Category: 2021 PGA Championship

Phil Mickelson lights up Kiawah’s back nine in 32, sits 3 back at PGA Championship

Phil Mickelson raved about the course and setup: “The thing about this course is it’s very fair even though it’s tough.”

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – When Phil Mickelson opened with four bogeys in his first six holes at the PGA Championship, it looked as if he was headed for another forgettable week.

Mickelson hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish on the PGA Tour since August and finished 69th after holding the first-round lead two weeks ago at the Wells Fargo Championship.

But he overcame a rough start Thursday and played his next 10 holes in 5 under to shoot 2-under 70 at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, three strokes behind leader Corey Conners.

“I’ve been having trouble staying present on every shot for the entire round,” Mickelson told ESPN in an interview after the round. “I thought I did a pretty good job today.”

Mickelson, the 2005 PGA Championship winner, got off to an inauspicious start at the 103rd PGA Championship with a bogey at the first. He got back to level par by wedging to 4 feet at the third hole, but then made three bogeys in a row beginning at the fourth.

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP: Leaderboard | How to watch

From there, Mickelson took advantage of some of the downwind holes, making birdies on three of the four par 5s at the Pete Dye layout (Nos. 7, 11, 16), and, as he put it, “snuck one in on 10,” after blasting a 344-yard drive and wedging to 5 feet.

“What I did do well was putt extremely solid inside 6-7 feet,” he said. “I didn’t make anything outside of that, but I did make everything inside of it.”

Mickelson saved his best work for the grueling five-hole stretch coming home. He played those holes in 2 under, carding back-to-back birdies at 15 and 16 and getting up and down for pars on the final two holes. His 32 on the second nine was nearly six strokes better than the field average. Still, Mickelson said he didn’t like the way he struck the ball on Thursday and rushed from his post-round interview with ESPN to the range to clean up his swing.

While others found reason to complain about the windy conditions or bad luck, Mickelson raved about the course and setup: “The thing about this course is it’s very fair even though it’s tough.”

[vertical-gallery id=778105454]

How popular is PGA Championship contender Viktor Hovland back in Norway? ‘Even grandmothers stay up to watch him’

The 23-year-old Norway native is sparking a surge in golf interest in a country little-known for its golfers.

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Viktor Hovland isn’t sure how big a deal winning a major championship would be back home in Norway, but he knows this: “I can’t remember the last time I felt as good as I did today on the golf course,” he said, after shooting 3-under 69 at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort.

That was good enough for an early share of the first-round lead at the 103rd PGA Championship with a gaggle of players, including Brooks Koepka.

Hovland, 23, made birdies on three of Kiawah’s four par 5s and canned an 11-foot birdie putt at the par-3 eighth hole. His lone blemish was a bogey at the first hole, his 10thof the day. For Hovland, the ocean breeze didn’t give him too much trouble. Hovland played college golf at Oklahoma State and still calls Stillwater home and while there isn’t any oceanfront property to be had in his neck of the woods, Hovland explained, “it blows like this every single day.”

Hovland’s game has been clicking on nearly all cylinders this season. Winner of the Mayakoba Golf Classic in December, he entered this week with back-to-back T-3 finishes, but he was fighting an “overdraw,” which just required a change in his setup and all of a sudden he’s able to work it both ways on command.

“Now I really feel like there’s not really a hole in my game,” he said.

Just last month, Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama became a national hero when he became the first male Japanese player to win a major. With his U.S. Amateur title and two victories on the PGA Tour in his fledgling professional career, Hovland is beginning to emerge as a popular figure back in his native Norway. How would winning the PGA Championship be received back in his homeland?

“It’s hard to say. Golf doesn’t really have a very rich tradition back home,” Hovland explained. “We have a very rich Olympic tradition, and now with golf being an Olympic sport, I think it would be great for people back home to just get into the sport. I really have no idea. We’ll have to get there first.”

Asked if he’s ever been on the front page of Oslo’s biggest newspaper, Hovland smiled that boyish grin of his and said, “Could not tell you.”

Turns out he’s not much of a newspaper reader.

“Typical millennial,” he said, his smile growing wider.

