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    Lee Elder Paved the Way for Tiger Woods's Masters Dominance

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    Lee Elder forced golf forward by winning his way into the Masters tournament in 1975, the first Black player to do so, laying a path for Tiger Woods and others.How do we measure athletic greatness? By the number of big wins and unforgettable championships?Or by something less obvious but perhaps more profound: an athlete’s resolve to go against the grain and upend the status quo in both sport and society, even at the risk of personal harm?If the latter measure is as true a test as any, we must make room in the pantheon of the all-time greats for Lee Elder. An indefatigable African American golfer, he died on Sunday at age 87, nearly a half-century after he stood against the stultifying stain of racism and became the first Black golfer to play at the Masters, paving the way for no less than Tiger Woods.“He was the first,” said Woods, not long after he stunned the sports world by winning the Masters in 1997, at age 21. “He was the one I looked up to. Because of what he did, I was able to play here, which was my dream.”What a journey, what a life. The hard, tumultuous arc of sports in the back half of the 20th century — indeed the arc of American history during that time — can be traced through Elder.He was a Black man born in the Jim Crow South who taught himself to play golf on segregated courses and polished his trade on the barnstorming golf tour akin to baseball’s Negro leagues.He dreamed of making it to the biggest stage, but professional golf took its own sweet time while sports such as baseball, basketball and football slowly integrated. The Professional Golfers Association kept its Caucasian-only clause until 1961.Elder never wavered. He broke through on the PGA Tour in 1968, as a 34-year-old. In those days, with the battle for civil rights well underway, the Masters began receiving pressure to add at least one Black player to its field. In 1973, a group of 18 congressional representatives even petitioned the tournament for just that. Elder was among the top 40 money earners on tour and had played in multiple U.S. Opens and P.G.A. Championships — so why not Augusta National?But after choosing not to invite outstanding Black golfers such as Charlie Sifford during the 1960s, the tournament settled on a stringent requirement for its participants: victory at a PGA Tour event.Elder earned that at the 1974 Monsanto Open — the same Florida event where, six years earlier, he had been forced to change clothes in a parking lot because Black people were not allowed to use the country club locker room.Elder possessed an understated but firm resolve. He wasn’t quick to raise a fuss about racism, but he wasn’t afraid to speak up about it, either. “The Masters has never wanted a Black player, and they kept changing the rules to make it harder for Blacks,” he said, adding: “I got them off the hook by winning.”Elder served as a ceremonial starter for the Masters in 2021. He was cheered by Gary Player, in black, and Jack Nicklaus, right.Doug Mills/The New York TimesSince its inception in 1934, the Masters has dripped in the antebellum codes of the South. Held at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, on a former indigo plantation, the only African Americans allowed on the course were groundskeepers and caddies. Nobody described the Masters more truthfully than the Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray. The tournament, he wrote in 1969, was “as white as the Ku Klux Klan.”In the months leading up to the 1975 Masters, Elder was the target of multiple death threats. “Sometimes it was sent to the course where I was playing, sometimes it came to my house,” he said. “Stuff like, ‘You better watch behind trees,’ ‘You won’t make it to Augusta.’ It was bad stuff, but I expected it.”But on April 10, 1975, there he stood, at the first tee, surrounded by a gallery full of close friends, including the football star Jim Brown. When Elder smashed his tee shot straight down the fairway, he did not just make history at the Masters, he pried open the cloistered and often racist world of golf to new possibilities.Looking back at the contours of his career beyond 1975, one sees a consistent solidity. He won three more PGA Tour titles and then eight on the Senior Tour and represented the United States in the Ryder Cup. It will always be a great unknown — the heights Elder could have reached if the opportunity had been equal and he had been able to play PGA Tour events in his prime.We can say this much for certain: Elder fixed himself in the sports history firmament at the Masters in 1975. He will always remain there, a North Star for others to follow.Woods came along just over two decades later, winning the 1997 Masters by 12 strokes and announcing himself as the heir not just to Elder but to Jack Nicklaus, who won at Augusta six times. As Woods marched past a gallery of awe-struck fans on his way to receive the champion’s green jacket for the first of five times, he saw Elder, and the two embraced. Past met present, paving the future.And yet the road to equality in golf remains elusive. The sport was overwhelmingly white in Elder’s era and overwhelmingly white when Woods burst on the scene. It remains overwhelmingly white.The game is “still slacking quite a bit” when it comes to diversity, Cameron Champ, 26, whose mother is white and father is Black, said while speaking about Elder this week. Champ is one of the few players of African American heritage on tour and one of the game’s most vocal about the need to diversify.It took until this year — prodded by tumultuous nationwide protests over racism and police brutality in 2020 — for the Masters to truly give Elder his due.In April, aside Nicklaus and Gary Player, Elder sat at Augusta National’s first tee as an honorary starter for this year’s tournament. Tubes snaked into his nose to deliver oxygen. He was too hobbled to take a shot.A gallery of the tournament’s players stood nearby, paying proper respect to a golfer whose greatness extended far beyond the fairway. The cold, crisp morning had a reverent, unforgettable feel, recalled Champ, whose paternal grandfather fell for golf in part because of Elder and then taught the game to his grandson.But it took 46 years for golf to honor Elder at the Masters. Think about that.Why didn’t it happen in 1985, the 10th anniversary of his smashing past Augusta National’s color line? Or in 1995, 20 years after the fact? Or at any other time?Why must change always take so long? More

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      Tiger Woods Concedes the Spotlight. ‘I’ve Had a Pretty Good Run.’

