Weekly 18: Comebacks, controversy highlight a wild week in golf

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Brian Harman hit all 18 greens in Friday’s second round of The RSM Classic. It’s the second time in his career that he’s accomplished that feat. “I think my ball-striking is probably as good as it’s ever been,â€� said Harman, who’s won twice on the TOUR, was runner-up in a major and once ranked 20th in the world. A lot has changed in just a few months. This summer, he felt “crippling anxietyâ€� about losing his PGA TOUR card. Harman was 170th in the FedExCup last March and still ranked outside the top 125 as late as June. He earned a spot in this year’s FedExCup Playoffs, though, with three top-10s in his final six starts of the regular season. It started with a T8 at the Travelers, where he overcame a first-round 72 with three consecutive 66s. Two weeks later, he was in contention at the 3M Open before a bad third round. Tired of stressing about his game, he sent a text to his agent that Sunday saying, “This ends today.â€� He shot a final-round 65 to lock up his card and Playoffs spot. RELATED: Leaderboard | Plantation Course’s new look for The RSM Classic “I made the choice that day that whatever happened, I was going to act like I had been there before,â€� Harman said. “It let me know that I really did need to change the way I was thinking about things and not get so bogged down.â€� That freedom has helped him play the same creative golf he played during his younger days, when he won the U.S. Junior Amateur and was the world’s top-ranked amateur. Harman started this new season with a third-place finish in A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, finished in the top-20 in his next two starts and is back in contention at The RSM. He shot 67 on Thursday at Sea Island’s Plantation Course before following with a 66 on the Seaside Course that will host the final two rounds. Harman, a Georgia alum, played Sea Island in the SEC Championships and now makes his home here. He only had one top-25 in his first five starts in the RSM, though. He missed the cut in both 2015 and 2016 before finishing a career-best fourth. He was T32 last year. “I wanted to play well so bad,â€� Harman said. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve embraced it. It’s a fun week. Let’s have fun.â€� His family is staying at his house, as is his caddie. They’ve cooked out each night, eating elk tenderloin and tomahawk pork chops. Harman is enjoying the game again after suffering from burnout at the start of last season. His game reached new heights two years ago, when he won the Wells Fargo Championship, finished runner-up in the U.S. Open and qualified for his first TOUR Championship. All that success led to new opportunities, but also a busier schedule. “I was really tired,â€� he said. “It’s a fine line out here. You take a little bit of a mental break, and I did because I was tired of grinding all the time, and your game takes a hit,â€� Harman said. He started working with swing coach Justin Parsons in the spring and promptly finished T8 at THE PLAYERS. Harman still works with longtime swing coach Jack Lumpkin, as well. Parsons also helped Harman’s former Georgia teammate, Harris English, turn around his career. Harman described working with Parsons, who moved to Sea Island from Dubai earlier this year, as a “shot in the arm.â€� “I just didn’t really feel like myself anymore,â€� Harman said. “I was trying to be something I wasn’t. (Justin) helped me be more creative with my ball-striking and freed me up to do some of stuff that I know I can do.â€�

Click here to read the full article…

Ryan Palmer had been checking his smart phone all day, sneaking glances between shots during the RBC Canadian Open Pro-Am last year to see if his wife Jennifer had called. She was back home in Texas, waiting for the results of a biopsy. A mammogram the previous week had uncovered an abnormality that doctors felt warranted a closer examination. Not until that evening, when Ryan was having dinner with his caddie James Edmondson and some friends, did Jennifer finally reach him. He stepped outside the restaurant to take the call. The news was not good. Jennifer had stage 2A invasive ductal carcinoma. “It just hits you in the gut,â€� Ryan recalls, the memory clearly still fresh. Ryan’s fellow PGA TOUR pro, Stewart Cink, also knows what it’s like to get that sucker punch. Only he was at home in Atlanta after forgetting to commit to the Zurich Classic last year, his first such gaffe in 20 years on TOUR. His wife Lisa delivered the news to him in person. “Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, that was God’s hand,â€� Lisa now says. She had gone in for a follow-up appointment early that week. She hadn’t felt a lump in her breast. She just thought something wasn’t “right.