Gary Woodland and Scott Piercy have withdrawn from the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic after testing positive for COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic has once again struck the PGA Tour.
On Monday afternoon the Tour announced that a pair of four-time winners had tested positive for COVID-19 and have withdrawn from this week’s Honda Classic at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida: 2019 U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland and Scott Piercy.
“The players will have the PGA Tour’s full support throughout their self-isolation period under CDC guidelines,” said the Tour via a release.
Woodland is being replaced in the field by Sebastian Cappelen, a two-time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour. D.J. Trahan, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, will replace Piercy.
A hip labral tear turned what should have been a magnificent victory lap at the 2020 U.S. Open into a painful dose of mortality for Woodland.
He’s certainly not alone in this assessment, but Gary Woodland would prefer to expunge last year from his memory as quickly as possible.
“I’d like to erase 2020, but I think a lot of people would like to erase 2020 from what’s going on,” Woodland said after Thursday opening round of the Farmers Insurance Open, one in which he shot a silky smooth 66 with identical 33s to climb near the top of the leaderboard. “Hopefully, we can continue to stay where we’re at and continue to build on it.”
Where he’s at is a place without pain, for the first time in a long time. A hip labral tear had messed with the Topeka, Kansas, product for months and what should have been a magnificent victory lap at the 2020 U.S. Open turned into a painful dose of mortality. Woodland was at Winged Foot, but realistically, he shouldn’t gave been.
“The low point was Thursday of the U.S. Open. I mean. … I broke down, coaches wanted me to pull out. I ended up playing. It’s hard for me to pull out, it’s not in me,” he said. “You played in pain your whole life through all sports. It’s a little different out here, though. The best players in the world are out here day in, day out, and on top of that, you’re throwing Winged Foot in.
“But as defending champ, it meant a lot to me to be there, it meant a lot to me to play, so I tried to give it all I had.”
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He nearly opted to have surgery the following week, but instead decided on a series of injections and other means to ease the pain. In retrospect, he thinks surgery might have been a smarter decision, but he’s pleased with the way the pain has subsided in the new year.
Last week, he posted four rounds of 70 or less in finishing T-16 at the American Express. And on Thursday he looked like the Woodland of old, the one with four PGA Tour wins to his credit, as he played bogey-free golf at Torrey Pines’ North Course.
“I went and saw the doctor (after the U.S. Open) and they wanted to do surgery, so that was the low part for me. I just opted not to do that and try to take a different route and we’re here now, so that’s a good thing, but I have a long way to go,” he said. “I’m not 100 percent, but I’m not in pain and from that we can continue to build.”
Woodland was playing last season, but the pain kept him off the range. While others were honing their skills, he was simply trying to preserve his body for the next round.
But now, he’s been back to a standard routine with swing coach Justin Parsons, even though he’s only slipped into that schedule since January 7.
“I’m still working with Pete Cowen, but strictly on short game now. So (January 7th) was the first time JP and I really sat down and started working. We cranked up the speed that day,” Woodland said. “It was the first time I swung hard that day and I was sore the next day, so that was a little nerve-wracking. At that point, I wasn’t walking, either. … Last week was the first time I walked 18 holes. I walked with the girls in the morning and would come back and was locked up. It was a big test last week.”
A self-admitted Kansas athletic fan, Woodland said he’s been working through some bad habits that developed while trying to swing around the pain in his hip. On Thursday, though, he didn’t show any signs of reverting to those habits as he birdied two of his first five holes and didn’t give any shots back.
He stands two shots behind Patrick Reed and Alex Noren—each of whom opened the tournament with a round of 64—but Woodland seemed to have the widest smile at Torrey Pines.
“My body’s trending in the right direction. The future’s the big deal,” Woodland said. “As long as I continue to stay healthy, I think I can avoid surgery and I think I can have a long career out here.”
The strongest PGA Tour field of the year is in San Diego, California, for the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
The strongest PGA Tour field of the year is in San Diego, California, for the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. The first two rounds will be played on the North Course with the weekend played on the South Course. The South Course will host the 2021 U.S. Open scheduled for June 17-20. Below, we look at the 2021 Farmers Insurance Open odds, and make our PGA Tour picks and predictions to win.
Four of the top seven golfers in the Golfweek/Sagarin world rankings are in attendance, as are last week’s winner Si Woo Kim and defending champion Marc Leishman. The European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic is poaching a few of the world’s top-ranked golfers, including Tyrrell Hatton and Collin Morikawa.
