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      Phil Mickelson Apologizes for Support of Saudi-Backed Golf League

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      Mickelson called his recent comments “reckless” and said he will consider taking a break from competing as KPMG, his longtime sponsor, announced it would no longer represent the golfer.Phil Mickelson on Tuesday said he regretted his recent comments in support of a breakaway golf tour backed by Saudi Arabia and suggested he might take a leave from the golf course to “prioritize the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.”“I used words I sincerely regret that do not reflect my true feelings or intentions,” Mickelson said in a statement. “It was reckless, I offended people and I am deeply sorry for my choice of words. I’m beyond disappointed and will make every effort to self-reflect and learn from this.”A Statement from Phil Mickelson pic.twitter.com/2saaXIxhpu— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) February 22, 2022
      A proposed Super Golf League, whose main source of funding is the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, a sovereign wealth fund worth more than $400 billion, has tried over the last year to lure prominent golfers like Mickelson away from the long-established PGA Tour.In an interview for an unauthorized biography to be released in May, Mickelson told the journalist Alan Shipnuck, the book’s author, that he knew of the kingdom’s “horrible record on human rights,” but said he was willing to help the new league because it was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to dramatically increase the income of PGA Tour players.In a story posted last week on The Firepit Collective, a golf website, Shipnuck quoted Mickelson, a six-time major golf champion, as saying the Saudi authorities were “scary” and using a profanity to describe them. Mickelson also noted the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist who was assassinated in 2018 with the approval of the kingdom’s crown prince, according to U.S. intelligence officials, and alluded to the criminalization of homosexuality in Saudi Arabia, where it is punishable by death.Mickelson’s comments spurred a vociferous backlash from the highest-ranking players on the PGA Tour, almost all of whom have publicly rebuffed the new, alternative league. Rory McIlroy, a four-time major winner and one of the tour’s most respected players, called Mickelson’s remarks, “naïve, selfish, egotistical, ignorant.”McIlroy’s contemporaries, a younger breed that now represents professional golf’s hierarchy, were similarly dismissive of the comments attributed to Mickelson, who is 51.“I don’t do this for the money, which to me is the only appeal to go over there,” Jon Rahm, 27, said of the upstart Super Golf League. Added Rahm, who is atop the men’s golf rankings: “They throw numbers at you that’s supposed to impress people. I’m in this game for the love of golf and the love of the game and to become a champion.”Mickelson’s longtime rival Tiger Woods also professed his fealty to the PGA Tour, which is based in America. And Mickelson’s comments may have fostered even more support for it as two more top golfers, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau — both of whom had been noncommittal about the new league — announced that they were sticking with the tour.Late Tuesday afternoon, KPMG, a professional services firm and a longstanding Mickelson sponsor, announced that it would end its relationship with Mickelson effective immediately.Mickelson’s statement on Tuesday could be an attempt to ward off a possible suspension from the tour. He said his actions had always “been with the best interest of golf, my peers, sponsors and fans.”He also implied that his remarks were “off-record comments being shared out of context and without my consent.”Minutes after Mickelson released his statement, Shipnuck, on Twitter, called Mickelson’s contention that his comments had been off the record “completely false.”While Mickelson’s statement on Tuesday was rambling, he seemed to be trying to make the case that alternatives to the PGA Tour were not without merit.Mickelson, surrounded by fans, shortly before winning the P.G.A. Championship last May.Erik S Lesser/EPA, via Shutterstock“Golf desperately needs change, and real change is always preceded by disruption,” he said. “I have always known that criticism would come with exploring anything new. I still chose to put myself at the forefront of this to inspire change, taking the hits publicly to do the work behind the scenes.”Mickelson, a popular player who won the P.G.A. Championship in 2021, addressed his corporate sponsors who may be unwilling to continue their relationships with him.“The last thing I would ever want to do is compromise them or their business in any way, and I have given all of them the option to pause or end the relationship,” he said, adding: “I believe in these people and companies and will always be here for them with or without a contract.”Mickelson concluded his statement with a discussion of his triumphs and setbacks.“I have experienced many successful and rewarding moments that I will always cherish, but I have often failed myself and others, too,” he said. “The past 10 years I have felt the pressure and stress slowly affecting me at a deeper level. I know I have not been my best and desperately need some time away to prioritize the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.” More

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      If Mickelson Bolts for Saudi-Backed Tour, Will Young Golfers Follow?

