R&A hoping to conduct The Open and women’s British Open in July-August

HONOLULU – Maybe it was some sort of cosmic karma that helped Cameron Smith win the Sony Open in Hawaii. Australian PGA TOUR players in the Sony Open field – with help from some friends – added over $175,000 to help boost bushfire relief efforts in their home country, taking the current total from the TOUR community to well over a $250,000. The six Australians in the field in Marc Leishman, Smith, Matt Jones, Rhein Gibson, Cameron Davis and Cameron Percy, plus American Parker McLachlin, all pledged funds per birdie and eagle made during the tournament to the ongoing fire crisis down under. Together, they raised over $30,000, despite difficult conditions with high winds and rain throughout the week at Waialae Country Club. And the figure will continue to rise as further matches are added. Karma seemed part of the narrative as Smith came from behind to force a playoff with a birdie on the 72nd hole and earlier, Leishman holed out for an eagle on Sunday from 130 yards to boost the cause. Leishman’s Begin Again Foundation has over $9,000 of straight donations to add plus their pledge to match $5,000 of those contributions. Personal sponsors and friends of the four-time TOUR winner also added to his birdie/eagle pledge, which takes things up at least another $6,000. Related: International Team announces bushfire relief donation | Smith: Sony Open win means ‘that little bit more’ The Presidents Cup, which was recently held in Melbourne, Australia, and the PGA TOUR pledged to match any figures raised up to $125,000 by players at Waialae. Smith and Leishman were both members of the International Team in the competition. In another significant show of support the Presidents Cup, confirmed at the conclusion of play that they will provide the full $125,000 regardless of the final totals. On Saturday, the International team also pledged to send $125,000 from their Presidents Cup charitable funds towards the relief efforts. “It’s amazing that, as always, the TOUR steps up. When things are bad, we always say the TOUR is like a big family and it really is,â€� Leishman said. “It’s good that we are helping out my fellow Australians who really need it. These bushfires are an ongoing crisis that continues to cut a devastating path right across Australia so support from the global community is crucial. It has been heartening to see the resiliency of the Australian people and to see the firefighters and volunteers from around the world coming together to continue this important fight. “But the scale of the destruction is huge and it will continue to take a team effort from every corner of the globe as we look to the future. The fires are expected to burn through the Australian summer and coming months and the families who lost loved ones, homes and priceless memories will feel the effects for years to come. So too will our unique wildlife so all support is greatly appreciated.â€� To date, more than 10 million hectares (over 38,610 square miles) have been burned across Australia’s six states – an area about the size of Leishman’s adopted American state of Virginia. For comparison, the 2019 Amazon rainforest fires burned more than 7 million hectares, while California’s wildfires combined to burn just over 100,000 hectares in 2019 and 404,000 hectares in 2018. Multiple fires are still causing problems. There have been at least 27 lives lost and destruction of homes is in the thousands. The unique wildlife of the country has also taken a cataclysmic hit, with estimates of more than a billion animals being affected. There are fears some smaller species could face extinction or functional extinction – where the species declines to a point where they no longer play a significant role in their ecosystem. Smith’s win was extra special, given his uncle Warren has lost his house and farm in the fires. He hoped it helped add some smiles to otherwise devastating times. “Every birdie putt I had, just meant that little bit more. Rather than kind of wanting to make it I almost felt like I had to make it,â€� Smith would say after his victory. “I realize Australia is doing it tough right now and the focus in probably not on my golf for good reason. But hopefully it gave a few people reason to smile for a moment of two. “Uncle Warren drove back to his place the other day and what he found was quite devastating. I kind of saw the photos and the only thing he had left was a little shed that him and his son built a few months back. “We’re a tight knit family and it kind of hit everyone pretty hard. It’s good to do something good, and hopefully puts a smile on their face.â€�

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Buckling down after his six-shot lead had been cut to one, Chez Reavie comes up clutch with a birdie on the 17th hole while Keegan Bradley, his closest pursuer, suffers an untimely double-bogey. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Reavie, 37, solidified his reputation as mentally tough by converting a 54-hole lead/co-lead into a victory for the second time in as many tries on the PGA TOUR (2008 RBC Canadian Open). With the victory, he jumped from 35th to 12th in the FedExCup. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. The long wait made it all the sweeter. Reavie’s wrist injury, his handful of failures to make the FedExCup Playoffs, his long win drought – all that stuff made winning the Travelers, in his ninth try, even more satisfying. “It was great,â€� Reavie said, “because it gave me good perseverance and good perspective of what life is and what golf is. I enjoy every minute of every week I’m out here now, and I don’t think I would necessarily be that way if I didn’t go through those tough times.â€� Reavie kept working hard despite the fact that it had been 3,983 days since his first and only other win on TOUR, at the 2008 RBC Canadian Open. That’s the 11th longest span between a player’s first and second wins on TOUR since 1900. Would he have expected to win sooner? “Not really,â€� he said. “Golf is tough, right? There are a lot of great players on the PGA TOUR. To win out here is an honor and something that shouldn’t be overlooked or under appreciated.â€� 2. For a guy who hadn’t won in 11 years, Reavie had momentum. He had played in the second-to-last group at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach the week before, and finished T3. He also shot a back-nine 28 at the Travelers on Saturday that friend Paul Casey called, “one of the best nines that I can think of since I’ve been on TOUR.â€� Reavie used that confidence to quiet his nerves as he prepared for the final round at TPC River Highlands, and to hang in there when the putts weren’t dropping. The turning point came when Bradley cut the lead to one and Reavie hit the 17th fairway, fired at the flag, and drained his birdie putt of 14 feet, 4 inches. With Bradley finding the fairway bunker off the tee and skulling his 9-iron approach on the way to a double bogey, it was all but over. “Being in the second to the last group at the U.S. Open last week, that definitely gave me a lot of confidence coming into this week, and in particular into today,â€� Reavie said. “I played really well on Sunday at the U.S. Open, and I tried to treat this the same as I did then.â€� 3. Bradley fired up the home crowd. Although he now lives in South Florida, Keegan Bradley is a native New Englander and everyone knows it. As such, there was no shortage of thrills as he went 5 under through 16 holes to cut Reavie’s seemingly insurmountable six-shot lead down to a single stroke. Alas, after thrilling the hometown fans for much of the afternoon, Bradley’s double bogey at 17, combined with Reavie’s birdie, created a three-shot swing and all but ended it for the crowd favorite, who wound up with a 67 and a T2 finish, four shots back. “Dream come true,â€� Bradley said. “I got to play in front of the fans in New England and put on a show. I’ve never felt that type of support ever. Maybe in a Ryder Cup. It was so fun.â€� 4. Zack Sucher sort of won with a T2. Saddled with credit-card debt, unheralded Zack Sucher birdied four of his final six holes and chipped in for par on 18 for a 67 and a timely T2 ($633,600). “It’s life-changing, to be honest,â€� said Sucher. Sucher was playing on a Major Medical Extension this season, and had six events in which to earn 347 FedExCup points. But he’d earned just 25 FedExCup points in three starts until his breakthrough at the Travelers. He picked up a much-needed 245 more at TPC River Highlands, leaving him two remaining starts to get the last 77. Sucher alternated between stellar play (five-shot lead halfway through the third round) and disasters (he responded with a bogey and two doubles in a three-hole stretch). The final round brought more of the same: He four-putted the ninth hole for a double bogey before firing a back-nine 30 to finish T2 and zoom from 222nd to 126th in the FedExCup. For more on Sucher’s feel-good story, click here.  5. Paul Casey ‘Travelers’ well. The Englishman played his last six holes in 4 under, highlighted by an eagle 2 at the 15th hole, to shoot 65 and finish T5. Amazingly, it was his fourth top-five Travelers finish since 2015. “Three weeks off for me,â€� Casey said of his plans going forward. “I’ve not played (Open Championship venue Royal) Portrush before, so my focus is now getting ready for that. Go in early, do a (reconnaissance), learn it as quick as I can. And three weeks off really is also to save some energy. I’m not tired, but I’ve got a lot of golf ahead. “I’ll play Memphis (the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational). There is a possibility you’ll see me at Wyndham because of the Wyndham Rewards now, and then the FedExCup.â€� FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Reavie led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green (+1.684). (Of his total strokes gained on the field, 41 percent came on approach shots.) He was 10th in SG: Off-the-Tee (+0.723) and SG: Putting (+1.231), 24th in SG: Around-the-Green (+0.457), and first in SG: Total (+4.095). 2. Vaughn Taylor (65, solo third) picked up his best finish since winning the 2016 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. He played the front nine at TPC River Highlands in even par for the week, the back in 12 under. 3. Three-time Travelers champion Bubba Watson slogged through the weekend in 73-71 to finish T54, while U.S. Open runner-up Brooks Koepka finished T57. 4. It was a good week for International Presidents Cup Team hopefuls Abraham Ancer and Joaquin Niemann. Ancer birdied five of the last eight holes for a final-round 63, tying the week’s low score, and a T8 finish. Niemann posted four rounds in the 60s to finish T5, which ties his best of six top-10 finishes in 36 TOUR starts (2018 A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier). 5. Collin Morikawa (T36) led the quartet of newly minted pros, with Viktor Hovland (T54) not far behind. Matthew Wolf (MDF) and Justin Suh (MC) rounded out the foursome. Hovland and Wolff became the fifth and sixth players since 2009 to advance to the weekend while making their professional debuts at the Travelers. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is in its first season and adds another layer of excitement to the FedExCup Regular Season. The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will earn bonus payouts from the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. Matt Kuchar remains No. 1, while Brooks Koepka showed that every point counts, jumping from 3rd to 2nd with a T57 finish. Meanwhile, Patrick Cantlay (69, T15) also moved up a spot from 7th to 6th, and Chez Reavie (35th to 12th in the FedExCup) is knocking on the door.

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They lined Torrey Pines’ fairways and stood hundreds deep along its greens hours in advance of the first two rounds of the Farmers Insurance Open, drawn by the one man who, for better or worse, transcends the sport of golf.

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