â€� The doctors agreed – in fact, Lisa had a mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy all in one day. “She told me afterwards that the mood in there was really serious and somber and not very upbeat at all,â€� Stewart said. The next day, the phone rang. Stewart and Lisa were meeting with the staff of their charitable foundation. This time, it was Lisa who stepped outside. Within seconds, Stewart followed her onto the front porch. Lisa had written some things in a notebook, and then she looked up at her husband, clutching the phone to her chest. “She said, I want to know my grandchildren,â€� Stewart recalls. “And there was not a lot more for her to say. I knew what that meant.â€� Lisa, who had led an extremely healthy lifestyle, has stage 4 invasive ductal carcinoma. The cancer had spread to her lymph nodes and was metastatic. With those two diagnoses, life for the Cinks and Palmers has changed forever. Stewart and Lisa met in high school. He was going out with a girl she played softball with – “He dated a lot of my friends, actually, which was interesting,â€� Lisa says – and the two eventually ended up in a class together where they became better acquainted. Their friendship blossomed into romance at Georgia Tech, and the two married at age 20. They have one son, Connor, who was born while the couple was still in college, and another Reagan, who is two years younger. Stewart and Lisa are empty nesters now. Connor graduated from Clemson last year while Reagan has followed in his parents’ footsteps and attends Georgia Tech. He’ll be a junior in the fall. “Do the math – we’ve been married over half our lives,â€� says Stewart, who’s now 43, as is his wife. “I feel like she’s been my soulmate before we ever met in 10th grade. She’s been part of me since birth, I feel like.â€� Ryan and Jennifer also met in high school in their hometown of Amarillo. But it wasn’t until the summer before her senior year at Texas A&M — Ryan was a year behind — that they began dating. “I saw him out at a party or something, and then he called me and said, hey, let’s go have dinner and play some golf,â€� Jennifer remembers. “I’m actually a terrible golfer, so I mainly just sat in the cart but that’s pretty much how it all began.â€� Jennifer was first attracted to Ryan’s smile – “He just lights up a room,â€� she says – and his positive attitude. He didn’t dwell on a bad round. He didn’t blame it on his clubs, either. Ryan was motivated, too. “It was never an option for him not to be a professional,â€� she says. “You know what I’m saying? That was his goal.â€� Jennifer had goals of her own, too, though. She graduated from A&M in 1998 and went to dental school, getting her degree in 2003. She practiced in Colleyville, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, for a while and still keeps her license current. Ryan finally got his TOUR card for the 2004 campaign, and he asked Jennifer to come to Pebble Beach with him. The couple married in June of that year. “After that week, he just said, ‘hey, do you want to try this full time?’â€� she remembers. “We didn’t really know what the future was going to hold golf-wise. So, we basically took a leap of faith.â€� Although they are similar in age, Stewart and Ryan were at different stages of life last year when their wives were diagnosed with cancer three months apart. While the Cinks’ boys are grown and living on their own, Jennifer and Ryan have two young children. Mason is 10, a huge hockey fan, while Madelyn turns 8 in August. After Ryan got that life-changing phone call from Jennifer, he wanted to come home immediately. She convinced him to stay in Canada, though. After all, there was nothing he could do; it wasn’t like she was having surgery the next day, and RBC, after all, is one of Ryan’s sponsors. It just hits you in the gut. The couple went to the PGA Championship where Ryan finished 42nd and then returned home where Jennifer had a lumpectomy. A week later, while Ryan was playing The Barclays (now called THE NORTHERN TRUST), they got the news that the cancer, already invasive in the breast, had spread into the lymph nodes. So Jennifer started chemotherapy on Sept. 19, the week after Ryan was eliminated from the FedExCup Playoffs at the BMW Championship despite a tie for fourth at Crooked Stick. It was also his 40th birthday. “He still got to have a fun little party the weekend before,â€� Jennifer says. “We had it in the works for several months so we went ahead and had the party.