PGA Tour commissioner plunked by errant tee ball at TPC Harding Park

Click here to read the full article…

This week, 39 players convene at the site that unmistakably signals the beginning of a new year. Keep your Times Square ball drop – Maui and the Sentry Tournament of Champions bring a warmer welcome to 2022, albeit with fewer party hats. Let’s look back at how some of the players in the field got into this winners-only tournament, and the statistical superlatives reached along the way. Sentry Tournament of Champions: Harris English Harris English kicked off 2021 with a win that defied Maui convention in a couple of ways. The victory was the first in seven years for English, marking the first time a player snapped an extended win drought at the Tournament of Champions. Players who finished in the top 30 of the previous season’s FedExCup standings were permitted entry into the field, as well as everyone who won a tournament. Secondly, English won with his putter in a ball-striker’s paradise. He ranked 13th in the field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, the lowest of any Maui winner since Daniel Chopra in 2008, but led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. Farmers Insurance Open: Patrick Reed Reed’s five-shot margin of victory at Torrey Pines was the largest by anyone since Tiger Woods won by eight in 2008. Reed’s scrambling lived up to its lofty reputation that week, as he won despite missing 28 greens in regulation across four rounds. It was the most missed G.I.R. by a Farmers Insurance Open champion since John Daly missed 29 in 2004. WGC-Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession: Collin Morikawa Morikawa gained a whopping 9.57 strokes on approach shots in his win at The Concession, the most by any winner all season on TOUR for 72 holes. With his victory, Morikawa joined Tiger Woods as the only players to win a major championship and World Golf Championship before age 25. Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard: Bryson DeChambeau While the visual of Bryson smashing 370-plus yard-drives at the 6th hole is indelibly seared into our collective memory, the substance of his play at Bay Hill should not be overlooked. DeChambeau made just one bogey in the final round on a day when the field averaged nearly 75.5. Since the beginning of the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season, there have been four wins by players who led the field that week in driving distance. DeChambeau has two of those (2020 Rocket Mortgage Classic, 2021 Arnold Palmer Invitational). The Honda Classic: Matt Jones Jones delivered one of the most unexpected dominant performances in years at The Honda Classic. His opening 61 would prove to be the lowest first round score by a winner in the entire 2020-21 season. His five-shot margin of victory made him the first player age 40 or older to win a PGA TOUR event by five or more strokes since Ryan Armour at the 2017 Sanderson Farms Championship. Masters Tournament: Hideki Matsuyama In the celebratory aftermath of Matsuyama’s historic Masters victory last April, it’s easy to forget just how long it had been since he had won. Matsuyama snapped a streak of 1,344 days without a professional win worldwide, the longest streak broken by a Masters victory since Larry Mize in 1987 (1,386 days; 1983 Memphis Classic). RBC Heritage: Stewart Cink The renaissance 2020-21 season of Stewart Cink reached its crescendo with an impressive four-shot victory at the RBC Heritage in April. Cink held the outright lead after 36, 54 and 72 holes, becoming the oldest player (age 47) to do that on TOUR since Peter Jacobsen at the 2003 Travelers Championship. PGA Championship: Phil Mickelson You know Mickelson became the oldest-ever major champion by winning the PGA at Kiawah Island, but here’s another monument to his longevity: With the win, he became the first player in TOUR history to win tournaments 30 years apart. His first victory was the 1991 Northern Telecom Open, which is still the last TOUR title won by an amateur. Charles Schwab Challenge: Jason Kokrak Kokrak entered the final round at Colonial one behind Jordan Spieth, but won, kicking off one of the most remarkable streaks in all of sports in 2021. For 14 consecutive TOUR events, no 54-hole leader or co-leader went on to win. It marked the longest streak of final-round come-from-behind victories on TOUR in the last three decades. No 54-hole leader would win until Patrick Cantlay did it at the BMW Championship in August. U.S. Open: Jon Rahm Rahm delivered in the clutch to get his first major championship, becoming the first U.S. Open winner to birdie the last two holes of regulation since Tom Watson in 1982. Rahm was the first to birdie the last two holes to win any major championship since Mark O’Meara at the 1998 Masters. With Rahm’s win, it marked back-to-back major titles for former Arizona State Sun Devils (Mickelson, PGA), the first school to be able to make that claim since the University of Houston at the 1995 PGA (Steve Elkington) and 1996 Masters (Nick Faldo). Travelers Championship: Harris English English needed eight playoff holes to defeat Kramer Hickok, tying the second-longest sudden-death playoff in the history of the PGA TOUR. The only playoff to go longer than eight holes was the 1949 Motor City Open, in which Lloyd Mangrum and Cary Middlecoff played 11 extra holes before they were declared co-winners by mutual agreement once it became too dark to proceed any further. The Open Championship: Collin Morikawa With his win at The Open, Morikawa became the first player to win two majors in eight or fewer career major starts since Bobby Jones at the 1926 U.S. Open. Morikawa joined Jones and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to come from behind in the final round of two major wins before his 25th birthday. And he locked up his unique bit of season-long history: For the first time in the modern era, not a single major winner was in his 30s or 40s (three winners in their 20s, and Phil Mickelson, age 50). Wyndham Championship: Kevin Kisner Just weeks after the marathon playoff in Connecticut, another sudden-death record was tied in North Carolina. Kevin Kisner came out on top of a six-man playoff at the Wyndham Championship, tying the largest sudden-death playoff in TOUR history. Remarkably, it was the first playoff win for Kisner on the PGA TOUR – he had been riding an 0-for-5 streak before the Wyndham victory. THE NORTHERN TRUST: Tony Finau After 1,976 days and 142 TOUR starts, Finau finally broke through for his second TOUR title at the weather-delayed NORTHERN TRUST. Finau was incredibly clutch down the stretch with his putter, gaining nearly 2 full strokes on the field in the greens over his last eight holes of regulation. Finau was 6-for-6 on putts between 4 and 8 feet in the final round, and a perfect 16-for-16 from 10 feet and in. BMW Championship: Patrick Cantlay Cantlay assembled an incomprehensible putting performance to beat Bryson DeChambeau at the BMW Championship. Cantlay’s +14.58 Strokes Gained: Putting and 21 putts made of 10 feet or longer both set ShotLink-era records. Cantlay needed every one of those putts, too – DeChambeau’s regulation 72-hole score of 27 under is the best in TOUR history by a player who didn’t win. Sanderson Farms Championship: Sam Burns With a pair of wins in 2021, perhaps no player is more poised than Burns to launch himself into golf’s superstar stratosphere. The LSU product finished the 2020-21 season ranked 5th on TOUR in birdie average, and 14th in Strokes Gained: Total. And this week he’s in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in his young career. A year ago at this time, he was outside the top 150. World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba: Viktor Hovland The 24-year-old Hovland made only two bogeys over his last 45 holes to cruise to a four-shot victory in Mexico. He was the first player to successfully defend on TOUR since Brooks Koepka at the 2019 PGA Championship. The RSM Classic: Talor Gooch In the final official event of 2021, Gooch fired a closing 64 to win The RSM Classic by three shots over Mackenzie Hughes. Gooch became the first player to shoot 64 or better in the final round of his first TOUR victory since Joaquin Niemann at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier in 2019. Gooch closed 2021 with five top-15 finishes in his last six starts and currently leads the FedExCup standings.

