Check the yardage book: Port Royal for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship

Puttview offers hole-by-hole maps of the Robert Trent Jones Sr. course in Bermuda, site of this week’s PGA Tour event.

Port Royal Golf course in Southampton, Bermuda – site of this week’s Butterfield Bahamas Championship on the PGA Tour – was designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and opened in 1970. Roger Rulewich completed a renovation of the course a little more than a decade ago.

With several holes alongside the Atlantic Ocean, the public-access layout will play to 6,828 yards with a par of 71.

Thanks to yardage books provided by Puttview – the maker of detailed yardage books for more than 30,000 courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges that players face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.

Head pro battling Stage IV cancer gets sponsor exemption into Bermuda Championship

Playing golf “is like tranquility for me. I don’t have time to think about being sick.”

When Brian Morris received a sponsor exemption into the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, he cried.

The 53-year-old head pro at Ocean View Golf Course in Devonshire, Bermuda, “Mr. Golf” on the island according to his cousin, journeyman pro Michael Sims, will be making his first PGA Tour start as he continues to battle Stage IV cancer.

“You know what, first thing I thought of was how proud my father would be. He passed away about 35 years ago and he was my golf guy, he’s the one who got me into golf. So obviously I cried. I’m not afraid to tell anybody. It brought so many emotions out,” Morris said. “I was thinking how proud he would be, how proud my sons and my daughter’s going to be, my wife, my entire family. Like wow, you know, it was hard to explain except for tears.”

Almost two years ago, Morris experienced vertigo-like symptoms and went to the doctor for what he thought would be a routine examination.

“The doctor, you know, he does that finger across your eyes, and you follow the finger,” Morris told PGATour.com. “One of my eyes was moving. One of my eyes was, he said it was like a jittery type of like jerking. And he was like, oh, boy.

“So, he gave me a CAT scan. We went from CAT scan to an MRI to intensive care to air ambulance to brain surgery on Monday.”

Morris provided some gallows humor of his surgeon cutting into the back of his skull to remove a malignant tumor.

“‘You know, I’m taking the tumor out, but anything could happen,’ ” recounted Morris. “It could be paralysis. It could be this. It could be death. And I was blinking like uncontrollably. And he said, ‘Are you OK?’ And I say, ‘Yep, I’m fine. I’m just practicing waking up.’ ”

On Dec. 23, 2019, two days after the surgery, he was told his brain cancer was terminal and had metastasized to his stomach, neck and esophagus. He’s been undergoing chemotherapy at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston every three months. Those treatments have drained his energy supplies and he often finds it difficult to stand for more than a half hour at a time. He’ll be allowed to take a cart when he competes at Port Royal, which is hosting the PGA Tour for a third time. But when Morris gets on the golf course it’s as if he’s transformed.

“It’s like tranquility for me. I don’t have time to think about being sick. I don’t feel sick, I don’t act sick,” he said. “Just because I’m playing golf, I don’t have any time to think about anything like that. I’m just hitting shots and trying to make putts and trying to stay out of bunkers. It’s just so cool that playing golf like takes me completely away because I’m always in it, between doctors and hospitals and chemo and trips and Boston, always. It’s there every day except for those four and a half hours that I play golf, so I try to do that as often as possible.”

Based on his prognosis, Morris knows he’s playing this week on borrowed time—“I’ve been past my expiration date, you know?”—but he’s not taking anything for granted and hopes his story can serve as inspiration to others. Having teared up at the news of his sponsor invite, Morris was asked how he will he handle the emotions of playing in the tournament in front of family, friends and his club members.

“Probably cry on 18,” he said. “I’ll be emotional, 100 percent. But I have so many people with me, like cheering for me, wishing me well and I don’t want to let them down.”

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Padraig Harrington still chasing one more title, opens with a 67 at Bermuda

Harrington said he checks the PGA Tour Champions scoreboard first, if that tells you anything.

For the first time in a career spanning a quarter of a century, three-time major champion Padraig Harrington was in the group for the first tee time of the day.

“It was nice,” the Irishman said of his 6:45 a.m. ET tee time in the first round of the Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Club in Southampton, Bermuda. “I have no problem getting up and get going. If this was 10 years ago I would probably be getting up three and a half hours before my tee time. I would be doing all the physio and training and all sorts of stuff.

“Now at my age, I just get up and I do a few stretches and I’m off.”

The 49-year-old Harrington got going in a hurry with five birdies in his first 10 holes and finished with a 4-under-par 67 that placed him on the first page of the leaderboard among the early finishers.

It was one of the better postings of late for Harrington, who hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since the 2015 Honda Classic and hasn’t won on the European Tour since the 2016 Portugal Masters. While the winner of 21 titles worldwide was once ranked No. 3 in the world, he has fallen to No. 329 but still believes another title on either tour is on the horizon.

BERMUDATee times, TV info | Scoreboard

“I came back out of lockdown and I’ve been hitting the ball off the tee the best I’ve ever hit it and I’ve been putting well,” Harrington said. “My irons and my wedges haven’t been good and again my wedges were poor today. So I’m in a nice place, I don’t feel in any shape or form that I outplayed myself today.

“So we’ll see how the rest of the week is.”

This is Harrington’s first start on the PGA Tour since he missed the cut in the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March. It was his ninth consecutive missed cut on the PGA Tour. But in four starts on the European Tour prior to going to Bermuda, Harrington missed one cut, tied for 40th in the BMW PGA Championship, tied for ninth in the Scottish Open and tied for 14th in the Scottish Championship.

He’ll keep tinkering with his swing like he always has, keep working long hours like he always has. So, no, Harrington, who turns 50 next August, does not have any PGA Tour Champions’ events circled on his calendar, though the senior circuit intrigues him.

“Possibly even before the PGA Tour scores, I look at the Champions Tour scores,” he said. “I don’t know what that tells you. I would play wherever I think I could win and that’s it. So if I don’t think I can win out here, I won’t play here. I’m not here to turn up, I’m here to try and win, and wherever I’m playing, in my head I think I can win.”

Padraig Harrington of Ireland reacts after finishing on the 18th green during the first round of the Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course on October 29, 2020, in Southampton, Bermuda. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Harrington, who is playing the Houston Open next week, might not join the Champions tour next year but 2021 is definitely going to be different. Harrington is the Ryder Cup captain for Europe, so those duties will come calling.

“Right now it’s very quiet with Ryder Cup duties,” he said. “It’s kind of all about me now at the moment. Come the first of January and the points start up again, obviously there will be a bit more detail.

“How do I balance it? Basically, I’m older and I know I can’t do as much, so that’s it. I just have to take it a little bit easier and not, you know, do my old schedule. I’ll be busy with the Ryder Cup.”

Until then, he’ll keep going and trying to win No. 22.

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