Lucas Glover wins PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic for first win in 10 years

The European Tour has postponed the Maybank Championship and the China Open over fears about the coronavirus outbreak in China.

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In weather conditions so ferocious that one competitor shot 91 and 47 others posted second-round scores in the 80s, it was only fitting that one of the PGA TOUR’s quietest and calmest players, Mark Hayes, stepped into the spotlight to win the 1977 PLAYERS Championship. “That was him, such a quiet star,â€� said Doug Tewell, who grew up in Oklahoma with Hayes, traveled the PGA TOUR with him, and considered him one of his closest friends. “I asked him once how he didn’t show his nerves, how he kept so calm, and he told me, pointing to his gut, ‘You’ve got to keep (the nerves) in here and not let them percolate to your hands.’ â€� Hayes, whose win at the 1977 PLAYERS was the last of three PGA TOUR wins in a solid 19-year career, died Monday at the age of 69 in Edmond, Oklahoma. Hayes’ death was confirmed by his oldest brother, Larry Hayes, the General Manager at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas. He was 69 and had been ill for more than a year. “He had a great career and was a big influence on me,â€� said Tewell, a four-time PGA TOUR winner who was inducted along with Hayes into the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame in October 2017. Tewell told John Rhode of the golfoklahoma.org website that Hayes was the junior golfer everyone was chasing back in the 1960s, but no one, not even Tewell, could catch him. “Yet, we were friends. I’m not even sure we really knew we were rivals.â€� Having been a star player for famed Oklahoma State golf coach Labron Harris, Hayes made it onto the PGA TOUR and had four top 10s in 34 starts during his rookie year, 1974. In 1976 he won twice, at the Byron Nelson Golf Classic and Pensacola Open, but besides his notable bucket hat, what put Hayes in the spotlight was the first PLAYERS Championship to be played in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Mark Hayes won three times on the PGA TOUR, which includes his win at the 1977 PLAYERS Championship. (Michael O’Bryon/PGA TOUR) More than the brutal second-round conditions at Sawgrass Country Club, what then PGA TOUR Commissioner Deane Beman vividly remembers was the way Hayes sealed his win. “He hit his (approach) shot over the green on the last hole, into a bunker,â€� said Beman, “and he hit absolutely one of the best bunker shots I’ve ever seen.â€� Trying to hold off Mike McCullough, Hayes stood over his ball, which had run through a flat bunker to the back but stayed on the downslope up against the rough. Calmly, as was his nature, Hayes, choked down on a mid-iron and played a shot-maker’s shot, a bump-and-run through the sand. The ball hopped across a small strip of rough down to about 4 or 5 feet and with a round of 72, Hayes finished at 9-over 289 to win by two over McCullough, who had started the fourth round tied with Tom Watson, one ahead of Hayes. And just where did Tewell find Hayes, to finally offer congratulations? “He was in his work shop at home, changing his shafts in his irons,â€� said Tewell. “I said, ‘Are you nuts? You just won THE PLAYERS Championship.’ But that was Mark. He was a perfectionist.â€� There’s a special place in Beman’s heart for Hayes, for the 1977 PLAYERS was the first to be played where the PGA TOUR is headquartered. “The conditions were tough,â€� said Beman of 40-mph winds that caused havoc in Round 2 and produced the highest aggregate score by a winner in the 45 years of THE PLAYERS. “But he was calm, and he played well.â€� Later in 1977, Hayes had a memorable second-round 63 at Turnberry – then an Open Championship record – to get within two of Roger Maltbie’s lead. But he closed 72-73 as that championship morphed into Watson’s unforgettable “Duel in the Sunâ€� win over Jack Nicklaus. Hayes likely would have qualified for the 1977 Ryder Cup, only rules at the time mandated that players had to have five years of service, which precluded his selection. But when Watson withdrew from the 1979 team, Hayes replaced him and was part of the Americans’ 17-11 win over the first European Team at The Greenbrier. Hayes lost both his team matches, but won, 1 up, in singles over Spain’s Antonio Garrido. Though he never won again after the 1977 PLAYERS, Hayes had a productive career. He was easily within the top 125 on the money list for 14 straight years. By 1993 he was a part-time player on the PGA TOUR and focused on his golf course design and construction business. Hayes returned to play two seasons on the PGA TOUR Champions, 2000 and 2001, but was more committed to his business ventures. “He was just a good man, who provided well for his family (wife Jana, sons Ryan and Kelly) and was a dear friend,â€� said Tewell. “I’m going to miss him dearly.â€� Besides his wife and two sons, Hayes is survived by a grandchild.

