Premier Golf League set for 2023 launch

LA QUINTA, California, EE.UU. (con información de AP) — Adam Long, miembro del PGA TOUR Latinoamérica en 2014, embocó un putt de cuatro metros en el hoyo final este domingo para ganar el Desert Classic y conseguir el primer título de su carrera en el PGA TOUR. El suyo fue el segundo triunfo de un graduado del PGA TOUR Latinoamérica en el PGA TOUR, siguiendo el título del Sanderson Farms Championship logrado por Cody Gribble en 2017. Completando apenas su sexto torneo en el TOUR, Long cerró con una ronda de 7-bajo par 65 en el Stadium Course de PGA West para vencer por un golpe a Phil Mickelson y Adam Hadwin, con quienes compartió la última salida en la jornada final.  “El putt de Phill me dio una buena idea,â€� dijo Long. “Fue uno de esos putts en los que uno se para sobre la pelota y sabe qué es exactamente lo que vas a hacer. Es algo que uno no puede controlar, pero cuando tienes esa sensación es algo bastante bueno. Me siento bastante incrédulo en este momento. Realmente no caigo en cuenta de lo que pasóâ€�. Long se colocó en posición de embocar el putt de la victoria gracias a un estupendo hierro-6 que pegó desde 175 yardas con la pelota debajo de sus pies en un loma a la derecha del fairway. Graduado de la Universidad de Duke y con 31 años de edad, Long se hizo profesional en 2010 y comenzó su carrera jugando en los mini tours de su país. En 2012 ganó la tarjeta del Web.com Tour y tras perderla regresó a los mini tours. En 2014 jugó 12 torneos del PGA TOUR Latinoamérica y 11 del Mackenzie Tour PGA TOUR Canada que lo dejaron en buena forma para regresar al Web.com Tour por medio del Q-School. En el Web se mantuvo desde 2015 hasta 2018, cuando aseguró su tarjeta del PGA TOUR al terminar la temporada regular en el 13º puesto entre los top-25 de la lista de ganancias. “De alguna forma ha sido un poco de sube y baja, pero he tenido un crecimiento sostenido a través de mi carreraâ€�, dijo Long. “He jugado en la mayoría de los tours que hay en el mundo y he ido progresando poco a poco. Puede parecer que salí de la nada, pero mi juego ha ido en la dirección correcta por los últimos dos añosâ€�. Mickelson, líder del Desert Classic tras cada una de las primeras tres rondas, tuvo muchas dificultades con el putter para su ronda de 69. Su putt de 12 metros en busca de birdie en el hoyo 18 se desvió un poco a la izquierda al final. “Tuve un día terrible con el putter, uno de los peores que pueda recordar en un buen ratoâ€�, dijo Mickelson. “Así fue desde el primer hoyo, con no cortito de poco más de un metro en subida e hice tres putts en ese green. Fallé muchos cortos en los primeros nueve y algunas oportunidades de birdie, pero la sensación era fatal con el putter. Pegué muchos tiros buenos, pero no logré poner la pelota en el hoyoâ€�. Hadwin hizo 67, dejando ir una ventaja de tres golpes en los últimos nueve hoyos. “Así es el golfâ€�, dijo el canadiense. “Emboqué muchos putts toda la semana y honestamente estuve batallando un poco con el swing, no lo tuve como los primeros tres díasâ€�. Para Hadwin este fue su cuarto top 6 consecutivo en este evento. En 2017 había sido segundo tras una tercera ronda de 59 en La Quinta Country Club y el año pasado había empatado en tercer lugar.  Long terminó con 26-bajo par 262, embocando valiosos chips en un par de ocasiones para mantenerse en contienda en los últimos nueve hoyos. “Esas que metí de afuera fueron enorme y otros putts en los primeros nueves también me ayudaron a mantenerme ahíâ€�, dijo Long. La semana la abrió con un 63 en el Nicklaus Tournament Course de PGA West. El viernes hizo 71 en el Stadium Course y el sábado otro 63 en La Quinta para meterse al último grupo con Mickelson y Hadwin.  “Fue una gran emoción jugar con Phil,” agregó Long. “Lo he admirado toda mi vida y no pudo haber sido mejor para conmigo en la cancha. Fue grandioso jugar con él, muy divertidoâ€�.