But that may be a bit of modesty on Hovland’s part when it comes to his star power back home. His father, Harald, an engineer who picked up the game during business trips to the United States, recently spent five weeks in America watching Viktor play and summed up his growing popularity at home this way: “Even grandmothers stay up to watch him.”

He said golf is growing in popularity due to the recognition Hovland has brought to the sport. There’s no telling what a victory at Kiawah would do to grow the game back home, but as Hovland so perfectly put it, “We’ll have to get there first.”

[vertical-gallery id=778104757]

Sebastián Muñoz hit his ball into a trash bag, then gave it to a fan at the PGA Championship

What could’ve been a smelly situation became a funny moment during Thursday’s opening round of the 103rd PGA Championship.

What could’ve been a smelly situation became a funny moment during Thursday’s opening round of the 103rd PGA Championship.

Playing the par-4 18th hole on Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course, Sebastián Muñoz hit a wayward drive that was flirting with the gallery of fans and grandstands down the left side of the fairway. The shot cleared the fans but found its way to the bottom of a trash bag.

Muñoz was in good spirits as he approached the errant shot. After hearing his options, he reached in, grabbed the ball and then gave it away to a (lucky?) fan.

PGA Championship: Leaderboard | Photos | How to watch

He took his free drop, made the green in regulation and saved par.

[vertical-gallery id=778104757]

Bryson DeChambeau ‘out of sorts’ at PGA Championship after opening-round 72, calls Kiawah ‘diabolical’

In the battle between the longest hitter on Tour and the longest course in major championship history, round 1 went to the Ocean Course.

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – In the battle between the longest hitter on the PGA Tour and the longest course in major championship history, round 1 went to the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort.

Bryson DeChambeau returned an even-par 72 on Thursday (leading one of the judges to score it a draw), but he looked bruised and battered afterwards and admitted as much.

“The wind just kicked my butt,” he said. “Just grinding out there, it takes a lot out of you.”

As a matter of fact, he struggled to remember many of the finer details of his up-and-down round, which began with two birdies in his first three holes, starting at No. 11, playing downwind before a sloppy 3-putt bogey at 13 and a string of four bogeys in a row when the wind flipped into his face. As he tried to remember where he had taken three putts – was it 12 or was it 13? It was 13! – an exasperated DeChambeau gave up and said, “I’m all out of sorts. It’s a lot of wind out there and heat.”

PGA Championship: Leaderboard | Photos | How to watch

In actuality, it was just a typical windy day at Kiawah, but for DeChambeau, who turns hitting every shot into a math equation, the wind put him through an assortment of mental exercises.

“This golf course takes it out of you. This is the most difficult golf course that I’ve played on Tour, and that is a straight-up fact for me,” he said. “That requires a lot of energy.”

Eventually, DeChambeau was told that if he looked behind him he could see his hole-by-hole scorecard in lights and that allowed him to gather himself and continue discussing his misadventures on his first nine holes where he was in danger of falling out of contention at the year’s second major on Thursday.

[vertical-gallery id=778067171]

“Three-putted 13, then 14 kind of came about from just not making a good first shot. 15, hit two good shots, just misaligned the drive on 15, hit it too far left, didn’t get it up and down. 16, misjudged the wind on the first shot, and there you go,” he said. “It’s a quick four bogeys and off and running after a good start.”

But DeChambeau played steady from there, making birdies on both of the par 5s (Nos. 2 and 7) and traded a bogey at No. 3 with a birdie at No. 8 when he drained a 20-foot birdie putt.

“For the most part, I stuck my head up high and kept it high and was able to finish strong on the front nine,” he said. “Played really well.”

That might be a stretch. His putter was cold (-1.385 SG: Putting), his driver was crooked (8 of 14 fairways) and his iron game was stymied by a breath of wind by Kiawah standards (11 of 18 greens in regulation). He’s going to have to do better at flighting his irons if he’s going to mount a charge for the title. As DeChambeau’s third shot from 97 yards got caught blowing in the wind, he seemed mystified.

“Oh my goodness,” he muttered as it hit short of the green and bounced into a deep bunker left of the green that led to a bogey on a par 5. Still, returning a score at level par is nothing to sniff at on a day when only four players broke 70 in the early wave.