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      Mickelson, one of the game’s most popular players, has simultaneously spent nearly three decades vexing the sport’s leadership, while collecting nearly $100 million in earnings.It is hardly a surprise that Phil Mickelson is playing the provocateur in the growing drama over a proposed, breakaway Saudi Arabia-backed golf league that hopes to lure top professional golfers from the long-established PGA Tour. Mickelson, one of the game’s most popular players, has simultaneously spent nearly three decades vexing the sport’s leadership, whether it has been the august United States Golf Association or the PGA Tour, from whom Mickelson has collected nearly $100 million in career earnings.So Mickelson’s pedigree as a freethinking firebrand is well established. But even that reputation could not have forecast the striking comments attributed to him when discussing the proposed Super Golf League, whose main source of funding is the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, a sovereign wealth fund worth more than $400 billion.In an interview for an unauthorized biography to be released in May, Mickelson told journalist Alan Shipnuck, the book’s author, that he knew of the kingdom’s “horrible record on human rights,” but was willing to help the new league because it was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to dramatically increase PGA Tour players’ income.In a story posted on “The Firepit Collective” golf website, Shipnuck quoted Mickelson as saying the Saudi authorities were “scary,” and used a profanity to describe them. He noted the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist who was assassinated in 2018 with the approval of the kingdom’s crown prince, according to U.S. intelligence officials. Mickelson also alluded to the criminalization of homosexuality in Saudi Arabia, where it is punishable by death.“We know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights,” Mickelson was quoted as saying. “They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”Mickelson’s main target was Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, who he claimed would help players financially only if forced to do so. The upstart league, Mickelson said, gave the players new leverage. Earlier this month, in an interview with Golf Digest, Mickelson castigated the tour for its “obnoxious greed.”For Mickelson, who is 51 and a six-time major champion, his remarks will likely only further isolate him from the young golfers rising in the sport. For the most part, these new kingpins of golf have pledged their allegiance to the PGA Tour, which has vowed to suspend any player aligning with the alternative league., with lifetime expulsion from the PGA Tour also a possibility.Thursday at the Genesis Invitational, a tour event being played near Los Angeles, Justin Thomas, who is eighth in the men’s world golf rankings and active in helping set tour policies, was unsparing when discussing Mickelson.“Seems like a bit of a pretty, you know, egotistical statement,” Thomas said. Referring to Mickelson and any other players who want to defect from the tour, Thomas, 28, added: “If they’re that passionate, go ahead. I don’t think anybody’s stopping them.”While no tour golfer has committed to the upstart league, a few golfers, most of them over 45, have been noncommittal about it and offered mild praise for some elements proposed by the rival league, like fewer tournaments and appearance fees at events that are paid to top golfers regardless of how they perform on the golf course.But the split with the golfers born after 1985 could not be more conspicuous.Rory McIlroy, at the Genesis Invitational on Wednesday, said he is “so sick” of hearing about the Saudi-backed tour.Cliff Hawkins/Getty ImagesRory McIlroy, a four-time major winner, called the proposed new golf circuit “the not so super league.” He added: “I’m so sick of it.”McIlroy, 32, also suggested that it was only older players past their prime looking for a hefty payday who are weighing an exit from the PGA Tour.“I can maybe make sense of it for the guys that are getting to the latter stages of their career, for sure,” he said. “But I don’t think that’s what a rival golf league is really. That’s not what they’re going to want, is it? They don’t want some sort of league that’s like a pre-Champions Tour.”The Champions Tour is a scaled-down, separate wing of tournaments within the PGA Tour umbrella that is open to golfers more than 50 years old.“You’ve got the top players in the world saying ‘no,’ so that has to tell you something,” McIlroy said.Jon Rahm, the top-ranked men’s golfer, was also dismissive of the proposed league.“I don’t do this for the money, which to me is the only appeal to go over there,” Rahm, 27, said. “They throw numbers at you and that’s supposed to impress people. I’m in this game for the love of golf and the love of the game and to become a champion.”Perhaps the hottest young star, Collin Morikawa, 25, shook his head when asked where he stands on the potential for a new league.“I’m all for the PGA Tour, my entire life I’ve thought about the PGA Tour,” Morikawa, who has won two major championships in the last two years, said. “I’ve never thought about anything else; it’s always been the PGA Tour.”Many other players have expressed support for the PGA Tour, most notably the golfer who served as the idol for nearly all the young players now rising to the top of tour leaderboards.“I’m supporting the PGA Tour,” Tiger Woods said emphatically late last year when asked about the proposed venture. “That’s where my legacy is.”When pressed, Woods looked almost annoyed and insisted he had no interest in listening to discussions about a rival league.Tiger Woods, at the 2020 Masters tournament, has spoken in strong support of the PGA Tour.Doug Mills/The New York TimesAdam Scott, who is 41 and the 2013 Masters champion, did not close the door to joining the Saudi-backed league when asked about it this week. In the last decade, Scott has significantly reduced his playing schedule and fallen to No. 46 in the men’s rankings. Lee Westwood, who is 48 and a 25-time winner on the European Tour, said earlier this month that he had signed a nondisclosure agreement and could not discuss the projected new league.But most pros on the PGA Tour do not seem to expect a major disruption of the status quo.Pat Perez, an outspoken tour journeyman, believes Woods’s voice — not surprisingly — carries the most weight. The modern tour, after all, was built on the back of Woods’s towering successes. Perhaps one could consider this another chapter in the longstanding Mickelson-Woods rivalry.“I think the way Tiger’s approaching it is phenomenal,” Perez, 45, said Thursday. “He understands where he made all his money. I think these young kids, they’re backing Tiger. What he says is pretty much gold.”Perez continued: “If you don’t have the top kids doing it, I just don’t know how much water it’s going to hold.” More

