The post How this rare benefit helped Max Homa hit one of the clutchest shots of his life appeared first on Golf.

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Preferred lies aren’t common on the PGA Tour, but they are employed, certainly far more commonly than they are in the majors. The final round at the Fortinet Championship Sunday was just such an instance. Due to heavy rain in the Napa, Calif., area, the Tour decided to allow the players to lift, clean and place their balls in closely mown areas.

Enter the lie Max Homa encountered with his fourth shot on the 72nd hole: a nervy, short-sided chip off a runoff area to a green running away from him. Nightmare stuff.

Two back of then-leader Danny Willett, who was staring down a birdie putt of less than 4 feet, Homa had one goal for his 30-foot birdie chip: send it to its home. When nothing less than a perfectly nipped shot will do, the lie is crucial. And here, Homa had the local rules in his corner.  

“Lift, clean and place,” Homa said Sunday evening. “I got to kind of pick my lie.”

Homa picked up his ball, wiped it clean and carefully placed it back down on a slight upslope.

It was a pressure-packed moment, but Homa, who had won four times previously on Tour, said he felt in control of his nerves, later adding that “I just had this calmness about me. I actually didn’t feel quite as nervous as I have before. I think experience has helped a bit in some of these wins.” That said, the shot was still a killer. “It was dead,” Homa said. “I mean, it was as short-sided as you could be. You couldn’t really stop it.” Well, unless you jarred it. At the very least, Homa now had a tasty lie from which to operate.

The contact was something close to perfect.

“It just felt like the whole week kind of hadn’t really gotten any, like, serious luck, and I clipped the pitch really good,” Homa said. “I spun it and once it hit the pin, it was almost like it spun straight into the ground. It was just one of those things.”

Willett, who grinned broadly after the ball dropped, looked some combination of amused and stunned, but probably more of the latter. “I expected him to do it,” Willett said, “but then it’s still a bit of a shock when it happens.”

An even bigger shock was still to come: Willett missed his birdie try from 3 feet, 7 inches and also his 4-foot-8-inch comebacker. A three-putt from less than 4 feet with the tournament in the balance. Homa was suddenly and stunningly the winner of the PGA Tour’s 2022-23 season opener.

Homa’s preferred lie will take nothing away from what was one of the great clutch shots in recent PGA Tour memory, but it still will go down as an interesting wrinkle in a Sunday afternoon full of them.

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The post This stunning three-putt cost Danny Willett nearly $600,000. Here’s how he explained it appeared first on Golf.

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Last season on the PGA Tour, Danny Willett attempted 148 putts from between 3 and 5 feet.

He made 135 of them. That’s a conversion rate of 91.22%.

So, when Willett sized up a birdie putt from 3 feet 7 inches on the 72nd hole of the Fortinet Championship Sunday, you had to like his chances.

By now, you likely know what happened next. Willett missed the putt, hammering it through the gentle left-to-right break. The comebacker was slightly longer — 4 feet 8 inches — but still a length from which Tour pros rarely miss. Willett? He botched it again, becoming the only player all week at the Fortinet to three-putt from within five feet while simultaneously kicking away a golden opportunity to claim his first title on U.S. soil since the 2016 Masters. Pick your favorite “s” word: stunning, shocking, startling, stupefying. They all applied.  

How did it happen? Some things are unexplainable. But Willett, to his credit, hung around on Sunday evening in Napa and did his best to unpack it all.

The context is important.

Just a few minutes before Willett addressed his first putt, you couldn’t have blamed him for already thinking ahead to popping bottles at his victory party. His closest chaser, Max Homa, was lying three off the green, needing a miracle hole-out to draw within one. Willett, meanwhile, had just stuffed a spinny wedge shot that left him within kick-in range. Homa looked primed to make par at best; Willett looked assured of a birdie. You could comfortably flip back to your favorite NFL team. The tournament was as good as over.

Again, you likely know what happened next. Homa jarred his chip. All Willett could do was munch on his gum and smile. He later said he had expected Homa to make it — that’s a wise strategy in match-play situations: expect the best out of your opponent so you’re mentally ready for anything — but deep down, did Willett really think Homa would make a 4? He couldn’t have. As Willett himself later said, “It’s still a bit of a shock when it happens.”

