Top LPGA Tour rookies reflect on emotional season

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Ian Poulter was an animated figure as he spent several minutes demonstrating potential drop scenarios with a rules official on the first tee at the Plantation Course on Tuesday night. Bryson DeChambeau was over at the nearby putting green still experimenting with speeds and angles of flagstick in and flagstick out putting. He’d been doing it a for a few days.  Bubba Watson was having fun with it on his Instagram account in the days prior.  Jason Day and Dustin Johnson hadn’t bothered to study the changes at all.  Here was the varied approach to the biggest rule changes in golf in decades as the Sentry Tournament of Champions is about to kick off as the first PGA TOUR event played under the new world order. The changes from the USGA and R&A are many — you can get our comprehensive guide on them here — but it is a select few that have some of the players talking. DeChambeau made his intentions clear during the fall series when he admitted he intends to put with the flagstick still in the hole as the new rules allow.  “It depends on the firmness value of the flag. The C.O.R. or coefficient of restitution of the flagstick,â€� he said on his way to winning the Shriners Hospital for Children Open.  DeChambeau knows his method is going to create some division amongst players, too.  “Inside a certain distance it could become a problem. Most people are going to want the flagstick out and I’m going to want the flagstick in,â€� DeChambeau said. “There are going to be weird instances where I want it in because I know it is a benefit. If it’s a 20 to 30-footer I’ll just put it in and it might add a little time taking it in and out. “So I don’t know how I am going to deal with that yet (with playing partners) … it is certainly going to be interesting.â€� His first playing partner will be defending champion Dustin Johnson. The pair will go off in the final group in the opening round on Thursday.  “It’s going to be weird because the flag’s going to be going in and out a lot,â€� Johnson said, smiling. “But it’s all right. I mean it’s not bad.â€� He even said he could envisage a few scenarios he might leave it in himself. “If you got a real long putt or something I might leave it instead of having the caddie stand there and tend it,â€� Johnson said. “Or if you know it’s sometimes if you hit one up there, it’s always awkward trying to take the flag out. You can just tap it in.â€� Johnson admitted to not spending much thought on the changes, saying a poster in the locker room was his first real peek into it all. His brother and caddie, Austin, hadn’t yet immersed himself in it either.  “I had one of the TOUR officials do a printout that I’m going to give to him to study later on today,â€� Johnson said.  In the group ahead of them on Thursday is 2017 Sentry Tournament of Champions winner Justin Thomas.  “If I have an eight-footer to win a golf tournament … I mean no offense, I can’t really take myself seriously if I kept the pin in,â€� Thomas said.  DeChambeau wasn’t perturbed by that, later joking that he’d be very comfortable leaving it in in the same scenario and would take another trophy to go with his now five PGA TOUR wins very seriously.  “All I try to do is use every aspect of the game of golf to my advantage,â€� DeChambeau said in November. “I try to use the rules to my advantage in the most positive way possible. Not trying to skirt around anything, just use them.â€� Golf has always been a sport of integrity where players call infringements on themselves. While plenty of grey areas have been removed with the changes, others have popped up.  We now no longer have to worry about balls moving on greens, a lost ball being stepped on, balls being accidentally double hit, balls accidentally hitting a player or caddie or equipment, accidentally brushing a grain of sand in a bunker, or knocking off a leaf in a penalty area, among other changes.  Many of the changes bring the word accidental into play — and that can cause debate.  “There is just a lot of grey area that is starting to occur and questions are coming up where we didn’t think about that so it is going to come down to integrity,â€� DeChambeau said. “We are playing for millions of dollars … what do you think could happen?â€� The changes to green reading books sparked the most debate in a player meeting in Kapalua.  Limitations on the books have been placed with any putting green image that is used during the round limited to a scale of 3/8 inch to 5 yards. A yardage or greens book must also meet a size limit of 7 inches x 4.25 inches. Any hand-drawn or written information by the player or the caddie is allowed, but only if contained in a book or paper meeting this size limit (other than a hole placement sheet).  Questions came a plenty. Can a caddie or player trace their old books and then cut them into a four by seven square that fits in a book? The other debate came around the new drop rules where you drop from knee height. Now if the ball bounces from the drop into your body accidentally then there is no penalty. The interpretation around intent here has some players waiting to see how it plays out.  