Tiger Woods commits to THE PLAYERS, Wells Fargo

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CROMWELL, Conn. – Harris English is making his third start after undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right hip. He is also using a new putter grip – the same model that was so frayed it was deemed non-conforming in a minor kerfuffle at the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits last fall. Both changes are working out just fine, as the defending champion carded a second-round 65 to reach 9 under par halfway through the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands. “Yeah, the hip is doing better,” said English, who on February 14 had the operation in Vail, Colorado, and didn’t play at all from the Sony Open in Hawaii (T55) to the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday (MC) earlier this month. “The toughest thing is walking and playing. I mean, I feel like back home I can go hit a bunch of balls on the range, but up and down these hills and being on your feet for five or six hours is the toughest part.” The hip had bothered him for a while, and he had tried everything from injections to physical therapy. Finally, having won the Sentry Tournament of Champions and the Travelers last season, English figured he had enough runway in terms of TOUR status to go ahead and fix it. “Yeah, more looking at the next ten years of golf,” English said. “I want to be playing out here for a long time. I just didn’t want to be hurt. Didn’t want to be playing hurt. It’s tough to compete even at 100% out here. There are a lot of good players and young guys coming up. “I was like, well, had two wins last year so I’ve got some status for the next few years. Might as well get surgery and get it behind me so I can get after the next few years.” As for his Ping Palm Lock putter grip, it’s the same model he used to win the Travelers in an eight-hole playoff against Kramer Hickok last year. In fact, he told John Peterson and JJ Killeen on the Fore the People podcast, he had been using it for close to 10 years when at the Ryder Cup last fall someone called in about two hours before his singles match against Lee Westwood. The grip was so frayed, the caller said, it might be non-conforming. A Rules official deemed it so, citing the frayed cloth at the butt end of the club. That’s when U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Davis Love III arrived with an X-Acto knife, cutting off the offending piece of grip and wrapping gauze around the incision to keep everything flush. The grip held up in his singles loss to Westwood, but English eventually had to abandon it. “Tried to play with it in Vegas (at the Shriners Children’s Open in October) and it was deemed damaged, I couldn’t play with it,” he said. “So, I took it off, put another grip on that I played with years ago trying to switch it up a little bit. “Just hadn’t really putted that great,” added the four-time TOUR winner. “Streaky putting and put the new Ping grip on this week and it’s worked out so far.” Using a new Ping Palm Lock, which he’d thrived with for years to the point of it being “all raggedy and torn up,” as he put it, English made over 141 feet of putts Friday. He took 27 putts for the second day in a row.

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The four-tournament Florida Swing on the PGA TOUR is made up of The Honda Classic this week, the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, THE PLAYERS Championship, and the Valspar Championship. Although it sometimes seems to be, like the earth itself, mostly water – see: this week’s Bear Trap holes (Nos. 15-17) – the Florida Swing is in fact very driveable, like the 12th at TPC Sawgrass. It’s 162 miles from PGA National to Bay Hill, 120 from Bay Hill to TPC Sawgrass, 165 from there to Innisbrook, and 216 back to PGA National for a grand total of just under 700 miles. That’s four tournaments, no TSA agents, if you’re keeping score at home. Caddies sometimes call that taking Air Honda, which is convenient because so many TOUR pros live in Florida. They’re in Jupiter (Keegan Bradley, Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler, among others in the Honda field) and Orlando (Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter) and sprinkled liberally around Jacksonville near TOUR headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach (Cameron Smith, Jonas Blixt, Billy Horschel, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, among others). “I wish it was a little bit closer,â€� said Gary Woodland, who finished T6 and T2 at Honda in 2011 and 2017, respectively, and lives in Delray Beach. “With no traffic, it’s 30 minutes, but there’s always a little bit of traffic around here. For me now with the family, it’s nice to be home, nice to sleep in my own bed, try to get just a little comfortable for the week.â€� Even better, he added, not many friends and family will follow him this week, allowing him to focus on golf. No matter where you rest your head at night, the Florida Swing means poa annua greens are out, and Bermudagrass is in. “I’ve always felt like this was my good stretch because I grew up on Bermuda greens,â€� said the defending champion at Honda, Keith Mitchell, who birdied the last hole to beat Fowler and Koepka. “I grew up in this part of the country playing golf, so I’m a little more comfortable here.â€� A lot of players are. Singh’s solo sixth at PGA National last year was his only made cut in six starts on TOUR last season. (He turned 57 last week and plays mostly on PGA TOUR Champions.) Who is most comfortable in Florida? Glad you asked. Woodland hasn’t missed a cut in seven Honda starts, while Tiger Woods, no surprise, has the most wins in Florida since 1983, with 16. More recently, 35 players teed it up in all four Florida Swing tournaments last season. Only three – Sung Kang, Jason Kokrak and Anirban Lahiri – made the cut in all four. Kokrak (69.94) had the lowest scoring average. Tommy Fleetwood and Sungjae Im were the only two to record multiple top-five finishes on the Florida Swing last year. Fleetwood is 47 under in the Sunshine State over the last three years. Lucas Glover has the most Florida Swing birdies over that span (151), while Jupiter resident and reigning PLAYERS champion Rory McIlroy has the most FedExCup points (1,338). The Florida Swing is comprised of the 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th events of the TOUR season, which is to say we’re just about to the halfway mark. (For three-hole stretches with catchy nicknames – The Bear Trap at Honda, The Snake Pit at Valspar – we’re just getting started.) Want to read the tea leaves on TOUR? The Florida Swing provides. Tiger Woods won the 2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational on his way to the FedExCup title, his second of two, and Jim Furyk captured the 2010 Valspar en route to the FedExCup that year. Jordan Spieth won the Valspar as part of his 2015 FedExCup-winning season, and of course McIlroy last season won THE PLAYERS, the FedExCup and PGA TOUR Player of the Year. In the FedExCup era, eight of 13 Honda winners have made it to the TOUR Championship. The Florida Swing is important from the get-go, and players know it. “Hopefully it’ll start to turn around here,â€� said world number three Brooks Koepka, who hasn’t found much form since coming back from a knee injury this season and will play the Honda, PLAYERS and Valspar. “I feel good. I’m excited to play.â€� The Florida Swing is also hard. Mitchell’s winning score of 9 under last year was the first single-digit (to par) winning score since Justin Thomas won – wait for it – The Honda Classic in 2018. The other three Florida Swing courses are no picnic, either. Woodland embraces the high degree of difficulty because there can be no mistaking the feedback; players simply can’t fake it around all that water. This is good because with their flaws magnified, they can get their games organized to take on the remainder of the TOUR schedule. “Yeah, it’s a hard golf course, and I think that benefits me,â€� Woodland said of PGA National. “Scores are never going to get too low. Obviously it’s a lot weather-depending, but it’s one of the most mentally demanding golf courses I think we face all year. “There’s a lot of shots,â€� he added, “especially coming down the back nine, that you just have to step up and hit shots. There’s just really no bail-out.â€� You could say that about a lot of the Florida Swing. Time to settle in and see who’s got it and who doesn’t, because there’s no turning back now.

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