Jordan Spieth shot an opening 5-under 65 at Royal St. George’s — a course he’d never played — to put himself in position after the first round of The Open.
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We are thankful this Thanksgiving for golf itself. As the pandemic drags on, the National Golf Foundation reported that September alone saw a 26% jump in rounds played year-over-year, with every state in the continental United States reporting an increase. Through the end of September, year-to-date rounds were up 8.7%, which the NGF called, "A startling turnaround following a disastrous start to the spring." Golf is getting us outside, keeping us safe, and keeping us (relatively) sane. Here are eight other things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. 1. The resilience of the PGA TOUR It had been 91 days of no TOUR events when the best players in the world flew to Fort Worth, Texas for the start of the Charles Schwab Challenge on June 11. Copious COVID tests, no on-site fans, off-the-charts uncertainty. Pro sports were on hold. Nobody knew what to expect. What we got was all kinds of compelling storylines, from Ancer (Abraham, making a run at the Masters before finishing T13) to Zalatoris (Will, accepting Special Temporary Membership). Today we can say that the TOUR has been beset by relatively few positive tests, entertained the masses throughout a hard year, and led the way back for all of professional sports. 2. The courage of Camilo Villegas After 22-month-old daughter Mia died of cancer in late July, Villegas and his wife Maria refocused and renamed their charity Mia's Miracles to help other families coping with childhood cancer in the United States and their native Colombia. Meanwhile, Camilo resumed his career on the PGA TOUR, where he was coming back from a shoulder injury - an injury he now says was a blessing in disguise because it kept him home with his daughter for the little time she had. Villegas shot 64 to share the first-round lead at The RSM Classic last week. He finished T6th. 3. The tears of Dustin Johnson He was as inscrutable as an Easter Island statue at the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, when he lost his three-shot lead with a second-hole triple bogey, shot 82, and finished T8. Ditto for the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits two months later, when after grounding his club in a bunker he had to take a crushing two-stroke penalty on the 72nd hole. Johnson didn't crack after taking the 54-hole lead/co-lead but failing to win two other U.S. Opens, or at the PGA Championship in August, where he shot 68 to lose by two to Collin Morikawa (64). But after he'd won the pandemic-delayed Masters, Johnson was so overcome with emotion he couldn't speak in an interview with CBS' Amanda Balionis. This is what came of having grown up banging balls under the lights at the Weed Hill driving range in Columbia, South Carolina, just an hour or so from Augusta National, always dreaming of the Masters. Johnson shrugged and offered an apologetic smile as Balionis waited for him to collect himself in his new 42 long green jacket. A world-beater whose golf game seemed almost inhumanly good as he won the Travelers Championship, THE NORTHERN TRUST, the TOUR Championship, the FedExCup and now the Masters, he had never been so relatable. 4. The sportsmanship of Peter Malnati After coming into the Sanderson Farms Championship ranked 312th in the world and 103rd in the FedExCup, the floppy-hatted Malnati shot a final-round 63, making nearly 140 feet of putts. He answered every reporter's question, plopped down on the Country Club of Jackson grass with his wife Alicia and son Hatcher, and waited to see if it would be enough. Sergio Garcia answered in the negative when he made a kick-in birdie at the 72nd hole nearly two hours later, but a smiling Malnati was among the first to congratulate the winner. No, he hadn't won, but he'd revived his career. His top-10 finish meant a spot in the field at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open the next week, where he would keep it going with a T5 finish. With a T48-place finish at The RSM Classic last week, Malnati is up to 16th in the FedExCup. 5. The pioneering spirit of Bryson DeChambeau He won the Rocket Mortgage Classic by three at Detroit Golf Club, and U.S. Open by six after hitting just 41% of the fairways at fearsome Winged Foot in September. "No chance," Rory McIlroy said, when asked if he imagined anyone winning that way. Alas, on a course that seemed much more suited to his newfound power game, DeChambeau came unglued on two of Augusta National's shortest holes - the drivable par-4 third and cupcake par-5 13th - and finished a disappointing T34 at the Masters in November. Either way, bulked-up Bryson was and remains must-see TV. 6. The youth of PGA TOUR Champions Bernhard Langer used to have a stranglehold on the 50-plus circuit, but with the seismic arrivals of Ernie Els, Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson, the tour is as competitive as ever. Furyk (The Ally Challenge; PURE Insurance Championship) and Mickelson (Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National; Dominion Energy Charity Classic) even won their first two starts. Now Darren Clarke has gotten in on the action with a win at the TimberTech Championship. 