Rory McIlroy said it had provided some comedic fodder for players, especially at shorter players expense.  “Guys are practicing drops from your knees,â€� Mcilroy said. “We’re saying that Brian Harman has got a big advantage, he can basically place it. Where you got someone like Tony Finau who is dropping it probably from like waist high for me.â€� One thing is certain: There will be an adjustment period, and everyone should try to remain as patient as possible. “Everybody’s going to be calling a rules official in as much possible,â€� Thomas said. “So unfortunately play is probably not going to be too fast. But it’s tough, with anything, with change it’s always going to be different. “I’ve tried to study up … You would hate to get penalized just for making a mistake for something you’ve done your whole life, so it will be different.â€� Despite all the debate and talk amongst the playing throng, McIlroy said there was still an overbearing feeling of change will be for the best.  “I’ve always said that the rules of golf are way too complicated, especially after the debacles and farces we have had at U.S. Opens and all sorts of stuff over the last few years,â€� McIlroy said. “So I’m happy that they made the decision to try and simplify them and just try to make everything a little bit easier to understand.â€�

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There was nothing boastful, nothing off-putting. Sipping peppermint tea in the clubhouse overlooking the first tee at Club de Golf Chapultepec, home of the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship, retired Col. Mohan Sharma, having taken off his ever-present straw hat, simply radiated a quiet confidence. “We believe in God; we believe in fate,â€� Mohan said as he discussed his 21-year-old son, Shubhankar. “I think he will be there by himself at the end.â€� Alas, after leading through three rounds, Sharma came back to Earth to finish T9 in Mexico. But Col. Sharma may yet be right. The time horizon for Sharma is a long one, and he may well be there by himself at the end, if by “the endâ€� you mean whenever he reaches golfing maturity. Tomorrow. Next week. Next month. Next year. Sharma, 21, will play in this week’s Valero Texas Open on a sponsor’s exemption. He is attempting to reverse a mini-slump that saw him miss the cut by two at the Masters and Houston Open, and go 0-3 at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. Still, he has continued to charm. He called his first Masters “fantasticâ€� and “invaluable,â€� praised the course as “superb,â€� and said the fans were “greatâ€� and a pleasure to play in front of. “I just have to play better than what I have been playing now,â€� Sharma said. “But I know I have it in me; I’ve been playing well this whole season. I played well on the European Tour, I had two wins, so I know that my best is in front of me. So, I just have to get there and just a few things here and there and it will be good to get to Texas.â€� METEORIC RISE  Sharma won the Joburg Open and Maybank Championship, European Tour co-sanctioned events, to take the lead in the Race to Dubai and earn his spot in the WGC-Mexico Championship. There, after taking a two-shot lead through three rounds, he found himself in the same threesome with Hall of Famer Phil Mickelson on Sunday, when the occasion finally seemed to catch up with him as he shot 74. But all was not lost. He got to meet Phil Mickelson! (More on that later.) And within days, Sharma had been given a special invitation to the Masters Tournament. A few days after that, Sharma took a share of the lead into the final round of the Hero Indian Open at his home course, DLF Golf & Country Club on the outskirts of New Delhi, only to shoot 75 and finish T7. Again, there was a silver lining: his world ranking was now up to 66th, getting him into the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. Sharma was rising, which amplified the question many were asking in Mexico: Who is he? The short answer to that question is Sharma is a player with so much upside that PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan, in announcing the appointment of 2019 Presidents Cup Captains Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, mentioned him as a potential International Team member. Arjun Atwal, the first Indian to win on TOUR at the 2010 Wyndham Championship, calls Sharma “an older soulâ€� whose precision game recalls Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker. “He’s going to surprise a lot of people,â€� Atwal said. Anirban Lahiri, who accounted for one of the rare highlights for the International Presidents Cup team at Liberty National last fall, echoed Atwal’s “older soulâ€� assessment of Sharma. “The differentiating factor between him and other 21-year-olds,â€� Lahiri said, “is how he approaches tournaments and his mental ability to focus and separate himself from the noise.