2021 Farmers Insurance Open betting picks – Favorite
Leishman was off last week following a T-4 finish at the Sony Open in Hawaii. The 2020 champion did so while gaining 2.68 strokes per round putting with 1.58 Strokes Gained: Approach per round. Both of those aspects of his game were sharp in Hawaii, and he also gained 1.86 strokes per round from tee-to-green.
The Australian has played 44 career rounds at Torrey Pines’ South Course with an average of 1.68 strokes gained on the field per round. He had four top-10 finishes in this event in 10 appearances before winning last year.
Last year’s win came against a similar strength of field with many of the top odds favorites back again. Leishman may have relied a little too heavily on his putter in 2020, but he knows these greens well, and his irons are in excellent form. He’s a good value while sharing the 11th-best odds.
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2021 Farmers Insurance Open betting picks – Contender
Gary Woodland (+8000)
Woodland’s T-16 finish last week was his best result since a T-5 at the Workday Charity Open last summer. His strengths last week were 1.32 SG: Tee-to-Green and 0.90 SG: Off-the-Tee per round. His driver will need to be a strength at the 7,765-yard, par-72 South Course.
The 2019 U.S. Open winner shares the 29th-best odds to win this week. He is 29th by the odds to win the 2021 U.S. Open in five months but at a considerably lower price of +6600 in a stronger field.
The course conditions this week will more closely resemble Pebble Beach Golf Links where Woodland won at 13 under than they will in June. Tiger Woods won the last U.S. Open at Torrey Pines at just 1-under par.
2021 Farmers Insurance Open betting picks – Long shot
Joel Dahmen (+12500)
There have been few long-shot winners of this event in recent years, with Scott Stallings in 2014 being the last to rank outside of the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the time of their victory. For that reason, I’m only willing to go as far as Dahmen for a long-shot bet this week.
He ranks 65th in the OWGR but 27th in the Golfweek rankings. He missed the cut at minus-1 last week, but he led the field with 1.94 SG: Off-the-Tee through his 36 holes.
Dahmen has still never won on the PGA Tour, but he has performed well in big tournaments and on long courses, including a T-9 finish in this event in 2019.
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Don’t we love to see passion from the athletes we’re invested in from various sports? And sometimes, it’s fun to get a glimpse of how animated they actually get when cheering on their alma mater. For KU grad and 2019 U.S. Open champion Gary …
Don’t we love to see passion from the athletes we’re invested in from various sports? And sometimes, it’s fun to get a glimpse of how animated they actually get when cheering on their alma mater.
For KU grad and 2019 U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland, those emotions for his Jayhawks can take on a life of their own — even now, 13 years after he’s left the KU campus for the fairways of Pebble Beach and the PGA Tour.
Does the father of three’s reaction to Kansas basketball games on TV ever scare the kiddos at home?
“All the time,” Woodland said recently on the Beyond the Clubhouse podcast. “I was watching the game against Kentucky and I was screaming at the TV and I just hear my son (Jaxson) say ‘Mommy, what did Daddy just say?’ And (Gabby) said ‘Nothing!’”
Woodland who is the picture of emotional control on the golf course, seems to have a hard time when he’s watching college kids 15 years young than him playing basketball, a game he’s played his whole life growing up in Topeka.
“(My) kids need to be out of the room, I get a little emotional,” Woodland joked. “I’m pretty level and even keel on the golf course, but I would say I get pretty emotional watching KU play basketball. Hopefully, the kids don’t learn anything from me.”
So @KUMensGolf alum @GaryWoodland LOVES @kuhoops. Do his reactions during games scare his 3 kids? “All the time,” Gary tells me. He explains here.
“It’s been interesting. They were so good last year and then you lose two studs but they got a lot of young guys coming back, and they’ve had a lot of guys step up and they’re young,” Woodland said. “it’s going to be a roller-coaster ride this year but I think any time you’ve got Bill Self at the reigns, and they have a senior point guard which is huge and they’ve got some veteran guys kind of mixed in there. Any time you get to the tournament anything can happen.”
Back to Woodland’s day job on the course, he’s had a front-row seat to watching and learning from Tiger Woods in his resurgence from injury the last couple years. Woodland’s dealt with a fair share of injuries himself of late (torn labrum, hip) but he got to play for Woods in his first-ever team appearance on the 2019 Presidents Cup team and that required Woodland to spend many days leading up practicing with Woods, Justin Thomas, and other members of the team in Jupiter, Florida.