7. The staying power of TPC Sawgrass The PGA TOUR's TPC Network of Clubs and iconic TPC Sawgrass, which started it all, turned 40 in October. It was a good time to remember that TPC courses have hosted more than 400 professional tournaments, with the rent-free venues allowing for bigger purses and charitable donations. On non-tournament weeks, the TPCs are open to recreational players, who can test their games in the same golfing theaters where history has been made. 8. The persistence of the short hitter Dustin Johnson won the FedExCup, but three of the six multiple tournament winners last season were outside the top 100 in driving distance: Collin Morikawa, Brendon Todd and Webb Simpson. Justin Thomas, who along with Johnson and Jon Rahm made up the other three big hitters who cleaned up last season, even admitted to dialing back on distance to hit more fairways. "It just kind of proves yet again that length is not the answer," he said. The game is still open to all.
Every shot counts. That old golf chestnut takes on extra significance on the final day of the Regular Season. This time it was Kevin Kisner who seized the day and emerged from a six-man sudden-death playoff to capture the Wyndham Championship, his fourth PGA TOUR title and first since the 2019 World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. Chesson Hadley was among the day’s other big winners, firing a fireworks-filled 62 to finish T15 and grab the 125th spot in the FedExCup and the final berth in the FedExCup Playoffs, which begin with THE NORTHERN TRUST at Liberty National on Thursday. Emotion poured out of him as he recounted his trials and tribulations of the last year, and how much he still cares. Here are five stories you may have missed from the Wyndham Championship. 1. Kevin Kisner gets off the bagel It made no sense that Kisner was 0-5 in playoffs on TOUR considering the mano-a-mano nature of the beast, and the fact that his last TOUR win was at the mano-a-mano 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, where he defeated none other than Ian Poulter in the final. But that’s golf, and he’s winless no more after his short-range birdie on the second extra hole of a six-man playoff at Sedgefield Country Club. He’d finally gotten into the win column. “To be honest, coming down with three or four holes to go, I really didn’t think I had a chance to win,” said Kisner, who jumped 40 spots into 29th in the FedExCup. “I wasn’t watching the boards all day. When I birdied 16, I looked up and saw that I was only one back and I knew that 17 was a birdie hole and if you could hit a good drive on 18 you could have a chance. “It’s a crazy way to break the no-wins-in-playoff streak,” he continued, “but it was a fun week, awesome week put on by everyone here in Greensboro.” For more on Kisner, click here. 2. Six for a playoff tied TOUR record A half a dozen players is a lot for a playoff. In fact, it was tied for the most in TOUR history. Robert Allenby beat Brandel Chamblee, Dennis Paulson, Jeff Sluman, Bob Tway and Toshi Izawa in a six-man playoff at The Genesis Invitational in 2001. Neal Lancaster defeated Tom Byrum, David Edwards, Yoshinori Mizumaki, David Ogrin and Mark Carnevale in a six-man playoff at the 1994 AT&T Byron Nelson. This time around even the participants themselves seemed amused by the spectacle. “I was just remembering Russell Crow and Gladiator: ‘Are you not entertained?’ said Canada’s Roger Sloan. “It’s so cool to be a part of this. Great finish and a lot of great players here in the playoff. Congrats to Kisner for pulling it out, but man, that was a lot of fun.” Added Kevin Na, when asked if he’d ever seen anything like this: “You know, the last time I saw one was 2001 Riviera, I watched it on TV when I was a kid, Robert Allenby. It was kind of fun being a part of it. I had my chance on 17 in regulation, I thought I made that putt, it horseshoed out and maybe just wasn’t meant to be.” 3. Roger Sloan lost playoff, but won Playoffs Roger Sloan saw the glass half full. While he didn’t win the playoff, Sloan (final-round 66) moved from 131st to 92nd in the FedExCup with his T2, moving from outside to inside the Playoffs. He was headed to Liberty National for THE NORTHERN TRUST and planned to stay with friends in Manhattan; Liberty National was the site of his only other Playoffs berth in 2019. “I was in a good place this week,” he said. “I was okay with no matter where the chips fell and I think that gave me a lot of power on the golf course. Just very thankful.” 