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      Patrick Reed Struggles at the Tour Championship

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      A few weeks ago the golfer was in the I.C.U. “battling” for his life. Now it is his last chance to show he’s ready to join the American side for the Ryder Cup.ATLANTA — Ostensibly, Patrick Reed drove 15 hours from Texas to Georgia on Tuesday in the back of a van to chase the FedEx Cup title and the largest possible share of the $46 million on offer at the season-ending Tour Championship.The truth about Reed’s presence at East Lake Golf Club is far simpler.Two weeks earlier Reed had emerged from what he called “a dark space” and “battling for my life” after nearly a week in a Houston I.C.U. bed with bilateral pneumonia. He came to the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club to add to his FedEx Cup points total and prove to U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker that his is healthy enough to warrant one of six captain’s picks for the match that begins on Sept. 24 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. Asked if he would be in Atlanta if this wasn’t a Ryder Cup year, Reed answered succinctly: “No.”Stricker watched on Wednesday as Reed completed his first nine holes of golf since the final round of the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis on Aug. 8.“He came out to me when I was on nine and I hit a hybrid to eight feet and I made the putt for him,” Reed said the following day after posting a scrambling two-over-par 72 in the first round of the Tour Championship. “So you know, honestly, the biggest thing is, talking with Stricks and stuff, is just making sure I’m healthy and I think the biggest thing for me this week is just to see kind of where I’m at.“And I know by Ryder Cup my game’s going to be where it needs to be, as long as I feel like my health is where it needs to be and as long as I feel like I can sustain through rounds of golf.”Playing in a fourth consecutive Ryder Cup was the least of the worries the last two weeks. Reed suddenly withdrew from the Northern Trust on Aug. 19 before the first round of the first FedEx Cup playoff event, citing an ankle injury. But he returned home to Houston and was promptly admitted to the hospital. He said the pneumonia hit him in both lungs “like a brick.”“Just all of a sudden I went from feeling OK to literally feeling like I couldn’t breathe and was almost drowning in air,” he said. “It hit me so fast and it was so brutal.”Reed initially told the Golf Channel he had COVID-19, but later retracted it in a vague statement on Twitter: “My primary diagnosis was bilateral pneumonia. I was vaccinated for COVID-19 so I’m not sure if I had the delta variant but I’m just happy to be here.” He said Thursday that the hospital didn’t test him for the coronavirus until he got a negative test result before checking out last week.“Their main priority was to make sure that we fought this pneumonia in both lungs because of how fatal it can be,” he said.“First couple days they were sitting there telling me that make sure you text your family quite a bit, talk to your family, because you just don’t know,” Reed explained. “I mean, this is not good. We’re not in a good spot right now.“With how the hospitals are these days because of Covid and everything that’s going on, it doesn’t matter what’s going on. They won’t allow people in there, so it’s only you in there. So, I’m sitting there and those first two days the only thing that was going through my mind is, I’m not going to be able to tell my kids goodbye. I’m not going to be able to tell them I love them. I’m not going to be able to tell my wife that I love her and give her a hug.”Despite not playing in either of the first two PGA Tour playoff events, Reed still qualified for the last of the 30 spots into the Tour Championship this week when K.H. Lee bogeyed the last hole at the BMW Championship. That allowed him the opportunity to make one last audition before the U.S. Ryder Cup roster is finalized on Wednesday.Normally Reed would be considered a likely pick. However, his health as well as bitterness about pairings after the 2018 event in France have cast doubt on his chances.It’s expected that Stricker will choose Tony Finau, Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth and Harris English. Reed is in consideration primarily with Daniel Berger, Webb Simpson, Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns for the remaining two spots.Reed was clearly not at full strength playing his first full rounds in nearly a month. He hit 10 of 14 fairways off the tee but missed 12 greens in regulation on Thursday. On Friday he was a little more consistent but followed an opening bogey with 15 consecutive pars before finishing with two birdies to shoot one-under-par 69, tied for 26th in the 30-player field at one over par.“The good thing is my short game didn’t leave me,” he said.But Reed believes he can be ready when the Ryder Cup starts in three weeks.“It’s like my third day back swinging a golf club, so there’s going to be rust there, there’s going to be things that you want to obviously not do on the golf course,” Reed said. “But the great thing is I felt like I can play now, I feel like I can do what I’m supposed to do. I feel now it’s just get some reps in and just get the energy level and strength back which just takes a little bit of time.” More

