Team Woods off to fun, fast start at PNC Championship

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland – There will be an elephant in the room Friday night – and we’re not talking about Big Al, the mascot of the University of Alabama, which happens to be the alma mater of one of the housemates, Justin Thomas. Although upon reflection, sticking Big Al in an oversized Scottish kilt and have him kick soccer balls at Auburn grad Jason Dufner would definitely raise the level of absurdity in those backyard matches. Rather, this topic is more serious. Kevin Kisner and Zach Johnson, two of the other seven PGA TOUR golfers who are sharing a compound this week close to Carnoustie Golf Links, are co-leaders at 6 under through 36 holes of The Open Championship. Kisner is seeking his first major win; Johnson is chasing his third. Both desperately want to get their hands on the Claret Jug come Sunday night. The pressure will be immense. To make it even more interesting – they will be in the final twosome in Saturday’s third round. What do Kisner and Johnson think about sharing a house and sharing the 36-hole lead? That’s the big topic – and nothing will be off-limits when the two see each other at the dinner table. In fact, no topic apparently is off-limits among these friends. “Absolutely not,â€� Kisner said after his 1-under 70 left him at 6-under through 36 holes. “The range of topics are vast.â€� Kisner expects he and Johnson – as well as Thomas, Dufner, Jordan Spieth, Jimmy Walker and Rickie Fowler – to discuss what they’ve been discussing all week. No dancing around any subject matter, although the majority of the conversation is pretty clear-cut. “Golf will probably be the tune,â€� Kisner said. “Everybody will tell their horror stories and good stories, and we’ll laugh and eat a big ol’ meal and sit around and watch something stupid.â€� Actually, not everything they watch is stupid. The other night they watched the Netflix movie “Icarus,â€� a fascinating documentary about the Russian doping scandal. Sounds like pretty heady stuff for a group of guys who otherwise play pick-up soccer, with Dufner playing all-time goalie. This is the third year of The Open Championship “fratâ€� house but the first time that Kisner has been in the group. He’s fit in nicely, and perhaps hanging out with a group of friends has helped alleviate the pressure of leading the first two days. Johnson, of course, already has shown he can successfully handle the challenge of winning a major. At 42, he’s the oldest member of the house, although the housing arragements didn’t exist when he won the Claret Jug in 2015. “I wasn’t in a fraternity in college, but it kind of feels like I’m going back to my alma mater,â€� Johnson said after his 4-under 67 in the morning. “And I’m the old guy stepping into the current frat house…. “It does make the week significantly easier because of the amenities we have and because I’m with buddies and because I’m with guys that, I mean, certainly I can feed off and vice versa. It’s never a bad thing to bond or hang out, whether you’re competing or not.â€� While Kisner and Johnson are the co-heads of the household right now, they’re not the only ones in contention entering this weekend at Carnoustie. Spieth shot a 4-under 67 and is now just three strokes off the lead as he attempts to win a second consecutive title at The Open. Fowler also has the same score as Spieth at 3 under after a 69, while Dufner made the cut on the number at 3 over. Thomas (4 over) and Walker (8 over) unfortunately will have to sit out the weekend. But Fowler and Thomas may have a side competition going this week – best scruffy beard. “I think he kind of followed my lead in a way,â€� said Fowler, who started growing his last week during a T-6 performance at the Scottish Open. “It’s just fun. We mess around with it. Obviously, not taking it too seriously. But like I said, ended up playing halfway decent last week, so I couldn’t really shave it off going into this week.â€� Back to the golf competition … a year ago, Spieth entered the weekend at Royal Birkdale with a two-shot lead over non-house member Matt Kuchar. Nobody else staying with Spieth was close to sniffing the lead, and after the third round, Spieth and Kuchar had clear separation from the field. This year could be different, especially if there are multiple co-leaders in the house entering the final round. “We’ll see how tomorrow plays out,â€� Spieth said. “Maybe tomorrow night or Sunday, it’s gets a little quiet. “But I doubt it.â€� A year ago, Spieth also had to pony up a substantial amount of money to pay the entire private jet fee for the housemates to return home to the United States. It was part of the agreement made if anybody in the house won The Open. According to Johnson, no such agreement exists this year, so he and Kisner – as well as Spieth and Fowler and even Dufner – are off the hook. “This year a bunch of guys are going elsewhere,â€� Johnson said. “So it’s not going to come to fruition. It’s not going to happen, but that’s fine.â€� Might be a topic worth revisiting now that so many housemates are in contention. Sounds like they have plenty to talk about.

