been,” Todd said. “He’s such a good player, you just kind of feed off his energy.

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