TPC River Highlands yielded the PGA Tour’s only 58. With this year’s Travelers Championship field loaded, look for birdies to fly.
CROMWELL, Conn. — Every year during the Travelers Championship, player after player showers the event with praise. Following U.S. Opens at venues like Pinehurst No. 2, Pebble Beach and Shinnecock Hills, where birdies can be as rare an occurrence as shorts worn inside the USGA headquarters, TPC River Highlands feels like sweet relief.
From the tips, TPC River Highlands is short by tour standards, playing to just 6,841 yards with a par of 70. While some holes are tight, and the rough can be thick in areas, it can be had and the pros know it.
“It’s a fun place to play because if you get hot, you can shoot 9-, 10-under no problem,” said Brooks Koepka before the start of last year’s Travelers. “If you’re just a little bit off, you seem to shoot even par at this place, which can be quite frustrating. But, that’s the sign of a really good golf course.”
There has been at least one 62 shot in eight of the last 10 Travelers Championships. Four years ago, after finishing 1-under-par (279) and tied for second at the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont, Jim Furyk shot the PGA Tour’s first 58. That day, the 2003 U.S. Open champion hit all 18 greens in regulation, made an eagle and 10 birdies and needed just 24 putts.
The chart below shows the winning score of each of the last 10 Travelers Championship winners.
That brings us to the 2020 edition. The field at this year’s event is the strongest in the Travelers Championship history, with seven of the top 10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking in the field — Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed and Xander Schuaffele. That group is being joined by three-time champion Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth (the 2017 champion) and Bryson DeChambeau.
Those guys know how to make a lot of birdies, and with the humidity and temperatures forecasted to be high all week, the players will likely get more distance off the tee, allowing them to attack more hole locations.
So, a week after Webb Simpson won at 22 under at Harbour Town Golf Links, a tight, short course, look for the birdies to keep flying in New England.
PGA Tour reps will not be allowed on the course, in the clubhouse or on the range. There will be a new way of getting gear to players too.
Early in the week at any PGA Tour event, scores of people mingle on the range and around the practice green. Players, caddies, agents, media members and representatives from equipment makers chat and conduct the business of golf.
Drivers are adjusted, new putters are tried, training aids are demoed and stories are exchanged. However, like every other facet of life in America in the time of COVID-19, that will change when the PGA Tour resumes.
Golfweek has learned from multiple sources that the PGA Tour conducted a conference call with several manufacturers May 1. During the call, an outline was presented about how equipment makers will be able to operate at places such as Colonial Country Club, Harbour Town Golf Links and TPC River Highlands as the PGA Tour restarts its season in June.
In essence, a bubble will be created around the players at the Charles Schwab Challenge, the RBC Heritage and the Travelers Championship, and equipment reps will not be allowed inside it.
The technicians who ordinarily work closely with players are not going to be allowed on the practice range, in the clubhouse or on the course. The equipment reps will not be required to be tested for the coronavirus before they arrive at Tour venues, but no one will be allowed inside the equipment vans except that company’s representatives.
The PGA Tour’s vice president of communications, Joel Schuchmann, confirmed the Tour is planning to create distribution centers where anything that ordinarily would be exchanged between brands and players will go to be cleaned and sanitized.
For example, if a player wants a new driver, he will have to contact an on-site company representative and request it. The club technician will build the driver, but if he does not have the shaft or grip the player requests in the truck, he will need to contact that shaft or grip company’s rep and have it dropped off outside the truck because no one will be allowed in inside the manufacturer’s vans.
No one but representatives from the company will be allowed in PGA Tour vans like these at the first tournaments. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
After the technician finishes building the club, he must take it to the distribution center, enter the area at one end and leave the club with a worker. The club will then be cleaned before the player enters the distribution center through a different entrance and retrieves it.
