Troy Merritt wins Barbasol Championship

Tiger Woods zig-zagged all over the leaderboard in the opening round of the U.S. Open at Winged Foot before a rough finish left him fighting an uphill battle to claim an 83rd PGA TOUR win. Woods signed for a 3-over 73 in the opening round despite sitting in red numbers with six holes to play, leaving him eight shots adrift of early leader and playing partner Justin Thomas. A bogey, double-bogey finish spoiled what had otherwise been an impressive grind from Woods to continue the fight despite some bad breaks. "I did not finish off the round like I needed to. I made a bunch of putts in the middle part of the round. It seemed like most of my drives on the front nine landed in the fairway and ended up in bad spots, and I tried to stay as patient as possible, and unfortunately just did not finish off my round the way I needed to," Woods said. Coming off a bogey on the 17th following a wild drive into deep rough, Woods missed the final fairway to the left. He muscled his second shot to just short of the green but then chunked a chip shot that failed to make the surface. His fourth shot rolled out above the pin, leaving a treacherous downhill putt from 9 feet that snapped hard right to left. The 44-year-old was unable to coax it home, leaving a sour taste in his mouth given conditions were much more scorable than expected. "The golf course was set up fantastic. What they did with the hole locations were very fair today. It gave us an opportunity to make some birdies, and you look at most of the scores, and the guys took advantage of it," Woods said of the venue that yielded a winning score of 5 over the last time it hosted the U.S. Open, but had seven players under par from the morning wave. "The golf course is there to be had. Obviously they could have made it a lot more difficult if they wanted to, but I thought it was very fair. We have a long way to go. This is a long marathon of a tournament. There’s a lot of different things that can go on. I just wish I would have finished off my round better" In a day resembling a roller coaster ride, Woods was perhaps a little stiff in the cool morning air as he started slowly. The 15-time major winner had a great look at birdie on the opening hole from inside 20 feet, but it slid by the left side. Despite saving par with up-and-downs from greenside bunkers over his next two holes, he was quickly 2 over with bogeys on the fourth and fifth holes. A birdie on the sixth was wiped out with bogey on the eighth hole, but then Woods appeared to find his mojo as he birdied the ninth, 10th and 11th holes thanks to some brilliant putting. He connected from 31, 23 and 19 feet, respectively, and had fought his way back from 2 over to 1 under. But just as his putter had gotten hot, it found a way to cool off. Facing a great look at birdie on the par-5 12th from 9 feet looked to be heading dead center until the last possible second, it jumped right just a hair and brutally lipped out much to Woods' disbelief. Compounding his frustration, he followed it with back-to-back bogeys, and while he earned a shot back with a birdie bomb on the par-4 16th, he then dropped three in the last two holes.

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United by what may still be possible this year for the world of professional golf, and with a goal to serve all who love and play the game, Augusta National Golf Club, European Tour, LPGA, PGA of America, PGA TOUR, The R&A and USGA have issued the following joint statement: “This is a difficult and challenging time for everyone coping with the effects of this pandemic. We remain very mindful of the obstacles ahead, and each organization will continue to follow the guidance of the leading public health authorities, conducting competitions only if it is safe and responsible to do so. “In recent weeks, the global golf community has come together to collectively put forward a calendar of events that will, we hope, serve to entertain and inspire golf fans around the world. We are grateful to our respective partners, sponsors and players, who have allowed us to make decisions – some of them, very tough decisions – in order to move the game and the industry forward. “We want to reiterate that Augusta National Golf Club, European Tour, LPGA, PGA of America, PGA TOUR, The R&A and USGA collectively value the health and well-being of everyone, within the game of golf and beyond, above all else. We encourage everyone to follow all responsible precautions and make effort to remain healthy and safe.� RELATED: Updated PGA TOUR schedule Updates from each organization follow, and more information can be found by clicking on the links included: USGA The U.S. Open, previously scheduled for June 15-21 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York, has been officially rescheduled for September 14-20 and is confirmed to remain at Winged Foot. For more information and comments from USGA CEO Mike Davis, click here. The R&A The R&A has decided to cancel The Open in 2020 due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, and the Championship will next be played at Royal St. George’s in 2021. The Open was due to be played in Kent, England, from July 12-19, but it has been necessary to cancel the Championship based on guidance from the UK Government, the health authorities, public services