Rose picks up 10th PGA Tour victory

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – Last year’s Open Championship showed Tiger Woods that he could win another major. Now he’s seeing how difficult it is, after four back surgeries and 43 years on this earth, to recover from winning one. “It took a lot out of me,â€� Woods said Tuesday about his historic win over a star-studded leaderboard at Augusta National. His abbreviated preparations for The Open Championship are proof. Woods’ body has forced him to cut down on his practice, even for the game’s biggest events. He admitted Tuesday that his game is “not quite as sharp as I’d like to have it right now.â€� RELATED: Koepka’s caddie’s experience | Tee times | Expert Picks | Power Rankings | Five things: Royal Portrush Such a statement from Woods, especially two days before the start of a major, would have been unfathomable years earlier. He popularized the word “peakingâ€� in the game’s lexicon and won majors by being a calculating tactician who steadfastly stuck to a measured gameplan to outlast his competition. He hasn’t played since the U.S. Open, though. He took a two-week trip to Thailand between the Opens and started working on his game after returning home July 2. Listening to Woods talk Tuesday, it is obvious that he only has so many swings left and he wants to use the remaining ones strategically. “If I play a lot, I won’t be out here (on TOUR) that long,â€� he said. He’s played just three tournaments since winning the Masters in April, and two of them were majors. The Masters was his 15th major and 81st PGA TOUR victory, leaving him one short of Sam Snead’s record. With such a limited schedule, Woods is still trying to find his form with two days remaining before The Open Championship. He’s content with the state of the short game, but not comfortable hitting the variety of trajectories that are necessary to navigate the links. Woods said he won’t play Wednesday. He will hit the range during the last day of pre-tournament preparations. “And hopefully that will be enough to be ready,â€� said Woods, who’s never played Royal Portrush. His only time in Northern Ireland came during his pre-Open fishing and golf trips in the late ‘90s with Mark O’Meara and the late Payne Stewart. Data and analytics allow players to dissect courses in unprecedented way, but it’s been seven years since a professional tournament was played here (the Irish Open) and more than six decades since The Open last came here. Woods admitted Tuesday that he still has “quite a bit of homework to do.â€� He’ll also lean heavily on caddie Joe LaCava, who’s put in extra steps to prepare for the myriad conditions that can be encountered during a single round on the links. It would’ve once seemed unfathomable for Woods to arrive at a major with holes in his game, but this is the new normal. He laughed when he was asked if anything “out of the normâ€� was ailing him. His response proved that his daily aches and pains are enough to deal with. Woods, of course, still has to be considered a contender. The lack of response from Brooks Koepka to a practice-round request is proof. Koepka’s caddie, Ricky Elliott, is an invaluable asset this week after growing up in Portrush. Woods sent a text after the U.S. Open asking if they could play a practice round. “I heard nothing,â€� Woods said. The Open Championship offers Woods his best opportunity to win another major. Links golf requires precision, not power, and approach play has always been his specialty. Players aren’t forced to carry the ball exorbitant distances. They can plot their way around the course and run the ball along the ground. Tom Watson’s performance at Turnberry in 2009 provides proof. Woods used crafty course management to win his three claret jugs, avoiding St. Andrews’ merciless pot bunkers in 2000 and 2005, and hitting just one driver in his 2006 victory at Royal Liverpool. Woods has to rely on such guile more than he did in recent years. He used to dominate with his length. Now he needs to play a craftier game. He would rank 65th in driving distance if he had enough rounds to qualify for the PGA TOUR’s statistical rankings. “He seems to have lost a bit of ball speed this year, which I think is a conscious decision, to take some pressure off his back,â€� Padraig Harrington said in May. “He realizes if you’re still leading greens in regulation, it’s obviously shown that he doesn’t need that ball speed.â€� Portrush, however, requires a more aerial approach than most links courses. Irish links are known for more dramatic elevation changes than their cousins across the Irish Sea. This week’s forecast, which calls for cool and rainy weather, doesn’t help Woods, either. A record heat wave made Carnoustie play firm and fast last year. That allowed Woods to take a tactical approach, hitting stingers off the tee and leaning on his strong iron game (Woods was third in Strokes Gained: Approach last season). Woods started the final round four shots off the lead, but he grabbed the lead when he reached 7 under par with a bogey-free front nine. He played Nos. 11 and 12 in 3 over, though, and finished three shots behind Francesco Molinari. Woods, who played alongside Molinari in the final round, said the loss would “sting.â€� The lessons paid off, though. “It was my first time there in contention with the chance to win a major championship in a very long time,â€� Woods said Tuesday. “And I learned a lot. I applied what I learned at Bellerive. Didn’t make that many mistakes, shot a great final round just wasn’t good enough to chase down Brooksie. And then at Augusta just kind of put it all together and was just very patient.â€� How long will we have to wait to see Woods win again? His health will determine that answer.