During the call, PGA Tour officials said each company would be allowed one equipment truck on site, which is typical, but each truck could be manned by only one technician and one other company representative. As with many aspects of the PGA Tour’s plans, that limiting of onsite reps may change because it was pointed out that getting things such as golf balls, gloves and accessories to dozens of players from large brands like Titleist, Callaway and TaylorMade could be challenging for just one person.
Another organizational call with equipment makers, hosted by the PGA Tour, is planned this week.
“Everything is fluid at this point,” said Chris Tuten, Titleist’s vice president of Tour leadership. “The health and safety of our team members are of the utmost importance, and we are having daily internal discussions as to how we will approach it when that day comes. It would be premature for us to comment on how everything will work at this point, but we are in constant contact with the PGA Tour and hopefully we have a better idea later next week.”
Ben Schomin, Cobra Golf’s director of Tour operations, builds equipment for Rickie Fowler and Bryson DeChambeau. He was on the call May 1 with the PGA Tour and already has hotel rooms booked and plane tickets purchased to fly from his home in the San Diego area to Texas, South Carolina and Connecticut.
Asked how nervous he was about traveling and working at PGA Tour events again, his answer came quickly.
“Zero. Zero percent right now,” he said. “A hotel and a plane, right now, are probably far cleaner than any hospital that you could walk into.”
Like everyone else around the world, the pros and the PGA Tour reps who service them are being forced to adapt.
In an attempt to salvage a season severely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, golf’s leaders released details of a revised schedule Monday with the British Open being canceled altogether and a shift in dates for the remaining three majors. The …
In an attempt to salvage a season severely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, golf’s leaders released details of a revised schedule Monday with the British Open being canceled altogether and a shift in dates for the remaining three majors.
The Masters, which was supposed to be played this week at Augusta National Golf Club, has been re-scheduled for Nov. 9-15 in Augusta, Georgia.
Instead, the PGA Championship will become the season’s first major. It is still expected to be contested at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco and has been pushed back to Aug. 6-9. The PGA had been played in mid-August for many years before relocating to May last year as part of a schedule change to finish the season before football began. To accommodate the PGA, the Wyndham Championship has shifted back one week to Aug 13-16, and the trio of FedEx Cup playoff events have also been delayed one week, with the Tour Championship in Atlanta now scheduled for Sept 4-7.
The U.S. Open, which was originally to be held at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York from June 15-18, will now be played Sept. 17-20, the week before the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, which remains intact.
“It’s a crazy puzzle,” PGA Tour pro Graeme McDowell said in late March. “I can’t imagine how much time the tours have spent figuring out a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D.”
The R&A announced it has canceled the 149th British Open, scheduled for July 16-19 at Royal St. George’s in England. It will be played there the week of July 11-18, 2021. The 150th Open will be played at St Andrews from 10-17 July 2022.
“Like everybody I’m very sad and disappointed that the R&A has canceled The Open,” reigning champion Shane Lowry said in a video tweet. “You can trust me when I say the Claret Jug is going to be in safe hands for another year.”
The PGA Tour canceled the Players Championship after the opening round on March 12 and later canceled or postponed all tournaments through the PGA Championship, which originally was supposed to be played May 14-17.
The Tour did not confirm whether there would be any further postponements. As of now, the season is expected to resume with the Charles Schwab Championship, May 21-24, but it did state in the joint release that it will seek to reschedule tournaments into the weeks formerly occupied by the U.S. Open, The Open Championship and the Men’s Olympic golf competition in June and July. The Tour will make further announcements about this potential, as well as its fall schedule, in the coming weeks.
“This is a difficult and challenging time for everyone coping with the effects of this pandemic. We remain very mindful of the obstacles ahead, and each organization will continue to follow the guidance of the leading public health authorities, conducting competitions only if it is safe and responsible to do so,” golf’s governing bodies and tours said in a joint statement. “In recent weeks, the global golf community has come together to collectively put forward a calendar of events that will, we hope, serve to entertain and inspire golf fans around the world. We are grateful to our respective partners, sponsors and players, who have allowed us to make decisions – some of them, very tough decisions – in order to move the game and the industry forward.
