Morikawa, two others pull out of Farmers Open

Kirk Triplett, he of the ever-present bucket hat, has had better years, golf-wise. He has three wins on the PGA TOUR and eight on PGA TOUR Champions - two of those in 2019. But never had Triplett, 58, made news like he did when he put a Black Lives Matter sticker on his golf bag at the Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS Championship at Firestone Country Club in August. "Just to say that I personally hear what's going on and I'm in agreement that issues of racial equality and social justice need to be addressed," he says of his decision to apply the sticker after the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and others. It will remain on the bag as he finishes the season close to home at this week's Charles Schwab Championship at Phoenix Country Club. Sometimes the biggest statements start with the smallest gestures, and so it was with Triplett, who estimates he has given somewhere between 10 and 20 media interviews since his BLM sticker caught people's attention. Mostly, he says, the response has been positive. Sometimes, he admits, it's been virulently negative. But he's not alone in the cause. At the TOUR Championship in September, PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan pledged $100 million to support racial and social justice causes over the next 10 years. Charles Howell III is offering performance-based bonuses on the Advocates Professional Golf Association Tour, which aims to bolster diversity at all levels of golf. Then there's Triplett's large, square sticker, displayed prominently under his name on his PING staff bag. The golfer and his family - wife Cathi; twin biological sons Conor and Sam, 24; and adoptees Alexis, 20, and Kobe, 18 - all had a say in the sticker, and they all agreed that the time was right. Kobe is African American, which took on new meaning given the high-profile events of last spring and summer, plus the fact that he had recently gotten his driver's license. What if he had an encounter with the police? What if someone misinterpreted a gesture or a comment? Who would deescalate? What would that look like? Who would be nominally responsible for a safe outcome, and on whose shoulders would it actually fall? The complexity and urgency of these questions, and the fact that they would land on Kobe as opposed to Conor, Sam and Alexis, struck Triplett as unfair. "We talked about it at home during the pandemic," he says. "I had a lot of time off, and at the behest of a couple of my kids - the sticker was actually bought by one of my older sons. Because the message in my family is often, ‘OK, you're talking a good game, what are you going to do?' So he gave me the sticker and said, ‘Here's this in case you're ready to do something.'" Triplett was. There was no freighted ceremony - he just put the sticker on the bag. It didn't take long to get noticed. "I really didn't consider that there was going to be all of this media interest, and that's because I was involved in my own personal journey," he says. "To understand that Kobe had to behave differently than my other three kids really brought home the point for me that hey, there's some racism there. It made me want to participate in some way and send a message to the African American community that hey, I hear what you're saying for the first time. "I'm 58 years old and just beginning to understand," he continues. "It's not an easy thing to get. When you understand it's different, you go, Oh, this is a problem." Online commenters have occasionally seemed intent on a back-and-forth that Triplett says he isn't interested in having. On a more personal level, some have told him that while it's great that he adopted an African American son, he's gone the wrong way with the sticker. "That helped me understand the frustration level that a lot of African American people must feel," he says. "It gave me an idea for the first time what the word systemic means. Dealing with overt racism is probably significantly easier because it has a face, it has a person that's doing something that's pointing right at you. But when the system is doing it and there's no face, like this is just kind of the way things are, where do you go with that? How do you explain that to people? And I just got a little teeny, tiny part of that." He will peel the sticker off, eventually. He wants to do more than make a statement; he wants to take a more hands-on, boots-on-the-ground approach to the problems of injustice. "Golfers are predisposed to help those in their community that need help," he says. "The first step is acknowledging that there are issues that need to be addressed. Some of it is opportunity. If you walk into a golf shop, you don't very often see an African American guy standing behind the counter, even. You need more penetration into all aspects of golf." Although son Sam, who played for Northwestern, is trying to make it as a pro golfer, Kobe isn't really into golf. He's more interested in computers. Whenever Triplett asks his youngest son if he wants to go to the course, he gets the same answer: "Maybe tomorrow, Dad." That's fine for an 18-year-old high school senior contemplating nine holes or hitting a bucket of balls. But for Triplett and the TOUR, for Howell and too many others to count, that answer was no longer sufficient on the issue of racial justice. It was time. It was past time. For them, as it was for so many Americans and others, tomorrow was today. The sticker is just the start.

