PGA featured holes: BMW Championship

SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda — Lucas Herbert had two birdies during the toughest, wind-blown stretch of Port Royal and held steady to the end Sunday for a 2-under 69 to win the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. RELATED: Leaderboard | Winner’s Bag: Lucas Herbert, Butterfield Bermuda Championship | Local pro with cancer inspires at Butterfield Bermuda Championship Herbert closed with four pars to hold off Danny Lee (71) and Patrick Reed, who finished with four birdies over his last six holes for a 65 and then waited to see if it would be enough. Herbert, the 25-year-old Australian who won the Irish Open earlier on the European Tour this year, stayed in front by closing with two good par saves and missing a pair of 7-foot birdie attempts he didn’t need. His first PGA TOUR victory, and third worldwide, sends him to the Masters for the first time. “It opens up so many doors,” said Herbert, who earned his PGA TOUR card through the Korn Ferry Tour Finals two months ago. He had missed the cut in his other two starts this season. The wind and rain, which caused tee times to be moved up, was as fierce as advertised, and play was halted briefly without having to bring the players off the course. “I felt like I grinded really well early and I had the right attitude going into the day that it wasn’t going to be easy,” Herbert said. “You just knew it was going to be one of those days where you had to battle really, really hard. Under par was going to be a great score.” He finished at 15-under 269. Taylor Pendrith of Canada, who started the final round with a three-shot lead, failed to make a birdie in closing with a 76 to tie for fifth. Pendrith had three straight bogeys starting at No. 6 and was still very much in the mix, one shot behind going to the reachable par-5 17th. But he pulled his drive into the water, hit his third into the water and missed a 5-foot putt to take double bogey. He wasn’t the only player who can look back at missed chances. Danny Lee had a one-shot lead and appeared to be in control of his game until it all fell apart for him on the 12th hole. He went long of the green, pitched to the back collar and then used a fairway metal to bump his shot about 7 feet by the hole, missing that to take double bogey. Herbert rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt and went from one shot behind to the lead. After a bogey on the par-3 13th, Herbert made a 30-foot birdie putt to get to 15-under par. Reed was well ahead of them and didn’t appear to be in the mix until he knocked in a pair of 30-foot birdie putts, made a 12-foot par putt on the par-3 16th and finished with two birdies. That wasn’t the best round of the day. Scott Stallings started 14 shots behind, began his round on No. 10 and pulled to within two shots before running out of birdies. Stallings still managed a 62 and went from a tie for 50th to a tie for fifth. Patrick Rodgers had a 70 and finished alone in fourth. Lee followed his double bogey with a pair of bogeys before making one last push. He birdied the next three holes, sending his tee shot on the par-3 16th out over the ocean and letting the wind bring it back to 15 feet. Trailing Herbert by one on the 18th, Lee missed the green and had to get up-and-down for par. Herbert played wisely and conservatively, using his power to lean on a driving iron on the final two holes that eliminated trouble. “This finishing stretch kind of played into my hands a little bit,” Herbert said. “I felt like probably the strengths of my game — the longer game, whether it be long irons or 3-woods, drivers off tee — I felt like that really played in my wheelhouse. So I just tried to really stay positive with the swings.”

