Jon Rahm is coming off a forced layoff. The Bryson/Brooks feud enters a new chapter. Oh, and Phil Mickelson goes searching for that missing major title.
Click here to read the full article…
| Did you win, but don't know how to collect your winnings? Our partner site Hypercasinos.com will explain how online casinos pay out winnings. |
Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. – Six-time PGA TOUR winner and 2014 FedExCup champion Billy Horschel today announced that he will host a special Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA) Tour event bringing 18 top minority golfers to THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on July 29-31. The Billy Horschel APGA Tour Invitational presented by Cisco, will focus not only on the competition but also in providing key development opportunities for players off the course as well. The Advocates Professional Golf Association was established in 2008 as a non-profit organization with the mission to bring greater diversity to the game of golf. The Tour hosts and operates professional golf tournaments, player development programs, mentoring programs and introduces the game to inner city youth throughout the country. “Growing up in a blue-collar family, I did not always have the same opportunities in golf as some of my fellow competitors. Without some of the success that I had in college, I would have struggled to find financial backing, resources, and industry connections to continue my dream of making it onto the PGA TOUR,” Horschel said. “Through the APGA Tour and The Player Development Program, I want to help support each players’ journey, provide them with some resources, and gain an experience that I hope will benefit each player as they chase their dreams in professional golf. I’m thrilled to have a company like Cisco, who have already shown great support of promoting equality and diversity in golf, to help this event have a massive impact for these young players both inside and outside the ropes.” “I want to thank Billy Horschel for launching this APGA event and giving Cisco the opportunity to support this important initiative,” said Mark Patterson, SVP and Chief of Staff to the Chairman and CEO at Cisco. “At Cisco, we are focused on powering a more inclusive future, and this is another intentional moment where we are proud to step up and provide support for promising golfers, just as we did earlier this year when we welcomed Kamaiu Johnson to Team Cisco. We’re thrilled to be part of this event and look forward to helping more aspiring golfers reach their full potential!” The event will include an initial day of a pro-am, roundtable, seminars and other development opportunities all with key partners and industry leaders. The competition will challenge the players with 36 holes at THE PLAYERS Stadium course, home of THE PLAYERS Championship. “We are grateful that Billy Horschel took the initiative to start this event and for Cisco’s support to help us continue to create unique opportunities for our players to grow and develop as golfers both on and off the course. Billy’s passion to help these young men is beyond incredible,” said APGA Tour CEO Ken Bentley. “The APGA Tour is a special group of players who all have stories of perseverance and determination. Events like this are crucial for the guys in our development program to continue to progress as golfers and also to introduce them to the variety of opportunities in the golf industry as a whole. I can’t wait to see our guys spend three days at the home of the PGA TOUR and take on TPC Sawgrass.” The event will include several rising stars including Kamaiu Johnson and Willie Mack who each have made multiple starts on the PGA TOUR this year. Johnson returned from his PGA TOUR experience to win in his first event back on the APGA Tour at TPC Las Vegas in April. Mack is one of the most successful players in the history of the APGA Tour with six victories and two Lexus Cup titles. Mack has 65 professional victories and won a record 11 times as a member of the Bethune Cookman golf team. Rovonta Young and Jacksonville native Jarred Garcia each won earlier this year in Florida on the APGA Tour. Young was introduced to the game by his grandfather at a young age while his mom was deployed during her military service. Garcia’s victory in Port St. Lucie came at just the right time as both his parents lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other APGA Tour standouts in the field include Marcus Byrd, Joey Stills, Michael Herrera, Davin White and Ryan Alford, who won the most recent event at TPC Scottsdale. The 18-player field will consist of: • Nine players from the APGA Tour Player Development Program – Ryan Alford – Marcus Byrd – Jarred Garcia – Michael Hererra – Kamaiu Johnson – Willie Mack III – Joey Stills – Davin White – Rovanta Young • Five graduates from the APGA Collegiate Ranking – Mulbe Dillard – Andrew Walker – Mahindra Lutchman – Cameron Riley – Prince Cunningham • The top-ranked player in the current APGA Collegiate Ranking – TBD • Three Sponsor’s Exemptions – TBD
