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Scott Harrington is the 40-year-old virgin at the Players

Scott Harrington is the 40-year-old virgin at the Players

Golfsolutions March 10, 2021
Scott Harrington is the 40-year-old virgin at the Players https://ift.tt/3cbZnP0

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Matthew Wolff, Joaquin Niemann and Collin Morikawa are all examples of the PGA Tour’s youth movement. Wolff and Niemann won before they were eligible to celebrate legally with an alcoholic beverage while Morikawa won the PGA Championship at age 23. At the opposite end of the spectrum is Scott Harrington, the Players Championship 40-year-old virgin.

“I definitely didn’t think it would take until now to be here,” he said.

Harrington is set to make his debut at the PGA Tour’s signature event this week. But he isn’t even the oldest first-timer here this week. That dubious distinction belongs to Australian Cameron Percy, 46.

“When you write down your goals when you’re younger than this, you think, yeah, I’ll be there, but it took a long time,” Percy said. “Everyone has been coming up congratulating me. It’s pretty cool. It’s like, ‘Is this really your first time?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ They’re like, ‘Wow.’”

Wow, indeed. Both Percy and Harrington are stories in perseverance. Harrington didn’t make it to the PGA Tour until earning his card by finishing No. 19 on the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour money list after grinding for 16 years on minor-league circuits. That’s after putting his career on hold in 2018 to care for his wife, Jenn, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma six months after they got married and now is in remission.

He made his professional debut in 2004, but concedes that it wasn’t until his late 20s, early 30s that he thought he was good enough to do well on the Korn Ferry Tour. The low point? In 2008, he had conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour and made only three cuts in 16 starts and earned $5,776. Meanwhile, his former college teammate at Northwestern, Luke Donald, was an established star and on his way to becoming World No. 1 in 2011.

“There were times where I was thinking I’m in my prime and I should be on the PGA Tour and I’m barely cutting it on the Korn Ferry Tour,” Harrington said.

But he never gave himself a time limit to make it. Every year he could see “micro progressions.”

“I never had a year where I lost my card and financially I was able to sustain. The difference between 50th and getting your card is so small,” he explained. “You just have to turn a fifth into a second and a 10th into a sixth. It didn’t always look like I was getting better but I always felt like I was.”

Earning his PGA Tour card in his hometown of Portland at last was an emotional experience. When asked if he felt a bit like a seventh-year senior in college finally graduating, he smiled and said, “I’m Van Wilder,” referencing the National Lampoon’s movie starring Ryan Reynolds.

In his rookie season last year, Harrington was runner up at the Houston Open, finished No. 98 in the FedEx Cup standings and earned just under $1 million. This season his best result is a tie for 14th at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, where he held a share of the first-round lead. On Wednesday, he received Tiffany cufflinks commemorating his first appearance at the Players from PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.

“On paper it may look like I’m a 40-year-old first-time Players participant but I think my best stuff is still to come,” Harrington said.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3rBFFTo
The Players Championship: Head-to-head picks and 3-ball matchup predictions

The Players Championship: Head-to-head picks and 3-ball matchup predictions

Golfsolutions March 10, 2021
The Players Championship: Head-to-head picks and 3-ball matchup predictions https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Looking to bet on the Players Championship? SportsbookWire has you covered with an abundance of golf betting coverage for the tournament. Below, we look at the 2021 Players Championship odds and make our PGA Tour picks and predictions for the top head-to-head and 3-ball tournament matchups.

A field of 154 is at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, as Rory McIlroy attempts to defend his 2019 title. Last year’s event was canceled following the end of Round 1 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Players Championship annually hosts one of the strongest fields on the PGA Tour schedule as golf’s best compete for a share of the $15 million prize purse.

Odds provided by BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Wednesday at 10:21 a.m. ET.

Round 1 3-ball matchups

Louis Oosthuizen vs. Lee Westwood (+175) vs. Robert MacIntyre

The soon-to-be 48-year-old Westwood is coming off a runner-up finish to Bryson DeChambeau last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in which he led the field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and was third in SG: Approach. Those traits are highly important at TPC Sawgrass.

