Dylan Brack continues to do things to impress his childhood idol, Tiger Woods.
Dylan Brack continues to do things to impress his childhood idol, Tiger Woods.
Brack, an 18-year-old from Riverside, California, shot 8-under 64 at Palmilla Golf Club in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, at the Monday qualifier for the World Wide Technology Championship. He’ll make his PGA Tour debut this week at El Cardonal at Diamante in Los Cabos, the first course designed by Woods to hold a Tour event.
Brack, who started swinging with a plastic toy set at 2 ½ and joined the First Tee – Greater Pasadena at age 4 ½, participated in the TGR Learning Lab’s Player Development Program from age 7 to 12. He also won the inaugural TGR JR Invitational in 2022.
On his personal web site, Brack explained at a young age his parents purchased a right-handed putter and clubs and cut them down since they were still too big for him. But his parents noticed he would regularly turn the clubs around to imitate the pros he’d see on TV. Much like Phil. Mickelson before him, he began playing left-handed even though he’s right-handed.
Brack, who is half-Japanese and half-English, also has some family history in the game. His great-grandfather Yutaka “James” Ihira was a champion golfer in Hawaii, and he counts Tadd Fujikawa as a distant relative.
For a young golfer who has had his share of ties to Tiger, Brack adds another to list as he makes his Tour debut as an amateur.
Ryan Gerard, who earned his Tour card for next season via the Korn Ferry Tour money list, shot 65 along with Zach Bauchou, and William Moll nailed down the final berth in the field by winning a 3-for-1 playoff after posting 66.
The inaugural tournament at the course a year ago saw Erik van Rooyen hoist the trophy. He hasn’t won since but a strong week could boost him from the No. 67 spot he’s currently in. Golfers who finish 51-60 qualify for the first two signature events in 2025, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am and the Genesis Invitational.
The field of 120:
Tyson Alexander
Billy Andrade
Aaron Baddeley
Paul Barjon
Erik Barnes
Isidro Benitez
Daniel Berger
Zac Blair
Joseph Bramlett
Ryan Brehm
Jacob Bridgeman
Wesley Bryan
Hayden Buckley
Rafael Campos
Bud Cauley
Cameron Champ
Kevin Chappell
Pierceson Coody
Trace Crowe
Joel Dahmen
Santiago de la Fuente
Luke Donald
Kevin Dougherty
Adrien Dumont de Chassart
Tyler Duncan
Nico Echavarria
Austin Eckroat
Harris English
Patrick Fishburn
Wilson Furr
Mark Geddes
Doug Ghim
Lucas Glover
Emilio Gonzalez
Will Gordon
Max Greyserman
Ben Griffin
Lanto Griffin
Chesson Hadley
Blaine Hale, Jr.
Harry Hall
Nick Hardy
Garrick Higgo
Harry Higgs
Joe Highsmith
Austin Hitt
Rico Hoey
Charley Hoffman
Tom Hoge
J.B. Holmes
Beau Hossler
Michael Kim
S.H. Kim
Patton Kizzire
Kelly Kraft
Matt Kuchar
Martin Laird
Nate Lashley
K.H. Lee
David Lipsky
Luke List
Justin Lower
Ryan McCormick
Maverick McNealy
Troy Merritt
Keith Mitchell
Taylor Montgomery
Ryan Moore
Taylor Moore
Omar Morales
Trey Mullinax
Matt NeSmith
Henrik Norlander
Ryan Palmer
Raul Pereda
Chandler Phillips
Scott Piercy
Chad Ramey
Chez Reavie
Patrick Rodgers
Sam Ryder
Adam Schenk
Matti Schmid
Robby Shelton
Neal Shipley
Greyson Sigg
David Skinns
Roger Sloan
Alex Smalley
Austin Smotherman
J.J. Spaun
Hayden Springer
Sam Stevens
Kevin Streelman
Justin Suh
Adam Svensson
Callum Tarren
Ben Taylor
Josh Teater
Alejandro Tosti
Martin Trainer
Kevin Tway
Erik van Rooyen
Jhonattan Vegas
Camilo Villegas
Andrew Walker
Vince Whaley
Tom Whitney
Tim Wilkinson
Danny Willett
Brandon Wu
Dylan Wu
Norman Xiong
Cameron Young
Carson Young
Carl Yuan
A total of 12 sponsor exemptions were doled out to Billy Andrade, Isidro Benitez, Santiago de la Fuente, Luke Donald, Emilio Gonzalez, Harry Higgs, Austin Hitt, Omar Morales, Ryan Palmer, Scott Piercy, Neal Shipley, and Andrew Walker.