â€� Had Ryan made it to the TOUR Championship, Jennifer said she likely would have waited to start the chemo. At that point, though, Ryan announced on the Ryan Palmer Foundation Facebook page that he was taking time off to be with Jennifer and their kids. “He has a lot of family and friends and supporters who follow that so he just felt like that would be a good way for us to get prayer,â€� Jennifer says. Ryan did not play on TOUR again for four months, returning to competition at the Sony Open in Hawaii earlier this year. Mr. Mom did a “fabulousâ€� job, Jennifer says. He got the kids ready in the morning, often making Mason’s favorite, an omelet, for breakfast and took the kids to school. Although friends put together a meal train three nights a week, Ryan was more than happy to throw a few steaks on the grill, which is his specialty. While he did take time to play some golf, hoping to stay sharp for his return, Ryan also pitched in and did some light housework, helping Jennifer’s mom — who lives nearby — keep things tidy when the chemo took its toll. Turns out he’s a rare bird who actually likes to do laundry, too. “That’s what I needed to do,â€� Ryan says. “I was blessed that I was able to stay home the whole time.â€� “There were times when I said just go play this week, you should go get some competitive rounds in and he said, no, this is where I need to be, this is where I want to be,â€� adds Jennifer. “… It was something he really wanted to do for our family.â€� Stewart and Lisa had been looking forward to this time in their lives. With both sons essentially on their own, the couple was planning to travel the world as Stewart, the 2009 Open Championship winner, played golf. Turns out, that’s exactly what they’ve done, although always on Lisa’s schedule. “There’s not a lot I want to do without her,â€� Cink says. The first week of chemo – she had nine rounds administered through a port in her chest – is usually the worst. The second was a “maybe,â€� Stewart says, and by the third, Lisa usually felt like her old self. The first treatment was May 9, 2016. Three weeks later – “We kind of went to three-week months,â€� Stewart notes – he decided to play at the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational. Lisa had friends visiting in Atlanta and family, including the boys, nearby. So he went to Fort Worth by himself. He shot rounds of 72-75 and missed the cut. “I learned really fast that I wasn’t ready to be out there,â€� says Stewart, who purposely arrived on Wednesday so he could avoid some of the inevitable, albeit well-meaning, questions from his peers. He admits both he and Lisa were “emotionally wrecked.â€� Two weeks later, though, Lisa felt well enough to go with her husband to the FedEx St. Jude Classic. The change of scene was good for them both, and Lisa has made new friends as well as connected with the old. “I just don’t think the house would be a good place to be for a long, long time when you’re going through something like this,â€� Stewart says. “Those four walls start to close pretty fast.â€� In an interview with PGA TOUR Entertainment for a special on the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston where her doctors are based, Lisa said she wasn’t surprised her husband put his golf on hold to focus on her. “That’s who he is, and it’s the relationship we’ve been blessed with,â€� Lisa explained. “And of course, it meant everything to me. I don’t know how people do it alone.â€� The weeks at home allowed Stewart to go with Lisa to her various appointments and treatments. Understanding what is about to happen gives him some semblance of control. “Sometimes when she’s emotional, it’s hard to hear correctly, decipher what the doctor is saying,â€� Stewart explains. “So my role is to take down notes and ask questions and get facts straight so that later on, when she sort of takes deep breaths and can understand it, we can have a conversation and I can kind of spit it back the right way.â€� Lisa says her husband was a great “filterâ€� for what he calls a “firehose of information.â€� She was told not to Google treatments or symptoms, which she thinks is great advice. “But he was so good about hearing the information, researching the information, and giving it to me as I asked or he thought I needed it,â€� she says. Long walks through the old neighborhood near the Rice University campus helped the couple “sort through all this immense amount of terrible information we were getting,â€� Lisa says. Also helpful was mindless entertainment like the shows on HGTV that they both like to watch, and the family and friends who gathered in Houston to lend support. “We had every stool, bench, chair (occupied),â€� she says. A year later, as the couple lives with the disease, Stewart has become the de facto spokesman for the family. There are many times when he feels helpless — “Hence, the faith,â€� Stewart says, adding that he has a list of Bible verses to rely on – and he finds it therapeutic to talk about Lisa’s situation. “It makes me feel like you care about it, for one thing,â€� Stewart says. “That’s a good feeling. You find that when you’re discussing it, you’re not thinking about the future, you kind of talk about what you already know. “It kind of keeps me a little bit grounded in the present.