Oosthuizen can be faded as the favorite in this 3-ball matchup following last Thursday morning’s withdrawal.

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Bryson DeChambeau vs. Collin Morikawa vs. Dustin Johnson (+150)

We’re getting plus-money here for the No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking and second-ranked golfer in the Golfweek/Sagarin world rankings. It’s a good way to help maximize value on Johnson, who’s just +1200 to win this week as the tournament betting favorite.

DeChambeau’s distance won’t translate as well to the shorter TPC Sawgrass following his victory at Bay Hill.

72-hole head-to-head matchups

Daniel Berger (-115) vs. Hideki Matsuyama

Matsuyama held the 18-hole lead at the 2020 Players Championship when play was called. Berger won the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for his second victory in the last two years.

Back Berger and his superior form in 2021, even though Matsuyama is more experienced and has a more impressive resume at this venue. Matsuyama is losing 0.22 strokes per round putting through 43 measured rounds on the 2020-21 season.

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Jordan Spieth vs. Tommy Fleetwood (-115)

Spieth is always the popular play and has been quickly climbing back up the OWGR with three top-10 finishes in five events this year. He tied for fourth last week, but it was greatly helped out by a Saturday ace and hole out from a bunker.

Fleetwood maintains the higher seed in the OWGR and is coming off a T-10 finish last week. He has also gained an average of 1.78 strokes per round on the field at TPC Sawgrass while Spieth has averaged just 0.64 strokes gained per round here.

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Patrick Reed vs. Tyrrell Hatton (-110)

Both Reed and Hatton have victories in 2021, with Reed’s coming at the Farmers Insurance Open and Hatton’s at the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship` Reed missed the cut last week while Hatton tied for 21st.

Hatton struggled with the putter while shooting opening and closing rounds of 5-over par 77, but he had the second-best round of the day Friday and fired Saturday’s fourth-best round.

Get some action on the 2021 Players Championship by signing up and betting at BetMGM. If you’re looking for more sports betting picks and tips, access all of our content at SportsbookWire.com. Please gamble responsibly.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage. This information is for entertainment purposes only. We make no representations or warranties as to the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any content.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/2OhyRM4
Remembering The Munchkins, the founding members of TPC Sawgrass

Remembering The Munchkins, the founding members of TPC Sawgrass

Golfsolutions March 10, 2021
Remembering The Munchkins, the founding members of TPC Sawgrass https://ift.tt/38qSYyv

(Editor’s Note: This story originally ran in the May 14, 2010 issue of Golfweek.)

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Jim Colbert heard about the game and wanted in.

It was the early 1980s at TPC Sawgrass when he approached the man who coined the name for “The Munchkins” and asked if he could join them the next day.

“What’s your handicap?” John Tucker said.

When Colbert said plus-4, Tucker whipped a $50 bill from his roll and handed it to Colbert.

“What’s this for?” he wondered.

“Just to make sure you show,” Tucker said, grinning.

Local touring pros from Jim Furyk to Blaine McCallister to Mark Carnevale can attest that Tucker wasn’t kidding when he said, “If you played us with a plus handicap, we owned you.”

Ground Breaking of TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The course opened in October, 1980. (Photo courtesy, PGA Tour)

The stakes were never half the size of the fun when The Munchkins teed off. Thirty years ago this October, TPC Sawgrass celebrated its grand opening. Many golf fans are familiar with the story of how PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman bought 415 acres of densely wooded “swampland” for $1 and Pete Dye transformed it into the home of the Players Championship.

But there might never have been a club if it hadn’t been for 30 founding members, 12 Munchkins among them, who paid $20,000 to join. In return, they got a 40-year membership, no dues, cart or range-ball fees for the first 20 years, which could be transferred to a family member or sold. And get this: their money would be refunded in 2020. To a man, they call it the best deal of their lives. Especially Truett (“rhymes with screw it”) Ewton, 89, the club’s first member, who has played 5,000-plus rounds there.