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      At the Tour Championship, Bryson DeChambeau Can Hear Himself Think

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      Sheriff’s deputies and security personnel shadowed the golfer during his first round to enforce a new PGA Tour ban on fans who heckle him. No one dared.ATLANTA — A Tour Championship crowd at East Lake Golf Club will never be confused with a gallery at the Waste Management Open in Phoenix, but on this particular Thursday, the scene could have been mistaken for a solitary stroll in a park.Two days after the PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, issued a no-tolerance policy for the “disrespectful” outbursts that have haunted Bryson DeChambeau all summer, the crowds following the penultimate twosome around East Lake during the first round minded their manners. People were reluctant to shout out Bryson’s real name, much less a derisive “Brooksie!” — his rival on the PGA Tour is Brooks Koepka — especially with two DeKalb County sheriff’s deputies and three PGA Tour security officials shadowing him around the course.The peace and quiet did little to lift DeChambeau as he dropped a stroke to his playing partner, Jon Rahm, on each of the first four holes. But he rallied with three consecutive birdies and finished with a one-under-par 69, tied for third with Harris English and five shots behind the leader, Patrick Cantlay, and three behind Rahm.Over the summer, DeChambeau has become the most divisive player in golf. After tossing away a share of the lead with a back-nine 44 at the United States Open at Torrey Pines and shrugging it off as “bad luck,” his relationship with the news media began to sour. He angered his equipment sponsor, Cobra, with harsh criticism of his driver. He denied, despite video evidence, that he had repeatedly failed to shout “Fore!” on errant drives into galleries. And then he delivered a curious explanation for refusing to get vaccinated and missing the Olympics after testing positive for Covid-19.In response to the criticism, DeChambeau will talk only to news outlets that are PGA Tour partners. At the same time, the fallout from his long-running feud with Koepka has generated taunts of “Brooksie!” everywhere DeChambeau has gone, making life miserable for him between the ropes. The situation boiled over last week at the BMW Championship at Caves Valley, where DeChambeau reportedly confronted a heckler who had shouted, “Nice job, Brooksie!” at him after he lost a thrilling six-hole playoff to Cantlay.On Tuesday, DeChambeau spoke to the Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis and admitted that the “Brooksie!” heckles were “another variable that I have to take account for.”Like wind direction or the grain of the greens.Monahan doesn’t think it should be a variable, and on Tuesday, he announced a new fan behavior policy under which “disrespectful” shouts directed at players would not be tolerated and could result in fans’ being removed from the course.“The barometer that we are all using is the word ‘respect,’ and to me, when you hear ‘Brooksie’ yelled or you hear any expression yelled, the question is, is that respectful or disrespectful?” Monahan said. “That has been going on for an extended period of time. To me, at this point, it’s disrespectful, and that’s the kind of behavior that we’re not going to tolerate going forward.”Several tour players, including Rory McIlroy and Cantlay, defended DeChambeau.“I certainly feel some sympathy for him, because I certainly don’t think that you should be ostracized or criticized for being different — and I think we have all known from the start that Bryson is different and he is not going to conform to the way people want him to be,” McIlroy said. “He is his own person. He thinks his own thoughts, and everyone has a right to do that.”He added: “There are certainly things that he has done in the past that have brought some of this stuff on himself. I’m not saying that he’s completely blameless in this. But at the same time, I think he has been getting a pretty rough go of it of late, and it’s actually pretty sad to see, because he — deep down, I think — is a nice person, and all he wants to do is try to be the best golfer he can be. And it just seems like every week, something else happens, and I would say it’s pretty tough to be Bryson DeChambeau right now.”DeChambeau tried to downplay the impact of what some have labeled harassment on the course.“I can take heat — I’ve taken heat my whole entire life,” he told the Golf Channel. “And it’s because I’m a little different, and I understand that. And I appreciate that, too. No matter what, if you’re a little different — whether it’s Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or whoever it is — there’s always going to be heat, and I recognize that, and I respect that.”He added: “At the end of the day, people are going to say things they’re going to say because they have the right to do so. It’s been going on for months now. Everybody has their own limits, and everybody has their own tipping points and whatnot. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of realizing: ‘You know what? I’m going to let that fuel me in a positive way.’”McIlroy, the current chairman of the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council, supports the commissioner’s crackdown on fan behavior.“There’s no room in golf for people to abuse someone on the golf course when all they’re trying to do is do their best and win a golf tournament and follow their dreams,” McIlroy said. “So there’s no place for that in our game. And that might sound a little stiff or snobby or whatever, but that’s golf, and we have traditions.”DeChambeau, left, and Jon Rahm walk up the fourth fairway at the Tour Championship.Erik S Lesser/EPA, via Shutterstock More