â€� Like Lisa, Jennifer had chemo, six rounds in her case, once every three weeks. Ryan and her friend, Jennifer Hill, who came up from San Antonio, went to every treatment. They weren’t just there for moral support, though – the two had a mission. So that she wouldn’t lose her long dark hair, Jennifer opted to use cold caps to try to cool the scalp during the chemotherapy. It wasn’t that she was vain. She was worried about Mason. “Mason got a little upset thinking about it,â€� Ryan says. “She did the hair preservation for him. So, that was pretty special.â€� The caps are housed in dry ice and cooled to between minus-15 to minus-40 degrees below zero, measured by an infrared thermometer. The caps have to be handled with gloves and changed every 30 minutes – for eight hours straight. That’s where Ryan and Hill came in. “They had to knead them with their hands to make sure all the gel was evenly distributed, and get them to the right temperature,â€� Jennifer says. “Then they’d have a timer and they’d take that one off and put the new one on.â€� It worked. With the exception of a few bald spots under her hair, Jennifer says you’d never know she was a breast cancer survivor. Most importantly, Mason was reassured. No matter how weak or nauseous Jennifer felt while undergoing the chemo or radiation, she got up and got dressed every day. She even made sure she put makeup on. “If you can, you want to try and be as normal as possible for your kids,â€� she said. “You don’t want them to feel like you’re sick. It’s just a difficult subject for a 7-year-old and a 10-year-old to grasp. “My son wanted very concrete answers. He wanted it to be black and white, not gray, and so when we couldn’t give him an exact reason as to why I had it, it was very hard for him.â€� Ryan was amazed at his wife’s strength. “She did more things than I could imagine her doing,â€� he says. And he was glad he could be there to reassure the kids. “In case they had questions, we were there to talk about it together,â€� he adds. “Of course, their fears were the worst. Obviously, Mason’s was. But the main thing is just letting them know nothing is going to happen. “Don’t think the worst because it’s going to be OK.â€� Last fall, Jennifer was able to go with Ryan and their families to see him inducted into the Texas A&M Sports Hall of Fame. She also took a three-day trip to New York City after Christmas and before her final chemo treatment on January 3. “It was kind of like a let’s celebrate that we’re through this one step,â€� Jennifer says. “(It was) a lot of walking, but I kept up with it.â€� When Stewart didn’t qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs last year, he and Lisa went to Switzerland on a busman’s holiday of sorts when he played in a European Tour event. “And I could not believe that in the middle of chemo, I’m getting to go to Switzerland and see this beautiful, just breathtaking place,â€� Lisa said. “And meet these kind, wonderful people that we got to meet and it was such a blessing.â€� Stewart and Ryan played together at the CareerBuilder Challenge and picked each other’s brains about life with cancer. Their wives have been in contact, too, texting prayers and positive thoughts. “I think they’ve been great for each other,â€� Ryan said. And at times, the support the couples have felt from friends on the PGA TOUR has been overwhelming. Flowers, cards, texts and phone calls have helped make the journey easier. Meagan Laird, Martin’s wife, who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, even arranged dinners for the Palmer’s meal train. “She’s doing all this from out of town,â€� Jennifer says. “Isn’t that crazy?â€� Zach Johnson’s wife, Kim, had a quilt made with a small pocket in the back where friends of Stewart and Lisa left spiritual messages. Lisa took the quilt with her to PET scans and was able to “know that these people have prayed for me.â€� And when Lisa went out to Memphis, her first tournament since being diagnosed, the PGA TOUR Wives Association had a special surprise at their annual event at the St. Jude Children’s Hospital. The kids at the hospital had made cards and posters for her. “I just couldn’t imagine why these children, there are having to suffer, they’re pouring out love on me,â€� Lisa says. “And it was such a gift and it was such an encouragement to know how strong these children were. “It gave me a lot of encouragement that I can do this, too.â€� There has been good news of late. Jennifer’s latest mammogram was clear, Ryan reported, and her treatments, which included radiation, will be done in August. Stewart wrote this in his blog on May 8: Amen! PET scan results looked good again today, basically unchanged from the past two, from November and February. Lisa is now in what the doctor called “sustained remission.â€� Cink and Palmer are in the field this week at Colonial. After an emotionally draining year for both men, their wives and their families, a few hours on the golf course each day now offers a chance to step back into their old lives. Their thoughts, however, will never stray far from Lisa and Jennifer and the battle against the toughest of foes.