Yet hardly anyone was clamoring to join when TPC was a swamp.

It took a leap of faith.

“What they bought into was a dream,” said Bob Dickson, the former Tour pro who later sold the original TPC memberships.

Which is why all these years later, enter the clubhouse, turn left and outside the players’ locker room is a plaque listing the founding members. It’s one of the many ways the Tour and the club acknowledge the debt owed to the founders, and treasure the friendly game several of them still play there.

This plaque hangs in the clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass to honor its original founding members. (Tracy Wilcox/Golfweek)

When Beman proposed the TPC project to the Tour’s board in 1977, they humored his quixotic quest. In those days, the Tour operated on a shoestring budget. Build it, they told him, but don’t risk Tour assets or capital. Against that backdrop, Beman proceeded, with help from Dickson, who began selling a limited, private offering of TPC memberships in 1979. Dickson took prospective founding members to the property in rubber waders and stood knee-deep in mud. All told, the Tour raised $1 million from community leaders.

“I couldn’t wait to give the Tour my money,” Ewton said.

The founding members provided the seed capital that allowed the Tour to obtain a $3 million, 30-year non-recourse bank loan to develop the club. Beman spent the money well, building a cathedral for the fans and a home for The Munchkins.

The story of The Munchkins is folklore and pre-dates the club. The original members – a life insurance executive, an electrical contractor, a pioneer in nuclear energy, a newspaper executive, and a traveling salesman among them – have played together for more than 40 years, first at Hidden Hills Country Club, then Sawgrass Country Club and eventually at TPC Sawgrass.

As Tucker tells it, they were playing at Sawgrass CC one day and he moaned on the first tee that he and partner Wes Paxson, both low-single digit handicaps, were tired of giving strokes to their diminutive opponents: Zeke Zechella, Ode Winkler and Ewton. They were short off the tee, too, but could get up-and-down from a telephone booth. Winkler proposed a bet: the trio would play Paxson and Tucker straight up if they moved to the back tees. No strokes? They licked their chops and doubled the bets.

Next thing Tucker knew, the short-knockers were chipping close and winning big.

“Will you look at them?” Tucker said. “They look like a bunch of dad gum Munchkins up there.”

The name stuck.

What began as a weekend morning game became a daily occurrence as members retired. (The Munchkins play only on days ending in “Y,” is how Winkler, who died in 2008, described it.) The earliest tee times each day are reserved for The Munchkins, who meet on the tee and assemble teams by throwing balls into the air. There are so many bets – medal and match, team and individual – that the club prints a special Munchkins scorecard with extra lines to track the wagers. It can take 45 minutes to figure out the damage afterward. While pencils scribble feverishly, someone’s bound to complain that some of the The Munchkins’ handicaps (they have their own system) need adjusting. One time, a guest joined the debate and said: “Hey, guys, it’s only a game.”

Zechella, who died last year, was busy tallying bets but looked up and responded, “Pal, if you want fellowship, go to church. This is war.”

Paxson, 85, served as The Munchkins’ first commissioner, a role he relished. He asked Tucker rhetorically, “Was I appointed by me?” All agree that Paxson ruled with an iron fist. One Christmas, Tucker bought himself a stopwatch and a whistle.

Over the years, the group expanded. Beman and Dickson joined. So did longtime Tour staffers Sid Wilson, Mike Bodney and Duke Butler. In time, some Munchkins moved away. Some quit playing. Some started nearby Pablo Creek Golf Club. Roger Nichols, 72, the current commissioner, e-mails 25 members and invites “the old bums back.” He reserves a 12:30 p.m. Monday tee time on what the group calls the Ode Winkler Memorial Course (aka Dye’s Valley Course) for Paxson. It took a little arm-twisting, but when the TPC Stadium Course re-opened in 2006 after renovations, Ewton hit the ceremonial opening drive.