Tiger Woods and Gary Woodland stand on the 14th green during the final round of the 2019 Zozo Championship. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Not bad company to keep.
The 36-year-old loved having teammates again, after growing up in Kansas playing team sports for many years, and he very much wants to return to team competition in golf. The next opportunity would be September’s Ryder Cup.
“You get a taste of it and you want more. It’s like winning the U.S. Open, I got a taste of it, I want more of that,” Woodland said. “I got a taste of the international team, I want more of that, I want to be part of that. Talking to some of these guys, from an individual standpoint winning major championships are amazing and that’s what you’re remembered by. What they remember about their game is the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams and being part of something bigger than yourself.”
In fact, Woods and Woodland have developed a unique friendship that started comically during the 2009 U.S. Open in New York. Woodland was a wide-eyed 25-year-old major championship rookie. Woods? Just the defending champ of the event after his heroic win the previous year on a broken leg at Torrey Pines.
Woodland remembers their first exchange fondly.
“It was in the bathroom (laughs) at the U.S. Open at Bethpage (2009), I’d obviously only seen him on TV and I was in the restroom and he walks out and we kindbeyo of came out of the stall at the same time and there’s always that awkward (moment), you’re in the restroom and you don’t want to shake somebody’s hand,” Woodland laughed. “I was just ‘Hey’ and he was like ‘Hey, how you doing?’ and I’m like, ‘I’m good, nice to meet you.’ It’s like the first time that you kind of meet your hero, not hero, but somebody that you really look up to for a long time, so that was kind of an awkward first meeting.
“But he is the greatest, it’s great to pick his brain.”
Woodland admits Woods keeps his advice closer to the vest for his peers than he did in 2016 and 2017 when he was often injured and not competing as a result, but trash talk is something that’s always a constant between Woodland and Woods.
“He’s a big (Las Vegas) Raiders fan, I’m a Chiefs fan, we’re in the same division so they were the only loss the Chiefs have had in some 20 games and I heard about it all day,” Woodland said. “He’s also a Dodgers fan so I’m trying to avoid him with the Lakers winning and the Dodgers winning, he’s riding his high horse right now. So I’m going to avoid him until hopefully KU or the Chiefs win again, so then I’ll start chirping again.”
Speaking of trash talk, don’t we ever wonder the biggest trash talk moment that Woodland’s amazing U.S. Open trophy has afforded him since winning at Pebble Beach in June 2019?
When asked, Woodland knew right away, and this moment was courtesy of his friend Matt Kuchar who was waiting for him to finish behind Pebble Beach’s 18th hole along with Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
“Kuchar was there waiting for me when I got done,” Woodland said. “He gave me a hug and I said ‘Hey man, one day I’ll teach you how to win a major.’”
Kuchar, a notorious trash talker on Tour, smiled and laughed and “took it like a champ,” Woodland exclaimed.
2021 outlook
Woodland, unfortunately, didn’t win in the 2019-2020 PGA Tour season, so he will not be at next week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui. He will however be spending the next few weeks working on a new golf ball from Titleist and getting his driver and other clubs dialed into its feel and trajectory.
At the moment, the Topeka native is circling his first start of 2021 at the American Express in Palm Springs, an event where he nearly got his first win in 2011 when he lost to Jhonattan Vegas in a playoff. Of course Woodland would go on to get his maiden victory only two months later in Tampa.
Woodland says he’s spending over an hour each day hitting full golf shots and around two hours with his short game around the practice greens.
Within a week of his first start, he expects to be shooting in the low 60s at his home club in Delray Beach, Florida, and making birdies on every par 5.
Must be nice to be that good, right?
Overall, Woodland is taking a measured approach to his expectations for 2021.
“When I’m doing the things I’m supposed to be doing and when I make putts I have a chance (to win) and as a golfer sometimes I focus too much on putting and lose focus of some of the other stuff that gets me in that position. I think I need to make sure I’m dialed in with my short game and just dial in so I can do great things,” Woodland said.
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Garrett Johnston is a golf journalist and the host of the Beyond the Clubhouse podcast. He has covered 30 majors and seven Masters.
Thomas and other Team Troon golfers teed it up on a floating box in Las Vegas to raise money for charity. Breaking Par documented the event.
What do Justin Thomas, Gary Woodland, Matt Kuchar, Cheyenne Woods, Alex Noren and Matthew Fitzpatrick have in common?
For starters, they are all part of Team Troon, a group of professional golfers representing the Troon brand. And as part of a recent renewal of the Team Troon initiative, these golf pros took on their most novel challenge yet. Make a hole in one. From the water.