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Had it not been for the cameraman following him around the building, Davis Love III might have been any other tourist at the World Golf Hall of Fame that day in early May. He wandered through the exhibit rooms, stopping to peer into the glass cases at the trophies and letters and equipment that previous inductees had donated to the Hall. He pulled out his cell phone and took pictures of some of the more interesting items stored for posterity in their lockers, too. Love even took the elevator to the Trophy Tower, the tallest point in St. John’s County, where he had a 360-degree view of the World Golf Village. Of course, that stop was for a TV interview. After all, he couldn’t blend in completely. Love went on the reconnaissance mission, of sorts, because he is about to join the World Golf Hall of Fame along with Ian Woosnam, Lorena Ochoa Reyes, Meg Mallon and the late Henry Longhurst in the Class of 2017. He wanted to get an idea of what kind of memorabilia to include in his own exhibit and locker. The induction ceremony will be held at the Cipriani Wall Street in New York Cup on Sept. 26. It’s a busy week for Love, who will also be serving a second stint as an assistant captain for the U.S. Team during the Presidents Cup at Liberty National in New Jersey. Love said it took three or four days to decide what items he wanted to loan to the World Golf Hall of Fame. Some were at his mother’s house and his agent’s office. Other pieces were on display in the clubhouses at Sea Island Resort in Georgia, where Love hosts the RSM Classic in November. He had plenty at his home, too. All of it brought back memories. That’s why it took so long to assemble the collection of more than 70 items. “I started looking through stuff,â€� Love says with a smile. Among the more interesting finds that he’s donating were photos of his late father, Davis Love Jr., who served in the Army and was stationed in Korea. Among his duties? Teaching the officers to play golf. “He didn’t really elaborate that much,â€� Love says about his dad. “But there were all these pictures of the Army golf team and flying around in helicopters, giving lessons and going out with the generals. “Only my dad could completely get out of doing anything,â€� he adds, chuckling. Among the equipment Love is loaning to the World Golf Hall of Fame is the putter he used to win the 1997 PGA Championship. The Wannamaker Trophy will be on display, too, along with a framed scorecard and a polo shirt he wore that week at Winged Foot. Golf bags from various Presidents Cups and Ryder Cups will be on display, along with money clips from the World Cup, which Love won four times with his good friend Fred Couples. Ditto for the ring he got when his North Carolina team won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship and his North & South Amateur trophy. “They were like, ‘Do you have it?’ â€� Love recalls. “I said, do I have it?  It’s the biggest amateur tournament I won.â€� Some of the more interesting items, though, are the books that Love picked. Among them, not surprisingly, are the yellow galley proofs of “Every Shot I Take: Lessons Learned about Golf, Life and a Father’s Love,â€� the book he wrote after his dad died in a plane crash. Love’s fascination with the South’s signature dish – and he cooks it competitively – is showcased in “Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto.â€� Another book he loaned the Hall is “Tenth Legionâ€� by Colonel Tom Kelly. Love reads it every year before turkey season starts. “A classic literature book but it’s about turkey hunting,â€� he said. “It’s very, very dry satirical humor. Very, very good. “Some people will go, what in the heck is that?  But the real turkey hunters will go, he’s a real turkey hunter.â€� And one book, Love says, perhaps only Bryson DeChambeau can love. Or maybe Phil Mickelson, who enjoys talking golf with putting guru, Dave Pelz, a former NASA scientist. It’s “The Golfing Machine: The Star System of G.O.L.F., Geometrically Oriented Linear Force.” “My dad had me read the book and went to a guy who did the machines,â€� Love says. “My dad read the whole book and all he got was stretch your left arm with your right, keep the width and the circle.  “I’m going to read everybody’s stuff, see if they have anything I like.  That’s just a weird thing but it’s something that my dad gave me to read.â€�  The Titleist hat that Love gave the World Golf Hall of Fame has particular significance, too. “(It) is the one I wore at the TOUR Championship when Payne Stewart died,â€� Love says. “What Would Jesus Do? I wanted that in my locker.â€� The 21-time PGA TOUR champ, who included the Sam Snead Trophy he got for winning the 2015 Wyndham Championship at the age of 51, also had quite the collection of letters to loan the Hall. Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Byron Nelson and President H.W. Bush are among those who wrote him. “I wanted to make a whole book of letters for people to read,â€� Love says. “Some of that stuff is just so cool. Letters from President Bush and Byron Nelson, ‘Sure are playing well. Hope you come to my tournament.’ Stuff like that.  “Like personal stuff that people don’t see that Byron did or Arnold did. When Arnold passed away people were talking about letters. To have it, the normal letter typed out but write something at the bottom, stuff like that is pretty cool.  “People ought to be able to see that.â€� Golf fans will also be able to see the Bob Jones Award that Love won in 2013, the highest honor the USGA gives to recognize distinguished sportsmanship in golf. Ditto for the little orange GolfCraft Skokie putter Love’s father cut down for him and the persimmon driver that NBA great Michael Jordan broke when the two were in college at Carolina. One thing that didn’t make the cut was the trophy of a horse that Love won for being Reserve National Champion in his division one year as his daughter, Lexie, competed across the country in equestrian events. Another of his favorite items that won’t be on display is a relatively non-descript golf ball that happened to belong to Ryan Moore, who was one of Love’s Captain’s Picks for last year’s Ryder Cup team. Love boldly selected Moore instead of Bubba Watson, who was ranked seventh in the world at the time and later joined the team as one of the captain’s assistants. Love – who had forgotten to retrieve his ball when he made the clinching putt in the 1993 matches – didn’t want the same thing to happen to Moore when he beat Lee Westwood for the U.S. win last year. “I waited until he calmed down and everything and said, ‘You’re going to want this,’â€� Love recalls. “About an hour later he came back and said, ‘I want you to have it’ and gave it to me.  “I told him that meant more to me than anything in the whole Ryder Cup because of the whole situation with him and Bubba and the whole deal.â€�  

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Ernie Els missed a chance to build a big lead during the second round of the PGA Tour Champions’ Pure Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach on Saturday, but he holds a 1-stroke lead over Dicky Pride, with Jim Furyk and four others 2 shots back.

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