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      What Defines a P.G.A. Championship Golf Course? Excitement.

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      Unlike the other majors, the tournament has been moving around looking for compelling play for more than 100 years.The last time the P.G.A. Championship was held at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina, Rory McIlroy entered the final round with a three-shot lead over the field, but the former P.G.A. champions Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington and Tiger Woods were giving chase.That week in August 2012 had been full of drama. Winds during Friday’s second round gusted to 30 miles per hour. A thunderstorm on Saturday had left about a third of the players having to finish their rounds on Sunday morning, including McIlroy.When the final round got underway, McIlroy shot a bogey-free round of six under par. Some players made a charge on Sunday that cut into his lead, but he won the tournament walking away.With an eight-shot buffer, McIlroy beat a stacked field that succumbed to the course. He also set a record for margin of victory, besting the one set by Jack Nicklaus when he won his fifth P.G.A. Championship in 1980.That is exactly the kind of excitement the P.G.A. of America seeks when it selects a course for its major championship. It wants a bunch of players to have a chance to win, but it’s also happy if one player puts on a master class and pulls away from everyone else.“Our philosophy is we want someone to win it, not lose it,” said Seth Waugh, chief executive of the P.G.A. of America, which holds the P.G.A. Championship and the Ryder Cup. “We want birdies and eagles and bogeys and others. We’re not trying to create a torture test. That’s not what we try to do.”The 16th hole at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina.Gary Kellner/The PGA of America, via Getty ImagesLooking back on the scores of courses that have hosted P.G.A. Championships, this tournament is more enigmatic than the other three majors when it comes to a defining template for its courses.The Masters is at Augusta National Golf Club every spring (not the fall, as it was in 2020), with all eyes on the back nine on Sunday. There players fall in and out of contention with dizzying speed as they did this year, when it looked as if the eventual winner, Hideki Matsuyama, was faltering as Xander Schauffele was surging, only to have everything flip again.The British Open is played at a fairly set rotation of courses, but the winning score is as dependent on the weather — particularly the wind — as it is on the course itself. Winning scores at the Old Course at St. Andrews, for example, have ranged widely. Woods won there in 2000 at 19 under par. Five years earlier, John Daly won at six under. The most recent Open at St. Andrews was won by Zach Johnson at 15 under par.And then there’s the golf course that hosts the United States Open. How the United States Golf Association, which administers the U.S. Open, sets up the course is often the subject of debate. Complaints are legendary: The greens at Shinnecock Hills in 2004 and 2018 were so fast and the pins were placed in such difficult locations that some of the best players in the world called the course unplayable. They included Phil Mickelson, who in 2018 hit a putt while it was still rolling to keep it on the green. (He incurred a two-shot penalty.)So what makes a course worthy of the P.G.A. Championship? It’s easy to say what the courses are not — overly tight, unforgiving or predictable — but it’s harder to say what they share in common.A look at the courses that have hosted the championship doesn’t, on its face, paint the same picture of consistency as the other major championships.A relatively short Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, N.Y., hosted the first P.G.A. Championship in 1916. Oakmont Country Club, considered by the sport to be the toughest course in America and synonymous with the U.S. Open, hosted a P.G.A. Championship in 1922, five years before its first of nine U.S. Opens. Classic courses like Baltusrol in Springfield, N.J.; Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y.; and Oakland Hills in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., have hosted P.G.A. Championships and U.S. Opens.Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., and Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa., have hosted regular PGA Tour events as well as the P.G.A. Championships. And some now obscure courses have also held the tournament, including Seaview Golf Club in Galloway, N.J., and Hershey Country Club in Pennsylvania.“The list of P.G.A. Championship courses is kind of uneven, but in a cool and fun way,” said Tom Coyne, who played golf in all 50 states, including at every U.S. Open venue, for his new book “A Course Called America: Fifty States, Five Thousand Fairways, and the Search for the Great American Golf Course.”