Click here to read the full article…

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Notes and observations from Thursday’s first round of the Wyndham Championship, where Matt Every shot a career-best, 9-under 61 to lead after the morning wave of the first round. North Carolina native Webb Simpson headed up a group of five players at 63, while 53-year-old University of North Carolina alumnus Davis Love III was among those at 64. For more coverage from Sedgefield Country Club, click here for the Daily Wrap-up. LOVE STILL A WYNDHAM WIZARD Davis Love III won the 2015 Wyndham Championship, becoming the third-oldest TOUR winner at 51 years, four months, 10 days of age, but he never got a chance to defend his title. That’s because the 21-time winner, who will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in September, was recovering from hip surgery at last year’s Wyndham. Now 53 and bidding to become the oldest winner ever on TOUR—Sam Snead was 52 when he won for the eighth time in Greensboro in 1965—Love hit all 18 greens in regulation on the way to an opening-round 64 on Thursday. “I like old style golf courses, traditional architecture,â€� Love said of Sedgefield C.C., a 1925 Donald Ross design. “This is certainly one of the best on TOUR. This one and Greenbrier are two of my favorite courses now on TOUR, and it’s not a bomber’s golf course. It’s one where you have to think your way around it, put in the right positions.â€� Love has three wins in Greensboro, and this week marks the 25th anniversary of his first, at nearby Forest Oaks. He’s won the PGA Championship and THE PLAYERS Championship, twice. He has played vital roles in Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup victories, and now his son Dru, who shot a 3-under 67 at Sedgefield on Thursday, sometimes plays in the same tournaments. But DL3, 209th in the FedExCup, just keeps on going through a torn labrum in his hip, through a broken collarbone (snowboarding) last winter. He played with Webb Simpson and Ryan Moore on Thursday, which couldn’t have been a better group, what with Simpson also getting hot, and Moore reminding Love that he’d gone low and won last time they played together here, in 2015. “I’d like to keep playing with him for a while,â€� Love said. SIMPSON’S CAREER REVIVAL CONTINUES Webb Simpson was another familiar face in the spotlight Thursday, what with Simpson having been born in Raleigh and currently residing in Charlotte, North Carolina. He also won the 2011 Wyndham, and named his third child Wyndham, for good measure. (No, the other three aren’t named Deutsche Bank Championship, Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, and U.S. Open.) Alas, it’s been a lean couple of years since Simpson’s fourth and most recent victory, at the 2014 Shriners Hospitals. Although he made the FedExCup playoffs the last two years, he didn’t win, and slogged through self-doubt. Now, though, Simpson, 32, is starting to look like his old self. Simpson lost a playoff to Hideki Matsuyama at the Waste Management Phoenix Open earlier this season, and is 37th in the FedExCup. On Thursday, he started on 10 and scorched the back nine with a 7-under 28; made two bogeys on the front; and ultimately signed for a 63. “I got a little excited thinking about—I’m not that far off from 59,â€� Simpson said. “But on the cart ride to the first tee I tried to kind of put it aside and get that ball in the fairway. Yeah, you don’t have many opportunities out here to do it. Today was certainly one of them.â€� One of many who had to revise his tactics on the green with the anchoring ban, Simpson took a tidy 25 putts Thursday after hitting nine of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens in regulation. He hasn’t missed a cut since the Wells Fargo Championship in May, and says he’s playing even better than he did during his near miss in Phoenix earlier this year. “I feel like I’ve been playing better for a longer period of time,â€� he said. “The game is more consistent.â€� He called his first nine holes, “the best start I’ve ever had to a tournament.â€� Another three days like this and he could be setting himself up to match his best year, too—at least in the FedExCup. He won twice and finished second in the season-long points race in 2011. “We’re obviously close to where I grew up,â€� Simpson said. (Raleigh is just over an hour from Greensboro, and Simpson attended nearby Wake Forest.) “I grew up playing courses similar to this that aren’t too long, hit different clubs off the tee, some doglegs. So, there’s a comfort here that I feel like I don’t have at a lot of places. I’ve always loved playing close to home.â€�

Click here to read the full article…