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      PGA Tour Is About to Admit its Largest Crowd of the Year

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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 storyPGA Tour Is About to Admit its Largest Crowd of the YearThe Players Championship plans to welcome 10,000 spectators each day, and the golfers hope they don’t gather around the 18th hole all at once.A small crowd watched Gary Woodland at the 10th hole during a practice round for the Players Championship on Tuesday.Credit…Erik S Lesser/EPA, via ShutterstockMarch 10, 2021, 12:01 a.m. ETPONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — After eight months of hosting events without fans, the PGA Tour recently began cautiously welcoming back a limited number of spectators to its tournaments. This week, at the celebrated Players Championship in Northeast Florida, the tour will take a leap with as many as 10,000 fans on the grounds, the most for any event this year.A crowd of that size, however, poses a predicament for golf that sets it apart from most other sports, in which the spectators are generally confined to grandstands or at least enclosed within a stadium or arena. Golf has the advantage of being an outdoor sport contested across hundreds of acres with plenty of open space, and it has instituted numerous safety protocols during the coronavirus pandemic.But previous tour events this year have shown that thousands of fans who are used to walking from hole to hole will ignore social-distancing guidelines and will be prone to gather shoulder-to-shoulder around the leaders of a tournament during the pivotal final holes on a Sunday afternoon.Last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational — which permitted about 6,000 fans, the largest crowd so far — a throng eagerly followed Bryson DeChambeau as he closed out a victory. Scores of spectators, especially those holding a beverage in one hand, had removed the face masks that tournament officials mandated on admittance.Signs around the grounds of PGA Tour events this year have prodded fans to wear masks and stay six feet from one another. Hundreds of on-course volunteers remind the spectators of the requirements, but as golf continues to exit its fan-less experience — the Masters tournament next month will welcome an undefined number of fans, and the P.G.A. Championship in May said it will allow 10,000 fans — the sport will have to continue to find ways to control a crowd used to migrating around a course with few restrictions.On Tuesday Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, said there had been efforts to devise new strategies for the Players Championship, which in past years has sold more than 45,000 tickets daily. He also said that because the T.P.C. Sawgrass golf course was built in the style of an amphitheater, with hillsides rising around holes to offer multiple vantage points for spectators, it should naturally dilute the crowds. The stadium-style setting can also lead to an atmosphere as raucous as one that might be found in the outfield bleachers at an M.L.B. game.Monahan attended the Palmer Invitational and admitted that he saw fans disregarding the mask requirement. Asked how an event, and its volunteers, can impose what may be an unenforceable rule, Monahan answered, “You do the absolute best that you can.”He added: “We continue to stress the importance of it. I’ve been encouraged by the number of people that have been wearing masks. And while I have seen some that aren’t, we want everyone to be wearing masks and we’re going to continue to reinforce that.”The players tend to see the return of spectators at golf events as an especially welcome development — with some reservations.Jon Rahm said he didn’t want to see thousands of fans crowded around one hole.Credit…Erik S Lesser/EPA, via Shutterstock“We’ve missed them,” Jon Rahm, the world’s second-ranked player, said Tuesday. “But at the same time, I want everybody to be safe. I’ve known of too many people personally that have been affected by the virus, and I wouldn’t want anybody to go through that and lose loved ones because of it.”The Coronavirus Outbreak More

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

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

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      Spieth and Fowler: Golf Prodigies Seek a Way Back From the Wilderness