“There are those mainstays that go back and forth between the U.S. Open and the P.G.A. like Baltusrol, Oakland Hills and Southern Hills,” he said. “Then there are those you wouldn’t even know hosted a P.G.A. Championship, like Llanerch Country Club. I had no idea it hosted the 1958 championship, and I grew up playing at a club 10 miles down the road.”Coyne said one distinguishing factor in course selection might be the history of the organizations themselves. Both the U.S.G.A. and the R&A, which puts on the British Open, are the official arbitrators of the rules of golf. Rodman Wanamaker, whose wealth came from owning department stores, was one of the founders of the P.G.A. of America, which began in 1916 as a trade organization for professional golfers.“The P.G.A. is less bound by the history of golf. You’re going to have people saying this isn’t a U.S. Open course,” Coyne said about clubs chosen to host the event, “but they’re not going to say this isn’t a P.G.A. course.”One thing that stands out is the P.G.A. of America’s having embraced Pete and Alice Dye, among the 20th century’s most important golf architects, whose courses illicit strong emotions. While some players enjoy them as a stern test of golf, others find that the courses seem to punish even good shots.Vijay Singh hits out of a bunker during the 2004 P.G.A. Championship at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis.Jeff Gross/Getty ImagesWhistling Straits, a Dye-designed course in Kohler, Wis., got its first P.G.A. Championship in 2004. M.G. Orender was the president of the P.G.A. of America at the time. He said the selection might have seemed like a departure for the organization, but it was really a recognition of the historical standing of the Dyes.“Dye built courses that have stood the test of time,” Orender said of Whistling Straits and Kiawah. “He’s no different than Donald Ross, Seth Raynor or A.W. Tillinghast.” Those last three are considered among the best golden age architects, with courses that regularly host championships.The first P.G.A. Championship at a Dye course was Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., in 1991 — won by John Daly.If there’s one other thing that drives the location of a P.G.A. Championship, it’s the desire to share the courses among the P.G.A. of America’s 41 governing areas, which represent club and teaching pros.“When we pick golf courses, because we’re the P.G.A. of America, we represent golf at every level,” Waugh said. “Each of our sections also takes enormous pride in hosting a championship.”Several of the P.G.A. Championship courses have been at clubs that hold regular tour events, but the PGA Tour — a different entity from the P.G.A. of America — sets them up. For the P.G.A. Championship, the course can be set up however Kerry Haigh, chief championships officer at the P.G.A., wants it to be.“The reason we’re going to these venues is they’re already great golf courses,” he said before the 2019 championship at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, N.Y.His job in setting up the championship is to make “minor tweaks and suggestions,” Haigh said. “We try to bring out the great features of any golf course.”Still, Waugh stressed that the connective tissues among the courses is an exciting finish. “I can’t tell you if the winning score is going to be five under or five over or 20 under,” he said about this year’s tournament. “But the course will be fair, and it will be fun, and we hope there’s a playoff at the end.” More

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      Rory McIlroy Wants A Second P.G.A. Championship on Kiawah Island

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      His world ranking dropped to as low as 13th this spring. But coming off a victory, McIlroy has returned to the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island, where he ran away with the P.G.A. Championship in 2012.KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — Returning to the scene of one of his greatest triumphs, Rory McIlroy played a practice round Tuesday at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island, where in 2012 he won the P.G.A. Championship by a staggering eight strokes.It is the largest margin of victory in the tournament, which was first contested in 1916. McIlroy was only 23.Standing about 100 yards from the 18th green, where he sank a 20-foot putt to close out his 2012 performance, McIlroy was asked Tuesday if that victory — the second of four major championships he won from 2011 to 2014 — felt like nine years ago.“It seems longer,” said McIlroy, one of the PGA Tour’s most candid, reflective members. “I feel like a different person and a different player.”At the conclusion of the 2012 P.G.A. Championship, which came 14 months after McIlroy won the United States Open — also by eight strokes — there was a growing consensus that men’s golf was at the dawn of a new era, one that would be dominated by McIlroy. Tiger Woods had not won a major since the United States Open in 2008.McIlroy has indeed cast a long shadow over golf. He has spent 106 weeks as the world’s top-ranked golfer, holding that spot for more than five months last year.But McIlroy, 32, has also been transformed from the floppy-haired 20-something of his last appearance at Kiawah Island. He is now married and a new father, and he endured a rare decline for much of 2020 and 2021, finishing 30th or worse in nine tournaments. At the Masters tournament, where McIlroy has been in the top 10 six times, he missed the cut this spring. His world ranking, now at No. 7, dropped as low as 13th.But taking the advice of a new swing coach, Pete Cowen, who has known McIlroy for many years, he has rebounded, winning the Wells Fargo Championship — his first PGA Tour appearance since the Masters — on May 9.McIlroy’s down period was never long enough to cast the Wells Fargo victory as a comeback, but his return to Kiawah Island, where he will seek his first major championship in nearly seven years, has allowed him to take some measure of what has changed in his life since 2012.McIlroy won the event at the Ocean Course in 2012 by eight strokes.Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images“I’m in a completely different place in life,” he said. “Yeah, everything has changed, really.”He continued: “I think a lot has changed for the better. I’m standing up here probably more confident in myself, happier with where I am in my life, and yeah, just sort of enjoying everything, enjoying life, enjoying everything a bit more.”McIlroy paused and smiled.“Yeah, it’s all good.”Adam Scott — the 2013 Masters champion, who is now 40 — has watched McIlroy’s entire professional career. He was unsurprised by the Wells Fargo victory, and he mostly recalls McIlroy’s soaring heights, including the 2012 P.G.A. Championship. On Tuesday, Scott was asked if that performance had called to mind Woods in his prime, when he made golf seem patently easy.“Yeah, Rory was giving off that vibe at the time,” Scott said. “That was his second major win, and he’d won both majors by eight. That sounds pretty Tiger-esque to me. That was the early Tiger kind of moves.“I mean, it looked free-flow, and he was driving it much longer than most others that week, and straight, and rolling putts in. When talented guys like a Tiger or a Rory start doing that, it does make the game look easy, even on a really tough course.”Wherever McIlroy’s golf game stands as he enters his 49th major championship, he has a more upbeat, energized approach than he did last year, amid the pandemic. McIlroy, more than any other top golfer, admitted that his stumbles in 2020 were in part related to the lack of fans at events.He felt listless without the reaction of an enthusiastic gallery after a good shot and conceded that it had an effect on his ability to play his best. On Tuesday, McIlroy said he had been boosted by the return of fans at events where attendance is at about 25 percent of capacity, or roughly 10,000 spectators.“It’s funny, ever since I was 16 years old I’ve had thousands of people watch me play golf pretty much every time I teed it up,” he said. “Even going back to amateur golf, that was true. So then, not having that last year after playing in that environment for 14 or 15 years, it was so completely opposite.“As I said at the time, it was like playing practice rounds. It’s easy to lose concentration. Everyone is used to a certain environment, whatever work you do.”McIlroy said he had watched the Champions League soccer semifinals and realized that the players had to be performing in front of an empty stadium for the first time in their careers.“That just must be terrible,” he said. “You want to play in front of people and you want to feel that atmosphere. It’s unfortunate that in these times a lot of people don’t have that experience, but I am glad that we’re getting back to some sort of normalcy.”Even the silly remarks that fans are prone to shout after a golfer’s shot — mostly to be heard on the television broadcast — no longer annoy McIlroy.“Yeah, love the mashed potatoes guys again,” he said, smiling. “I don’t even care about the stupid comments. I’m just glad that everyone is back here.” More

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      Hideki Matsuyama is Golf's Quiet Superstar

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      Shy, intense and obsessive about his golf game, Hideki Matsuyama has been quietly working toward his elite place in the sport for the past several years.AUGUSTA, Ga. — Hideki Matsuyama stood on the 18th green at Augusta National Golf Club on Sunday evening, a winner of the Masters Tournament. There had been no skyward leap, no cathartic, celebratory climb into his caddie’s arms.Just a hat tip and some hugs — an understated, in-the-moment recognition of a seminal achievement for Matsuyama, the first Asian-born golfer to claim a green jacket, and for golf in Japan.“When the final putt went in, I wasn’t really thinking of anything,” he said, adding that he was happy for his caddie, Shota Hayafuji, because it was his first win.“And then, it started sinking in,” Matsuyama said, “the joy of being a Masters champion.”It was characteristic Matsuyama, the man who used a rain delay on Saturday to play games on his cellphone in his car, the golfer who for years has been unsettling opponents while seeming set on avoiding the spotlight.“He doesn’t talk a whole lot, and he’s really solid,” Justin Thomas said after his round but before Matsuyama’s triumph.