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      An American First on the European Tour

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyAn American First on the European TourThe controversial golfer Patrick Reed is leading the race to become the No. 1 player, which will be settled in Dubai.Patrick Reed in September at the United States Open, where he finished tied for 13th.Credit…Hilary Swift for The New York TimesDec. 9, 2020, 5:02 a.m. ETLove him or hate him, Patrick Reed is poised to become the first American to be Europe’s top golfer.The 30-year-old Texan, who shot to fame at the 2016 Ryder Cup as “Captain America,” exciting fans with his aggressive play and on-course antics, holds the lead in the Race to Dubai rankings that come to a close next week at the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, at Jumeirah Golf Estates from Wednesday through Sunday.While Reed has been a polarizing figure in American golf, fans in Europe love him. He’s found a warm embrace on the European Tour, which made him an honorary lifetime member after his 2018 Masters win. He also enjoys the exchanges with European fans, who have largely moved on from his 2014 Ryder Cup performance where he goaded and shushed spectators. Those same fans now applaud his fiery competitive edge.Besides, taking his game worldwide was always in his plans, he said, and that means playing the European Tour. As he said in October at the BMW PGA Championship in England: “I feel like the more support we can get, especially from guys from the States, the better. That’s one reason why I always come over and play, is because I know how important it is for our games to travel.”He said last week that he felt a special connection with European fans.“I think it started in 2014 at Gleneagles in Scotland,” he said, referring to the Ryder Cup. “For the first time, I realized that they understood my humor, and the competitor I am.”He said the closing ceremony was very special to him.“They announced Tom Watson, and I looked at the thousands and thousands of European fans, waves and waves of people roaring on their feet for Tom Watson, our American captain, in defeat,” Reed said. “And it really moved me. I had never seen anything like that. They loved him no matter what country he came from. I felt like, I want to be like him.”Patrick Reed, center, at the 2014 Ryder Cup, talking with Tom Watson, left, the captain for the United States.Credit…Montana Pritchard/The PGA of America, via Getty ImagesFans in Europe appreciate that, by playing in the tour, he helps build better golf there. But things are different in the United States, where Reed has earned critics on and off the course, starting in 2014 when he boldly proclaimed he was one of the top five players in the world. It wasn’t true; he was No. 20 in the rankings at the time. Yet he has since been forever linked to that brash claim.Most recently he was criticized last December for seemingly improving his lie in a waste bunker when his club brushed away sand behind his ball at the 11th hole at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. While Reed said that it was unintentional and that he did not notice that his club had moved any sand, he was penalized two shots.He said afterward that after seeing the video, he accepted the penalty, “but it wasn’t because of any intent.”“I thought I was far enough away,” he said. “I think with a different camera angle, they would have realized that. It was not improving the lie because it was far enough away from the golf ball.”Taunts of “cheater” soon followed him to tournaments from Hawaii to California. In February, his fellow American Brooks Koepka, a 2018 Ryder Cup teammate, called him out on it.Patrick Reed was penalized two shots last year at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas for improving his lie in a bunker.Credit…Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images“I don’t know what he was doing — building sand castles in the sand — but, you know, you know where your club is,” Koepka said in an interview with SiriusXM. “I mean, I took three months off, and I can promise you I know if I touch sand. If you look at the video, obviously he grazes the sand twice and then he still chops down on it.” Cameron Smith of Australia also called Reed a cheat.Reed has become a master at tuning out the noise.“The biggest thing for me is any time you go to the golf course, pop in my headphones, get to work and just really get in tune with every golf shot I hit because at the end of the day you can’t listen to what other people are saying,” Reed said at the WGC-Mexico Championship in February.To the end, for Reed to win the Race to Dubai and make European Tour history, he has to fend off Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa, and Lee Westwood, who are the next three in points. Fleetwood won the Race to Dubai in 2017 and has finished second and third in the rankings in the past two years.Morikawa is in the hunt to win without having played one game in Europe this year. As an affiliate member of the tour, which allows players to pay a fee for tour status, points may be earned at majors and other events and applied to the Race to Dubai.Westwood is hoping to win the Race to Dubai for the third time. “I’ve had some success in Dubai over the years,” he said. “It’s a big honor for any player. I’ve done it twice before, so it’s great to have another chance again this year.”Ahead in points, Reed hopes this will be his year.“I came close in 2018,” he said. “So you bet I will do my best to earn that No. 1 spot.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      How Golf's European Tour Saved Its Season