Suddenly, Willett had one putt for the win instead of two.

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After shocking 72nd-hole plot twist, Max Homa wins Fortinet Championship

By: Jack Hirsh

Still…from a mere 43 inches! Not quite inside the leather, but not far outside it, either.

Willett had been paying close attention to the 11-foot birdie putt of his playing partner Justin Lower. The putt was on the opposite side of the hole from Willett’s shorty, but there still were learnings to be had when Lower’s try drifted by the hole.

“Justin’s obviously stayed right on the first one,” Willett said afterward, “which was a bit strange with how I was seeing mine, because I saw mine pretty nicely left to right.”

Seeds of doubt are never helpful on the greens, but are especially problematic when you’re staring down a putt for $1.44 million. Judging from his stroke, Willett didn’t want to give his ball much choice but to disappear into the hole. He rammed it. “I hit it obviously far too hard,” Willett said. The ball glanced off the left edge of the cup and left him nearly 5 feet coming back.

“He’s not done yet,” one of the announcers said.

“Not done yet at all,” said another.

Homa looked on pensively tugging on his beard.

Now, Willett faced a right-to-lefter, again from a distance from which he’d normally walk in putts. But when a PGA Tour title is on the line, the greens feel faster and the holes look smaller. Willett still had Lower’s putt on his mind.

“From where he was coming from, I thought it was straighter,” Willett said of his own par try. It wasn’t straight. Halfway to the hole, Willett’s putt tugged left. “Again, yeah, just ended up tailing off and missing,” he said.

Stunning, shocking, startling, stupefying.

In the moment, it was hard to recall a more jarring PGA Tour finish. The combination of Homa’s heroics paired with Willett’s heartbreak was almost too much to process. “That was crazy,” Homa said after the dust had settled and he’d claimed his fifth Tour win. “I still don’t really know what happened. Just kind of one of those weekends you just had to hang around I felt like.”

Hang around, because you never know what 72nd-hole pressure might do to a golfer.

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“On 18, it was a weird situation,” Homa said. “Danny hit a beautiful shot in there, and four feet for the win. It’s always going to be a bit trickier, but the way he was playing and the way he was putting, made an unbelievable putt on 17 for par. I kind of had to assume he was going to make it.”

On the PGA Tour these days, the guys like to talk a lot about legacy — i.e., one of the few things LIV Golf can’t buy. Fighting for titles isn’t so much about the money as it as about the chance to play for history. That may be true to many players, but the cash still matters. It always does. When Willett’s par putt on 18 nicked the left edge of the hole but didn’t drop, he had lost not only the chance to compete in a playoff for his second Tour win but also $568,000, the difference between first- and second-place prize money.    

If the Englishman was crestfallen, he did an admirable job not showing it.

“Disappointing way to finish,” he said. “But, you know, first [tournament] out of the season. Like I said, to be in contention, things are in a good place. Yeah, we’ll live to fight another day.”

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Max Homa was on the ropes. He had just left his third shot from the bunker at the par-5 18th at the Silverado Resort and Spa North Course short of the green.

His opponent, Danny Willett, was already one shot ahead and had less than four feet for birdie to seal the win.

The 2022 Fortinet Championship was over.

Until it wasn’t.

Homa holed his fourth shot from a collection area left of the 18th green…

…and then watched as Willett missed his birdie putt and then shockingly missed again, this one from about five feet, handing the first title of the 2022-23 PGA Tour season to Homa.

Under these stunning circumstances, Homa successfully defended his Fortinet victory from a year ago and started the new season with his fifth career Tour win.

“My coach just said just hang around, hang around, hang around,” Homa said after the win. “And I don’t know, last like three minutes are kind of a blur.”

Willett looked in control for much of Sunday’s final round. He quickly grabbed the lead from 54-hole leader Justin Lower with three birdies in the first eight holes.

Homa, who was tied with Willett through three rounds at 12 under, remained steady through the same stretch before pulling even with Willett early on the back nine thanks to three-straight birdies of his own.

Willett took control again on 14, hitting a miraculous second shot, which bended some 50 yards around a tree directly in front of him and setting up a birdie giving him a one-stroke advantage, which he took to 18.

