Reed’s caddie says he shoved fan at Presidents Cup

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Rory McIlroy initially had 2019 as the year he would finally play the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. His figured it would make a good 60th birthday present for his dad Gerry, who could join him as his amateur partner. The present arrived a year early. McIlroy is making his tournament debut this week, and his dad — a 5 handicapper — will indeed be by his side. It’s not the first time the two have played as a team — they’ve made several appearances on the European Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, including last October when they failed to qualify for the final round — but the appearance at Pebble Beach will be a special one. “It’s going to be a really cool week for both of us,” McIlroy said. “… It will be a nice experience to hopefully play four rounds of golf with him. Obviously, first thing is to try and make the cut so he can play on Sunday.” Rory said his dad has been practicing at Seminole Golf Club in South Florida for the last two months and has looked “pretty good.” The Dunhill Links appearances in Scotland has given them a taste for this kind of pro-am environment, so Rory doesn’t expect much difference this week other than the “weather’s a little nicer here.” (Well, at least it is this week, with no rain in the forecast.) The last time McIlroy played a PGA TOUR event was in the FedExCup Playoffs last season, when he finished T-58 at the BMW Championship and failed to advance to the TOUR Championship, where he would’ve been the defending champ. He’s made four European Tour starts since then, with three top-3 finishes along with a T-63 at the Dunhill Links (helping to explain to some degree why he and his dad failed to make the team cut). His last two starts was a T-3 in Abu Dhabi followed by a solo second in Dubai. While he didn’t win, he said the confidence gained after being away from tournament golf during his four-month break was valuable. “I was really happy flying away from Dubai after those two weeks,” he said. Adding the AT&T Pebble Beach to his schedule this season wasn’t simply determined solely by his dad’s participation. McIlroy plays the European Tour’s two Middle East events starting in late January, but those tournaments were moved up a week earlier than usual, allowing McIlroy a one-week breather at his Florida home before flying to California. In addition, McIlroy wants to ramp up his playing schedule after making just 18 worldwide starts in 2017, his fewest of any calendar year in a decade. After a winless campaign, McIlroy wants to make sure rust is not a factor going forward. “Not really making up for lost time but just missed playing, missed playing competitive golf,” said McIlroy, who has played Pebble Beach before — at the 2010 U.S. Open when he missed the cut. “And I feel like there’s nothing in my way, there’s nothing stopping me from playing a pretty full schedule.” McIlroy has added another new tournament in the Valspar Championship, which he said will replace the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship on his schedule this season. He thinks the set-up will serve him well going into the Masters in April, when he’ll once again try to complete the career Grand Slam. “Once I get to Augusta, one excuse I won’t have is not being prepared and being under-golfed,” he said. “I’ll have played a lot of tournament golf leading up to it. … “I don’t think anyone has ever found the perfect schedule. I don’t think that exists. It’s all about how you’re feeling at that given point and that given time. Right now I feel like playing a lot of golf — and that’s what I’m going to do.”

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KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – A year ago, at the 102nd PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park, Phil Mickelson didn’t contend but made his way to the CBS broadcast booth, where he traded zingers with Nick Faldo and Jim Nantz. He got off a few good lines. Everyone had fun. In between then and now, Mickelson won twice on PGA TOUR Champions; lost weight; sold some Coffee for Wellness; partnered with Tom Brady in The Match 2: Champions for Charity, when the world was desperate for live sports amid the paralyzing opening months of the pandemic. Always, he entertained, even if his golf game had cooled. Now, though, he has made history. Mickelson, 50, held his nerve, kept his focus, and counter-punched a brutally difficult Ocean Course to a draw Sunday, shooting a final-round 73 to win the PGA Championship. Louis Oosthuizen (73) and Brooks Koepka (74) finished second, two back at 4 under par. The biggest question mark by the 18th hole was whether Mickelson would be able to part the sea of people who closed in after his 9-iron approach stopped 16 feet from the pin, all but ending it. He two-putted for par and hugged his caddie/brother Tim as a euphoric Kiawah erupted. Mickelson becomes the oldest men’s major winner, besting Julius Boros, who was 48 at the 1968 PGA. It was the lefthander’s second PGA title (2005); sixth major (and first since the 2013 Open); and 45th PGA TOUR victory (first since the 2019 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am). Koepka took the lead after a two-shot swing at the first hole, but Mickelson took it right back with a birdie at the par-5 second, which Koepka double-bogeyed. It was that kind of day. Although he made three front-nine bogeys, Mickelson kept bouncing back with birdies, none bigger than his hole-out from the sand at the par-3 fifth hole as the pro-Phil crowd went wild. He birdied the par-5 seventh, and the par-4 10th hole. And after making nervous looking bogeys on 13 and 14, he hit a 366-yard drive and made another birdie at the downwind, par-5 16th hole. By then he had a three-shot lead, and it was all about avoiding the big mistake coming home. At 115th in the world, 168th in the FedExCup, he came into this week as a massive longshot. Still, there were early signs that something special was brewing, and it wasn’t coffee. Those who played practice rounds with him, like Steve Stricker and Jon Rahm, could see that he was playing great. Mickelson birdied the first three holes in a match that pitted him and fellow PGA TOUR Champions pro Stricker against Zach Johnson and Will Zalatoris. The old guys won. But playing well on Tuesday and Wednesday doesn’t always mean much. “His enthusiasm is what keeps him going,” said Rahm (68, 1 under), a friend who played for Tim Mickelson at Arizona State. “At his age, has the same enthusiasm I have at 26, and he’s been doing this a very long time. I mean, he’s been on TOUR as long as I’ve been alive.” The competition has kept him going, too. Padraig Harrington (69, 2 under), who believes older players do better under pressure, when their minds can’t drift, played with Mickelson the first two rounds at Kiawah and had a sense he might not fade on the weekend. “I’d say Phil is full to capacity, but that’s where he likes to live,” said Harrington, 49. Others could only shake their head in wonder. “I’ve just obviously watched him on TV growing up,” said 24-year-old lefty Robert MacIntyre (73, 5 over). “I mean, I’ve watched him do everything in golf. That’s the reason I pushed myself to get to where I am now was watching him. What he’s doing this week is incredible.” Older players had flirted with winning majors. Jack Nicklaus was 58 when he contended deep into Sunday at the 1998 Masters. Tom Watson was 59 when he nearly won the 2009 Open Championship. Fred Couples was 52 when he led after round two of the 2012 Masters. None of them won. With just two victories in the last seven years, Mickelson admitted his mental game wasn’t what it was. He has tried dietary changes, meditation, and marathon sessions of 36 to 45 holes a day. Now, though, it’s all clicking again for one of the most entertaining players of the last quarter century. Phil Mickelson, all 50 years of him, is a major champion again.