“Getting to 4-over is really nothing out here either. It’s diabolical,” DeChambeau said. “You’ve got to be on point every single hole.”

Watching DeChambeau battle on Thursday was a reminder that golf is hard, even when you can hit it a country mile.

[vertical-gallery id=778104757]

Is Rickie Fowler turning the corner at the PGA Championship? He thinks so.

Rickie Fowler was in good spirits after his first round at the PGA Championship and opened up on his recent struggles.

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – I’m starting to feel pretty darn good.

Those were the words of Rickie Fowler on Thursday as he happily took to the stage in front of the media after his first round in the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island. He hasn’t said anything akin to that for some time now, his struggles inside the gallery ropes nosediving his world ranking and challenging his always sunny disposition.

His official world ranking is down to No. 128 – his lowest since 2009. The winner of nine titles worldwide – including five on the PGA Tour, his most recent coming in the 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open – has missed 13 cuts in his last 29 starts on the PGA Tour. His last top-10 came in January 2020. His best finish this year is a tie for 17th in the Valero Texas Open. He didn’t qualify for the Masters, the first major he’s missed since 2010.

And all his struggles adapting to swing changes haven’t happened in the dark.

“It’s tough for anybody regardless, spotlight or not, because you deal with the personal and mental struggle on your own,” Fowler said. “It’s probably a little different, whether it’s answer questions or know that there are people talking about what’s going on or whatever it may be.

“When you’re going through anything, whether it be something personal with any of your lives or my golf game or whatever it may be, it’s hard. It doesn’t matter whether people are watching or not, but it adds a little bit if they are.”

PGA Championship: Leaderboard | Photos | How to watch

With his form in freefall, Fowler needed a sponsor’s exemption to get into the PGA Championship. He’s made the most of his opportunity so far with a 1-under-par 71 on the windswept Ocean Course to stand two shots out of the early lead among the early starters.

“It’s Thursday. As everyone says, you can’t win it, but you can take yourself out of it on Thursday,” Fowler said. “It’s all about getting off to a good start. So definitely happy about it. I feel like we managed our way around quite well. I missed one shortish putt for par coming in, but other than that, solid day.”

He’s had quite a few solid days of late, especially during prep work ahead of tournaments. He has reached the point where he doesn’t have to concentrate on the technical aspects of his swing changes. Instead, he’s focused on just figuring out a way to get the golf ball in the hole.

“The last few months, it’s been a lot more just go play golf and not play golf swing,” he said. “Put a lot of time in prior to the last few months of working on swing and doing the stuff we kind of needed to work on and accomplish. Now it’s just, go play golf.

[vertical-gallery id=778104757]

“Unfortunately, through that time, the putter has gone pretty cold, if not the coldest it’s ever been for me, and that’s been a club I’ve been able to rely on through my career from junior golf on up.

“With this golf course and the wind and what it kind of demands of you, you can’t try and go out there and be perfect. You’ve just got to go out there and hit golf shots and kind of play with what you have that day.”

As for his putter, his bread and butter over the years, it was working as he needed just 27 putts on the difficult greens. He put in extra hours on the greens this week ahead of the first round.

“Definitely happy with the time we spent to take it into today and get some positives out of it,” he said. “It’s nice to at least make some putts today.”

While at times it’s been tough to handle as the poor results mounted, Fowler has never lost sight of what he gets to do for a living.

“In a way, it’s just putting things into perspective and understanding that I get to do this for a living. And that’s awesome. I’ve had a great run so far out here. I definitely want more,” he said. “We have it pretty darn good out here.”

And one other thing that doesn’t have him feeling the blues.

“We’re on our way back now,” he said.

[lawrence-related id=778105464,778105428,778105429,778105273]

Bryson DeChambeau hoping to ‘unleash the beast’ at PGA Championship

Bryson DeChambeau called Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course “a beast” and he’ll try to unleash ‘The Kraken,’ his name for his driver, to slay it.

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – The Incredible Bulk meets the longest course in major championship history.

“This golf course is a beast,” said Bryson DeChambeau. “Hopefully I can unleash the beast.”