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      Steady, Stoic Cantlay Outlasts a Mighty DeChambeau in Maryland

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      The BMW Championship was settled after six gripping playoff holes between two rising stars of the post-Tiger Woods generation.OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Patrick Cantlay, a creative if stoic player, was asked on Saturday night to look forward to Sunday’s final round of the BMW Championship when he would be paired with Bryson DeChambeau, the tinkering and volatile former college physics major.The golfers would begin the day tied for the lead.“Artist versus scientist?” a reporter inquired.Cantlay smiled and answered: “You should be able to decide.”The pair dueled across more than six entertaining hours and 24 holes on Sunday, with Cantlay typically imaginative and quietly effective while DeChambeau’s swashbuckling style and mighty swipes at the ball overpowered the Caves Valley Golf Club outside Baltimore.But what transpired was more than a riveting contrast of styles. It became a test of will between promising 20-something golfers, young faces who are at the advent of the sport’s transition from the Tiger Woods era. It was a show and the cast of characters were all new.The tournament lead shifted several times, but neither golfer was able to escape his final pairing shadow. Raucous whoops and hollers greeted DeChambeau’s gargantuan drives, animated fist pumps and purposeful, marching strides. Respectful, if restrained, applause followed Cantlay’s steady, emotionless efforts and languid pace of play.It could have been golf’s version of the folk tale, “The Tortoise and the Hare.”Finally, on the sixth playoff hole, Cantlay, 29, sank an 18-foot uphill birdie putt and offered a subtle, most rare grin. DeChambeau, 27, could not match his opponent’s resolve as the sun began to set in Maryland, missing a nine-foot putt that would have extended the contest.It was Cantlay’s fifth victory on the PGA Tour and his second this year. The win puts him in a commanding position entering the season-ending Tour Championship, which is the last of the three stages of the FedEx Cup playoffs, with a $15 million prize for the champion.“It was an unbelievable atmosphere all day and I just tried to stay in my own little world,” Cantlay, who is ranked 10th in the men’s world golf rankings, said afterward. “The fans were so energized and into every shot. It’s really nice to have them back.”DeChambeau has been a crowd favorite since he gained 40 pounds last year and began launching awe-inspiring 370-yard drives. He has learned to stoke and play to his galleries and for most of Sunday’s round he was the people’s choice. But in time, the understated Cantlay nurtured a following of his own.Perhaps impassive is the new cool. Or as Cantlay noted, toward the end of Sunday’s round fans had begun chanting a new nickname at him: “Patty-Ice.”“I’ve never heard that,” Cantlay said.DeChambeau, as he has for the last several weeks, did not meet with reporters after Sunday’s round. But he did speak to Cantlay about his golf course etiquette when the two were on the 14th hole. In an unusual exchange, DeChambeau asked Cantlay to stop walking as DeChambeau was preparing for one of his shots.“He just wanted me to stop walking,” Cantlay explained. “The rules officials had told us to speed things up. But it was no big deal. Those things kind of happen out here from time to time.”When the contest moved into a playoff after 18 holes left Cantlay and DeChambeau tied, the drama only intensified. Cantlay nearly sank a crafty pitch attempt on the first playoff hole but settled for par, a result matched by DeChambeau when his lengthy birdie putt slid just past the cup. On the next hole, Cantlay left his approach shot to the par-4 18th green more than 50 feet short of the hole but artfully two-putted for par. DeChambeau had a six-foot birdie putt to end the tournament, but as he did several times earlier in the round, he yanked his golf ball left of the hole.Bryson DeChambeau after missing a putt on the third playoff hole. Nick Wass/Associated PressOn the fourth playoff hole, DeChambeau made a startling error when he splashed a tee shot into a creek to the right of the 18th hole. But he overcame the misplay and a par was good enough to send the competition to a fifth playoff hole, which also ended in matching pars.The closing moments of the initial 18-hole round also did not lack for intensity. Indeed, Cantlay appeared to have squandered his chances on the 16th hole when a substandard chip shot led to a par. DeChambeau moved ahead by a stroke when he birdied the hole. Then, Cantlay’s tee shot on the 186-yard 17th hole landed 10 yards short of the green and bounced sideways into a pond before he finished with a bogey.But DeChambeau, who struggled with his chipping throughout the tournament, flubbed a pitch from the rough just inches from the green and made bogey, a score Cantlay matched. At the par-4 18th hole, each player reached the green in two but Cantlay rolled in his curving, right-to-left, 22-foot birdie putt while DeChambeau badly pulled his 15-foot birdie putt to the left and made a par.When his victory was secured Sunday evening, a smiling and even giggling Cantlay remained on the green and saluted the spectators by doffing his cap and waving it at the grandstand. He repeatedly said, “Thank you,” although his words were drowned out by applause. More