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ORLANDO, Fla. – His spot into the field at this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by Mastercard is owed to his win here in 1996. That would be 1996 BT, he was told. Paul Goydos – 53 and still in possession of more all-world dry-humor than the next 25 guys combined – nodded his head and knew what the reporter meant. “Before Tiger,� he said. Yes, 22 Aprils ago, Woods was an amateur and not in the field at Bay Hill, so Goydos was left to deal with mere mortals. He prevailed, too, shooting 275 to edge Jeff Maggert by a shot. It was the first of his two PGA TOUR victories, but it was seven months later when Goydos started to sense that the PGA TOUR he had joined just three years earlier was changing. Woods had won his first tournament, the Las Vegas Invitational, where Goydos had finished joint eighth, but then at the event at Disneyworld, “I played behind him three days and I had never seen anything like it.� Woods won that one, too, then he won the Masters and three other tournaments in 1997 and, well, it was wild. “The crowds, the enthusiasm, the scene,� said Goydos. Now playing regularly on the PGA TOUR Champions, where he has won five times, Goydos still pays attention to the entire landscape and knows that Woods, 42, is seemingly rejuvenated and his healthiest since 2013. There have been young players who’ve talked about how great it is to have a healthy Woods in their presence that they always wished that they could have played against an in-primetime Woods. Goydos chuckles. “Be careful what you wish for,� he said. That’s because, “if he stays healthy, I don’t think these guys have a clue as to what’s coming.� If a ninth Woods victory at Bay Hill is coming, it will have to be from well off the 36-hole lead, because he struggled to an outward 38 and only heated up moderately. With birdies on the inward par 5s – Nos. 12 and 16 – Woods shot level-par 72 to get halfway home in 4-under, seven behind Henrik Stenson (64-69) and Bryson DeChambeau (67-66). He’s just inside the top 20, so there’s a healthy list of players he’ll need to pass, something that will require a lot more birdies than he’s made in two days (eight). Still, despite the lack of noise from his game, there was plenty of commotion from his followers as again, Woods owned the show. It’s a landscape Goydos knows very well. “He moves the needle like Muhammad Ali.� Goydos offered his perspective shortly after a second-round 74 left him at level-par 144, a whopping 11 off the lead, but inside the cut. A small victory for the former champion, who discovered the other day that one part of Woods’ repertoire doesn’t seem to have missed a step. The needle. “He’s sharp, very, very quick,� said Goydos, “and he isn’t afraid to give it.� As he walked across the putting green at Bay Hill, Goydos said Woods noticed him and they made small talk. Quick-witted, Goydos said he loved being out on the PGA TOUR “because where I hit it, there aren’t any divots,� but as he walked away he heard a voice call out. “Hey, Paul,� said Woods, “how many head covers you have these days?� It’s all part of the Woods’ aura, Goydos said, and he suggested that it’s slowly returning after a hiatus of a few years. “It’s his putting green, his driving range, his show,� said Goydos, and if players are starting to talk about how difficult it is to play alongside Woods, that part of the battle is returning to the icon’s side. “Wait till players get a piece of that deal,� said Goydos. “Tiger is used to it.� So quiet for so much of his Friday, Woods provided a little bit of the show-time sizzle that Goydos talked about. The birdies at 12 and 16 were ho-hum, because they ranked as the two easiest holes. But the par-save at the 14th, when his ball was buried beneath the lip of a greenside bunker? Vintage Woods, thanks to a 22-foot putt. The laser iron over the flagstick at the 209-yard, par-3 17th? Solid stuff, even if he did miss the 25-footer? But best of all was the one-two punch at the demanding 18th – a stinger driver that went 323 yards and a splendid approach that took the slope at the back of the green and trickled to 14 feet. Classy stuff when you consider the field average for proximity on the 18th was 42 feet. On this day, Woods’ birdie putt grazed the right edge, but he’s in contention. On a weekend. Again. Goydos lived, kids. “I mean, the guy’s never gotten up before noon on the weekend.�

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The PGA TOUR returns to iconic Riviera Country Club for The Genesis Invitational. Tournament host Tiger Woods will be in attendance but won't play as he is still recovering from a back procedure last month. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson and defending champion Adam Scott are among the headliners. FIELD NOTES: Notables in the invitation-only field include major champions Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Collin Morikawa, and Francesco Molinari, plus world No. 2 Jon Rahm. ... After deciding not to tee it up at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Dustin Johnson, who won the 2017 Genesis, will be back in action at Riviera. ... Scott hasn't missed a cut this season and finished T10 in his last start at the Farmers Insurance Open... Other past winners at Riviera include J.B. Holmes, James Hahn, Charles Howell III, and Bubba Watson (twice a winner here). ... Tae Hoon Kim won The Genesis Championship in Korea last fall to secure a spot in The Genesis Invitational field for 2021... Two-time FedExCup winner Rory McIlroy looks to finally lift the trophy at Riviera after holding a piece of the lead Sunday a year ago only to fall to T5... The U.S. Amateur champion always gets a spot in The Genesis Invitational, so Tyler Strafaci will tee it up, as will the previous three U.S. Amateur winners: Andy Ogletree, Viktor Hovland, and Doc Redman. (Redman won the 2017 U.S. Amateur at Riviera.) ... In addition to reigning champ Johnson, FedExCup winners in the field include Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Brandt Snedeker, and Jim Furyk. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 550 FedExCup points. COURSE: Designed by George C. Thomas Jr. and William P Bell, Riviera Country Club, par 71, 7,322 yards, has been a PGA TOUR staple for 57 years. A three-time major championship host (1948 U.S. Open and 1983/1995 PGA Championships), the club is perennially ranked in the top 100 in the world and is located just a block from Sunset Boulevard. It's a compact design with primary rough consisting of thick Kikuyu grass, a bunker in the middle of a green, and of course the iconic, driveable 10th. STORYLINES: Willie Mack III joins the list of Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption recipients. Two other past Sifford Exemption recipients will be in the field: Harold Varner III and Cameron Champ. Mack III, an 11-time winner at Bethune-Cookman University, made his PGA TOUR debut at Torrey Pines when an exemption intended for Kamaiu Johnson opened up due to Johnson testing positive for COVID-19. The Sifford Exemption has been awarded yearly since 2009, with three recipients (Jeremiah Wooding, Varner III, and Joseph Bramlett) making the cut... There is one spot left in the field reserved for the winner of The Genesis Invitational Collegiate Showcase, Feb. 15. Three past collegiate showcase champions will be in the field for 2021: this year's winner plus Will Zalatoris (2015) and Scottie Scheffler (2018). ... Anyone who moves into the top 10 of the FedExCup standings (and not otherwise in the field) after The Genesis Invitational will earn a spot in the following week's World Golf Championships at The Concession. 72-HOLE RECORD: 264, Lanny Wadkins (1985). 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, George Archer (3rd round, 1983 at Rancho Park GC), Ted Tryba (3rd round, 1999 at Riviera CC). LAST TIME: On a difficult day for the overnight leaders, Scott - whose victory at Riviera 15 years ago was deemed unofficial as rain shortened the tournament to 36 holes - shot a 1-under 70 to top Sung Kang, Scott Brown, and Matt Kuchar by two shots. It was the Australian's 14th TOUR victory and 29th win worldwide. Five players had a share of the lead at some point Sunday, including McIlroy, who shot 2 over to finish T5 alongside Hideki Matsuyama, Bryson DeChambeau, Max Homa, and Joel Dahmen. Tournament host Woods finished 68th, last among those who made the cut. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday, 12 p.m.-2 p.m. (Golf Channel, PGA TOUR Live Freeview), 2 p.m.-6 p.m. (Golf Channel), 6 p.m.-8 p.m. (Golf Channel, PGA TOUR Live Freeview). Friday, 2 p.m.-6 p.m. (Golf Channel). Saturday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (CBS). Sunday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 9:45 a.m.-8 p.m. (Featured Groups), Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (Featured Groups), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Holes). Sunday, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. (Featured Groups), 3 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (Featured Holes). Radio: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, 1 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio). TOURCast: Get shot-by-shot info in real time with shot tracks and video with TOURCast. TOUR Pulse: Get the PGA TOUR app to utilize TOUR Pulse, which provides users the ability to experience a mix of content, such as video highlights, written hole summaries and stat graphics on every player after every hole they complete.

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