The Englishman hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since his dramatic victory at the 2016 Masters.

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In that tournament, it was Willett who stole the show from Jordan Spieth who seemingly had the major locked up.

This time, however, it was Homa who took the title, and Willett who was left shell-shocked.

“I played really good golf, I played solid,” Homa said. “Danny and Justin both played great, but I just tried to play my game and just see where it got me. I don’t know, it was a wild finish.”

After holing his fourth, Homa looked at his caddie Joe Greiner, slowly walked over to him and let out a big scream in jubilation. His final-round 68 put him at 16 under for the tournament.

Willett simply smiled.

“I expected him to do it, but then it’s still a bit of a shock when it happens,” Willett said of the moment. “He played — we all played really good today. Like I said, bit of a shame to kind of finish how I did.”

In the end, Willett pulled his birdie putt by the hole and did the same on the par putt from slightly farther away, both catching the left lip.

“I hit it, obviously, far too hard,” Willett said. “I thought it was straighter … just ended up tailing off and missing left. Yeah, disappointing way to finish, but you know, first out of the season, like I said, to be in contention, things are in a good place. Yeah, we’ll live to fight another day.”

Homa kicked off the new PGA Tour season with a win and will take the momentum from Napa — plus his T5 finish at the Tour Championship last month — into his first team appearance at the Presidents Cup next week in Charlotte.

Homa was the only U.S. team member to tee it up in Napa, and the move paid off in the best way possible.

“I’m just happy to be in form, to represent my country, play with those boys,” Homa said. “They’re some good golfers, so I just wanted to come in in form. Honestly, I got a lot of people — I know this is Twitter, but I’ve had a lot of people tell me if the LIV guys wouldn’t have left, I wouldn’t have made the Presidents Cup team, so I had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder this week.”

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The post Brutal out-of-bounds ruling raises question: How is OB measured, anyway? appeared first on Golf.

Danny Willett’s Callaway came to rest on the left side of the 10th hole at Port Royal Golf Club, sitting on the very edge of the boundary between the course and the neighboring property.

The matter of whether Willett’s ball was inside or outside the boundary was of extreme significance. Sitting at one over par on the difficult first day of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, he’d taken an aggressive line off the tee, cutting the corner on the short par-4. If his ball was ruled in bounds, he’d be chipping down toward the flag for eagle. Out-of-bounds and he’d be back to the tee to replay the very shot he’d just hit.

Willett was giving the matter his full attention as Golf Channel’s cameras joined his group.

“If there was a white line drawn here…” he began. Anyone who has played golf knows this helpless feeling, somewhere between “denial” and “bargaining” in the stages of grief. Surely he couldn’t be this unlucky. Surely his ball couldn’t be out of play by this slim a margin.

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“It is the inside edge,” the PGA Tour official replied, referring to the inside of the stakes, demarcating the O.B. line.

“But if you drew a white line, the line would obviously be, if it was the width of the post, the ball would be on it,” Willett said. “But it’s not the width of the stake, is it?”

“No,” the official replied. He took a closer look. “It’s out by, I’d say — it’s out by about an inch.”

Willett was understandably miffed. Out-of-bounds rulings are golf’s most painful because they’re penalized so harshly, and they’re even more painful in a situation like this, where Willett actually had a reasonable swing at the ball. He returned to the far stake for another peek down the line, just to make sure.

The scenario raised an important question for anyone who ever hits a ball off-line: How is O.B. measured, anyway?

For one thing, it’s not always particularly glamorous — even on the PGA Tour. Here Willett and the official had a TV cable stretched from one pole to the next. (Other weeks, officials will travel with lengths of string to accomplish the same thing.) If there’s a line on the ground, that’s the official line. If there are merely stakes marking the boundary line, you do your best to draw a line between them.

The good news for players is that when taking this measurement, if any part of your golf ball is in bounds (on the course side of the line) you’re in play. Think of it like a football player trying to break the plane of the end zone. Once you get the nose of the ball across, you’re in business.

The bad news for players is that the line in question starts at the “course-side” of the stakes. The USGA calls those “boundary objects.” So if you have a string and you’re using it to measure the boundary line, you’ll have to measure on the in-bounds side of the stakes, rather than the out-of-bounds side.

