Coaches proud of Canadian success on PGA Tour for 2019-20 season
Although 2019-20 was a strange, start-and-stop season on the PGA Tour, it was also arguably the best-ever campaign for Canadian golfers.
Mackenzie Hughes, Adam Hadwin, Corey Conners and Nick Taylor have at various points this season all been in the top 100 of the men’s world golf rankings – a new high for Canadian players – and Taylor Pendrith tore it up on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour.
Derek Ingram, the men’s head coach for Golf Canada, has worked with all five players and said he believes that their success this past season – after the PGA resumed following a three-month break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic – is because of the group’s esprit de corps.
“There’s just a real great Team Canada feel on the PGA Tour,” said Ingram. “These guys eat together, they train together, they practise together, in the evenings because of the bubble they’re having dinner together. Each one of them pushes them to get better.”
Ingram added that there are other factors to the Canadian contingent’s success. He credits the influence of Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., whose 2003 Masters win served as an inspiration for an entire generation of Canadian golfers as well as the development programs of provincial golf associations.
Hughes, from Dundas, Ont., drew most of the attention to close out the 2019-20 season, which officially ended on Monday with the final round of the Tour Championship.
After missing nine of 11 cuts to start the season, Hughes finished second at the Honda Classic on March 1. Hughes refocused himself during the pandemic break and rocketed up the FedEx Cup standings, qualifying for the 30-player Tour Championship with a nail-biting finish at the BMW Championship where he tied for 10th.
Hughes finished the season 14th in the FedEx Cup standings after a solid performance at the Tour Championship, the highest-ever year-end ranking for a Canadian. He’ll also play in next week’s U.S. Open along with Hadwin, Conners and Pendrith in the second week of the 2020-21 season.
“They’re doing unreal,” said Ingram. “Really, the credit goes to the players and their families and how hard they’ve worked. I just can’t tell you how thrilled I am for them as a fan and as a coach of the national team.”
Pendrith, who does not yet have full PGA Tour status, earned his way into the U.S. Open with his strong and consistent play that has put him at No. 4 on the Korn Ferry Tour’s points list heading into this week’s Evans Scholars Invitational.
Another important factor has been the role of NCAA programs in developing professional golfers.
Mac on a MISSION ??
Hughes climbs the leaderboard to finish 14th at the @playofffinale, closing off an excellent run to his season ??#TeamRBC pic.twitter.com/268CG7z8NL
— RBC Canadian Open (@RBCCanadianOpen) September 7, 2020
Herb Page of Markham, Ont., retired as the head coach of Kent State University’s men’s golf team last summer but is still in touch with Hughes, Conners, and Pendrith, all of whom he coached through their collegiate days at the Ohio school.
“They’ve just got someone to lean on, they’ve got that friendly face,” said Page on how camaraderie has benefited the Canadians. “It’s a tough, lonely grind out there, especially this year when you can’t bring your wife or your kids.
“I think even moreso this year (those friendships) are important.”
Although Hughes, Hadwin, Conners, and Taylor get the lion’s share of the attention among the Canadians on tour, they’re not the only ones plying their trade on the PGA.
Graham DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask., will make his return to action at the season opening Safeway Open at Silverado Resort and Spa North in Napa, Calif., on Thursday. He hasn’t played since January when back pain derailed his season.
Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., and Michael Gligic of Burlington, Ont., will also be in the field. Ingram said that the depth of Canadian talent in men’s professional golf is also a boon for the sport.
“I’m just thrilled for golf in Canada and for the guys that have been working hard for a long time,” said Ingram. “We’ve never been deeper.”
Dustin Johnson cashes in and finally wins the FedEx Cup
ATLANTA – Dustin Johnson only looks like he plays without a pulse. Beneath his stoic stare and that swagger as he walked the fairways of East Lake were jangled nerves Monday because it meant so much to him.
The $15 million prize for winning the FedEx Cup? That would get anyone’s attention, especially someone who thought he was rich when Johnson cashed his first tournament check as a PGA Tour rookie for $113,571.
But there was more.
“The prestige, for sure,” Johnson said after delivering a key par putt and steady play down the stretch for a 2-under 68 and a three-shot victory in the Tour Championship.
“Being a FedEx Cup champion is something that I really wanted to do. I wanted to hold that trophy at the end of the day,” Johnson said. “It was something that I wanted to accomplish during my career.”
He did it by hitting his stride at just the right time.
He won two of the three FedEx Cup post-season events and lost in a playoff by a 65-foot putt in the other. It all came down to the final day of the final event, and even with a five-shot lead, it was never easy.
Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas each got within three shots on the front nine. They each got within two shots of Johnson with two holes to play. He never let them catch them, and his only birdie of the back nine on the final hole gave him his third victory since June and the 23rd of his PGA Tour career.
“It’s a very tough trophy to win,” Johnson said. “I controlled my own destiny, but I still had to go out and play well. I had a lot of great players right behind me. It got close at the end. I knew it was going to come down the stretch and I’d have to hit some golf shots.”