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      Phil Mickelson Praises Saudi-Backed Golf Tour Despite Khashoggi Killing

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      A biographer quoted Mickelson as saying that though he knew of Saudi Arabia’s “horrible record on human rights,” a new golf tour it was funding was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”The pro golfer Phil Mickelson faced a mounting backlash this week for his reported remarks about a Saudi-backed golf tour, with a biographer quoting him as saying that though he knew of the kingdom’s “horrible record on human rights,” the tour was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”Mickelson, a six-time major winner, made the comments during a nearly hourlong phone interview last November, Alan Shipnuck, a longtime golf writer who is completing a biography on the golfer, said on Friday.A former writer for Sports Illustrated and Golf magazine, Mr. Shipnuck reported the remarks on Thursday on The Fire Pit Collective, a golf site.Mickelson, 51, had been asked to comment about his connection to the Super Golf League, an upstart tour whose main source of funding is the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, a sovereign wealth fund totaling more than $400 billion.He called the Saudi authorities “scary,” using a profanity to describe them, and noted the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist who was assassinated in 2018 with the approval of the kingdom’s crown prince, according to U.S. intelligence officials. Mickelson also alluded to the criminalization of homosexuality in Saudi Arabia, where being gay is punishable by death.“We know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights,” Mickelson was quoted as saying by the biographer. “They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”Representatives for Mickelson, who is one of the biggest names linked to the breakaway tour, and the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.A spokesman for the PGA Tour declined to comment on Friday.When reached on Friday, Mr. Shipnuck said that the golfer had previously declined to be interviewed for his biography, “Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar,” which is scheduled to be published in May. But he said that Mickelson had granted him an on-the-record interview in an attempt to explain his potential involvement in the breakaway tour.“Phil likes to play with fire,” Mr. Shipnuck said. “Sometimes when you play with fire, you’re going to get scorched. I don’t think he realized how hot this topic is with Saudi Arabia.”In his online account of the interview, Mr. Shipnuck said that the golfer had enlisted three other unidentified players to hire lawyers to draft the upstart tour’s operating agreement.Several top golfers criticized Mickelson for his remarks, including Justin Thomas, the eighth-ranked player in the world. Speaking to reporters on Thursday at the Genesis Invitational near Los Angeles, he said it “seems like a bit of a pretty, you know, egotistical statement.”Thomas continued: “It’s like he’s done a lot of great things for the PGA Tour, it’s a big reason it is where it is, but him and others that are very adamant about that, if they’re that passionate, go ahead. I don’t think anybody’s stopping them.”Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald on Friday, the columnist Peter FitzSimons criticized Mickelson’s comments. He urged Greg Norman, a former golf champion and head of the breakaway tour, to cut ties with the new venture.“Well, anyone with a conscience would resign,” Mr. FitzSimons wrote. “But with you I guess that is beside the point here. Your best plan is probably to do what you have been doing, and do better than anyone — hold your nose and go after more money.”Jane MacNeille, a spokeswoman for LIV Golf Investments — the company who chief executive, Mr. Norman, is starting the breakaway tour — heralded Mickelson in a statement on Friday.“Phil is one of the greatest golfers in the history of the game, and we have an enormous amount of respect for him and his career,” she said. “Any league or tour would be lucky to have him.”Brandel Chamblee, an analyst for the Golf Channel and former PGA Tour player, said on Twitter on Friday that “those advocating for the Saudi backed tour, most notably Phil Mickelson, are trying to obfuscate their greed and masquerade that this is about growing the game.” More

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      Bob Goalby, Masters Champion Thanks to a Gaffe, Dies at 92