“I think he’s quite an intense character, actually, even though we don’t really see that,” said Adam Scott, the 2013 Masters winner who has known Matsuyama for years. “I mean, and obsessive about his game.”“He played like a winner needs to play,” said Xander Schauffele, who was paired with him for the final round on Sunday. “He was like a robot.”Just under six feet and weighing close to 200 pounds, Matsuyama had been lionized in Japan, where he began to learn golf from his father, long before he rose to No. 2 in the world, even before his victory at Augusta National, which earned him $2,070,000. He played in the Masters for the first time in 2011, when he tied for 27th and was crowned the low amateur. He shot a 68 in the third round then, a trip through the course that he said was significant to building the fortitude he would need outside the amateur ranks.“It gave me the confidence that I could play here,” he said. “I could play professional golf as a career.”He joined the PGA Tour in 2013 and won a few tournaments before a breakout 2017, when he topped the leaderboard at three events and placed second at the United States Open.It was that year when his penchant for privacy became clear: He announced that he had married months earlier and that he and his wife had had a child.“No one really asked me if I was married, or, you know, so I didn’t have to answer that question,” he said at a tournament news conference then. “But I felt that after the P.G.A. would be a good time, because our baby is born and I thought that would be a good time to let everyone know.”The shyness remains. Asked over the weekend how he felt about the coronavirus pandemic having kept more journalists away from the grounds at Augusta National, he replied: “I’m glad the media are here covering it, but it’s not my favorite thing to do, to stand and answer questions. And so with fewer media, it’s been a lot less stressful for me, and I’ve enjoyed this week.”But in the years before a full ascent into golf’s elite, particularly in Japan, Matsuyama was a promising young player in search of guidance, Scott remembered.“I found back then he was really interested to learn everything he could,” Scott recalled of his interactions with a younger Matsuyama during the 2013 Presidents Cup, the first of four in which Matsuyama would compete.“Just someone who’s got a desire to do well is what it looked like,” Scott said later. “He wasn’t afraid to ask the questions, and I think that shows. As timid as some people can be, the desire to do well overshadows the language barrier or being shy or anything like that.”Until Sunday, however, he had been in something of a slump, even though he was leading the Players Championship in 2020 when the rest of the tournament was canceled as the coronavirus gained a greater foothold in the United States.This year, Matsuyama said, he had a coach with him from Japan who was helping him to improve his game.“He’s been a great help, a great benefit,” Matsuyama said on Saturday. “Things that I was feeling in my swing, I could talk to him about that.” He added: “He always gives me good feedback. He has a good eye. It’s like having a mirror for my swing, and it’s been a great help for me. We worked hard, and hopefully now it’s all starting to come together.”On Sunday evening in Augusta, it did. More

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      Bryson DeChambeau’s Work Evolving Golf Is Not Done Yet

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      At the Masters, the brash, brawny golfer imagined the sport’s future: even bigger, stronger athletes with faster, mightier swings than he already possesses. He can’t wait.AUGUSTA, Ga. — Bryson DeChambeau stormed the gates of venerable golf last year, plundering the mannerly landscape with swings at the ball so mighty it felt as if bystanders could pull a muscle just by standing too close to him.On Tuesday, DeChambeau, the reigning U.S. Open champion, roared back into Augusta National Golf Club, and while he is too polite to behave like an anarchist, he could not help but ponder the next stage of the rebellion he has begun.The entertaining DeChambeau envisioned sinewy 7-foot pro golfers overrunning the tidy links like so many giants in a miniature playground.“The massive gains will be in athletes, once you get somebody out here that’s a 7-foot-tall human being and they are able to swing a golf club at 145 miles an hour effortlessly,” DeChambeau said. “That’s when things get a little interesting.”Indeed, what a picture. Especially since dozens of current top PGA Tour golfers are no more than 5-foot-9. The evolution has a ways to go.As for the 145-mile-an-hour swing speed, consider that DeChambeau leads the PGA Tour at roughly 133 miles an hour. Adding another effortless 12 miles per an hour would most likely produce drives of nearly 400 yards.“That’s when I’m going to become obsolete, potentially even,” DeChambeau said with a smile.DeChambeau, 27, pushed out of golf already? A legion of young golf fans — and new golf fans lured to the game by DeChambeau’s brash, brawny style — might faint at the notion that their barrier-smashing hero could ever have an expiration date.Part of DeChambeau’s charm is how outlandish he thinks, and Tuesday was another example of Bryson going big, as he does with most everything.Still, there is little doubt that the movement he has spurred is taking hold for real. DeChambeau mentioned that he saw one of the young golfers entered in Augusta National’s Drive, Chip and Putt contest on Sunday mimicking the over-the-top swing sequence of the long-drive champion Kyle Berkshire. Or was he imitating DeChambeau?