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      A Black Architect Is Transforming the Landscape of Golf

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      Brandon Johnson developed a love of golf and course design at an early age. He has mastered a field that has historically lacked diversity.Brandon Johnson picked up his first golf club at age 12 and knew right away that he was hooked on the sport. By high school, he recalls, he wanted a career as a golf course architect.Today, 35 years later, he is the senior golf course architect and a vice president for Arnold Palmer Design Company after a stint at First Tee, a nonprofit that teaches children life skills through golf.Although golf consumed him at an early age, he grew up in Charlotte, N.C., in a family where music and art were intertwined. He was drawn to the cello, the drums and the piano early in life and was inspired to sketch and draw by his sister, whom he described as the artist in the family. Golf course design captured his attention in part because of a coffee-table book his parents bought him and seeing the work of the golf course designer Pete Dye on PGA Tour telecasts.Brandon Johnson has been involved in the design of 30 courses all over the world, many of which are in developments with golf homes.He was accepted to North Carolina State University, where he majored in landscape architecture — with a minor in music — and later went on to the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where, he said, he “fell in love with large-scale master planning,” which is, after all, what being a golf course architect entails.In a field that has historically lacked diversity, Mr. Johnson stands out. “There have definitely been other Black golf architects who broke down the barriers for me, but I’m still an exception to the norm,” he said.“I was also the only Black player when I played competitively in high school.”Mr. Johnson said that he has been inspired by Black golf course architects such as Leslie “Les” Clayton, whom he worked with when he was at First Tee, and Joseph Bartholomew, who was introduced to golf when he caddied at a segregated private club and subsequently went on to have a successful career as a designer. Mr. Bartholomew was barred from playing on the very courses he designed because of segregation laws.Mr. Johnson has held his current position for almost a decade and has been involved in the design of 30 courses all over the world, many of which are in developments with golf homes.In the earlier years of golf communities, the sport was an amenity to the real estate, Mr. Johnson said, but now, the course matters as much as and even more than the homes. “A great golf course associated with a community increases the value of the properties in that community,” he said.The following interview has been edited and condensed.What does a golf course architect actually do?We prepare the game board for golf. We take a raw piece of land and figure out creative ways that the game can be played out in that topography. Any one course takes between three to five years from the design phase to when it’s actually completed. I’m involved every step of the way and work with a team of engineers; agronomists, who study the soil; landscape architects; golf course builders; and golf course shapers, who are experts at sculpting the land to my design concepts.Practicing golf course architecture is a combination of balancing the technical and artistic sides of the job.Mr. Johnson, center, at work on a site.Do you have a philosophy when designing courses?Yes. My philosophy is to design courses that are fun and engaging and interesting strategically for players.Given that you have a minor in music, do you ever listen to music when you design?Absolutely. It’s jazz when I am trying to solve a really tough problem and Romantic-era classical other times, like Brahms and Beethoven.Why do you think that there so few golf players and architects who are Black? Is that changing at all?In my opinion, it’s a combination of interconnected and sometimes complex issues and circumstances that become one big deterrent for entry and participation into the game and its supporting industry: the country’s segregated racial history and golf’s historical participation in that, awareness, access (equipment, facilities, instruction, peer playing companions), money, education, time, lack of introductions to the game, just to name a few.Change is taking place. There are numerous programs both national and local that are focused on growing participation and access to the game such as First Tee, Bridging the Gap, Black Girls Golf. On the competitive player development level, the United Golfers Association and the Advocates Professional Golf Association are making huge strides in developing the next generation of elite professional golfers. All of these programs are focused on reaching African-Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans and underrepresented groups in hopes of making the game much more inclusive and diverse.Many of the courses you design are in developments or resorts where people can buy golf homes. How does the design of a course interplay with these residences?In an ideal setting, they coexist seamlessly by having the golf course be spread over the prime pieces of land, whether that’s water features such as streams, ponds or the ocean, or terrain with rolling hills where you get views. The homes are on the periphery of these properties with generous setbacks away from the course.The 11th hole of the Commander Course.Matthew MajkaBut what you don’t want is an 18-hole course with homes jammed on either side of it, which was often the case in the ’80s and ’90s when many communities were being built. Living in a golf community is about having space and breathing room from other homes and the course.In your experience, how have golf course communities changed over the last 10 years?Communities used to be only about the golf. Today, they have a diversity of amenities such as resort-style pools, dog parks, tennis courts, bocce courts, spas, top-of-the-line gyms, great restaurants, horseback riding and more.New communities are more multifaceted, and older ones are renovating.These changes are broadening the demographic of the residents, who used to be mostly retirees. You see nongolfers and a lot more younger people who aren’t just buying second homes but moving in full time with their families. They want to raise their children there.Are golf communities making a shift to be more sustainable?Sustainability matters today more than it did ever before. Golf courses now have features that promote water conservation and design elements that touch the natural land as little as possible. Some communities even create new ecosystems. In Lakewood National Golf Club, in Sarasota, Fla., for example, I designed two golf courses. My team and I started with a cleared and barren flat landscape and transformed it into a setting with lakes and rolling topography. We added tons of vegetation such as pines, oaks, red maples, magnolias and native palms. Today, the property is a wildlife-rich ecosystem with a variety of birds, fish, alligators, and the occasional wild boar and deer.Some golf homeowners want a property right next to the course while others prefer homes that are farther away. In your opinion, what are the drawbacks and benefits of each?Being near a course means you get great views and a backyard that is well maintained with natural landscape. The people watching is also a plus. But you might get the occasional golf ball in your yard from other players. There’s a misperception that you lack privacy if your home is too close to a course, but in a well-planned community that shouldn’t be an issue because there is a vast amount of open space.If your house is further away from a course, you might be more secluded, but, especially in large communities, the course won’t be as accessible.One setting isn’t more prestigious than the other. It boils down to personal preference.In your opinion, what are the next emerging golf destinations?Asia for sure. India, for example, has a long history with the game, but the golf courses there are still developing all over the country. It’s on my wish list to work on a course there.Vietnam and Thailand are also very up and coming with new courses in upscale resorts with real estate.In Africa, Morocco, Kenya and Nigeria have budding golf markets, and our company has seen interest in new courses from these countries. More

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      Boxing legend Mike Tyson reveals he once smashed someone’s car up with a golf club in huge blunder

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      MIKE TYSON once smashed someone’s car with a golf club but the boxing legend reckons it was an accident.Iron Mike is well known for his rollercoaster lifestyle and angry outbursts and the Baddest Man on the Planet revealed it sometimes spilled over onto the golf course too.