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      He won at Augusta in 1968 after Robert De Vincenzo signed an incorrect scorecard. But to many, the victory was tainted, leaving Goalby feeling like the victim.Bob Goalby, the 1968 Masters champion whose victory was shadowed by one of golf’s most memorable gaffes, Roberto De Vicenzo’s signing of an incorrect scorecard, died on Thursday in Belleville, Ill. He was 92.The PGA Tour confirmed his death.Goalby won 11 PGA Tour championships, he was a runner-up at the United States Open and the PGA Championship, and he once shot a tour-record eight consecutive birdies. He was among the founders of the Senior Tour, now called the Champions Tour. But he was remembered mostly for the bizarre events of an Easter Sunday at Augusta National in Georgia.When Goalby walked off the 18th green with a final-round 66 and a total of 277 at the 1968 Masters, he expected to face De Vicenzo, the winner of the 1967 British Open, in a playoff. De Vicenzo, who was considered Argentina’s finest international player, had finished moments earlier with a 65 that had evidently given him 277 as well.But De Vicenzo’s birdie 3 on the 17th hole had been marked as a par 4 by his playing partner, Tommy Aaron, who was tallying his scorecard, a common arrangement for paired golfers. De Vicenzo, disgusted by his bogey on the 18th hole, had quickly signed that card, giving him a 66 for 278, without making certain that Aaron’s markings matched his own unofficial scorecard.Goalby with a glum De Vincenzo after the Masters tournament had concluded. Goalby emerged the victor because of a scorecard mistake by his Argentine rival. “What a stupid I am,” De Vincenzo lamented.Associated PressWhen the error was discovered within minutes, Masters officials, after conferring with Bobby Jones, the patriarch of Augusta National, concluded that because De Vicenzo had signed the scorecard, the rules of golf prohibited him from correcting it.De Vicenzo famously lamented, “What a stupid I am.”Goalby put on the traditional Masters green jacket, but he received numerous letters from fans accusing him of being a phantom champion. Some evidently presumed that it was Goalby, rather than De Vicenzo’s playing partner, who had been keeping the Argentine’s scorecard.“I still have a thousand letters in a box at home saying I’m the worst guy that ever lived,” Goalby told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1998. “One fellow wrote, ‘They ought to put you and Sonny Liston in cement and drop you in the ocean.’”Goalby always considered himself a true Masters champion, and De Vicenzo, along with fellow golfers on the pro tour, did not begrudge him his victory.“The guy you have to feel sorriest for is Goalby,” the tour golfer Frank Beard was quoted as saying by Sports Illustrated in the weeks after the Masters. “A man gets few chances in his career to win a big one. But to win one and have it tainted like this is terrible. It wasn’t as if Roberto didn’t know the rules.”For Goalby, the taint never faded.“I’ve always felt like a victim, as much or more than Roberto,” he told The Los Angeles Times in 1989. “None of the problems with scorecards were my fault. But I have forever been singled out as the guy who won the Masters because of some damn clerical mistake. I don’t think I ever got credit for what I did that week.”Robert George Goalby was born on March 14, 1929, in Belleville, near St. Louis, the son of a coal miner. He was a star quarterback in high school and worked as a caddy. He won several Midwestern golf tournaments as an amateur, attended the University of Illinois, then served in the Army.“I learned to play golf by mimicking the swings of those I caddied for,” Goalby told The Missouri Golf Post in 2016. “Very few of my buddies played golf because it was so expensive, but we all played football, baseball and basketball. I only got serious about golf after I got out of the Army and was sort of at loose ends.”He joined the pro tour in 1952.Goalby struggled with his tendency to hook the ball, and he showed a temper that sometimes left him talking to himself on the fairways. But he was among the leading golfers of the 1960s. He tied Doug Sanders for second place at the 1961 United States Open, one stroke behind Gene Littler, and he was second at the 1962 PGA Championship, one shot behind Gary Player.He set a PGA Tour record for consecutive birdies in a tournament with eight at the 1961 St. Petersburg Open in Florida, a mark equaled by several others and eclipsed by Mark Calcavecchia’s nine at the 2009 Canadian Open. He played in the 1963 Ryder Cup.Goalby was a leader of the touring pros’ rebellion of 1966-68 against the Professional Golfers’ Association of America, the national organizing body at the time not only for the tournament players but also for the numerous “golf pros” who ran pro shops and gave lessons.The tournament players demanded full control over their scheduling and finances in a dispute that was finally resolved with the creation of the modern PGA Tour. Run by a commissioner, it has engineered a huge growth in TV revenue, purses and events along with a pension plan.“When you look at how successful it has been, and all the money these guys play for now, so much of it came from those days,” Goalby told Golf.com when it recounted the dispute in 2018.Goalby retired from the PGA Tour in 1971. He helped create the framework for the Senior Tour at a January 1980 meeting with Sam Snead, Gardner Dickinson, Don January, Julius Boros and Dan Sikes at PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. He was a two-time winner on the tour, its unofficial spokesman in its early years and later a member of its policy board.He was also a golf commentator for NBC and designed golf courses near his home.Goalby’s immediate survivors include his sons Kye, Kelly (known as Kel) and Kevin. He was an uncle of Jay Haas, a nine-time winner on the PGA Tour, and Jerry Haas, the golf coach at Wake Forest University, and a great-uncle of Bill Haas, who has won six PGA Tour events.Goalby was a playing partner with De Vicenzo several times over the years, and he said that they remained friends but never discussed that 1968 Masters. Di Vicenzo died in Argentina in 2017 at age 94.At the office in his Belleville home, Goalby kept a letter from Bobby Jones: “I ask you to always remember that you won the tournament under the rules of golf and by superlative play.”And, as Goalby told The Rocky Mountain News in 1995, “When I’m introduced, they still have to say, ‘Bob Goalby, Masters champion.’” More

