Woodland takes 1-shot lead over Rose in US Open

SANDWICH, England – A 13-year-old Brooks Koepka fell in love with links golf on a trip around the 2003 Open Championship at Royal St. George’s – even though he slept through the winning putt from champion Ben Curtis. The eight-time PGA TOUR winner and four-time major champ was flooded with fond memories from a golf trip of a lifetime during his childhood as he returned in preparation for the 149th Open Championship. “We got the opportunity to come over here and play St. Andrews, Carnoustie, (and) come watch the final round of The Open. Me, my mom and my little brother, we came over a couple days early from when the whole thing was going to start, and just got to play links golf. I thought it was so much fun. That’s kind of when I fell in love with it,” Koepka said. Koepka and his fellow touring pro brother Chase were able to have an exchange with idol Tiger Woods during The Open, but when it came to being present at the finish, Brooks, like Woods that year, came up a little short. As longshot Curtis made his last-ditch par putt to get in the clubhouse at 1 under and Dane Thomas Bjorn was coughing up a lead to hand the American the Claret Jug, Koepka was earning the ire of his mother. “I remember my brother at the time, he thought it was so cool. Tiger was playing on 13 and my brother had said something and Tiger said something back to him, and we thought it was the coolest thing at the time,” Koepka grinned. “It’s kind of funny, I think with about three holes left… I ended up falling asleep right in the little pavilion to the right of 18 and didn’t even see the finish. I remember getting yelled at by my mom. ‘I didn’t bring you over here to fall asleep’ kind of deal. But it was fun. We enjoyed the whole trip, and it was a cool family trip.” With the reminiscing done Koepka’s attention turned to the tournament at hand. He arrives with three top-5 finishes on the PGA TOUR in his last four starts, including a runner-up at the PGA Championship and a tie for fourth at the U.S. Open. With three top-10s in his last four Open Championship starts, Koepka looks like a huge threat as he looks to chalk up a third leg of a career Grand Slam. Ironically, he says his success in the majors may have hurt his Open Championship efforts in the past. “I probably haven’t played my best over here. I think over the last couple years — I don’t want to say it’s been a distraction, but I’ve won the PGA or the U.S. Open before, and I’ve enjoyed those weeks after a little too much,” he said. “Maybe I always don’t have the best of prep coming into this. But I feel good … coming off a couple good finishes. Felt like I was playing well. I’m pretty excited for this week. It’s a major, so I’ll be up for it, and excited to play. “I’ve always enjoyed playing links golf. I think it takes a lot of creativity and imagination. In the States a lot of times you just throw it up high in the air and the ball is going to stop, where (here) you’ve really got to pay attention where the ball is going to bounce into the green. You might have 50 yards but you’ve got about six clubs you could play. I think that’s fun. It brings out the creative side. It’s fun. I love it.” This week it might just love him back.