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Kenny Knox had to Monday qualify to earn a spot in The Honda Classic in 1986. He shot 80 in the third round. And he won the tournament. “It’s almost unbelievable, really. If it hadn’t happened to me, I wouldn’t believe it,â€� Knox said recently. It still ranks as one of the most improbable victories in PGA TOUR history. He was the first Monday qualifier to win on the PGA TOUR since the creation of the all-exempt circuit; only three players have done it since. He remains the only player since the 1920s to win a TOUR event with a score in the 80s. And he did it with an improbable series of Sunday hole-outs. He chipped in once and holed a bunker shot to salvage a bogey. “The hole just kept getting in the way,â€� he said afterward. Knox beat a field that included the World Golf Hall of Famers who’d win that year’s Masters (Jack Nicklaus) and U.S. Open (Raymond Floyd). Knox, meanwhile, spent the week staying in a stranger’s two-bedroom apartment. It all happened in Knox’s first start in nearly five months. He started 1986 with just a sliver of conditional status. In three previous PGA TOUR seasons, he’d finished 146th, 186th and 168th on the money list. He’d notched just one top-10, a T8 in the 1985 Pensacola Open, and earned just under $50,000. It got so bad that fellow TOUR player J.C. Snead, Sam’s nephew, stepped in to help Knox with his swing. “I guess he felt sorry for me,â€� Knox said. Knox was playing well on the mini-tours in early 1986, but didn’t have the money to travel to the West Coast. He spent the first two months of the year clearing trees from a lot he’d recently purchased in Tallahassee, Florida. On weekends, he’d watch PGA TOUR telecasts while riding a stationary bike in his townhouse. “I’m not sure I had ever run a chainsaw,â€� Knox said. “I started clearing that lot and visualizing my house being built there. I was always kind of a dreamer.â€� He had just a couple thousand dollars in the bank and was struggling to make his mortgage. His sponsors had recently decided to stop giving him financial support. “I said, ‘That’s fine.’ I always played better with my own money anyway,â€� Knox recalled. And so, when the TOUR came to Florida, he plunked down $100 to enter The Honda Classic’s Monday qualifier. That dropped his bank balance to $2,200. He didn’t play a practice round because the course was too crowded with weekend play, but his 67 was enough to earn his first start since October. Bad weather limited Knox’s Tuesday practice round to nine holes. He couldn’t play the course Wednesday because of the pro-am. It didn’t matter. Knox’s 66 gave him a two-shot lead after the first round. “Here I am, staying with a guy I’d never met before in his two-bedroom apartment,â€� Knox said. “He came out to the course to look for my score and he couldn’t find my name because it was at the top. He figured he’d start at the bottom and look.â€� Knox’s new roommate wasn’t the only one who was surprised. A local newspaper headline read, “Knox (who?) leads Honda by 2.â€� He led by one after a second-round 71. One of his birdies came after a free drop from an anthill built by fire ants. That allowed him to move his ball from behind a tree. The wind started to pick up in the second round, which was just a harbinger of things to come. Freezing temperatures and high winds hit in the third round. Port-o-Lets were blown over by the 45 mph gusts. Knox remembers wearing multiple sweaters to combat the cold. “Back then, our weather apparel was nothing. You wore as many sweaters you as could find and still be able to swing,â€� Knox said. “I was still swinging pretty well even with all the clothes I had on.