Click here to read the full article…

When K.H. Lee looks back to the starting point of his golf journey, he can only marvel at how a twist of fate which saw him learn the game with a Ted Lasso-type swing coach has since led him to stardom on the PGA TOUR. In May, Lee became the eighth and latest Korean winner on TOUR following his triumph at the AT&T Byron Nelson which cemented his rise to prominence. And it all began with an initial foray to the local driving range as a 13-year-old trying to lose weight following an initial tinker as a shot put athlete. “My dad had a restaurant and next door was a driving range. I followed him for fun and eventually took lessons. My main motive was to go there and lose weight, but I never lost any weight,” laughed Lee, who tipped the scales at 212 pounds during his teens. After being bitten by the golf bug, Lee found encouragement through the uplifting and inspirational ways of a local golf pro, whose teaching style can be likened to Ted Lasso, the fictional soccer coach starring in the self-titled sports comedy-drama streaming TV series. “The reason I continued was the pro who was teaching juniors, and he kept giving me positive feedback about my swing. He was very encouraging and complimented me often and I felt good. That kept me going in golf and he bragged to others about me, and it made me work hard. I remember my mother was a violin teacher and she tried to teach me which did not go well. When she asked me to practice a piece 10 times, I haphazardly did it without any concentration. Golf was different. It was fun and I could go on for hours.” Within a few years, Lee’s exceptional talents saw him being part of the gold medal Korean Team at the 2010 Asian Games in China, which exempts him from mandatory military service. He turned professional soon after and amassed two victories each on the Korean Tour and Japan Golf Tour from between 2012 to 2016. He subsequently took the big leap of faith to America and qualified for the Korn Ferry Tour in 2016 and two years later, three runner-up results saw him secure his dream PGA TOUR card which Lee cherishes, largely due to the sacrifices and support of his parents through the years. “Like everyone else, my parents sacrificed a lot. They supported me with everything. They never told me to quit even when my game was not going well. My father wanted to be a baseball player, but his parents were against it. Since he could not do what he wanted, he decided to support his son, me,” said Lee, who is the only child. “He encouraged me and helped in every way possible. He was there since the beginning. We would go abroad to practice every winter and he was my chauffer to tournaments. When my father was with me on the Korn Ferry Tour, he had a difficult time with the food. It was difficult to find a decent Korean or Asian restaurant in the countryside and I remember he had his tooth pulled out during one trip! They gave me everything they could, and I cannot sufficiently show my appreciation.” Lee is now one the most jovial golfers on the PGA TOUR, and joked during an interview that he had two big goals in life – to become the No. 1 player in the world and the sexiest golfer alive. “When I won in May, my goals went viral as many golfers were amused by this story,” he said. “Being sexy means to be a muscular guy. It’s in my dream but not quite possible in reality. I want to be muscular, but I enjoy eating so much. For example, I try not to eat dinner if I have a big lunch, but when dinner time comes, I am usually hungry again. I will work out hard, but I will eat hard as well.” With this week’s THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT in Las Vegas being a “home” game for Lee and the other Koreans in the field – the tournament is being played outside its traditional home in Korea for the second straight year due to the pandemic – Lee hopes to hit the jackpot again to get his 2021-22 Season going. “Last season was the best and I couldn’t be more ecstatic. It was my best year on the golf course, and we had a baby,” said Lee, who welcomed the arrival of his first child, a baby girl named Celine Yuna Lee, in July with wife, Joo Yeon Yu. “I’m looking forward to the new season, and the goal will be to have another victory and getting myself into the top-50 in the world. Playing for Korea, representing the International Team in the Presidents Cup next year would also be a huge ambition. I’m trying to focus on winning and if I can get into the top-50, it would probably assure me of a spot in the Presidents Cup. I would be honored beyond measure to represent my country,” added the Korean, who finished 31st on the FedExCup standings last season.

Click here to read the full article…