After the PGA Championship moved to May last year, it returns to August because of the schedule shuffling caused by the coronavirus. For the first time since 1971, the PGA will be the first major championship of the season. Brooks Koepka looks for a PGA Championship three-peat at TPC Harding Park but will do so in front of no spectators. FIELD NOTES: Tiger Woods will make his return to action after finishing T40 at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. That is his lone start since February… Woods and Rory McIlroy have both won World Golf Championships at TPC Harding Park in the last 15 years (Woods in 2005 and McIlroy in 2015)… Ninety-five of the top 100 in the world are expected to tee it up at TPC Harding Park… Justin Thomas returns to the PGA Championship (a title he won in 2017) after not playing last year due to a wrist injury… Twenty PGA of America professionals will be in the field (from the 2019 PGA Professional Player of the Year standings)… Jim Furyk, Adam Scott, and Zach Johnson are the only golfers in the field who played both the 2009 Presidents Cup and both World Golf Championship events (2005, 2015) contested at TPC Harding Park. FEDEXCUP: Winner gets 600 FedExCup points. COURSE: TPC Harding Park, 7,234 yards, par 70. The first course on the west coast to host the PGA Championship since Sahalee in 1998, TPC Harding Park has a lengthy history with the PGA TOUR. Set against Lake Merced, the course was substantially renovated in the early 2000s, including adding 400 yards to make it a championship-ready golf facility. The course opened 95 years ago and was designed by Sam Whiting and Willie Watson and named after President Warren G. Harding. The course has hosted two World Golf Championships and the PGA TOUR Champions season finale – the Charles Schwab Cup Championship – in 2010, 2011, and 2013. TPC Harding Park was the also the home of the 2009 Presidents Cup and will once again play host in 2026. STORYLINES: The PGA is the penultimate event of the PGA TOUR’s regular season. After Harding Park, only the Wyndham Championship remains for players to jockey for position entering the FedExCup Playoffs and the conclusion of the Wyndham Rewards Top 10 race… Brooks Koepka looks to be the first golfer to win the PGA Championship three years in a row since Walter Hagen (who won four in a row from 1924-1927 during the match-play era of the championship)… Jordan Spieth will once again try for the career grand slam. This is his fourth crack at it… Golfers ranked No. 1 in the world at the time (Woods and McIlroy) won both of the PGA TOUR events held at TPC Harding Park… There hasn’t been a non-American winner of the PGA Championship since Jason Day in 2015… Tiger Woods looks to win his fifth PGA Championship title, which would tie him for the most all time with Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus. 72-HOLE RECORD: 264, Brooks Koepka (2018 at Bellerive CC) 18-HOLE RECORD: 63, Bruce Crampton (2nd round, 1975 at Firestone CC), Raymond Floyd (1st round, 1982 at Southern Hills), Gary Player (2nd round, 1984 at Shoal Creek), Michael Bradley (1st round, 1993 at Inverness), Vijay Singh (2nd round, 1993 at Inverness), Brad Faxon (4th round, 1995 at Riviera CC), José María Olazábal (3rd round, 2000 at Valhalla), Mark O’Meara (2nd round, 2001 at Atlanta AC), Thomas Bjorn (3rd round, 2005 at Baltusrol), Tiger Woods (2nd round, 2007 at Southern Hills), Steve Stricker (1st round, 2011 at Atlanta AC), Jason Dufner (2nd round, 2013 at Oak Hill), Hiroshi Iwata (2nd round, 2015 at Whistling Straits), Robert Streb (2nd round, 2016 at Baltusrol), Brooks Koepka (2nd round, 2018 at Bellerive; 1st round, 2019 at Bethpage Black), Charl Schwartzel (2nd round, 2018 at Bellerive). LAST TIME: Brooks Koepka finished at 8 under and joined Tiger Woods as the only back-to-back PGA Championship winners since the major went to stroke play in 1958. Koepka led wire-to-wire but stumbled home in the final round with a 4-over-par 74 at Bethpage Black. He had a record seven-shot lead heading into Sunday but lost most of it over a difficult and windy day in New York. It was Koepka’s fourth title in his last eight major championship appearances. Dustin Johnson had the full support of the crowd (at one point after Koepka made four-straight bogeys on the back nine they were chanting, ‘DJ, DJ, DJ’) but ended up two shots back at 6-under for the week. Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, and Matt Wallace finished T3. Luke List (-1) finished sixth alone, and was the only other golfer to be under par for the week. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. (ESPN+), 4 p.m.-10 p.m. (ESPN). Saturday, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. (ESPN+), 1 p.m.-4 p.m. (ESPN), 4 p.m.-10 p.m. (CBS). Sunday, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. (ESPN+), 12 p.m.-3 p.m. (ESPN), 3 p.m.-9 p.m. (CBS) Radio: Thursday-Saturday, 4 p.m.-10 p.m. Sunday 3 p.m.-9 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).