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We live in an advanced age where science and technology have given us a deeper understanding of the world around us. Science can’t answer every question, though, and when it falls short, people often flock to the transcendent. That’s true in life, and in golf. Such a dichotomy is apparent in an age of Trackman and analytics. Some lean on math and science in their quest to conquer the unconquerable game. Others take a more artistic approach. Can the two sides coexist? That’s the question that Brett Cyrgalis tackles in his book, “Golf’s Holy War,� released this month. We spoke to Cyrgalis to learn more about his book and his views on the current state of the game. PGATOUR.COM: The book’s title implies conflict. Do you see competing factions in the game? BRETT CYRAGALIS: There’s a conflict there between thinking you can know everything and knowing that … there’s more to the game than just the data. That’s really where the conflict is. There’s two works that show these two factions. One is “The Golfing Machine,� which is like this super-technical book that Bryson DeChambeau aligns himself with. And there’s “Golf In The Kingdom,� which is this very weird, mystical, semi-fictional book written by Michael Murphy who started a consciousness camp on the shores of Big Sur. People attach themselves to science and want to be objective, but there is this longing and (“Golf In The Kingdom�) resonates a lot more with people. It comes down to what makes you love the game? It’s probably not having your elbow in the perfect position. It’s probably seeing the grass and smelling the ocean and enjoying your time. This isn’t meant to poo-poo science and data. They’re very useful. The more information and knowledge you have, it’s good. But that doesn’t necessarily make you a better player. And for almost everybody in the world, you’re not trying to make a living playing golf. You’re trying to enjoy yourself. PGATOUR.COM: There are two characters from your book that I want to talk about. The first is Michael Murphy. Tell us about him and the time you spent with him. CYRAGALIS: Michael Murphy is as interesting as you imagine. He’s tall and broad-shouldered. When I met him, he was 82, but he looked like he was in his late 60s. He has this intelligence that you can’t avoid. And he’s funny and irreverent, but he has such a strong belief in the mystical that he kind of drops little hints every now and then. He told me that he thought Tiger Woods had a shamanistic gift and how he had this transcendent moment watching Tiger Woods at The Honda Classic one year, and how he thinks watching Tiger is like watching Frodo Baggins on his journey and he can’t get enough of it. He had this spiritual awakening when he was at Stanford, and he decided that he wanted to study at a Hindu ashram in India and on his way he was going to play a round of golf. And so he stopped in St. Andrews and played a round of golf and went on his way. In the book, he tells the same story of a guy named Michael Murphy, who is traveling to India but stopped to play golf in Scotland. He plays a course called Burningbush, and he bumps into a teacher and a student, and the teacher is giving a lesson in golf mysticism. He sees orbs floating around the ball and talks about how to channel your inner game, in a Hindu, spiritual, religious kind of way. It’s a weird book. It sounds weirder to explain it than to read it. It’s connected with so many people. Clint Eastwood bought the movie rights. Murphy is a character and the book, I think it’s seminal in the game. PGATOUR.COM: And tell us about Sam Byrd, the former Yankee who had a hand in the modern golf swing. CYRAGALIS: Sam Byrd played for the Yankees in the early ‘30s. He was known as “Babe Ruth’s Legs� because he would come in and replace Babe Ruth late in games. He was a great golfer. Bobby Jones said he was the best driver of the golf ball he’d ever seen. He ended up turning pro and (winning six times on the PGA TOUR). I found this story because when I started asking about the first player on the PGA TOUR to really use a coach, it went back to this guy Mac McLendon. He was a good player out of college, but he didn’t think he hit it far enough and got all fouled up. So, he was looking for answers and he went to see Jimmy Ballard. Jimmy taught Mac McLendon and Mac became a good player and won a couple times on TOUR. So everyone started going to Jimmy Ballard, like Curtis Strange and Sandy Lyle. But Jimmy Ballard goes back to Sam Byrd because Sam ran a driving range and a young Jimmy Ballard worked there. This was the beginning of the drill of putting the headcover under the lead arm. It used to be a very common sight on driving ranges. That goes back to Sam Byrd because Sam said that when he was called up to the Yankees, Babe Ruth told him to put a handkerchief under his arm when he swung. That was the idea of connection. When Hogan saw Byrd play in the PGA Championship, he went up to him after that and said, “What do you know about putting a stick on a ball that no one else does?� PGATOUR.COM: So, who wins this war? CYRAGALIS: I don’t think a side wins. I think the answer is in the middle ground. Now that all the science is so prolific and everyone has their hands on it and sees it, it’s not proprietary info anymore. Every teacher needs to know a little bit of this stuff. I think the next wave is about figuring out how your student learns. You need all of this info in your head. You need to know how all this stuff works, but then you need to know how to say it to the student, so they become better. It’s a fascinating idea because golf is this weird, esoteric game with this history, and it’s in a really interesting place right now.

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HOUSTON – Local amateur Cole Hammer, having just completed a 5-under 67 at the Houston Open that included eight birdies, immediately turned his attention to another big sports event in the city later in the evening. The decisive Game 5 between the Astros and the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL Division Series. “I’m going to do everything I can to try to get to the stadium,â€� Hammer said, “I think it’s going to be a great atmosphere. I’m a huge Astros fan, have been for as long as I can remember. I’m praying for tonight.â€� MORE ON HAMMER: When will it be time to turn pro? At least some of his prayers were answered a while later, as he was able to procure tickets to the game that would send the winner to the AL Championship Series against the New York Yankees. (Whether his prayers for an Astros win are answered would have to wait at least nine innings.) The 20-year-old Hammer, a University of Texas sophomore playing on a sponsor exemption this week, was impressive in his opening round Thursday after a shaky start. Starting his round off the 10th tee, he double-bogeyed the par-4 11th when he found the water with his tee shot. He immediately bounced back at the short par-4 12th, his pitch shot from 45 yards leaving him inside 5 feet for birdie. That was the first of eight in his round, as he became the eighth amateur since 1996 at a PGA TOUR event to record eight birdies in one round. Ty Tryon has the record of nine in the opening round of the 2001 B.C. Open. “Not a bad start in my book, that’s for sure,â€� Hammer said. Hammer hit just 6 of 14 fairways, but he leaned heavily on his putter to bail him out. He gained more than 4 strokes on the putting surface, the second-best performance in the field. Hammer is making just the second PGA TOUR start of his career. His first was at the 2015 U.S. Open when he qualified as a 15-year-old. He didn’t make the cut that week, but he’s in good shape to reach the weekend this time. “Feels like my first U.S. Open was so long ago,â€� Hammer said. “Yeah, I was a little bit nervous at the beginning of the round and then kind of settled down and was able to roll in some putts and it was a great start. Just what I wanted.â€� As it turned out, he also got the Astros tickets that he wanted. All in all, it was a pretty good day.

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