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      Sahith Theegala Is a Rarity on the PGA Tour in More Ways Than One

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      The Indian American golfer is consistently finding his game as a rookie on tour, but he still lives with his parents and drives a regular old car.ORLANDO, Fla. — Sahith Theegala, whose humble public golf course roots, unpretentious mien and near victory at last month’s Waste Management Phoenix Open have made him a rising young star on the PGA Tour, ended his round on Thursday with a dispiriting three-putt bogey.Theegala, an Indian American from California and the rare nonwhite player on the tour, had hoped for better than a one-over par 73 in his debut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The disappointment was plain on his face as he exited the final green. But after a few steps, Theegala, 24, broke into a smile as he graciously approached two volunteers who had accompanied him as scorekeepers for the previous 18 holes in stiflingly hot conditions.“Thank you for your help and for coming along today,” he said as he shook hands with them.The gesture was an apt close to the scene on the first tee hours earlier, when Theegala politely clapped as his playing partners were introduced to fans before their opening shots. It is uncommon, if not unheard-of, for professional golfers to applaud their competitors before a round, especially at the game’s elite level.But part of the winsome, budding Theegala phenomenon enveloping the PGA Tour this season is tied to his authenticity. He still lives at home with his parents, who emigrated from India in their 20s. Until he flew to Florida this week, he spent the previous few weeks driving his 2015 Volkswagen Passat 2,000 miles up and down California and then to Arizona to play in five tour events and never missed the cut in any tournament. In the Phoenix event, he was tied for the lead in the final round with two holes remaining before a bad bounce on a sterling tee shot cost him dearly and dropped him into a tie for third.If that gutsy performance for a tour rookie had not already won over many golf fans, a video posted on Twitter shortly after the event that showed Theegala crying on his mother Karuna’s shoulders earned him more admirers.The 6-foot-3 Theegala also has scoliosis, which causes what he called, “a pretty big bend to the right.” That would explain his somewhat unorthodox swing. The condition does not cause Theegala pain. “I just can’t move in certain ways,” he said.As a child learning golf on a dusty substandard municipal course near his home in Southern California, Theegala adapted his putting stroke by tilting his head to the right so he could see the appropriate line from the ball to hole. The profile of his distinctive stance on a putting green still stands out from 100 yards away.It explains why Theegala, a former junior champion and the winner of three college golfer of the year awards at Pepperdine, had a decent-sized gallery following him during Thursday’s first round. Theegala had an eventful day with three birdies and four bogeys as fans shouted his first name as encouragement, even if they often did not pronounce it correctly.It is “SAW-hith” — the second syllable rhymes with “pith.” Theegala understands the confusion. Besides, it has its advantages. He can always tell where his close friends and family members are in tournament crowds because they shout his name correctly.In a short amount of time on the tour, he has climbed to 42nd in the season-long FedEx Cup rankings. He is long off the tee — he regularly out-drove his playing partners Russell Henley and Troy Merritt on Thursday — and his short game has a mix of finesse and ingenuity defined with one word: touch.Every golfer, longs to have touch.For his part, Theegala finds the newfound attention he is receiving enjoyable, albeit amusing.“I’m an introvert by nature,” he said with a smile as he walked from the practice range after Thursday’s round.That trait is not paradoxical to Theegala, who performs before thousands standing nearby and many more watching on television.“You hear about the best performers in the world — singers and dancers — who are really big introverts,” he said. “But it’s different when you get on the stage. When I’m in the act of playing golf, I don’t even think about the people watching.”Theegala is aware, however, that as an Indian American he is viewed differently in a sport that has never made it easy for nonwhite players to ascend to the highest professional level.“I’m definitely proud of my Indian heritage and I hope I’m inspiring other Indian Americans and people in India to know that they can compete in sports,” he said. “It’s obviously not the main purpose of being out there but it’s an ancillary effect of what we’re doing and I’m all for it.“I do believe the landscape is changing.”Theegala smiled. His three-putt on the final hole already seemed like a distant memory. For such a vexing game, he is routinely sedate on the golf course.“Yeah, obviously, it helps that I’ve been playing the best golf of my life in the last six or seven months,” he said with a laugh. “That always helps, right? I don’t want to be too hard on myself.” More