      Mike Tyson once damaged someone’s car with a golf clubCredit: AP:Associated Press
      Iron Mike is a keen golfer but sometimes let his anger get the better of him on the courseCredit: Alamy
      Speaking on his Hotboxin podcast alongside Mexican icon Canelo Alvarez, Tyson recounted an occasion that would have left his playing partners yelling: “FOOOOOUUUUURRRR!”
      The 54-year-old said: “One day I was playing golf, and I turned into the ball.
      “The thing (golf club) came out of my hand and BOOM on somebody’s car.”
      Tyson and Canelo discovered they share a mutual love for golf.
      And Iron Mike said getting to hang out with his mates while being competitive is the best part of the sport.
      In a separate chat on the pod, Tyson revealed Muhammad Ali is No 1 of three in his list of favourite fighters of all time.
      The heavyweight legend told current pound-for-pound No1 Canelo that Sugar Ray Robinson and Roberto Duran are his other two.
      And it was Duran’s iconic 1980 win over Sugar Ray Leonard which first inspired Tyson to become a boxer.
      CHELTENHAM SPECIAL OFFER: BEST BETS OF DAY FOUR

      Tyson said: “Duran got me into fighting. I watched him fight Leonard and thought, ‘Wow, I wanna do this’.
      “Ali, Duran, Robinson, I love all of the fighters.
      “There’s not one fighter that could do everything, like one guy can do one thing, another guy can have a left hook that’s just better than everybody else, just looks better than anybody else even though he’s not a better fighter.
      “Fighting is weird, people look good fighting, even if they’re not a good fighter they look good losing, they just have that pizazz in them.
      “Some people are born like that, they just look good doing everything, even losing.”
      Ali – known as The Greatest for his impact not only in boxing but culturally – was who Tyson first idolised.
      But after discovering Duran, a vicious and ruthless character in and out of the ring, Iron Mike found a new hero.

      Mike Tyson’s brother is a brain surgeon who ‘saved a couple’ of his pals’ lives after they were shot More

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      Tiger Woods Has Gone Home From the Hospital

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      Woods was hospitalized three weeks ago in Los Angeles after a car crash that left him with severe injuries to his right leg. Here is what we know.Tiger Woods has been released from a Los Angeles hospital where he was treated after a car crash last month, according to a post on Tuesday to his Twitter account that said he was recovering at home.The authorities have continued to investigate the cause of the single-vehicle crash that sent Woods, 45, to the hospital on Feb. 23, when the S.U.V. he was driving crashed onto a hillside along a tricky stretch of road in Los Angeles County.“I will be recovering at home and working on getting stronger every day,” the Twitter post on Tuesday read.pic.twitter.com/JU6D0MKpsK— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) March 16, 2021
      Woods’s only known residence is in Jupiter Island, Fla., where he lives in a mansion — sometimes with his two children, whom he shares with his ex-wife.The post did not contain updates on his condition, and Mark Steinberg, Woods’s longtime agent, said in an email that he could not offer any further information on his client’s whereabouts or condition.Here is what else we know as of Tuesday night.What injuries was Woods treated for?Woods was taken to Harbor-U.C.L.A. Medical Center in Los Angeles on the day of the crash and underwent emergency surgery to repair serious injuries to his right leg.He was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on the evening of Feb. 25.The morning after Woods’s arrival at Cedars-Sinai, he received “follow-up procedures on his injuries,” which were deemed successful, according to a statement from Woods’s Twitter account.Dr. Anish Mahajan, the acting chief executive of Harbor-U.C.L.A., said in a statement the night after the crash that both bones in Woods’s lower right leg, the tibia and fibula, had been broken in multiple places and were “open fractures,” meaning they pierced his skin.Dr. Mahajan said doctors had “stabilized” the breaks by placing a rod in the tibia. He said that additional bones in Woods’s ankle and foot were also injured and that they had been “stabilized with a combination of screws and pins.”The statement did not describe any injuries to Woods’s left leg, though Daryl L. Osby, the Los Angeles County fire chief, had said earlier that Woods had “serious injuries” to both legs. The chief did not explain further and said he was not sure what other injuries Woods might have sustained.Doctors not involved in Woods’s care have predicted an extremely difficult recovery from his injuries.What have the authorities learned about the crash?Sheriff Alex Villanueva of Los Angeles County said in a Facebook Livestream on March 3 that investigators had gotten a search warrant for the event data recorder, also known as a black box, in Woods’s S.U.V. to help clarify the cause of the crash.An event data recorder is a recording device in most cars that can offer information about how the vehicle was being used — such as how fast it was traveling and whether the driver used brakes — at the time of a crash, according to a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department. A search warrant is required to check this data, which is protected under the Driver Privacy Act of 2015.The warrant to inspect the box’s data was executed on March 1 as part of a “routine procedure,” she said.When asked why the department did not seek a warrant for blood samples from the hospital, which would indicate whether Woods had alcohol or drugs in his system, Sheriff Villanueva said in the livestream on March 3 that there was no evidence of impairment.