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesBritain’s Vaccine RolloutVaccine TrackerFAQ: Vaccines and MoreAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyHow the European Tour Saved Its SeasonThe pandemic forced the golf tour to start almost from scratch. But six months later, it’s holding the tournament that will determine its champion.Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is hosting the DP World Tour Championship, the final stop on the European Tour.Credit…Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesDec. 9, 2020, 5:02 a.m. ETIt’s been a chaotic path to golf’s final stop on the European Tour.At the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, which is sponsored by a logistics company, a player will be crowned Europe’s No. 1 golfer on Sunday. As the season ends, tour officials and players will have artfully navigated a constellation of constant shifts, changes, postponements and cancellations.What began last November as a packed schedule of 46 tournaments across 31 countries came to a halt in March because of the pandemic. Professional golf was shut down, and it was unclear whether the season would resume or be even worth salvaging.“It was so many months without playing,” said Adrián Otaegui of Spain, who ranks 28th in the Race to Dubai, which determines the best player. “We didn’t know when we were coming back. It was hard to practice, not knowing when we would resume.”In June, tour officials regrouped in an attempt to restart the season.Keith Pelley, the tour’s chief executive, warned players that tournaments would look “radically different,” suggesting that there would be a condensed schedule, with multiple tournaments in the same location.Keith Pelley, the European Tour’s chief executive, at the Hero Open in England in August. Credit…Richard Heathcote/Getty ImagesIn addition, sponsorship and prize money would be tight, he said. With the European Tour already struggling to draw players lured by the larger prize purses of the PGA Tour, the news dealt an additional blow: Players would also have to give up some of their perks.“Many of the things you have become accustomed to, such as top-class players’ lounges or courtesy car services, will most likely assume a different appearance, if indeed they are present at all,” Pelley said in a memo.He said the pandemic had become the biggest challenge of his life.“The job changed overnight,” he said in a June teleconference. “Every single day you were getting knocked down, knocked down and knocked down, another tournament canceled, more revenue lost.”It came down to prioritizing safety and making the tough decision to play without spectators, he said.“There was no question whether or not the tour would close tournaments to spectators,” he said. “We’d love to have 30,000 fans, but I think it’s going to be very difficult.”The tour resumed in July with the Austrian Open at the Diamond Country Club in Atzenbrugg near Vienna. By the end of the year, the tour managed to schedule 38 events in 18 countries.Under the guidance of the tour’s medical advisory board, which included virologists, public health experts, immunologists and senior health leaders from FIFA, World Rugby and the ATP, the tour’s new health strategy was put in place.Sean Crocker, an American golfer, playing on the 16th hole at the British Masters in England in July.Credit…Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesDeveloped by Dr. Andrew Murray, the European Tour’s chief medical officer, the strategy included rapid on-site Covid-19 testing, daily symptom checks, social distancing and no-touch sanitizer stations.At each tournament, players, caddies and staff members were required to go through a process that would be “some of the strictest screening and testing criteria on earth,” Murray said.“The entire world has changed,” he said. “What we know is that we can put golf on safely, but there are a number of factors we need to consider.”Tour organizers also created a bio-bubble system that requires players, caddies and the media to be only at the golf course and the hotel.They are subject to screenings, including daily questionnaires, temperature readings, and nasal swab or saliva tests. Everyone is also being tested as they leave airplanes.There were initial grumblings about lack of fans during tournaments or socializing after hours, but players adjusted.Joost Luiten of the Netherlands in July at a practice session before the Euram Bank Open in Austria. He drove instead of flying.Credit…Stuart Franklin/Getty Images“When you get here, you have to do a test and you have to do a temperature check,” said Joost Luiten of the Netherlands, who ranks 72nd in points. “It’s new and it’s different, but it’s just part of the new rules on tour, and you just have to accept it.“We’ve all seen the different sporting events around the world that have been started, so I think you learn from each other, and I think golf is a sport where it’s quite easy to keep the distance between each other. There’s no spectators, so it’s as quiet as you can get it, and I think that’s the way to do it at the moment.”Connor Syme of Scotland, who is 67th in points, said he welcomed the new restrictions. “It just feels more comfortable if you know for certain everyone is all right,” he said. “I feel safe. All the precautions the European Tour is taking make it possible to play. It feels good.”Another big change was travel. Many players opted out of flying and instead drove to the tournaments.Luiten drove with Maarten Bosch, his caddie, from the Netherlands to Austria. “It’s a bit further than normal,” Luiten wrote on his blog.“Usually I drive if it’s to Paris, and I’ve done to Cologne in Germany, because that’s only a two-hour drive from Rotterdam,” Luiten said. “This is one where you would normally fly, but because it felt like a better idea to drive and we had some extra time anyway, so we thought why not. We just took it easy, so we did five hours on Sunday, stopping in Munich, and then did another four or five hours on Monday.”Thomas Bjorn of Denmark, at 231 in the points race, said on Twitter that players should drive if possible. Richard Mansell of England, ranked at 185, took that to heart. “It kind of got me thinking — I’ve never done a road trip like that,” he said in a video released by the tour.His fiancée’s father bought him a Ford Transit van, and Mansell drove with his caddie, Connor Winstanley.They slept in the van and made the trip from Staffordshire, England, to Austria in two days. “We woke up fresh as a daisy and did the last stretch,” Mansell said.“I thought it was going to be brutal, but the roads were brilliant. It was quite a beautiful drive to be honest. I really enjoyed it, but Connor probably got a bit sick of my singing.”The tour stayed Covid-free until the summer swing in the United Kingdom, where Alex Levy of France tested positive in August and Jbe’ Kruger of South Africa in October.David Howell, European Tour Tournament Committee chairman, admitted that this year was more crisis management than tour scheduling.