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Tour, Tiger Love Boston

August 7, 2019 by Digital Sports Desk

By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief, on-site in NJ

JERSEY CITY – The PGA Tour is entering the annual Fed Ex Cup Playoffs this weekend, here in the shadows of Lady Liberty but on “the Jersey side” of the Empire State Building. With the annual PGA Tour home stretch towards the Tour Championship (Atlanta), Boston sports fans would be checking their Labor Day weekend schedules with hopes of making it to TPC Boston in bucolic Norton, Massachusetts for, at least, one round of professional golf.

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland loved Boston with all its Irish support, (not to mention his championships in 2012 and ’16), as did former champions like Vijay Singh, Henrik Stenson,  Charlie Hoffman, Rickie Fowler (thanks for the “Dom” bubbly in ’15, Rickie), and last year’s champ Bryson DeChambeau. Even a Los Angeles Lakers fan like 2006 champion Tiger Woods loved to play his Labor Day weekends in Boston, whether it was the trophy he bought with his own foundation’s cash – depicting the old Deutsche Bank Championship (DBC) – or the more modern-day Dell Technologies Championship or this well-run Northern Trust event, Tiger loved the juice.  But, with the new title sponsor as of last August-September and senior tournament exec Seth Waugh bolting Deutsch Bank for the CEO slot of the PGA of America, they told us there’d be no PGA Tour golf in Norton in 2019 and the tournament would play leap-frog with the NY/LI/NJ version of the game.

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“Jay (Monahan) and I started the event there … a huge relationship with Boston and my (Tiger Woods) Foundation, and playing there, we loved playing there,” explained Woods to the assembled New York-Metropolitan area media, far more accustomed to Yankee Stadium or Winged Foot than a New England love affair with a Labor Day golf tournament.

“The fans were so supportive over the years,” noted Woods. “It’d be a shame if we never went back to that market. I know we are guaranteed to go back next year, but it’s a shame if we never go back there again.” (Well I declare!)

“It’s ironic, because I had such a deep love for playing there, and played well there, because, honestly – when I grew up – we in Southern California did not like Boston.”

Woods put the Lakers vs Celtics rivalry aside as he embraced the DBC and the Dell Tech tourney with his foundation head, Rick Singer, orchestrating a tournament that was second to none on the entire Tour. In New England, it was the gem of sports weekends, tucked-in as Boston College and Harvard played their first Saturdays of football and the New England Patriots raised another Super Bowl banner. 

Each year, it somehow became better and more enjoyable, even as the sun set earlier and summer became fall in front of our eyes each Labor Day weekend. 

Would McIlroy be disappointed if he didn’t hear those Irish brogue cheers if Boston had become the “odd man out” as the PGA Tour and FedEx marketers condensed the season to end before Tom Brady and his Patriots kicked-off?

“If we didn’t have a tournament in Boston? Yeah, (I’d be disappointed). It’s been a wonderful place for me over the years, but it’s also been a wonderful place for the Tour. There’s a couple events – it seems weird we didn’t;t go to Akron (Firestone) this year. It seems weird we’re not going to TPC Boston.”

The world’s No. 1 agrees.

“Yeah, I like Boston,” said Brooks Koepka. “A bunch of my buddies live up there, so it’s always nice for me to go up there and visit with them and see what they are up to, because obviously we’re traveling so much during the year, you don’t get to see them.

“Boston – it’s been good to me and I enjoy that place. I didn’t get to go to Boston until I was in my early 20s. One of my best friends lived up there and went to school up there. It’s been a place I’ve visited quite a bit over the years,” said Koepka.

Tiger Woods and PGA Tour official at Northern Trust (Photo by T. Peter Lyons/@DigSportsDesk)

“It’s interesting with the rivalries, and I guess you can mark this – (the NY/NJ event for the PGA’s FedEx first-round playoff vs. TPC Boston – as one of them,” he added.

The rivalries will play out in Jersey City this weekend, not Norton and not in Foxboro or Fenway or the Bronx. It’ll be at least until the Summer of 2020 when the Red Sox are playing better baseball, the Patriots are prepping for another title run under Tom Brady and when Tiger Woods wears Kelly Green instead of lime green to honor the Boston Celtics’ triumph over his LeBron James-led Lakers.