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySpieth and Fowler: Golf Prodigies Seek a Way Back From the WildernessNot so long ago Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler were ascending PGA Tour stars. Now they feel each other’s pain and trade notes. Can they get their grooves back?Jordan Spieth, left, and Rickie Fowler during a practice round before the Charles Schwab Challenge last year.Credit…Tom Pennington/Getty ImagesMarch 3, 2021, 7:04 p.m. ETORLANDO, Fla. — It is remarkably difficult to be great at the highest level of golf at a young age. It is even harder to fail at golf after early triumphs.For the past year, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, wunderkinds from the same generation who became close friends, have been living with the good and the bad of their precociousness.It is a peculiar type of purgatory because it is so public. “The hardest part,” Spieth said Wednesday, “is that it’s almost impossible to struggle in silence, in darkness, to get your work done in the dark.”Once among the game’s most spotlighted attractions, Spieth ranks 62nd in the world, even after a recent comeback. Fowler, equally popular, has slumped to 65th.The two now strive to quietly, even secretly, rebuild their golf games, but their celebrity denies them a necessary haven from scrutiny.“There’s just going to be so much noise around and so much emphasis on results versus the true understanding of what your end goal is and how much time that can take in golf,” Spieth, 27, said of the restorative process.Basic competency at the game deserts every golfer periodically, and it’s no different for the world’s best players, although their definition of basic competency is quite different. But a bewildered recreational golfer and a confused, 90th-ranked PGA Tour pro are the same in this way: Each can disappear to the unobserved end of the practice range to try to reclaim — or more likely revise — a swing gone wrong.When something similar happens to a three-time major winner like Spieth — or to Fowler, a Players Championship winner who has finished second at the Masters, the British Open and the United States Open (and third at the P.G.A. Championship) — there is no escaping to a private spot for a mental and physical rebuild. Instead, the fits and starts of reinventing their golf games are chronicled and evaluated day by day, double bogey by double bogey.Which is not how anyone escapes from golf hell.“It’s tough for all of us that are involved, from my caddie to my wife — she’s having to deal with me at home,” Fowler, 32, said Tuesday near the practice range for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which begins Thursday. “I’m trying to be the best husband that I can, not bringing golf back home, but when you’re out on the road that long, on the grind and putting in the work at home, it’s pretty much been all golf.”Fowler’s biggest hobby away from golf has been fishing. His slump has curtailed that as well.“A lot of people have asked, ‘Have you been able to fish much at home?’” he said. “But not really, no, because the days that I have off I just take completely off. Everything else has been workout, therapy and golf.”Fowler, as optimistic a player as there is on the PGA Tour, smiled. It is his go-to reaction. But even he had to concede, “It’s frustrating.”For Spieth, whose world ranking dropped to 82nd at the end of last season, troubles with his golf game emerged in 2018-19. First he tried just to find his way back to the promised land, a place he had inhabited as a 20-year-old, when he was three strokes away from becoming the youngest Masters winner ever. In time, as Spieth failed to return to the winner’s circle, myriad issues were cited: his alignment, his putting, his confidence, his ability to finish on the weekends of tournaments.Away from the golf course, Spieth worked as furtively as he could on a subtle but consequential swing modification, and on something simpler: consistency. In his last three tournaments, he has been rejuvenated, tying for fourth, third and 15th, his best three-event stretch since mid-2019.That rally has led reporters to ask if Spieth has tried to counsel Fowler, who in his last 10 events dating to October 2020 has missed the cut four times and finished outside the top 25 four other times.Spieth said the two had talked with each other, and he acknowledged that there were similarities between his struggles and Fowler’s. But in many ways, Spieth said, it still comes back to the notion that change is hard in golf, even for those once called prodigies.“He’s trying to make changes with an end goal to be more consistent and better than he ever was — and they’re significant changes,” Spieth said. “So it’s not going to be easy. You can’t just continue to compete and win while you’re trying to make big changes. These guys are too good out here.”But Spieth has faith in his buddy, the former shaggy-haired young wizard who turned pro when he was 20.“He’s got a lot more people in his corner than are not and that believe in him, and he believes in himself,” Spieth said.Fowler vowed not to be distracted by the focus on what he called “his valley.”“It’s a matter of time,” he said. But he added, “I’m ready to be past that.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Collin Morikawa Wins Workday Title on a Day of Tributes to Woods