TPC Sawgrass Dye's Valley

TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley No. 12 (Courtesy of TPC Sawgrass)

But nothing can top this gesture: Nearly 20 years after the founders bought their memberships, commissioner Tim Finchem called the active Munchkins into his office. He thanked them for their contribution and said in appreciation that the next 20 years would be free, too.

Who would’ve believed the best deal of their lives could get even sweeter?

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3l7ogPR
Watch: Jordan Spieth gets incredible speech from young fan during Players practice round

Watch: Jordan Spieth gets incredible speech from young fan during Players practice round

Golfsolutions March 10, 2021
Watch: Jordan Spieth gets incredible speech from young fan during Players practice round https://ift.tt/3lajZLB

There’s a young man who attended a Players Championship practice round on Tuesday who has a future in front of him.

Judging from the 52-second video clip apparently posted by a family member, there’s any number of directions he could go.

The youngster got Jordan Spieth’s attention as he was walking from one hole to another at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

“Hey Jordan,” the youngster called out to Spieth. “I’m doing a report on you for school … want to hear my speech?”

Spieth stopped and said, “sure, buddy.”

The speech, as it turned out, was an oral biography of Spieth, spoken in the first person as if it were Spieth doing the talking.

The young man gave a flawless rundown on Spieth’s life, such as his date of birth and place of birth, when he learned to play golf, becoming one of the youngest golfers to win the Masters and U.S. Open, the fact that Spieth is a big Dallas Cowboys fan and is friends with former quarterback Tony Romo.

Spieth stood there for the entire presentation, obviously impressed. When the young man was done, he got a huge smile from Spieth and applause from onlookers.

Several things to point out:

• The kid might have a career in politics. He gave the speech, without any hesitation or sign of nervousness, without any notes, and also didn’t make it sound robotic. In other words, it flowed.

• The John Deere Classic people will love this, because in addition to citing Spieth’s major championships, the kid worked in Spieth’s inaugural Tour victory at the John Deere.

• He also did enough research on Spieth to know he had a special-needs sister (Ellie) and that Spieth’s foundation works to create opportunities for special-needs people.

• He also knew Spieth’s middle name is Alexander.

As of 11 p.m. on Tuesday, the Twitter post has been viewed more than 400,000 times. Among those re-tweeting was Spieth’s mother Christine, who commented “Oh, my heart.”

One other response: “the next PGA Tour commissioner, 2050.”

How about Spieth’s agent in a decade or so?

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/38td377
A major winner on the bag? Sophia Popov goes to work for boyfriend Max Mehles at Canadian Q-School

A major winner on the bag? Sophia Popov goes to work for boyfriend Max Mehles at Canadian Q-School

Golfsolutions March 10, 2021
A major winner on the bag? Sophia Popov goes to work for boyfriend Max Mehles at Canadian Q-School https://ift.tt/39OXeJA

Sophia Popov and boyfriend Max Mehles have switched roles for the week as the major champion has picked up the bag for Mehles at the PGA Tour Canada Qualifying Tournament.

Mehles opened with a 1-under 71 on Tuesday to take a share of 12th after the first round. The couple met through the German national team and after Mehles graduated from Kentucky last May, COVID-19 put a halt to his professional plans.

He stepped in to caddie for Popov last summer at Royal Troon, and it turned out to be a magical week for the couple as Popov put together the story of the year in golf, winning the AIG Women’s British Open as the 304th-ranked player in the world with no LPGA status.

Mehles stayed on the bag for the remainder of 2020 but now looks to get status of his own this week on the Mackenzie Tour. Keenan Huskey leads the field after an opening 5-under 67.

Popov told Golfweek that she has caddied for Mehles before in smaller one-day events and that she’s not overly involved in his process.

“I help out with reads and club selections here and there,” Popov wrote in a text, “but for the most part just keeping him in good spirits!”

The 72-hole no-cut event takes place on the Tournament at RTJ Golf Trail at Highland Oaks in Dothan, Alabama, and there are 99 players in the field.