The outside shell of the towering indoor golf arena is complete.
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — The outside shell of the towering indoor golf arena rising on Palm Beach State College’s Palm Beach Gardens campus is complete.
Teams of players from around the world will compete in the TGL team at the SoFi Center starting in January. In the meantime, crews are working on the interior elements of the arena, entry pavilion, exterior plaza and player performance building.
TGL is the interactive golf league led by PGA Tour players Tiger Woods, who lives in Jupiter Island, and Rory McIlroy, who has a home in Jupiter. The first match is scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN on Jan. 7 during prime time.
Pieces of red steel framing sit on the outside of the building. They mark the site of the entry pavilion, where crews will install an LED screen and signs.
Rendering of the 1,500-seat SoFi Center that will house the TGL interactive golf league founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. (Photo provided by TGL)
The steel, walls and roof are also up on its player-performance building, a smaller structure on the south end of the arena where golfers will warm up.
Inside the arena, crews have installed a steel seating structure, a 46-foot-by-64-foot Jumbotron-type screen, HVAC ductwork, broadcast lighting, the framing of the owners’ boxes and player benches, according to a spokesperson for TGL presented by SoFi.
The arena is set for completion in mid-December, but players will start hitting balls at the SoFi Center in early November, its spokesperson said.
The entrance will be on the north end of the SoFi Center under construction for the TGL indoor golf league that was founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy on Palm Beach State College land on October 21, 2024, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
GREG LOVETT/PALM BEACH POST
TGL is hosting a job fair at PBSC campus
TGL is hosting a job fair on the PBSC campus on Tuesday, Oct. 29, from 2 to 7 p.m. for positions, including guest services, ushers, event production and ticket-takers. The job fair will be in Room SC-127 of the BioScience Building.
Maya Washburn covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at mwashburn@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
Tiger Woods isn’t in the field this week at the Zozo Championship, still rehabbing from his sixth surgery on his lower back in the last 10 years. But five years ago, he was coming off a nine-week break after surgery to repair minor cartilage damage in his left knee and despite an inauspicious start, he rattled off a tournament-best 27 birdies and won the inaugural PGA Tour tournament in Japan to tie Sam Snead with 82 career Tour titles.
After the victory the PGA Tour posted a photo of Tiger receiving an autograph from Slammin Sam. They first met when Tiger was six years old and they played a two-hole exhibition at Calabasas Country Club in Southern California.
“I remember hitting the ball into a little creek and playing it out of the water and making bogey. I bogeyed the last and he went par-par,” Woods recalled of the initial encounter. “The only time I ever got a chance to play with Sam Snead, I was 2 down through two.”
But Woods showed enough promise to make a lasting impression on the Hall of Famer, who won his 82nd title at the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open, becoming the oldest player in Tour history to win at age 52.
“If the kid doesn’t burn out, he’ll be the greatest golfer the world has ever seen,” Snead predicted.
In October 2019, some 37 years later, Woods went wire-to-wire at the Zozo Championship in Chiba – his 359th official start – and tied Snead in the record book.
Tiger Woods poses with the trophy after winning the 2019 Zozo Championship at the Narashino Country Club. (Photo by Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP via Getty Images)
To this day, many of the players who competed that week still talk about the galleries, estimated to be 20 deep, to see the man, the myth, the legend, the one and only Tiger Woods.
“The first day we stepped out here, the fans that lined the range and the first hole, I’ve never seen anything like it,” defending champion Collin Morikawa said on Wednesday during his pre-tournament press conference.