Pete Dye’s Ocean Course masterpiece at Kiawah Island Golf Resort measures in at 7,846 yards and when the wind blows, look out.

“It is probably one of the hardest golf courses I’ve ever played,” DeChambeau said.

The reigning U.S. Open champion is set to make his fifth appearance in the PGA Championship this week, and finished T-4 last year at TPC Harding Park, which at the time was his best finish at a major. During his pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday, DeChambeau expressed plenty of respect for a course that has forced him to take some head covers off for approaches to greens and, heavens to Betsy, a tee shot at a par 3.

PGA Championship: Tee times | Photos

“I have not had hybrids or 4-irons into par-3s since I’ve gotten longer,” he said. “That’s a new one.”

But if anyone can take advantage of his prodigious length this week, it could be DeChambeau, who leads the PGA Tour in driving distance at 322 yards. ESPN’s Andy North marveled at DeChambeau’s bold attempt to drive the par-5 sixth green at Bay Hill in March during the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

“No one else can hit it the places he can hit it right now,” said North, a two-time U.S. Open champion during his playing days. “Anybody watched Bay Hill, the couple of tee shots he hit at Bay Hill were the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, our lines were 50 yards to the right of that, and it was still scary.”

Scary is to hear DeChambeau talk about throttling back and still belting a drive of 385 yards last week at the AT&T Byron Nelson. He abandoned his 4.5-degree Cobra driver in favor of a model that has three degrees more loft, a different face design and different weight. It more closely resembles a Cobra driver he used back in 2018 when he said he was driving it on a string until he broke the face.

“It’s not fully maxed out with everything, and there are reasons for that,” he explained. “You can’t let it loose out here. There’s certain golf courses like last week (at TPC Craig Ranch near Dallas) I could kind of let it loose a little bit, but even at that I was still trying to control ball flight. I’m still trying to gain speed. It’s not like I’m not. It’s just I’m trying to find more efficient ways to do it.”

For the first time since undergoing his physical transformation, DeChambeau has hit a wall in his pursuit of speed.

[vertical-gallery id=778067171]

“I’m the strongest I’ve ever been, but it doesn’t produce swing speed, which is really interesting, so how to increase swing speed like you’re working out is something that nobody has ever really figured out,” he explained. “When quarantine came about I had time to physically transform everything. I took a couple weeks off of even playing golf or touching a golf club and literally changed my body. I don’t have that time now.”

And so while he continues down rabbit holes in search of answers on how to gain more distance, he’s content that his power game is an advantage at the Ocean Course – “If you don’t hit it long, it’s going to be a tough week,” he said – but it might not be his biggest one.

“If I can hit it straight this week in this wind and control the golf ball and control the flight of it, that’ll be my biggest advantage,” he said.

That may be a big ‘if.’ DeChambeau’s high ball flight isn’t ideal for Kiawah, where the fickle wind causes indecision in club selection and execution. DeChambeau, the Tour’s most analytical golfer, has been known to simulate the dew on a golf ball to try to understand how it affected spin rates on wedge shots. To no surprise, he was up to his usual tricks in trying to prep for wind conditions at the PGA.

“Man, you guys are going to eat this one up, but the laminar flow of the wind and how it works,” he said.  “A lot of it is going to be dependent on luck this week. I will say that. When it’s dependent on luck you have to be patient.”

It should be great theater to see whether the World No. 5 can blast drivers and find the short grass and flight his irons into the wind and maintain his composure at what he calls one of the toughest courses he’s ever played. But he said he’s up to the challenge and wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I would say a few weeks a year is OK. That’s for sure,” he said. “This is one of those weeks.”

[vertical-gallery id=778104757]

PGA Championship: Seven things to learn about Kiawah’s Ocean Course from the 2012 statistics

The statistics from the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course provide insight to how the course might play in 2021.

There’s much to learn from the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course as focus shifts to this year’s rendition of the major championship at the same coastal layout in South Carolina.

Much attention will be on Rory McIlroy, who ran away from the field alongside the Atlantic Ocean in 2012 for an eight-shot victory over David Lynn. But what can we learn about the course itself? A few things to start, then seven specific spots of interest from the 2012 hole-by-hole statistics.