The medalist will earn exempt membership for the 2021 season. Those who finish second through sixth will be exempt through the reshuffle, which will occur approximately halfway through the season. Those who finish seventh through 25th (plus ties) earn conditional membership.

Popov actually looped for good friend Anne van Dam last summer when the LPGA season restarted at the Drive On at Inverness. She said her time on the bag helped her with course management going into the next several weeks, where she qualified for the AIG by finishing tied for ninth at the Marathon Classic, then finished in a share of second on the Symetra Tour in the Arizona desert and then won a major.

Perhaps this latest stint on the bag will lead to a similar result. The first major of the season, the ANA Inspiration, is only three weeks away and the popular Popov will make her debut at Dinah’s place.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3byOV57
As Augusta National keeps acquiring land, others won't be penalized — yet

As Augusta National keeps acquiring land, others won't be penalized — yet

Golfsolutions March 10, 2021
As Augusta National keeps acquiring land, others won't be penalized — yet https://ift.tt/3t2JVf4

Homeowners and investors alike catch a break this year with Richmond County so far declining to use sales data to reassess properties around Augusta National Golf Club.

Richmond County Board of Assessors talked about reassessing the properties after new Chief Appraiser Scott Rountree drafted a letter to send to homeowners if their property values were to skyrocket.

“I don’t have a problem with the tax office trying to generate more revenue,” board member Bryan Simkins said. “I do have a problem with assessments being raised to what the Augusta National is paying for property.”

Over the last 25 years, the club has dropped seven-figure checks on adjacent properties, in its expansion across Berckmans Road to the west and Washington Road to the north.

Club affiliates such as Berckman Residential Properties and WSQ LLC are now owners of the National Hills Shopping Center, in a deal finalized for $26 million last year, the Publix Shopping Center, bought in 2018 for $21 million, the Stein Mart Shopping Center, the former Big Tree Shopping Center and the former Greens on Washington apartments, according to property records.

Berckman Residential has acquired over 100 single-family dwellings, paying premium prices such as $1 million to $5 million per home to snatch up properties now part of the National’s expansion and landscaped parking area to the west. More recently, the going rate for a Margate, Wicklow or West Terrace drive house was between $300,000 and $400,000, sometimes quadruple the home’s assessed value.

Just in the last five years, some 126 single-family dwellings have sold in the area immediately below Berckmans Road, with many of them going to Berckman Residential. They include 20 on Wicklow Drive, five on Wicklow Court, 16 on Margate Drive, 15 on Ashland Drive, 11 on West Terrace Court and 12 on West Terrace Drive.

The 352-acre Augusta National itself, not including its acquisitions, is assessed at $189 million and recently paid a $2.4 million property tax bill.

Assessors board members seemed intent on not punishing homeowners for the actions of speculators or the golf club.

“It’s not fair for them to be penalized because they had no crystal ball,” member Juanita Burney said.

Currently, the office is making standard market revaluations based on similarly-styled homes in adjoining neighborhoods, Rountree said. A reassessment is done after the golf club buys and converts a home to its new use, he said.

“We don’t have a crystal ball either,” he said. “We don’t know the premium, the conditions of the sale or the true project plan or path that the National is pursuing.”

Simkins said to ignore the pricey sales while assessing the properties.

“Look at it like the Augusta National didn’t exist and wasn’t paying exorbitant prices,” Simkins said. He has a Wicklow Drive home that’s adjacent to one acquired for $458,000 in 2015, according to property records.

“We should not penalize anyone for that lack of knowledge,” he said.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3vbiYaL
'Rattled': PGA Tour stars look back at the day The Players Championship was shut down

'Rattled': PGA Tour stars look back at the day The Players Championship was shut down

Golfsolutions March 10, 2021
'Rattled': PGA Tour stars look back at the day The Players Championship was shut down https://ift.tt/30xEqsi

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – An unnerving air hovered over TPC Sawgrass nearly a year ago today, the suitable date being Friday the 13th, as the home of the Players Championship was shuttered and the opulent venue became a ghost town.