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      Bryson DeChambeau Soars. Patrick Cantlay Drags Him Back to Earth.

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      After shooting a 60 the previous day, DeChambeau allowed Cantlay to catch up, and the two are tied for the lead at 21 under par heading into the final round at the BMW Championship.OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Bryson DeChambeau stood next to his golf bag on the first tee, contemplating which club to hit on the opening hole of Saturday’s third round at the BMW Championship. When he retrieved an iron rather than his powerful driver, a groan erupted from fans crammed into a grandstand overlooking the tee.DeChambeau turned, shrugged and said, “Sorry, next hole.”“We want the driver every hole,” a voice yelped.“I know,” DeChambeau muttered. “I know.”It has been tough for DeChambeau to make anyone happy the past two months, which is another turn of fortune in the capricious world he has inhabited since early 2020. Fittingly, at the up-and-down, topographically diverse layout of the Caves Valley Golf Club outside Baltimore, that has changed for DeChambeau in the last two days.On Saturday, one day after a 12-under-par 60 had given him the tournament lead, DeChambeau was mostly enveloped by cacophonous cheers as he shot a five-under 67, in a round that included eagles on consecutive holes, five birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey. Patrick Cantlay, who began the day trailing by one stroke, shot a 66 to tie DeChambeau at 21 under for the overall tournament lead.But more on that later.First, to recap the topsy-turvy summer of 2021 for the divisive American golfer.In June, leading in the final stages of the United States Open, DeChambeau, the defending champion, collapsed with a 44 on his final nine holes. He credited bad luck.Within two weeks, DeChambeau split with his longtime caddie, Tim Tucker, who had carried DeChambeau’s golf bag for each of his eight PGA Tour victories. Days before his next major championship, the British Open, DeChambeau had to defiantly dispute accusations that he failed to yell “Fore” and imperiled spectators in the path of his long, and sometimes wayward, tee shots. Then, after a middling opening round at the event, he adamantly blamed his driver for his troubles, which brought a swift rebuke from a representative of his equipment sponsor, Cobra, who compared DeChambeau to an 8-year-old child. DeChambeau apologized.Later that month, although he was one of four American golfers who had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, DeChambeau had to withdraw after a positive Covid test. He said that he had not been vaccinated because he was young and healthy and had not wanted to take the dose away from someone who needed it more. His remarks were ridiculed.All of this has been set against the backdrop of an ongoing social media feud with his fellow tour pro Brooks Koepka, which has been exacerbated by noisy, giggling fans in tour galleries who taunt DeChambeau with shouts of, “Let’s go, Brooks-y.”Consider, for example, this interchange among spectators alongside the third green Saturday.Listening to cheers after DeChambeau had birdied the hole, a young boy asked his father, “Is Bryson everyone’s favorite?”