“I sat on the first tee with J.T. and Rory and I couldn’t believe how many people were just on the property,” Xander Schauffele recalled. “It felt like a major almost just for the amount of people…it was insane.”
Max Homa couldn’t help but laugh when he watched an Instagram video of the highlights and recap and marveled at how many people were there.
“What it does for a country like Japan who loves golf,” Homa said, “you wait probably all these years to get to see this person come and play in front of you and not only does he play in front of you, but he goes out and wins.”
Tiger Woods fans at the 2019 Zozo Championship at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club. (Getty Images)
It didn’t look that way early. Woods hit his opening tee shot of the tournament into the water and made three straight bogeys. Then he carded birdies on nine of his remaining 15 holes to shoot 64 and claim the lead. He followed with another 64 on Friday before a typhoon dumped nearly 10 inches of water onto Narashino Country Club postponing play. Tiger spent his day off watching the movie Joker and with limited dining options joined a group of players, including Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, at a Domino’s Pizza.
Woods had to play 29 holes on Sunday, which wasn’t ideal for his body. After the storm, Tour officials closed the course to the public but that didn’t prevent a crowd from gathering outside the gates.
“One of my favorite stories to tell people is the day that the course was closed to the fans, we drove in and fans were waiting on the streets with signs, hundreds of people,” remembered Homa. “It was really cool to see.”
Woods stretched his lead to as many as five before Japan’s own Hideki Matsuyama cut it to three before play was suspended due to darkness and forcing a Monday finish. But who was really going to catch Tiger, the all-time greatest frontrunner? He had won 44 of 46 times he had held the outright 54-hole lead, including all 25 times his advantage had been at least three strokes. Longtime golf writer Steve DiMeglio was on the scene for Golfweek and USA Today and he’d seen this movie before. “With a lead in Woods’ hand, opponents face an 0-2 count or it’s 3rd-and-35 if you compare it to other sports,” he wrote.
Tiger Woods celebrates at the 2019 Zozo Championship at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
Matsuyama made a birdie at 16 to make it interesting but Woods, dressed in his traditional red shirt on Monday and black Nike vest, hat and pants, finished in style, carding birdies at 14 and 18 and signing for 3-under 67 and a three-stroke win over Matsuyama. He hoisted his 82nd trophy 23 years to the day of his first Tour title at the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational.
“It’s a big number. It’s about consistency and doing it for a long period of time,” Woods said. “I’ve been very fortunate to have had the career I’ve had so far. To have won this tournament in Japan, it’s just so ironic because I’ve always been a global player, I’ve always played all around the world and to tie the record outside the United States is pretty cool.”
“The ball-striking exhibition I’ve seen the last two days is a joke,” Gary Woodland, who played alongside him for the final 36 holes, said.
Woodland is quoted more extensively in Bob Harig’s book “Drive,” saying, “His distance control was something I’ve never seen. His misses are all in the right spots. He didn’t hit the ball left for two days. When you have a one-way miss you can be aggressive…He looked like the best player in the world. It was impressive to watch, pretty special.”
Woods the player also impressed Woods the U.S. Presidents Cup captain that week in Japan, and he ended up earning a much-deserved captain’s pick to the team headed for Australia, where he went 3-0 as the U.S. rallied for a hard-fought victory.
“I’d say that was the best I’ve seen him play of all the times that we played together,” Thomas said of partnering with Woods in two matches. “Just watching him kind of pick his way around Royal Melbourne and shaping shots and just hitting the ball miles in the air and kind of hitting it low, running it around different places. He was in such a focused state and just in such a zone, I was very, very fortunate to get to watch that live and be his partner not only because it was cool to watch, but he was playing so well it was going to be hard for him to lose a match. So I was on the right end of that as a partner.”
It seemed only a matter of time until Woods would notch win No. 83 and break the tie with Snead but that was before his body breaking down forced more operations, he survived a near-fatal car crash in 2021, and as Woods approaches his 49th birthday, Snead’s share of the record seems more likely than ever to remain intact.
