This adjustment can help Tiger win another major

They could only share a laugh while looking over their creation and realizing how far it had come. Hosting one of the PGA TOUR’s top events was not the goal when they started the renovation of Long Island’s Glen Oaks Club. But there they were, standing on the scaffolding behind the 17th green, mere weeks before the club would host THE NORTHERN TRUST — the first event of the 2017 FedExCup Playoffs. “Craig turned to me and said, ‘Never in my wildest imagination would I ever think we’d be getting ready for a TOUR event,’â€� said course designer Joel Weiman. Craig Currier is Glen Oaks’ superintendent. He has some experience preparing courses for prestigious events. He was hired at Bethpage Black for the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens. Currier came to Glen Oaks a year after the second Open, lured to the private club to lead a dramatic renovation of a tired, tree-lined course. Some golf enthusiasts refer to Glen Oaks as “the Augusta National of the northâ€� because its wide fairways flow into each other, the deep hues of green dotted by bright white bunkers. Of course, the Alister Mackenzie design down in Georgia holds an incomparable place in the sport. Weiman insists that they weren’t trying to copy one of golf’s most famous courses, but Glen Oaks’ crisp, clean look is the inspiration for the comparisons. Stewart Hagestad has played both Glen Oaks and Augusta National. He was the low amateur at this year’s Masters (T36) and played Glen Oaks in the 2016 Metropolitan Open, finishing 11th with a 54-hole score of 7-over 217. He called Glen Oaks’ conditioning “pretty elite.â€� “They really nailed the aesthetics,â€� said Hagestad, winner of the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur. BK Sweeney’s Parkside Tavern is a watering hole just outside the grounds of Bethpage State Park that advertises “family-friendly dining and delicious, hearty foodsâ€� on its website. It’s where Howard Smith went to meet the man he wanted to lead Glen Oaks’ transformation. Smith, a longtime Glen Oaks member, was the club’s president. Currier’s reputation, as the man who prepared a municipal course for two U.S. Opens, preceded him. They had never met, but Smith was able to procure his phone number and arrange a meeting. “I had heard, ‘If you want to hire the best, hire Craig,’â€� Smith said. “Based on that, I told myself that I had to give it a try. It was a process. I was doing a lot of selling on Glen Oaks and trying to convince him that going from a public course to a private course … would be a great next step. I guess I was appealing.â€� Currier grew up on a dairy farm in upstate New York, which gave him an appreciation for hard labor and long hours. A small private club, The Cedar Lake Club, was adjacent to the family farm. He started working on the course as a teenager. “I think my dad almost pushed me away from farming, told me I should do something else,â€� Currier said. “After growing up on a dairy farm, almost any job you do seems easy.â€� He worked at several clubs, including two winters at Augusta National, before becoming the superintendent at Bethpage in June 1997, months after the U.S. Golf Association announced it was taking its biggest tournament to the course. The $2 million Rees Jones renovation to toughen up the Black Course started two months later. It was a dramatic renovation that transformed a run-down municipal course into a worthy host of a major championship. “Craig had a reputation as being one of the best, certainly in the Met Section, but also the nation, based on what he had done with Bethpage,â€� Smith said. “I just saw the passion. I saw how dedicated he was. I saw his love for what he does.â€� Smith saw that dedication first-hand while he was playing Glen Oaks on a dreary Sunday. He spotted Currier, who had yet to accept the job, scouting the property. “He came somewhat unannounced, but he walked all 27 holes by himself, envisioning what he could do on each hole,â€� Smith said. What did Currier see during that visit? “It was like walking through a forest,â€� said Currier, who became Glen Oaks’ superintendent in 2010. “I’m not going to tell you I loved it. I liked the greens. Every hole looked the same to me. It was really tight. Literally, if you hit it off the fairway, you were punching out sideways. “They were looking to turn over a new leaf so to speak and re-do the whole place. It looked like a great challenge.â€� Long Island is home to some of the best courses in the United States, including Shinnecock Hills, the site of next year’s U.S. Open and the National Golf Links of America. Even the local courses that aren’t built on links land use fescue to create a rugged look. Glen Oaks wanted to do something to differentiate itself. “A lot of the courses in the area have a lot of native fescue, like Bethpage Black, a big, rugged golf course,â€� Currier said. “We were certainly trying to separate ourselves a little bit with a real clean, elegant, sharp, manicured look.â€� Said Weiman, “We couldn’t do Shinnecock better than Shinnecock, or National Golf Links better than NGLA, so we went 180 degrees in the opposite direction.â€� Weiman called the course’s metamorphosis a “bold transition.â€� Mother Nature helped the process. Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy a year later removed approximately 1,000 trees from the property. “The golf course was very tight, narrow and nondescript,â€� Weiman said. “It didn’t have a lot of memorable holes. It wasn’t very strategic by any stretch. We opened it up, created angles and options and gave each hole its own identity.â€� Weiman estimates that 30 percent of the property’s bunkers were removed, but the ones that remain were strategically placed to make players take risks to open up the best angles for playing the hole. The wide fairways encourage players to be aggressive and hit driver. Weiman uses the fifth hole, a dogleg-left par-4, as an example. Before the renovation, players had to nearly snap-hook their tee shot to keep it in the fairway. With the trees gone, fairway bunkers were built on the inside corner of the dogleg. Now players can take a risk by trying to carry those traps, or they can play safely to the right of them, leaving a longer approach. There is no rough between the fairway and bunkers. Short grass leads directly into the sand traps, and connects green complexes to the next hole. It’s a look that is reminiscent of that famous course down in Georgia, and shows how dramatically Glen Oaks has changed. Although Currier provided input with the strategic design elements, his main contribution, according to Weiman, was “to always push the envelope. In each instance, his first thought was grounded in the impact to the overall golf experience – not the impact to the future maintenance program.â€� Currier was dedicated to creating a truly unique facility in Long Island. Now Glen Oaks gets its opportunity this week to shine. “We were running with a bold vision,â€� Weiman said. “He never said, ‘That’s too much, that’s over the top.’ He was always willing to take the challenge, and that’s why it’s so spectacular now. That was the attitude, that the sky’s the limit.â€�

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Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods begin their quests to take the Claret Jug from defending champion Jordan Spieth.

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PACIFIC PALISAIDES, Calif. – Blockbuster venue. Blockbuster host. Time for a blockbuster finish. The Genesis Invitational looks set for a Hollywood worthy conclusion at Riviera Country Club after three former PLAYERS champions jostled their way into a tie for the lead with 18 holes to play. Reigning FedExCup champion and PGA TOUR Player of the Year Rory McIlroy (3-under 68) was joined by former event champion Adam Scott (67) and first and second round leader Matt Kuchar (70) at 10 under to set up an enticing final three-ball on Sunday. Combined, the trio have 40 PGA TOUR wins and 161 top-5s. In Los Angeles, the stars always come out. Riviera was once the playground of Ben Hogan who dominated for a period by winning this event in 1947 and 1948, while also claiming the 1948 U.S. Open at the venue. Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Phil Mickelson and Tom Watson are just some of the plethora of stars on the former Riviera winners list. Related: Leaderboard | TOUR pros: My first time with Tiger It has long been a coveted place to win. Just ask tournament host Tiger Woods who fell out of contention with a 5-over 76 on Saturday. No other course has repelled Woods like the one where he made his PGA TOUR debut as a 16-year-old. Yet he continues to press to fill the “gapâ€� in his resume. Strangely enough, Jack Nicklaus never won here either… but almost everyone else of note has. “There’s not a PGA TOUR event you wouldn’t want to win, but there are a handful that are extra special, have a great list of past champions, have a great golf course. This one’s one of those,â€� Kuchar says. “You chalk it up as one of those sort of extra special TOUR events that you really hope to put your name as a past champion.â€� Kuchar is chasing TOUR win no. 10, hoping to become just the 116th player in history to hit double digit wins, joining both Scott and McIlroy. The American typically has not fared well at Riviera having never finished inside the top 5 in 12 previous appearances. Scott has fared well at Riviera before. In 2005, he won the tournament, yet it does not count as one of his 13 official wins. Back then, torrential rain hit the course and it was shortened to 36 holes – although Scott had to win in a playoff. He seeks to join Bruce Crampton with the third most wins by an Australian on the PGA TOUR behind Greg Norman (20) and Jim Ferrier (18)… even if he feels he already has. “That is just a bit of motivation for me to win tomorrow here and have an official victory at Riviera and the Genesis Invitational… that would be extremely satisfying for me,â€� he said. The 39-year-old is in his first TOUR start since early November although he did play in the Presidents Cup in December and won the Australian PGA Championship the week after being part of the loss to the U.S. at Royal Melbourne. That was his first win of any kind since going back-to-back at The Honda Classic and the World Golf Championships – Mexico Championship in consecutive weeks in early 2016. Scott spoke earlier in the week of purposely starving himself of competition until he had the urge to come back, making sure he is always competitively sharp. He has two runner up finishes to go with the win at Riviera and was in the final group a year ago. “I almost feel like I know what I’m doing after 20 years of having a season and having a break and coming back out. I know what this course kind of demands of you,â€� Scott said. “If I can replicate today for 18 holes tomorrow, I’ll be very pleased no matter what happens, but I’ll definitely be giving myself a chance at it.â€� And then there is McIlroy. Recently reinstated as world No. 1, the two-time FedExCup champion is looking for a 19th TOUR win, which would also likely move him to the top of the season long standings. He has been inside the top 20 in his previous three trips to Riviera, including a T4 finish a year ago. The Northern Irishman is wary of his Sunday playing partners, but also knows this is far from a race in three. Just a shot behind the lead trio sits Russell Henley and Harold Varner III, while Dustin Johnson and Joel Dahmen are two back. Nine others, including Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Hideki Matsuyama are within four of the lead. “You just have to worry about yourself, concentrate on what you’re doing, do it well, set yourself a target, don’t think about anyone else and if that’s good enough at the end of the day, then great,â€� McIlroy says. “If not, then someone just played better than you and hats off to them.â€�

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