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      Here Are the Players to Watch at the HSBC Championship

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      There are three seasoned pros to keep an eye on and one teenage amateur.The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in the United Arab Emirates, which starts the 2022 European Tour schedule this week, typically attracts a strong field. This year’s tournament is no exception. Among the participants are the former winners Paul Casey (No. 27 in the world), Lee Westwood (39), Tommy Fleetwood (41) and Shane Lowry (48).One thing, however, is different: the venue. For the first time, the event will be held at Yas Links. It had been staged at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club since 2006.Here are four players to watch.Rory McIlroyWhich McIlroy will we see in 2022: the inconsistent McIlroy of the last two years, with only two victories since November 2019, or the former No. 1 with four major titles through 2014 who seemed destined to win at least a few more?Here is an encouraging sign for him: In October, he shot a six-under 66 in the final round to capture the CJ Cup in Las Vegas for his 20th PGA Tour triumph. A pivotal moment was the 35-foot eagle putt from off the green that he made on the 14th hole. He held on to win by one stroke.Before the victory, he was ranked outside the top 10. He is now No. 8. McIlroy, 32, came in third last year in Abu Dhabi.Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesTyrrell HattonHe won this tournament in 2021, recording his sixth European Tour win.Hatton, paired with McIlroy, birdied three holes on the front nine to seize a two-shot advantage. On the 10th hole, when it appeared that McIlroy might narrow the lead, Hatton converted a 35-foot birdie to maintain his margin. He won by four.However, he clearly did not have the year he was hoping for. His best finish in the majors was a tie for 18th at the Masters; he missed the cut at the United States and British Opens. Still, he secured a spot on Team Europe in the 2021 Ryder Cup, his second appearance in that event.Hatton, 30, is ranked No. 22 in the world.Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesViktor HovlandOnly 24, Hovland recently reached a career-best No. 6 in the world rankings. He is currently No. 7.His last several months have been very impressive. He tied for fourth at the Tour Championship in September, and he won the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba in November and the Hero World Challenge in December.Hovland was a member of Team Europe in the 2021 Ryder Cup. He finished 0-3-2, which included the half point he earned in singles against Collin Morikawa.In 2018, Hovland became the first Norwegian to win the U.S. Amateur Championship and in 2020 was the first from his country to be victorious on the PGA Tour, capturing the Puerto Rico Open.He certainly makes his share of birdies, finishing sixth on the PGA Tour last year with an average of 4.4 per round.Oliver Hardt/R&A, via Getty ImagesJosh HillJosh who?A fair question. Hill, who was born in Dubai but represents England, is only 17 and still an amateur. Yet he has already accomplished a lot.In December, registering 12 birdies and an eagle over three rounds, he won the Abu Dhabi Amateur Championship, earning an invitation to this week’s tournament, which he also played in 2020. He missed the cut but the week was not a total loss. In an eight-hole practice round, he outdueled the world No. 1 Brooks Koepka.In 2019, Hill captured the Al Ain Open in Dubai and became the youngest winner of an Official World Golf Ranking-recognized pro event.No one is predicting that Hill will win in Abu Dhabi or even contend. Even so, it will be interesting to see if he can make it to the weekend. More

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      In Abu Dhabi, Turning the Desert Into a World-Class Golf Course