None were bigger than the 20-foot par putt on the 13th hole to keep his lead at three shots, the 5-iron safely on the green on the toughest hole at East Lake, another 5-iron over the water on the par-3 15th – the one hole where big numbers lurk – and a wedge out of a deep bunker and onto the green at the 16th.
“This is a tough golf course. No lead is safe,” Johnson said. “The guys gave me a good fight today.”
Johnson became the first No. 1 seed at the Tour Championship to win the FedEx Cup since Tiger Woods in 2009. Now he has his name etched on the silver trophy alongside some of the best from his generation, starting with Woods and most recently Rory McIlroy, with Hall of Famers, major champions and former world No. 1 players in between.
Schauffele, who tends to bring his best golf to big moments, cut the lead to two shots when both had to scramble for par on the 13th. Schauffele missed his par putt from 25 feet, and Johnson rammed his in.
“He’s here to win the tournament,” said Schauffele, who closed with a 66 and had the lowest 72-hole score of the tournament at 265. “He made that putt. I didn’t. That was a pinnacle moment.”
Thomas made bogey from a wild tee shot to the right on the 17th. Schauffele also had to scramble on the 17th, escaping with par after a tee shot into the bunker. And on the par-5 18th, Johnson unleashed a drive that started left along the pine trees and faded gently toward the middle of the fairway.
That set up a birdie from the front bunker, a hug with brother Austin, his caddie, and a trophy he long wanted.
Johnson was staked to a five-shot lead at 19-under par – 9 under on his own score and starting the tournament at 10 under as the No. 1 seed in the FedEx Cup. He finished at 21 under.
Schauffele and Thomas tied for second, each earning $4.5 million.
Jon Rahm, the No. 2 seed, closed with a 66 to finish fourth and earn $3 million. Scottie Scheffler, who a year ago was getting ready to start his rookie year, had a 66-65 finish and was fifth for a $2.5 million payoff.
Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., finished the year as the top-ranked Canadian male golfer after placing 14th. Hughes, the lone Canadian to make the Tour Championship, fired a 67 to get to 8 under. He earned $620,000 for his efforts.
Mac on a MISSION ??
Hughes climbs the leaderboard to finish 14th at the @playofffinale, closing off an excellent run to his season ??#TeamRBC pic.twitter.com/268CG7z8NL
— RBC Canadian Open (@RBCCanadianOpen) September 7, 2020
And so wrapped up the strangest season on the PGA Tour, which doesn’t feel like the end at all except for the $15 million awarded to Johnson, $14 million now and $1 million deferred.
The new season starts Thursday. Two majors are still to be played.
Golf was shut down for three months and when it restarted, Johnson was No. 111 in the FedEx Cup. He won the Travelers Championship. He followed with a pair of 80s in the Memorial and then a 78 at the 3M Open in Minnesota before he withdrew because he wasn’t feeling quite right.
Since then, he looks like the biggest talent in golf.
“I played with him at the Memorial, and I’ve never seen him as lost, anywhere remotely close to that lost,” Thomas said. “He was putting so bad and playing so bad. But he never gave up. He was just trying to find it out there and he couldn’t find it again the next week, and then next thing you know, two months later he’s the FedEx Cup champion.
“I think that’s all you need to know about golf right there.”
In four straight tournaments against the best fields, he had the 54-hole three times and was tied in the other. He converted one into an 11-shot win. He lost to a 65 by Collin Morikawa at the PGA Championship and to a 65-foot putt by Rahm at the BMW Championship.
He badly wanted the last one, and even staked to a five-shot lead to par at East Lake, it was never easy.
It rarely is for Johnson.
But he’s back on top at No. 1 and with a trophy he badly wanted. Next up is the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in two weeks, a tough course, the kind Johnson loves. Still to come is the Masters. The celebration can wait until the holidays. He wants to keep going.
“I’m playing well. I’ve got a lot of confidence in the game,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to the next obviously couple months.”
From the fairway, Johnson builds 5 shot lead at East Lake
ATLANTA – Dustin Johnson watched his opening drive sail long and fall gently to the right, just like he imagined. So did the next drive. It was like that all day at East Lake, and the outcome was predictable.
Johnson is playing the best golf and looks tougher than ever to beat.
When he finished with a 10-foot birdie, Johnson matched the low round Sunday with a 6-under 64 to build a five-shot lead over Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele in the Tour Championship, leaving him one round away from the FedEx Cup and its $15 million prize.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in everything I’m doing right now,” Johnson said.
A quick fix on the range the previous evening was all he needed to get straightened out. Johnson missed only three fairways, and not by much. He putted for birdie on all but three holes and made seven of them.
“He’s showcased what he can do,” Schauffele said. “If he does what he normally does, it’s going to be almost impossible to catch him.”
Normal these days for Johnson must be daunting for everyone else.