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LAS VEGAS - Bryson DeChambeau knows some people consider him a one-dimensional player solely obsessed with distance. He thinks that is an unfair characterization of his game, however, and he used Friday's post-round press conference to defend his groundbreaking approach to golf. This week's Shriners Hospitals for Children Open is DeChambeau's first start since his six-shot victory in the U.S. Open. He shot a 9-under 62 in Thursday's opening round at TPC Summerlin and added a 67 on Friday to sit just one shot off the lead. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Fowler makes putter switch | Hole-out eagle has Garcia back in contention DeChambeau's incredible length has been on display again this week. No one had driven TPC Summerlin's seventh green in the ShotLink era until DeChambeau did it Thursday. He repeated the feat Friday and made eagle, then added another eagle at the par-5 16th, where he had just 148 yards to the hole. Distance isn't the only factor in his success at TPC Summerlin, though. He's third in greens hit (32 of 36) and 17th in driving accuracy (21 of 28). He also leads the field in driving distance, averaging 352.2 yards. Hitting it that far takes incredible strength. There's no denying DeChambeau has packed on the pounds in the past year. It was at this event a year ago that he announced his intentions to bulk up in a quest for increased length off the tee. But hitting a golf ball as hard as DeChambeau does, and keeping those tee shots in play, also takes skill. And while long tee shots help him shoot lower scores, there's more to the game than just hitting it far. That's something DeChambeau thinks his critics are missing. He replied to the latest round of criticism after being told that Matthew Fitzpatrick, a fellow former U.S. Amateur champion, said Friday that DeChambeau's play makes "a bit of a mockery of the game." DeChambeau responded, "I appreciate that comment. It’s a compliment to me honestly. I think he’s looking out for certain set of players, and I appreciate that. My whole goal is to play the best golf I possibly can, and this game has given me the opportunity showcase something pretty special. "A year ago I wasn’t hitting in anywhere near as far as I am today. It took a lot of work, a lot of hours to work through the night to figure out a lot of this stuff... from my perspective, I think it takes a little bit more skill to do what I’m doing, and that’s why there are only a few people doing it out here... and albeit my fairway percentages are a little bit down, I’m still believe I’m hitting it straighter than what I was last year with the distances that I was hitting back then. "I feel like I’ve started to go down a path that’s allowed me to have an advantage over everyone, and I think that is a skillset when you look at it. For me out there today, I was still able to hit a lot of fairways at 360 yards. That’s tough to do with drivers." Fitzpatrick is listed at 5 feet, 10 inches and 155 pounds. He finished 121st in driving distance last season but has won five times on the European Tour thanks in part to his incredible work on the greens. He was second on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting last season. He shares the 36-hole lead in this week's European Tour event, the BMW PGA Championship, with reigning Open Championship winner Shane Lowry. It was after his second round at Wentworth that Fitzpatrick made his comments about DeChambeau. "I'm biased because I'm not quite the longest. But in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, fair play to Bryson, he won and shot six under. But the fairways were tight as hell. I drove it brilliantly and actually played pretty well but I was miles behind. He's in the rough and miles up and he's hitting wedges from everywhere. It just makes a bit of a mockery of the game," Fitzpatrick told reporters after getting into a tie for the 36-hole lead at Wentworth. "I looked at Shot Tracker yesterday, to see some of the places Bryson hit it (in Vegas). He was cutting corners. And when he's on, there's no point. It doesn't matter if I play my best. He's going to be 50 yards in front of me off the tee, and the only thing where I can compete with him is putting. Which is just ridiculous. "In my opinion, it's not a skill to hit the ball a long way. I could put on 40 pounds. I could go and see a bio-mechanist. I could gain 40 yards; that's actually a fact. I could put another two inches on my driver. But the skill is to hit the ball straight. That's the skill. He's just taking the skill out of it in my opinion. I'm sure lots will disagree. But it's just daft." But what Fitzpatrick and others have overlooked is DeChambeau adds finesse with his power game. Last season, he ranked 10th on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting and at Winged Foot he ranked inside the top three in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (2nd), Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green (1st) and Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green (3rd) on his way to victory. He joined Vijay Singh (2008 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational) as the only two winners who ranked inside the top three in these three categories since 2004. "I would love to have a conversation with him about it and say, Hey, man, I would love to help out. Why couldn’t you do it, too? You see Rory and DJ doing the same thing, too. They’re seeing that distinct advantage, and I feel like it’s great are for the game of golf," DeChambeau said. "I don’t think it takes less skill. I’m still putting it great; still wedging it mediocre, the same, maybe a little bit better. It shows out here that I’m still hitting fairways. "I do hit a couple errant shots like on 9 today, but I do hit a lot of fairways, I still hit great irons, and I make a lot putts. I still think there is a lot of the skill in that."

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