in flux, a point that R&A chief Martin Slumbers deftly from corse178's blog
With five victories, Jonathan Byrd had such a productive PGA Tour career that spending any time on the developmental Web. Cheap MLB Jerseys Authentic .com Tour never crossed his mind. His only stop in the minor leagues was in 2001, so long ago that it then was known as the Buy.com Tour.A year after his playoff victory in the 2011 Tournament of Champions at Kapalua, however, Byrd had wrist surgery. He missed three months to start 2013, and his game and confidence slowly eroded to the point that he was trying to make cuts, make money and keep his job.You stop trying to bring your best and youre trying just to stay out here, and thats no way to play, Byrd said last month at the RSM Classic. The tighter you hang on, the farther you get away from what youre doing.With nothing but past champion status that would offer him limited starts, his best option to regain a full PGA Tour card was to spend a year on the Web.com Tour. That can be a tough pill for someone who had never come close to losing his PGA Tour card before the injury.Byrd, who turns 39 in January, brought with him an attitude that is worth emulating for anyone who winds up in that spot.It was humbling, Byrd said. To go back to the Web was difficult. Theres so many reminders every week that youre not where you want to be. But I tried to embrace it. ... I didnt want to be the grumpy old tour player talking about how great it is on tour and how bad it is out here and how good I used to be. I made friends out there. I enjoyed it. I focused on enjoying the competition.Byrd event turned down a half-dozen exemptions to PGA Tour events last year. He finished 48th on the money list (the top 25 get PGA cards) and he didnt earn one of the 25 additional spots from the four-tournament series at the end of the year.Even so, he was upbeat about his progress. Besides, being around a bunch of kids in their early 20s has helped.Youve got to play good to beat these guys, he said. But what Ive learned from being out here so long is that Ive got what it takes. Guys who have won five times on the PGA Tour, its a short list. Ive got something in there thats good enough. And I still think its good enough.---OH, BROTHER: Jordan Spieth is headed to Rhode Island this week to watch Brown host Maine in college basketball. His younger brother, Steven, is a senior who is averaging 15.4 points a game for the Bears.The former Masters and U.S. Open champion is doing everything he can to prepare, because this apparently involves more than sitting in the stands to cheer on little brother. Spieth suggested that there might be a little contest Thursday morning before the Brown game.Im not sure. He kind of set up something, Spieth said. We might be playing horse, and it might be videoed. At the moment, Im starting my grind in the gym, shooting a thousand shots a day so I dont embarrass myself.Asked if he knew where the public might see this video, Spieth said: Even if I knew, I certainly would not be announcing that. I think its through ESPN. Im not sure.However it turns out, perhaps Steven might consider coming out to Augusta National early for a putting contest.---POWER MEMORIES: Jim Furyk is used to players smashing it by him off the tee. One of the shorter hitters in golf, he still has managed to win 17 times, including the U.S. Open. But there was something about the 2009 Cadillac Championship at Doral that he still remembers clearly.I was paired with Adam Scott and Rory (McIlroy) the first two days, and I was hitting it real short, Furyk said. Im already short anyway, but I had a driver that I was hitting straight but real short. Were playing Doral. You know, Adam and Rory are hitting it 30 (yards) by me all day and Im like, `I need to get a new driver.It got worse. The next day, he was paired with a 23-year-old named Dustin Johnson, who was in his second year on tour. Furyk didnt know anything about him.Hes hitting it like 50 by me, Furyk said. I was like, `Who is this guy? We got paired later in the year at Boston, and he had a good event. Hes always been impressive.By the way, Furyk played that fourth round with a tall Spaniard in a straw hat named Alvaro Quiros, one of longest players on the European Tour.Didnt know anything about him, Furyk said. And hes trying to drive the second green.---MIGUELS MEMORIES: Miguel Tabuena sure had a memorable year for not having won a tournament.The 22-year-old Filipino shot 64-68 at Lake Merced and Olympic to win his sectional qualifier and play in his first U.S. Open. He qualified for the Rio Olympics. He made it to his first World Golf Championships events at the HSBC Champions. He contended alongside Jordan Spieth in Singapore. During back-to-back weeks in Asia, he played with Ernie Els in Malaysia and Dustin Johnson in Shanghai.This is my best year so far, he said.Tabuena was only 4 when the only other Filipino made it to a World Golf Championship -- Frankie Minoza, who lost in the opening round to Nick Price in the inaugural Match Play Championship at La Costa.Hes a living legend back home, someone I look up to, Tabuena said. Hopefully, I can have the half the success hes had in his career. I like where I am now at 22. The sky is the limit if I keep improving.Tabuena, who turned pro when he was 16, certainly got the attention of Johnson in Shanghai.Hes real young, but hes got some game, Johnson said. Hes not a real big guy but he hits it pretty far.