“I’ve had numerous college kids DM me on Instagram and ask me: ‘How do I get stronger? How do I get faster?’” DeChambeau said. “So you’re already starting to see it through — from collegiate level all the way to junior golf level.”He left out the pro level, where Rory McIlroy recently conceded that he messed up his swing this spring trying to emulate DeChambeau to gain more yards off the tee. Keep in mind that McIlroy ranks second on the PGA Tour in driving distance and was already considerably longer than most of his rivals, save one.But DeChambeau has vexed the competition almost as much as he has energized once-sleepy golf galleries. Now, fans at tournaments start cheering as soon as DeChambeau is within 50 yards of a tee, eager to see what feat of strength and timing he might unveil next.“It won’t stop; there’s just no way it will stop,” DeChambeau said. “It’s good for the game, too. You’re making it more inclusive to everybody when you’re doing that.”DeChambeau teed off on the seventh hole during a practice round on Monday.Justin Lane/EPA, via ShutterstockThis being the Masters, it’s almost obligatory for DeChambeau to coyly suggest he is about to begin using a more potent driver that will produce even longer drives.Last year, it was a 48-inch driver, the longest allowed in the rules. DeChambeau never used the club, but he did struggle to overpower the course and finished tied for 34th. This year, it’s a prototype Cobra driver with a new design and technology in the head and face of the club.Like any good performer who wants to keep his audience guessing, DeChambeau would say only so much about the new arrow in his quiver.“Obviously there’s something in the bag this week that’s very helpful — I won’t go into specifics of it,” he said. “But just know this has been a few years in the making, and I’m very excited for it. Whether it helps me perform at a higher level, I’m not sure, because it’s golf and you never know what happens.”But when asked which Augusta National holes he might approach differently because of distance he has gained off the tee, DeChambeau started talking about flying a drive over the trees on the right of the first hole, then started ticking off other possible targets. In a matter of seconds, he had mentioned five additional holes that might be vulnerable.DeChambeau has yet to conquer Augusta National’s devilish greens, and during last year’s Masters he also alluded to unspecified health issues, including dizziness. Staying in character, when asked if he was feeling better this week, DeChambeau delivered a response that was rich and technical.“It took about four or five months to figure out what it was,” he said. “We went through CT scans, X-rays, cardioid measurement. We had ultrasound on my heart, we had measurement of the blood vessels on my neck. You name it, we did it — sinus, CT scan measurements, infection checks and everything. And we couldn’t find anything.”DeChambeau fans can relax, because his revolution is still on schedule. Apparently, the last things doctors checked were DeChambeau’s brain oxygen levels because, he said, “The brain was stressed.”New breathing techniques were introduced and the illness disappeared like magic.“It literally just went away,” DeChambeau said, shrugging his shoulders and turning his palms upward.On to the next adventure. More

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      Tiger Woods ‘in Decent Spirits,’ His Closest Golf Buddies Say

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      Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and other golfers who live near Woods in Jupiter, Fla., have visited regularly as he recovers from his serious car crash.AUGUSTA, Ga. — Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas, two of Tiger Woods’s closest friends on the PGA Tour, said Tuesday that they had recently visited Woods at his Florida home and were encouraged by how he was handling the recovery from his serious car crash in February.“When you hear of these things and you look at the car and you see the crash, you think he’s going to be in a hospital bed for six months,” McIlroy said after practicing for the Masters tournament, which begins Thursday. “But he was actually doing better than that. I spent a couple hours with him, which was nice. It was good to see him in decent spirits.”Woods, 45, sustained severe injuries to his right leg on Feb. 23, requiring at least two operations after the S.U.V. he was driving crashed onto a hillside along a challenging stretch of road in Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles County sheriff said last month that an investigation into the crash was finished but that the results wouldn’t be released without Woods’s permission.McIlroy lives near Woods’s home in Jupiter Island, Fla., as do tour players like Thomas, Rickie Fowler and Brooks Koepka, who have also gone to see Woods.