“I look back with amazement what we were able to do with what we had and very little collateral damage in terms of positive tests,” he said. “We’re lucky that we play a sport that is able to be played in a socially distant manner, but the logistics of getting an international sporting organization back up and running was just amazing.”By the time the European Tour arrived in South Africa for the Joburg Open in November, Covid-19 cases had resurged worldwide, and event organizers and city officials increased precautionary measures for players, caddies, tournament staff and media.Fans sneaking a peek at third-round action in the BMW PGA Championship in England in October.Credit…Paul Childs/Action Images, via ReutersIn addition to undergoing Covid-19 screening and daily testing, players stayed at hotels within five miles of golf clubs and were permitted to travel only between the hotel and course.Yet in spite of tight restrictions and the eerie absence of fans, players were happy to be playing again.“We were one of the first sports to get back into competition,” Luiten said from the Joburg Open. “It was great to get back, but it’s a bit boring now. We miss the fun times. Also, at the moment there’s no atmosphere on the golf course without fans.”Oliver Wilson of England, ranked at 212, called it better than the alternative.“It’s a shame because we play better with fans,” he said. “But we’re very fortunate to be able to play — it was sheer excitement for players to get out of the house and back to competing. It’s hard not being able to socialize in the bubble. It’s tricky, but we have it good. We’re lucky.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Lee Westwood and His Decades of Success

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesBritain’s Vaccine RolloutVaccine TrackerFAQ: Vaccines and MoreAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyLee Westwood and His Decades of SuccessUsually a slow starter, he began 2020 by winning the first tournament he played.Lee Westwood, right, celebrated with James Baker, his caddie, after winning the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship tournament in January.Credit…Kamran Jebreili/Associated PressDec. 9, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ETAn admitted slow starter, Lee Westwood was as surprised as anyone when at age 46 he won the first tournament of the year on the European Tour, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. It made him the only active player on the tour to have won in four different decades.“Historically I’ve been the type of player who had to play his way into form,” he said. “I threw that out of the window in winning the first event. It just surprised me.”Within two months of that hot start, the strangest year in golf began. The Covid-19 pandemic shut down the main golf tours for months. When professional golf resumed in the spring, it surged in popularity, as one of the few live sports on television.But the pandemic made the travel necessary to be at the top of the international game tough. And Westwood’s career has been a global one. Including his 25 victories on the European Tour, Westwood has 44 worldwide wins, with 12 in Asia, three in South Africa, two in the United States and one in Australia. In more than 800 tournaments on the two major tours, the PGA and the European, he has made the cut more than 80 percent of the time.And going into this week’s DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, he is ranked fourth in points in the Race to Dubai, the yearlong points race to determine the best player on the European Tour.The following interview has been edited and condensed.In addition to winning the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, your play at the majors has been solid. You had a great start at the Masters this year, tied for 13th at the United States Open and tied for fourth at the last British Open. What do you attribute that continued strong play?I’m just still keen to work. It’s putting in the hard work that leads up to the tournament. Everyone gets excited to play in a tournament. I think people lose the drive to get to that point. I’m still fit and strong. It’s not like I’ve lost my length. When you look at it analytically, there’s no reason I shouldn’t play well. I have experience on my side. Majors take a slightly different approach. You have to think your way around the golf course a little bit more. Par means a lot more. For me at a U.S. Open or Open Championship, it’s plotting your way around a golf course. It plays into my game.Westwood on the eighth hole of The RSM Classic at the Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf Club in November.Credit…Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesYou’ve been a global player for decades. What was traveling for tournaments like this year?Well, it was dictated by the pandemic. We were in lockdown March, April and May. Up until September, I didn’t feel comfortable going too far. I went to Europe, and I didn’t fancy going too far until I got a picture of how things were. The U.S. Open [at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y.] was the first time I went over to the States. When your job is traveling through all these time zones, that really goes out the window.How important is playing around the world to a player’s development?You become much more well-rounded as a person. You need to play on different courses, different grasses, different greens. It can be part of your development as a player. At the end of the day, what people want to see is the top players playing together more often in the same tournaments. It’s all right seeing everyone play in the States. That’s where the cash is. But I think we should have tournaments in Australia, South Africa, South America where all the great players come together. The pandemic has shown that golf isn’t broken. It doesn’t need fixing. It just needs sharing around the world.Your 2020 season is ending in Dubai, with seven tournaments in the United States and 14 on the European Tour. How would you sum up this year for you and other global players?It’s very difficult to sit back and do an appraisal of it. There were five months off in the middle of it where I just sat around, really. Then I played a lot in Europe, not too successfully. I played well in the U.S. Open. It’s been a weird one. One of the good things that came out of it is I lost 12 kilos [about 26 pounds]. I’ll be fitter going into next season. I’ll take a month off after Dubai and start again in Abu Dhabi.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Tiger Woods Faced Disaster at the Masters. He Stuck Through It Anyway.