“Absent the evidence of impairment, you know, you’re not going to get a search warrant,” the sheriff said. “Period. It’s not getting assigned by the judge.”Though the investigation has continued, Sheriff Villanueva was quite clear at a news conference on Feb. 24 that he believed the crash was accidental. “We don’t contemplate any charges whatsoever in this crash,” he said. “This remains an accident, and an accident is not a crime.”Drug recognition experts — police officers trained to identify people suspected of being impaired — were not dispatched to either the site of the crash or the hospital, Sheriff Villanueva added.Although Woods appeared “lucid and calm” immediately after the accident and was able to answer questions from Deputy Carlos Gonzalez, the first emergency responder to arrive at the scene, he “had no recollection of the crash itself” when asked at the hospital, Villanueva said in a Feb. 24 appearance on CNN.Forensic experts from across the country who are not involved in the investigation told USA Today, for an article published on March 13, that it appeared to be either a case of falling asleep at the wheel or of impaired or distracted driving.The crash occurred on Hawthorne Boulevard near Rancho Palos Verdes, a coastal city of about 42,000 people in Los Angeles County.How dangerous is that stretch of road?According to data collected by the Sheriff’s Department, there have been 13 accidents, four with injuries, from Jan. 3, 2020, to Feb. 23 within a 1.35-mile stretch of Hawthorne Boulevard where Woods crashed, according to data collected by the Sheriff’s Department.Only one of those accidents was officially determined to have involved an individual under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to the data, and none involved someone using a phone. Two of the 13 accidents were single-vehicle crashes, according to the data, which indicated that neither driver in those cases had been driving under the influence.The speed limit there is 45 miles per hour, but Deputy Gonzalez said he had sometimes seen vehicles going more than 80 miles per hour. Sheriff Villanueva said it appeared that Woods had been driving at a “greater speed than normal” on the day of the accident.What happened during the crash?Officers arrived at the scene six minutes after receiving a 911 call and found Woods trapped in an S.U.V. that had rolled over, Sheriff Villanueva said on the day of the crash.The vehicle Woods was driving hit the median strip, traveled several hundred feet and rolled several times before stopping in the brush on the other side of the road, Sheriff Villanueva said. There were no skid or swerve marks, indicating that Woods had made no attempt to brake, the sheriff said. The bumper and the front end of the car were “destroyed,” but the interior cabin of the vehicle was “more or less intact,” he added.There was no evidence that Woods was being followed or looking at his phone, the sheriff said at the time of the crash. Weather was also not a factor in the crash, he said. Woods was wearing his seatbelt, and airbags in the car deployed, Deputy Gonzalez said.What car was Woods driving? Why was he in the Los Angeles area?Woods was in Southern California to host, but not compete in, the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades the weekend before the crash. Genesis Motor is a luxury vehicle division of Hyundai. Woods was in a 2021 Genesis GV80 S.U.V., which was provided to him during the tournament; he is known for always driving himself in a courtesy car at tournaments.Woods stayed after the weekend to do promotional work for Golf Digest and GOLFTV, and when the crash happened, according to ESPN, he was on his way to a photo shoot with the N.F.L. quarterbacks Drew Brees and Justin Herbert.How did fellow golfers respond?Rory McIlroy, 31, in an interview on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on March 9, said that he had spoken with Woods and that he expected him to be able to recover at home with family soon.“He’s doing better — and I think all of us are wishing him a speedy recovery at this point,” McIlroy said of himself and unspecified fellow golfers in the interview, which he did from the Players Championship.Several PGA Tour players wore red shirts with black pants, a version of Woods’s signature final-round outfit at the Workday Championship on Sunday, Feb. 28. Some used Bridgestone golf balls imprinted with Woods’s usual marking, “TIGER.” And many spectators wore red shirts, hats, T-shirts and face masks.“It is hard to explain how touching today was when I turned on the TV and saw all the red shirts,” a statement on Woods’s Twitter account said on Sunday. “To every golfer and every fan, you are truly helping me get through this tough time.”Annika Sorenstam, 50, wore a red top and black skirt at an L.P.G.A. Tour event in Orlando, while maintenance staff at the Puerto Rican Open wore red in tribute as well.On the day of the crash, celebrities and fans alike offered prayers and words of support on social media.Where did Woods’s career stand before the crash?Even before the wreck, it was not clear when Woods might play again or whether he would be able to pursue a record-tying sixth Masters victory this spring.Woods was trying to recover from his fifth back operation, a microdiscectomy, which he announced in January.When he appeared on CBS on Sunday during the final round of the Genesis tournament, Woods was asked whether he would compete at the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in April. “God, I hope so,” he said. “I’ve got to get there first.”Although Woods said last month that he expected to miss at least two tournaments, he did not publicly rule out playing in the Masters, which he last won in 2019. On Sunday, he said he was “feeling fine, a little bit stiff” and was awaiting another magnetic resonance imaging scan to evaluate his progress.In the meantime, he said, he was “still doing the mundane stuff that you have to do for rehab, the little things before you can start gravitating toward something a little more.”Woods tied for 38th place in the 2020 Masters, which was played in November because of the coronavirus pandemic. Although he shot a 10 on the 12th hole during the final round, he birdied five of the final six holes.Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Bill Pennington contributed reporting. More

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      Justin Thomas Surges to Win the Players Championship