That’s right. Our partners at Breaking Par — a half-hour monthly show on Fox Sports Networks throughout the United States — documented the challenge in a recent episode, where J.T. and company traveled to Rio Secco Golf Club in Las Vegas to raise money for local charities impacted by COVID-19. Each competitor was boated out to a 12-by-12, fully turfed floating tee box in the middle of a pond. From there, each had an opening shot from 145 yards. If that ball went in the hole, they would win $1 million (half of which would go to a charity of their choice).
Afterward, the golfers tried to put three more shots from the same tee box as close to the pin as possible. The closest of these would net the winning contestant an additional $10,000 to be put towards charity.
“I’ve never hit a shot off of an island tee box before, so it definitely stands in a league of its own,” said Thomas.
Jordan Spieth lost a bet on No. 12 to Gary Woodland as his tee shot bounced into the front bunker during a Tuesday practice session.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Jordan Spieth walked from the 11th green to the 12th tee box Tuesday, as Gary Woodland followed closely behind.
“How much if you make it?” Woodland asked Spieth. “$500 or $1,000?”
“$1,000,” the 2015 Masters champion said.
Spieth then set up for his tee shot and struck the wedge, which beelined to the right pin location on the famous par 3.
“Is that in?” Woodland asked as the ball was mid-flight.
“Gonna be close,” Spieth said.
Spieth’s ball struck the flag stick before ricocheting into the front bunker. Spieth, Woodland and Henrik Stenson, the third member of their pairing, shared oohs and ahhs as their applause echoed through an empty Amen Corner.
“I learned in major championships, where the stage is the biggest. … that you could still control what you can control,” Gary Woodland says.
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Gary Woodland’s victorious march about the seaside emerald grounds of iconic Pebble Beach in the 2019 U.S. Open first took root in the Gateway to the West.
At Bellerive Country Club, to be exact, on the outskirts of St. Louis.
In the final round of the 2018 PGA Championship.
Alongside a man in a red shirt.
Until then, Woodland had been a bust in majors, a three-time PGA Tour winner with not one top-10 in 27 starts in the four marquee events of the year. He had eight missed cuts to go with just two ties for 12th as his only finishes in the top 20.
But at compact and packed Bellerive, Woodland clicked and opened in 64-66 to grab his first 36-hole lead in a major. After a middling 71 in the third round, he stood three shots out of the lead and was standing next to Tiger Woods in the penultimate group Sunday.
Then the meat-and-potatoes bruiser from Kansas, who rarely had been shaken on any field of play, became unsettled in the presence of Woods and the ear-splitting crowds. He quickly got lost in the Tiger vortex and remained adrift for far too long. By the time he gathered himself, it was too late. But while he lost his grip on the Wanamaker Trophy, he grabbed hold of his golf doctorate.
Gary Woodland and Tiger Woods shake hands after finishing on the 18th green during the final round of the 2018 PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St Louis, Missouri. Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images
“I got out of my element that day,” said Woodland, who finished in a tie for sixth with his final-round 69. “It was so loud. And Tiger shot 64 and was making a charge, so it got even louder. Honestly, I wasn’t even thinking about being in contention. I was thinking about playing with someone you’ve looked up to your entire life on a Sunday in a major championship and I got out of myself.
“Lesson No. 1? Don’t ever do that again. It was the first time in my career that I lost focus on what I was doing.
“Lesson No. 2? That day I learned in major championships, where the stage is the biggest, the noise the loudest, the pressure the most intense, that you could still control what you can control. I learned a whole hell of a lot. That round made me 10 more years a veteran. I wouldn’t have been able to hold on at Pebble if I hadn’t been in that situation with Tiger on Sunday in St. Louis.”
That final round in St. Louis proved to be the last piece of the puzzle Woodland was putting together. Craving to take his game to the next level, he had hooked up with short-game gurus Pete Cowen in December of 2017 (chipping) and Phil Kenyon in July of 2018 (putting) and gradually began leaving his tad one-dimensional ways behind him. The slugger with great ballstriking talents became a more well-rounded player with each passing month, especially when tying for eighth in the 2019 PGA Championship, and his confidence was brimming when he got to Pebble Beach.
And he indeed held on for his maiden major triumph. With rounds of 68-65-69-69, he was the one who made others tremble and finished three clear of major master Brooks Koepka, who was stalking a historical U.S. Open three-peat.