â€� He made the turn in 38, a good score for the conditions. He played his next five holes in 5 over, though. That included a double-bogey on 14 after the cameras showed up. “I hit it in the right bunker. I looked across the green and pointing right at me was a camera and it had the red light on. Even I knew what that meant,â€� Knox said. “I bladed it across the green. The cameraman had to jump out of the way.â€� It was getting dark as they wrapped up play. Knox made par after hitting driver-driver into the par-4 18th hole. He shot 80, but was just two shots off the lead. The average score that day was 79.25. No one broke par. Tom Weiskopf, a 16-time TOUR winner, shot 86 while playing alongside Knox. Andy North, who won his second U.S. Open a year earlier, shot 84. Floyd, Hale Irwin and Fred Couples all shot 81. “I went to bed thinking, ‘Maybe we’ll get rained out and I’ll finish fourth,’â€� Knox said. That would’ve been a career-changing result. But his peers implored him to set his sights higher. “Chi Chi (Rodriguez) called me Fort, as in Fort Knox. He said, ‘Fort, you can win this golf tournament,â€� Knox said. “I kind of stopped and looked behind me. I didn’t know if he was talking to me. I hadn’t thought about winning the tournament.â€� He couldn’t avoid it after a magical start to the day. It started with a chip-in for birdie on the third hole. He holed a 40-footer for birdie on the next hole. He was just short of the par-5 fifth hole in two shots. He wasn’t sure if his ball was plugged, but he was too nervous to call a rules official, so he chopped it out and made the 10-footer for a third consecutive birdie. The biggest miracle came two holes later. He’d switched to a set of beryllium Ping Eye2 irons a month earlier and started using a new ball, the Maxfli DDH, that week. “I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. I was just happy to be in the golf tournament,â€� Knox said. “The Maxfli rep told me this ball would go beautifully through the wind. The irons and the ball, it was a great combo.â€� His 4-iron tee shot on the par-3 seventh was headed straight for the flag, but his ball flew through the wind and over the green, plugging into the back bunker. Knox’s first bunker shot came out hot and rolled into a lake. After a penalty stroke, he played from the same location. He heard a voice say three times, “Just make it.â€� “The third time it was audible. I drew the club back and everything was in slow-mo,â€� Knox said. “The ball came out perfect, it checked up and trickled down into the hole. The crowd went crazy. My caddie was moon-walking. I was fist-pumping. It was a sight to behold.â€� He made nine pars and a birdie over the next 10 holes. The tournament was in hand once hit his approach on 18 to 30 feet. He lagged to 2 1/2 feet, but missed the par putt. He had to wait and watch as Andy Bean and Clarence Rose both missed birdie putts that would’ve tied him. Bean, Rose, Jodie Mudd and John Mahaffey all tied for second, one stroke back. Mahaffey went on to win THE PLAYERS a few weeks later. But they couldn’t catch Knox after a magical week. “This proves that a lot of people on the PGA TOUR can win a golf tournament,” Knox said that day. “This proves it right here.”