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      AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods had just birdied three holes on Sunday at the Masters when he stood at the tee box at No. 18. A few of the men sitting around the 17th green did not bother to watch.This was no charge toward a sixth green jacket. It was the last act of a Sunday unlike any other in Woods’s quarter-century around the Augusta National Golf Club: He shot 76, equal to his worst round at any Masters. Yet that score was a far greater achievement than it, or his tie for 38th place at one under par, would suggest.“This sport is awfully lonely sometimes,” said Woods, who entered the tournament as its defending champion. “You have to fight it. No one is going to bring you off the mound or call in a sub. You have to fight through it. That’s what makes this game so unique and so difficult mentally.”Few figures in the game could have pushed on quite like Woods, who appeared intent on salvaging something even if few people were watching. He birdied five of the final six holes and parred the other — a better late showing than the new champion, Dustin Johnson, who finished at 20 under. Summoning the experience that he has judged particularly vital at the Masters, Woods somehow assembled the type of performance that ordinarily would have had the grounds swelling into roars.But it came only after an indisputably calamitous turn at No. 12, the very hole that Woods used as a springboard to his Masters victory just last year.Resplendent in his ritual Sunday red, he strode to the hole, a par-3 around Rae’s Creek made even more dazzling this year by the soft colors of autumn after the coronavirus pandemic forced a postponement of the traditional April major. He had another tournament’s worth of earned confidence, having made par there in his first two rounds and birdie on Saturday.Swing. Plop. The ball rolled into the water.“The wind was off the right for the first two guys, and then when I stepped up there, it switched to howling off the left,” Woods said. “I didn’t commit to the wind, and I also got ahead of it and pushed it, too, because I thought the wind would come more off the right and it was off the left, and that just started the problem from there.”“From there,” he added, “I hit a lot more shots and had a lot more experiences there in Rae’s Creek.”From the drop zone: Swing. Hit the green. Roll backward into the water.Again from the drop zone: The ball stayed dry, but it landed in a back bunker. Then, with Woods’s legs forming part of a quadrilateral over the sand, he hit over the flagstick and into the water. He tried again from the bunker and finally reached the green safely.A putt just missed. Then, at last, technically a 10th stroke to a conclusion somewhere between merciful and wrenching. He evacuated the hole with a 56 on the day and his worst score on any single hole during his career on the PGA Tour. His gallery, already vastly diminished because of Augusta National’s pandemic precautions, fled, too.“He had a bit of a disaster on that hole, didn’t he?” said Shane Lowry, who was in Woods’s group. “Look, this is what Augusta is when the wind is up like this. It’s a pity we’re not out there for the full day in this because it would have been a nice chance for some people to shoot good scores and move really far up the leaderboards.”Woods certainly tried. But there is only so much to do on the last six holes when, even at the start of the day and before the torment at the hole known as Golden Bell, Woods needed the greatest comeback in Masters history if he was to keep his green jacket for another year.The observers thinned out more. Woods plodded on, invisible on almost all of the scoreboards around the course. No matter.Birdie. Par. Birdie. Birdie. Birdie.Then to No. 18, the place that has seen champions go awash in glory. He peered down the 465-yard hole, the last test of a tournament lost.He drove it to the middle of the fairway, well right of the second bunker. Then came a push onto the green. A nifty putt for birdie earned claps but nothing like a roar.A reporter asked afterward about his motivation — about whether he worried, at age 44 and with a career of triumph, pain and scrutiny, that it might fade away sometime.“No matter how hard I try, things just don’t work the way they used to, and no matter how much I push and ask of this body, it just doesn’t work at times,” Woods said. “Yes, it is more difficult than others to be motivated at times.”But there he had been on Sunday at Augusta, pushing to the finish, assessing the past, talking about the future. Later, he emerged to present the green jacket to Johnson.On this Sunday, at least, it was someone else’s turn. More