“Yeah, everybody likes Bryson,” the man replied.Said a fan standing nearby, “Brooks doesn’t.”In a few weeks, DeChambeau and Koepka will represent one-sixth of the 12-man American squad at the Ryder Cup, where tensions among teammates are heightened even when everyone is on good terms.Jon Rahm, left, and DeChambeau, right, watched as Patrick Cantlay missed his putt on the 18th green.Julio Cortez/Associated PressWhat does DeChambeau think of all that has transpired since June?It is hard to say, as DeChambeau, in the weeks since he acknowledged that he had not received a Covid vaccine, has declined to speak with reporters covering the PGA Tour, except for the tour’s broadcast partners and a golf news outlet that pays him as a contributor.On Saturday, DeChambeau began his round with a routine birdie on the par-3 third hole but then sank an eagle putt of 25 feet on the par-5 fourth and a 53-foot eagle putt on the par-4 fifth. DeChambeau made the turn at 30 and continued to cruise when he knocked his second shot to the par-4 11th hole to within a foot of the hole for another birdie and a four-stroke lead over Cantlay. But on his approach shot to the 12th, DeChambeau sliced a long iron into a bordering pond. (Broadcast microphones picked up DeChambeau blaming a smudge of mud on top of the ball for the mis-hit, although the television camerawork also seemed to show that DeChambeau’s club face was open, which would induce a slice.)The miscue led to DeChambeau’s first bogey in 30 holes, and he followed that setback with another ball plunked into the water protecting the front of the par-3 13th hole. The error led to a double bogey. The large, raucous crowd that had been following DeChambeau seemed thunderstruck.But DeChambeau rallied by draining a 10-foot birdie putts on the 14th and 16th holes. He also needed four shots to reach the 489-yard par-4 15th hole and made bogey. In the end, 67 was a splendid score considering that DeChambeau had hit only nine of 14 fairways. He was, however, second in the field in driving distance.Cantlay, a measured, methodical player, made his charge more consistently, with an eagle, a birdie and seven pars on the front nine. Playing with DeChambeau and the reigning U.S. Open champion, Jon Rahm, Cantlay surged as the others in his group floundered, making birdies on three consecutive holes beginning with the 11th. It appeared that Cantlay was going to be the solo third-round leader until his tee shot on the 18th hole found the rough and served as the catalyst to a closing bogey.Still, as he had been trailing by four strokes with seven holes remaining in the third round, Cantlay was asked afterward if he had been energized when DeChambeau deposited two balls in the water.“No, I felt pretty much the same, just working on my business,” said Cantlay, who rarely shows emotion on the golf course. “I’m just trying to stay in my own little bubble out there. I feel like that’s the best way I can go about doing my thing and gives me the best chance to succeed.” More

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      At the BMW Championship, Sam Burns Is Steady Once Again