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyJustin Thomas Surges to Win the Players ChampionshipThomas, who entered the final round Sunday three strokes behind the leader, won his 14th career title on the PGA Tour.Justin Thomas held off Lee Westwood and Bryson DeChambeau to win the Players Championship.Credit…Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesMarch 14, 2021, 9:09 p.m. ETPONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — It was evident early that the final round of the Players Championship might not unfold as expected when Bryson DeChambeau took one of his trademark mighty swipes and barely made contact with the top of his golf ball, which nose-dived and skittered into a pond roughly 100 yards away.Next, on the same tee, was Lee Westwood, who was leading the tournament and predicted to duel DeChambeau, who was in second place after the first three rounds, throughout Sunday afternoon. Westwood hit a slice so crooked it would have warmed the heart of the everyday hacker. Westwood’s ball plunked into a different pond than DeChambeau’s, but the tone for the day was undeniably cast.Playing in the pairing ahead of DeChambeau and Westwood, Justin Thomas was not aware of the travails going on behind him. But he had a studied understanding.“I’ve watched this tournament for years,” Thomas said, “and I know lots of crazy things can happen.”Thomas began the last round three strokes behind Westwood but passed him, and DeChambeau, to take the tournament lead with an eagle on the 11th hole. From there, as his rivals wobbled, he was steady, especially when he birdied the 16th and made gritty pars on the two treacherous closing holes at the TPC-Sawgrass course.On a day of unforeseen ups and downs, Thomas’s consistency led to a one-stroke victory and another noteworthy title, his 14th on the PGA Tour. Thomas, 27, has also won a P.G.A. Championship and the 2017 FedEx Cup playoffs.“I was bold when I had to be — I took risks,” Thomas, who finished the tournament at 14-under par, said afterward. “But I was also patient when things didn’t go exactly as planned because you knew it was going to be that type of day.”The victory also was a respite in a stormy year for Thomas, the second ranked golfer in the world.In January, a television boom microphone caught him muttering a homophobic slur to himself after a short missed putt at the Sony Open. Thomas apologized immediately and has not shied from the consequences, which included a social media outcry and the loss of his clothing sponsor.In February, his 89-year-old paternal grandfather, Paul, a P.G.A. professional with whom Thomas talked daily, died. Later that month, Tiger Woods, who has become one of Thomas’s closest friends, was seriously injured in a car crash.Since the crash, Thomas has stayed in almost daily contact with Woods, including on Sunday when Woods wished Thomas luck before the final round. In his last four tournaments this year, Thomas had seemed distracted and turned in poor results, especially for a player of his recent pedigree.“It’s been a bad couple of months,” Thomas said after Sunday’s victory. He added: “I told my family I’m ready for something good to happen this year. I’d say this qualifies.”Thomas was in danger of missing the cut with nine holes remaining in his second round on Friday, but he rallied with four birdies on the back nine to earn a spot in the last two rounds. He began Sunday with seven consecutive pars on a warm but mostly windless day in northeast Florida. Though the conditions were benign, they still did not lead to many low scores on the devilish Pete Dye-designed layout. Thomas, whose closing 36-hole score of 12 under par was a tournament record, vaulted to the top of the leaderboard with birdies on the ninth, 10th and 12th holes — along with his eagle on the par-5 11th hole.Lee Westwood finished second for the second consecutive tournament.Credit…Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesWith DeChambeau and Westwood, the top two finishers at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, trailing but not totally out of the picture, Thomas came to the par-5 16th hole needing a daring strike. For his second shot from the fairway, Thomas hit a gutsy 5-wood that curled onto the 16th green from 228 yards. It was Thomas’s first attempt at an eagle putt in his career on the golf course’s 16th hole, which he did not make from 46 feet. But he tapped the ball in for a crucial, timely birdie.“I was proud that I took some chances that paid off,” Thomas said.A second successive second-place finish did not leave Westwood, who will turn 48 in April, dejected. He appeared at a news conference with a wide smile.“I’m just having so much fun — everybody keeps telling me how old I am,” Westwood said, laughing. “I’m still out here contending for tournaments and playing in final groups with great players.”DeChambeau said he had never hit a shot in competition like his knuckling mis-hit off the tee on the fourth hole Sunday, but he was not overly dispirited either.“I don’t know what happened on four — that’s the game and I’m OK with it,” DeChambeau said. “Still smiling after. It just seemed like something wasn’t going my way today for some reason. I could just feel it. It was weird.”Thomas, despite the outcome, was not without at least one moment of fear that one of his shots might find a water hazard at an inopportune time. His drive off the 18th tee landed only a few feet from the large pond to the left of the fairway.“I thought it was 50-50 whether it was going to be dry or in the water,” Thomas said of the shot, which ricocheted to the right, away from the hazard, on its first bounce.He continued, “When you win tournaments, you get lucky breaks like that.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Bryson DeChambeau Keeps the Crowd Riveted at the Players Championship