“I’m sure he appreciates that,” McIlroy said. “We all have a responsibility to try to keep his spirits up and keep him going and try to get him back out here.”“I know he’s at home and he’s fully focused on the recovery process,” McIlroy continued, “and I feel like he’s mentally strong enough to get through that. And once he does, broken bones heal, and he’s just got to take it step by step. I’m sure he’s going to put everything he has into trying to be ready to play here next year.”Thomas has played his Masters practice rounds in recent years with Woods, a five-time winner of the tournament, and Fred Couples, another past Masters champion.“We texted Friday morning, and he said it’s kind of starting to set in — he’s bummed he’s not here playing practice rounds with us,” Thomas said of Woods. “And we hate it, too. I’m very, very lucky that I somehow got thrown into that practice-round group with Tiger and Freddie the last four years or whatever it is. I just follow them around like puppy dogs. Wherever they go, that’s where I go. If they hit chips from somewhere, I go hit chips from there.”Thomas described Woods’s recovery as “good” and said that each week he was home he had tried to stop by Woods’s house a couple of times. “That’s just what I want to do for him, is just be like: ‘Dude, I’ll do anything you want. If you need me to help out with your kids, I can do that. If you’re craving McDonald’s and you want me to bring it over, dude, I don’t care. I’m here for you and I’ll help out however I can.”Thomas said he had spent substantial time watching sports on television with Woods. “We are fortunate with the basketball to just hang out,” he said, “and watch sports like we would any normal time.” More

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      Without Tiger Woods, the 2021 Masters Leaderboard Is Wide Open

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      As Augusta National faces life without Woods, possibly even beyond this year, several young golfers look ready to usher in a new era.AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Masters tournament, after an aberrant autumn appearance five months ago, returns this week to its customary place as a ritual of spring, and golf fans will find familiar the sight of vibrant azalea bushes and blooming magnolia trees. But beyond aesthetics at the Augusta National Golf Club, this year’s Masters may be at a crossroads, when golf’s most tradition-bound event turns a new page.Slightly more than a year ago, the energy driving the golf world was a fervent zeal to watch Tiger Woods defend his seismic 2019 Masters victory. Now, the next chapter of the Tiger era at the Masters remains wholly undefined. Because of the serious leg injuries he sustained in a February car crash, Woods will not compete at the Masters, something that has happened three times since 2014.This absence, however, is altogether different.Woods’s future as a competitive golfer is unclear, and the Masters marches on without the person at the cynosure of the tournament’s dominant narrative for nearly 25 years.“You can’t go to Augusta and not think about the guy,” Curtis Strange, a two-time United States Open champion who is now a broadcaster for ESPN, said last week of Woods. “He changed the game as we knew it right in front of our very eyes at Augusta.”But the void that Woods’s absence creates at the Masters could serve to underscore the most dramatic transformation in men’s professional golf: a changing of the guard at the top of the weekly leaderboard. New, younger personalities have stormed into the spotlight vacated by Woods, 45, and some of his contemporaries, like Phil Mickelson, who will turn 51 in June. The game has seen an infusion of not just youth, but players with back stories alluring enough to ease the transition.Bryson DeChambeau has been a dominant force in golf for several years.Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesFor example, a year ago, Bryson DeChambeau was still an eccentric curio on the PGA Tour, known more for his quirks than his accomplishments. In 2020 and continuing into this year, DeChambeau, 29, has been the dominant force in golf even when he is not on the course. With an intense fitness regimen and hard-swinging power game that launched prodigious drives, DeChambeau forced his rivals to reconsider everything, including their course strategies and their diets. Moreover, he captivated golf fans as a new breed of golfer in an age-old sport — daring, showy and charismatic.DeChambeau also backed up his boasts of reinventing golf by bludgeoning the 2020 United States Open field, and a venerable golf course, to claim a runaway victory that verified his status as a phenomenon. DeChambeau has not gone away, with one PGA Tour victory and a tie for third place at the Players Championship last month. It’s true that DeChambeau conspicuously failed to overpower Augusta National in November, but the golf course in the firm conditions of spring — as opposed to the soft fairways that greeted competitors in November — will give him another opportunity to prove that his brawny style can prevail.