He was at 19-under par, making this his four consecutive start with at least a share of the 54-hole lead. He converted one of those into an 11-shot victory at the TPC Boston. He lost to a 65 by Collin Morikawa in the PGA Championship and o a 65-foot putt by Jon Rahm in a playoff last week at Olympia Fields.
“We’re going to need Dustin to throw us a bone and not have a good day,” said Rahm, who was six shots back.
Johnson knows better than anyone that it’s not over. He had a six-shot lead in Shanghai three years ago and failed to win, though he had a new set of irons and was coming off a five-week break. He also had a five-shot lead at The Northern Trust two weeks ago and obliterated the course and the field to win by 11.
“If he hits the ball like everybody knows he can and the way he’s putting … I haven’t seen him putt that well in a long time,” Harris English said. “It’s hard to stop.”
Only four players have a reasonable chance of catching him.
Schauffele, a big-game player who won the Tour Championship three years ago, dropped only one shot on the front nine and finished with a 10-foot birdie putt for a 67 that put him in the final group with Johnson.
Thomas missed a 16-inch par putt on the 10th hole that he carelessly went to tap in, bounced back with a 25-foot birdie putt on the toughest par 3 at East Lake and made two more birdies coming for a 66.
They were at 14 under.
“DJ is clearly playing well. It wasn’t easy today,” Thomas said. “It’s still East Lake. But anything can happen around this course. You can shoot 63 or 64 and you can shoot 73 or 74 very easily. I just need to hope that tomorrow is my 63 or 64.”
Rahm has had a wild week. He opened with a 65, followed with a 74 and bounced back with a 66. He played bogey-free and his round only felt better when he finished with two birdies.
“The one good thing I have going for me is we’re here to win, so tomorrow is a green light for everything,” Rahm said.
Morikawa rallied with five birdies on the back nine to salvage a rough start for a 67. He was seven behind.
Daniel Berger also had a 64, but he made up no ground on Johnson was remained nine behind. Also at 10-under was Sungjae Im, who played in the final group with Johnson and must have wondered what hit him. Im shot 72.
The FedEx Cup has been on Johnson’s mind ever since he squandered a great chance to win it in 2016.
He went into the final round that year tied for the lead and then couldn’t find a fairway, closing with a 73. He still had a chance to win the FedEx Cup when it was based on points. Only one player could have beaten him that day and it was Rory McIlroy, who holed a shot from the fairway on the 16th for eagle and then won in a three-way playoff.
Johnson moves on from wins and losses, no matter how high or how crushing. Even so, he thinks about that day, mainly because the FedEx Cup is filled with big names and his isn’t among them yet.
“To be the FedEx Cup champion is something that I want to do. It’s something that I want on my resume when I quit playing golf,” he said. “Yeah, it means a lot to me. So yes, I do want to win this tournament. … I had a chance to win it a few years ago. I couldn’t control winning by my golf. Tomorrow, I do.”
Canadian Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., fired a 66 to jump into a tie for 20th.
52-footer? No problem for @MacHughesGolf ?
That’s the longest putt made this week pic.twitter.com/tv85aLtZbX
— Golf Canada (@GolfCanada) September 7, 2020
McIlroy won’t be in the mix this year. He was walking off the 17th tee and looked back at Johnson heading to the 14th, a 512-yard par 4 and the toughest at East Lake. Johnson already was 10 shots ahead of him, and then smashed a drive down the fairway and made a 15-foot birdie putt.
McIlroy birdied the 17th to salvage a 70. He was 11 shots back.
Johnson turns rough day into 1 shot lead at East Lake
ATLANTA – The final hole at East Lake brought two strange sights Saturday at the Tour Championship.
First, Rory McIlroy hit a shot that toppled out of thick rough right into the water in front of him, a distance laser cameras estimated at 85 feet, 8 inches, not accounting for how far it sank to the bottom.
Then, Dustin Johnson reached his drive and could see the entire golf ball in the grass. It was in the first cut, sure, but a relief considering he didn’t hit a fairway over the final three hours.
It was a rare green light for Johnson, and he hit 5-iron to 30 feet for a two-putt birdie and an even-par 70, allowing to escape with a one-shot lead over Sungjae Im at the halfway point of the chase for the FedEx Cup and the $15 million prize.
Johnson headed straight to the range to try to figure out why he hit only two fairways, though he was satisfied to have so few chances and still stay in front.
“Two different golf courses if you’re playing from the fairway or playing from the rough,” Johnson said. “Playing from the fairway you can attack the course, you can shoot a good score. Playing from where I did, it’s not so much fun. But I managed my game pretty well, and pleased with the score that I shot, especially the way I drove the ball.”
McIlroy also shrugged off his shot, in which he tried to do too much with a gnarly lie, not so much to get over the water but a bunker on the right side. It cost him a bogey for a 71 that left him five behind, though he could see a bigger picture.
“It doesn’t look like I’m going to lose any ground today anyway, which is some sort of consolation,” he said.
That might have been the best take after a second round filled with birdies and blunders. The next 36 holes are all about opportunity for the nine player separated by just five shots.