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      Best known for willing himself to victory, the winner of 15 major championships said he had no desire to do what would be necessary to win another on his surgically rebuilt right leg.It was 15 minutes into his first public appearance since a terrifying car crash in February that Tiger Woods, assessing an uncertain future and a celebrated past, took the measure of his career.“I got that last major,” a wistful Woods said on Tuesday, recalling his stunning 2019 victory at the Masters Tournament, golf’s most watched event, at age 43.Ascending to a similar pinnacle in golf, however, is no longer foremost in Woods’s plans.“I’ve had a pretty good run,” Woods, with the thinnest of smiles, said at a news conference nine months after he sustained devastating leg injuries when his sport-utility vehicle tumbled off a Los Angeles-area boulevard at a high speed. He added: “I don’t see that type of trend going forward for me. It’s going to have to be a different way. I’m at peace with that. I’ve made the climb enough times.”In that moment, one of the most influential athletes of the last quarter-century retreated from the brightest spotlight in sports. Woods said he hoped to play competitive golf again at some level, although he offered no timetable for achieving that ambition. Instead, a sporting champion best known for willing himself to victories conceded that his surgically rebuilt right leg would forever inhibit his once-lofty expectations and drive.“A full practice schedule and the recovery that it would take to do that,” he said, “no, I don’t have any desire to do that.”It was a striking concession for the tenacious Woods, and an inflection point for golf and sports in general. Woods has been among the world’s most prominent people since he won the first of his 15 major golf championships in 1997, with a likeness recognized around the globe and omnipresent commercial endorsements.Woods after winning the Masters in 2019, an improbable triumph after years of struggling with a damaged spine.Doug Mills/The New York TimesYet, for all his triumphs and attendant fame, the February crash and its debilitating consequences were in keeping with a recurring cycle of fortune and misfortune — all of Woods’s own making — that will forever mark the narrative of his life.At the height of his fame, in 2009, when he seemed destined to easily surpass Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major golf championships — Woods already had 14 — news reports about serial infidelity cost him his marriage, and he was shunned by many in the golf community. His myriad corporate sponsors dropped him. The scandal caused him to take a lengthy hiatus from golf.When Woods returned to competition, he struggled to find his old form, in part because of physical ailments linked to the obsessive, perhaps overly aggressive workout regimen that had been his hallmark. Worse for Woods, on the same golf courses where he had been greeted by wild cheering, he was instead met with an eerie quiet that bordered on disdain.In time, he became a limping afterthought as a young wave of golfers replaced him atop leaderboards. Woods’s descent led to a defining act: a middle-of-the-night arrest in May 2017 that revealed an opioid addiction. The police took Woods into custody after he was found alone and asleep in his car on the side of a road with the engine running.In keeping with his career arc, Woods’s resurrection was dramatic and irresistible.At the 2019 Masters, he was not considered a serious contender. Yet as he played the last holes of the final round on the hallowed grounds of Augusta National Golf Club, Woods was rejuvenated. He played his best golf while his younger rivals wilted, birdieing three of the final six holes to claim his fifth Masters title. When he sank the winning putt on the 18th hole, Woods celebrated with a primal scream that seemed to be matched by the thousands of fans encircling the green.Two years earlier, Woods had ranked as low as 1,119th in the world. His comeback, given his off-the-course hardships, is among the greatest in sports history.While Woods continued to be competitive in 2019, and won one more event, the pandemic forced an extended absence from golf. In January this year, he underwent a fifth back operation that sidelined him. He hoped to return by April.On Feb. 23, police determined that Woods was driving about 85 m.p.h. in a 45 m.p.h. zone on the winding Southern California road when he lost control of his SUV. Woods sustained open fractures, in several places, of the tibia and the fibula in his right leg.Woods’s SUV after the crash in February.Allison Zaucha for The New York TimesOn Tuesday, speaking ahead of the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, a tournament that benefits Woods’s foundation, he briefly discussed the crash and its aftermath, which included the possibility that his right leg would have to be amputated.“I feel I’m lucky to be alive but still have the limb — those are two crucial things,” Woods, 45, said. “So I’m very, very grateful that someone upstairs was able to take care of me and I’m able to not only be here, but also walking without a prosthesis.”When asked what he remembered about the crash, Woods said: “Yeah, all those answers have been answered in the investigation. So you can read about all that there in the police report.”In an investigation affidavit, Woods repeatedly said he didn’t remember how the crash occurred. He was not charged with any legal violation. Asked if he had flashbacks or recent memory of the incident, Woods replied: “I don’t. I’m very lucky in that way.”Woods said he purposely did not watch news accounts about his crash while he was hospitalized.“I didn’t want to have my mind go there,” Woods said, adding that he was in considerable pain, even when medicated. Asked if he was still in pain, he grinned and nodded.“Yep, my back hurts, my leg hurts,” Woods said.Woods appeared most comfortable when discussing what he can and cannot currently do on the golf course. He has begun playing some holes, but he said his swing lacks speed and power, noting that many of his shots “fall out of the sky” much sooner than they once did.“It’s eye-opening,” Woods said and offered giggling support to a United States Golf Association initiative that encourages golfers to play from tees that can significantly shorten the length of courses. “I really like that idea.”The comment reflected the arduous path Woods will have to negotiate to return to the elite level of golf necessary to play on the PGA Tour.“I’ve got to prove to myself that I’m good enough,” he said of that effort. Referring to PGA Tour pros, Woods quipped: “I’ll chip and putt with any of these guys, but courses are longer than chip-and-putt courses. I’m not going to be playing the par-3 course at Augusta to win the Masters. You need a bigger game than that.”But Woods, who talked about how the muscles and nerves in his right leg needed to continue to rehabilitate, was nonetheless optimistic that, in time, he could possibly improve his game enough to sporadically play tour events again.“To ramp up for a few tournaments a year, there’s no reason I can’t do that and feel ready,” he said. “I’ve come off long layoffs and I’ve won or come close to winning. I know the recipe.”He cautioned, though, that he was not close to that level of golf yet.“I have a long way to go to get to that point,” Woods said. “I haven’t decided whether or not I want to get to that point.”Woods at the 2020 Masters, where he finished in a tie for 38th. He pointed out on Tuesday that he had won after long layoffs but that he was far from that level of the game now.Doug Mills/The New York TimesAt roughly the midpoint of the news conference, Woods was asked if he wanted to play in next year’s British Open, on the 150th anniversary of the event. It will be held at St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf.“I’d love to play at St. Andrews, my favorite golf course in the world, and being a two-time Open champion there,” he said.But Woods’s next sentence was perhaps most telling. He changed the subject to whether he would be able to attend the pre-competition ceremonial dinner for past British Open champions.“I would like, you know, just even being a part of the champions dinner is really neat,” he said. “Those dinners are priceless. It’s an honor to be part of a room like that.” More