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Tiger Woods’s Car CrashWoods Undergoes More ProceduresWill He Play Again?Golf Without TigerA Terrible Turn of FateHonoring WoodsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCollin Morikawa Wins Workday Title on a Day of Tributes to WoodsMorikawa, 24, who won the 2020 P.G.A. Championship in August, is doing things only Tiger Woods had done before turning 25.Collin Morikawa celebrated after winning the Workday Championship on Sunday in Bradenton, Fla.Credit…Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated PressFeb. 28, 2021, 9:20 p.m. ETBRADENTON, Fla. — Although he was atop the leaderboard, Collin Morikawa stumbled repeatedly on Saturday and Sunday at the PGA Tour’s Workday Championship, even calling one of his setbacks “stupidity at its finest.”But surmounting the unsettling vicissitudes of golf with a winning, steely resolve is becoming the hallmark of Morikawa’s career. Such a performance seemed especially appropriate on Sunday when tour players and fans honored Tiger Woods by wearing red shirts and black pants, Woods’s signature final-round outfit.In the end, Morikawa, 24, confidently persevered with a three-stroke victory in the World Golf Championship event to join Woods as the only player to win a major golf championship and a World Golf Championship event before age 25. Like many in the tournament’s field, Morikawa, who won last year’s P.G.A. Championship in August, grew up idolizing Woods. Standing next to the 18th green Sunday evening, Morikawa said of Woods, who remained hospitalized after a car crash in Los Angeles County, Calif., on Tuesday, “Tiger means everything to me.”He added: “I don’t think we say thank you enough, so I want to say thank you to Tiger because sometimes you lose people too early.”Morikawa mentioned Kobe Bryant and his paternal grandfather, Toshio, who he said died a month ago.“You don’t get to say thank you enough,” Morikawa said.The third-round leader, Morikawa turned in a Woods-like performance on Sunday, holding off the strongest tour field so far this year. It was Morikawa’s fourth PGA Tour victory, a stunning turnaround from his first, inglorious moment in the tour spotlight only eight months ago.At the Charles Schwab Classic in June, which was the first tournament last year after the men’s tour’s 90-day layoff because of the pandemic, Morikawa missed a three-foot putt that ended a two-man playoff that he lost. Just three events later, he won his first pro tournament, then added the P.G.A. Championship. Morikawa has ascended to sixth in the world rankings with a string of steady performances.Going through the crucible of successfully defending his third-round lead at the Concession Golf Club could be a springboard to more victories.“It makes me a little more comfortable after sleeping on the lead knowing that guys were ready to go low today,” Morikawa said. “I do feel confident.”Morikawa did not wear a red shirt in the final round, although his clothing manufacturer shipped him one. He said weather might have delayed the arrival.Morikawa was pursued on Sunday by two other young hotshots, Viktor Hovland, 23, and Scottie Scheffler, 24. He also had to fend off Brooks Koepka, a four-time major winner. Hovland made eight birdies to pressure Morikawa, who entered the final round with a two-stroke lead, but he faltered with bogeys on the 14th and 16th holes and finished in a three-way tie for second. Scheffler also had eight birdies, but a double bogey on the par-4 16th hole was his undoing and dropped him to fifth place. Koepka had an up-and-down round with five birdies and three bogeys, which stalled his charge, although he managed to tie Hovland and Billy Horschel for second.On Saturday, after Morikawa three-putted the 13th hole to make bogey, he called the outcome “stupidity at its finest.” He three-putted the 13th hole again on Sunday, but this time it led to a par, which was all he needed at the time to hold on to his three-stroke lead.“I said that yesterday because I psyched myself out before I even played the 13th hole,” Morikawa said of his “stupidity” remark. “But I learned from yesterday.” More

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      Honoring Tiger Woods, in Red and Black

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      Honoring Tiger Woods, in Red and BlackPhelan M. Ebenhack/Associated PressTo honor Tiger Woods, who remains hospitalized after a car crash, a number of PGA Tour golfers, like Tommy Fleetwood and Cameron Champ, wore his signature final-round outfit at the Workday Championship on Sunday.See more of the tributes → More

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      The Impact and Influence of Tiger Woods: Here. There. Everywhere.