As well as Johnson has been playing – two runner-up finishes and an 11-shot victory in his last three starts – there was a chance he could have taken his two-shot lead at the start of the tournament and run away with it.
Johnson, with rounds of 67-70 along with starting at 10 under as the No. 1 seed in the FedEx Cup, was at 13 under.
Im, the budding star from South Korea whose game had gone lukewarm coming out of the three-month shutdown, birdied three of his last four holes for a 64 and will be in the final group with Johnson.
Xander Schauffele, who won the Tour Championship as a rookie in 2017, ran off three straight birdies late in his round for a 65 and was two shots behind. Another big move came from PGA champion Collin Morikawa, whose 66 put him four shots out of the lead.
Johnson hit the fairway on the first and fifth holes – both pars. He still managed a birdie on No. 8 when he drove into a bunker, came up short of the green and chipped in from 40 feet, both the par 5s and on No. 3, where he made a 40-footer.
“I feel like I got my two bad rounds out of the way and I got two good ones coming, where the other guys, they’ve shot some good scores,” Johnson said. “My game feels good. I’ve still got a lot of confidence in everything I’m doing. Just I’ve got to hit it in the fairway. That’s pretty simple.”
He wasn’t alone in his struggles.
Justin Thomas pulled within one shot until he couldn’t convert birdie chances and then drove so far left on the 18th that he had to pitch out sideways, leading to bogey and a 71.
Jon Rahm again was keeping stride with Johnson until he found the water off the tee at the par-3 15th and made double bogey, followed by a wild drive that led to bogey on the 16th. He shot a 74, nine shots worse than his opening round. That left him four shots behind at 9 under.
That’s what was so maddening for Thomas, who felt like he was hitting it well enough from tee to green. He ranks last in the 30-man field in putting, which would not surprise him.
“I should have never shot over par today with how well I played,” he said. “I just made absolutely nothing.”
That much was evident when his 6-foot par putt swirled in and out of the cup, and Thomas gave it a sarcastic thumbs-up.
Rahm was frustrated as ever, mainly because he couldn’t capitalize when he was in the fairway and felt it was another round at East Lake that would cost him. Now, however, he’s still only four shots behind with 36 holes remaining and $15 million still very much up for grabs.
“The closest I came from the fifth hole on to make a birdie was that bunker shot on 18,” he said of his third shot from behind the green. “That’s the best look I had all day. It’s just one of those days. But like you said, the mentality is right now we’ve played two days of the tournament. I’m four back going into the weekend. Anything can happen.”
Rahm has 65 to catch up to Johnson at Tour Championship
ATLANTA – Five days later, Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm are still going at it. They dressed about the same Friday in the Tour Championship, matched birdies on five holes and wound up tied for the lead at East Lake.
That required Rahm getting the better of Johnson again.
Rahm, whose 65-foot birdie putt beat Johnson in a playoff at Olympia Fields last week, had a 5-under 65 that allowed him to make up the two-shot deficit at the start of the round that was awarded Johnson as the No. 1 seed in the FedEx Cup.
Johnson did his part with a 67, losing a three-shot edge early with back-to-back bogeys to end the front nine, and then missing a birdie putt from just over 4 feet on the final hole that would have given him the lead.
“The only birdie we didn’t share was mine on 16. Besides that, we birdied every single hole together, which is kind of unique, right?” Rahm said.
They were at 13-under par based on their starting positions in the FedEx Cup finale.
It was the second straight year under this format the FedEx Cup leader, who starts at 10 under with a two-shot lead, ended the opening round in a tie for the lead.
“Technically, it is a continuation,” Rahm said. “I kind of stole that tournament last week from him and he started with a two-shot lead. So hopefully, I can steal this one, as well.”
Justin Thomas was in the top spot a year ago and opened with a 70. He said later it felt awkward to start the tournament with a two-shot lead before hitting a shot. This year, he began at 7 under and shot a 66 to end the day two shots behind.
“I learned I would have rather been at 10 under than 7,” he said. “That being said, I feel like I’m in a good frame of mind. I’m in a good place mentally right now where I would like to feel like I would handle the golf course the same no matter what I was at. But I did a good job of just staying in my game today.”
The biggest move belonged to the player who might have had the least expectations. Rory McIlroy left Chicago on Sunday and spent three days with his newborn daughter, Poppy, only arriving in Atlanta on Thursday.
He finished with three straight birdies, getting up-and-down from a bunker short of the green on the par-5 18th, for a 64. He started seven shots behind and finished the opening round only four back.
“Even though I’ve had success here, I was coming in with no expectations. I didn’t touch a club for four days in between tournaments,” McIlroy said. “I come in here and golf was sort of the furthest thing from my mind. And sometimes that’s a good thing just to decompress and get away from it. Yeah, happy to have the start that I did.”
Abraham Ancer also had a 64 and cut three shots off his deficit, getting within six shots of Johnson and Rahm.
Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., the only Canadian in the tournament, shot an even-par 70 to finish the round tied for 26th with Billy Horschel and Joaquin Niemann.
A a muggy afternoon with moderate wind that allowed for 17 players in the 30-man field to break par. The average score was 68.7. Johnson and Rahm spent most of the day playing out of the rough, which makes it harder to get it close.
“The key out here is driving,” Johnson said. “If you can drive it in the fairway, you can shoot a good score. The greens are so good, and the only way to control the golf ball coming into the greens is hitting out of the fairway. That’s the only thing I need to do a little better tomorrow.”
Johnson, Rahm and Thomas hold the key to so many hopes in the chase for the FedEx Cup and its $15 million prize. If they play well, it makes it difficult for anyone to make up too much ground on the players who happened to be the top three players in the world ranking.
Johnson and Rahm had golf buzzing last week with that wild finish at the BMW Championship, where Johnson holed a bending 45-foot birdie putt down the slope on the final hole to force a playoff, and Rahm followed by making a 65-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole that turned out to be the winner.
Both wore navy trousers, a light blue shirt and a white cap. From a distance, it could be hard to tell them apart, especially with the birdies. Rahm holed one from 20 feet on the par-3 second hole, and Johnson matched him from 6 feet. Both got up-and-down for birdie on the par-5 sixth.
On the back nine, they matched birdies on the 12th, 13th and 15th holes – Rahm was outside him all three times.
“I feel like I was doing most of the pushing because I made pretty much every single birdie putt before he did,” Rahm said. “Props to him to be making them on top of me.”
The Spaniard finally caught him an 18-foot birdie putt on the 16th – Rahm’s fourth birdie in five holes – and both squandered birdie chances on the closing hole.
Rory McIlroy and wife announce birth of their daughter
ATLANTA – Rory McIlroy is the last of 30 players to arrive at the Tour Championship and couldn’t be more thrilled.
His wife gave birth to their first child.
McIlroy announced on social media that his daughter, Poppy Kennedy McIlroy, was born Monday in Florida.
“She is the absolute love of our lives,” McIlroy said.
McIlroy had told only close friends that his wife, Erica, was expecting. It was mentioned on Golf Channel last week at the BMW Championship and he confirmed she was due at any time. McIlroy said he would be willing to miss the Tour Championship and a shot at winning the FedEx Cup.
Poppy Kennedy McIlroy, born August 31st, 12:15pm. She is the absolute love of our lives. Mother and baby are doing great. Massive thank you to all the staff at Jupiter Medical Center and Dr Sasha Melendy for their amazing care ❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/IwFeGf8rod
— Rory McIlroy (@McIlroyRory) September 3, 2020
That won’t be the case now.
McIlroy, trying to become the first three-time FedEx Cup champion, starts the Tour Championship as the No. 11 seed, meaning he is seven shots behind Dustin Johnson.
Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes makes Tour Championship debut on Friday
Mackenzie Hughes pumped his fist when he drained a five-foot putt on the 18th green on Sunday at the BMW Championship to move into the top 30 of the FedEx Cup rankings. After retrieving the ball from the hole he threw his hands into the air as much out of relief as excitement for the future.
Making par on No. 18 at Olympia Fields Country Club meant that Hughes, from Dundas, Ont., tied for 10th at the tournament to move eight spots up in the rankings and qualify for the exclusive Tour Championship, which tees off on Friday.
The Tour Championship, held at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, sees the top 30 players on the PGA Tour play four rounds of golf. Top-ranked Dustin Johnson starts at 10 under, No. 2 Jon Rahm begins at 9 under, and so on, with Hughes in a five-way tie for 26th at even par.
CLUTCH ? pic.twitter.com/ymUALeZh8p
— Golf Canada (@GolfCanada) August 30, 2020
“I know I’ll start with long odds, but that’s why you play. There’s no guarantees,” said Hughes. “I’m excited to be there and to have the opportunity and I’ll go and try to make the most of it.”
Finishing the PGA season in the top 30 has other perks for Hughes, including making three of golf’s four majors, as well as the Players Championship and the Tournament of Champions.
Hughes said he’s excited for what the 2021 season holds, but returning to storied Augusta National Golf Club has long been a target after missing the cut in 2017, his lone appearance at the event.
“Going to the Masters again has been on my radar ever since I went my rookie year. I was just really disappointed with how it went the first time around,” said Hughes on Monday. “I just wanted to have another chance at it someday.
“You don’t get tons of cracks at it. The Masters is one that’s really tough to qualify for, you’ve either got to win, be top 50 in the world, or make the Tour Championship. I’m just super excited to be a part of it.”
Hughes had a difficult start to the 2020 season, missing nine of 11 cuts until the Honda Classic where he finished second on March 1.
He credits caddy Jace Walker and coach Ralph Bauer – who he started working with this summer – in helping him turn his season around. In particular, Hughes thinks mental toughness and creating a positive vibe with Walker when they’re on the course has made the difference.