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Filed Under: Boston Sports, PGA TOUR, SPORTS BIZ Tagged With: FedEx Cup Playoffs, Northern Trust, PGA Tour, Tiger Woods, TPC Boston

PGA Tour: Questions and an Ancer

September 3, 2018 by Digital Sports Desk

NORTON – (Staff Report from TPC Boston) – Since the FedEx Cup era began, only two golfers (Steve Stricker in 2009 and Justin Thomas in 2017) took a clubhouse lead at the TPC Boston after 54-holes on t0 win the Dell Technologies Championship, the second leg of the annual playoff schedule for the PGA Tour. Little known tour pro in Mexico’s Abraham Ancer hopes to join Stricker and Thomas tomorrow.

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Abraham Ancer

***

Ancer shot (-6) under par 65 in the third round of the tournament to record his third consecutive sub-70  (66-69-65) round, going out on Sunday with the six under par, then bogeying No. 12 before recording his final birdie of the day on No. 15 to stay even on his back nine and card the 54-hole lead.

Ancer leads last week’s Northern Trust Open winner Bryson DeChambeau who shot a tournament best 63 (-8) today to join England’s Tyrrelle Hatton at (-12), one shot off the lead. Justin Rose and Australia’s Cameron Smith are each a stroke behind the second-place golfers and only two strokes behind Ancer.

Dell Technologies Championship 36-hole leader Webb Simpson shot a (+5) 76 Sunday and now stands T-25th. Only Aaron Wise (77) and in 76th place and Whee Kim (78) and in 75th place had rougher days than Simpson who still remains in the top 10 players for projected FedEx Cup points.

The top 70 players after Monday’s final round at TPC Boston advance to the BMW Championship in Newton Square, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. The top 30 players in FedEx Cup points after the BMW Championship qualify for the Tour Championship.

Ancer’s best finish in 2018 was a T-4 at the Quicken Loans National (won by Francisco Molinari on July 1st).  Ancer missed the cut at last week’s Northern Trust and has only won once as a professional, the 2015 Nova Scotia Open on the Web.com tour.

“I hit the ball real good today, especially,” said Ancer, who later noted he has dual citizenship in both Mexico and the USA where he was born. “Got the putter rolling on the front nine,” Ancer added. “Not so much on the back nine, but still hit the ball really well.

“There was a good stretch of holes out there on the back nine that you have to hit it really, really good, and I managed to do that. I’m very happy. Left a little bit there with the par on 18. I hit a really good shot there on my third shot and I think maybe I pulled it or gave it too much break. So I really wanted to birdie there. But other than that, I mean, it was really a good day.”

Today’s round almost assured Ancer will advance, not only to the BMW Championship b ut also the final event of the season, the Tour Championship for the best 30 players on the PGA Tour.

“I knew I had to play good this week, if not I was going to go home and relax,” said Ancer, whose family name is of Syrian heritage some 200-years ago he claims.  “Either way is not a bad option.

“Obviously I want to keep on playing next week and, obviously, in Atlanta (site of the Tour Championship). But, yeah, I knew I had to play good golf in order for me to play next week. But I don’t try to put much pressure, more than I already have.

“There’s no way if you play sloppy you’re going to win out here,” said Ancer.  “So, I know I have to put up a good score out there tomorrow. And I know if I follow my game plan and make some putts that could happen.”

The final round of the Dell Technologies Championship will be the last Labor Day Monday finish for the tour, as next year’s FedEx Cup playoff schedule is being juggled to finish in August. Monday’s round at TPC Boston will also mark the last PGA event in Boston until 2020 when the first-round of the FedEx Cup playoffs will return as the Northern Trust Open.

 

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Filed Under: Boston Sports, PGA TOUR Tagged With: Dell Technologies Championship, PGA Tour, TPC Boston

Tiger Woods: Golfer, Statesman, Diplomat, Even Time for a Joke

August 30, 2018 by Digital Sports Desk

By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief

NORTON – The line of questioning was as wide-ranging as a Department of State media briefing. PGA Tour pro extraordinaire Tiger Woods was taking a few questions an hour or two before his 12:10pm tee-off in the Pro-Am of the Dell Technologies Championship. He has mastered the job requirement of meeting with the media and he does it with patience and grace and style much better than most.

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Tiger Woods at the Pro-Am day at Dell Technologies Championship

***

It happens, somewhat matter-of-fact, as the PGA Tour weaves its way across America, promoting its brand of golf along the way, selling some tickets, creating some content for PGATour (dot) com or the Golf Channel or NBC Sports or CBS Sports or Sky Sports or ESPN or the local television stations or the Boston Globe or even for Digital Sports Desk.