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      The American golfer has now shot 64 in four of his last eight rounds on the PGA Tour dating to early August.OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Sam Burns, who won his first PGA Tour event in May, made two birdies in his first four holes during the first round of the BMW Championship on Thursday. It was a good start for Burns, a lesser-known tour pro competing alongside the galaxy of top golfers at the tournament, which is the second of three events in the season-ending FedEx Cup playoffs.But on the fifth hole Burns, 25, began to play with exceptional power and a deft touch on the greens. Burns, who was named the nation’s top college player in 2017 when he was at Louisiana State, drove the par-4 fifth green from 310 yards, and then left his eagle putt a disappointing 12 feet from the hole.Unruffled, Burns sank the birdie putt to grab an early lead at the Caves Valley Golf Club in the Baltimore suburbs. Burns, who has vaulted to 25th in the men’s world rankings with a victory at the Valspar Championship this spring and three other finishes in third place or better, then built on his quick start, taking the tournament lead with five birdies and eight pars in his final 13 holes for a bogey-free round of eight-under par 64.Near the conclusion of Thursday’s round, Burns was joined at eight-under par by Rory McIlroy. Jon Rahm, the event’s defending champion, also had eight birdies without a bogey for a 64 that tied for the lead.This is the first PGA Tour event held at Caves Valley and the first tour event in the Baltimore area since 1962. Thursday’s round was played in sweltering temperatures in the low 90s that compounded the course’s steep elevation changes and topsy-turvy topography that was a challenge to navigate for players and caddies alike. Burns considered the unfamiliar landscape a potential advantage.“I kind of like that, maybe we can pick up something different about playing the course that other players didn’t,” he said. “These are big greens with a lot of slope and if you get in the wrong spots you can have a 20-foot putt with six feet of break, which is difficult to manage.“I think I did a good job today of not putting the ball in the wrong places on the greens.”What Burns did mostly was roll his golf ball into the hole from wherever he was on the putting surface. He sank a six-foot birdie putt on the seventh hole and a four-footer to save par after a brilliant greenside bunker shot on No. 8. On the 11th hole, his approach shot from 115 yards rolled to within 10 feet of the hole, leading to another birdie. On the par-5 12th, Burns’s tee shot nearly landed in a pond and his second shot missed the green but he lofted a pitch shot to within seven feet of the hole then sank a putt for the second of four consecutive birdies.“I was calm and felt very prepared which helps when you’re standing over those putts,” Burns said. “Once they start dropping it makes it easier on the next one and the next one. But mostly I think having a good game plan made all the difference.”Burns has now shot 64 in four of his last eight rounds on the PGA Tour dating to early August. He laughed when the stat was mentioned to him.“Well, yeah, obviously I wish I could shoot 64 every day,” he said. “But that just doesn’t happen. I think the biggest thing for me, especially this week with it hot and humid, I just need to be rested, hydrated and focused out there. I think that’s the challenge.”Burns had a plan for keeping his edge in the conditions.“Just getting a nap this afternoon,” he said.If Burns can continue his current stellar play and contend for the FedEx Cup playoff title, which would earn him $15 million, he might be a contender for the 12-man American Ryder Cup team to be named after next week’s season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta. Burns is currently 17th in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings. Steve Stricker, the captain of the United States team, will make six selections while the top six players in the standings — based on a points system related to recent results — will automatically qualify. A hot golfer, albeit one lacking experience in international play, is always a temptation for a Ryder Cup captain.“Captain Stricker can go whatever route he wants, so it’s not all necessarily in my control,” Burns said Thursday. “I’m just going to go out and try to play the best golf I can. If it works out, incredible. If it doesn’t, I’ll be rooting hard for the team.” More

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      Tony Finau’s Perseverance a Lesson in Overcoming Setbacks

