Troy Merritt ties course record for lead at THE NORTHERN TRUST

NAPA, Calif. – The first thing Bud Cauley remembers after the accident is seeing the paramedics who had pulled him out of the back seat of the BMW. The car had veered off the road, hit a culvert and gone airborne before striking a tree, then three others. The BMW finally came to rest in a ditch. Cauley, who was one of four people in the car, was having trouble breathing because he had a collapsed lung. He also had a concussion, six broken ribs and a fracture in his left leg. “It was really scary, first waking up,â€� Cauley recalls. “Obviously, first in your mind is your quality life going forward. And then I thought about … golf and was I going to be able to play again and play the same way. All those things I worried about for a while.â€� At 1 p.m. PT on Thursday at Silverado Resort, Cauley will tee it up in the Safeway Open. It will mark his first start on the PGA TOUR since the accident on that Friday night in June in Dublin, Ohio. Cauley, who had just missed the cut at the Memorial Tournament, has spent the last four months regaining his strength as well as his swing. He’s anxious to test his game and grateful for the support he’s received along the way. “Being out at the course these past couple days in Napa and all the guys that have come up – players, caddies, rules officials, people from the TOUR, just saying they’re happy to see me back,â€� he says. “It’s been really great.â€� Cauley says he wouldn’t have come to California if he didn’t think he could  be competitive. He thinks his biggest challenge won’t be managing his game around the scenic North Course, though – it will be keeping his emotions in check.  “I’ve put in all the work at home to practice and get my game ready, and I have done everything I can (with) workouts, to get my body in shape,â€� he explains. “But I think a big thing for this week will be to manage my excitement and my nerves to go out there and kind of get back in the flow of it. Obviously having been four months since I teed it up is a long time for playing on TOUR.â€� And Cauley has been through a lot. Doctors inserted a tube to re-inflate the lung and another later to drain fluid from his chest that kept him in the hospital for several extra days. “I was awake for the first tube they put it, so that was not very much fun,â€� Cauley recalls. On the Sunday after the crash, Cauley also had surgery to attach titanium plates to four of the ribs to stabilize them. Those are a permanent addition – but luckily he didn’t set off any alarms as he went through airport security this week. “I was kinda worried about that when I flew out here,â€� Cauley says with a wry laugh. “But luckily, they didn’t stop me and I didn’t have to go through the whole spiel about why there were these things in my chest.â€� Turns out the broken bone in Cauley’s leg was the least of his worries. It was non-weight-bearing so it simply healed with rest. Once the fluid had drained, Cauley was able to leave the hospital. But he couldn’t fly so his parents came and took him to their home in Tennessee where he stayed for several weeks. Once he was well enough, his mother drove him to Florida. “I just sat in the back seat surrounded by pillows for the drive,â€� Cauley recalls. “And then once I got to their house they have a recliner in their living room, so I just put some more pillows in there, got a blanket and sat in the recliner.â€� At first, any kind of moment sent a searing pain into his chest. He had trouble sleeping and even taking a deep breath was problematic. “To watch some movies, if I ever laughed it hurt,â€� Cauley says “It was about as uncomfortable and as much pain as I’ve ever felt.â€� At first, the doctors couldn’t tell Cauley whether it would be a month, two months or three months before he healed enough to get back to playing golf. As it turned out, he hit his first ball, with a wedge, during the second week in August. Cauley took it slow, working his way through the bag, while listening to his body and taking days off when needed to heal. He consulted a doctor in south Florida and came up with a plan of attack. By early September Cauley’s golf game was starting to feel “familiarâ€� again. He put the pain in his rear-view mirror and was able to go about his business like he did before the accident. “Just to be able to go out there and work on my game and not be worried about it was kind of when I took a little bit of a breath was like … we’re going to be okay,â€� Cauley says. Good friends like Justin Thomas and Harold Varner checked in almost daily. And once Cauley started playing 18 holes regularly with buddies like Kevin Tway, Peter Uhlein, Rickie Fowler and Tom Lovelady, he knew he had turned the corner. Cauley still experiences occasional soreness in his chest and ribcage. He can manage the inflammation with ice, though, so he’s ready to go. “From where I was a couple of months ago to now is night day as far as how, how good it feels,â€� Cauley says. And it will feel even better on Thursday when Cauley gets his 2018-19 PGA TOUR season under way.