Woodland did so on Father’s Day, in front of his dad, Dan, his hero who nearly died of a heart attack 10 years prior. And with his wife, Gabby, watching at home with their son and expecting identical twins.
“You couldn’t write a better script,” Woodland said.
The script flipped in 2020
Woodland, 36, was supposed to be in Mamaroneck, New York, in June defending his title at historic Winged Foot Golf Club. Instead, he was in South Carolina at Harbour Town Golf Links for the RBC Heritage.
COVID-19 got in the way, but it allowed Woodland’s U.S. Open reign to continue three more months until the national open begins Thursday on the West Course at Winged Foot. Gave him more time to reflect on his biggest victory to date, especially during those times he eyed the U.S. trophy from his Kansas home. To think about the emotional day above Carmel Bay when he was able to put some of the darkest moments of his life, which included his wife suffering two miscarriages, a bit more behind him.
Gary Woodland lines up a putt on the 6th hole during the second round of the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park. Photo by Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports
“It feels great to be the defending champ, and it was nice to have that trophy a little longer than normal,” Woodland said. “Walking through New York City with that trophy for media day afterwards was pretty cool, taking it back home, taking it to a couple football games was pretty special. Any time you get to hold a piece of trophy that your name is etched on forever is pretty cool, and to share it more with my friends and family and my team just proves the hard work pays off, and that was very special for me.”
Woodland earned the trophy at Pebble Beach with a foursome of power, accuracy, touch and poise that held off Koepka, Jon Rahm and Justin Rose. And it all started to come together as soon as he got there the Saturday before the tournament began.
“When he got to Pebble, he had like a calmness to him all week unlike anything I had seen with him,” said his caddie, Brennan “Butchy” Little. “He was just in a different zone that week. What happened at Bellerive was huge to him.
“He’s always been a good ballstriker and has always been long. But when he started working with Pete and Phil, that’s when he put it all together. Winning at Pebble hasn’t changed him. He’s still the same guy. Except now he knows he can put it all together on the biggest stages.”
Woodland was on his game when the curtain fell Thursday and remained on the first page of the leaderboard throughout. Standing at 11 under through 54 holes, he led by one going into the final round. That presented another hurdle for Woodland – he was 0-for-7 on Tour when holding at least a share of a 54-hole lead. This time, however, there would be no final-round disappointment.
Woodland instead kept delivering star turns that proved his seasoning as a player. A perfect drive on the difficult second hole and then a precise 7-iron set up birdie that calmed his nerves. He led by one when he arrived at a testy decision on the wicked par-5 14th, where he faced 265 uphill yards to the flag after a solid drive. Out of bounds was to the right, trees to the left, a monster bunker in front of a dangerous, two-tiered green. A birdie 4 was in play, yes, but so, too, was 6 or 7.
Lay up or go for it? Woodland went for it.
“I’m a very aggressive player and I like to play aggressively, and Butchy is very conservative,” Woodland said. “And it was the first time in my life I probably thought about being conservative, and I think it was the first time in our relationship of more than four years where Butchy was definitely the more aggressive. He didn’t hesitate, and that gave me confidence.
“He trusted me. Best swing I made probably since I’ve been on Tour.”
Little won’t argue.
“Going for it, worst case you’re over the back, or you hit it left you’re in the grandstand, or you go right it’s a tricky pitch. But you’re up near the green. At worst he makes 5,” Little said. “If you lay up, then you have one of the toughest third shots to a par 5 anyone has ever seen. You can easily hit a good shot and be in trouble. Then you have to get up and down for 5.
“Going for it took 6 out of the equation. And laying it up is not his style. Then he hit the best shot of the tournament.”
Woodland uncorked a 3-wood that just flew the front bunker and wound up 16 feet from the hole on the fringe. From there he two-putted for birdie.
His work wasn’t done. He held a 2-shot lead on the par-3 17th, where he left himself 90 feet from the cup on the hourglass green after a poor tee shot. Instead of putting, he cleanly chipped the ball that rested on the green. With perfection, too, the ball stopping two feet from the hole.
“I trusted myself and the shot came off perfectly, Woodland said.
He capped his win with a 30-footer for birdie on the final hole.
“His short game was great all week, and that chip on 17 was the defining moment,” Little said. “What Pete and Phil have done is they’ve made him understand the mechanics of chipping and putting; the downward pressure in chipping, keeping the face square longer in putting. He’s so much better now. And more confident.”
Add thinner, too.