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBryson DeChambeau Keeps the Crowd Riveted at the Players ChampionshipThe question of whether the big-hitting DeChambeau would pull out his driver seemed as compelling as the actual competition.Bryson DeChambeau played a shot from near the 12th hole back to the 14th as fans looked on at the Players Championship on Friday.Credit…Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesMarch 12, 2021, 8:54 p.m. ETPONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Throughout the second round of the Players Championship on Friday, an entertaining crew of the world’s best golfers vied for the tournament lead. But for several hours, most fans were transfixed by a different matter: Whether Bryson DeChambeau would hit a prudent iron or take a mighty lash with his driver on hole after hole.In this recurring drama, it seemed as if most of the roughly 10,000 spectators permitted on the spacious grounds of the T.P.C. Sawgrass golf course were packed behind DeChambeau as he stood on a tee box and deliberated how to best attack a par-4 or par-5. The tension was palpable, and the fans hushed when DeChambeau moved toward his golf bag.As DeChambeau explained later, if he ultimately pulled an iron from the bag, the response was a crestfallen bellowing, as if the crowd had seen a child’s just-bought ice cream cone fall and splatter on the ground.“It’s always like a big ‘Awwww’ for an iron,” DeChambeau said after his round on Friday.And if he tugged his mammoth driver from the bag? Think climatic movie scene in which a hero finally vanquishes the villain.“If it’s the driver, it’s like, ‘Yeah!’ ” DeChambeau said with a hearty grin.It has come to this on the PGA Tour, and perhaps it is not a surprise. Winning golf is entertainment, but it’s no match for a dose of swashbuckling charisma mixed with the sight of a golf ball smashed as far as 380 yards.The DeChambeau era in men’s professional golf continues with resounding impact. After Friday’s round, Rory McIlroy, a four-time major championship winner who missed the cut, blamed trying to play too much like DeChambeau for his poor performance.While hitting towering drives, DeChambeau, the reigning United States Open champion, also shot a three-under-par 69 on Friday that put him at six under for the tournament and only three strokes behind the second-round leader, Lee Westwood. Play was suspended Friday evening because of darkness, with a small number of players unable to finish their second rounds.DeChambeau, who defeated Westwood in a final-round duel last weekend to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational, is clearly buoyed by the fans’ attention. Their energy seems to inspire him, though he might not hit the driver as often as they would like on the tight T.P.C. Sawgrass layout. Between shots, he freely, and warmly, banters with the crowd.“They always ask how many protein shakes I’ve had, which is funny,” he said, “and I always reply back with however many I’ve had that day, for the most part.”Protein shakes are a staple of the diet that helped DeChambeau gain 40 pounds last year, although he has slimmed down by at least 15 now. As an explanation, DeChambeau said he had consumed only four shakes by Friday afternoon, or about half his intake four months ago.While DeChambeau hit several exceptional drives and approach shots on Friday, finishing with five birdies and a double-bogey, he was disappointed by his ball striking and headed to the practice range shortly after his round. He was still there pounding balls three hours later.Asked if he ever comes off the golf course satisfied and skips the post-round practice, DeChambeau, 27, blurted: “Never. Because my brain is — I mean, I’m a perfectionist, and I’ll continue to be so until the day I die and until the day I stop playing this game. That’s just the way I am. I love it about me.”He smiled and added, “But at the same time it makes me worry about stuff a lot.”DeChambeau at the ninth tee. He hit several exceptional drives Friday.Credit…Jasen Vinlove/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThough DeChambeau once again cast a large shadow on a PGA Tour event, he was far from the only golfer making news.Viktor Hovland, the ascending 23-year-old who is ranked 13th in the world, missed the cut on Friday in part because his mother, who was watching the tournament at home in Norway, noticed a rules violation that he had committed in the first round and called it to his attention later. Her intervention led to a two-stroke penalty.Hovland finished Friday at two over for the tournament, or two strokes above the cut line. He received the penalty for inadvertently playing his ball from the wrong place on the 15th green in the first round on Thursday.As is custom, Hovland had moved his ball out of a competitor’s putting line. But then he failed to replace it in the proper spot, although he did not move it closer to the hole or gain any apparent advantage.According to the NBC broadcast of the Players Championship on Friday, Hovland received a call from his mother after the first round and then contacted PGA Tour officials, who reviewed video of the incident and verified Hovland’s mistake.“It’s unfortunate; I’ve already kind of put that past me,” Hovland said calmly after shooting 74 on Friday. “I’m just more disappointed that I wasn’t able to play better.”Hovland was not nearly as disconsolate as McIlroy, who shot 75 on Friday after a glaring 79 on Thursday. Like so many others at this year’s Players Championship, McIlroy had DeChambeau on his mind, and he believes trying to keep up with DeChambeau’s prodigious distance has led to his recent subpar play.Late last year, after DeChambeau’s U.S. Open victory, McIlroy, already one of the longest hitters on the tour, altered his swing in an attempt to add even more yardage to his drives.“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t anything to do with what Bryson did at the U.S. Open,” McIlroy said. “I think a lot of people saw that and were like, ‘Whoa, if this is the way they’re going to set golf courses up in the future, it helps.’”McIlroy now considers that a mistake.“I thought being able to get some more speed is a good thing,” he said. “And maybe — to the detriment a little bit of my swing — I got there. But I just need to maybe rein it back in a little bit.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Sergio García, Leading the Players Championship, Still Has Covid on His Mind