---DIVOTS: The Walker Cup will be played in Florida for the first time. The amateur matches are coming to Seminole Golf Club in 2021. The USGA also said the 2025 Walker Cup will be held at Cypress Point Club on the Monterey Peninsula, where it last was played in 1981. Next years matches will be on the North Course at Los Angeles Country Club. ... Seventeen players were outside the top 100 in the world when they won on the PGA Tour this year. ... Patrick Reed (No. 8) and Bubba Watson (No. 10) are the only players from the top 10 in the world who did not have multiple victories this year. Hideki Matsuyama (No. 6) had the most with five victories worldwide. ... Thongchai Jaidee is playing an Asian Development Tour event this week in Thailand, needing a victory to get into the top 50 and assure a spot at the Masters next year.---STAT OF THE WEEK: Only two PGA Tour events in 2016 were won by the No. 1 player in the world -- Jordan Spieth at the Tournament of Champions and Jason Day at The Players Championship.---FINAL WORD: Thats a very, very difficult hole that he made look very, very easy. -- Jordan Spieth on Dustin Johnsons birdie on the 18th hole at Oakmont. Cheap Cubs Jerseys Authentic .R. Smith realized how easily basketball can be taken from him, and he wasnt going to take his place in the NBA for granted anymore. Cheap Cubs Jerseys . Third-seeded Murray had the easiest path to victory on New Years Eve, barely breaking a sweat during his 6-0, 6-0 win over 2,129th-ranked Qatari wildcard recipient Mousa Shanan Zayed. http://www.cheapcubsjerseysshop.com/ . Lack made 20 saves for his third shutout of the season as the Canucks blanked the St. Louis Blues 1-0 in the first post-Olympic game for both teams night. 1. What will Phil do next?Following such a bittersweet tournament at The Open, Phil Mickelson next week returns to Baltusrol for the PGA Championship -- where he won his second major title in 2005.Whether playing another major so soon is good or not remains to be seen, but Mickelson tried to view it as a positive in the aftermath of his second-place finish to Henrik Stenson at Royal Troon.A product of the schedule due to golfs return to the Olympic Games, the PGA has been moved up two weeks, giving players little time to prepare for another venue and a completely different style of golf.It doesnt give me a chance to take time off, per se, Mickelson said. It forces me to keep my game sharp.Mickelson was not headed home to San Diego after The Open but to the New York City area this week. He has some corporate responsibilities and that will give him a chance to get to nearby Baltusrol in Springfield, New Jersey.Ive got a lot of special memories going back to Baltusrol in 05 and [not having] a month to wait between majors is a good thing for me, he said. Ill try to look at the positives and take that into Baltusrol and keep my game sharp over the next week or two as opposed to going home and taking some time off.Mickelson has now finished runner-up in a major championship in each of the past four years, following up his second-place finish at the 2013 U.S. Open with a win at The Open. He was second at the 2014 PGA Championship to Rory McIlroy and second to Jordan Spieth last year at the Masters.2. Another Olympic problemYou can bet that members of the International Golf Federation were secretly rooting for Stenson over Mickelson on Sunday. The Swede is an enthusiastic supporter of the Olympic golf event, a welcome departure from all of the recent negativity surrounding player withdrawals. And it would have been embarrassing to have Mickelson win The Open -- and potentially the PGA next week -- and not be an Olympian.Nonetheless, Mickelsons second-place finish moved him to 13th in the world and the fifth-highest-ranked American. With Dustin Johnson and Spieth withdrawing, Mickelson would have qualified for the U.S. had the deadline been extended one week as the top 4 within the top 15 are eligible.The July 11 deadline was always ludicrous, just another in a long line of mistakes as they relate to the golf competition. IGF officials insist they were powerless to change it. Peter Dawson, head of the IGF and former CEO of the R&A, repeatedly lobbied the IOC to move the qualification deadline back one week and was rebuffed.3. If it had been any other year ...Mickelsons score in relation to par at The Open would have won 140 of the 145 played. Only Stenson (-20), Tiger Woods twice (-18 in 2006, -20 in 2000) and