By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — It was Jason Day’s darkest hour. He was in pain. He was in doubt. Nothing is more important to any athlete in any sport than his body.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — This isn’t football. You don’t try to win one for the Gipper in golf. The game is one of control, of direction. Sometimes the more you practice, or play, the worse you perform.
Something else about big-time golf: It’s lonely. There are no teammates to lend support, physical — that skulled wedge can’t be saved by, say, a diving catch — or mental. There seem to be as many sports psychologists around the Tour as there are teaching pros.
So the premise posited by Jason Day, who’s had his own troubles, that Rory McIlroy lacks desire is a thought based on a premise as judged by a competitor.
“The biggest thing for Rory,” said Day, along with McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson and suddenly Jon Rahm, one of golf’s best, “is the desire part. How much does he really want it? Because he has the tools to be Tigeresque.”
As in Tiger Woods, who was one-of-a-kind.
McIlroy, 28, because of a rib injury, and perhaps the distraction of his marriage — there’s life out there beyond the tee boxes — didn’t win a tournament in 2017. On the PGA Tour. On the European Tour. Tumbled in the World Golf Rankings. He was more mystery than history.
But it’s a new year, and McIlroy has a new outlook. On Thursday he shot a 68, four under par, at Spyglass Hill, in the opening round of the historic AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. That left him three shots behind Kevin Streelman, who shot his seven-under 65 at Spyglass and Beau Hossler, who shot his at Pebble Beach.
It was a glorious day on the Monterey Peninsula, wind light, skies blue, golf impressive.
“I was pleased,” said McIlroy. “A couple of really good weeks in the Middle East. But I’m healthy and able to practice. I’m able to do everything I want to do, so I feel good. I’m in a really good frame of mind, and that helps, too.”
Of course. It’s hard enough to challenge the world’s courses, and some of the world’s finest golfers, if you’re not thinking about the job at hand. As Sam Snead once said to Ted Williams when they were debating the relative difficulty of golf vs. baseball, “We have to play our foul balls.”
McIlroy, partnering with his father, Gerry, kept most of his shots on the fairways. “It was awesome,” said Rory. “It was great being out there with him.”
“A couple of messy holes coming in,” said Rory. “I recovered well. In the end I made a good bogey on 16, a great par on 17. It was nice to finish with a birdie on 18.”
Phil Mickelson, now 47, was the other pro in the foursome, shooting a three-under 69. The differential in ages between Rory and Phil is reason that golf is such an appealing game — 19 years — but on Thursday their rounds differed by only one stroke. As Raymond Floyd, a multiple majors winner, told us, “The golf ball doesn’t know how old you are.”
But it does know how effective your swing is. And your putting is. You can be young or old, intense or relaxed. The only thing that matters is how many strokes you take.
A year ago, McIlroy was taking more than he wanted. But in January, in tournaments at Abu Dhabi and Dubai, part of the early events of the European Tour, McIlroy had a second and a third. His confidence was up. His health was back.
“I haven’t played a lot over the past 18 months for various reasons,” he said. “I was sort of ready to call it quits for the year after the Dunhill (in October). I was sort of dejected and wanting to get away from it all.
“Now I’m rejuvenated and optimistic. Now there’s nothing in my way. There’s nothing stopping me from playing a full schedule.”
There doesn't seem to be any lack of desire, especially when McIlroy insists, “I want to be one of the best players to ever have played the game. I have a great opportunity over the next 10, 12 years to play great golf and leave my mark on the game.”
Or, really, to embellish the mark he’s already left.
By Art Spander
The Athletic
PEBBLE BEACH — You start with arguably one of the game’s three most impressive datelines — St. Andrews and Augusta are the other two — add decades of history, laughs and people named Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, and are blessed with an event that’s as much a treasure as it is a tournament.
The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is a mid-winter celebration of sport and, yes, entertainment, when amateurs — some with big names, some with big games — pair up with champions on three courses that are as beautiful as they are testing: Pebble, Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula Country Club.
By Art Spander
Los Angeles Times
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s called Quail Hollow, bringing visions of a golfing Eden deep in the Carolina woods. Do not be fooled. The pros in the 99th PGA haven’t been. They’ve learned exactly how nasty the place can be.
Every hole is an adventure. Or a disaster. Jason Day was rolling along close to the lead in Saturday’s round, having birdied 14, 15 and 16. He closed bogey, quadruple-bogey, hitting shots everywhere on 18, including the trees and water.
Copyright © 2017, Los Angeles Times
By Art Spander
Global Golf Post
TROON, SCOTLAND — Thomas Brent Weekley, better known as "Boo," understands golf far better than most, that is if anyone, pro or amateur, star or hacker, is able to understand golf. A while back Weekley told The Wall Street Journal — yes, Boo, the alligator wrestler, and The Journal seem an odd combination — that if you win a major "all you get is more hype."
Copyright 2016 Global Golf Post
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — Henrik Stenson compared the greens to broccoli, except broccoli is green and the greens are brown. Ian Poulter said Chambers Bay would turn the U.S. Open into “a complete farce,” but he conceded his comments were constructed from hearsay.
But Jim Furyk, who 12 years ago won a U.S. Open on a course very different from this year’s — old-fashioned Olympia Fields south of Chicago — described Chambers in less emotional terms.
Copyright © 2015 Bleacher Report, Inc. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
San Francisco? Herb Caen’s cool, gray city of love? Rudyard Kipling’s town of mad people? Golf capital of the universe? Indeed, all of the above.
Last week, it was the ladies at Lake Merced Golf Club, the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic. Thanks, girls, you were great, and mostly, in this place of wind and chill, so was the weather. Please, no reference to the comment Mark Twain never made, that the coldest winter he ever spent was, well, enough already.
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SAN DIEGO — It was a day of sunshine and fog, of birdies and bogeys and of a lead that couldn't be held until the final par putt.
That came from Jason Day on the second playoff hole of the Farmers Insurance Open that, without Tiger Woods (bad back, withdrawal) or Phil Mickelson (missed cut), may have lacked star power but didn't lack for excitement.
Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Suddenly the kid from nowhere, from the Australian backcountry, from the tough childhood, is everywhere.
Suddenly, Jason Day is in the The New York Times and Sports Illustrated.
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
MARANA, Ariz. — The Frenchman who not many knew kept pulling off shots that few could believe, saving pars out of the desert. But in the end it was Jason Day, the Aussie, who ended up the winner on what was one of golf's longest days.
Three holes ahead with only six to play, Day had to make a birdie putt on the 23rd hole Sunday to defeat Victor Dubuisson, 1 up, and take the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.