2015 PGA Champion Jason Day and journeyman pro Brendan Todd each fired 5-under 65s in round one of the 2020 PGA Championship at Harding Park for a one shot lead over a gaggle on nine players that includes two-time defending PGA Champion Brooks Koepka, as well as former major champions Martin Kaymer, Zach Johnson and Justin Rose. Tiger Woods stands three back at 2...
My golf buddy Ector and his wife Marta are in NoCal this week and brought their golf clubs with them from L.A. I played Casa de Campo with Ector, and had a blast. He’s one of those guys that you don’t care what he shoots, because he’s so much fun to play with, (even though he shoots 120). It also helped watching his eyes widen with wonder as I...
Back in 1974 while covering Super Bowl VIII, writer Hunter S. Thompson discovered that all he had to do to make deadline was to take the Super Bowl article he wrote the previous year, change the name of the losing team from “Washington Redskins” to “Minnesota Vikings,” and fax it in to Rolling Stone. The Miami Dolphins slowly strangled both...
California golf conjures up fond reveries of golden sunshine, rhythmic waves lapping peacefully at rocky shorelines, and flagsticks snapping briskly in the breeze, silhouetted nobly against the blazing sunset… …just not at TPC Harding Park. Let’s see: Olympic Club, Meadow Club, California Golf Club of San Francisco, San Francisco Golf Club, Pebble...
DATELINE: A SECRET UNDERGROUND BUNKER, SOMEWHERE IN U.S.A. So a PGA Championship in August means this is Glory’s Last Shot, right? Not exactly. This season the PGA Championship is actually Glory’s First Shot. The Coronovirus kayoed world professional sports since March, leaving stadiums empty, athletes playing to pre-recorded crowd noise, and many events...
To the horror of golf architecture aficionados, and in a nod to goodie bags and swag, the PGA of America awarded the 2025 Championship to North Carolina’s Quail Hollow Club, home to a yearly PGA Tour event and host of the 2017 PGA, won by Justin Thomas. Quail Hollow isn’t even the 10th best course in North Carolina. We wrote about that back in 2017 in...
Through coordinated announcements, the R&A, PGA of America, and USGA have released the dates for the golf major championships impacted by the Coronavirus. August 6-12 – PGA Championship, Harding Park, San Francisco September 17-20 – U.S. Open, Winged Foot, Mamaroneck, NY September 25-27 – Ryder Cup, Whistling Straits, Kohler, WI November 12-15...
It’s been a great few weeks for Golden Age golf architecture on the PGA Tour. With all the world enjoying Pebble Beach, Riviera and the other crown jewels that the West Coast has to offer, it’s a good time to take a closer look at some of the best tournament venues we’ll see this year from not only the PGA Tour, but from the USGA and PGA of America...
PEBBLE BEACH, CA – With all the pomp and circumstance of the U.S. Open’s long and storied history at Pebble Beach, as well as the course’s glorious 100th anniversary, it’s easy to forget that the PGA Championship also was contested by the shores of Carmel Bay, and that it gave us as zany, wild, and dramatic a major as it has at many of its U.S...
BETHPAGE, NY – Cinderella got her name because she was always dirty with ashes from cleaning the fireplace. She sure ended up on top though didn’t she? The dirty, messy, unrefined step-sister became the Belle of the Ball. That’s exactly what’s happened to Bethpage Black Golf Course. Bethpage could very well be the little step-sister in A.W...
A journalist asked PGA Championship leader Brooks Koepka a laconic question last night and got a laconic answer. “Is there any doubt whatsoever in your mind that you’re going to win tomorrow?” “No.” It wasn’t a smart question, but boy did Brooks screw up the answer. We already know the outcome of tomorrow’s golf: Koepka is...
BETHPAGE, NY – From the home office in lovely Melville, NY, the pearl of the civilized world, it’s… Top 10 Things to do while waiting for this boring nightmare to be over 10. Sit in Long Island Expressway traffic getting to the course 9. Learn how to spell “Janewattananond” 8. Learn to pronounce “Janewattananond.” (HINT:...
[Golf writer to Your Author: “Why are you writing about a mountain? Your Author: “Because it’s there.”] BETHPAGE, NY – The putt that won Tiger Woods his fifth Green Jacket hadn’t even tumbled into the cup before golf media were almost uniformly waxing poetic about “the greatest comeback in sports history!” Let’s...
BETHPAGE, NY – Like a dragon incinerating Daenarys Targaryen’s enemies, a fire-breathing Brooks Koepka scorched Bethpage Black in round one of the PGA Championship with a 7-under 63 and a one shot lead over New Zealand’s Danny Lee. England’s Tommy Fleetwood is in third place, four shots back at 3-under. The rest of the field needs binoculars...
BETHPAGE, NY – Much has been made of Bethpage’s brute length, elevated greens, and deep, dangerous, whimsically shaped Rees Jones inkblot bunkering. Most players are convinced this PGA Championship will feel much like a U.S. Open in terms of difficulty, partly because the Black Course hosted the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens before becoming a PGA of America...