In a span of only 10-15 minutes, Tiger Woods was asked about “being back in Boston.” He was asked “about the TPC Boston golf course” and the fact it suits him well.  He was asked “about Ryder Cup projections.”  With each question, Woods looked the reporter dead in the eye, paused for thought, then crafted an answer as if the question was the most important thing he had ever pondered, and as if the reporter was the only person standing in front of him.

In reality, Woods is positioned behind a slew of microphones, standing in a make-shift tent, set-up to shield a golfer from blazing sunshine and 90-degree temperature readings. A half-circle of 25-30 reporters, most pointing smart phones in his direction and either recording sound or video, all standing in front of a dozen television cameras mounted atop tripods mounted atop a riser/platform.

It’s all in a day’s work for the well-oiled media machine that is the PGA Tour and, if you play on tour, it’s part of the job.

Tiger is among a small handful of PGA Tour players who travels with a “PR guy” attached to his golf team which consists of caddy Joe LaCava, agent Mark Steinberg, amongst very few insiders. Tiger’s highly competitive play and its resulting 2018 player ranking as Top 25 on the FedEx Cup Points board (down from Top 20 a week ago because of his T-40th finish at the Northern Trust Open), has him contemplating things he didn’t anticipate when he returned to regular tour play this season after years of battling chronic back injuries and multiple surgeries.

This season, Woods ranks No. 19th on the tour’s money list at a measly $3,439,862. But, do not forget he ranks No. 1 on the PGA Tour Career Money earning list at a whopping $113,500,874 some $25,652,605 ahead of longtime rival Phil Mickelson who pulled-in $87,848,269 hard-earned dollars before they tee-it-up for this weekend’s festivities, here, halfway between Boston and Providence, Rhode Island.

Not to be lost in the shuffle, that top career money earner to second place gap (Mickelson’s bucks) of $25.6M is more than championship-level, tour-tested veterans like Paul Casey, Mark Calcavecchia, Fred Couples, Tom Lehman, Nick Price or David Duval have earned in their entire careers.

Woods has been THAT good.

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Tiger Woods in a practice round at TPC Boston

***

Because it’s part of the gig, Tiger Woods is subjected to the “pack it up and move it to another town” media scrutiny that comes with his place as one of the two best golfers to ever play the game.

The line of questioning can be ridiculous.

Question: “I spoke to a man whose house you stayed at about 25 years ago, and he said you were playing in a junior tournament, you got sick with mono and got stuck in his guest room for about a week. Do you remember anything about that,” asked an inquisitive member of the Fourth Estate.

Tiger stopped, and everyone gathered had to wonder what was going through his mind with such a question, looking back 25 years ago, coming out of left field before a playoff tournament in 2018.

Yet, Woods thought for a second or two, and answered politely with the same honest demeanor utilized when he was talking about his future 2018 golf schedule or his limited practice this week (Woods was with his children for their first school days and “doing all their after-school curriculum and activities,” he said).

Answer: “I remember I had mono at the Northeast Amateur,” he began recalling a 1993 tournament at the Wannamoisett Country Club in nearby Rumford, Rhode Island. “I remember going, getting back to California and I really had a hard time at the U.S. Junior, even though I got to the finals and ended-up winning the finals.

“I slept in between each match in the clubhouse,” he continued, the memories becoming clearer. “I didn’t have any energy, didn’t warm-up and went out and played the afternoon match. Went home, crashed, and woke-up and hardly warmed-up for the morning match. Anyone that’s ever had mono, not a lot of fun…”

Next? A little more down to earth…

Question: “What do you remember about your first FedEx Cup battle with Phil, here in 2007? Are you sad for next year when this isn’t a stop (on the PGA Tour)?”

Answer: “Yeah, this has been a regular staple for us,” said Woods, as everyone was still scratching their heads on the prior topic. “Our foundation (Tiger Woods Foundation) was a part of this event. (PGA Tour Commissioner) Jay (Monahan) was our tournament director and (newly appointed PGA of America CEO) Seth Waugh ran (former tournament title sponsor) Deutsch Bank at the time.

“It has a lot of fond memories for us,” he continued. “That battle with Phil was a lot of fun, even though I didn’t;’t come out on the good side. we had some battles throughout the front nine, the back nine, but I think we both made birdie at No. 16 and that was the turning point, because I was still trailing at the time. I needed a make-miss there to get momentum for the last two (holes).

“Well, at least we have a future, at least we’re coming back,” said Woods on the PGA Tour schedule change that will next see the TPC Boston in 2020 and end the tradition of having Labor Day weekend golf in Boston. “The people here always supported this event. They come out in droves and they’re loud.