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesRisk Near YouVaccine RolloutGuidelines After VaccinationAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySergio García, Leading the Players Championship, Still Has Covid on His MindGarcía tested positive for the coronavirus just ahead of the Masters in November, and with a trip to Augusta National just weeks away, he is plotting ways to avoid the slight risk of reinfection.Sergio García had a two-shot lead over Brian Harman at the end of play on Thursday.Credit…Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesMarch 11, 2021, 9:04 p.m. ETPONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — When Sergio García was asked on Thursday how he ended up leading the Players Championship with a first-round 65 while Rory McIlroy, who was part of the same threesome, shot a seven-over-par 79, García raised his right hand and held his thumb and index finger about a quarter-inch apart.“It’s the littlest things — tiny little things — that can make a round go from wrong to right,” García said. “It doesn’t take much.”Little things have been on García’s mind for a while, ever since a positive coronavirus test in early November forced him to withdraw from the Masters just days before the tournament, which in 2017 yielded his greatest triumph in the game.García said his Covid-19 symptoms were minor, although he believed that he infected his wife, Angela, who had a slightly worse reaction. He did not play again until mid-January, although part of that gap was a typical off-season layoff.García’s performances have been nondescript this year, and with the next Masters — back in its usual spot on the calendar — only weeks away, he is plotting a more cautious strategy to avoid reinfection with the virus, however slight that risk.Fans have returned to PGA Tour events, with as many as 10,000 welcome each day at the Players Championship this week, and García is happy for the energy the spectators bring. But he is wary, too.“You know that at any time you might get it from any one of them,” García, 41, said. “Not that they’re trying to give it to you or anything, but it might happen.”He added: “I would love to get closer to the fans, but there’s too much at risk for us. And if we get Covid, we pay the price. No one else does. So we have to be very careful as the fans come back into our game.”Rory McIlroy laughing with García during their opening round together.Credit…Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesGarcía, who had a two-stroke lead over Brian Harman on Thursday when play was suspended because of darkness, also said he would skip the tour event the week before the Masters. Last year, he had played in the Houston Open, where he missed the cut and began to notice cold-like symptoms shortly thereafter.García’s view of the Masters, and his zeal to play in it, has changed considerably since the 2017 tournament, the only major victory of a luminous career that needed a signature moment. His success that year was, apparently, all about the little things.The Coronavirus Outbreak More

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      Will Newbies Keep Playing Tennis and Golf Now That Other Sports Are Back?

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Pandemic Drove People to Tennis and Golf. Will They Keep Playing?Recreational athletes flocked to accessible and safely distanced sports. Leaders in golf and tennis — both of which have had massive public investment — want to sustain their pandemic booms.A group of women played a doubles match in January at Querbes Tennis Center in Shreveport, La. Chris Dudley, who operates the facility with his wife, Amy, said the growth there has been “quick and organic” since reopening full-time. Credit…Dylan Hollingsworth for The New York TimesMatthew Futterman and March 11, 2021Updated 8:55 p.m. ETIn 2020, the coronavirus pandemic all but shuttered recreational sports and leisure activities. Fitness centers and yoga studios closed as did movie theaters, museums and concert halls. Games as routine as checkers at a local park or pickup basketball in almost any setting were prohibited. Even playing in ultimate Frisbee leagues became fraught with risk.And yet, golf and tennis, which have struggled to recruit new participants in recent years, flourished as idle athletes sought to play outside, at a safe distance, with some tweaks to accommodate new health guidelines. While more than half of tennis and golf facilities in the United States were padlocked in March and April because of the coronavirus, from June to December in 2020 golf rounds nationwide surged by 75 million as compared to the same period in 2019, a gain of 27 percent.Data from the Physical Activity Council’s recent participation report, which monitors activity in more than 100 sports and activities, showed tennis participation rose 22 percent in 2020, with 21.6 million Americans saying they played the sport at least once. That included nearly 3 million new players and 3.8 million Americans who returned to the sport after a significant hiatus, a 40 percent increase from the previous year.Tennis courts and golf courses have been packed with the people the leaders of those sports have tried to reach for years — beginners and novices whose numbers had been thinning at alarming rates. The newcomers flocked to those sports in large part because of their accessibility. For decades, local school systems and municipal parks departments have built thousands of tennis courts across the country that are free to use and easily located. While golf is often perceived as expensive and exclusive, in fact, 75 percent of American golf courses are open to the public with the average cost of a nine-hole round about $22.The vast public investment in golf and tennis, using taxpayer money and public land, puts an onus on maintaining the pandemic boomlet. As much of the country makes plans to reopen, minders of golf and tennis are focusing on an essential question: how to retain newly hooked participants when other recreational options are available again?Safety measures adopted to stop the coronavirus spread — like prohibiting players from touching or removing the flagstick on each green — sped up the game.Credit…Michael Hanson for The New York TimesNew athletes bring new culture.The growth in participation in golf and tennis is largely being driven by more financially secure people who, in some cases, have the luxury of working from home and the extra time that provides, as well as access to golf courses and tennis courts. But many were younger. There were 3.1 million junior golfers last year, the most ever, with an average age of 12. While new and novice players account for a significant portion of the growth, “new” does not necessarily mean “young.”More than 30 percent of beginning golfers last year were over the age of 40, according to the National Golf Foundation. The players run the gamut, from entire families playing together, women of all ages and lapsed players whose old equipment gives them away. Their arrival during the pandemic compelled golf courses to adopt a faster, more casual and technologically savvy way of operating that many at the top of golf’s hierarchy see optimistically as part of an ongoing cultural shift.