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Tiger Woods’s Car CrashWill Woods Play Again?Sheriff Expects No ChargesGolf Without TigerA Terrible Turn of FateCareer Highs and LowsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn GolfThe Impact and Influence of Tiger Woods: Here. There. Everywhere.From fitness trailers to fist pumps and golf’s global representation, the star, recovering in the hospital after a serious car crash, has a hefty presence at a PGA tournament even when he’s not playing in it.Tiger Woods’s shadow loomed large Thursday at a World Golf Championship event, the first on the PGA tour since the news of his car crash.Credit…Erik S Lesser/EPA, via ShutterstockFeb. 25, 2021Updated 7:59 p.m. ETBRADENTON, Fla. — Tiger Woods was never expected to play in the first round of the PGA Tour event held Thursday in Central Florida. It did not matter. His presence, his influence, the impact of his life and career was evident throughout the grounds.If this is at least the beginning of the end of the Woods era in golf, in the wake of his serious car crash Tuesday, the setting at the Concession Golf Club, where the tournament is being held, revealed much about what he has meant to the sport and the almost incalculable change he has wrought.It was nearly impossible to look in any direction and not see Woods’s imprint.On the serpentine drive into the golf course, multiple, extra-wide trailers labeled “Player Performance Center” lined the road. They are mobile fitness facilities chock-full of treadmills and advanced exercise equipment.It would now be unthinkable to host a PGA Tour event without them, and the trailers log about 25,000 miles annually to keep up with the 100-plus pro golfers whose exacting workouts are now a sacrosanct part of their tournament regimens.Roughly 25 years ago, more PGA Tour players probably smoked than worked out during an event. What changed?Tiger Woods turned pro in 1996, won the Masters a year later and two months after that made the fastest ascent to No. 1 in the world golf rankings. Moreover, he was a workout freak, had started beefing up and his prodigious drives would soon spawn the redesign of top golf courses around the world.Golfers back then were a hodgepodge of shapes, some with bellies that bulged over gaudy white belts. It was an image that perpetuated the notion that golf was not a sport. There is a different look on the tour these days, and a short walk from the fitness trailers to the practice range would prove it.From behind the range, one could assess the form and movements of several dozen top golfers whose ages ranged from about 20 to 40. Nearly all had trim, athletic builds — and flat stomachs. They swung ferociously hard, yet never seemed out of balance, a compliment to their conditioning and developed strength and flexibility. Most had learned and honed that mix of pliancy and power from watching a single uber-dedicated golfer, their idol, Tiger Woods. Even the swing coaches who stood by the golfers had studied and memorized every Woods move before he had turned 30 years old. In other words, by the time he had won his 10th major championship.Just beyond the range was the first tee, and the path leading to it was awash in the emblems of corporate sponsors. Professional golf had always been supported by commercial interests but that relationship blossomed exponentially as Woods came up on the scene with a memorable Nike television advertisement when he stared into the camera and said: “Hello, world.”Thursday, there was a scoreboard near the first tee encircled by not one, but seven logos from tournament sponsors. The prize money for the one-week event is $10.5 million, or around five times what PGA Tour tournaments paid before Woods turned pro.This week’s event is a World Golf Championship event, a collaborative effort to periodically bring together the best players from tours in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. There were no world championships until 1999, by which time Woods, whose multicultural background had helped golf explode internationally, had won two majors and 13 PGA Tour events (and, of course, he won two of the three inaugural World Golf Championships in 1999).As play began in the first round, long putts dropped and players celebrated with uppercut, clenched fist pumps. There was no reason to ask where they learned such a signature move. They wore eye-catching colors made by top designers who earned most of their revenue outside golf and their garb was embossed with the logos of sponsors whose customers might not even be golfers: luxury car manufactures, credit card companies, premium watch makers. Woods pioneered such crossover appeal.It did not matter where one walked. Woods was here. Wednesday, Rory McIlroy, a four-time major winner who grew up idolizing Woods and now considers him a close friend, was asked if the players in this week’s field had considered some kind of tribute to Woods. McIlroy shook his head back and forth.“He’s not gone,” McIlroy said. “I feel like we should pay tribute to him every day for being on the PGA Tour and what he’s done for golf.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Bill Wright, Who Broke a Color Barrier in Golf, Dies at 84