But five years ago, golf fans enjoyed an unexpected vintage Tiger performance. Karen Crouse, then of The New York Times, said it best when she wrote, “Even if Woods’s play in Chiba turns out to be nothing more than a resplendent rainbow after a big storm, it was magnificent to behold.”
No word on whether tournament host Tiger Woods will compete.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is set to defend his title at the Hero World Challenge in December as the tournament announced 17 competitors in the 20-man field. No word on whether tournament host Tiger Woods will compete and start his latest comeback from his latest surgery.
This year’s field features five of the top 10 players in the world. In addition to Scheffler, who also won the Masters in April, Olympic Gold in Paris in July and the FedEx Cup in August, No. 7 Hideki Matsuyama, the 2016 tournament champion, returns after an absence, as does No. 9 Patrick Cantlay, who starred at the Presidents Cup last month. Nine members of the United States’ victorious 2024 Presidents Cup team and three members of the International team (Matsuyama, Sungjae Im and Tom Kim) will compete at Albany.
Six players will make their Hero World Challenge debuts this December – Ludvig Aberg, Sahith Theegala, Russell Henley, Robert MacIntyre, Aaron Rai and Matthieu Pavon. The 2024 field represents golfers from seven different countries (U.S., Republic of Korea, Japan, England, Scotland, France and Sweden).
Woods, a five-time past champion of the event, had microdecompression surgery on his lower back Sept. 13 to relieve nerve impingement and back pain. He hasn’t announced when he plans to try to play again. He often has used the Hero World Challenge as a barometer of how his body is feeling in a 72-hole, no-cut event and work off some rust after a layoff. Woods last played at the British Open in July. The 2024 edition of the tournament returns to Albany for the ninth year, from Dec. 5-8.
The remaining three sponsor invites into the field will be announced at a later date. It’s not unusual for Woods to wait to announce his participation in the event. He typically also plays in the PNC Championship with son Charlie, which will be played the weekend before Christmas this year.
After second place finishes at Albany in 2021 and 2022, Scheffler capped off his second straight year as PGA Tour Player of the Year with a victory in the 2023 Hero World Challenge. Following an opening-round 69, Scheffler took control of the tournament with rounds of 66 and 65 on Friday and Saturday – both the low rounds of the days. A final-round 68 Sunday sealed the victory.
Live television coverage of the Hero World Challenge will be provided by Golf Channel during all four rounds and by NBC Sports during the third and final rounds.
Man’s best friend deserves a good home – and a good name.
Man’s best friend deserves a good home – and a good name.
It’s hard to top the cuteness level of naming stray pups Rickey Howler, Tiger Woofs and Doggie Pepper.
It just so happened that when a Good Samaritan rescued an emaciated dog and a pile of 10 puppies alone in the Missouri woods, it coincided with the September day of the fundraising golf tournament for the Stray Rescue of St. Louis. So, they decided why not name the dog and puppies after famous golfers.
In addition to coining plays on the names of Rickie Fowler, Tiger Woods and Dottie Pepper, they named the puppies Graeme McHowell, Betsy Jawls, Inbee Bark, Louise Puggs, Arnold Pawmer and Woofy Austin. The rescue also named the mom Mary, Queen of Scots, in recognition of her being the first recorded female golfer.
“The mom was so thin,” Cassady Caldwell, the CEO of the Stray Rescue of St. Louis, told People magazine. “She has literally given everything she has to keep her babies alive. Other than being covered head to toe in fleas, they were in good shape.”
Thankfully, this story has a happy ending as the Stray Rescue of St. Louis found a foster parent for Mary and all 10 of her puppies shortly after the group reached the facility.
Here’s wishing the best to Doggie Pepper, Inbee Bark and Woofy Austin.
Check out each product in Sun Day Red’s new outerwear collection, rain gear approved by Tiger Woods.
Fall is the best time of year to get out on the golf course, but it also comes with its challenges. Cooler weather means your wardrobe needs to be stocked up with apparel that will keep you comfortable and warm during those chilly rounds. Tiger Woods’ Sun Day Red has released its outerwear collection that includes several items that are designed to keep you warm when cool temperatures and rain come your way.