“I’m a pretty gritty and determined player,” said Hughes. “If I keep my head on straight and think clear in tough moments I think that’s a big asset of mine. That’s been a huge strength in the last year.”
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On the big stage ? Mac kicks things off Friday at 12:10 pm, starting at even par.
That fortitude was put to the test on Sunday when Hughes was on the 18th fairway and a spot in the Tour Championship was on the line. After hitting a drive to the fairway, Hughes’s approach shot landed in a greenside bunker.
“My thought was ‘what the heck are you doing, man?’ I was not super pleased with myself there,” said Hughes. “Obviously, made a bad swing at the wrong time after hitting a great drive too.”
Hughes and Walker spoke as they walked to the bunker, clearing the golfer’s head and leaving the bad shot behind on the fairway.
“I just told myself I had to make an up-and-down out of the bunker and I do that all the time,” said Hughes, who did make the clean out to set up the five-foot putt.
After the BMW Championship Hughes flew home to Charlotte, N.C., to sleep in his own bed and take advantage of the Tour Championship’s Friday start. He’s pleased that his support system will be even broader at the season’s finale as his wife Jenna, their son, and her parents will be able to come to the Tour Championship after the PGA loosened its COVID-19 protocols for the tournament.
“I think with anything you do in life that’s good it’s more fun to do with the people that you love and be able to share with people,” said Hughes. “It’s going to be great to have them all there with me.”
PGA TOUR announces full schedule for 2020-21 season
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida – The PGA TOUR today announced the complete schedule for the 2020-21 PGA TOUR Season, featuring 50 official FedExCup tournaments – including 14 tournaments that were postponed or canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic – culminating with the crowning of the FedExCup champion Labor Day weekend in 2021.
The schedule, which reflects a net increase of one tournament over the original 2019-20 schedule, features the most tournaments in a season since 1975 (51). Three events postponed in 2020 – U.S. Open, Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship and Masters Tournament – will be played in the fall portion of the 2020-21 season and again in their traditional dates during the 2021 calendar year, along with 11 tournaments that were canceled and not rescheduled as a result of the pandemic, including THE PLAYERS Championship. In addition, with the postponement of the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020, the men’s Olympic Golf competition will take place July 26-August 1, 2021, as a standalone event for the first time.
“We are excited to present the full 2020-21 PGA TOUR schedule – a ‘super season’ of 50 fully sponsored events and capped off by the 15th edition of the FedExCup Playoffs,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “If you’re a golf fan, this is a dream season with more significant events than ever before, including the Olympic Games. Building our schedule is always complicated, but never more so as over the past several months as we continue to navigate challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. We appreciate the extensive collaboration with our title sponsors, tournament organizations and golf’s governing bodies that has brought us here – to the exciting conclusion of an extraordinary 2019-20 season this week, and on the brink of a season of 50 events, beginning next week.”
As previously announced, the 2020-21 season will begin September 7-13 at the Safeway Open in Napa, California, which will serve as the season-opening tournament for the sixth time in seven years since the TOUR went to a wraparound schedule. The U.S. Open (September 14-20) at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York, follows, being played in the month of September for the first time since 1913, as well as the rescheduled Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship (September 21-27), which will award full FedExCup points (500) for the first time.
The Sanderson Farms Championship (September 28-October 4) will precede a three-event swing on the West Coast with the relocation of two of the TOUR’s Asia Swing events. Following the TOUR’s annual stop in Las Vegas for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (October 5-11), THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES, annually played in Jeju Island, Korea, will be played at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas, and will be renamed THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK (October 12-18) for 2020. The following week, Japan’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP will be played at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, and renamed the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD (October 19-25) for 2020.
The final event of the traditional Asia Swing and the season’s first World Golf Championships event, the WGC-HSBC Champions has been canceled, with the Bermuda Championship (October 26-November 1) occupying the week on its own and awarding full FedExCup points.
The Houston Open moves a month later on the 2020-21 schedule (November 2-8) and precedes the Masters (November 9-15). The fall portion of the schedule concludes with The RSM Classic (November 16-22), the week prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, and the Mayakoba Golf Classic (November 30-December 6) the week after.
The TOUR returns at the Sentry Tournament of Champions (January 4-10) with the same sequencing as the 2019-20 season until March, as there have been adjustments made to a number of Florida-based tournaments. The Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard (March 1-7) and THE PLAYERS Championship (March 8-14) will follow the WGC-Mexico Championship and Puerto Rico Open (both February 22-28), while The Honda Classic (March 15-21) moves to the week after THE PLAYERS. The Valspar Championship (April 26-May 2), traditionally played the week after THE PLAYERS, will now conclude on May 2, between the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (April 19-25) and the Wells Fargo Championship (May 3-9).
After the 40th playing of The Honda Classic, the TOUR’s longest-running title sponsored event dating back to 1982 – an eight-week stretch begins that includes six tournaments that were canceled and not rescheduled during the 2019-20 season prior to the PGA Championship, beginning with the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play (March 22-28) through the AT&T Byron Nelson (May 10-16), set to be contested for the first time at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas.