Woodland lost 30 pounds during the PGA Tour’s COVID-19 break. He eyed the future, glanced at his birth certificate that proved his advancing age and knew the robust schedule full of big-time tournaments including the FedEx Cup Playoffs, U.S Open and Masters was ahead.
Gary Woodland hits from the fourth tee during a practice round for the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club. Photo by Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports
So he cut out fried food and sugar to lose the weight (he’s added 10 pounds back). After initially losing a touch of his power with his new body, he’s regained all his distance and averages 304.9 yards off the tee this year, good for 32nd on Tour. And he feels fitter and healthier.
“Hanging around Justin Thomas and all these young guys, I need to take care of myself if I want to be here for a lot longer,” he said. “I wanted to feel better … and I wanted to be healthy. I wanted to be out here for a long time, and I needed to change my body to do that.”
During the down time, he also relished the time with his family. Seven weeks after winning at Pebble, Gabby gave birth to identical twin girls – Lennox and Maddox. And their son, Jax, turned 3. All healthy and happy.
While all seems good in his world, Woodland is disappointed that he has not built on his U.S. Open triumph. He hasn’t won in 25 worldwide starts since Pebble, a stretch that includes just seven top-10s. He missed the cut in the Open Championship in his next major and tied for 58th in this year’s PGA Championship.
But his confidence has not been shaken.
“I’ll be ready,” he said. “I think overall the game is kind of trending in the right direction. I just have to start to score. With what has happened this year, with not knowing if we’d play again because of the virus, it hasn’t been easy. But we got back playing, and I’ve been looking forward to Winged Foot and I’ll be ready.” Gwk
Welcome to the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York, where the rough and lightning-fast greens have become the story.
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As is regular practice, Gary Woodland was chipping balls out of thick rough during his initial prep at Winged Foot ahead of this week’s U.S. Open. But as his caddie, Brennan Little, retrieved the golf balls and tossed them back to Woodland on Saturday, something became amiss as the defending champion tried to get a gauge on the issue at hand.
“We lost a ball for about five minutes and it was right in front of me,” the defending champion said. “We didn’t find it until we stepped on it.
“There was talk of not having marshals the first couple practice rounds. The practice rounds would have been 10 hours out here trying to find golf balls.”
Welcome to the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, where, to properly set the stage for the 120th playing of the national championship, one must address the stage — the West Course in Mamaroneck, New York, some 25 miles from the heart of Manhattan.
The particulars? Designed by A.W. Tillinghast and restored by Gil Hanse, the course tips out at 7,477 yards and plays to a par of 70, with one par-3 at 243 yards, two par-4s longer than 500 yards, and one par-5 breaking the 630-yard barrier.
The history? In five previous editions of the U.S. Open on the West Course, only two of the more than 700 players finished 72 holes under par (take a bow, 1984 champion Fuzzy Zoeller and runner-up Greg Norman). The last winner, Geoff Ogilvy in 2006, won at 5 over. In the 1974 U.S. Open, dubbed the Massacre at Winged Foot, Hale Irwin won at 7 over.
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The observations?
“The golf course is big,” Woodland said. “It’s hard. But I think that’s what you expect when you come to a major championship and especially a U.S. Open.”
“It depends on how difficult (the U.S. Golf Association) want to set up these pins, give us a chance at it,” three-time U.S. Open champion Tiger Woods said. “But with the forecast, it’s going to be difficult no matter what. This golf course is going to be one of the more difficult ones.”
“It’s sort of like in boxing where Mike Tyson said everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. It’s the same thing here,” world No. 2 Jon Rahm said. “We all have a plan, but if you hit it sideways, you got to figure it out.”
In other words, seems like some good old fashioned U.S. Open carnage is on hand for the 144 players in the field starting with Thursday’s first round. An 18-hole migraine headache, if you will. What else is to be expected considering the dense rough – six inches and even higher in some places – that will leave egos, wrists and scorecards bruised? The skeleton fairways? The massive, sloping greens that are mindful of the smaller, wickedly difficult putting surfaces at Augusta National?
With the tournament postponed three months due to COVID-19, the West Course was a tad on the soft side on the eve of the championship. But to a man, everyone expects the layout to firm up, especially the putting surfaces, and become a daytime nightmare.
“This place tests every single aspect of your game, so I don’t think I could single out the toughest thing that you need to do or the hardest thing you’re going to have to do this week,” four-time major winner Rory McIlroy said. “It’s all pretty tough.”
But fair, the players say, with even-par 270 a prophesied winning score to chase. McIlroy, for instance, doesn’t expect the course to descend into “goofy” golf. There are no tricks to the track; the confrontation is right in front of you (even if it looks like a dark alley).
