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KAPALUA, Hawaii – Jimmy Walker spent most of last season battling the effects of Lyme disease and now his wife Erin must also fight the good fight. Erin revealed in her blog on Thursday that after ironically spending the good part of nine months trying to raise awareness for the disease that had her six-time PGA TOUR winning husband wrecked with fatigue – she had also been diagnosed.   In an in-depth essay about Jimmy’s problems throughout 2017 Erin said she was diagnosed on December 15 last year and is now undergoing treatment. She is hopeful the early detection will ensure a quick recovery, unlike her husband. Since winning the 2016 PGA Championship Jimmy has struggled with his game, mainly due to the effects of the disease. Neither know how they contracted the illness which is non-transferable from human-to-human but comes from tick bites. They believe Jimmy may have caught it on a hunting trip while Erin could have picked up a bite walking a golf course – but neither saw a tick or the associated bull’s-eye rash that follows a bite. Erin revealed her husband went through bouts of depression after getting flu-like sickness several times throughout the year and also began to have “brain fog.â€� He actually tested positive for Lyme, Mono, two different types of pneumonia, West Nile Virus and a virus common to children called CMV. “He had good days, and bad days. Good hours and bad hours. His mood continued to decline and in hindsight he has said he was possibly depressed. We still aren’t sure if the Lyme caused the depression and mood issues, or if it was the fact that he felt awful all of the time,â€� Erin wrote. “Jimmy had no energy to practice, so his golf suffered. He didn’t have energy to play with the kids or help in normal activities around the house. Getting up to go to the golf course for his tournament rounds was the only energy he could muster and most days he felt like sitting down on the tee boxes in-between holes. “One of the biggest symptoms he was experiencing was brain fog. From difficulty to remembering simple tasks such as, leaving tickets for friends and family, to putting on a pot of water to boil and then leaving the house, he was experiencing these types of symptoms on a daily basis.â€� Jimmy is hoping to resume his PGA TOUR season later this month while Erin is hoping to continue her competitive horseback riding despite the diagnosis and re-evaluate the situation after a month of treatment. You can read her full blog here: https://tourwifetravels.com/lyme-disease/

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LAS VEGAS — Bryson DeChambeau holed an eagle putt from just inside 60 feet on the 16th hole that carried him to a 5-under 66 and a one-shot victory over Patrick Cantlay in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open on Sunday. DeChambeau won for the fourth time in his last 12 starts on the PGA TOUR. He had to survive a wild back nine at the TPC Summerlin in which four players had a share of the lead at some point. Cantlay, trying to become the first player to win back-to-back in Las Vegas in nearly 20 years, made a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-5 16th hole to take a one-shot lead. But from a bunker right of the green on the par-3 17th, Cantlay was fooled by the amount of sand under his ball and flubbed the shot. One hole behind him, DeChambeau rolled in his long eagle putt from just off the green and celebrated with a big uppercut. Cantlay missed his long par putt, giving DeChambeau control of the tournament. Cantlay birdied the 18th for a 65, but it wasn’t enough when DeChambeau played the final two holes conservatively for pars to finish at 21-under 263. DeChambeau won for the third straight season, and fifth time overall on the PGA TOUR. The 25-year-old American began his big run with a playoff victory at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, and then won consecutive FedExCup Playoff events in New Jersey and Boston. He said he was playing Las Vegas to shake off a little rust, and it turned into another victory. “I was able to play some great golf,” DeChambeau said. “I’m happy to get it done.” Not since Jim Furyk in 1998-99 had anyone successfully defended his title in Las Vegas, and Cantlay looked as if he might get it done when he drove the green on the par-4 15th for a two-putt birdie, and then rolled in another good birdie after having to lay up on the 16th. His tee shot into the 17th was a fraction away from catching a slope and feeding toward the hole. Instead, it tumbled into the bunker to set up what appeared to be a relatively simple shot. “When I dug my left foot in, it didn’t have a bunch of sand,” Cantlay said. “I hit the shot and there was more sand under the ball. I didn’t anticipate it.” He wasn’t the only player stung by the outcome. Former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover had a 4-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole that would have given him a share of the lead with three holes to play. Glover missed the putt, and then missed a 30-inch par putt. One hole later, he was three shots behind. Glover finished with a triple bogey for a 71 and tied for seventh. Peter Uihlein, who shared the 54-hole lead with DeChambeau, didn’t make a birdie until the 11th hole, finished bogey-bogey for a 75 and tied for 23rd. Sam Ryder was one shot behind when his second shot to the par-5 16th bounced off a knob and back into the water. He managed to save par and birdied the last hole with a 15-foot putt for a 62 to finish alone in third. Rickie Fowler (63), Abraham Ancer (66) and Robert Streb (68) were another shot behind. DeChambeau won for the fifth time in just his 68th start as a pro on the PGA TOUR, dating to his victory in the John Deere Classic in 2017.  