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      Tiger Woods Rules Out a Full-Time Return to the PGA Tour

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      In a half-hour video interview with Golf Digest, Woods, who was badly injured in a car crash early this year, said he hopes to recover enough to play sporadically in tour events.Tiger Woods hopes to play on the PGA Tour again, though never as a full-time player, something he called “an unfortunate reality” that he has accepted, according to a 30-minute video interview with Golf Digest posted online Monday.“I think something that is realistic is playing the Tour one day — never full time, ever again — but pick and choose, just like Mr. Hogan did and you play around that,” Woods, 45, said, referring to the nine-time major champion Ben Hogan, who played sporadically, if effectively, after breaking multiple bones in a devastating 1949 car crash. “You practice around that, and you gear yourself up for that. I think that’s how I’m going to have to play it from now on. It’s an unfortunate reality, but it’s my reality. And I understand it, and I accept it.”On Feb. 23, Woods sustained open fractures of both the tibia and the fibula in his right leg in a single-vehicle crash outside Los Angeles. The fractures were described as comminuted, which meant the bones were broken in several places. After undergoing emergency surgery, he was hospitalized for three weeks. In that time, Woods said, he faced the possibility of having his right leg amputated.The police determined that Woods was driving about 85 m.p.h. in a 45 m.p.h. zone on a winding road when he lost control of his sport-utility vehicle. He was not charged with any legal violation.The vehicle Woods was driving when he crashed in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., on Feb. 23.Allison Zaucha for The New York Times“There was a point in time when — I wouldn’t say it was 50-50 — but it was damn near there if I was going to walk out of that hospital with one leg,” Woods said in the video of a Zoom interview, which began with the smiling golfer striding toward the camera without a noticeable limp, inside his South Florida home.Woods, who has had several back operations, including a fusion in 2017, returned to professional golf and won the 2019 Masters, his 15th major championship, a comeback Woods referenced on Monday.“After my back fusion, I had to climb Mt. Everest one more time,” he said. “I had to do it, and I did. This time around, I don’t think I’ll have the body to climb Mt. Everest, and that’s OK. I can still participate in the game of golf. I can still, if my leg gets OK, I can still click off a tournament here or there. But as far as climbing the mountain again and getting all the way to the top, I don’t think that’s a realistic expectation of me.”He added: “I don’t have to compete and play against the best players in the world to have a great life.”On Tuesday, Woods will make his first formal public appearance since the crash, attending a news conference at the Hero World Challenge, a 20-man tournament in the Bahamas that benefits Woods’s foundation.On Monday, he described the stages of his rehabilitation over the last nine months. One of his first memories after the crash, Woods said, was of asking for a golf club that he held in his hands while in the hospital. Later, he spent three months confined to a hospital bed, mostly at his home. Next, he was able to move around in a wheelchair, then on crutches and eventually in a walking boot.“I’ve had some hard days and tough setbacks,” said Woods, who believed his recovery would be swifter. “But I keep progressing and I’m able to walk again.”Woods last week posted a three-second video of himself swinging a short iron on a practice range, but he cautioned that he was nowhere near ready to play competitive golf.“I have so far to go,” Woods said. “I’m not even at the halfway point. I have so much more muscle development and nerve development that I have to do in my leg. At the same time, as you know, I’ve had five back operations, so I’m having to deal with that. As the leg gets stronger, sometimes the back may act up.”During the video interview, Woods seemed to spend more time talking about his 12-year-old son, Charlie, than any other topic. Charlie has been playing in a succession of junior golf events, with Woods in attendance lately. The two have also spent time in chipping and putting contests at a practice facility. Woods has counseled Charlie on the mental aspects of competitive golf, most notably how to recover from a bad hole.“I said, ‘Son, I don’t care how mad you get. Your head could blow off for all I care, just as long as you’re 100 percent committed to the next shot,’” Woods said. “That’s all that matters. That next shot should be the most important shot in your life. It should be more important than breathing. Once you understand that concept, then I think you’ll get better. And as the rounds went on throughout the summer, he’s gotten so much better.”Throughout the video, Woods was upbeat and even jocular, although he was more serious when discussing the next steps in his rehabilitation.“There’s a lot to look forward to, but a lot of hard work to be done,” he said. “And I have to be patient and progress at a pace that is aggressive but not over the top.”He added: “It’s been a tough road, but to get on this side of it is fantastic.” More

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      Lee Elder, Who Broke a Golf Color Barrier, Dies at 87