4. Chesson Hadley had a crazy, great Sunday Chesson Hadley made his first-ever hole-in-one at the 160-yard 16th hole on the way to a 29 on the back nine, his opening nine of the final round, and carded a final-round 62. Then the skinny 34-year-old from Raleigh, North Carolina, had to sit around and wait to see if it would be enough to reach the Playoffs for the first time since 2019. “It will be close,” said Hadley, whose ace earned one million Wyndham Rewards points for Birdies for Backpacks, and one million for himself. “I mean, it will be really, really close.” When Justin Rose (67, T10) missed from 10, 14, 9 and 5 feet on the final four holes, Hadley slipped into the 125th spot and was in. He screamed into the phone when he got the news. It was a nice moment for a guy who had had a tough season, having missed 14 cuts in 26 starts and, when he did play well, let a four-shot lead slip at the Palmetto Championship at Congaree. For more on Hadley, click here. 5. Some big names will miss Playoffs Hadley (T15, 132 to 125), Sloan (T2, 131 to 92) and Scott Piercy (T15, 126 to 116) played their way into the top 125 and the Playoffs. Ryan Armour (MC, 122 to 127), Patrick Rodgers (MC, 123 to 128) and Bo Hoag (MC, 125 to 129) came up empty at the Wyndham and were out. Then there was Rose, who won the 2018 FedExCup and hadn’t missed the Playoffs since their inception in 2007. He wasn’t the only big-name player to falter and fail to make it to THE NORTHERN TRUST. Rickie Fowler (FedExCup No. 134) missed the cut and will miss the Playoffs for the first time, while 2018 Ryder Cup stars Tommy Fleetwood (137) and Francesco Molinari (142) also failed to advance. Ryan Moore missed the Wyndham cut to end his season at 144th, outside the top 125 for the first time in his career. Ditto for Charles Howell III, who skipped the Wyndham (139th). “Yeah, it sucks,” Fowler said. “I mean, I know what I’m capable of, I’ve been up there and played against the best in the world and been a top-5, top-10 player in the world for a number of years in my career. I’m not in a position where I’m comfortable or where I want to be.” For more on Fowler, click here. FINAL: COMCAST BUSINESS TOUR TOP 10 The Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10 concluded at the 2021 Wyndham Championship. It highlights and rewards the extraordinary level of play required to earn a spot in the TOP 10 at the conclusion of the FedExCup Regular Season as determined by the FedExCup standings. The competition recognizes and awards the most elite in golf.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Winning a major – winning any golf tournament for that matter – is a series of decisive moments. Three memorable back-nine moments Sunday at Quail Hollow helped turn Justin Thomas into the PGA Championship winner. THE 10-SECOND WAIT Thomas likes to talk to his golf ball. A lot. With his tee shot in the air at the par-5 10th – listed at 601 yards on Sunday, it was playing as the longest hole of the week – he made an urgent plea. He could see the ball drifting left toward the trees. He needed divine help. “Get lucky,â€� he requested. “Just spit it out for me, please.â€� Two days earlier, in Friday’s second round, Thomas had also pulled his drive at the 10th. He thought the ball would be OK, but instead it hit a tree and kicked 30 yards into trouble. He did not get lucky that time, although he did scramble for a birdie that day. Now here he was, starting the back nine of a major just one shot off the lead, and – wouldn’t you know it — his ball was headed for that very same tree. Thomas silently hoped fate would intervene. “I feel like that tree kind of owed me one,â€� he said. The debt was indeed paid. The ball bounced off the tree and into the fairway, niftily avoiding the fairway bunker. A huge break. Walking down the fairway toward his ball, Thomas turned to his caddie Jimmy Johnson and said, “That’s why you ask.â€� But the 10th wasn’t finished making Thomas sweat. With a birdie putt from 8 feet, 3 inches, Thomas faced what he called a “weirdâ€� read, with the grain in and from the right at the beginning of the putt, then switching to the left closer to the cup. He opted to play a straight line, expecting the grain to feed the ball back-and-forth into the hole. But the ball stayed left. It reached the cup … and then hung there, one half of the little white sphere suspended in mid-air. Thomas turned his back to the hole in disbelief. How had the ball not dropped? “It was acting like a child and threw a little tantrum,â€� he said. Johnson was also shocked. “Oh my gosh,â€� said the veteran caddie. “I didn’t see how there was any way it was staying out.