“You’ve just got to step up and hit good shots,” Woodland said. “I don’t think the USGA is going to get too crazy. The golf course is hard enough.”
To the point that a recurring refrain will be called upon by the players this week – take your medicine, whether you’re in the rough off the fairway or near a green; deep in one of the yawning bunkers; or facing a 50-footer with 10-feet of break. Pars are your friend. So, too, are some bogeys.
“It just comes to mental strength, right, who can endure the most and who can endure until the end,” Rahm said. “It’s that simple.”
“Where’s the easiest next putt from and where is the easiest next shot from?” McIlroy said. “There’s a lot of thinking ahead on this golf course.”
“You’ve got to drive it straight, especially at this golf course,” said world No. 1 and 2016 U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson. “You have to hit fairways. But once you hit fairways, it doesn’t get much easier from there.”
In all, doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun. Well, it doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun everyone except world No. 3 Justin Thomas.
“I absolutely love,” the course, Thomas said. “It’s probably one of my favorites I’ve ever played, to be honest. It’s hard, so it’s a different kind of fun, but it is fun.
“It’s not a 20-, 25-under kind of fun. It’s a U.S. Open. You know it’s going to be tough, and you know par is a really, really good score.
“I’m not going into this week scared of Winged Foot. It is probably the hardest golf course I’ve ever played. But that being said, I’m not going into it scared. It’s going to be such a grind. You just have to embrace it, otherwise it’s going to eat you alive. You’re going to be put in some uncomfortable places, and you as a person are going to feel uncomfortable. It’s really just how can you manage that.”
Here are the betting odds for the outright winner during the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship.
The BMW Championship boasts a 70-man field as the FedExCup Playoffs roll into Round 2.
Dustin Johnson enters the week as the betting favorite at +800 following his 11-stroke victory at the Northern Trust last week. He moved to No. 1 in the FEC standings and No. 7 in the Golfweek/Sagarin world rankings. Below, we look at the betting odds to win the 2020 BMW Championship and make our PGA Tour picks and best bets.
2020 BMW Championship Betting Picks – Tier 1
Collin Morikawa reacts as the lid falls off the Wanamaker Trophy as he lifts the trophy to celebrate winning the 2020 PGA Championship. (Kyle Terada – USA TODAY Sports)
Morikawa slipped from No. 2 to No. 5 in the FedExCup standings with a missed cut at The Northern Trust at TPC Boston last week. He’ll be looking to move back up and regain those all-important starting strokes for next week’s Tour Championship.
The winner of the 2020 PGA Championship just three weeks ago, Morikawa is eighth by the odds to win the BMW Championship. He’s second on Tour this season in Strokes Gained: Approach, 17th in SG: Off-the-Tee and 24th in Birdie or Better Percentage.
He’s the first golfer on the odds board offering a 20-1 or better return on investment. Ignore last week’s shaky result and back someone with two wins in his last five events at a recently-inflated price.
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2020 BMW Championship Betting Picks – Tier 2
Gary Woodland during the second round of the 2020 PGA Championship. (Kyle Terada – USA TODAY Sports)
Gary Woodland (+6600)
Woodland enters the week 39th in the FEC standings and needs a top showing to qualify for next week’s playoff finale. The 2019 US Open champion has no wins but six top-10s this season.
He missed the cut last week while losing 1.28 strokes per round putting, according to Data Golf. He’s 14th on Tour in SG: Approach and 29th in Birdie or Better Percentage. Expect a better result with a more neutral performance with the flat stick.
2020 BMW Championship Betting Picks – Long shots
Cameron Smith during the second round of the 2018 Tour Championship. (John David Mercer – USA TODAY Sports)
Cameron Smith (+11000)
Smith tied for 18th last week. While losing 0.46 strokes per round putting, he gained 1.84 strokes tee-to-green and 1.62 strokes on approach per round. He opened his 2020 season with a win at the Sony Open but doesn’t have any other top-10s in the calendar year. He’s 26th in the FEC standings and just barely holding onto his ticket to East Lake.
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Before he could become a U.S. Open champion, Gary Woodland had to first learn how to cope with Sunday major championship pressure.
Gary Woodland’s victory saunter about the seaside grounds of iconic Pebble Beach en route to his maiden major triumph in the 2019 U.S. Open first took considerable root in the Gateway to the West.
At Bellerive Country Club, to be exact, on the outskirts of St. Louis. In the final round of the 2018 PGA Championship. Alongside a man in a red shirt.