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBill Wright, Who Broke a Color Barrier in Golf, Dies at 84In 1959, decades before Tiger Woods, Wright became the first Black golfer to win a United States Golf Association event.Bill Wright in the Amateur Public Links Championship in Denver in 1959. His victory there was a singular moment for Black golfers at a time when the P.G.A. bylaws still had a “Caucasians-only” clause.Credit…Denver Post, via Getty ImagesFeb. 25, 2021, 6:56 p.m. ETBill Wright, the first Black competitor to win a United States Golf Association event in an era when African-Americans were not welcome either in segregated country clubs or in the top amateur and professional ranks, died on Feb. 19 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84.His wife and only immediate survivor, Ceta (Smith) Wright, confirmed the death. She said he had a stroke in 2017 and had Alzheimer’s disease.Wright was attending the Western Washington College of Education (now Western Washington University) in 1959 when he won the U.S.G.A. Amateur Public Links Championship in Denver.After barely qualifying for match play, he had little trouble in the tournament. His skill on the greens led The Spokesman-Review of Spokane to call him a “slender putting wizard.”Wright’s immediate reaction to being the first Black golfer to win a national championship was to hang up the phone on the reporter who had asked how that felt.“I wasn’t mad,” he said in an interview with the U.S.G.A. in 2009. “I wanted to be Black. I wanted to be the winner. I wanted to be all those things.” But he was struck by how quickly his victory was viewed as one for his race. As he saw it, he said, “I was just playing golf.”Wright’s victory was a singular moment for Black golfers at a time when the P.G.A. of America’s bylaws still had a “Caucasians-only” clause (which would be abolished in 1961).A Black man did not win a PGA Tour event until 1964, when Pete Brown finished first at the Waco Turner Open in Texas. The next two African-American winners of U.S.G.A. tournaments were Alton Duhon (the 1982 U.S. Senior Amateur) and Tiger Woods (the 1991 to 1993 U.S. Junior Amateurs).Victoria Nenno, the senior historian of the USGA Golf Museum and Library, said in an email that Wright’s victory “deserves recognition not just for the challenges he overcame as an African-American golfer, but for the manner in which he won — with skill, precision and, most importantly, sportsmanship.”Winning the public links title earned Wright an exemption to play in the U.S. Amateur Championship later that year at the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs. When the white golfers who were to join him for a practice round refused to play with him, Chick Evans, who had won the Open in 1920, invited him to join his group. That group included Jack Nicklaus, then 19 years old, who would win the event.“I have never forgotten it,” Wright once said of Evans’s gesture in an interview for usga.com. “He came over and made it so I could enjoy the most aristocratic hotel. It was just amazing.”William Alfred Wright was born on April 4, 1936, in Kansas City, Mo., and later moved with his family to Portland, Ore., and Seattle. His father, Bob, was a mail carrier and a skilled golfer. His mother, Madeline (Shipman) Wright, was a social worker who also golfed.Wright began playing golf at 14; a year later, he was Seattle’s junior champion. He excelled in basketball and helped his high school team win a state title in 1954. He graduated from Western Washington in 1960 and that year won the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ individual golf championship. He also played in his first PGA Tour event in 1960, but learned how difficult it was to play a regular schedule without sponsors.