“We want to reiterate that Augusta National Golf Club, European Tour, LPGA, PGA of America, PGA Tour, The R&A and USGA collectively value the health and well-being of everyone, within the game of golf and beyond, above all else. We encourage everyone to follow all responsible precautions and make effort to remain healthy and safe.”
Without tournaments for income, some professional golfers are worried about money. One player isn’t, he just wants to compete.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Conner Godsey was counting down the days until he would leave for Argentina for a stretch of events on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica beginning with next week’s Buenos Aires Championship.
But now that he’s been grounded as all six of the PGA Tour’s circuits were put on hold due to the coronavirus global pandemic, he will deal with this detour on his aspiring journey to the PGA Tour with frequent visits to TPC Sawgrass to work on his game and play in matches against numerous fellow pros who lives in the area.
“We all try and beat everybody,” Godsey said as he played the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass earlier this week. “We’ll play as many games as we can and you stay competitive as much as you can.”
Godsey is in a different financial boat, however, from those who were in the field at last week’s Players Championship, which was canceled after the first round along with all tournament play until at least mid-May.
Each player in the field received $52,000 as half of the $15 million purse was paid out. Since turning pro in 2014, Godsey has made about $55,000 as he’s traveled the back roads on the PGA Tour’s developmental circuits – the Mackenzie, Latinoamerica and Korn Ferry tours. He’s also played five mini-tour events this year and made another $7,000.
“Right now it’s not a huge deal,” Godsey said of his financial standing. “There’s definitely some uncertainty there, but I have some money saved up and some backers helping me, as well. I completely understand the decision to cancel events. It sucks not being able to play but it’s a good opportunity to work on things and try and get better. It’s hard to make a whole lot of money on Latinoamerica but I’d like to have the opportunity. It would be nice to make a little extra cash.”
The 27-year-old left-hander, who is 2089th in the Official World Ranking, missed the cut in his lone start this year on PGA Tour Latinoamerica at the Estrella del Mar Open in Mazatlan, Mexico. Victor Lange was also in the field; he left Mexico March 9 to return to South Africa and tested positive for the coronavirus March 17. According to a PGA Tour statement, Lange has no symptoms and is expected to make a full recovery.
Godsey doesn’t know Lange, doesn’t even know what he looks like, so he doesn’t know if he came in contact with him.
“I’m not worried about myself getting sick but I would hate to have it and spread it. If I show any symptoms I will get tested,” Godsey said. He also will hold off on going to see his niece; his sister gave birth on Monday.
Instead, he’ll keep his mind on his game. He hasn’t dealt with an extended absence from competitive golf since he left college seven years ago, so he put together a blueprint to follow that he hopes will improve his game.
He has new putting drills to work on after consultation with his putting coach, John Graham. His swing coach, Tim Cook, came up with drills Godsey will work on concerning arm structure in his swing. And he’ll hit the gym with new exercises after talking with his fitness instructor from Diesel Fitness in Tampa.
“You can’t go into this blind,” Godsey said. “You know you’re going to have at least 10 weeks off and you have to figure out how you can get better. I would rather be playing tournaments, but I’ll enjoin the practice and the process of trying to get better. We just have to play it day by day.”
Rickie Fowler flirted with 59 playing with Justin Thomas and the #StayAtHomeChallenge is in full effect.
Put yourself in the position of a professional golfer.
The tournament schedule for the next month has just been axed. If you’re on the PGA Tour, you might have been at the Tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship, when it was canceled after just one round.
In addition to the cancellation of golf’s fifth major – it is, don’t argue – PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan canceled all events up through the Valero Texas Open (April 2-5). Augusta National postponed the Masters.
Professional players never have this level of free time in their season. So, how are they spending their time off? By playing golf, going to the beach and juggling toilet paper, of course.
