Pain-free, Tiger finishes 72 holes on PGA Tour

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Granted, it was a wet first round of THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass, but it was still surprising to hear Keith Mitchell credit a swimmer for the assist after shooting a 5-under 67 to trail co-leaders Tommy Fleetwood and Tom Hoge by one. Over a year ago, Mitchell, 30, was well into a promising career had yielded one PGA TOUR victory at The Honda Classic, but he suspected he wasn’t getting the most out of his game. The culprit: his bad attitude. To address the problem, he reached out to 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps, the most decorated U.S. swimmer of all time. “I was not giving it my all,” Mitchell said after his opening round Thursday, which featured an eagle at the par-5 ninth hole. “And he was kind of helping me through some like downs and kind of really hit the reset button about a year ago. That kind of started everything, getting a mentality, getting some coaching, and really just not just feeling sorry for yourself out here.” With weather delays that eclipsed five hours, the first round tested everyone in the field. Mitchell said he had fun hanging out in the locker room and maintained a positive attitude. That hasn’t always been easy, but his work with Phelps, an avid golfer, has helped. Before they began their skull sessions, Mitchell said, he felt beat up, and like he had hit some sort of wall. “We had dinner a long time ago in Phoenix,” Mitchell said, “and he was talking about some really thoughtful things that apply to every sport. I’ll never forget, it really made an impact on me. It’s not just your typical golf stuff like one shot at a time and stay patient. It was more of kind of how to act and focus on the course, which is how you would do in swim meets. “… I just remember feeling like a loser talking to him sometimes,” he continued, “how I felt on the golf course, like pity and sorrow, and this game is hard. He just pretty much said there’s no place for that if you want to be at the top. That was probably a year, year and a half ago, when I was probably the lowest I’ve been in the World Rankings since I got on the PGA TOUR.” Mitchell had dropped all the way to 249th in the world after the Valspar Championship last year but began his comeback with a T3 at the Wells Fargo Championship. Since then, he has made a steady climb, and top-10s at The Honda Classic and WM Phoenix Open have him up to 73rd. Asked how often he sees Phelps, Mitchell said not often, but they still talk on the phone. “One call with him is pretty impactful,” he said. “I can promise you that.”

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The Saudi International in its third year is shaping up as one of the strongest fields on the European Tour with commitments from Masters champion Dustin Johnson, U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau and a curious one from Paul Casey.

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One year ago, our family experienced a terrible thing. At the same time, we ended up having a wonderful experience. Those two sentences only make sense because of Nationwide Children’s Hospital. In late-May 2019, we were in Ohio so I could play in the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. The Monday after the tournament, there was a U.S. Open qualifier at Scioto Country Club and Brookside Golf and Country Club. I didn’t play well at the Memorial, missing the cut, and that left me with a couple of days to get ready for the 36-hole qualifying tournament. On Monday morning, my wife, Soyoung, took me to the course, while our son, Eugene stayed at the hotel with his grandmother, my mother-in-law. At the golf course, I received a phone call from my wife who was telling me that our son had fallen off the bed and was hurt. I really didn’t think it was anything too serious. But when Soyoung told me they had gone to the hospital in an ambulance, I immediately withdrew from the tournament and left the course, heading straight to Nationwide Children’s Hospital. There, doctors told us Eugene had suffered a concussion and a fracture on his temporal bone that was causing spinal fluid to leak. It was a really dangerous situation. Doctors believe that when Eugene was falling off the bed, he landed at an odd angle, hitting right on the spot that caused all the problems. It was really a fluke. We basically moved into the hospital, and Soyoung and I probably didn’t eat anything for the first 48 hours. We slept very little, if at all. I kept looking at Eugene’s heart monitor because sometimes it can go up and down like crazy, so I stared at it and couldn’t fall asleep. We both had a hard time watching Eugene struggling. There was our child in real trouble. We felt helpless. The biggest problem was doctors couldn’t control and stop the fluid leak. They eventually decided surgery was the best option. After more than a week—eight days—as doctors were getting ready to perform the procedure, the leaking finally stopped. Very quickly, Eugene started acting normally. A couple of days later, doctors discharged Eugene, and we were free to go home. One problem. We couldn’t fly because the pressure inside an airplane was dangerous and could cause Eugene’s spine to start again leaking fluid. Our next choice? Drive 15 hours from Columbus to our home in Dallas. Knowing we didn’t want to do the drive in one day, we mapped out where children’s hospitals were on our route home—just in case. All along, we felt if we could get back home, everything would be OK, and Eugene would continue to improve. It took us three days to travel home, but we did arrive in Texas with no issues, and we were so thankful to be home safely. Of course, what happened was incredibly serious, but fortunately, Eugene’s accident occurred not far from one of the biggest and best children’s hospitals in the world. The staff at Nationwide Children’s Hospital couldn’t have been nicer. The doctors and nurses were professional and kind in every way. When Soyoung and Eugene arrived at the hospital, everyone was so attentive. Before the day was over, 10 doctors had come to Eugene’s room and checked on him. It was so scary, but everybody did what they could to put my wife at ease. They did the same for me after I got there. The whole episode is not something I enjoy remembering, but the care Eugene received brings back a flood of good memories. Eugene does have some hearing loss in his left ear because of nerve damage associated with his fall. Other than that, though, he’s doing well and is happy. The accident, though, isn’t far from my mind, and I will often check on Eugene to see how he is doing. He’s just a normal little boy, he’s so active, he climbs up to everywhere and he jumps around. He also doesn’t remember anything about what happened. While you can’t tell anything was ever wrong, I still get kind of scared of what could happen to him. If he could suffer such a major injury falling from a bed, imagine what could happen when he’s doing regular kid stuff. I do call my wife a lot to make sure he’s doing well, and we do keep an eye on him. Today, we’re extraordinarily grateful he’s recovered, and we know he will have a long and happy life. We have Nationwide Children’s Hospital to thank for that.

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