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      Phil Mickelson’s Setbacks Keep Coming, and Tiger Woods Gets a Bonus

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      Mickelson previously boasted that he won the PGA Tour’s new program that pays the most popular pros, but the embattled golfer finished behind his rival once again.ORLANDO, Fla. — In an off-the-course chapter of the enduring rivalry between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, Woods once again bested Mickelson.Woods, who has not played a tour event since the Masters in November 2020, earned the largest bonus payment from a new PGA Tour program meant to measure a player’s appeal and popularity across the calendar year. For 2021, as calculated by examining categories that included TV ratings, internet searches and social media posts, Woods garnered the $8 million top prize even despite not playing because of serious leg injuries he sustained in a February 2021 car crash. Mickelson will receive $6 million for coming in second.In December, Mickelson had surprised the golf community by announcing that he had won the top award for the tour’s Player Impact Program, or PIP.On Twitter, Mickelson thanked “all the crazies (and real supporters too)” for his first-place payout. On Wednesday, Woods had a comeback.For Mickelson, who became golf’s oldest major champion when he won last year’s P.G.A. Championship at age 50, receiving only a $6 million bonus may not qualify as bad news, but finishing second to a golfer who didn’t play all year felt like a setback in a turbulent few weeks for him.In mid-February, comments attributed to Mickelson in support of a breakaway golf tour backed by Saudi Arabia created controversy and backlash. Mickelson was quoted as saying he knew of the kingdom’s “horrible record on human rights,” but was willing to help the new league because it was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to dramatically increase PGA Tour players’ income.The following week Mickelson said he regretted his remarks, which he called “reckless.” He added that he would take a leave from competitive golf. Within days, his chief corporate sponsors, including KPMG, Workday and Heineken/Amstel, announced that they were either ending or pausing their partnerships with Mickelson.On Wednesday, the tour also announced the other eight winners of the PGA’s popularity contest. Rory McIlroy came in third followed by Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas, with each earning $3.5 million. The golfers from seventh to 10th — Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm and Bubba Watson — will collect $3 million each.At a news conference, McIlroy was congratulated for finishing third. He shrugged his shoulders, grinned and offered a sheepish “thanks.”Asked if he felt there were any surprises in the top 10 money winners, McIlroy, who has been friendly with Woods for several years, answered: “Not really. I mean, you look at the 10 guys that are on there, and they’re the 10 guys that have been at the top of the game or have been around the top of the game for a long time. I feel like it’s a pretty self-explanatory system. That’s how the numbers sort of rolled out.”He added: “But it’s certainly not something that I’m checking up on every week to see where I’m at.”McIlroy, who has increasingly become a forthright voice in golf, has been strident in his criticism of Mickelson’s comments on the alternative Saudi-backed league last month, but on Wednesday he sounded conciliatory.“Look, we all make mistakes,” he said of Mickelson. “We all say things we want to take back. No one is different in that regard. But we should be allowed to make mistakes, and we should be allowed to ask for forgiveness and for people to forgive us and move on. Hopefully, he comes back at some stage, and he will, and people will welcome him back and be glad that he is back.” More

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      Phil Mickelson Apologizes for Support of Saudi-Backed Golf League

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

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

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

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      Phil Mickelson Praises Saudi-Backed Golf Tour Despite Khashoggi Killing

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

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

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

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

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

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      Tiger Woods Set to Play the PNC Championship With His Son