“There was really no visible hope for people of color to play professionally,” Wendell Haskins, a former director of diversity for the P.G.A. of America, said in a phone interview. “He showed all kinds of promise, but the opportunities for him were limited.”Because he could not afford to play golf professionally full time, Wright taught sixth grade in Los Angeles for nine years, then owned a car dealership in Pasadena and was the teaching pro at the Lakes at El Segundo, a nine-hole municipal golf course, from 1995 to 2017.According to the PGA Tour, Wright played in at least 17 tournaments from 1960 to 1974 — his best finish was a tie for 40th place — and in nine PGA Tour Champions events (tournaments for golfers at least 50 years old) from 1988 to 1995. He also competed in the 1966 U.S. Open — he didn’t make the cut — and five U.S. Senior Opens.“He was a barrier breaker,” Ceta Wright said. “The sad part is that he hoped his success would open the doors for other Black golfers. But it really didn’t.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Tiger Woods Injured in Serious Car Accident

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTiger Woods Injured in Serious Car AccidentThe greatest golfer of his generation sustained leg injuries that, along with a back surgery in January, could raise questions about the future of his career.Tiger Woods in the Masters Tournament in November.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesFeb. 23, 2021Updated 9:33 p.m. ETFor Tiger Woods, it was a resounding comeback. After a back injury that had seemed destined to end his career, he won the Masters Tournament in 2019, a thrilling return to form that captivated the nation.But after a year of fits and starts that yielded no major victories, he announced last month that he had undergone another spinal procedure that would keep him out of competition until later this year.Then came the single-vehicle accident on Tuesday in which his S.U.V. ran off the road and landed on a hillside near Los Angeles, causing leg injuries that required Mr. Woods to undergo hours of surgery.It was another devastating episode for Mr. Woods — who burst onto the national scene as a child and is the greatest golfer of his generation — and raises questions about his ability to make yet another comeback.In recent years, Mr. Woods, who has won 15 major championships, second in the sport’s history to Jack Nicklaus’s 18, has talked extensively about the limitations his previous surgeries and injuries have caused.They have severely reduced the amount of time he can practice and have often disrupted the flow and power of a once revered golf swing. For several of the past few seasons, Mr. Woods could be seen wincing after every few shots, and he frequently struggled to retrieve his golf ball from the cup after completing a hole.His accident incited an outpouring across sports and beyond.On Twitter, Mr. Nicklaus wrote of his and his wife’s anguish. “Barbara and I just heard about Tiger’s accident, and like everyone else, we are deeply concerned,’’ Mr. Nicklaus’s post said. “We want to offer him our heartfelt support and prayers at this difficult time. Please join us in wishing Tiger a successful surgery and all the best for a full recovery.”Justin Thomas, a trusted confidant of Mr. Woods who frequently joins him for pretournament practice rounds, appeared stunned by the news.“I’m sick to my stomach,” Mr. Thomas said as he prepared for the Workday Championship, a PGA Tour event in Central Florida set to begin Thursday. “It hurts to see one of your closest friends get in an accident. I just hope he’s all right. I’m just worried for his kids, I’m sure they’re struggling.”Mr. Woods’s S.U.V. being towed after the crash.Credit…Allison Zaucha for The New York TimesThe incident happened about 7 a.m. Pacific time near the border of Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes, a coastal Los Angeles suburb, on a twisting and winding stretch where the speed limit is 45 m.p.h. Two days earlier, Mr. Woods had hosted a PGA Tour event at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles and stayed to tape a promotional spot for Golf Digest.Mr. Woods was traveling at a “greater speed than normal” but did not seem impaired, Alex Villanueva, the Los Angeles County sheriff, said at a news conference, adding that “there was no effort to draw blood, for example, at the hospital.”Mr. Woods lost control of the vehicle on Hawthorne Boulevard, hitting a curb and a tree before rolling several times, the sheriff said.