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ATLANTA – They followed him with binoculars, clad in the Nike swoosh, under a merciless sun. They howled “T!â€� and “Tiger!â€� just in case he didn’t notice they were there. They didn’t see the Tiger Woods who won the 2007 TOUR Championship and FedExCup, four back surgeries ago. He’s gone. But this one bears watching, too. Not at his best, Woods hit just seven of 14 fairways, made a double-bogey 6 from a fried-egg lie at the 16th hole, but still signed for a second-round 68 at the TOUR Championship at East Lake on Friday. “I didn’t hit it very well overall today,â€� said Woods, who goes into the weekend tied with Justin Rose (67) in search of his first victory since the 2013 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. “Didn’t quite have the sharpness that I had yesterday, and it was pretty evident. “At least for the most part,â€� he added, “I missed the ball in every spot that I needed to, so I always had a good angle in there. So, that helps. And my short game has been good.â€� Rory McIlroy (68) is alone in third, 5-under and two back of the co-leaders. Tiger roars went up around East Lake as he birdied the second, 12th, 14th, 15th and 18th holes, the last one coming after he reached the green in two for the second straight day. Not that we should be surprised. Woods’ T6 at the BMW Championship was his sixth top-10 finish this season, and featured a final-round 65. He shot 65 again in the first round at East Lake. He’s 20th in the FedExCup. The only thing he hasn’t done is collect his 80th win, coming closest at the PGA Championship (solo second) and Valspar Championship (T2). East Lake is playing hard—U.S. Open and PGA champion Brooks Koepka shot 78, and Bryson DeChambeau and Francesco Molinari each struggled to 75—but Woods has excelled around the fast greens, making over 100 feet of putts for the second straight day. He was admittedly worn out by the grind during his 68 Friday, and hopes not to press his luck. “I’m rolling the ball well,â€� he said, “but, more importantly, I need to leave the ball in the correct spots. Above the holes is not easy this week, and so it’s imperative I hit the ball in the fairway so I can control my spin coming into the greens. Yesterday I had a bunch of uphill putts, and hence I shot 5-under.â€� Tommy Fleetwood, who played with Woods in that round, is a believer. “Tiger Woods is good at golf,â€� Fleetwood tweeted, and after shooting his second straight 69 on Friday, he laughed as he called it “my most successful tweet of all time.â€� “I didn’t think much of it,â€� he said. “I just put it out there. It kind of went viral, that one.â€� As for playing with Woods, the young Englishman said he enjoyed talking golf with “the greatest golfer of all-time.â€� “There’s very few sports where you could play against your childhood hero, and I’ve played with both of them in Ernie (Els) and Tiger,â€� Fleetwood said. “The way he drove it impressed me.â€� (Woods hit 10/14 fairways Thursday.) “Everyone always talks about that being the fragility of his game, but his start lines and the shape of his shots were on a string.â€� We’ve now seen Woods excel when he was at his best, Thursday, and when he wasn’t, Friday. We didn’t see him at all at East Lake for the last five years; his last start here was 2013. And now he has a share of the lead. He had a share after a first-round 62 at the recent BMW Championship, but quickly fell back. He fought back from a deficit to briefly take the final-round lead at The Open Championship at Carnoustie, but finished poorly as playing partner Molinari won. Now it’s Woods and Rose, with five others within three of their lead. What would it mean to get win No. 80 after all the pain, rehab, and close calls? “I’ve got 36 more holes to go,â€� Woods said, “and hopefully I’ll be answering that question come Sunday night.â€�

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