Additional tournaments that return to the schedule include the RBC Canadian Open (June 7-13), John Deere Classic (July 5-11), The Open Championship and the Barbasol Championship (both July 12-18).
The men’s Olympic Golf competition (July 26-August 1) will be played the week after the 3M Open (July 19-25) as a standalone event for the first time and will be followed by the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and Barracuda Championship (both August 2-8), before the FedExCup Regular Season concludes at the Wyndham Championship (August 9-15).
The FedExCup Playoffs will consist of three events: THE NORTHERN TRUST returns to Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey, which will host the event for the fourth time; the BMW Championship will be played for the first time at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland, outside of Baltimore; and the season-ending TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta will conclude on September 5, the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.
In addition to Caves Valley Golf Club, host of the 2021 BMW Championship, the 2020-21 season features several new or familiar venues. As previously announced, Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas and Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, will host tournaments for one year only. For the first time, the Houston Open will be played at Memorial Park Golf Course in downtown Houston; TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, will host the AT&T Byron Nelson for the first time; and St. George’s Golf and Country Club in Toronto, Canada, will return as host of the RBC Canadian Open for the first time since 2010.
Rotating major championship venues in 2021 include The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort at Kiawah Island, South Carolina (PGA Championship), Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, California (U.S. Open), and Royal St. George’s Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent, England (Open Championship). Kasumigaseki Country Club in Japan will host the men’s Olympic Golf competition.
Mackenzie Hughes sinks clutch putt to advance to TOUR Championship
OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. – With so few people around, Jon Rahm still got word from the other side of the Olympia Fields clubhouse that Dustin Johnson had made a 45-foot birdie on the final hole to force a playoff Sunday in the BMW Championship.
Resilient as ever, Rahm went out and made some magic of his own.
From one end of the 18th green to the other, Rahm’s putt from just over 65 feet rolled down the ridge and into the cup, setting off a roar so loud it nearly made up for not having spectators.
Johnson could only laugh at his birdie putt, eliciting a rare show of emotion – a slow, sweeping upper cut. And he had the same reaction to what Rahm did. What else is there to do?
The course that all week felt like a U.S. Open delivered the kind of excitement typical of the Masters.
Rahm’s big birdie putt on the first extra hole spared him thoughts of his blunder in the third round, when he picked up his ball on the fifth green without marking it, leading to a one-shot penalty and his only bogey of the weekend.
He tore through the back nine Sunday on his way to a 6-under 64, the lowest round of the week, to finish at 4-under 276.
Johnson, a 54-hole leader for his third straight tournament and coming off an 11-shot victory last week at the TPC Boston, birdied three of his opening four holes to open a three-shot lead, dropped a pair of shots around the turn and then delivered in the clutch with his 45-foot birdie putt on the last hole for a 67.
It was only good enough to stay at No. 1 by a slim margin.
He also stays at No. 1 in the FedEx Cup going to the Tour Championship, meaning he will start the chase for the $15 million bonus at 10-under par, two ahead of Rahm, the No. 2 seed.
Rahm won for the second time this year on the PGA Tour, and the 11th time in his career worldwide.
Mackenzie Hughes had reason to celebrate, too. He was on the verge of playing his way into the top 30 who advance to East Lake when he took a sloppy bogey on the 17th. Needing a par on the 18th, he put his approach into the front bunker, splashed out to 5 feet and raised both arms when it dropped.
CLUTCH ? pic.twitter.com/ymUALeZh8p
— Golf Canada (@GolfCanada) August 30, 2020
“Yeah, that was some of the most pressure I’ve felt in a long time,” said Hughes.
“You know, I’ve contended to win some tournaments this summer, and that kind of felt like the same kind of intensity on that putt. I really woke up today with a pretty bad neck and really struggled tee to green. Didn’t have my good stuff at all, and somehow found a way to grind it out. I made it pretty hard there down the stretch, but just really thankful and relieved to get it done.”
Niemann also moved into the top 30, though he was chasing victory all day.
The top 30 are assured spots in at least three majors next year, along with the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua to start the year. The winners-only event is taking the top 30 in the FedEx Cup from having lost three months of the season to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tiger Woods missed all the action. He made double bogey on his 17th hole for a 71, making this the first time he was over par in all four rounds of a tournament since the Bridgestone Invitational in 2010. Woods failed to reach the Tour Championship for the second straight year. He now gets two weeks off before the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, and Olympia Fields proved to be a good test for that.
Hughes sits 2 back heading into BMW Championship finale
OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. – Dustin Johnson says his game feels similar to last week when he had the easiest of his 23 career victories.
It just doesn’t look that way at the BMW Championship.
Every par at Olympia Fields is hard work, and Johnson played the final 13 holes Saturday with nothing worse than that. It’s what carried him to a 1-under 69 and a share of the lead with Hideki Matsuyama, leaving them as the only players under par going into the final round.