â€� Not that he’s completely impervious. Asked about Latin America at Chapultepec, Sharma praised Mexico and added, “It’s obviously a little distracting with so many good-looking girls walking.â€� He admitted to gawking at Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth on the driving range, and trying to act normal around the TOUR stars when he encountered them in the hotel gym. “Some of them say hi to me,â€� Sharma said, “which is very nice.â€� If you weren’t charmed by Sharma in Mexico, you might want to see your cardiologist. He was playing in his first WGC and his first PGA TOUR event, and admitted it all felt surreal, like he was watching it all play out on TV in the wee hours of the morning back in India. Justin Thomas entered the final round just four back. Big-hitting Johnson was three behind. Then there was Mickelson. Sharma and his caddie, Gurbaaz Mann, nervously approached the popular lefthander on the Chapultepec practice green prior to the third round, hoping to introduce themselves, but Mickelson thought they were members of the media. “Not right now,â€� Mickelson said. “After the round.â€� Sharma laughed as he related the mix-up, because why would Mickelson, who realized his mistake and apologized, think any differently? The kid came to Chapultepec ranked 75th in the world and still dizzy from his rapid ascent after two European Tour co-sanctioned victories. “In the past four months,â€� he said, “my life has totally changed.â€� His arrival in Mexico, economy class from Doha, Qatar, was about as under-the-radar as it gets. But his “arrivalâ€� on the world stage feels indelible for a few reasons. India has over a billion people; what might Sharma mean to them? What might he mean, competitively speaking, to Thomas, Jordan Spieth and the rest of them? Sharma’s ultimate goal is to play the PGA TOUR, and Mexico felt not like a cameo but the curtain opening to a potentially long-running hit show. You could hardly fault him for withering on the greens Sunday, unnerved by the crowds or the presence of eventual winner Mickelson, or both. Still, Sharma hung around to shake every hand, sign every autograph. When the Official World Golf Ranking was released hours later, he would vault from 75th to 66th, and within hours of that he would be granted a special exemption into the Masters to become the fourth Indian to tee it up at Augusta, after Jeev Milkha Singh, Atwal and Lahiri. EXTRAORDINARY FAMILY Anirban Lahiri, who was the highest-ranking Indian golfer until Sharma came along, has known the young phenom since they were kids. Lahiri’s father served in the Indian Army with Col. Mohan Sharma, and their relationship deepened when Dr. Tushar Lahiri, a gynecologist, helped deliver Shubhankar’s sister, Vandini. Back then, Anirban was the country’s top-ranked junior and Shubhankar was just turning 7. The two Army dads got to talking, with the doctor recommending to the Colonel that the latter take up golf with his boy. Col. Mohan Sharma listened well. His confidence in his son is well-founded; this is no ordinary family. Vandini is a published fiction and non-fiction writer at 16, and she covered the Masters for Sports Betting News. Shubhankar was the same age when he left school to turn pro, but he is currently studying political science online; the Colonel says his son is on pace to get his undergraduate degree this summer. Dr. Neena Sharma, Shubhankar’s mother, has a PhD in yoga and alternative healing. When Shubhankar Sharma speaks of golf’s appeal, he talks about the mental side. “The best part is you’re always playing against the course and against yourself,â€� he said in Mexico. Before his run-in with Mickelson, his greatest mental test came at the 2017 Hero Indian Open. About 10 days before the tournament, Sharma came down with a fever that kept him bedridden and unable to practice. He tried to play in the pro-am but withdrew on the third hole and went back to bed. The next day, without a warm-up, he gutted out an even-par 72. “He was in bad shape,â€� said Jeev Milkha Singh, one of his playing partners that day. “He was coughing, taking his medication, his fluids, but his main goal was still to play well.â€� Sharma made the cut the next day, only to run out of gas on the weekend and finish T40. “I’ll never forget that first round,â€� the Colonel said with a smile. “Level par.â€� The start of this season has brought more unforgettable moments. Sharma’s two quick victories to take pole position on the European Tour; meeting and playing against Mickelson at Chapultepec; playing in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, the Houston Open and the Masters. Now he heads to Texas again for the Valero at the AT&T Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio. He’s living his TOUR dream in the flesh, in the sun, not on TV in the dark of night. “I couldn’t have asked for a better start,â€� Sharma said of his first two rounds in Mexico. He could have been talking about his career.

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