“And, it’s been fun. I’ve had some nice runs here where I’ve played well and they’ve gotten into it. You can hear the roars go up on this golf course. I know it’s spread out, but you can hear the echoes so it’s really neat. It’s a shame we aren’t coming here annually, but I get bi-annually isn’t bad. It’s better than nothing.”

He answered them all. He did not shill for his Thanksgiving Weekend pay-per-view event, nor anything else he endorses for a living.

Next?

Question: “What was it like playing a practice round with Matt Parziale, the firefighter, at the Masters? (from nearby Brockton, Massachusetts).

Next?

Question: “You talked about the unknown. Your body is new. Everything is new. Are you still using the feels from the past or are you stepping into the unknown?”

“No,” said Woods calmly and definitively, knowing the question was to be his last of the media avail. “I trust my hands and I always have. My hands have always been the thing that I’ve always trusted the most and that stems from baseball. Playing so much baseball, your hands are everything. Obviously, your body follows, but you do everything with your hands.

“So, I’ve been one – you had to work on different body parts and different things in your golf swing, yes, absolutely. But at the end of the day, it’s what my hands are doing,” he said, totally compartmentalizing issues and years of surgeries past.

That’s all, said the PR team and the small media throng broke away, many still amazed at Woods’ media-friendly approach and time spent as he was sweating in the hot, August sun.

As they broke off and a small security team began to usher Woods to a previously agreed-upon TV interview, I caught his eye as he came around the make-shift stage, and asked a question on a topic far more interesting to him in 2018 than amateur tourneys and his bout with mono in ’93.

“Any predictions for the Boston Celtics?”

Just as he did with every question in front of the TV cameras, he took a second and thought. Then he smiled that famous Tiger Woods smile, looking a bit like that rookie professional in 1996 we all remember so well.

“The Lakers will be better than the Celtics,” predicted Woods, playful, not serious, just starting something up with the LA vs Boston rivalry, again, simply joking with a guy.

“Man, I shouldn’t even print that!”

He laughed.

All in a days work for Tiger Woods.

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Filed Under: OPINION, PGA TOUR Tagged With: Dell Technologies Championship, PGA Tour, Sports Biz, Tiger Woods, TPC Boston

Justin Thomas Takes Dell Tech Championship in Boston

September 5, 2017 by Digital Sports Desk

By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief

NORTON – The PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs have been a Dustin and Justin Show also starring Jordan Spieth. Last week in New York, Dustin Johnson took the Northern Trust in a playoff over Spieth. Today, Justin Thomas outlasted a duo of challengers to win the Dell Technology Championship in the suburbs of Boston with Spieth finishing in second-place once again.

Thomas shot (-5) on a gorgeous Labor Day afternoon to finish (-17) to defeat Spieth by three strokes in the second leg of the playoffs, Thomas’ fifth win on tour this year.

The third round of playoffs, with the field cut to the top 70 players rather than the 96 who competed here, continues at the BMW Championship near Chicago in 10 days, after a weekend break to allow for the NFL’s opening weekend television ratings machine to dominate the sports landscape.

Dell Technologies Championship - Final Round

Justin Thomas plays his shot from the ninth tee during the final round of the Dell Technologies Championship at TPC Boston (Andrew Redington/Getty Images).

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Spieth bogeyed the 12th, 14th and 18th hole today while Thomas bogeyed only the 11th hole this afternoon and the 5th during his opening round on Friday. Thomas played the newly re-designed and most difficult 12th hole even par all weekend to contribute to his season-long bid to be the PGA Tour Player of the Year. The two will battle it out as the FedEx Cup is down to only two more tournaments, in Chicago and the Tour Championship at East Lake GC in Atlanta.

“We still have two events left,” said Thomas to the assembled New England media crew.  “I mean, I’m probably more excited than anything to get home and see one of my roommates, Tom Lovelady, who just got his PGA TOUR card. He gets home Tuesday night, and we’re going to have a little dinner, celebrate on Wednesday. I’m more excited to see him and just tell him congrats than I am to celebrate my own victory.”

Spieth still holds a slim lead in the complex FedEx Cup Playoff point totals, leading Thomas 5, 071 to 5,044. Johnson (who finished a disappointing T-18th today), Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Spain’s Jon Rahm round-out the all-important Top 5 in points. A player in the Top 5 controls his own destiny and can win the $10 million purse with a win at the Tour Championship.