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      The American golfer had eight runner-up finishes across five winless years until he won the Northern Trust on Monday. His rivals couldn’t be happier.OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Unbridled euphoria unfolds alongside haunting discontent routinely in the crucible of professional golf, most conspicuously at the end of tournaments. A player wins an event and grins throughout a post-round interview on the final green. Steps away, the golfer who finished second faces probing questions about what went wrong.The vanquished player, imbued by the sport’s air of civility, typically accepts the setback with tact. It turns out that is harder than it looks.“A lot harder,” said Tony Finau, who had eight runner-up finishes across five winless years until he won the PGA Tour’s Northern Trust on Monday in Jersey City, N.J. “Extremely hard.”But Finau revealed a code of conduct among his brethren, and with it a slice-of-life insight into the highly paid troupe that makes up elite golf’s traveling circus.“You just have to take it on the chin,” he said Wednesday as he prepared for this week’s BMW Championship, the second stage of the tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs. “I’m going to have critics, but that’s how it is, and that’s what I signed up for.”In a year when mental health issues faced by prominent athletes have become widely discussed, Finau’s colleagues seemed accepting of a work environment in which openly talking about setbacks is commonplace. Perhaps it is because recurring disappointment is inherent to golf, something underscored weekly at the highest levels when roughly 150 players show up to a tournament knowing only one will win it.Still, coming close to claiming what could be a career-defining victory and not getting it can be more demoralizing than losing by 20 strokes. And yet, it is rare for a player to not accede to the questioning of reporters afterward. Not that is a beloved tradition.“After a tough loss you don’t really want to talk to anybody,” said Jordan Spieth, who has won three major championships but also recently had a prolonged period without a win. He added: “It can be tough to explain because in our game you can do everything right and it still doesn’t go your way.“There are plenty of events where you didn’t do anything wrong and people say, ‘What did you do wrong?’ And you have to try to come up with an answer. It can deplete your confidence.”Rory McIlroy, who has won every golf major except the Masters, wondered Wednesday if the post-round interview might be easier if golfers had a cooling-off period, which is common in other sports.Asked if he agreed, Spieth laughed and said he would be no less distraught.“For me, it lasts hours to a day, so it wouldn’t really make a difference if you gave me an extra 10 minutes,” he said.There is one thing that golfers agreed upon on Wednesday: Finau’s victory at the Northern Trust after a long drought — he won the 2016 Puerto Rico Open, which was contested on the same week as a World Golf Championship event — was greeted enthusiastically by his colleagues.“It was a really popular win in the locker room,” McIlroy said.“Obviously Tony hadn’t won in a while, but he never complained,” McIlroy continued. “He just sticks his head down, goes about his business.”Finau even credited the process of falling short in several tournaments — and then meeting with reporters to talk about his many second-place finishes — with helping to guide him back to the winner’s circle.Answering questions following a defeat, he said, was an act of sportsmanship.“I was taught since I was a kid, no matter how things go, sportsmanship is very, very important,” Finau, who is of Tongan and Samoan descent and was raised in Utah, said. “If you want to be good at anything, you’re going to go through some really hard times. When you go through those, it’s OK to be nice, it’s OK to be kind still. I never wanted to be one where golf was going to kill me. I’ve seen it happen to too many people where they let the game literally drive them crazy. I’ve never wanted that to be the case.”Finau, 31, called the string of runner-up finishes, which included losing three playoffs, part of his development on a world golf stage.“I didn’t get discouraged; I used it as fuel to do better,” he said. “It was more of the attitude of, ‘OK, not quite good enough yet, so keep working.’ ”Next up, trying to claim one of the top spots at the BMW Championship in Maryland and perhaps win the FedEx Cup playoffs, which conclude next week at the Tour Championship in Atlanta. Finau leads the playoff standings.Monday’s victory may, however, yield a cosmetic change. Finau has been sporting a beard that has grown fuller in recent weeks. He vowed not to shave until he won again, or was named to the American Ryder Cup team, which will not be finalized until after the next week’s event.Finau predicted his beard would be gone by Thursday. More

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      Why Are There More Successful Older Golfers Today?

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      They have learned to stay fit and play smarter. And the British Open seems to be their fountain of youth.From the 18th fairway in the final group of the British Open in 2009, Tom Watson, the five-time Open champion, hit a shot that flew right at the pin. For a moment, it looked like Watson, then age 59, would win the tournament for a record sixth time and become the oldest player to win a major championship. More