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      In his prime he played in a league for Black players, but in 1975, at 40, he became the first African American to take part in the Masters tournament.Lee Elder, who became the first African American golfer to play in the Masters tournament, a signature moment in the breaking of racial barriers on the pro golf tour, died on Sunday in Escondido, Calif. He was 87.The PGA Tour announced the death but provided no other details.When Elder teed off at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia in April 1975, he was 40 years old. Years earlier, in his prime, he played in the United Golfers Association tour, the sport’s version of baseball’s Negro leagues. The PGA of America, the national association of pro golfers, accepted only “members of the Caucasian race,” as its rules had spelled out, until 1961.Elder was among the leading players on the UGA tour, which over the years also featured such outstanding golfers as Ted Rhodes, Charlie Sifford, who was the first Black player on the PGA Tour, and Pete Brown while offering comparatively meager purses.Elder first played regularly on the PGA Tour in 1968, and that August he took Jack Nicklaus to a playoff at the American Golf Classic in Akron, Ohio, losing in sudden death.“The game of golf lost a hero in Lee Elder,” Nicklaus said in a statement on Monday.The Masters, played annually at Augusta National, had no clause barring Black golfers, but unofficially it remained closed to them. With the rise of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, however, it came under pressure to integrate its ranks.The tournament eased a bit in 1971 by announcing that any player who subsequently won a PGA Tour event would automatically qualify for it. Elder came close, finishing second in the Texas Open and losing a playoff to Lee Trevino in the Greater Hartford tournament in 1972.But those performances did not persuade the Masters to bend its new rule and accord Elder a spot. Elder broke through after capturing the 1974 Monsanto Open at the Pensacola Country Club in Florida, where six years earlier he and other African American PGA Tour members playing there had been refused entrance to the clubhouse. They had to dress in a parking lot.That victory finally brought the 1975 Masters invitation. In the run-up to the tournament Elder received death threats. He rented two houses near the Augusta National course and moved between them as a security measure.When he teed off for his first shot, a huge crowd lined the fairway. “I remember thinking, ‘How am I going to tee off without killing somebody,’” he told The New York Times in 2000, wryly reflecting on the pressure he faced.Elder at the Masters in 1975. Black employees of the Augusta National Golf Club lined the 18th fairway when he played it. “I couldn’t hold back the tears,” he said.Leonard Kamsler/Popperfoto via Getty ImagesHis shot off the first tee was straight down the middle, but he ended up far back in the field in the first two rounds, shooting 74 and 78, and missed the cut to continue to play through the weekend by four strokes. He received a fine reception from the galleries, though.“The display from the employees of Augusta National was especially moving,” Elder told Golf Digest in 2019. “Most of the staff was Black, and on Friday, they left their duties to line the 18th fairway as I walked toward the green. I couldn’t hold back the tears. Of all the acknowledgments of what I had accomplished by getting there, this one meant the most.”Elder played in the Masters six times, his top finish a tie for 17th place in 1979. He won four PGA Tour events and finished second 10 times, playing regularly through 1989 and earning $1.02 million in purses. He also played for the U.S. team in the 1979 Ryder Cup. He joined the PGA Senior Tour, now the Champions Tour, in 1984 and won eight times, earning more than $1.6 million. He won four tournaments overseas.Elder and his first wife, Rose Harper, created a foundation in 1974 to provide college scholarships for members of families with limited incomes. He promoted summer youth golf development programs and raised funds for the United Negro College Fund.In 2019, he received the United States Golf Association’s highest honor, the Bob Jones Award, named for the co-founder of the Masters and presented for outstanding sportsmanship.Elder in November 2020 at the Augusta club after he was named an honorary starter for the 2021 Masters.Doug Mills/The New York TimesRobert Lee Elder was born on July 14, 1934, in Dallas, one of 10 children. His father, Charles, a coal truck driver, was killed during Army service in Germany in World War II when Lee was 9. His mother, Almeta, died three months later.Elder caddied at an all-white club in the Dallas area, earning tips to help his family, then went to Los Angeles to live with an aunt. He worked as a caddy again and dropped out of high school to pursue a career in golf, at times touring the Southwest as a “hustler,” winning private bets against players who had no idea how good he was.At 18, after playing against the heavyweight champion Joe Louis, an avid golfer, Elder became a protégé of Rhodes, who was Louis’s golf instructor.Following two years in the stateside Army, Elder joined the United Golfers Association tour in 1961. In one stretch of 22 consecutive tournaments, he won 18.Gary Player, the South African native and one of golf’s greatest international golfers, invited Elder to play in his country’s Open and PGA championships in 1971, having received permission from the prime minister. Black people mingled with white in the crowd at what became the first integrated golf tournament in South Africa since the adoption of apartheid in 1948.Elder’s survivors include his second wife, Sharon, with whom he lived in Escondido. He returned to Augusta National in 1997 to watch Tiger Woods win the Masters by a record-setting 12 strokes, becoming the first African American golfer to win one of golf’s four major tournaments.Elder with Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus, right, during the opening ceremony of the 2021 Masters tournament in April. They were honorary starters. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters“Lee Elder came down, that meant a lot to me,” Woods said afterward. “He was the first. He was the one I looked up to. Charlie Sifford, all of them. Because of them, I was able to play here. I was able to play on the PGA Tour. When I turned pro at 20, I was able to live my dream because of those guys.”On April 8 this year, Elder became the first Black player to take part in a decades-old Masters tradition, joining Nicklaus and Player as that year’s honorary starters, who strike the tournament’s ceremonial first shots. Though he brought his clubs with him, arthritis in his knees left him without enough stability to take a shot.But he received a standing ovation. The ceremony, he said, “was one of the most emotional experiences I have ever been involved in” and “something I will cherish for the rest of my life.”Alex Traub contributed reporting. More