â€� On the CBS broadcast, analyst Nick Faldo began to count. “1 … 2 … 3 … 4 … 5,â€� he said, ticking off the seconds. Thomas either had to mark – or in this case, tap in – once 10 seconds were reached. “6 … 7 … 8 … 9 …â€� That’s when gravity was restored at Quail Hollow. The ball dropped. The roars came. Thomas tipped his cap to the golf gods and gave a wry shrug. His caddie kept quiet. “I didn’t say anything,â€� Johnson revealed. “I didn’t say much all day except for the yardages and the clubs. I was just trying to survive.â€� But in that silence, Johnson processed the ramifications. Last month, Thomas’ good friend Jordan Spieth had won the Travelers Championship by holing a bunker shot. Perhaps the good breaks at 10 were a sign of things to come. “I thought it might be our day, like it was Jordan’s at Hartford,â€� Johnson said. “I thought that might be an omen. You have to have good things happen to you to win golf tournaments.â€� Thomas was 7 under. Soon he would be the solo leader. GOING BERSERK Less than 30 minutes after his birdie putt fell at 10, Justin Thomas was on the 12th green when he realized there was a five-way tie for the lead. His playing partner, Hideki Matsuyama, had just dropped a stroke. The twosome in the final group, Kevin Kisner and Chris Stroud, were each at 7 under. Well ahead, Francesco Molinari had just birdied 15 to also reach 7 under. “To see that was kind of crazy,â€� Thomas said. A few minutes, the craziness continued. After making par at 12, Thomas remained at 7 under – but everyone else had lost a stroke. He was now the solo leader. But he appeared in danger of giving that stroke away when his tee shot at the par-3 13th missed the green left. It left him in the rough, 39 feet, 7 inches from the pin. It was a tricky chip shot just to get the ball close to the pin. “That first cut is so tough to chip,â€� Thomas explained. “This entire course, it’s tough to chip out of the rough. But that first cut you get, you can really look stupid in a heartbeat because it’s all into the grain and it’s really to where you can just flub it.â€� Thomas said even if the play is to simply hit it in front, the ball could come out hot and run past the hole. This one did not come out hot. It came out perfect, rolling into the cup for an unexpected birdie. He thought the cheers at 10 were loud. The ones at 13 were louder. “Exactly like I saw,â€� Thomas said. “That was a roar like I’ve never experienced.â€� On the bag, Johnson began to believe. “He hit a lot of good shots today,â€� Johnson said, “but when he chipped in on 13, I thought it might be his day.â€� Thomas was now 8 under. His lead was two strokes with five holes to play. VISION IN HIS HEAD Thomas started the Green Mile – Quail Hollow’s last three holes, the toughest closing stretch on the PGA TOUR since 2003 – with a par at the 16th. Now he was at the par-3 17th, playing at 221 yards Sunday. Kisner was hot on his trail after consecutive birdies, cutting Thomas’ lead to one upon reaching the 16th. Patrick Reed also had been at 7 under but had just bogeyed the 18th. Thomas contemplated his tee shot. He just needed par on a hole with a “really brutalâ€� pin. Anything short of the green would fall off against the collar and likely result in a bogey. Anything long would also be a sure bogey. He just needed to land his shot at about 200 yards just past the false edge. He could pull the shot and still get away with it, albeit with a long putt. When he’s practicing at home, Thomas hits a 6-iron 200 yards. But 7-iron was the play now. He never considered another club. His adrenaline level had red-lined, so he figured a full 7 was better than a finesse 6. “You’re pumped up, you’re feeling it,â€� Thomas said. “You’re kind of not full bore, but you want to swing at something.â€� So he swung. Hard. Then he stared. A perfect shot. “I’ll never forget that vision in my head,â€� he said. Thomas’ shot landed 14 feet, 6 inches from the pin. He poured in the putt. It was his sixth and final birdie of the day – and it was all he needed. It allowed him breathing room to make bogey on the final hole and still win by two shots. It’s the first major for the 24-year-old Thomas … and also the first for his veteran caddie. Johnson began caddying in 1997 for Nick Price, who by then had already won his three majors. Johnson then caddied for Steve Stricker, annually one of the best players without a major during his prime. Johnson left Stricker’s bag two years ago to caddie for Thomas. “That was probably the hardest decision I ever made in my life, to be honest with you,â€� Johnson said. “Strick’s such a good guy, great player, quality guy. It was very tough.â€� But he had seen something in Thomas. “He’s got some of those special shots that some of the guys can’t hit,â€� Johnson said. And now Thomas has a major. Doubt it will be his only one.