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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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Editor’s Note: The following story is republished with permission from the John Shippen Invitational, which aims to create opportunities in golf for Black men and women, ensure Shippen’s story is told and preserve his tremendous legacy. The Shippen, which invites the nation’s top Black amateur and professional golfers, is being played June 27-28 at Detroit Golf Club. The men’s winner will earn a spot in the PGA TOUR’s Rocket Mortgage Classic. Click here to learn more about the John Shippen Invitational. John Matthew Shippen, Jr. (1879-1968) was born on December 5, 1879. His father, born into slavery in Virginia, became a free man following the Civil War. He then moved to Washington, D.C., where he attended Howard University and received a degree in theology. When John Jr. was 9 years old, his family moved to the Shinnecock Indian Reservation in Southampton on Long Island, New York, where his father was assigned as pastor. As a teenager, Shippen worked with crews to help clear the land and build the original Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, which was near the reservation. Willie Dunn, a Scottish golf professional who designed the final holes at Shinnecock Hills, taught some of the young workers how to caddie and play the game, including John Shippen and his friend, Oscar Bunn, a Shinnecock Indian. Shippen had a natural talent for the game and became one of Dunn’s best students. By the age of 16, Shippen was working full-time as Dunn’s assistant, giving lessons to members, working as a caddy, repairing clubs, scorekeeping and assisting the maintenance crew. Shinnecock Hills was selected to host the second U.S. Open in 1896. Club members (said to include the Rothchilds, the Mellons and the Carnegies) were so impressed with Shippen’s talent that they paid his and Bunn’s entry fees for the tournament. The week of the Open, other professional entrants (all foreign-born) sent a petition to USGA officials in which they objected to “colored boys meeting them on equal terms.” They held a meeting in protest on Thursday prior to the Open and threatened to withdraw if Shippen and Bunn were allowed to compete. USGA president Theodore Havemeyer is said to have declared, with conviction: “Gentlemen, you can leave or stay as you please. We are going to play this tournament tomorrow, with them – and with or without you.” All entrants showed up the next morning for play. Shippen was tied for the lead after shooting 78 in the first round. In the second round, his tee shot on the par-4 13th hole landed in a sandy road, which led to an 11 on the hole. He finished the second round with an 81 for an overall score of 159 for the 36-hole tournament. The seven strokes he lost on the 13th hole was the difference between his final score and the winning 152 by James Foulis of Scotland. In Pete McDaniel’s Uneven Lies: The Heroic Story on African-Americans in Golf, Shippen is quoted as describing the 13th Hole as: “a little, easy par-4. I’d played it many times and I knew I had to stay on the right side of the fairway with my drive. Well, I played it too far to the right and the ball landed in a sand trap road. Bad trouble in those days before sand wedges. I kept hitting the ball along the road, unable to lift it out of the sand and wound up with an unbelievable 11 for the hole. You know, I’ve wished a hundred times I could have played that little par-4 again.” Shippen finished the tournament in 5th place and Bunn finished 21st. Shippen was awarded $10 in prize money, which officially secured his place in history as the first U.S.-born golf professional and the first Black golf professional. At the time, a leading sporting magazine was said to claim that Shippen should be “given every opportunity to show what he can do.” Although historical records differ, Shippen is known to have played in several U.S. Opens, including 1896 (T5), 1899 (T25), 1900 (T27), 1902 (T5) and 1913 (T41). No other Black golfer would play in the U.S. Open again until Ted Rhodes in 1948. Shippen’s family returned to D.C., but he decided to remain in Shinnecock on his own. He was hired as the golf professional at the Maidstone Club in East Hampton, New York. He went on to work as the golf pro at several clubs including Aronimink Golf Club near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but he is best known for his tenure as the head pro at the Shady Rest Golf Course (now known as Scotch Hills Country Club) in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Shady Rest was the first Black golf club in the United States – which was established to provide recreation and entertainment for all ages. Activities included golf, tennis, horseback riding, skeet shooting concerts, dining, etc. Shippen worked at the Shady Rest from 1924 until his retirement in 1960 during an era when Black luminaries, scholars, social reformers and entertainers such as W.E.B. DeBois, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday and Cab Calloway came to perform and enjoy themselves, and where Althea Gibson honed her tennis skills. In 2009, the PGA of America posthumously bestowed John Shippen with his PGA membership card. He is now recognized by the USGA as America’s first golf professional. In 2018, he was inducted into the New Jersey Golf Association Hall of Fame’s Inaugural Class. History has largely omitted John Shippen’s story, which has left several outlets to begin filling in the blanks that have been left undocumented. Even his ancestry has been confused over the years, with some claiming he was a descendant of the Shinnecock tribe. In John H. Kennedy’s book, A Course of Their Own: A History of African-American Golfers, Shippen’s daughter, Clara Johnson, reiterated that both of her father’s parents were Black, saying: “My father was a Negro. Every time I meet somebody, I have to correct that story.” John Shippen’s participation and prowess paved the way for all American golfers today who stand on his shoulders. The John Shippen Invitational aims to create opportunities in golf for Black men and women, ensure his story is told and preserve his tremendous legacy, which is one of Black History, but also of American History.

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