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      Photos From Lee Elder's Groundbreaking Golf Career

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      At a dinner at Pebble Beach in 2019 to honor Lee Elder with the Bob Jones Award for sportsmanship, bestowed by the United States Golf Association, the commentator Jim Nantz told the golfer in a speech: “Your life will have meaning for years and centuries to come.”Elder, whose death at 87 was announced on Monday by the PGA Tour, in 1975 became the first Black golfer to play in the Masters Tournament. He was honored at the tournament this year for his 1975 appearance at Augusta National Golf Club, which was, as Richard Goldstein of The New York Times writes in Elder’s obituary, “a signature moment in the breaking of racial barriers on the pro golf tour.”Before the start of that tournament, Elder wrote in an article for The Times: “The one thing on my mind this past year is the fact of being at Augusta, something I’ve wanted quite some time. I think I made it clear, when I first came on the tour, that I would be happy to qualify for the Masters. But I wanted to qualify on my own merit, I didn’t want anyone giving me a special invitation.”As The Times golf reporter Bill Pennington wrote from Augusta, Ga., in April: Elder’s role in the ceremonial opening tee shot, viewed as long overdue, had been much anticipated. After being announced the year before, it was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.The significance of Elder’s appearance was not lost at a time when the country was undergoing another racial justice reckoning. Nor was the substance of his career, which will indeed have meaning for years and centuries to come.Lee Elder played exhibition matches in Kenya and other African countires in 1971.Elder leapt for joy upon winning the Monsanto Open in 1974.Bettmann/Getty ImagesElder was driven from the 18th green by Dwight Thompson, chairman of the Masters press committee, after his practice round for the Masters in 1975.Bettmann/Getty ImagesElder signing autographs at his first Masters.Leonard Kamsler/Popperfoto via Getty ImagesTeeing off in the rain at Augusta National in 1975.Elder, third from the left in the back, with the United States team after it won the Ryder Cup at The Greenbrier in West Virginia in 1979. Phil Sheldon/Popperfoto via Getty ImagesElder during the GTE West Classic in Ojai, Calif., in 1993.Gary Newkirk /AllsportTiger Woods got a hug from Elder after becoming the first Black champion of the Masters in 1997. Amy Sancetta/Associated PressElder giving pointers to children at the Driftwood Community Recreation Centre in Toronto in 2010.Vince Talotta/Toronto Star via Getty ImagesElder at the 2020 Masters, where it was announced that he would be honored by the establishment of scholarships in his name. He was also invited to be an honorary starter for the 2021 Masters. Doug Mills/The New York TimesElder and Jack Nicklaus during a ceremony for the honorary starters on the first tee with Gary Player, right, at the Masters this April.Doug Mills/The New York TimesThe honorary starters’ names and ages were posted at the first tee of the Masters in April.Doug Mills/The New York Times More

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      Brooks Koepka Bests Rival Bryson DeChambeau in 'The Match'