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - Two first-time contestants have prevailed in the nearly three decades of THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Hal Sutton did it in 1983, the tournament's second year at the Stadium Course, and Craig Perks won in 2002. The Stadium is intimidating, but also subtle. Mark McCumber, 1988 PLAYERS champion and father of 2021 first-timer Tyler McCumber, spoke for many when he said in a recent Florida Times-Union story, "It took me a while to get comfortable in this tournament." And yet these might be the best odds for a first-timer to raise the trophy since Jack Nicklaus won the first PLAYERS in '74. With the 15 rookies in 2020 who made it back this week - second-time first-timers, if you will, after playing just one competitive round - and this year's 16 players who haven't played at all, there are 31 PLAYERS first-timers. And some are among the game's elite. "I feel like it'll be my second time," said world No. 4 Collin Morikawa, who won in his last start at the World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession. "I realize I only got one round in, but it doesn't mean I didn't do any prep." Although the Masters Tournament gets the most attention as being the one that's hardest for the uninitiated to win, THE PLAYERS isn't far behind. If it's behind at all. Rory McIlroy, who will be this week's defending champion of sorts since he won the last time the tournament got in all four rounds, in 2019, has said he didn't really like TPC Sawgrass for the first few years he played it. He didn't even really like any Pete Dye courses. Now, though, after winning the PGA Championship at Kiawah, the BMW Championship at Crooked Stick, and THE PLAYERS at TPC Sawgrass, he has learned to like them very much. "They’re like beer when you’re younger," McIlroy said last year. "You sort of don’t like it, but then you think it’s cool to drink it and then you sort of acquire a taste for it." Justin Thomas said this week that it took him a long time to learn the course and how it played in May, which was the tournament date when he registered his best finish, T3, in 2016. Since 2019, he added with a laugh, he's had to learn how it plays in March. "If you drive it well," he said, "being in March, it’s always going to be softer, the fairways and the greens, and you can make so many birdies out here. You have four par-5s, a lot of short scoring clubs into holes. But if you get it out of play, you’re missing the fairways, you get it out of play on the par-5s, it’s tough to shoot under par out here." Webb Simpson missed the cut in four of his first six PLAYERS starts but won in 2018. "I just learned that you have to respect the golf course," he said. "There’s trouble on every hole." This year's true rookies include but are not limited to Cameron Percy, 46, the oldest first-timer not to get in via a win at the Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS. Scott Harrington isn't too far behind at 40. Maverick McNealy co-owns the career wins record at Stanford (11). Lefty Robert MacIntyre comes from Oban, Scotland. Tyler McCumber has Sawgrass in his blood. Will Zalatoris, 24, is the most highly regarded true newbie. He's climbing up the world ranking (47th) and coming off a T10 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. The second-time first-timers, though, are truly dangerous. Last August, Morikawa won the PGA Championship, becoming the ninth player to win the PGA in his debut. He shot a 4-under 68 in the first round of THE PLAYERS last year and is riding high after capturing the WGC-Workday Championship with his new "saw" putting grip. As for the notion that he'll have to pay his dues at the Stadium, don't be so sure. "I did my normal prep Monday through Wednesday," he said of 2020, "and was able to play Junior PLAYERS, even though I was never in contention. It's not like I'm showing up having played just one tournament round. I've seen it quite a bit now. For me, every week I see the same guys, and that's what helps me no matter what the tournament is called." Norway's Viktor Hovland looks ready to win, too. Top-five finishes in four of his last six starts, including a win at the Mayakoba Golf Classic presented by UNIFIN, have him up to No. 3 in the FedExCup. What's more, he also shot 68 in his one and only competitive round here. "I haven't thought much about that," he said, when asked whether he feels more like a first- or second-timer. "I guess it will be my first because I only got one round in. It was a good round. "I have good memories of that day," he continued, "I'll try to build on it. I haven't played there much. I played Junior PLAYERS. It's a fun track; I'm looking forward to playing it again." Scottie Scheffler also got his first look at Sawgrass at the Junior PLAYERS. He, too, shot an opening 68 last year. "I feel like I know the course pretty well," he said. So does South Africa's Christian Bezuidenhout, who scorched Sawgrass with a 65 last year. That round notwithstanding, he said, he still feels like a newcomer this week. "THE PLAYERS is the one everyone wants," he said. "It's the biggest PGA TOUR event apart from the majors. I'd like to play that course four rounds and finish off on Sunday." As would they all - and this year they will. We're about to see what happens when one of history's most extravagantly talented rookie classes takes the biggest stage on TOUR.

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