A victorious Justin Rose started Sunday at the World Golf Championships – HSBC Champions playing for second place. While he hadn’t given up at Sheshan International he was realistic… he trailed the world No. 1 golfer Dustin Johnson by eight shots and Johnson had a six-shot buffer on his nearest rival. Rose had been here before – chasing down a supremely talented and in form golfer – and always set himself mini challenges. This time he pitted himself in a fictional match play battle on the back nine when he made the turn still six back of the lead. “I played a game with myself where I said, okay, I’m 4-down to the golf course: Can I win my match. Or I was thinking: Can I tie my match. 13-under par was by goal, and I exceeded that in the end,â€� Rose said. Exceeded he did. Rose – who had three bogeys in his last four holes during a front-nine even-par 36 – found five birdies between 11 and 17 to shoot 5-under 31 and finish at 14 under for the tournament. Recently he was seven behind Marc Leishman with a round to go at the BMW Championship but just two behind second place. In January last year he was eight behind leader Justin Thomas at the Sony Open, but just one back of second. On both occasions, he played his mini games and targeted second place and succeeded. He knew to win he would need help from the leader so why not just focus on what he could control just in case it eventuated. Thomas and Leishman closed but this time Johnson spectacularly collapsed. And as such Rose was ready. Johnson, who had steadied after back-to-back bogeys to open his round in blustery and tough windy conditions, dropped shots on the 12th, 15th and 16th and the breakdown was complete after a 5-over 77. An incredible 10 shots worse than Rose. “It was the perfect type of weather conditions to make a comeback,â€� Rose said. “This is the type of day when you are playing with a lead, every hole seems difficult. Obviously, someone is still capable of playing a special round of golf. And my back nine was just amazing today.â€� And so Johnson, who was poised to hold three of the four WGC trophies at one time, instead gave up the biggest 54-hole lead in WGC history. The last time the best player in the world gave up a lead like that was the 1996 Masters where Greg Norman collapsed from six ahead to give nick Faldo a third green jacket. The eight-shot deficit was the equal third biggest comeback in PGA TOUR history behind only Paul Lawrie (10 shots 1999 Open Championship) and Stewart Cink (nine shots 2004 RBC Heritage). “It’s the kind of day you certainly don’t expect,â€� Rose said. “It’s the kind of day you hope for, dream for, but a lot of things need to go your way in order for a day like today to happen… especially going against a player like DJ.â€� The win is Rose’s eighth triumph on the PGA TOUR and second WGC title. Having tasted five runner-up finishes since his last TOUR win in 2015 at the Zurich Classic it was a sweet one. The 550 FedExCup points rocket him to third on the points list early in the season – last year’s HSBC Champions winner Hideki Matsuyama rode the win all the way to the top seed entering the Playoffs. Of course Rose broke up his win “droughtâ€� with an Olympic Gold medal in 2016 so he has won somewhere in the world in each calendar year since 2010. “Whenever you beat the top players in the world, that gives a tournament victory so much more meaning, and obviously with a leaderboard like we had today with Dustin, Brooks (Koepka), (Henrik) Stenson, I take a lot of pride in winning this tournament,â€� he said. “And winning in China, to travel, to take your game internationally I think is something that’s very important to do.â€� Winning is always important – but so it seems is playing for second.
