McIlroy: PGA Tour should model star-focused NBA

Allyn Stephens has competed in numerous American Junior Golf Association events, as well as the national finals of the Drive, Chip and Putt competition at one of the game’s most iconic clubs, Augusta National. Plenty of high school tournaments, too. She even partnered with Michael Allen at the 2019 PURE Insurance Championship, a team competition that pairs First Tee members with PGA TOUR Champions veterans at venerable Pebble Beach, no less. But the Mack Champ Invitational in March was different. Very different. For once on a golf course, Stephens wasn’t in the minority. As the talented teenager looked around Memorial Park Golf Club in her native Houston that week, she saw lots of other Black and brown golfers competing in the inaugural MCI. “It was huge,” Stephens says. “It was so like mind blowing to see so many young people of color playing golf in the same tournament. It’s not normal to see something like that so it was a beautiful sight.” Stephens, who plans to play golf at Texas A&M next year, estimates that before she competed in the Mack Champ Invitational she might have known two or three other Black golfers her age and “they lived in states that were like 2,000 miles away from me.” That changed at historic Memorial Park where 109 golfers from diverse backgrounds gathered for the unique event hosted by the Cameron Champ Foundation. It’s the same course where the PGA TOUR’s best will play this week at the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open. The golfers competing in the MCI represented 26 states, as well as Canada and Costa Rica. Entries for 2022 close on December 1 and already over 170 kids have applied, which is about 50 more than last year. Stephens, who loves watching Rory McIroy, Matt Wolff, Brooks Koepka, Ariya Jutanugarn and Nelly and Jessica Korda play, will be back for the second year. “I basically think it’s insane to see,” says Stephens, who was the only Black golfer competing in the DCP at Augusta National back in 2018. “I honestly didn’t think that there were that many people of color who played golf at that level. So, I mean, it was great.” Mack Champ, who died in 2019 at the age of 78 after battling stomach cancer, would certainly have been happy to hear Stephen’s assessment. His son, Jeff, who is Cameron’s father, says his dad, who learned to play golf while serving in the military, is still “always talking to me” and he knows he would be proud of the way his grandson is giving back. “My dad’s always been that kind of person and our whole family (is, too),” says Jeff Champ, who combed the Internet and social media to find talented minority golfers deserving of invitations to the tournament. “It’s one of those things. So many people help helped us get Cameron to that point to where we have to help the next kids out.” Kids like Stephens, whose family survived the trauma of Hurricane Harvey that left 4 feet of water standing in their two-story house and kept them away from home for months. She started playing golf at the age of 7, then took a 2-year hiatus before getting hooked again when her dad, Joe, who played for the Houston Rockets and is a single digit handicap, put a putting green in the backyard. Stephens joined First Tee-Greater Houston, which has nine chapters, serving more than 1,000 kids, including one at Memorial Park that offers programs four days a week. Her goals now are winning a national championship at Texas A&M, which is where she found out later, Cameron Champ, went to school, and turning pro, although earning her degree in biomedical science is a solid back-up plan. “The whole time really stands out,” Stephens says when asked about the MCI. “I met so many great people. I connected with a lot of people I hadn’t seen in a while. … The whole tournament was a great experience.” Cameron Champ, the three-time PGA TOUR winner who is himself bi-racial, was a hand’s-on host at the MCI. Over the course of the three days, he held a clinic, fielded questions from the kids, signed autographs, posed for pictures and gave out the trophies. The parents listened closely, as well. “It’s really neat because Cam can relate to those kids,” Jeff Champ says. “He was one of those kids at one time. … And one of the biggest things for our family is to share our knowledge. If I just keep everything that we’ve learned to myself, I don’t know what I would do with myself, you know? “So, we have to share our experiences, share the hard work and also explain to these families what we went through to where they understand all the different pieces. And then they have to decide what’s the best situation for their family, because every family is different.” Lee Elder, the first Black golfer to compete in the Masters, was a virtual speaker at the banquet. Cameron Champ made his debut at Augusta National in 2020. “This is just a start for us,” Cameron Champ said that week. “Obviously we want to grow from this year each and every year and make it bigger and better for the kids. It’s all for the kids. “It’s all for their exposure — just giving them, like I said, a fun environment and to play against competition their age that