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      At the Yas Links, water management is vital, as is the type of grass used. It must tolerate saltwater.Yas Links Abu Dhabi, which is hosting the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship starting this week, is no mirage. Like other courses in the Middle East, it is a testament to man overtaking nature in harsh conditions.What players and fans will see is a course, ranked among the top 50 in the world by Golf Digest, that appears to have been unearthed from the desert sand, but, in fact, was the handiwork of the architect Kyle Phillips. The course was built on land bordering the Persian Gulf, and Phillips worked to make that coastline look like, well, a coastline.“The idea was to protect the large mangrove area by dredging away from it and maintaining it,” Phillips said. That was accomplished by making the channel (by the course) wider and more open between the mangroves and the ocean, then building land forms that echo those of the original links courses in Scotland.But the biggest challenge, Phillips said, was working in the heat. Summer temperatures regularly hit more than 100 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius), but the humidity can reach about 86 percent. Sandstorms, like something from a movie, also appear he said. He also noted that the golf course was a speck in the total development of Yas Island.“This went from a barren island to seven hotels, the marina, the Ferrari theme park and the Formula 1 track, too,” Phillips said of the development that began in 2006 and finished in 2018.Clinton Southorn, director of construction and agronomy of Troon International, which manages the course, said it was a “literal oasis.”But that oasis takes maintenance, and the high salinity of the water used to help the grass grow, Southorn said, makes the impossible happen.“From an agronomy point of view, you can’t grow grass here,” he said. “But this tells you about Mother Nature and how it can adapt and how with technology and tools, and the right skills in place, you can sort of change that.”Southorn also said the consistency of the weather helped.“We can put an application down, such as an herbicide, we don’t need to worry about a storm coming through and washing it all away. On the flip side, there’s no rain.”In that climate and environment, taking care of the turf is complicated by the use of water in Abu Dhabi, said Corey Finn, the course manager. He said the potable water of the United Arab Emirates was acquired through desalination, but the golf course uses the recycled water of the nearby hotels and buildings.This poorer quality water poses challenges for Finn, but the entire process relies on six specialists who ensure that pipes are not leaking, sprinklers are not blocked and that the system shuts off as asked by its computer system.That system also allows Finn and his team to measure the amount of water the course receives. Measurements are taken each morning, and the data is sent to a cloud server that overlays the usage on a map of each green, allowing them to adjust the usage.To aid in this endeavor, the course uses paspalum, a type of grass that thrives in salty water. Because of how Yas Links must take care of its turf, its strain of paspalum suffers when it rains.To maintain high-quality turf, Finn said, they often have to add more water to flush the salt and minerals from the soil, and this sometimes allows them to wait a week before watering again.The challenge for the tournament, which moved across town from Abu Dhabi Golf Club after 16 years there, is twofold. Southorn said paspalum was a sticky grass that could grab the ball and posed a challenge to golfers who did not often play on this type of surface. And for the club, while the greens and fairways are all paspalum, making mowing easier, the tournament arrives during winter and at the height of tourist season, when the course receives its most play, putting added stress on the grass.“So we’re doing 150 to 200 rounds a day, which is 100 golf carts rolling over the grass,” Southorn said.Courses that hold professional tournaments must balance a one-week showcase event versus the 51 weeks they host guests, but it’s not often those courses hold tournaments when their grass is its most vulnerable. But Finn said the grass would be where it needed to be for the tournament.“Everywhere you turn on a golf course there is a challenge one way or another. What our team goes through every summer is pretty amazing,” he said about working in the heat, “and we have to manage, and not just the grass. We have to manage ourselves as well.” More

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      For Collin Morikawa, a Young Career Full of Firsts