“Tiger has distinct outerwear preferences, especially for wet weather,” Sun Day Red’s website reads. “He’s found traditional rainwear billows or bends at the wrong moments, like when lining up a putt. So, we created an innovative kit technology that provides plenty of stretch and a more tailored fit, making it easy to slip on and off without any restrictive bulk.”
Tiger Woods won the same stop three times in a row six different times.
Only six golfers have ever done it. It’s only happened 11 times in all on the PGA Tour and Tiger Woods has done it six of those times. On two of those occasions, Woods won the same tournament four years in a row.
We’re talking about winning the same PGA Tour event three years in a row, something that hasn’t happened in 13 years, not since the 2011 John Deere Classic.
The list of PGA Tour golfers who have won the same tournament three consecutive seasons has some big names on it, for sure. Woods, as mentioned. Jack Nicklaus was the first to do it. Many of the game’s greats never pulled off this feat, though. Tom Kim has the chance to do it at the 2024 Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas.
Check out the list of names and tournaments below. Source: pgatour.com.
PopStroke will soon have 17 locations in six states.
The first PopStroke opened in Florida in 2019 and there are now 15 locations in six states. The 16th will open soon in San Antonio and then all eyes will be on No. 17.
That’s the one that PopStroke is calling its “flagship” venue.
Billed as the most expansive build-out yet, the Palm Beach, Florida, location will have an outdoor rooftop pool and a sushi lounge.
Popstroke calls its experiences “elevated mini golf and entertainment venues backed by Tiger Woods and TaylorMade.”
PopStroke is also currently engaged in a fundraiser throughout the month of October in partnership with The Jimmy Fund and The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. PopStroke is donating $1 from every round of golf, with $100,000 already raised for The Jimmy Fund.
Check out Tiger’s letter to perspective members of new course near Fort Worth.
This story was updated to include information about Mark Brooks at the new club.
Tiger Woods announced on social media Thursday that his course architecture firm, TGR Design, has signed on to build a course at a new residential community underway near Fort Worth, Texas: Bluejack Ranch.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because the developers behind the project – Andy and Kristin Mitchell – also built Bluejack National north of Houston in 2016. That is the site of Woods’ first course design in the U.S., Bluejack National.
The name Bluejack, by the way, references a bluejack oak, a tree native to Texas with one present at Bluejack National.
Bluejack Ranch in Aledo will be about a 30-minute drive southwest of Fort Worth. It is planned to be a residential club on 914 acres of working cattle ranch, according to the club’s website. Plans call for it to open in 2026.
Over a decade ago, I designed my first U.S. course at Bluejack National. I’m excited to announce that @tgrdesignbytw, @BluejackNation, and the Mitchell family are teaming up again to create @BluejackRanch, an exceptional new golf community in Aledo, Texas.… pic.twitter.com/k2nNCR82nB
Course details were not included in the social post, but Golf.com reported that the plans include a full-size course built by Woods and his design partner, Beau Welling. There also will be a lighted 10-hole, par-3 course.
Fort Worth native Mark Brooks, winner of the 1996 PGA Championship among his seven PGA Tour titles, confirmed to Golfweek that he is a senior advisor to the project and will transition into running the club’s player development programs. The club will include a full golf and fitness performance center.
It’s hard to believe it’s been over ten years since we embarked on my first U.S. course design at Bluejack National in Houston. The response to that golf experience has been truly gratifying, and when I hear how much Bluejack means to people, I feel incredibly proud of the TGR Design team.
Now, we’re bringing that same Bluejack spirit and passion to Fort Worth- a city celebrated not only as Cowtown but also as a golf town. With legends like Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, the love for the game here is genuine. I’m grateful for the encore opportunity to reteam with Bluejack National and home-towners Andy and Kristin Mitchell to design a course around this incredibly special property and community.
Bluejack National’s success has paved the way for this next chapter at Bluejack Ranch. Our shared vision of creating a space where families can enjoy the game and have fun inspires us all once again at The Ranch.
It’s extremely motivating for me to contribute to the golfing legacy of Fort Worth, and I’m excited to see what we’ll build together. We’ll share more after our next design meeting in Aledo.