and The R&A’s advisers. For more information and comments from The R&A Chief Executive Martin Slumbers, click here. PGA of America The PGA of America is announcing today that the PGA Championship is now scheduled to take place August 3-9 and will remain at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, California. The PGA Championship was originally slated for May 11-17 but was postponed on March 17. Furthermore, the PGA reconfirmed the Ryder Cup remains as originally scheduled, September 22-27, at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin. For more information and comments from PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh, click here. Augusta National Golf Club Augusta National has identified November 9-15 as the intended dates to host the 2020 Masters Tournament, which was previously scheduled for April 6-12 and postponed on March 13. For more information, and comments from Chairman Fred Ridley, click here. PGA TOUR While collaborating with the PGA of America to find a viable date for the PGA Championship in August, the PGA TOUR worked with its host organizations and title sponsors to move the Regular Season finale – the Wyndham Championship – and all three FedExCup Playoffs events one week later, starting the week of August 10 and concluding with a Monday, September 7, Labor Day finish for the TOUR Championship. The TOUR will seek to reschedule tournaments into the weeks formerly occupied by the U.S. Open, The Open Championship and the Men’s Olympic golf competition in June and July. The TOUR will make further announcements about this potential, as well as its fall schedule, in the coming weeks. For more information and comments from PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan, click here. European Tour Due to the many complexities involved, the European Tour is currently working through various scenarios in relation to the rescheduling of our tournaments for the 2020 season. The European Tour will make further announcements on these in due course. LPGA On April 3, the LPGA released a revised look at the LPGA Tour’s 2020 summer schedule, beginning on the week of June 15 with the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G. In addition, the LPGA Tour announced that they have successfully rescheduled their first two majors of the year (the ANA Inspiration moves to the week of September 7 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California; and the U.S. Women’s Open conducted by the USGA moves to the week of December 7 at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas). For more information, click here. Summary A listing of the revised schedule of events announced today follows: • TO BE CONFIRMED: June 15-21 (formerly U.S. Open week) – potential PGA TOUR event • CANCELED: July 13-19, The Open Championship, Royal St. George’s GC, Sandwich, Kent, England • TO BE CONFIRMED: July 13-19 (formerly The Open Championship week) – potential PGA TOUR event • TO BE CONFIRMED: July 27-August 2 (formerly Men’s Olympic Competition week) – potential PGA TOUR event • CONFIRMED: August 3-9 – PGA Championship, TPC Harding Park, San Francisco, California • CONFIRMED: PGA TOUR’s season-ending event/FedExCup Playoffs August 10-16 – Wyndham Championship, Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro, North Carolina August 17-23 – THE NORTHERN TRUST, TPC Boston, Norton, Massachusetts August 24-30 – BMW Championship, Olympia Fields CC, Olympia Fields, Illinois August 31-September 7 (Labor Day) – TOUR Championship, East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia • CONFIRMED: September 14-20 – U.S. Open, Winged Foot Golf Club, Mamaroneck, New York • RECONFIRMED: September 22-27: Ryder Cup, Whistling Straits, Kohler, Wisconsin • CONFIRMED: November 9-15: the Masters Tournament, Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Georgia

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When the latest iteration of The Match begins under the lights at Pelican Golf Club on Saturday (TNT, 6 p.m.) it will feature four of the most prolific winners of the PGA TOUR’s modern era. Of the five youngest players to reach 10 career TOUR wins since World War II, four of them will be playing: Tiger Woods (age 23), Jordan Spieth (23), Rory McIlroy (25) and Justin Thomas (26). Jack Nicklaus (24) is the fifth name on that list. The four who will tee it up at Pelican have combined for 24 major championship wins and nearly a quarter-billion dollars in official PGA TOUR earnings. They’ve won a combined seven of the 16 FedExCup trophies ever contested. All four have reached the top of the Official World Golf Ranking. Their on-course accomplishments are well known, but a deeper dive into their statistics can illuminate an underlying trend that many fans may not be aware of. Something you might not know about: Jordan Spieth Spieth’s name will permeate the age-related section of golf’s record books for generations to come. When he won the 2013 John Deere Classic, he was the first teenager to win a PGA TOUR event since 1931. By age 21 he was a two-time major champion, the youngest player to do that in the men’s game since Gene Sarazen. Among players in the modern era, only Spieth and Nicklaus have accumulated three professional major wins before age 24. For fans watching Spieth during those early seasons – especially in 2015 – it felt