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Matt Fitzpatrick will reach for his wedge after missing a green, rehearse a few practice swings and pause for the predictable murmurs, mumblings and crowd chirps that inevitably will start circulating across the gallery ropes. He and veteran caddie Billy Foster will look at one another and have a laugh. They have come to expect some true gems. “I find it hilarious,” Fitzgerald said of the reaction he gets as he prepares to pitch or chip cross-handed. “I’ll hear in the crowd, ‘Oh, my God! What’s he doing?’ Really, it’s hilarious. But it’s worked really well for me. My chipping stats are 100 percent better from this year compared to last. It’s a good start.” It’s not as if Fitzpatrick, 27, a player with seven wins in Europe and ranked 23rd in the Official World Golf Ranking heading into this week’s RBC Heritage, was a terrible chipper when he utilized a conventional technique. He simply thought he could be better and save a few strokes. And he has. Fitzpatrick had used a cross-handed chipping drill for a number of years, and he always liked how his strike was so consistent when he did it. So why not put the technique into play during tournament rounds? He has been chipping predominantly cross-handed for a year or so, according to Foster. “People think he probably has the yips or something,” said Foster, who caddied for World Golf Hall of Famer Seve Ballesteros, during the recent Florida Swing. “He doesn’t. He chips brilliantly.” Foster said Fitzpatrick tended to “cut across” the ball just a bit when conventional (his path through the ball coming a fraction inside). Thus far in 2021-22, Fitzpatrick’s play around the greens has been a real asset. He missed 14 greens across his first three rounds at the Valspar Championship, and he got up-and-down 12 times, ranking as high as second in scrambling (he finished the week sixth). Fitzpatrick tied for third in scrambling at last week’s Masters. Overall in 2021-22, he ranks 15th in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and third in scrambling, getting his ball up and down 68.93% of the time. Two years ago, by comparison, he ranked 138th in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and 99th in scrambling (58.79%). Playing partners may do a double-take the first time they see Fitzpatrick go to work around the greens, but they should not underestimate him. In a group-play playoff against Scottie Scheffler at last month’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, Fitzpatrick had an all-world chip to set up birdie on the fifth playoff hole, nestling a slick, downhill tester (with a tree closely behind him) to a foot. Scheffler won the playoff on the next hole, en route to winning the tournament, and is the hottest player in golf. Fitzpatrick has been on a pretty strong run of late, too. With the exception of THE PLAYERS Championship – where Fitzpatrick was on the wrong side of the draw in terrible conditions and shot a pair of hard-earned 74s – his other five stroke-play starts in 2022 have all resulted in finishes of T14 or better. (He was T14 at last week’s Masters.) He tied for fifth at the Valspar Championship, tied for sixth at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and tied for ninth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. Last fall on the DP World Tour, Fitzpatrick also won the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters and was runner-up at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. He enjoys the challenge of Harbour Town Golf Links, where the greens are very small and short game can prove pivotal to contending. A year ago, Fitzpatrick tied for fourth at the RBC Heritage. Why has the quality of his short game risen with his unorthodox technique? “I just found it more consistent,” Fitzpatrick said. “The ball comes off the face much more consistently. It’s the same every time. You know what’s coming. When I was chipping normally, it’s not like I had the yips. I was just getting a lot of inconsistency in the strike, and the release. I started doing it a couple of years ago in the rough, because I felt the technique really got the (club)head out. “To me, I can’t drag my hands across, because I’ll shank it if I go cross-handed. It helps me throw the head in, and I feel I have way more control over it. … I just got so comfortable with it, and now I really like doing it.” Fitzpatrick still uses a conventional grip when he is in the bunkers. (“Bunkers are no problem,” he said.) He generally uses his cross-handed technique from 30 yards and in. On certain shots – say, a flop shot, or a shot where he needs to generate high spin, such as a pitch he faced to a front hole location from behind the left-side pond at Augusta National’s 11th hole last week – he’ll still use a conventional grip. Fitzpatrick certainly isn’t the first player to chip cross-handed. TOUR winners Vijay Singh and Chris Couch have chipped and even hit bunker shots that way, and Korn Ferry Tour player Josh Broadaway played cross-handed from tee to green. Golf is a copycat sport. Could Fitzpatrick, given his new chipping prowess, start a new chipping trend with his cross-handed method? “Oh, I don’t know about that,” he said, laughing. “I’m happy with my start to the year; I’ve been playing really well. I think the changes that I made in the offseason have been positive. I think it’s a matter of time before I string it all together and hopefully knock a few (victories) off.”

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Tiger Woods called the Bush name “synonymous with golf.” Said Tiger: “Anyone who’s ever been around him knows how much he loved his golf and how much he supported it and how much we’re going to miss him.”

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