“I’m not going to be as down on myself as I was last week,” said Spieth after his second straight runenr-up finish. “I beat myself up – not beat myself up – but I was upset after last week, really having a good opportunity … it wasn’t the case today. I came out firing like I said we had to, and as we turned from No. 8 through 14 is the meat of the golf course, you want to get through that even. I got through over par and I didn’t get any coming in when I had hit some good putts.”

Spieth missed a putt on No. 17 by inches and settled for par as the green and pin placement played havoc with golfers all afternoon. That miss forced him to attempt a difficult chip on No. 18, and he hit it past the hole and over the sloped green. When Spieth carded the bogey, it allowed Thomas to play No. 18 with a par in mind to secure the three-shot victory, a $1.575 million check for his efforts and some serious incentive and confidence as he prepares for the final two tournaments of the 2016-17 golf season.

“So I just need to go home and get rested next week and get feeling fresh to play these last two events well,” said Thomas, shunning any talk of “world’s No. 1” or best golfer this or best at that, thus proving his wise stature on a tour full of living legends.

“Right now I’m just worried about getting rest. I’m tired. I’m excited to go home and sleep in my own bed. I feel as like I’ve been gone for so long. I guess it’s been 2 1/2 weeks. There was a lot of traveling. I had some media days and kind of took a trip beforehand, and then kind of took another trip in between here. So it was a lot of — a lot of traveling for just 2 1/2 weeks. So that stuff wears on you. So I’m excited to go home and not touch a club for a couple days and hang out with Tom and Bud and enjoy Florida. Hoping this hurricane (noting a Cat. 4 storm brewing in the Caribbean) doesn’t get us.

“I’m going to Chicago a little early and hang out,” said Thomas. “My girlfriend lives there. So — just go there and play some golf courses, and, then, yeah, once that week comes, then I’ll be hopefully ready to go.”

 

 

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Filed Under: Boston Sports, PGA TOUR Tagged With: Dustin Johnson, FedEx Cup Playoffs, Justin Thomas, PGA Tour, TPC Boston

Rahm Holds R2 Lead in Boston

September 3, 2017 by Digital Sports Desk

NORTON – (Wire Service Report for Digital Sports Desk by The Sports Xchange) – Jon Rahm of Spain had an uneven second round at the Dell Technologies Championship in Norton, Mass., but he finished with a 5-under-par 65 on Saturday to give him a two-stroke lead heading into today’s third round.

Dell Technologies Championship - Round Two

Jon Rahm of Spain plays his shot from the 14th tee during round two of the Dell Technologies Championship at TPC Boston. (Drew Hallowell/Getty Images).

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Rahm, who started on the back nine, had a bogey and a double bogey on his first seven holes, but had five birdies and an eagle on his final 10 holes of the day. It gave him a two-round total of 9-under 133, two shots ahead of four players tied at 7-under — Adam Hadwin of Canada, who shot a 65 Saturday, Paul Casey of England (65), Kyle Stanley (68) and Kevin Streelman (65).

“Man, it felt like very different, that front nine and back nine, it was a big difference,” Rahm said. “You know, I don’t know what to say. I played a nearly perfect back nine. Felt like I didn’t miss a shot. I felt I putted for birdie pretty much from every hole from a really close distance. Nothing to say about that one.

“But that front nine is the one that probably looked worse than what it felt. Felt like I was making great swings. You know, they were going on line, hitting the shots that I wanted. I feel like we misjudged the wind a couple times or we got a couple gusts, and probably got the worst of it. Ended up missing greens.”

Dustin Johnson, the No. 1-ranked player in the world who trailed Rahm by one shot after the first round, also had an uneven day, but he was unable to save his round.

Johnson shot a 1-over 72 to drop to 4-under for the tournament, putting him in a tie for 15th. He had two bogeys and two double bogeys to go along with five birdies for the round.

Phil Mickelson shot a 4-under 67, leaving him tied for sixth at 6-under with Grayson Murray, Bryson DeChambeau and Marc Leishman.

“It’s fun to get in contention,” Mickelson said, “and it’s fun to start shooting some scores that I feel like I’ve been playing well enough to shoot. But it’s been a good first two days.

“It’s encouraging. It’s been so frustrating to know that I’ve been striking it or playing at a certain level and the scores haven’t reflected it. It’s been frustrating being on the course and not being able to visualize or see the shot I’m trying to hit and make a swing without much purpose or direction.”

Rory McIlroy followed his first-round 72 with a 3-over 74 to miss the cut. McIlroy won here last year.

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Filed Under: Boston Sports, PGA TOUR Tagged With: Dell Technologies, Jon Rahm, PGA Tour, TPC Boston

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