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      Never paired together at one of golf’s majors, the rivals Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau instead went head-to-head in a spectacle for charity off the Las Vegas Strip.Black Friday, an unofficial American holiday dedicated to commercialism and being sold to, felt like an appropriate date for the fifth installment of “The Match.” This made-for-TV series of golf matches started three years ago behind the star power of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and has since included superstars from football and basketball. This time it came calling for major championship winners with golf’s most out-in-the-open conflict, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.The matchup came after a highly public summer feud that existed largely on social media and that fans hoped would move to the course. But the two were then never paired in a major championship or a PGA Tour tournament, so in came this lower-stakes, 12-hole event at the Wynn Golf Club in Las Vegas.“This is what the world’s been waiting for,” Koepka told the TNT broadcast on the third tee Friday afternoon. Koepka, a strong player at the major championships, later said the match was “kind of like my major right now,” as he hit a precise approach shot to close it out with a 4 and 3 victory on the ninth hole. There were no significant moments of tension or any real contretemps, just the usual pleasantries, mild encouragements and civil interactions accompanying a golf round.Koepka and DeChambeau spent much of the summer engaged in public sniping and expressions of distaste for each other. The feud reaches back further, into 2019, when a putting green confrontation occurred at the Northern Trust regarding Koepka’s disapproval of DeChambeau’s pace of play. There have been subtle comments and social media posts for a couple of years, with DeChambeau at one point mocking Koepka’s physique on display in the body issue of ESPN the Magazine, saying he “didn’t have any abs.” Koepka promptly replied with a tweeted image of his four major championship trophies, captioned, “I am 2 short of a 6 pack!”“I’ve said it like 10 different times: I’ve never really liked him,” Koepka said of DeChambeau in the run-up to the event.David Becker/Getty ImagesThe dispute was a source of occasional drama and consistent amusement among the smaller golf audience. It expanded to a much larger audience this year when footage of a Koepka interview with the Golf Channel from May’s P.G.A. Championship leaked on Twitter. In the video, Koepka loses his train of thought and lets loose a string of expletives as an unaware DeChambeau loudly passes by in his metal spikes. The video racked up 10 million views on Twitter before it was removed, and the image of Koepka’s eye-rolling annoyance became a meme.The video ignited a summer of back-and-forth between the two, with fans getting in on it, too. Security at the Memorial Tournament in June occasionally approached fans shouting “Brooks-y!” near DeChambeau. The PGA Tour said that security was informed of the heckling but that DeChambeau did not request the tour to remove fans from the grounds. Koepka responded to the development that night with a video offering free beer from his sponsor to any fans whose stay was “cut short.” The jeer then became a staple wherever DeChambeau played, leading to Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, saying in August that it would be classified as “harassing behavior” under the tour’s fan code of conduct and not be tolerated.“It’s disgusting the way the guy has tried to knock me down,” DeChambeau said during promotional interviews for the match. “There’s no need for it in the game of golf. He’s just tried to knock me down at every angle, every avenue. For what reason, I don’t know.”DeChambeau continued, offering one reason: that Koepka may be motivated by benefiting from the tour’s Player Impact Program. The program distributes a $40 million bonus pool to 10 players based on a number of metrics, including popularity in Google searches. The feud, and Koepka’s pinpoint comments and social media tactics, certainly boosted both players’ profiles this year.Koepka reiterated his distaste for his opponent during the run-up to this match, adding, “I’ve said it like 10 different times: I’ve never really liked him.” There is an authentic dislike and irritation there, even if a made-for-TV match heavy on commercial breaks felt like a reductive attempt to display and resolve that.There were several charitable components to the match, and the overall series of matches had donated $30 million to various charities before this week’s edition. But this was a more commercial endeavor, hyped around a competitive beef. A lush green golf course with ornate man-made waterfalls set aside the Las Vegas Strip in the middle of the desert was an apt venue. Various one-liners and moments from their feud were emblazoned on Koepka’s cart with his beer sponsor. There were closest-to-the-hole side competitions sponsored by a sports book, a private jet company, an automobile and a recruiting service, and a long-drive challenge sponsored by a bank.“It’s disgusting the way the guy has tried to knock me down,” DeChambeau said leading up to the matchup.David Becker/Getty ImagesFrustrations about a “long-drive challenge” most likely started this beef, more so than any publicized tweet or putting green confrontation. It was at the 2019 P.G.A. Championship that DeChambeau felt flustered by the major championship style of golf, where Koepka had so excelled. “If you really want to prove who the best champion is, it’s not a long-drive contest,” DeChambeau told the Golf Channel about the Bethpage course setup. “That’s why they have long-drive contests out here. It’s about precision. So when you start making it really tight, I get the tight part. But when you start lengthening it to the amounts that they’ve been lengthening it to, I just personally think that it’s a mess-up.”DeChambeau argued against major championship setups that simply use length as the primary test and defense of the course. “That tests the best ball-striker,” he said then in May 2019. “That’s what majors are supposed to be about. It’s not supposed to be a driving contest.”Koepka won his fourth major that week at Bethpage. DeChambeau, who walked away frustrated, would soon undergo a complete body transformation that made him the PGA Tour’s driving distance leader the last two years, and a major champion at last fall’s U.S. Open at Winged Foot in New York.The match was nothing like that crucible of a major that both have won, but Koepka will walk away with some form of bragging rights that will certainly provide more social media fodder. More

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      Race to Dubai Players to Watch

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      They are all among the leaders in the Race to Dubai, and a victory in this tournament could put one of them on top.The European Tour winds down for the year this week at the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai with a close battle over who will win the Race to Dubai and be crowned the No. 1 golfer in Europe.After 42 tournaments in 23 countries, the winner walks away with a portion of the record $9 million in prize money.Here are five players to watch.Will ZalatorisHe is one of this year’s breakout stars. Zalatoris, 25, of the United States, tied for sixth at the United States Open, eighth at the PGA Championship and won the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year. Most notably, Zalatoris crashed onto golf’s center stage when he took second at the Masters, losing to Hideki Matsuyama of Japan by one stroke“This past year has been pretty crazy,” Zalatoris said in an interview. “But it’s all good stuff. It’s been a lot of fun. Augusta is the one I’m most proud of, though. Just knowing that I can put myself in that position and be in contention and handle it. It’s nice to know that you can do stuff like that. It’s motivating.”Zalatoris, who is No. 11 in the Race to Dubai, has been working on distance control, but said there is no secret to his success. “The good is really good,” he said. “We just need to make the bad a little bit better.”Matt Fitzpatrick is the defending champion and comes to Dubai after winning the Andalucia Masters in Spain. He is sixth in the Race to Dubai rankings.Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesMatt FitzpatrickFitzpatrick, 27, of England is the defending champion and comes to Dubai fresh off a win at the Andalucia Masters in Spain, making for a total of seven wins on the European Tour.“I really think my game is trending in the right direction,” he told reporters recently. “Playing well in the next few weeks, I’ll hopefully have some good results.”Fitzpatrick, No. 6 in the Race to Dubai, said it was important to manage the amount of pressure he puts on himself and to be patient.“I think for me it’s just about trying to have consistency throughout the whole four aspects of my game,” he said. “This year it’s been driving and putting, but my approach play’s been off, so hopefully I’ll get that to a better level and keep going with that.”Collin Morikawa is leading the Race to Dubai. He has won two majors on the PGA Tour.Atsushi Tomura/Getty ImagesCollin MorikawaMorikawa, 24, of the United States, made his Dubai debut last year and is leading the Race to Dubai this year.“I’ve put myself in a pretty strong position to win,” he said in a phone interview. “Now, I’m trying to get prepped, just like any other event. I’m coming out trying to win. It’s going to be a great field of players. I’ve seen this course, and I know what to expect.”Morikawa is working on “a few small things,” he said. “Some things are physical, and some things are mental. It’s just about getting a little sharper. It’s the end of the season, and sometimes you get a little too relaxed. So it’s just about staying sharp when you’re out there.”Morikawa, who has won two majors and five tournaments on the PGA Tour, is trying to pare his approach to the game.“You try to think back to when you played well and try to put yourself in that situation and realize what you did. You try to be consistent and keep a routine. It’s about being simple and thinking simple things when you’re out on the golf course. Sometimes that’s not so easy. I can’t think about protecting my lead. I just need to go out and hit the target.”Richard Bland has been on a hot streak recently that puts him eighth in the Race to Dubai.Sean M. Haffey/Getty ImagesRichard BlandBland, of England, made headlines in May when he took his first European Tour win at the British Masters at 48 years old.After grinding his way through 478 tournaments over more than two decades, Bland finally won. He’s been on a hot streak ever since, with six top-10 finishes that place him at No. 8 in the Race to Dubai.What did Bland change in his game to achieve the recent results?“I haven’t done anything different,” he said in a phone interview. “I think it was just my time. It’s hard to explain why a win didn’t happen earlier. I just carried on playing well since the win. I haven’t changed the way I practice. I’m not trying to do anything different. Everything just clicked into place, and then you get the confidence of winning. It just snowballed from there.”Comfort, consistency and a clear head work for Bland. “I’m not a big tinkerer, or changer of things,” he said. “If it ain’t broke, then don’t try and fix it. If your game is in good shape, then just go play. I don’t want too many thoughts going around in my head.”This season Min Woo Lee of Australia has had his first two wins on the tour, and he is No. 5 on the Race to Dubai.Dan Peled/EPA, via ShutterstockMin Woo LeeLee, 23 of Australia, is the latest to crack the Race to Dubai top 10 after three recent performances on the European Tour. He tied for second at the Andalucia Masters, tied for eighth at the Portugal Masters and tied for fourth last week at the AVIV Dubai Championship. The results place him at No. 5 on the Race to Dubai.“I was going to take this week off, but I thought my form was pretty solid and it would be another challenge in front of me and I could overcome it,” Lee said in a statement. “It is tough, I haven’t been home in six months, but I’m looking forward to going home and relaxing.”Earlier this season, Lee notched his first two wins on the tour, narrowly edging out Fitzpatrick at the Scottish Open and finishing two shots ahead of Ryan Fox of New Zealand at the ISPS Handa Vic Open. More

