Xander Schauffele still has plenty to prove at the BMW Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Bubba Watson was walking to the 17th tee Thursday when the police officer assigned to his group told him the news: There would be no fans for the remainder of THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Related: PGA TOUR events to continue without fans on site “I’m a head case, so I’m worried just like anybody else,â€� said Watson (71). “If anybody says they’re not worried, they’re just lyin’. It’s one of those things we’re all worried about, we’re all trying to do the right things. Hopefully this blows over and we get back to normal life, but for the next few weeks, or the next few months, normal life is going to be disrupted a little bit.â€� In addition to the final 54 holes of THE PLAYERS, there will be no fans at upcoming TOUR events through the Valero Texas Open, April 2-5, as the PGA TOUR continues to monitor the Coronavirus situation. It will not be the first time a TOUR event has been played without galleries. Fans weren’t allowed on the course for the second round of the ZOZO Championship earlier this season, but that was because of rain and course damage. The same was true of the final round of the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open and round three of the 2012 AT&T National. A global pandemic, though, is something altogether different. Amid news of the NBA suspending its season – a Utah Jazz player has tested positive – and other suspensions and cancellations in and out of sports, PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan made the no-fans announcement at noon Thursday. The TOUR continues to monitor health information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization, and travel advisories provided by the U.S. State Department. Meanwhile, the show goes on at THE PLAYERS, minus the fans. “I’ve never played a TOUR event like we were going to play tomorrow with no fans,â€� said Phil Mickelson (75), making the 623rd start of his TOUR career. “It will be a very weird experience, and I feel bad for the people here that have supported this tournament for so many decades to not be able to come on out. But this is a pretty serious thing.â€� Marc Leishman (67) was in the field at the 2012 AT&T National when no fans were allowed. In fact, he played in the group in front of Tiger Woods, which usually means huge galleries. But not that day. “Just the grounds staff and such, so it’s different,â€� Leishman said. “We’re going to have to work on getting the competitive juices flowing, even though there’s no crowds. I don’t really play much golf on my weeks off, so I don’t generally play with no people around, even when I play at home.â€� “I mean it’s definitely going to be different and it’s not going to be as fun,â€� added Justin Thomas (71), who heard the news as he and Rickie Fowler (76) and Jordan Spieth (75) made the turn. As for his score, Thomas said: “It doesn’t really matter.â€� He and others supported the TOUR’s decision as necessary and bigger than golf. “Great first step,â€� said Lucas Glover (70). “It’s what we had to do.â€� Gary Woodland (74) also said it was “the right call,â€� and added he heard some fans talking about the news mid-round. Spieth did, too, but initially wasn’t sure what they were talking about. “A couple times guys were saying, ‘We’re going to miss you guys this weekend’ during the middle of the round,â€� he said. “We thought that was kind of rude, like meaning we’re not going to be here this weekend (after missing the cut), and then I realized that … there’s no spectators the rest of the week, and I was like, all right, we’ll let that guy off.â€� Several players had to think when asked when they last played competitively without fans. “I never have,â€� said Aaron Baddeley (71). “It’s going to be different.â€� “There’s been events,â€� Thomas said, “where if I’m not playing very well, you tee off at 7 a.m. and you look over and it is my mom and dad and my uncle or something and you’re talking with them walking down the fairway because you’re in 54th place or whatever it might be. “In terms of an actual tournament,â€� he added, “I mean probably going back to high school golf or college golf, I mean even small college events still had fans, so it’s just it’s going to be wild.â€� Added Scottie Scheffler, who shot a 4-under 68 in his first competitive round at THE PLAYERS, “I’m sure it’ll be a little weird. I really don’t know what to expect, and it may be like high school golf again; there’s going to be nobody out there but me and my mom and dad.â€� Unlike the NBA and other leagues who are suspending play for the time being, TOUR pros said the unique nature of golf – outdoors and spread out over 400 acres, in the case of TPC Sawgrass – allows them to continue to play. “We’re outside, we’re an outdoor sport, and I think that really helps,â€� said 2018 PLAYERS champion Webb Simpson. “Heck, we’re probably better off continuing to play tournaments than … being inside, so I think it’s a good call.â€� The silver lining, several players said, will be the continuing TV coverage. “Without fans it’ll be a bummer,â€� said Jimmy Walker (69). “But our TV (coverage) is pretty strong, so fans will still get to feel like they’re part of it and watch.â€�

Click here to read the full article…

ERIN, Wis. — Brooks Koepka traveled around the world to find his game. He found stardom right at home as the U.S. Open champion. Koepka broke away from a tight pack with three straight birdies on the back nine Sunday at Erin Hills and closed with a 5-under 67 to win the U.S. Open for his first major championship. A par on the final hole tied Rory McIlroy’s record score to par at 16 under for a four-shot victory. Not even the wind could stop the onslaught of low scores at Erin Hills. And nothing could stop Koepka. “What I’ve done this week is amazing,” Koepka. Tied for the lead with six holes to play, Koepka made an 8-foot par putt on the 13th hole. As Brian Harman began to fade, Koepka poured it on with birdies over the next three holes, lightly pumping his fist after each one. His reaction was subdued, just like his close friend and last year’s U.S. Open champion, Dustin Johnson. They spend time a lot of time together on the course, in the gym and at home, so Koepka has seen that U.S. Open trophy plenty at Johnson’s house in south Florida. And now he gets to keep it for a year, with his name on it. It capped quite a journey for the 27-year-old Floridian. Without a card on any tour when Koepka got out of Florida State, he filled his passport with stamps from the most unlikely outposts in golf while playing the minor leagues on the European Tour — Kazakhstan and Kenya, Portugal and India and throughout Europe. It was at the U.S. Open three years ago when Koepka tied for fourth that helped earn a PGA TOUR card, and he powered his way from obscurity to his first PGA TOUR victory in Phoenix, his first Ryder Cup team last fall and now a major championship. Harman’s chances ended with two straight bogeys, and a bogey on the par-5 18th hole gave him a 72 and a tie for second with Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, who closed with a 66. Matsuyama didn’t need to stick around very long. Koepka simply couldn’t miss. Koepka, who finished at 16-under 272, became the seventh straight first-time winner of a major championship, and it was the first time since 1998-2000 that Americans won their national championship three straight years. Tommy Fleetwood, who played alongside Koepka and closed with a 72 to finish fourth, played the Challenge Tour a year before Koepka arrived. “It gives you a good grounding,” Fleetwood said. “Obviously, Brooks dealt with it amazingly. He came and kicked everyone’s (behind) over there, didn’t he? But he’s proven for a long time how good he is. Now he’s done it in a major.” It was only fitting that Koepka left Erin Hills with yet another record matched or broken. McIlroy finished at 16-under 268 when he won on rain-softened Congressional in the 2011 U.S. Open. But the low scoring went much deeper than that. Only six players had ever reached double digits under par in the previous 116 times at the U.S. Open. McIlroy and Tiger Woods (12 under at Pebble Beach in 2000) had been the only players to finish there. This week alone, nine players reached at least 10 under and seven finished there. Xander Schauffele, a rookie on the PGA TOUR playing in his first U.S. Open, birdied his last hole for a 69 to tie for fifth at 10-under 268 along with Bill Haas (69) and Rickie Fowler (72), who was poised at yet another major to win only to fall back. Fowler started one shot out of the lead at the Masters this year and shot 76. He was only two behind when he made the turn, but bogeys on the 12th and 15th holes — and no birdies until No. 18 — ended his hopes. Justin Thomas, coming off a 9-under 63 that matched the major championship scoring record and was the first 9-under round at a U.S. Open, went out in 39 and closed with a 75 to tie for ninth. The week ended with 31 players under par, breaking the U.S. Open record of 28 players at Medinah in 1990. There were 133 sub-par rounds, nine more than the previous record in that 1990 U.S. Open. Erin Hills, an 11-year-old course shaped out of Wisconsin pastureland, didn’t put up much of a fight without much wind. The strongest gusts were Sunday morning and it tapered to a strong breeze by the afternoon. No one was more solid from start to finish than Koepka. He opened with a pair of tap-in birdies and putted for birdie on every hole but the par-3 13th. Of all his birdies, that 8-foot par putt might have been as big as any. “I needed something to go in and see that to build momentum off it, and just carried that over,” Koepka said.

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…