“I feel like it’s fairly similar, just obviously these conditions and the greens are a lot more difficult,” he said. “This is pretty much a major championship venue, and the conditions, the way it’s set up, it’s playing just like a major.”
Matsuyama, who had a three-shot lead early when he holed a bunker shot for eagle at the start and stuffed a wedge in tight for birdie on No. 4, fell back with a string of bogeys and held it together for a 69.
“Great start and then just had to hang on,” Matsuyama said. “Just tried to do what I could to stay in, and I was happy with how it went.”
Johnson and Maruyama were at 1-under 209. Everyone else was over par going into the final round.
Sunday is one last chance for some players to be among the top 30 who advance to the FedEx Cup finale, and one last round for others – like Tiger Woods – to prepare for the U.S. Open on a course that plays every bit as tough.
Patrick Cantlay only hit five fairways and didn’t make a birdie as he tumbled out of a tie for the lead with a round with a 75 that left him five shots behind and might cost him a spot in the Tour Championship.
Rory McIlroy had to play left-handed to escape the base of a tree in starting the back nine with a bogey, and he finished with a shot he thought was going to be long, came up 70 feet short and led to a three-putt bogey for a 73. He still was only three shots back assuming he plays.
McIlroy said after the round his wife is expecting their first child, news they had shared with family and friends but was revealed during the NBC broadcast. He said his caddie and best friend, Harry Diamond, has kept a phone in his pocket to not miss a call. And if it’s time, he said, “I’m out of here.”
Jon Rahm matched the low round of the day at 66 that could have easily been one shot better if not for a blunder that even he couldn’t believe. He forgot to set a marker down on the green before picking up his golf ball on No. 5, freezing in his tracks when he realized what happened.
“I was thinking of somebody else or something else … and yeah, I just picked up the ball without marking it, simple as that,” Rahm said after a round that left him only three behind. “I can’t really give you an explanation. It’s one of those things that happen in golf. Never thought it would in my professional career, but here we are.”
A week ago at The Northern Trust on a rain-softened course with little wind, Johnson was at 22-under par through three rounds and had a five-shot lead. That felt easy. This does not.
Joaquin Niemann had a 68 and was part of the group at 1-over 211 that included Adam Scott (70) and Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes (69). Another shot back were the likes of Rahm, Bubba Watson, Brendon Todd and Kevin Kisner, who had 15 pars, two birdie and bogey for his round of 70.
Canadian @MacHughesGolf is the first golfer to register two rounds under par this week ? pic.twitter.com/8rzR80hi5O
— Golf Canada (@GolfCanada) August 30, 2020
Hughes is in search of his third top-10 in the Return of Golf (Travelers Championship/T3, the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide/T6); owns one victory (2016 The RSM Classic) in 108 TOUR starts. He is projected to advance by finishing inside the top 30.
“You know, this golf course is actually a pretty good distraction because it’s so hard that you have to just focus on every shot so much that it’s easy to just kind of get in your own world out there and just the task at hand, the task at hand. So that’s been kind of nice,” said Hughes.
“Obviously in between shots your mind wanders sometimes, but this is kind of where you want to be. Obviously I would have loved to have locked it up by now, but I’m happy to have this opportunity and I’ll go embrace it tomorrow.”
Rounds like that go a long way at Olympia Fields, the former U.S. Open course playing like one with its thick rough and rock-hard greens and enough wind to make the fairways look tighter than they are.
“I’ve played good and bad this week, and I’ve had basically the same score every day,” Scott said, whose superb bunker play kept him close. “I saw today, though, that if I hit it well, there’s a chance to make a few putts. One of this leading group will shoot 4 under tomorrow, 4 or 5 under I’m sure.”
Woods, meanwhile, had a reasonable start to his round and wasn’t losing much ground until he lost a tee shot into the water right of the 17th fairway and then smothered a fairway metal to the left. He walked across a cart path smacking the club off the concrete and twice looked like he wanted to break it. He missed a short putt for triple bogey and shot 72.
Woods has yet to break par this week. One more round like that and it will be the first time in 10 years – the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone – that he had all four rounds over par. He needed something around fourth to advance to the Tour Championship for the first time since 2018.
Matsuyama is trying to end three years without a victory. Johnson is trying to win for the second time in seven days, along with positioning himself to be the top seed at the Tour Championship, which would allow him to start the tournament with a two-shot lead under the staggered start.
For players like Niemann, Hughes of Dundas, Ont., and Scott, they are simply trying to get to East Lake in Atlanta. All of them are one round away on a golf course where small mistakes can lead to bogeys or worse on just about every hole.
Corey Conners (70) of Listowel, Ont., was tied for 21st, Adam Hadwin (73) of Abbotsford, B.C., was tied for 47th and Nick Taylor (73), also of Abbotsford, was tied for 55th.
Conners recorded an ace on the par-3 6th hole on Saturday.
? Ace by @coreconn ? pic.twitter.com/LS1rA7ubsR
— Golf Canada (@GolfCanada) August 29, 2020