are just as good as them. But then also for the ones that have success during the week, there’s also other opportunities for them to play even bigger and better events.” Glenn Weckerlin first met Cameron, Jeff and Mack Champ on the 10th tee at Del Monte Golf Club at the PURE Insurance Championship Impacting The First Tee in 2012. Cameron was the junior in the group and Mack was caddying for him. Weckerlin remembers everyone hitting their tee shots – except Cameron, who strangely held back. “And he said, well, I can’t really hit yet,” Weckerlin recalls. “… He’s a scrawny little kid in high school and, and I’m thinking, the first thought was, he was too nervous to hit. And we said, oh, okay, but don’t worry. We are all going to go out and have fun today and he’s like ‘No. No, you don’t understand. I can’t hit, because they’re still on the green.” Sure enough, Cameron proceeded to drive the green and birdie the first hole. He drove the second, as well, and made eagle. Weckerlin looked at his partner, smiled and said, in understatement, “This is going to be a good day.” But the best part for him was getting to know the Champ family, a friendship that has endured for a decade. After Cameron turned pro and decided to start a foundation, the family asked Weckerlin to serve as its chairman of the board. The organization is dedicated to unlocking the potential in the lives of young people in underserved and underrepresented communities. The MCI, which was in the works before the COVID-19 pandemic and had to be postponed for a year, is one way to help. Cameron remembers playing in a similar event for minority golfers called the Bill Dickey Invitational when he was growing up. “So, when my grandfather passed, we kind of thought, what could we do?” Cameron says. “Could we maybe start our own? It kind of went through our heads and why not? Let’s just try. So, we put it all together and it all the sponsors, volunteers, people around us — close family and friends — all came together, and we got it going.” Weckerlin said the group considered courses on the West coast – Champ is from Sacramento, California – and in Florida. But they settled on Texas, which is centrally located, and then zeroed in on Houston, where the TOUR pro now makes his home. The next piece of the puzzle was finding a golf course. So Weckerlin called Giles Kibbe, who is president of the Astros Golf Foundation, which is the sponsor and beneficiary of this week’s Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open. The Astros Golf Foundation also happened to have funded Tom Doak’s restoration and the overall renovation of Memorial Park, the sprawling municipal gem that hosts more than 60,000 rounds a year. Among the goals was to bring life to the downtown area and create opportunities for inner-city kids. “(I) said, hey, what do you think?” Weckerlin recalls. “This is what we’re trying to do. It seems like it’s really consistent with the whole point of remodeling and renovating Memorial Park to be able to do this sort of thing. “And he said, absolutely, give me the dates. And that was it. It’s one of those things where, you know, sometimes those things could have dragged out forever, but it took two seconds to say, yes, absolutely.” Even better was the reaction Kibbe, who played golf at Lamar University, had when he spent time with Weckerlin at the MCI in March. It wasn’t just the kids competing that drew him in, it was the friendships being developed and the networking among their families with shared goals. “He just shook his head and he said, ‘This is unbelievable,’” Weckerlin recalls. “The energy that’s out here and the parents and the people that are watching. “And so, we got to the last day of the tournament and he said, ‘Are you guys going to do this again?’ And I said, yeah, well, that’s the whole plan. And he said, ‘Well, is there, can we be part of it again?’” There are big plans for 2022, when the tournament will be held March 18-20 at Memorial Park. The junior-am that COVID scuttled earlier this year will finally be a part of the event, pairing a foursome of corporate leaders with one of the MCI kids. Jeff Champ and Weckerlin continue to seek MCI exemptions into other amateur events, as well. The MCI was a start, but everyone knows there is much work to be done. According to National Golf Foundation, only 18 percent of golfers today are non-Caucasian and just 3 percent are Black. And in 2020, only 2 percent of male and female golfers playing in the NCAA were Black. Even so, Weckerlin was filled with pride last summer when he played in the PURE Insurance Championship once again, and there were six juniors in the field who had played in the MCI at Memorial Park in March. He saw them hanging out together, and he saw how people were drawn to them. “And I had a big grin on my face because it just proved, it demonstrated kind of what we wanted out of the Mack Champ Invitational,” Weckerlin says. “We may not produce another Cameron, but if we can have a bunch of kids, show up, play golf, have a bunch of confidence and go on and play another tournament and get to know each other and make lifelong friends, that’s not a bad end result.”

