The First Look: BMW Championship

Joseph Campione, 14, is a survivor of a rare muscle and bone cancer - Rhabdomyosarcoma. Although the 2018 QBE Shootout Honored Fighter was discharged in 2007 with the help of chemotherapy and proton radiation - removing the cancer within his body - the long-term effects followed him as he grew up. While the cancer had been killed off, the treatments had damaged his legs and hips. "I couldn't walk in kindergarten because the radiation had affected my hips and I had to get pins placed," said Campione. The pins had helped, but just a few years later, Campione had to get additional ones placed in fifth grade to be able to walk better. The journey to walk "normally" again had in no doubt been a long one, but each day had seen progress towards another challenge Campione was getting ready to face. In sixth grade, Campione's father came across a non-profit, CureSearch, and their "Ultimate Hike" initiative to raise awareness for "cancer's youngest fighters." In addition to bringing awareness, the money raised through the initiative helps to fund research for doctors to find a cure for cancers, some that were thought to be unbeatable. Each of the participants for the annual Ultimate Hike are required to raise $2,500 to participate and, on the day of, each hiker hikes over 20 miles. The hike normally takes about 9-10 hours to complete, with assistance along the way. "Sixth grade was the first year I had completed the Ultimate Hike at Black Waterfalls in West Virginia," said Campione. "Now, I would say that a year is not complete without the hike." The hike was nonetheless a difficult one. Not only had Campione had the trouble of walking, but hiking over 20 miles would come with its own challenges. Motivation would both come in the hashtag used, #WorthIt — meaning "pain in every step, but proclaiming it is worth it during the hike" — and the friends who joined in on the hike to help encourage Campione. "During [my first] training with CureSearch, I was the newcomer. There were so many people who had been doing it for over 10 years and it was cool that they already knew my name when I came into the room," said Campione. "Last year, I brought my friends Lauren and Erick with me which made it so special." CureSearch is a charity that the PGA TOUR tournament, the QBE Shootout, supports. Each year, someone is chosen from CureSearch to be the QBE Shootout Honored Fighter and, in 2018, Campione was chosen for the honor. "It was an honor to be at the event and to have met all of the amazing golfers. I even met the CureSearch representative who was there," said Campione. On one of the nights at the QBE Shootout, guest speakers, TOUR players and the Honored Fighter all come together for a dinner. At the 2018 event, Greg Norman, host of the QBE Shootout, had been an attendee and a guest speaker for the evening. "Greg spoke on George H.W. Bush and immediately I thought about how he truly cares about the people he knows," said Campione. "One of the cooler moments was when he came up to me and talked to me [just] human to human. I thought about how incredible he was and how he had made such an impact on me." Campione then gave his own speech on stage as Honored Fighter, thanking CureSearch and the QBE Shootout for making an impact on his life. "I usually don't like when people feel sad for me and for what I've been through, so I left the speech on a lighter note," said Campione. "Then everyone stood up and it was a just a special moment for me." The evening continued on where he joined in on the concert by country music star and TOUR ambassador Darius Rucker and Lady Antebellum and his visit finished off with a special spot on the course the next day. "I was on the first tee during the Pro-Am with my grandparents where we got to meet all of the golfers. My grandfather is a big golf fan and he got to tell me [about] each player and what they do, which made them more human to me," said Campione. "It was cool to have my grandparents with me because they were always there for me when I was fighting cancer." Though Campione's "ultimate journey" will still continue on, he still looks forward to advocating for CureSearch and completing the Ultimate Hike each year. "When you do it, you become part of the family, [knowing] so many people in the room had been touched by cancer," said Campione. "Through CureSearch and hearing how many kids have been touched by them, it's really inspiring. The Ultimate Hike is now the center of my life."

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He didn’t play much, but he still moved the needle. Tiger Woods was No. 1 in the 2022 PGA TOUR Player Impact Program (PIP) for the second straight year, the 82-time TOUR winner earning the top impact bonus of $15 million. Rory McIlroy, who won the FedExCup for an unprecedented third time, returned to world No. 1, and over the weekend captured the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai, finished second ($12 million). A memo with the results went out to players early Tuesday afternoon. Jordan Spieth ($9 million), Justin Thomas ($7.5 million), Jon Rahm ($6 million), Scottie Scheffler ($5.5 million), Xander Schauffele ($5 million), Matt Fitzpatrick ($5 million), Will Zalatoris ($5 million) and Tony Finau ($5 million) rounded out the top 10. The second-year PIP program paid out to the top 20 finishers, double what it did in its first year. However, three additional players who would have made the list under the slightly amended criteria that will go into effect in 2023 were also recognized, bringing the total to 23. The program is designed to reward members who – through objective measurement criteria – are shown to generate the most positive interest in the PGA TOUR. In addition to expanding from 10 to 20 players, payouts were expanded to $100 million. The 2022 PIP ranking was based on objective, third-party data measurement of: 1) Internet Searches: Number of times a player’s name is searched using Google 2) Earned Media: Number of unique news articles that include a player’s name 3) TV Sponsor Exposure: Duration (time) that a player’s sponsor logo(s) appeared on screen during Saturday and Sunday PGA TOUR telecasts 4) Awareness: A player’s general awareness score among broad U.S. population 5) Social Media: Social media score that considers a player’s reach, conversation and engagement metrics Nos. 11-20 on the list were made up of Collin Morikawa ($3 million), Shane Lowry ($3 million), Kevin Kisner ($3 million), Max Homa ($3 million), Billy Horschel ($3 million), Rickie Fowler ($2 million), Adam Scott ($2 million), Jason Day ($2 million), Patrick Cantlay ($2 million) and Viktor Hovland ($2 million). Because the criteria will be slightly modified for 2023, and three additional players – Hideki Matsuyama (11), Cameron Young (15), and Sam Burns (20) – would have qualified with those adjustments, they made this year’s list and will each earn $2 million. Woods, who will be 47 at the end of next month, continues to recover from injury. He has teed it up three times in 2022, making the cut at the Masters Tournament (47th), making the cut again but withdrawing with leg pain after three rounds at the PGA Championship, and missing the cut at The Open Championship. He was not in the field for the BMW Championship in August, but flew to Wilmington, Delaware, for a transformative player meeting prior to the start of the tournament. And his on-course activity is about to get much busier. Woods will play in the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, Dec. 1-4, and will also be tournament host. He will make another appearance in “The Match,” the made-for-TV golf competition he has helped popularize, this time with partner McIlroy as they take on unbeaten Presidents Cup duo Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas in a 12-hole tilt under the lights at Pelican Golf Club in Belleaire, Florida (TNT, 6 p.m.). Woods also could make his third straight appearance with son Charlie at the father-son PNC Championship at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando, Grande Lakes, Dec. 15-18. McIlroy, 33, is coming off a wildly successful season that returned him to the top of the game. After missing the Valero Texas Open cut in April, he fell to No. 27 in the FedExCup, but was runner-up at the Masters the following week. A long-delayed, successful title defense at the RBC Canadian Open, which hadn’t been played since 2019, further fueled his remarkable season. At the TOUR Championship, he began six behind Scottie Scheffler, and after a terrible start – triple-bogey, bogey – he rallied to beat Scheffler by one for an unprecedented third FedExCup title. McIlroy’s Sunday 66 allowed him to make up a six-shot deficit over the final 18 holes. He ended the year as golf’s No. 1, regaining the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking with his victory in THE CJ CUP in South Carolina, and then, over the weekend, adding the DP World Tour’s season-long points title to his FedExCup title.

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