As a monstrous virus named COVID-19 was spreading across the globe, the PGA Tour joined all professional sports leagues in going dark. As players cleaned out their lockers that bright, silent morning and headed home, they toted extra baggage of unknown with them.

The Tour’s flagship event – or Super Bowl as commissioner Jay Monahan calls it – was canceled after one round and the season put on hold. One day, Hideki Matsuyama’s taking the Players lead with a 63; the next day his bags are packed.

“I don’t think anyone was as upset as Hideki,” Xander Schauffele said with a smile. “I saw him in the parking lot the next day and he was flying back to Japan to sort of collect his thoughts. He was in good spirits about it.

“But all of us were rattled. No one really knew how serious this whole virus was. I think reality really set in when we were all quarantining at home.”

Back then, there were less than 1,000 documented cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. but the ghastly numbers started to spike and right quickly. The number has now exceeded 28 million, with thousands more still getting infected each day. The death toll has reached 525,000, with hundreds more still dying each day.

As grisly as those numbers are, the infection and death rates are much better than just three months ago, and millions of vaccines have been shot into arms with tens of millions more coming. Hope has been spotted on the horizon.

But as players tee off Thursday in the 2021 Players Championship appreciating the improving condition of the country and the Tour, they will think back to that gloomy day a year ago and realize, despite golf’s remarkable journey the past 12 months, no one can let their guard down.

“There was a lot of concern about whether we would be able to play golf in 2020 and beyond,” Jordan Spieth said. “I give a lot of props to Jay Monahan for the work that he put in. It’s easier to see how good a leader is when you’re in tough times than when you’re in good times, and when I look back, if I could have had any more respect for Jay Monahan, I think I speak for most of the players in saying that this last year has proved that we have phenomenal leadership.”

After a 13-week hiatus, the Tour and its traveling circus returned and eventually found solid footing wandering from city to city, state to state, from one time zone to another. Amidst all the safety measures – testing, tracing, social distancing, the shunning of indoor dining – the players rallied around one common goal – do what we have to do to keep playing.

And play on they did, providing a country starving for live sports entertainment a little slice of joy. This week’s Players will be the 37th PGA Tour start since the 2020 Players shut down and the roster of winners is stunning – world No. 1 Dustin Johnson won four of the 36 events including the Masters; Bryson DeChambeau became a monster hit with three wins, including the U.S. Open; Collin Morikawa won the PGA and two other events.

Also among the victorious were Jon Rahm and Daniel Berger, each winning twice, and Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Patrick Cantlay and Viktor Hovland.

Fans have returned at a limited capacity – about 10,000 per day will be attending The Players this week. Rory McIlroy is the defending champion, as he has been for 725 days. The Tour and tournaments have lost millions of dollars, yet millions were raised and dispersed to charity.

Players have adapted to a new routine and little by little, there are more and more signs that something akin to normalcy isn’t the pipe dream it was six months ago.

“It’s never comfortable getting something shoved up your nose, so it’s not like I go there and can’t wait and enjoy to get a Q tip shoved up my nose,” Thomas said. “It’s fine. It’s just a part of the norm now. It sure beats staying at home and not being able to play. I hope that everybody continues to do their job and their part and everyone keeps staying safe.”

The PGA Tour has done just that for months now.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3cjOVVz
Photos: The day the golf world came to a standstill

Photos: The day the golf world came to a standstill

Golfsolutions March 10, 2021
Photos: The day the golf world came to a standstill https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The first round of the 2020 Players Championship marked the last time (to date) that fans were allowed in attendance in full force at a PGA Tour event.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced after that first round that the Tour’s flagship event on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass was canceled and the season put on hold out of concerns about the coronavirus.

Monahan later called the decision to cancel the 2020 players “gut-wrenching,” but pointed out that it was insignificant with what has happened since the pandemic broke out.

The field for the tournament had been predictably deep, which is fitting for a tournament staged at such an iconic venue. TPC Sawgrass features one of the most famous and daunting shots in professional golf.

from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3qxVU2t