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      The golfer, who is still recovering from a serious car crash in February, has not competed in a tournament since he and his son, Charlie, last played in the family team event a year ago.Last week, Tiger Woods was emphatic that he would never again be a full-time player on the PGA Tour because of the serious leg injuries he sustained in a high-speed car crash in February. But Woods conceded that he could “play a round here and there,” which he called, “a little hit and giggle.”Woods is not waiting long to make an informal, and public, return to a golf course. On Wednesday, he announced he would play in a family team tournament with his son, Charlie, on Dec. 18 and 19. The event, the PNC Championship, has a small limited field — it was once called a father/son tournament — and will be contested at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Fla.“Although it’s been a long and challenging year,” Woods, whose doctors considered amputating his right leg 10 months ago, wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “I’m very excited to close it out by competing at the @PNC Championship with my son Charlie. I’m playing as a Dad and couldn’t be more excited and proud.”Although it’s been a long and challenging year, I am very excited to close it out by competing in the @PNCchampionship with my son Charlie. I’m playing as a Dad and couldn’t be more excited and proud.— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) December 8, 2021
      Woods, who turns 46 on Dec. 30, has not played in a tournament of any kind since he entered the 2020 PNC Championship with Charlie, who is now 12, roughly a year ago. The duo finished seventh. Shortly afterward, Woods had a fifth back surgery that sidelined him for the next few months.The PNC Championship’s 36-hole team format should make it easier for Woods to avoid placing too much stress on his lower right leg, which was reconstructed by doctors using a rod, screws and pins during emergency surgery following his crash outside Los Angeles on Feb. 23. Each player in a pairing will begin a hole by hitting from the tee and players will then pick which tee shot is most advantageous to play. Both players hit a second shot from that spot, a process that is repeated until the hole is finished.Importantly for Woods, there will be only two 18-hole rounds rather than the usual four rounds on the PGA Tour and players can use golf carts driven within a few feet of a player’s ball. On the tour, golfers are required to walk.The players will also play from different sets of tees, which means Charlie Woods will play from the forward tees and often make his father’s tee shots, which will be struck from much farther away, unnecessary. While Tiger Woods was hitting golf balls at a practice range during last week’s World Hero Challenge, a PGA Tour event he hosted in the Bahamas, he also made several jokes about how his shots were traveling about half the distance they once did because he lacked strength and the nerves in his right leg were diminished. From 2018 to 2020, Woods averaged about 299 yards in driving distance during tour events.In last year’s PNC Championship, Woods sometimes had his son hit first — from tees that could be dozens of yards closer to the hole — and if Charlie’s tee shot was well-positioned on or near the fairway, Woods did not bother hitting his tee shot. The format, known as a scramble, could conceivably put Woods in a position to primarily hit less physically demanding shots struck with irons, wedges and a putter throughout his rounds. The format would also permit Woods to decline hitting any shots from a challenging, uneven lie or from daunting terrain that might put added force on his right leg.NBC will televise both rounds of the PNC Championship.Woods’s appearance on a golf course next week will likely spawn conversations about when he might return to the PGA Tour. The Masters Tournament, which he has won five times, is only four months away. But last week Woods cautioned against speculation about when, or if, he will return to elite competitive golf.“I haven’t proven it to myself that I can do it,” Woods, who has won 15 major golf championships, said. “I can play a par-3 course and I can hit a few shots. I can chip and putt, but we’re talking about going out there and playing against the world’s best on the most difficult golf courses under the most difficult conditions.“I’m so far from that. I have a long way to go to get to that point. I haven’t decided whether or not I want to get to that point. I’ve got to get my leg to a point where that decision can be made.”Last year, however, Woods talked repeatedly about how much it meant to him to be able to play with Charlie.“We can do this together for a lifetime,” Woods, who was taught the game by his father, Earl, who died in 2006, said. “I like the thought of having that opportunity to play with him for as long as I live.”Several of Woods’s colleagues from the PGA Tour in the previous 25 years will join him in next week’s field, including his good friend Justin Thomas and his father and coach Mike Thomas; Jim Furyk and his son, Tanner; Henrik Stenson and his son, Karl; and the multiple major champion turned broadcaster Nick Faldo and his son, Matthew. Nelly Korda, the world’s top-ranked women’s golfer, will also make her debut in the event playing with her father, Petr. More