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      An American May Finally Win the Race to Dubai

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      It’s never happened before, and the sport is wondering what it means if a golfer from the United States wins the European championship.In the 50-year history of the European Tour, something could happen on Sunday at the final event of the season, the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, that has never happened: An American could win the Race to Dubai competition.Collin Morikawa, who won the British Open this year, is in first place, followed by Billy Horschel, winner of the BMW PGA Championship. Both players are Americans and members of the PGA and the European Tours.This time last year, Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champion, was in contention. But Lee Westwood of England won the title for the third time. (The race had previously been called the Order of Merit.)Jon Rahm, the top-ranked player in the world, was lurking in third place but he announced on Sunday that he wold not play in Dubai.Still, why top Americans are surging on the European Tour and what it means is not obvious, except that professional golf is in flux.The tour was once the province of European and non-American players. Then it became a testing ground for future stars, the way Brooks Koepka of the United States played on the European Tour early in his career to test his mettle and gain membership on the PGA Tour. He went on to win four major championships.Today, the nationality of who is leading the Race to Dubai may be unimportant because next year the European Tour will not even be called the European Tour. Last week, the tour’s parent company, European Tour Group, announced its flagship tour will be known as the DP World Tour starting in 2022.Even Keith Pelley, the European Tour’s chief executive, was at a loss when asked about American dominance in the yearlong race and what it meant.“I’d have answered that question completely differently before November 2020,” he said, referring to when a strategic alliance was announced between the PGA Tour and the European Tour.“Before the PGA Tour became our partner, as opposed to a competitor, it would have meant a lot more for an American to be in contention in the Race to Dubai,” Pelley said. “We are no longer competing for top players. Collin Morikawa and Billy Horschel are great players and great ambassadors of the game, and we are grateful for them. The importance of an American winning would have been much greater in the past.”Collin Morikawa at the PGA Championship in South Carolina in May.Stacy Revere/Getty ImagesThe PGA Tour and the European Tour have historically been rivals for players and commercial dollars. But out of the Covid lockdown came a partnership.When major events — like the Masters, the United States Open, PGA Championship and the British Open — were initially canceled or postponed last year, the two tours came together to see which events could be salvaged and staged safely. While many regular-season events were lost, three of the four majors were held — albeit without fans. (The British Open was canceled.)From that cooperation, the PGA Tour took a 15 percent stake in the European Tour Group in May. They also began to coordinate their schedules so the top players would be able to play in each tour’s big events. At the same time, the players excluded from those events because of their rankings would have other events to play that would count toward the rankings on both tours.Next year, there will be three such events: the Genesis Scottish Open, the Barbasol Championship and the Barracuda Championship.“There’s no question both organizations are going to be made stronger by working together,” said Rick Anderson, chief media officer for the PGA Tour.Still, what this cooperation means for the golfers was not as easy to hash out as the scheduling, commercial licenses and big advertising dollars.This mash-up of tours in partnerships and branding comes when the golf ecosystem is increasingly intertwined, but also incredibly scrambled. There used to be clear distinctions on what the tours meant. The PGA and the European Tours were rivals through the 1990s, with each tour’s players really only crossing the Atlantic for majors like the Masters or the British Open.But starting in 1986, the European Tour started the Challenge Tour to serve as the proving ground for future European Tour players. Four years later, in 1990, the PGA Tour created the Ben Hogan Tour, now known as the Korn Ferry Tour, to serve the same purpose for the PGA Tour.At the time, the developmental tours fed into the main tours. But over the decades, players began to shuffle among them as playing privileges became harder to come by in the Tiger Woods era.“Our tours were vertically integrated,” Pelley said. “Now they’re horizontally integrated, and it’s a significant difference. What does that mean in the long run? That’s the $1 million question. I can’t emphatically give you an answer.”There is definitely opportunity for the top players. Horschel realizes he could accomplish two firsts in winning or finishing high enough at the DP World Championship, Dubai, which ends on Sunday, to claim the Race to Dubai. In addition to being the first American to win the European Tour’s season-long title, he could be just the second player to win both the Race to Dubai and the FedEx Cup, the PGA Tour’s equivalent.Billy Horschel won the BMW PGA Championship in September.Glyn Kirk/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesYet Horschel, 34, who lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., where the PGA Tour is based, said he grew up watching tournaments like the BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour early in the day and then being inspired to play afterward. He has a growing fan base in Europe and said he hoped to play five to seven tournaments on the European Tour each year.Facilitating this is what the alliance between the two tours and the increased sponsorship from DP World would achieve. Each tournament under the DP World Tour will have at least a $2 million prize purse, while next year’s version of the season-ending DP World Championship will have a $10 million purse, up from about $9 million this year.There will also be more cooperation so the elite players can play in each tour’s biggest events. “The thinking was how can we organize our respective schedules, so this is more planned out,” Anderson said. “If you organize these things, it’ll be better for both organizations and not be disruptive to the tours.(Neither Pelley nor Anderson would comment on Greg Norman’s new Saudi-backed golf venture, LIV Golf Investments, which aims to create a premier golf league to lure the top players.)Where the new focus on the big events is less thought out is on its impact on all the other golfers who are not ranked in the Top 50. Their path is not as clear as it once was. Younger American and European players had a system of working their way from the Korn Ferry and Challenge Tours to the PGA and European Tours. But the alliance and higher prize money from DP World could crowd them out.One nod to that is both tours are sanctioning two lesser events next year, in the Barbasol Championship and the Barracuda Championship, giving playing opportunities to professionals who did not qualify for the Scottish or the British Opens that are held the same weeks.“Today the different ways you make it to the PGA Tour are varied, and there isn’t a clear path to get there,” Anderson said. “We want to identify clear lanes for the players who ask, how do I progress in our sport and create options?”For now, though, all eyes are on golf’s elite players to see who will win this year’s Race to Dubai.“Collin and I have a chance to do something that hasn’t been done before,” Horschel said. “It’s going to be a tight race. You have a lot of great players who have the chance to win the Race to Dubai.” More