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      He became the first American to win Europe’s Race to Dubai last year, and the 24-year-old is now ranked No. 2 in the world.Collin Morikawa enters this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship fresh off an accomplishment no other American golfer has matched. He was the first to win the Race to Dubai, the season-long points race on the European Tour, now the DP World Tour. The HSBC kicks off the tour’s new season.But the Race to Dubai accomplishment is just one of his trivia-worthy firsts. He won the P.G.A. Championship in 2020 and the British Open in 2021 on his first try in both tournaments, making him the first player to win two major championships on his first attempt.He claimed the DP World Tour Championship in November by three strokes, cruising to victory in the tournament and claiming what was previously known as the European Tour’s Order of Merit.“To put my name up there is big,” he said, noting great European players like Colin Montgomerie, Seve Ballesteros, Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy, whose names are on the Harry Vardon Trophy. “If you are the first to do something, you open up people’s eyes. Hopefully, it’s a pathway to focus on this.”Keith Pelley, chief executive of the DP World Tour, said Morikawa was an incredible talent.“To win the Open Championship in his first attempt was an amazing achievement, and to follow that by becoming the first American to win our Race to Dubai after his victory in our season-ending DP World Tour Championship was truly something special,” Pelley said.Morikawa, who turns 25 next month, tries to put his accomplishment in the context of he is only just beginning. He pointed out that he might be entering his fourth season playing on the elite professional tours, but he has been a professional golfer for only two and a half years since he started in the middle of 2019 after graduating from college.Morikawa with the claret jug after winning the British Open last year at the Royal St. George’s Golf Club.Paul Ellis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“It doesn’t really add up when I look at it like that,” he said. “When people said at the end of the season, how do you follow up on what you did last season, it’s not about following up. It’s about how do I add more goals. How do I keep raising the roof and the ceiling? If I check off one goal, I’m adding two more.”His goal this season is straightforward: to move up just one spot in the world rankings. But as the current world No. 2, moving into the top spot requires Morikawa to overtake Jon Rahm, a young player from Spain.“To get to No. 1 in the world, I’ve put myself in a position to possibly do that,” he said. “The short-term goals are to work on my body and the mental stuff. But the big goal is to get to No. 1 in the world, and not just to get to No. 1 in the world but to sustain it and stay up there.”At the season-opening tournament on the PGA Tour earlier this month, the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii, Morikawa did not shy away from what he needed to work on to accomplish his goal. After nearly driving the par-4 14th hole, Morikawa had the type of chip that many professional golfers relish: just off the green and uphill, an invitation to chip it in or at least leave a short tap-in putt for birdie.As he stood over the ball, the TV commentators noted how much Morikawa had been struggling with this aspect of his game — something he acknowledged he needed to improve. In certain chipping and putting statistics, Morikawa is outside the top 100 players on tour, statistics that are incongruent with him as an elite player. However, he did hit that shot close.“When you’re ranking below average, which I am over the past few years with my short game and putting, you have to work on it,” he said. “I’ve been able to get hot and have some good weeks for me, but it’s about the level of consistency for me. Being 170th in putting or whatever in chipping, it’s not good enough for me.” His putting is not quite that bad: He ranks 147th.From an early age, Morikawa had his sights set on being a professional golfer, and he said a focus on constant improvement was at the heart of that.Unlike many elite professional athletes, he attended and completed a top school, the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in business administration and won five times as a college golfer.But those four years were not a hedge for a different career, he said, but a way to gain more knowledge for when he became a professional golfer. “People said, Cal was a great backup plan,” he said. “I never thought I had a backup plan. I knew I could use my degree for my professional career and my brand. There was never any wavering.”Likewise, he never looked at the top players as heroes; they were future competition. He drew on his amateur success to keep the competition in perspective. And that meant sticking to his own game, as one of the best long-iron players in the game today.That mind-set kept him from being intimidated. “I never looked at them as guys I’m going to have weak knees over when I see them,” he said. “The only guy like that was Tiger. All the guys I watched for countless years, I knew these guys were the best in the world, but I wasn’t afraid of them. At the end of the day, I still wanted to beat them.”Comparisons to Tiger Woods came quickly for Morikawa. He had the second-longest streak of cuts made as a rookie — 22 to 25 for Woods. And after 60 events, he stacked up pretty favorably to Woods.While Woods had more wins, top-10 finishes and a lower scoring average, according to Golf Digest research, Morikawa, at the same point, had two majors and a World Golf Championship to Woods’s one major.Morikawa and Tiger Woods at the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club.Hilary Swift for The New York TimesMorikawa is circumspect in embracing comparisons to Woods, comparisons that have been made to plenty of other young players who began their careers hot only to cool off.“I don’t think there will ever be another Tiger,” he said. “A lot of his records will be unbeatable. It doesn’t mean I can’t reach for them. But when you think about what he did, they’re a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”Does he think he can beat some of the records? “Yes,” he said. “Are some of the records untouchable? Yes, but I’m going to try to push for them.”Woods has recognized Morikawa’s play. “He doesn’t really do anything wrong,” Woods said in December on the Golf Channel. “He doesn’t really have wild misses. He’s super, super consistent, an unbelievable iron player.”To that end, Morikawa is pushing to test his game around the world. Victories have given him an enviable tour status for someone in only his fourth season, one that allows him to pick and choose the events he wants to play in.He could easily opt to play in just the United States and reduce some of the travel fatigue. But weeks before his 25th birthday, he said traveling to play golf is part of the fun at his age.“I’ve been very fortunate early on to be able to choose my schedule, and that’s made it a lot easier,” he said.“I’m not forcing myself to go play eight events a row on the PGA Tour, and with that balance I’ve been able to add in the DP World Tour. I wanted to see if my game traveled. I wanted to play internationally. And I put myself in a position to win the Road To Dubai in 2021.” More

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      Charlie Woods Dazzles While Tiger, in Return, Grimaces and Grinds