like he made every putt he looked at from 20 feet. Your eyes weren’t deceiving you: that season, Spieth made 27.2% of his putts from 15 to 25 feet away. The overall make percentage from that range on TOUR that season was just 16.0%. In the seasons since, no player with enough rounds to qualify has sniffed a 27% make-rate or better from that distance. But consider this: In 2015, Spieth actually gained more strokes with his approach play (40.78) than he did on the greens (37.67). In Spieth’s brilliant 2015 season, he was the only player on TOUR to make 25% or more of his putts from 15 to 25 feet and average half-a-stroke gained per round or more with his approach shots. There’s only been one player to replicate the feat over an entire PGA TOUR season since. Something you might not know about: Justin Thomas Perhaps nobody in the game can go super-low like JT. At the 2017 Sony Open in Hawaii, he peppered the PGA TOUR record books with numbers that have stood up for more than five years. At Waialae Country Club that week, he opened with 59, recorded the lowest opening 36-hole total score in TOUR history (123), and finished with the lowest 72-hole total ever shot in an official TOUR event (253). That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though. Thomas has shot 63 or lower a staggering 20 times in his PGA TOUR career. Since the beginning of 2015, that’s six more such rounds than any other player – McIlroy is second with 14. Thomas has five rounds of 61 or lower in his TOUR career, and 38 rounds of 64 or lower. In both cases it’s most of any player over the last decade. It’s fitting, then, that a player who can go crazy-low holds a major comeback record: At the 2022 PGA Championship, Thomas won despite being seven shots back to begin the day. That’s the largest final round deficit overcome to win a major since Paul Lawrie was ten back at the 1999 Open Championship. Something you might not know about: Rory McIlroy Rory McIlroy is often heralded as the best driver in the world. Statistically, it’s justified: Since the beginning of 2014, McIlroy has averaged 0.96 Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee per round, the best of any player with 100 or more rounds played on the PGA TOUR In that span. Although his hypnotic excellence with the driver can sometimes overshadow the other wonderful things he does, McIlroy is obviously no one-trick pony. Take this, for example: Since the inception of Strokes Gained tracking on the PGA TOUR, McIlroy has put together nine different rounds in which has gained at least a full stroke in each of the four key disciplines: Off-the-Tee, Approach the Green, Around the Green, and Putting. No other player has more than six such rounds. In 2022, both he and Thomas did it on two occasions; they were two of just four players with multiple such rounds this year. Something you might not know about: Tiger Woods You would think that with Woods so limited it would be difficult to unearth and celebrate statistics about him not readily shared in the past. The reality is that as time passes his seemingly limitless list of accomplishments grows even more ridiculous. When the immensely talented players of today accomplish lofty tasks, the question isn’t whether Tiger did it before them, the question is usually how many times he did it before them. When McIlroy won the 2012 PGA Championship by eight shots, he joined Woods as the only players in the last 100 years to win multiple majors by eight strokes or more. Woods has done it three times (1997 Masters, 2000 U.S. Open, 2000 Open Championship). When McIlroy successfully defended his title at THE CJ CUP in South Carolina in the fall, it marked his second back-to-back of 2022 on the PGA TOUR (RBC Canadian Open). McIlroy was the first player to do that twice in a calendar year since Woods in 2007 – the sixth different year Woods had done it. Arguably the greatest stretch of golf ever played was by Woods when he won four consecutive majors, the Tiger Slam, at the turn of the century. Expanding this window from the 1999 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday through the 2001 Memorial Tournament, Woods won a ridiculous 20 times in 40 official PGA TOUR starts. But what if I told you that years later Woods would have another similar run of greatness? While the Tiger Slam era is rightfully heralded as the halcyon peak of Tiger’s play, it’s not the only time he had a run of 20 wins in 40 PGA TOUR starts. From the 2005 WGC-American Express Championships through the 2008 U.S. Open, Woods made 40 official PGA TOUR starts. Again, he won 20 of them. When comparing the two runs of dominance, the younger Woods still takes the crown, but the numbers within that later run are nothing to scoff at, either. Woods had a combined margin of victory of 69 strokes in the earlier stretch, and 56 strokes in the later one. Five majors won in eight starts for young Tiger, three in eight starts for the early 30’s Woods. The percentage of rounds led or co-led is close, too: 34.9% to 31.0%. Think of it this way: Over the last 40 years, five players besides Woods have won 20 or more times on the PGA TOUR over the course of their entire careers. Woods twice won 20 times in 40 starts, which is something unlikely to happen ever again just once, let alone twice.

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