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      The Two Worlds of Billy Horschel

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      He has won the BMW PGA Championship and is now close to winning the European Tour’s Race to Dubai.Billy Horschel of the United States, ranked 20th in the world golf rankings, enters the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai this week in second place in the Race to Dubai, the season-long points race on the European Tour. To win it all, he will have to pass fellow American Collin Morikawa, ranked second in the world and leading the Race to Dubai.If Horschel wins, he would enter elite company in winning the Race to Dubai and the FedEx Cup, the race’s equivalent on the PGA Tour. Henrik Stenson of Sweden is the only one to win both, capturing the FedEx Cup in 2013 and the Race to Dubai in 2013 and 2016.Horschel is a member of the PGA and the European Tours. This year he has played four events in Europe: the Scottish Open, the British Open, the BMW PGA Championship, which he won the same week he found out he would not play in the Ryder Cup — and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.Horschel said he embraced his dual tour status, and in return he has been embraced by European fans.The following interview has been edited and condensed.How does winning the BMW PGA Championship rank in your year?It was a top highlight. I played it in 2019, and I fell in love with the event. I watched it as a kid. It was the first week we were out of school. I’d watch it and go play afterward. To win there — the support I got was unbelievable. It made me feel like I was an English golfer with so many people rooting me on to victory. Being the flagship event on the European Tour, it has that same level of importance as the Players Championship on the PGA Tour. Being able to say I’ve won there is important. That event can rival any event on the PGA Tour. It’s comparable to the majors.Horschel playing last month in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in St. Andrews, Scotland.Mark Runnacles/Getty ImagesHow did you feel about the Ryder Cup?I’m ecstatic the U.S. Team won. Many times we had a strong team on paper, but these guys produced, and I knew they would. The majority were really close knit, but they also knew how to get away and have fun off the golf course. I wanted to make the team, but I knew I had a very low percentage chance of making it. I was just more upset thinking I should have gotten a call. At the end of the day, it was my little perceived knock, but it worked out in the end.How do you think about splitting your time on the PGA and European Tours?The European Tour’s gotten so much tougher. After winning the BMW PGA, I’ve gotten so much support traveling overseas that I’d like to get over more. I’m trying to give myself enough events on the PGA Tour to give myself an opportunity to win the FedEx Cup again. But I’m also trying to support the European Tour and how it’s trying to grow. Over the next five to 10 years, I’m going to try to get over there at least five times, though seven would be ideal.You are in second place in the Race to Dubai. What are you thinking going into the DP World Tour?It’s a pretty unique situation. No American has won the Race to Dubai. I think Collin and I have a chance to do something that hasn’t been done before. It’s going to be an unbelievable week. It’s going to be a tight race. You have a lot of great players who have the chance to win the Race to Dubai. To add your name to that prestigious list is something you can’t get away from. I’ve already been thinking about it since I won the BMW PGA.What do season-long contests like the Race to Dubai and the FedEx Cup mean to players?I’m always trying to win the tournament. I hardly ever know where I stand in points. I’m always trying to get better through the year. But in a couple of events, you’re coming down 18 and you don’t have a chance to win, and you say to yourself, “Let’s not do anything stupid and take away a top-five finish.” At the end of the year, one shot can be a massive difference. More