“He’s certainly got the talent, and maybe learning from the November experience will be very beneficial for him,” Nick Faldo, a three-time Masters champion and now a CBS broadcaster, said of DeChambeau last week.DeChambeau, who has never putted well on Augusta National’s slick greens in four previous Masters appearances, is not backing down.“I’m definitely hitting it a lot further than I was in November of last year,” he said in March, looking ahead to the Masters. “So there are some places that I will look at taking a line that’s going to be a little different than last time.”DeChambeau, the world No. 5, is not the only golfer under 30 years old among the top contenders this week. Thirteen of the top 25 ranked golfers, including four of the top five, are in their 20s. Many come with pedigrees, like world No. 2 Justin Thomas, 27, who last month added a Players Championship victory to go with the P.G.A. Championship he won in 2017. Ranked fourth worldwide, Collin Morikawa, 24, already has a tour victory this season and won last year’s P.G.A. Championship. Jon Rahm, 26, is the world’s third-ranked golfer and has had five top-10 finishes in his seven events this year. Xander Schauffele, 27, is No. 6 in the world rankings and tied for second in the 2019 Masters.There are factors working against a new generation of players leaping to the forefront of golf’s most-watched event this week, notably the accepted canon that a Masters champion must have acquired a wealth of practiced knowledge about the Augusta National layout to win. But the current crop of young players may be fast-tracking the learning curve.Or as Zach Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion, said last month in a telephone interview: “You can have plenty of experience at 27 years old. There could be four Masters champions in a six-year span that are under 30. That would not surprise me in the least.”Jordan Spieth, top left, has his driver worked on during a practice round.Doug Mills/The New York TimesJordan Spieth, who won the 2015 Masters when he was 21, is another young golfer whose recent form makes him a candidate to be slipping on a green jacket after the final round on Sunday. Spieth has won three major golf championships, but had gone nearly four years without a tour victory until he won the Valero Texas Open on Sunday. Spieth’s revival has put him back in the mix, and he insists that his age group is positioned to make a run at several Masters championships. He did not rule out crowning a champion who was playing in his first Masters, something that has not happened since Fuzzy Zoeller won the tournament in 1979.“I wouldn’t be surprised going forward if you end up getting a first-time winner at some point or a number of young guys that are able to do it,” Spieth said last week.Spieth said Augusta National’s extremely hilly terrain, a feature that is hard to grasp from watching the event on television, might especially benefit younger players.“Honestly, it’s a tough walk, it’s one of the toughest walks on tour,” Spieth said of Augusta National. “Physically, it can take a toll. So you would think that guys that are in their mid-20s would be in the best position physically.”Other less-than-household names within golf’s youth movement may have escaped the attention of casual golf fans but are nonetheless worthy contenders this week. Foremost in that group is Sungjae Im, 23, of South Korea, who was the PGA Tour rookie of the year in 2019 and tied for second in his Masters debut last year. No Asian has won the Masters, although that has not stopped Im from dreaming of a Korean-style menu that will be served at the annual champions-only dinner the year after he wins the tournament.“Marinated ribs, of course,” he said in November with a grin.There are few Black players in this year’s Masters field, although Tony Finau, who finished tied for fifth in 2019 and is the world’s 13th ranked golfer, is among the contenders for the title. Vijay Singh, the Masters champion in 2000, is also competing.Change, like the passing of a torch from generation to generation, is in the air at the Masters despite the tournament’s reputation for time-honored traditions. And golf fans may already be warming up to the makeover taking place at the top of the leaderboards.With the television viewership declining for other sports lately, the ratings for PGA Tour events this year have increased by 10 to 20 percent, and some in golf credit the surge to the increasing prominence of what Jim Nantz, the longtime CBS broadcaster, called “the new brigade.”“We’ve arrived at a point now where we don’t have to rely on just Tiger,” Nantz said last week. “We all know how enormous his presence is — maybe he comes back one day, that’s not what we’re addressing here. But how does the sport transition to a time when he is not at the top of the game?”Nantz continued: “There are so many interesting figures now that are competing at the highest level of our sport and them being certified as great players, people are going to watch more often.”Dustin Johnson, left, and Rory McIlroy walk with their caddies during a practice round at Augusta National.Doug Mills/The New York Times 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