Nick Faldo (-18 in 1990) went lower. McIlroy was 17-under in 2014, the same number under par as Mickelson was at Royal Troon with an aggregate of 267.It should be noted that the first 31 Opens were played over just 36 holes and nobody came close to breaking par back then -- if they even looked at it that way. The Open does not note scores in relation to par until 1938. And no one got as low as 10-under-par until 1958.4. And its happened at other majors, tooNot only did Mickelson shoot a score that would have won nearly every other Open, he also did so at the 2015 Masters and the 2001 PGA Championship.Last year at Augusta National, Mickelson and Justin Rose tied for second, four strokes behind Spieth. Their total of 274, 14-under-par would have tied or won 74 of the 80 Masters.At the 2001 PGA, Mickelson finished second behind David Toms, shooting 266, 1 stroke behind Toms 265, which had been the major championship aggregate record until Stenson shot 264 at Royal Troon. Mickelson would have won every other PGA Championship with his score.5. Hey, lets do this some moreCount former Masters champiion Trevor Immelman among those who was pining for more golf from Stenson and Mickelson after their 18-hole showdown at Royal Troon. Cheap MLB Jerseys. 6. The closest observerJim Bones Mackay has caddied for Mickelson the entirety of his professional career, dating just before his pro debut at the 1992 U.S. Open. So it wasnt a surprise that Mackay took Sundays defeat to Stenson nearly as hard as his boss.Afterward, he marveled at the play of Stenson and gave props to the Swede for winning his first major. He also grieved a bit for Mickelson while pointing out the impressiveness of his 17-under-par performance, while also complimenting Mickelsons new coach, who he began working with last fall.You cant say enough about Andrew Getson. Hes been nothing short of phenomenal, Mackay said. Im so glad that Phil found him. He had an unbelievable warm-up session [Sunday]. Similar to Muirfield [2013] where he was hitting the ball so well on the range he just backed off and sat around. He took it to the course and had an incredible ball-striking day on the course. He shot 65 and finished second.The great thing about what he is doing now is he is loving playing. Hes been great. Hes played a lot better this year than even most people would think. If you look at the numbers, hes really, really played well this year. Im happy for him that hes got this kind of game. You can make the argument that this is as good a tournament as Ive seen him play in a long time.Mackay sees nothing about Mickelsons age of 46 holding him back.Not at all, he said. When youre as competitive as Phil is, absolutely not. He was very honest with you guys [the media, on Saturday]. He turned a 77 into 70 and it was amazing. He wasnt feeling it and he felt it [Sunday] and hit a lot of good shots.7. Henrik takes a hit -- sort ofThis is one of those First World problems, and undoubtedly youll never hear him say anything about it, but Open champion Stenson took a financial loss due to the recent Brexit vote which saw the United Kingdom decide to leave the European Union. That caused a big hit on the British pound, which has sunk to its lowest level against the dollar in decades.While the amount to the winner increased to ￡1,175,000 this year -- up about ￡25,000 -- Stenson actually earned less in U.S. dollars than Zach Johnson received last year for his victory at St. Andrews. In U.S. funds, Stenson earned $1,549,590 -- or about $245,100 less than Johnson. Presumably Stenson, who is from Sweden, converts to U.S. dollars because he lives full time in the United States.Stenson undoubtedly cares way more about the Claret Jug, regardless of the amount of the prize money.8. The State of TurnberryDonald Trumps ownership of the Turnberry Resort in Scotland has put the venues future as an Open site in flux, a point that R&A chief Martin Slumbers deftly sidestepped last week by noting that a decision on a future Open there is not imminent.Turnberry was and is part of the pool of courses for the Open Championship, Slumbers said. There are at the moment nine courses, and Turnberry is one of those.With The Open set for Royal Birkdale next year, Carnoustie in 2018 and Portrush in 2019, Turnberry is up for consideration. As Slumbers pointed out, 2020 or 2021 will go to a venue in England, with the other year going to St. Andrews.I had a chance to check out Turnberry last week -- it is roughly 25 miles south of Royal Troon on the Ayrshire coast -- and it would be a shame if the R&A did not go back. It is the most scenic of all the venues, the iconic lighthouse enhanced by a change to holes 9, 10 and 11 that make them a visually appealing part of a course that has undergone an impressive refurbishment.9. The Champion Golfer of the Year Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys ChinaNFL Cheap Jerseys ' ' '
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