First off, The Ocean Course is not as easy as McIlroy made it appear. He finished at 13 under par and alone in double digits under par, with only 20 players total breaking par.

[listicle id=778104789]

Second, the fearsome par-3 17th might not be as fearsome as some would assume, in relation to the other par 3s on the course.

And third, players better be ready to go right out of the gate, as the start of the front nine presented the best scoring opportunities in 2012.

Following are more points of interest from the hole-by-hole statistics from the 2012 PGA Championship at the Pete Dye-designed Kiawah Island Ocean Course, which ranks No. 1 on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access courses in South Carolina.

PGA Championship: Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas playfully spar at presser ahead of early-round pairing

Rory McIlroy & Justin Thomas are grouped together in the early rounds & they playfully took jabs at each other during their press conference

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Justin Thomas arrived for his 3 p.m. pre-tournament press conference early. So early, in fact, that Rory McIlroy still was answering one last question about how important it was in his career to win his second major at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course in 2012.

“A lot of guys have won one major, but it’s a big hurdle to get to the second. It was good to get that monkey off my back, especially here, playing so well,” McIlroy said staring directly at Thomas, whose lone major came at the 2017 PGA Championship.

“So yeah, it was a big deal,” McIlroy finished, struggling to keep a straight face as Thomas stewed in the back of the open-air tent. “I definitely didn’t want to be stuck on one for a long time, so happy to get that second.”

As McIlroy wrapped up and walked off the stage, Thomas muttered some choice words under his breath, smiled the smile of a man who could take a joke, and said, “Well played.”

It didn’t take long for Thomas to be asked for his rebuttal.

“I can’t really say too much, other than it’s great to see him win. I know it’s been a really long time for him, so I’m glad to see him,” Thomas said.

PGA Championship: Tee times | How to watch | Photos

It was a subtle jab at McIlroy, the recent Wells Fargo Championship winner who had gone some 550 days without tasting victory, and it too deserved a “well, played,” for the return of serve.

“But at the same time,” Thomas continued. “I really don’t want to egg him on because usually when he wins he likes to reel some off, and with a lot of big tournaments coming up I don’t really want to poke the bear.”

What Thomas, who will be grouped in a threesome alongside McIlroy in the opening two rounds, would like to do is find his touch on the green. He putted horrifically at the Valspar Championship in Tampa three weeks ago, losing nearly six strokes to the field over the first three rounds, which prompted him to say that had he putted decently he’d be winning the tournament. Thomas has been working hard with his putting coach, John Graham, to be less mechanical with his stroke.

“Just simplifying it,” he said. “I’m very feel based and very artistic, if you will, in terms of seeing shots and hitting different spins on chip shots, pitch shots, whatever it is, and I need to take that same outlook into my putting.”

Thomas said he did just that at the Wells Fargo Championship.

“Once I tee up, I have to just go be athletic and be artistic and just go out and hit the putts the speed that I want. That’s something I did on Sunday at Quail Hollow, is just tried to be less perfect and just more feel based, and I putted the ball beautifully even with two three-putts there,” he said.

Thomas arrived for the 103rd PGA on Sunday, playing 18 holes, and was pleased he had a chance to play the Pete Dye layout in opposite wind directions. He also picked the brain of Tiger Woods, but said Tiger didn’t have a lot to offer given he finished T-11 in 2012.

“He pretty much hit the nail on the head. It’s long, there’s a lot of crosswinds, and have a good short game,” Thomas said.

Long is selling it short. This will be the longest course to host a major championship at 7,876 yards, surpassing Erin Hills in 2018. Thomas laughed out loud last week when someone sent him an image of the scorecard and he noticed the back nine measured more than 4,000 yards.

“They can’t possibly play it that long. Unless they get a day where there’s absolutely no wind,” Thomas said. “They can’t play 14, that par 3, back if you have this wind today. Guys are going to be literally hitting driver on that hole. Unless the PGA wants seven-hour rounds, I wouldn’t advise it.”

Forget the tale of the tape. Let’s get ready to rumble.

[lawrence-related id=778105066,778102589,778102139]