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SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – Forget the wind, the tough set up, or anything else … Tiger Woods put it bluntly by saying, “You don’t win major championships by kind of slapping all around the place and missing putts.â€� It was a frank assessment of the 14-time major champions 78-72 efforts at Shinnecock Hills that left him 10-over par and almost certainly missing the weekend. But the 79-time PGA TOUR winner, whose major drought now will extend past the 10-year mark, will not be alone when it comes to big names heading home early. Two-time major winner and former PLAYERS champion Martin Kaymer (+18) and other major winners like Ernie Els (+17), Keegan Bradley (+15), Sergio Garcia (+14) and Adam Scott (+13) are likely already heading off the south fork. World No. 5 Jon Rahm (+15) is also cutting his time in New York short. It is increasingly likely that Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson and Jason Day will join them while Jordan Spieth and Phil Mickelson are in the midst of a battle on their back nine holes to have a chance. “I’m not very happy the way I played and the way I putted,â€� Woods added. It took two closing birdies just to get it to 10 under. Starting on the 10th hole Woods shot even par on his first nine holes thanks to two birdies and two bogeys before once again making a mess of the par-4 1st. A day after making a triple bogey from the middle of the fairway Woods made double bogey, once again after a good tee shot. Further bogeys on the second and fifth holes killed off his chances before he finally showed a little of the old magic late. “I wanted to shoot something around 68, 67. I thought that would have been a great score,â€� Woods said of his pre-round mentality. “I looked at it as kind of progressively putting myself back into position. I couldn’t chase down the leaders right away. It’s going to take me probably two and a half to three rounds to do it. Unfortunately, I went the other way.â€� Despite the setback Woods said he “absolutelyâ€� felt he could still win majors and retorted to a skeptic, “have you seen the way I’ve been swinging?â€� His next start will be the Quicken Loans National in two weeks where he will host with his foundation. To contend there he knows he needs to improve his putting. “Unfortunately, it’s just what I’ve done the last few events. I just haven’t putted well. If I would have putted like I did the beginning of the year with this ball striking, that would be ideal. Unfortunately, I just haven’t done that,â€� he added. “I haven’t made those key ones to keep the momentum going, or if I have any positive momentum, I miss a putt and derail it. I just haven’t made those key putts in the last few events.â€�

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Have hope. It’s never too late to gain distance. Francesco Molinari proved that in his career-changing 2018 campaign. A drastic increase in driving distance helped the 35-year-old Italian have a dream season. He became the first player to win a major and go 5-0 in the Ryder Cup in the same year. He won his first PGA TOUR title and qualified for his first TOUR Championship, as well. Putting instructor Phil Kenyon and performance coach Dave Alred have received a lot of credit for Molinari’s success, and rightfully so. His 20-yard gain since 2015 — including a 10-yard increase since 2017 — was an underreported aspect of his rapid ascension into to the game’s elite ranks, though. Molinari is proof that the incremental impact of longer tee shots — though more difficult to observe than the effect of improved putting — adds up over the course of a tournament and a season. For many years, Molinari was known for his laser-straight tee shots. They helped him have a strong career. He was a two-time Ryder Cup participant and owned four victories on the European Tour, including the 2010 World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions, before this season. This week, Sheshan International is the site of Molinari’s 2018-19 debut. He arrives in Shanghai after nearly doubling his career victory total in a single season. He won The Open Championship and Quicken Loans National, as well as the European Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship. He reached career-highs in the FedExCup (17th) and world ranking (5th). He went undefeated at Le Golf National after going winless in his first two Ryder Cups. Molinari and his longtime swing coach, Denis Pugh, started the search for extra yards several years ago. There were some obvious ways for Molinari to hit it farther, but such a change doesn’t come without risk. Several players have lost their way in the quest for extra yardage. Molinari changed his swing, his equipment and strategy. “My swing was very compact and very simple so it was probably easier for me than some other guys to find ways to get more swing speed and ball speed,â€� Molinari said. “It’s a very delicate work.