“There’s now a different mood about golf,” Jerramy Hainline, the senior vice president and general manager of Golf Now, an online tee-time service with nearly four million registered golfers that also provides technology to more than 9,000 golf courses, said. “The spirit is changing out there.”The pandemic spurred a spirit of experimentation that may become permanent. To keep players adequately separated, for example, golf courses put players in single-rider carts, which quickened the pace of play. Another safety measure — prohibiting players from touching or removing the flagstick on each green — led golfers to putt out in order, speeding up tedious logjams on greens.Many courses also adopted contactless check-ins at arrival, so that players could bypass the clubhouse. Hainline said his company developed a cellphone application, Smart Play, that identified golfers as they arrived in a course’s parking lot and then led them through the steps of checking in, paying for their round and locating their carts — all without entering the pro shop.Operators of tennis facilities also felt a change of their sport’s culture was imperative. The average age of a tennis player is about 32, but local tennis professionals said new and returning players of all ages have come out to play since March 2020.Mike Woody, national tennis director for Genesis Health Clubs, which owns more than a dozen tennis facilities in Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri, said the key to developing and retaining new players was convincing them that the sport was accessible to people of any age, not just those who took up the game as a youngster.“We have to get rid of this image of what it means to be a tennis player,” Woody said. As far as he’s concerned, if you’ve got a racket and a ball and a space to hit it into — and you enjoy it — then you are a tennis player.“We have to be facilitators of finding people opportunities to play, not compete, but to play,” Woody said.Tennis participation rose 22 percent in 2020, including nearly 3 million new players and 3.8 million Americans who returned to the sport after a significant hiatus.Credit…Dylan Hollingsworth for The New York TimesTennis relies on the pied piper effect.As new and novice players have arrived at Querbes Tennis Center in Shreveport, La., its operator, Chris Dudley, said he is doing all he can to make the game a more personal experience. “I’m good with names,” he said. “I know the names of just about everyone who plays here.”Dudley, who runs the facility with his wife, Amy, said the growth has been “quick and organic” since the facility reopened full-time on June 1. Roughly 2,000 people played on the facility’s 11 courts from July to September, including as many as 275 new players. Night play, under the lights, was especially popular during the summer heat.He is one of the more than 11,000 professional coaches the United States Tennis Association hopes can help maintain the uptick in participation by championing the sport locally and ensuring that the people who show up to play have a quality experience. Craig Morris, the chief executive for community tennis at the U.S.T.A., the national governing body for the sport, said there is no silver bullet to retention, but the organization is setting aside several million for grants to public tennis facilities to help equip them with knowledgeable tennis directors.“This is really local level stuff,” Morris said during a recent interview. “You create a good pied piper to deliver great programming for instruction and then connect people to play socially or enter a league.”Dudley is not a high performance coach aiming to produce a Wimbledon champion. Instead, the Dudleys are doing all they can to meet players where they are. Chris Dudley said he has found that, generally speaking, most of the women the club serves want a social experience, to play with people they know at their level, whereas the men yearn for competitions against other local clubs.The Dudleys have held monthly mixers, with food trucks, a bartender, and tables spread out to maintain social distance.Craig Morris, the chief executive for community tennis at the U.S.T.A., said the organization is setting aside several million for grants to public tennis facilities to help equip them with knowledgeable tennis directors.Credit…Dylan Hollingsworth for The New York TimesOffering “more flavors” can sustain growth.Leaders in both sports see lessons learned from the surge in participation during the pandemic that can widen the pool of potential devotees.Morris said the U.S.T.A. also remains in close contact with the leaders of U.S.A. Pickle Ball, the national governing body for the fast growing racket sport, figuring that active people who like one racket sport may want to play another. “It’s not us vs. them,” he said.Tim Schantz, the president and chief executive of Troon, a golf management company that serves more than 600 golf courses worldwide, said his course operators have come to understand that they must offer “more flavors of golf,” and let the consumer choose. Schantz mentioned the recent proliferation of par-3 courses or six-hole and nine-hole facilities as well as golf clubs with massive putting complexes for the kind of informal play that can be done with a cool drink in one hand.“It’s another way to get golf into people’s routine and that’s how you really increase retention,” Joe Beditz, the National Golf Foundation president and C.E.O., said.Hainline believes there is an ongoing transformation taking place in golf.“I talk to chief executives of large golf management companies regularly,” Hainline said, “and there is an excitement in their voices that I don’t normally hear at this time of year.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Arnold Palmer’s Legacy Hints at What Tiger Woods Might Leave Behind

