The top-ranked golfer in the world Jon Rahm has now tested positive for the coronavirus twice in the past two months.
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The FedEx Cup finale is set up in such a way that the winner may not even be participating in the final moments. That should change.
Nicholas Thompson was on daddy duty, playing with his two young children, when the text messages started arriving last Wednesday. Had he heard? Did he know there had been a shooting at his alma mater, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, that afternoon? Stunned, Thompson turned on the TV. The news video of those terrified teens running out of the buildings with their hands over their heads was haunting. The death toll was staggering. “I was beyond shocked,â€� Thompson recalls. The rest of the afternoon, Thompson and his wife, Christen, who, like her husband, is a 2001 MSD graduate, took turns watching the non-stop TV coverage or playing with the kids. They wanted to shield the oldest, who is 4, from the terrible news. “But pretty much everything that was published online, I read about it,â€� says Thompson, who grew up and lived about 5 miles from the school for nearly three decades. So once the children were asleep that night, Nicholas and Christen finally were able to process what had happened. And they knew they had to do something. The Honda Classic, which is being played this week at PGA National in West Palm Beach just minutes from their home, offered the perfect opportunity. So the PGA TOUR veteran talked with executive director Ken Kennerly and a plan was hatched. The tournament is providing maroon ribbons for its 1,600 volunteers to wear to show support for the victims. Thompson and his wife bought another 500 — maroon and silver with the letters MSD on them – for the players, caddies and wives. On Thursday, less than 24 hours after the shooting, Thompson also ordered 3,100 maroon rubber bracelets with the words “Eagle Pride #MSD Strongâ€� written in silver. He plans to distribute them at the tournament in exchange for donations to help the victims and their families. Thompson has also set up a GoFundMe page – the Support MSD Shooting Victims’ Fund – that funnels any money raised into the Stoneman Douglas Victims Fund page. The Broward Educational Foundation fund already has raised more than $1.8 million. Stoneman Douglas graduates, like Thompson, nationwide have embarked on similar projects – not just to raise money but also to effect change. There’s even a private Facebook page called Mobilizing MSD Alumni that was created Wednesday after the shootings and already has more than 10,000 members. “There are people doing t-shirts, there are people doing decals for cars, other people doing different types of wristbands,â€� Thompson says. “Everybody’s just trying to help as much as they can. They’re doing a like town hall, things with CNN, a concert, just everything to help not only raise money and funds but to get awareness out of what occurred and how people feel and all of that.â€� Thompson doubts many of his friends on TOUR know he graduated from Stoneman Douglas. (His sister, Lexi, a nine-time winner on the LPGA Tour, and brother, Curtis, who competes on the Web.com Tour, both were home-schooled.) He actually went to school with one of the shooting victims, football coach Aaron Feis. The 37-year-old Feis, who was one of 17 killed that afternoon, died trying to shield students from the gunman. “I didn’t 100 percent know him, but we had plenty of mutual friends,â€� says Thompson, who was two years behind Feis in high school. “And I knew of him.â€� The building, which housed the freshman class, where the shooting occurred wasn’t there when Thompson attended MSD. But he remembers when it was built, and the other views from campus broadcast nationwide over the past week brought back vivid memories. “I’m not much of a crier, but it was a very, very sad moment,â€� Thompson says. “To see on TV, the pictures of the school that I went through for four years and the area where it occurred was terrible.â€� Thompson now lives about 45 minutes away from Parkland where MSD is located. While he had hoped to be playing in The Honda Classic in his backyard this week – Thompson fell short in Monday qualifying – he has new purpose for the week. “Now I’ll be able to help out more with this,â€� Thompson says. The excitement in his voice is palpable and the sense of purpose strong. Just like all the teenagers at his alma mater who are trying to turn this tragedy into something positive, too.
FORT WORTH, Texas – Time to talk changes for Bryson DeChambeau – currently tied for second after 36 holes at the Charles Schwab Challenge — since the last time we saw him play three months ago. First … THE WEIGHT. He’s between 235-240 pounds right now, thanks to his added muscle and the fact that he hasn’t been playing competitive golf in so long. He figures he’ll drop down to 230 in the next few weeks now that the TOUR has resumed its 2019-20 schedule. But hitting a specific number on the scale is not really part of his process in becoming stronger. “My ultimate goal is to get as strong as I can, and I don’t know what that weight is,â€� he said Friday after his second consecutive 65 left him at 10 under, tied with Jordan Spieth and one shot behind leader Harold Varner III. “I’m just going to keep proportionally making everything stronger and applying some force and speed to the golf swing to see what it can handle.â€� In case you’re wondering, when DeChambeau left SMU after winning the NCAA individual championship and the U.S. Amateur in the same year, he weighed just under 200 pounds. The additional bulk, of course, has forced changes to … HIS APPAREL. He’s gone up two sizes. “I was a medium starting last year, at the end of last year actually, and now I’m in an extra large,â€� he said. “It’s a little big fit on me depending on the style of shirt, but I love it. It feels comfortable. My back honestly in this XL fits perfect. “So I have had to change some stuff. Puma has been really nice to give me some clothing so don’t really have to worry too much about that.â€� Apparel size isn’t the only thing he’s had to adjust. Consider … CLUB LOFT. He’s producing so much spin now that he needed to make some drastic loft revisions. Like with his driver, which is 5-1/2 degrees. And he’s looking at a 3-wood at around 10 degrees. And his 4-iron is 17-1/2 degrees. All his irons, in fact, have been delofted. “I produce 4,000 spin,â€� he said. “It’s just that speed and deflection and all that. It’s crazy stuff that I would have never expected to happen, but I’ve had to make adjustments because loft is irrelevant, it’s really about your launch angle and spin right coming off of the ball, and the ball speed. “Pretty much that’s all that matters.â€� Still, he has to take all that into consideration with his … COURSE STRATEGY. Especially at Colonial, a tight, old-school shot-maker’s course that has never been a big-hitter’s favorite layout. DeChambeau is making his fifth career start in the Charles Schwab Challenge, but he’s getting to places this year that he never previously encountered. For example, the 390-yard par-4 sixth. There are two bunkers on the left side of the fairway, and one on the right. In his last six trips to the hole, DeChambeau has played short of those bunkers, his drives between 256-266 yards. On Thursday, he split the bunkers with a 297-yard drive. On Friday, he blasted a 330-yard drive over the right-hand bunker, setting up a 76-yard shot that finished inside 9 feet for a birdie. “I can just drive it all the way up past those bunkers and have a nice little flip wedge in there,â€� DeChambeau explained. “15, fly it over the bunkers, have a nice little flip wedge in there. 14, I had 100 yards in today. “I mean, it’s just stuff that is so beneficial when you get out here. You’ve got those bunkers and hazards in the way and I wanted to make those obsolete.â€� On Friday, he finished his round with a 335-drive at the 18th that came dangerously close to flirting with the water on the left side near the green. It wasn’t the stroke he wanted; he pulled the drive. But with his added muscle, he has to worry about such things now. “That’s something I’m going to have to be cautious of tomorrow depending on the wind,â€� he said. “If it’s pumping into the wind, I wouldn’t get it there, but if there’s no wind, I’ve got to make sure I stay right and draw it around the lake.â€� Oh, such problems, being so long off the tee that trouble comes into play. It’s a new world for DeChambeau; this weekend, it could be an extremely profitable one.