After taking the 36-hole lead, Woodland, who had won three PGA Tour titles but never earned a top 10 in 27 starts in a major, stood just three shots out of the lead and was in the second-to-last group with 18 to play.
Then the meat-and-potatoes bruiser from Kansas, who had rarely been shaken on any sporting field, became unsettled in the presence of Woods and the ear-splitting crowds. It was too late by the time he gathered himself, but while he didn’t win the Wanamaker Trophy, he did earn his golf doctorate.
“I got out of my element,” he said. “It was so loud. And Tiger shot 64 and was making a charge, so it got even louder. Honestly, I wasn’t even thinking about being in contention. I was thinking about playing with someone you’ve looked up to your entire life on a Sunday in a major championship and I got out of myself.
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“Lesson No. 1? Don’t ever do that again. It was the first time in my career that I lost focus on what I was doing.”
Woodland finished in a tie for sixth. But he left Bellerive with so much more.
“That day I learned in major championships, where the stage is the biggest, the noise the loudest, the pressure the most intense, that you could still control what you can control,” he said. “I learned a whole hell of a lot. That round made me 10 more years a veteran. I wouldn’t have been able to hold on at Pebble if I hadn’t been in that situation with Tiger on Sunday in St. Louis.”
Hold on he did at Pebble, and with rounds of 68-65-69-69, he made others tremble and finished three clear of major master Brooks Koepka, who was stalking a historical three-peat. Woodland did so on Father’s Day, in front of his dad, Dan, his hero who nearly died of a heart attack 10 years prior. And with his wife, Gabby, watching at home with their son and expecting identical twins.
“You couldn’t write a better script,” Woodland said.
Gary Woodland putts on the practice area with a rainbow overhead during the second round of the 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions. Photo by Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports
But the script has flipped. Woodland, 36, was supposed to be in New York this week defending his title at historic Winged Foot Golf Club. Instead, he’s in South Carolina Lowcountry at Harbour Town Golf Links for the RBC Heritage.
COVID-19 got in the way, but it allows Woodland’s U.S. Open reign to continue three more months until the national open is scheduled to be contested Sept. 17-20. More time to reflect on his biggest victory to date, especially during those times he eyes the U.S. trophy in his Kansas home. To think about the emotional day above Carmel Bay when he became a major champion and was able to put some of the darkest moments of his life, which included his wife suffering two miscarriages, a bit more behind him.
And he’s afforded even more time to continue adding polish to his game that is no longer a tad one dimensional. Through extensive work with short-game gurus Pete Cowen (with his chipping) and Phil Kenyon (putting), Woodland has added impressive touch to his enormous power.
That was evident in the final round at Pebble when he uncorked an uphill, 265-yard 3-wood to set up a huge birdie on the par-5 14th – “Best swing I’ve made probably since I’ve been on Tour,” he said – and a chip from off the hour-glass green at the 17th to set up a tap-in, crucial par – “I trusted myself and the shot came off perfectly.” Then he capped his win with a 30-footer for birdie on the final hole.
Gary Woodland celebrates after making a birdie putt on the 18th hole to win the 2019 U.S. Open. Photo by Rob Schumacher/USA TODAY Sports
“When he got to Pebble, he had like a calmness to him all week unlike anything I had seen with him,” said his caddie, Brennan Little. “He was just in a different zone that week. What happened at Bellerive was huge.
“He’s always been a good ball-striker and has always been long. But when he started working with Pete and Phil, that’s when he put it all together. Winning at Pebble hasn’t changed him. He’s still the same guy. Except now he knows he can put it all together on the biggest stages.”
Another change is more visible – Woodland lost 25 pounds during the PGA Tour’s COVID-19 break. He plans on playing 10 of the first 13 weeks now that the Tour has resumed and wanted to be as fit as he could be.
During the down time, he also relished the time with his family. Seven weeks after winning at Pebble, Gabby gave birth to identical twin girls – Lennox and Jax. Their son, Maddox, turns 3 next week. All are healthy and happy.
“The family is great. My parents are doing well,” Woodland said. “This quarantine has been really nice, to be home and watch them grow, has been so great. It’s hard to describe how great it’s been.
“And we’re playing golf again. Life is good. It’s weird not being at Winged Foot this week and defending my title in front of the New York fans who are so great. But I hope – all us players hope – we’ll be there in three months.”
Woodland will be there as a different man. As a thinner man. As a father three times over. And as a major champion.