Here’s how the USGA defines it:

When defined by stakes or a fence, the boundary edge is defined by the line between the course-side points of the stakes or fence posts at ground level (excluding angled supports), and those stakes or fence posts are out of bounds.

It’s a silly, minute detail, right? But for Willett, it was the difference between hitting his second shot from the rough and hitting his third shot off the tee.

This is more detail than you need, but while we’re at it: That boundary extends down below the ground and up into the air, so if your ball is embedded below the surface, you measure it where it lies. And if your ball is stuck in a tree, same deal. You might be out of bounds in three dimensions.

For Willett, the re-measurement confirmed what he had already feared: his ball was on the wrong side of the stake. It didn’t matter that it was merely an inch outside; the penalty would have been the same had he missed by 100 yards.

Willett grimaced at his caddie, who pulled driver from his bag and handed it back to him as he stepped aboard the cart of that same official, who took him back toward the tee, no doubt wishing he had hit his previous shot two inches farther right.

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The post We’re celebrating these 6 Masters anniversaries at Augusta National in 2021 appeared first on Golf.

The post We’re celebrating these 6 Masters anniversaries at Augusta National in 2021 appeared first on Golf.

History is made annually at Augusta National — it is one of the Masters’ finest attributes. Each spring (or in 2020’s case, fall) brings with it a fresh slate ripe for a new chapter in the history of the game.

In 1997, the Masters marked the emergence of a brilliant new talent in the game of golf when Tiger Woods lapped the field at Augusta. Seven years later, in 2004, Augusta National was the setting for a victory at long last, when Phil Mickelson’s long putt on the 72nd hole fell in. In 2019, it was Woods once again as the Masters signified the completion of one of the sport’s most improbable comebacks.

And that’s only in the last 23 years.

Masters history is golf history, and vice versa, which is part of what makes it so fun to regale the tournament’s storied past. Below are six Masters anniversaries we’re celebrating at Augusta National in 2021.

5 Years Ago, in 2016…

Englishman Danny Willett held on to beat a collapsing Jordan Spieth for his only win on the PGA Tour. 

10 Years Ago, in 2011… 

It took an unprecedented four closing birdies for South African Charl Schwartzel to finish two shots clear of Adam Scott and Jason Day.

25 Years Ago, in 1996…

This was supposed to be Greg Norman’s green jacket, but a final-round 67 by Sir Nick Faldo delivered the knighted one his third Masters win. 

35 Years Ago, in 1986…

In the greatest of all Masters Tournament triumphs, Jack Nicklaus played his final 10 holes in seven under par to capture his record sixth green jacket. 

45 Years Ago, in 1976…

Four-time major winner Raymond Floyd went wire-to-wire, finishing with a total of 271 (–17), eight strokes clear of runner-up Ben Crenshaw. 

50 Years Ago, in 1971…

Texas shotmaker Charles Coody out-dueled none other than the Golden Bear and a hotshot rookie named Johnny Miller to capture his lone major championship. 

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Danny Willett was cruising around Augusta National in his first round at this 2020 Masters, with four birdies against a pair of bogeys through 16 holes. Then came his tee shot at the par-4 17th.

Crack.

The face of his three-year-old Callaway Rogue driver had given way.

With just two holes left to play, it didn’t seem like a big deal. Willett could swap in a spare before his second round commenced Friday afternoon.

“I tried,” the 2016 Masters champion said on Friday evening. “I’ve got a spare head, but it wasn’t as good, so we just thought we took the decision out and didn’t even put it in the bag for the second round.”

That’s right, in a tournament where distance — in particular, the Herculean drives of Bryson DeChambeau — has dominated so much of the talk, Willett was going to willingly cede yardage to Augusta National and go without a big stick.

Then again, after five Masters starts, including that magical week four years ago, Willett knows his way around this place. The softer greens on Friday also influenced his decision.

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“This golf course I play quite a lot of 3‑wood around here anyway. Always have,” he said. “This place for me has always been a second‑shot golf course, and especially with how receptive some of these smaller tiers are, it kind of made it a little bit easier. You’re coming in with 6‑iron instead of 8‑iron, your ball is still going to stop on the green, whereas in years gone past, that would have been a real big disadvantage.”

