Tiger and Phil: ‘That was then, and this is now’

SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda – Harry Higgs said he went on a “deep dive” to right himself for this week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course, where he opened with a 7-under 64. He was missing shots left, going through the motions, and generally “having a bad attitude” last season, when he missed the FedExCup Playoffs. Missing left? OK, fine. But hang on. Harry Higgs with “a bad attitude?” The guy who brought the house down at the WM Phoenix Open, has 80,000 Twitter followers, and seemingly connects with fans by the busload? Yes, that Harry Higgs. He confessed that his attitude has been miserable but after starting strong in Bermuda, he asked that you hear him out. “I know there are a lot of people who watch and follow me no matter what I do,” said Higgs. “And that’s great. The last couple of years I’ve had some notoriety for things not tied to my successes on the golf course and I understand that. “But I want to be really good at this game,” he continued. “I have lofty goals. I’m self-aware that I play my best golf when I’m smiling and happy … but in the last six months there have been dark thoughts. I legitimately have not played good golf since (finishing T-14) at the Masters.” Higgs followed his Masters high with 10 missed cuts in 14 starts and only one finish inside the top 30, missing the Playoffs for the first time in three years. That hurt, and while he wants people to know that his sour attitude didn’t impact the big picture (“I still consider myself very lucky to be doing this”), he knew he had to make an adjustment. That has meant kicking himself “in the rear” and letting his lousy season shock his system. Be that as it may, he added with a laugh, that doesn’t mean you won’t see Higgs enjoying himself. You will. Often. “That is who I am,” he said. “It’s not an act.” His improved attitude came into play on his first hole Thursday, when he split the fairway at the par-4 10th and found his ball in a divot. “I could have said to myself, Great, so this is how it’s going to go,” said Higgs. “But instead, I said, I can still hit a good shot here.” He did, too, and while it carried a little long and to the back of the green, the 30-year-old from Camden, New Jersey, got up and down for par. It was the first of many highlights (just 24 putts; he saved par all seven times he missed a green) in a bogey-free round. Higgs did what one has to do on a day when scores were low – he kept himself in it, just two off the torrid morning pace established by Austin Smotherman (62). “It’s very nice to get off to a good start,” Higgs said. “… Fun to get in the mix. Fun to at least look at your name close to the top of the leaderboard again for the first time in a long time.” Fun. He said it twice, and insists that is still a very big part of his persona, but he vows to throw in some better golf to make it even more fun.