Rickie vs. JT
On what would have been Sunday at the Players, Justin Thomas shot a 65 in a match against Rickie Fowler and got rolled by five shots.
Nice playing with @rickiefowler today, really a lot of fun. I shoot 65 (humble brag I know), and get smoked. Mid season off season is going well. https://t.co/zlM5uBnuDo
We’ve been wowed by his calves and health gains, but we might see a different looking Lefty when golf returns.
After arriving home safely and with a month off, I could sense things were going to go one way or the other. I was either going to use this time to workout, get fit and stronger or I was going to lay in bed, watch shows and eat. After day 1, the latter is in the lead.
I’d like to think I’m a Chesson or a Hughes, but in reality I’m a Hollins. No way I’m going all the way in!
Also, what do you do when they postpone the @PGATOUR season? You go swimming in the frigid Atlantic. Well, me and Hughes got all the way in, sweet Hollins realized how cold it was about knee high! pic.twitter.com/HrWa0c4kEZ
On Thursday, he woke up to disturbing videos that friends and family had sent him from his homeland of Austria, where concerns about the coronavirus had led to civil unrest.
“I’m getting videos from supermarkets being completely robbed basically from people panicking at home, and it’s not nice news you want to wake up to,” said Wiesberger, who shot 74 before the PGA Tour canceled The Players Championship. “It’s crazy news.”
When Wiesberger got word late Thursday night that the tournament had been canceled, his immediate thoughts were to get home as quickly as possible. Before he headed to TPC Sawgrass to clean out his locker on Friday, he secured a flight.
“I’m on the last flight back to Europe. The last Austrian Airlines flight back to Vienna departed this morning, it’s on the way, and the last is going back this afternoon,” he said. “I’d like to be on that one.”
Once home, golf will be secondary.
“It’s unprecedented times,” he said. “We all need to kind of stick together and do the right thing for everyone, for the elderly, to not have anyone affected that doesn’t need to be, and therefore I think it’s good we’re packing up today and going home to try and help out at home and help any elderly, my grandmother, my parents with any sort of grocery shopping so they don’t have to go out too much and just trying to get through this on our own or all together.
“It’s crazy times. I’m sure most of us probably haven’t experienced anything like that. Tough times, stick together, do the right things, stay healthy and just lay low for a while. But golf will return at some point, we don’t know when, but it’s not a priority right now.”
Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama rode a hot putter to become the ninth player to shoot 63 at The Players Championship.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Hideki Matsuyama put on quite a show for the fans on Thursday, shooting a course-record tying 9-under 63 at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in the opening round of the Players Championship.
But there won’t be many witnesses if more history is made in the final three rounds of the tournament as the PGA Tour announced that due to concerns of coronavirus all of its events will proceed without fans through the Valero Texas Open, April 2-5.
“It will be strange tomorrow,” Matsuyama said through an interpreter. “I think all of us will have to go back to our college days to play without gallery. But with that said, I know there’s a lot of people watching television and a lot of fans rooting for us and so I’ll do my best.”
Matsuyama, who began his round on the back nine, took advantage of soft conditions, receptive greens and attacked pins to birdie his first four holes en route to carding the ninth round of 63 at designer Pete Dye’s house of horrors since Fred Couples became the first to do so in 1992, and the fifth in the first round. Three of the previous four players to shoot 63 in the first round went on to win: Greg Norman (1994), Martin Kaymer (2014) and Jason Day (2016).
Matsuyama of Japan made his lone bogey of the day when he splashed his second shot at the par-5 16th in the water, but he capped off his round by smoking a 291-yard 3-wood to 25 feet right of the back left hole location and rammed the putt in for eagle.
“I knew if I made that putt, if I made eagle there, I would be close to a course record,” Matsuyama said.
For one day, at least, the putter was more friend than foe for Matsuyama. He took just 25 putts, holing nearly 112 feet of putts and ranked first in Strokes Gained: Putting. On the season, he ranks T-198 in that category.