Instead, Willett made his driver-less strategy look like an advantage.

Averaging just 279 off the tee in his second round, Willett made six birdies, plus an eagle on 13, to post a blistering six-under 66. When dusk fell, he was at seven under for the tournament, just two back of the pack of leaders at nine under.

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Willett now faces another vexing decision: Does he tinker with some new driver heads on the range Saturday until he finds a suitable replacement, or does he finish the tournament without the longest club in his bag? With ideal conditions and the SubAir pumping, the greens will surely bake out over the weekend, meaning the difference between that 6- and 8-iron Willett referenced will become more extreme.

“We’re going to have a little look,” Willett said, but if he can’t find a driver with which he’s comfortable, “we’ll end up just playing as we have done today.”

“It’s maybe not worth it so we’ll just have to wait and see.”

If Willett can put up another 66 on Saturday, it definitely won’t have been worth it.

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Bryson DeChambeau once again dominated the headlines in the world of golf, but there was plenty else happening that you might’ve missed last week. Here’s a refresher.

PGA Tour announces new fall series

The coronavirus pandemic threw a wrench into the PGA Tour schedule, but there were reverberations felt on other tours as well. While the PGA Tour (and its top development circuit, the Korn Ferry Tour) was able to pivot plans and alter logistics to safely return to play, other development tours — PGA Tour Series-China, Mackenzie Tour and PGA Tour Latinoamérica — were not so fortunate.

To compensate for these coronavirus-induced lack of playing opportunities, the PGA Tour is planning an eight-event fall series for players from those tours. According to an email sent to players, the series is scheduled to take place from August through October across the southeast United States. There will be various Covid-19 protocols and “the events will be operated under Tour oversight to provide competitive integrity and player payment assurance.”

The series is slated to feature 54-hole, stroke-play events with 36-hole cuts of the low 55 players and ties. The events will have 144-player fields with approximate purses of $100,000, with $16,000 to each tournament’s winner. Entry fees will be $675.

Erik Barnes continues strong play

Erik Barnes was covered in last week’s column for his stellar play coming back from golf’s hiatus, but he deserves another shout out this week, too.

After month’s spent waking in the wee hours of the morning to stock groceries in order to make ends meet, Barnes has returned to golf with some beautiful play. He followed his T13 performance with a T3 finish this past week at the TPC Colorado Championship, his best in over two years. Impressive perseverance from the journeyman.

Will Zalatoris breaks through in Colorado

For Will Zalatoris, it was always about when, not if, he’d notch his first professional victory. At least, that’s what he kept telling himself.

“I’ve won at every level. I know that eventually win I’ll here,” Zalatoris said last summer at the TPC Colorado Championship. “It’s just a matter of time.”

One year later, his prediction came true at the same venue where he made the claim.

After knocking on the door since golf’s return (T6, T3, 4), Zalatoris finally broke through for his first Korn Ferry Tour victory at TPC Colorado, a final-round 69 sealing his fate. He now sits atop the Korn Ferry Tour standings and is in excellent shape to graduate to the PGA Tour.

“Now we’re one step closer to getting our card,” Zalatoris said.

Another bonus? He’s solidified a spot in the U.S. Open with his spot atop the Korn Ferry Tour standings. Pretty sweet week for the 23 year old.

Danny Willett has best finish since 2016

Every golf fan is familiar with Danny Willett. As the beneficiary of an epic Jordan Spieth Masters collapse, it’s hard not to know the name. But after his 2016 Masters win, the Englishman fell into a rut.

As recently as 2018, Willett had fallen to No. 462 in the World Ranking — a far cry from the summit he’d climbed two years prior. Since that valley though, he’s steadily climbed his way back — even carding a win at the BMW PGA last fall — ascending back into the top 50, where he sits currently at 36th.

The Rocket Mortgage Classic represented another important fence post for Willett as he finished T4, his best on the PGA Tour since that fateful Masters win. Although he splits his playing time on both sides of the pond, it’s good to see him back in form stateside.

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Jon Rahm finished second at the BMW PGA Championship on Sunday in England.

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