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      At the PNC Championship, the first tournament for the 15-time major champion since a devastating car crash in February, father and son inspired awe — and trepidation.To watch Tiger Woods and his son play golf over the weekend was to feel a kaleidoscope of emotion.Goodness, it was something to see Tiger back. It was just 10 months ago when his S.U.V. tumbled off the road in suburban Los Angeles. He nearly died. He had to be pried from the overturned wreck of mangled metal with the Jaws of Life. His injuries, including compound fractures in his right leg, were so severe that doctors discussed amputation.He spent nearly a month in the hospital, and three more laid up in bed.And yet there he was, golf’s complicated and magnificent lodestar, healthy enough now to grind and grimace through 36 holes at the PNC Championship, a casual soiree of a tournament teaming golfing greats with family members.For Tiger Woods, that meant pairing with his son, 12-year-old Charlie, who after being put on center stage for the second year running at this tournament is now renowned in the game of golf and far beyond.All weekend — particularly on Sunday when the duo battled briefly to the top of the leaderboard on the back nine — father and son inspired awe and, dare I say it, trepidation.We kept one eye on Charlie, noticing every way he mirrored his father. Every hitch, every grimace and smile and stance. Every torquing twist and long follow-through and confident twirl of the iron.We kept another eye on Tiger, two years removed from winning his 15th and last major championship, the 2019 Masters.He flashed enough tantalizing glimpses of old form to foreshadow a return one day to truly competitive, high-test golf.But Tiger Woods, 45, is clearly compromised. For every glimmer of magic in this nationally broadcast event — the orbital drives that nestled upon the greens, the lengthy putts that curved and swept to their targets — came reminders that he is no longer the same.He often walked with a noticeable limp, favoring his left leg over his right. Sometimes he grimaced and groaned after swinging hard. On drives, he could not push off on his right leg the way he needs. And over the last few holes of the tournament he was on occasion outplayed by Charlie.But the weekend was not just about the father. For fans, it was also about the son. Because of who Tiger is and how he plays, there is an equal fascination with Charlie, who last December played this tournament as its youngest competitor ever. It was then that the enchantment began. Fans could not get enough of Charlie, Tiger’s mini-me, a then-11-year-old whose technique was pristine — and mirrored his father’s to a T.This year’s competition offered more of the same. On television, anchors used slow-motion video to analyze and fawn over Charlie’s backswing, his follow-through, his hip turn.Early in the week, shots of Charlie hitting practice shots on the Orlando Ritz-Carlton course slung across the internet. Casual duffers who have spent the better part of three decades worshiping Tiger now stand in awe of Tiger’s 12-year-old.Charlie and Tiger Woods during the first round of the PNC Championship on Saturday.Jeremy Reper/USA Today Sports, via ReutersWhat does this portend for Charlie?Watching him play smack dab in front of the world brought to mind a difficult back story: the well-known tale of Tiger Woods and his father, Earl Woods. The elder Woods eagerly infused his dreams into the life of his son, who grew up before our eyes, making his debut on national television at age 2, hitting balls in front of Bob Hope on “The Mike Douglas Show.”Before Tiger’s teens were done he was drenched in fame — and saddled with staggering expectations. Tiger would not just be the greatest golfer who ever lived, his father contended in those early, heady days, he would “do more than any other man in history to change the course of humanity.”Can it be any surprise that Tiger grew into a man saddled with deep emotional wounds?When his internal struggles spilled out in the open, it was as ugly as can be: sex scandals, addiction, divorce, a charge of driving under the influence in 2017.To many, he is and always will be a superhero.He is also a cautionary tale.On Sunday, with the tournament on the line, Charlie struck two perfect drives, including a 5-iron on the 17th he placed as beautifully as any shot hit by any of the field’s pros. He followed those irons with a pair of clutch putts, securing two more birdies for Team Woods, giving them 11 birdies in a row.Tiger’s son relished all of it.How long can that last? Think of the assumptions of greatness with which Charlie will now have to contend.He appears to be a wunderkind. But because he is the son of Tiger, and because he has now been thrust before the public because of his golfing skills, the spotlight will begin to burn much hotter.How will this affect him, not as a golfer but as a human being? Is it possible that Tiger would have better served Charlie by waiting three or four more years to unveil his son to the world?Time will tell.Team Woods nearly ended the PNC with a win. They finished two shots back of John Daly and his son, John II, now a freshman on the golf team at the University of Arkansas.“What a blast it was,” Tiger Woods said, shortly after he and his young and now famous partner finished by making par on the 18th hole. “We just had a blast all day.”He looked energized, and he smiled that familiar wide smile.It is the job of parents to carry their children. This weekend, birdie after birdie after surely struck drive, Tiger and Charlie carried each other — and the results were joyous for both. Let’s hope it remains this way. More