“It’s the best he’s putted this season, bar none,” said his translator Bob Turner, who watches nearly all of his rounds. “He did not miss a putt, even the long lags were perfect touch, leaving tap ins.”
Matsuyama’s ball striking has been its usual reliable stuff, but the putter has kept him from the winner’s circle.
“I’ve been working hard and have a lot of confidence now in my swing,” Matsuyama said. “Today I made some putts and that seems to be the difference of late. That was really the catapult to me to have a good round today.”
Hideki Matsuyama lines up a putt on the 10th green during the first round of the 2020 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass – Stadium Course. (Photo: Adam Hagy/USA TODAY Sports)
Some of the credit for Matsuyama’s turnaround with the short stick may go to sticking a different Scotty Cameron by Titleist model putter in his bag this week. He has won five times on Tour and reached World No. 2, but hasn’t hoisted a trophy since the World Golf Championship at Firestone Country Club in 2017 and has slipped to No. 21.
“He played great,” said Patrick Cantlay, who played in the same threesome and signed for 5-under 67 and tied with last week’s runner-up Marc Leishman. “It was actually sneaky hard out there. I got so many mud balls that it was darn near a complete guessing game four or five times from the middle of the fairway.”
Matsuyama finished two strokes ahead of American Harris English, who recorded his fifth top-10 finish last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who fired a bogey-free round in his just his third Tour start and his Players debut. Bezuidenhout, 25, is ranked No. 48 in the world. If he remains in the top 50 after the WGC-Dell Match Play in two weeks, he will earn a spot in the Masters for the first time.
A handful of professional golfers have responded to the PGA Tour’s response to the coronavirus at The Players Championship.
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American professional sports leagues like the NBA, NHL and MLS have suspended their seasons. College basketball conference tournaments are being canceled by the hour.
The coronavirus outbreak has wreaked havoc on the sporting world, but the PGA Tour has stood its ground for now, keeping its schedule intact. On Thursday morning at the Players Championship, the first day of the Tour’s flagship event, commissioner Jay Monahan announced that starting Friday (March 13), fans will not be allowed at Tour events through the Valero Texas Open, which starts April 2.
That’s not good enough for some players, especially veteran Lucas Glover. The three-time winner on Tour took to Twitter early on Thursday morning to voice his displeasure with the Tour’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Rest of sports and media: why don’t they drug test on the @PGATOUR
Tour: okay, we better start doing that too.
Rest of sports and media: think we better stop and stay away from crowds.
A few hours later, Zac Blair followed suit, tweeting: “NBA suspended, ATP suspended, MLS suspended …” C.T. Pan then responded just two hours from his tee time for the Players that he had already left and wasn’t playing.
Screenshot of a now-deleted C.T. Pan tweet on his WD from The Players Championship due to coronavirus. (Twitter screenshot)
Here’s how other players have reacted:
Lee Westwood
To Westwood’s point, as of Thursday four European Tour events have either been postponed or canceled.
Considering the approach of other sports in the US to the #coronavirus , I’m surprised how little the @PGATOUR are doing. I know we don’t play in such a confined arena but surely our age range of fans are more susceptible. @EuropeanTour have postponed events in August already.
Them bringing up the “No Fans” at congressional, zozo, and Torrey from the past few years seems slightly different than this … but hey what do I know 😂
While he doesn’t specifically mention the coronavirus fallout, you can read between the lines.
There is going to be considerable hardship for many in the coming months, in a variety of ways. Sincerely, I wish you all the best. Gus and Pip will be looking out for you. pic.twitter.com/xMkwJHQdaR
Marc Leishman finished second at 3 under, followed by last week’s Honda Classic champion Sungjae Im (-2) and Bryson DeChambeau (-1). Keith Mitchell, Joel Dahmen, Danny Lee and world No. 1 Rory McIlroy all finished T-5 at even par.
Check out how much each player won this week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