â€� He also hit the gym. “I was more of a couch guy a few years ago,â€� he said. Augusta National’s eighth hole, an uphill par-5 with a large bunker looming on the right side of the fairway, provides a perfect illustration of Molinari’s transformation Long hitters can carry the hazard to reach the green in two. Molinari had to aim away from the bunker, then lay up. “This year, a couple days it was warm and a little down-breeze. I carried the bunker and I was able to hit 5-wood or 4-iron into the green,â€� he said. His T20 finish was one off his career-best at the Masters. He finished this season ranked seventh in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (+0.72) and 52nd in driving distance (301.0 yards). Three years ago, he was 153rd in driving distance with an average measured drive of 281.6 yards. “It’s very important for mainly two reasons. One, it’s easier to play the golf course. … I can carry a few more bunkers every round on different courses. That means having a few more wedges into the greens and it has a ripple effect on the game,â€� Molinari said. “Confidence-wise, it’s simply good to see when you’re out there that you’re driving it past some guys and you’re not 50 behind some guys, you’re maybe only 20 yards behind.â€� Mark Broadie, the inventor of the Strokes Gained statistics, quantified the benefits of increased distance in his book “Every Shot Counts.â€� An extra 20 yards off the tee can be worth up to three strokes per tournament, he said. It’s the sum of small gains. The average PGA TOUR player takes 2.98 strokes to hole out from 160 yards. It’s 2.91 from 140 yards. That’s less than one-tenth of a stroke, but it can become significant over the course of 72 holes. The increased distance outweighs the increase in missed fairways, as well. Molinari also is hitting his irons farther, and with increased spin and a higher trajectory. Broadie keeps statistics for Molinari, as well as his brother, Edoardo, who won the 2009 World Cup with Francesco and teamed with him at the 2010 Ryder Cup. Edoardo was one of the first pros to apply Broadie’s Strokes Gained statistics to his own game. Francesco is gaining 1.9 more strokes per tournament with his tee shots than he was in 2015 (when adjusted for courses and field strength). “I was very impressed at the magnitude of his distance gain this year, especially after the large gain from 2015 to 2016,â€� Broadie said. Molinari did it with relatively little loss in accuracy. He still hits a relatively high number of fairways for a player of his length. That’s how he ranked eighth in total driving – the sum of a player’s ranking in driving distance and accuracy — last season. And his misses still aren’t far from the fairway. That allows him to be more aggressive with his club selection off the tee. Molinari said he’s started hitting driver more often to further capitalize on his length. His tee shots covered 64 percent of the yardage on par-4s and par-5s this season. That’s nearly 5 percent more than three seasons ago. He ranked 27th in that statistic in 2018 after ranking 168th (out of 184 players) in 2015. His compact swing offered room for improvement, as well. He now makes a bigger turn on the backswing to create more speed. He tries to feel his sternum turning as far and as high from the ball as possible. He lifts his left heel off the ground to increase his turn. TaylorMade’s Adrian Rietveld saw Molinari’s transformation first-hand. During one of their first testing sessions, in October 2016, Molinari’s clubhead speed averaged 107.1 mph and his ball speed was 158.5 mph. In February 2018, his clubhead speed was over 112 mph and ball speed was nearly 166 mph.  “He constantly spoke about how hard he was working with Denis Pugh on his swing and in the gym with his team,â€� Rietveld said. “Some days he would be just too (tired) from the strength work to produce long equipment sessions.â€� In May 2018, he was up to 114 and 169 mph. He was now carrying the ball nearly 290 yards, more than 25 yards longer than that October 2016 testing session. “Apart from my work with Justin Rose, I have never worked with a player as precise as Francesco,â€� Rietveld said. He watched Rose undergo a similar distance gain that helped him win the 2013 U.S. Open, then win the FedExCup and become No. 1 in the world ranking. In today’s game, players who gain speed can also gain trophies. Molinari has three from this season as proof.

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