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For most of the final round at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES, it appeared there just might be some destiny at play for Korean-born Danny Lee. It felt like a second PGA TOUR win was in the offing instead of the runner-up finish with which the 29-year-old would ultimately settle. Despite having coaxed in a long eagle putt on the 18th green Saturday to force a three-shot swing with Justin Thomas and join a tie for the lead through 54 holes, Lee was seen as a long shot against the usually unflappable Thomas. But he was a sentimental favorite, given his local ties and the revelation his wife had prematurely given birth to their second child last Sunday. The baby is currently in an incubator, as it was originally due closer to Christmas. Related: Leaderboard | Lee reveals difficult family news Despite playing with plenty of emotion, Lee put himself in a dogfight with Thomas on Jeju Island, making clutch putts throughout the front nine and carding three birdies to stay tied at the turn. He was still tied atop the leaderboard through 13 holes before Thomas produced a clutch birdie on the 14th hole. From there, perhaps pressing just a touch harder, Lee made his first few errors off the tee. He went from bunker to bunker on the 14th and 15th holes to end up with bogeys, seemingly ending his chances. “Just a couple holes that were letting me down with the driver on the back nine,â€� Lee admitted. “A couple tee shots that you cannot hit it in that bunkers on the left and I did, so struggling to make par from there when Justin had a couple birdie looks.â€� But when they reached the 72nd hole, Lee found himself two back and refused to lie down. Once again, he set himself up with a lengthy eagle try and surveyed it after Thomas had sent an eagle run of his own past the cup. Lee’s effort tracked toward the hole the entire way and jumped above the hole, hit the back of the cup, and spun away. A cruel lip out at the end of what was a great week. The miss gave Thomas two putts from short range to win and the American closed out his 11th PGA TOUR title. “Pretty close. I wasn’t going to leave that short,â€� Lee said of the putt. “It looked so good for so long. Had a little too much speed to go in, but I gave it a really good run.â€� The runner-up finish is the third of Lee’s PGA TOUR career as he searches for a second win to go with his 2015 triumph at A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier. “Before I tee off my very first tee shot on Thursday, if someone’s going to give me solo second, I would take it in a heartbeat. It is a good week, but also very disappointing. “I really wanted to win THE CJ CUP. It means a lot to me to win it in front of the Korean fans and all my Korean family, but it is what it is. I gave my best out there today and solo second was the best I could do.â€� Lee moves to 11th in the FedExCup standings.

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Tadd Fujikawa will not sweat making the cut at The RSM Classic at Sea Island this week, and while others worry about staying out of the rough at the last official PGA TOUR event of 2022, Fujikawa will preach staying out of the kitchen. The head pickleball pro at Sea Island, Fujikawa is no longer a golfer – at least for now. “I taught a little bit of golf, so the teaching part of it transferred,” Fujikawa, 31, said on a warm fall day as he hosted the PGA TOUR at the bustling Sea Island pickleball complex. One man in his time plays many parts, the Bard wrote, and so it is with Fujikawa. You may recall his smile and uppercut as he eagled the 18th hole to advance to the weekend at the 2007 Sony Open in Hawaii (T20), his hometown tournament. At barely 16 (and barely 5 feet tall) he was the youngest in a half-century to make a PGA TOUR cut. Fujikawa won the Hawaii Pearl Open later that year and turned pro, moving with his mom to Sea Island to be closer to the best instruction, but it was a grind. Playing on sponsor exemptions, he got 16 PGA TOUR starts from 2006-17, made five cuts, and never found his footing. “I was working with an instructor and making changes,” he said, “and it got to the point where I was in transition between the two, my old stuff and my new stuff, which wasn’t all the way there yet. It was mainly physical, mechanics issues, and then it became mental.” The high point of Fujikawa’s career may have been 2009, when he got four TOUR starts and made three cuts. He shot a third-round 62 and was tied for sixth through 54 holes of the Sony that year; alas, he shot a final-round 73 to finish T32. Soon the exemptions dried up, and he mostly struggled to find it on the minitours in the Carolinas and PGA TOUR Canada. His mood suffered, but not just because he was struggling on the course. Coming out on World Suicide Prevention Day in 2018 helped, as did playing tennis to take his mind off golf. He could not have known what was in store when he first picked up a pickleball paddle in March of 2021. “I was so hooked,” he said, a common refrain in this rapidly growing sport. “I initially tried to play both, and then my tennis game got all messed up. So, I committed to pickleball for a month to see how it felt. I thought maybe it might wear off, but after that it was all pickleball.” He played singles and doubles, in tournaments and with friends. As fate would have it, Sea Island was putting the finishing touches on its new pickleball courts and needed a head pro. Trey Weiss, head of tennis and racquet sports at Sea Island, mentioned the job to Fujikawa. “He has great hand-eye coordination; I think that’s transferred over from golf,” Weiss said. “It’s a lot of the same type of movements when we talk about body-wight transfer. He’s a great athlete, great footwork. For us as a club and as a resort the biggest skillset that’s transferred over is his people skills, because he had so much experience from golf. Our membership loves him. We have guests doing repeat lessons with him because of his personality. “He’s got a great story, great disposition,” Weiss continued. “From working as hard as he did with golf, he’s able to share that with people on the pickleball court.” Several sports celebrities have fallen hard for pickleball, among them Masters champions Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler, who took on tennis player John Isner and retired NBA player Dirk Nowitzki in a celebrity pro-am match in Frisco, Texas, last month. But Fujikawa has taken it to the next level. He began teaching after failing to get through the first stage of Q school last year, and to watch him play, you’d never know he’s as new to the sport as most everyone else. “I picked it up pretty fast,” he said. “I think golfers can transition over to pickleball more easily than tennis, which is tough because the ball bounces so high.” He lives alone these days – his mom, Lori, went back to Hawaii shortly before the pandemic reached America – and likes having a steady paycheck. He likes being “part of a family” at Sea Island. He is not a big golf watcher and will avoid The RSM this week, which is just as well, as he’ll probably be too busy to attend, anyway. He’s giving 15-20 lessons per week. “I’ve played professional golf for 15 years pretty much fulltime,” Fujikawa said. “And having that little bit of break and off-time away from it has been very nice for sure.” Will he ever pick up the clubs again? He gets playing privileges as an employee at Sea Island, but as Fujikawa continues to settle into his new pickleball role, he finds himself not using them. “I’m just taking it day by day,” he said, “and trying to enjoy life.”

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