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ATLANTA, Ga. – PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan has confirmed THE ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP will go ahead in Japan on Oct. 21-24 as part of the new 2021-22 TOUR season but the World Golf Championships–HSBC Champions due to be played the week after in China has been cancelled. “ZOZO has been a great partner and we have been in regular contact with the government and local authorities about the plans to successfully stage this event this fall. The successful and safe golf competitions at the Tokyo Olympic games helped provide some confidence going forward,” Monahan said from East Lake Golf Club in the lead up to the TOUR Championship. Patrick Cantlay won the first of his now three wins this season at THE ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP last fall, however the event was held at Sherwood Country Club in Los Angeles due to the pandemic. It’s first staging in Japan in the 2019-20 season saw Tiger Woods claim his record equaling 82nd PGA TOUR win. Once again Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club will be the host. While Japan will host their event, China will miss out for the second consecutive year. “Following discussions with HSBC, we can confirm the cancellation of the 2021 WGC-HSBC Champions. Although it’s unfortunate to have to do so, we must ensure that we abide by the epidemic prevention policies of different markets which may cause inconvenience to the players and make tournament operations very challenging. Therefore, after careful consideration we had to make this difficult decision to cancel the event,” Monahan said. The commissioner allayed any fears for the events long term future. “It’s unfortunate that we’re not going to be able to play in Shanghai,” he said. “I expect that we will be playing there as soon as it’s acceptable, feasible, to do so, from a pandemic standpoint. We feel like we have got a long-term commitment to that marketplace in the form of a WGC.” Monahan also announced that with the cancellation in China the Bermuda Championship will now be played as a stand-alone event with full FedExCup points and an increase in the purse size. It was previously being staged as an opposite-field event.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – A fan leaned over the nylon rope with his arm extended as Justin Thomas marched to the first tee to start his rain-delayed first round at THE PLAYERS Championship. “Air bump,” Thomas said as he held out his fist in the direction of the fan. Collin Morikawa greeted PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan on his way to the tee, as did Rory McIlroy. The sun shone and all was calm at Golden Hour, nearly 5:56 p.m. Thursday, their new tee time. The rain had delayed things five-plus hours, but the chaos was just beginning. With 4.8 inches of rain giving way to brutal wind, Group 31’s hellish first round would take parts of three days and 43 hours to complete. “Bethpage ’09 U.S. Open is probably the closest I’ve experienced to something like this,” McIlroy said after shooting a second-round 73 (2 over total). What did he do to kill time with his wife, Erica, and daughter, Poppy? “A lot of ‘Frozen.’ A lot of ‘Peppa Pig.’ A lot of ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.’” It was less a first round for the ages than a first round that could age you. McIlroy, Morikawa and Thomas played two holes Thursday, 13 holes Friday, and took up where they’d left off with their second shots at the par-5 16th hole as play restarted at noon Saturday. Their seemingly never-ending first round ended just before 1 p.m. as Thomas doubled 18 to shoot 72, McIlroy was 132nd (of 143) in putting for 73, and Morikawa (also 73) bogeyed 17 and 18. They were immediately sent back out for more, and Thomas wowed with a 3-under 69 in the wind, second best of the second round (Bubba Watson, 68). Morikawa shot 75 and was at 4 over. Tommy Fleetwood and Tom Hoge are co-leaders, but only Fleetwood (even through three holes) has even begun his second round. The 36-hole cut won’t likely come until around noon Sunday. “It was very weird, obviously hard to get into a rhythm,” Thomas said of the Round 1 slog. “Had a lot of different emotions; first off thinking it looks like we were on the right side of the draw and being pretty excited about that, and then realizing that was very much not the fact. “And then just having to get over that as quick as I could,” he continued, “because it’s obviously frustrating, especially when I feel like I’m playing well, kind of getting just thrown into something like that.” He had so much time to think about the tedium of the first round, and how it could have been avoided, he began to fault his scheduling priorities. “To be perfectly honest, I blame Tiger,” he said, tongue in cheek, “because I played in the afternoon so I could go to his Hall of Fame ceremony (late Wednesday night). If I would have just maybe stuck to my guns and played early, I would have been better. I’m just joking.” All told, there were 35 of the 72 players in the late Thursday wave who started their opening round that night and ended it Saturday afternoon. Their experiences underline what a strange tournament this has been, and sent some observers scrambling to find comparisons, if any exist. In 2016, Jaime Diaz wrote in Golf Digest about the 1986 U.S. Women’s Open at the NCR C.C. in Dayton, Ohio: “The championship was first delayed after a railroad tanker derailed and spilled a load of phosphates, which raised clouds of poison smoke throughout the community. Shortly thereafter, the area also experienced heavy lightning storms and a 4.2 earthquake. When the sun finally came out, players complained of flesh-eating flies.” This PLAYERS hasn’t been that crazy, but it has required near superhuman levels of patience, and a closer look at the featured group of McIlroy, Morikawa and Thomas shows just how much patience. Morikawa posted on social media that he spent more time warming up than playing Thursday, when the threesome got in exactly two holes and one tee shot – by Morikawa – before darkness halted play. On Friday, after players were taken off the course and play was finally called at 3 p.m., Thomas posted a picture of himself and his dog, Franklin, with the tag: “Rain delay stuff.” “Not much,” he said, when asked how else he killed time. “We have some good friends that live like 15 minutes away, so we’re staying in their house. The Spieths are there with us, so we’ve just been hanging out. I will say that a dog and a baby keeps the downtime, occupies it a lot easier for the both of us.” (Jordan Spieth and wife Annie welcomed a son, Sammy, in November.) The downside for Thomas after his stellar second round was that a Monday finish at TPC Sawgrass, as is now inevitable, means he and his father, Mike, must cancel a trip to Augusta National on Monday and Tuesday. The bright side is that he, and likely McIlroy, will play on after the cut. “Yeah, it’s unfortunate,” McIlroy said of the weather the last three days, “but hopefully sort of get back on track tomorrow and get this thing going.”

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