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Tiger Woods’s Car CrashWoods Undergoes More ProceduresWill He Play Again?Golf Without TigerA Terrible Turn of FateHonoring WoodsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyArnold Palmer’s Legacy Hints at What Tiger Woods Might Leave BehindThe link between the two golf legends feels stronger than ever, and players at the Arnold Palmer Invitational can’t help but make the connection.A statue of Arnold Palmer near the first tee at Bay Hill during the final practice round for the Arnold Palmer Invitational.Credit…Erik S Lesser/EPA, via ShutterstockMarch 4, 2021Updated 9:08 p.m. ETORLANDO, Fla. — In a fashion befitting someone born in 1929, Arnold Palmer valued a certain comportment, like men removing their hats when they went indoors. Rory McIlroy, born in 1989, played in the famed Arnold Palmer Invitational for the first time in 2015 and watched with a bit of wonder as the hat protocol was politely enforced in the players’ dining room, sometimes by a smiling Palmer.“I came to really like it,” McIlroy said of the etiquette still practiced at the event in honor of Palmer, who died in 2016. “It’s one of the ways you still feel Arnie’s legacy and presence.”A week ago, after Tiger Woods sustained serious injuries in a car crash, talk of Woods’s legacy and presence was pervasive on the PGA Tour. This week at Arnold Palmer’s tournament, which Woods has won eight times, the link between the two golf legends seems stronger than ever, perhaps in ways that may shape Woods’s standing in the game going forward.After the first round on Thursday, Mcllroy and Corey Conners were tied for the lead at six under par.With Woods still on their minds, numerous players have made the connection, keenly aware that the impact Palmer made on golf and international culture was replicated by Woods 40 years later. “Certainly, Arnie was and should be the role model for all professional golfers,” Jordan Spieth said Wednesday.Sam Saunders, Palmer’s grandson who has played on the PGA Tour, said he believed that his grandfather had laid the groundwork for what Woods later accomplished, and that the annual appearances by today’s top golfers at the Palmer Invitational had become a way “for them to remember that Arnold Palmer kind of started it.”Saunders added: “We wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing right now were it not for his bringing the game to television and making it popular, making it a game for everyone. He started it, Tiger has continued it, and so many great players along the way have added to that.”A younger generation of pro golfers seems to revel in the Palmer lore at Bay Hill, the tournament site. Near the first tee, they take pictures next to the bronze statue of the golfer, which captures his distinctive, powerful follow-through. Spieth took a tour of Palmer’s museum-like office on Wednesday. Two years ago, the rising star Viktor Hovland, then 21, was guided around the grounds by Palmer’s longtime assistant, Doc Giffin. Perhaps if Hovland had more time, he might have learned how Palmer, in part because of his blue-collar, Western Pennsylvania roots, had pried golf from its country-club origins and, for the first time, made the sport cool. Palmer had charisma, dressed with pizazz, played with white-hot emotion and struck evocative poses that seemed made for a television camera. Palmer’s life became a particularly mid-20th century American story as he launched multiple prosperous companies, earned scores of corporate endorsements and made himself a worldwide brand — all as a golfer who last won a PGA Tour event in 1973.Arnold Palmer competing in the Thunderbird Classic at the Upper Montclair Country Club in 1968.Credit…Robert Walker/The New York TimesPalmer also magnanimously strayed from his designated lane. More than a dozen PGA Tour players who live near Orlando remarked this week that their children were born at the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies, named for Arnold’s wife of nearly 50 years. It is across the street from the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children.It is likely that millions of people around the world know Arnold Palmer not for his golf but because of the popular soft drink, iced tea combined with lemonade, that bears his name. In the end, perhaps he most enjoyed his status as a beloved, wise elder who was constantly approached by advice-seeking pro golfers — young and seasoned — who knew that no one had persevered and succeeded in golf like Arnold Palmer.It is in all these ways that Palmer’s life after his playing career might serve as an example for how Tiger Woods, if he chooses, could continue to deeply influence golf for decades to come. Woods has already taken multiple steps to do so, in modern ways that are tailored to his specific interests and causes.But as Woods watches this weekend’s Palmer Invitational — and his social media accounts made it plain that he was watching the PGA Tour last weekend — it will be easy to note the homage paid to Palmer’s almost lifelong leadership role in golf. Woods, an idol to the current generation of players in the same way Palmer was to the golfers who came after him, has the platform to forge a similar legacy. The two had a warm relationship, and Woods knows plenty about the path Palmer deliberately chose.And it appears he already knows his manners. Of Woods’s eight victories at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, one of the most notable came when he sank a twisting 24-foot putt on the final hole to win the 2008 tournament. What made the moment most memorable was Woods’s reaction to that clinching putt: Perhaps anticipating a walk back to the clubhouse, he grabbed his hat and flung it to the ground.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More