“That area has a high frequency of accidents,” Mr. Villanueva said. “It’s not uncommon.”With 82 PGA Tour victories, Mr. Woods is tied for the most ever with Sam Snead.But Mr. Woods has been hobbled by injuries in recent years. He has had five major back operations and three knee operations, which have derailed his ability to compete for years at a time. His injuries in the car accident would seem to create a substantial obstacle to returning to full form, a prospect already in question ahead of the Masters in April.In 2009, at the height of a career in which Mr. Woods was expected to demolish every record in his sport, news reports about serial marital infidelity cost him his marriage, and he was shunned by many in the golf community. In swift succession, his myriad corporate sponsors dropped him. The scandal caused him to take a lengthy hiatus from golf. When he returned to competition, he struggled to find his old form, a complication that coincided with the onset of his physical ailments.On the same golf courses where he had long been greeted by wild cheering, his presence was instead met with an eerie quiet. As time passed, being snubbed was far from Mr. Woods’s only problem at tournaments. He was often viewed as a limping afterthought. A young breed of golfers now controlled the top of the leaderboard.His downfall eventually had a defining act, a middle-of-the-night arrest in May 2017 that revealed an opioid addiction. Mr. Woods was taken into custody by the police after he was found alone and asleep in his car on the side of a road with the engine running.Typical of his career arc, Mr. Woods’s resurrection ended up being as dramatic and attention grabbing.At the 2019 Masters, golf’s most watched event, Mr. Woods was not one of the pretournament favorites to win, but he became a final-round contender. In the crucible of the event’s final holes, as his rivals withered under the pressure, Mr. Woods found the inner resolve that had been his trademark. He birdied four of the final five holes to claim his fifth Masters title. When his final putt dropped, he celebrated with a primal scream that seemed to be matched by the thousands of fans encircling the 18th green.Mr. Woods after his win at the 2019 Masters.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesJust two years earlier, Mr. Woods had ranked as low as 1,119th in the world. His comeback, especially considering his travails off the course, may have been the greatest in sports history.Leaving the green, Mr. Woods lifted his son, Charlie, and his daughter, Sam, into his arms — a gesture that was a near repeat of the embrace Mr. Woods’s father, Earl, had given his son after the 1997 Masters, Mr. Woods’s first major victory.He continued to be competitive with his peers in 2019, winning one more event, but the pandemic-shortened 2020 golf season took place with Mr. Woods often absent. Other than a tie for ninth in mid-January, he did not finish higher than a tie for 37th and appeared in just 10 events.Mr. Woods has not played competitively since December. In January, he underwent a procedure on his back called a microdiscectomy, which was performed to remove a pressurized disc fragment that was pinching a nerve. On Sunday, while acting as the host of the Genesis Invitational PGA Tour event in Southern California, Mr. Woods was interviewed during the broadcast of the tournament. He said he had begun practicing and appeared at ease, smiling and joking with CBS announcers about his progress from the recent operation. But he offered no timetable for his return to competitive golf.The Masters, though, remained central on Mr. Woods’s calendar. Asked whether he would compete in the event in April, Mr. Woods replied: “God, I hope so. I’ve got to get there first.” He added that he was “feeling fine, a little bit stiff” and was awaiting another M.R.I. scan to evaluate his progress. In the meantime, he said, he had been “still doing the mundane stuff that you have to do for rehab, the little things before you can start gravitating toward something a little more.”Mr. Woods conceded that surgeons may have only so many more ways to help him. “This is the only back I’ve got,” he said. “I don’t have much more wiggle room there.”Mr. Woods slipped his cap down as he finished the 10th hole as the sun set during Round 2 at the 2020 Masters.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesAt the pandemic-delayed Masters in November, Mr. Woods tied for 38th place. In the wake of the final round of the event, he said of his physical infirmities: “No matter how hard I try, things just don’t work the way they used to. And no matter how much I push and ask of this body, it just doesn’t work at times.”At the Rolling Hills Country Club near Los Angeles on Monday, pictures on social media showed Mr. Woods interacting with various celebrities, including the former N.B.A. player Dwyane Wade. During the function, Mr. Woods gave players golf tips and some instruction but was not swinging a golf club.Douglas Morino, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Alan Blinder, Kevin Draper and Gillian R. Brassil contributed reporting.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More