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Tiger Woods has partnered with many of his peers in team competitions, ranging from mentors (Mark O’Meara) to college buddies (Notah Begay III) to current superstars (Justin Thomas). In the end, no matter the partner, one outcome grades the mission: Just win, baby. Perhaps it traces back to Woods’ younger days, when he rooted on the NFL’s Oakland Raiders, where late owner Al Davis often repeated that definitive refrain. Winning will be first and foremost in mind as Woods greets yet another partner into the fold, maybe the best of them all. Woods and world No. 1 Rory McIlroy will face longtime pals Thomas and Jordan Spieth under the lights Saturday in Capital One’s The Match, seventh edition, to be televised on TNT (6 p.m. ET) and streamed worldwide. So, after all these partnerships for Woods, some that worked and others that fell short of expectations, what recipe makes for the most effective? “Play well,” Woods said on Wednesday afternoon in a promotional Zoom call, where he and the other Match participants answered questions for a handful of national writers. “I’ve had all different types of partners,” Woods said. “I’ve had guys drool on themselves, miss belt loops, (wear) wrong hats, can’t find the golf shoes they’re supposed to wear, wrong color … and we go out and win golf matches. I really don’t care. They play well, we play well as a team, doesn’t matter what happens. And we go out and put a point on the board for our side.” It doesn’t hurt that Woods’ current partner resides on top of the world. Woods has not struck a shot in competition since The Open Championship in July; his partner is coming off an autumn heater, having just won dual season-long titles on the PGA TOUR (FedExCup) and DP World Tour’s season-long standings, becoming only the second player in history to capture both in a season. When McIlroy captured THE CJ CUP in South Carolina in October, he ascended to No. 1 for the first time in more than two years. Wednesday afternoon, Woods and McIlroy each assessed their partner’s greatest asset. Woods laughed as he noted that McIlroy’s “strength” is that his game really doesn’t have any weaknesses. “I can tell you one thing,” Woods said, “I have the No. 1 player on my team, so I’m good.” In assessing Woods, McIlroy pointed to Woods’ precise iron play through the years. Bigger picture, though, there certainly is more to the 15-time major champion than that. “He’s probably the best iron player that’s ever lived … probably the best golfer that’s ever lived. Period,” McIlroy said. “I think if he can just get it out in the fairway, and get some looks in the fairway, I think we’re going to have a really good chance.” Each player will play his own ball Saturday in The Match, the teams counting their best ball in a match-play format over 12 holes beneath the lights at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida. (Pelican GC hosts an LPGA event each November.) Woods has been absent from competition since missing the cut at St. Andrews in July. He made only two other starts in 2022, making the cut at the Masters (47th) and PGA Championship (he made the cut but withdrew after the third round). He had hoped to tee it up in the Hero World Challenge last week in the Bahamas, a tournament that he hosts, but has been dealing with planter fasciitis in his foot, which made it too difficult to walk. Woods, who turns 47 on Dec. 30, aims to compete Saturday in The Match, as well as the following week’s PNC Championship in Orlando, where he again will have a highly coveted partner – his 13-year-old son Charlie. In both events, Woods will be allowed to use a cart. Woods, who nearly lost his right leg in a harrowing 2021 SUV crash, said he has been able to play at home at Medalist GC when riding, encountering few limitations. As he looks to 2023, he said, what lies ahead is very much an unknown. “I can hit shots,” Woods said. “I just struggle getting from Point A to Point B. … I’ve got to get this plantar (fasciitis) to heal, and it just takes time. It’s nothing that happens overnight.” In addition to the competitive element of The Match, there is a charity angle. Proceeds will be steered toward disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 hurricane that tore through Florida’s west coast and was the state’s deadliest hurricane since 1935. Pelican GC co-founders Dan Doyle and son Dan Jr. tried to think of a way they could do something to benefit relief efforts. They have a beautiful golf property, so they made some calls and will host an event with top-flight pros and worldwide reach. “The charitable aspect of the event, and of all the Matches, this being the seventh, we all have tried to figure out a way to give to the local area,” Woods said. “Unfortunately, here, it’s Hurricane Ian, which devastated the west coast of Florida. Some of the people are without homes, power, loved ones … this Match, a considerable amount of the charitable dollars will be going there. Personally, I’m giving money to that cause as well.” Jordan Spieth jumped in and said the six previous editions of The Match have raised more than $33 million for charity, and perhaps Saturday’s version will break all previous records. Certainly, lots of good can come from four good friends playing a dozen holes beneath the lights before a worldwide audience. And for Tiger’s sake, he gets to try out a new partner to see how he fits in, a world No. 1 at that. As blind draws go, that’s a good pull.

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