Maverick in 'the coolest office in the world'

By Art Spander

NAPA, Calif. — The issue is less one of ambition than it is of inevitability. Greatness must not be denied. Which is why a half century ago, the big guy from Ohio — Jack Nicklaus, by name — turned pro despite proclaimed intentions of remaining amateur, selling insurance and playing golf for the joy and glory of it.

Which is why Maverick McNealy, who also had so many reasons to stay amateur, made that 180-degree turn you just knew was coming. And, with KPMG on his cap (like Phil Mickelson) and Under Armour as his attire (like Jordan Spieth), suddenly was playing as a pro.

Nicklaus, arguably the greatest player of all time (yes, Tiger Woods supporters will be allowed to disagree), idolized Bobby Jones, who as an amateur in 1930 won the Grand Slam.

So, thought Jack, maybe he could repeat the accomplishment. But the Grand Slam — the U.S. and British Opens and U.S. and British amateurs — has changed, with the PGA Championship and Masters replacing the two amateurs.

Golf also has changed. Like baseball, football, soccer, basketball and hockey, only the very best find room at the top. Nicklaus couldn’t stay amateur if he wanted to conquer the sport. Nor, five and a half decades later, could McNealy, the young star (age 21) from Stanford.

The Safeway Open this week at Silverado Country Club is McNealy’s first tournament since becoming a pro, though not his first pro tournament, since he has competed in the U.S. and British Opens and several other events. Two rounds in after Friday, McNealy is doing well enough, five-under par 68-71—139, seven back of the leader, Tyler Duncan.

McNealy had been high on the leader board, seven under par after his 16th hole, the 350-yard 8th since he played the back nine first. But he botched the drive and after taking a penalty shot for an unplayable lie and five more shots including two putts, McNealy had a triple-bogey 7. Stirred but not shaken, he birdied the par-5 ninth.

“I made a mess of No. 8,” agreed McNealy, “but I did a good job of staying level and not getting out of my rhythm. And it paid off with a good birdie on the last hole.”

The kid is very much under control, even if an occasional shot might not be. Asked if in the 80-degree weather on a course surrounded by vineyards and history he was having a good time, McNealy quickly responded, “Yeah, this is the coolest office in the world.”

It was 46 years ago, 1971, when another golfer from Stanford made his pro debut at Silverado, which is located some 80 miles north of the campus.

Tom Watson had earned his PGA Tour playing card — something McNealy hasn’t had the chance to do — a few days earlier in Florida, then zoomed back to California to enter what was called the Kaiser International Open. Watson made the cut and in the following years, winning five British Opens, two Masters and the ’82 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, made his mark.

Watson’s father went to Stanford. So did McNealy’s, as a graduate student in the M.B.A. program. From there Scott McNealy became a dot-com billionaire with Sun Microsystems. He also became a fine golfer, down to a 3-handicap, if not as fine as his eldest son.

In late 2016 and early 2017, Maverick was No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. In 2015 he became the third from Stanford, along with Tiger Woods and Patrick Rodgers, to win the Haskins Award, presented annually to the best male collegiate golfer in the country.

So many trophies. Now so many expectations.

Asked what he learned as a collegian that will carry him to success as a pro, he said, “I think there’s so much you learn about yourself from being in those situations. I played some of my best rounds ever when the heat is on in the final round.

“Obviously these guys are really good. But being in the mix in tournaments is something I’m very familiar with from college.”

But in a sense he’s graduated, to playing the very best, the pros. It was inevitable.

No Spieth or Thomas, but the Tour restarts with the Safeway

By Art Spander

NAPA, Calif. — No Jordan Spieth. No Justin Thomas. No real separation from the end of the last schedule — wasn’t that 10 minutes ago? — to the start of the next, which was Thursday. No problem for the PGA Tour?

Well...

Yes, the Safeway Open is here, smack in the middle of wine country, and so is one player everybody from Torrey Pines (where he grew up playing) to Turnberry knows, Phil Mickelson; a couple others who most know, two-time major winner Zach Johnson and defending champ Brendan Steele; and a great many the Tour hopes we’ll come to know.

Among the NFL and college football games, the baseball playoffs and the beginning of the NHL season — good lord, did the Sharks really play the Philly Flyers on Wednesday night? — perhaps you didn’t notice.

But that’s not your problem, that’s golf’s.

Golf follows the sun, and unlike the past two years, there’s a great deal of that and 80-degree temperatures at Silverado Country Club for the Safeway. Golf no longer follows the calendar.

We know it’s a spring and summer sport (in some minds, the Tour starts with the Masters in April and concludes with the PGA Championship in August). But the guys who haven’t picked up the big trophies and checks want to play all the time. And the PGA Tour wants to keep them playing.

So a little sleight of hand is required. Instead of making the fall events, the ones after the Tour Championship, seem like add-ons, the Tour wants us to believe that the year starts in October, right now, and not in January. OK, but it still hasn’t persuaded most of the big guns.

Golf and tennis, other than the top events such as the Masters, Wimbledon and so on, require individual stars. If you’re trying to get attention against the Raiders or 49ers, you need a Spieth. Or a Rory McIlroy (who played this tournament two years ago when it was the Frys Open). Or a Brooks Koepka. Everyone on Tour is an excellent golfer or he wouldn’t be on Tour. Only a few are excellent box-office attractions.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t compelling stories. Maverick McNealy, the best amateur in America, the Stanford grad who said he wouldn’t turn pro, is playing his first tournament as a pro at the Safeway (he shot 68). Sang-Moon Bae won this tournament in 2014 as the Frys and then had to spend two years in the Korean military (he shot 73). Chris Stroud is among the leaders of hurricane recovery efforts in his hometown, Houston (he shot 76).

It’s just that as in music and acting, some, through success and style — usually both — are ahead of the rest, making the world stop and check them out, even the part of the world that doesn’t really care about acting or singing. Or golf.

They may be one of many — there are dozens of fine golfers on Tour — but really they’re one of a kind. Tiger Woods could fill a gallery. Still can, even though his best golf is someplace in the distance. Just the name —Tiger Woods — gets us to stop.

Long ago, when Arnold Palmer was the man, those involved in tournaments would tell the media — actually, in those days it was the press — “Write about some of those other guys so the public will find out how interesting they are.” But legends are not invented, they develop. Tiger, Arnie, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman and, yes, Mickelson earned their status.

Phil had one of the later tee times Thursday, and unsaid, you understood that was for The Golf Channel, which is showing the Safeway. He finished around 5:40 p.m. PDT, near sunset in California, some viewers home from work; at prime time in New York, just before Thursday night football.

Mickelson, with a 69, may not have been the leader — Steele, Tyler Duncan and Tom Hoge were in front with 7-under 65s — but he was the anchor. The TV schedule was proof. And Phil only was here because the agency that represents him, Lagardere, is running the tournament.

Whatever works. Or in the case of Jordan Spieth or Justin Thomas, whatever doesn’t. Fore!

Los Angeles Times: Justin Thomas wins his first major by claiming victory at the PGA Championship

By Art Spander
Los Angeles Times

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It was inevitable that Justin Thomas would win a major golf championship. His talent had been apparent since he was in grammar school. Sooner or later he would win a big one like his pal Jordan Spieth.

Sooner arrived on a humid Sunday at the 99th PGA Championship, when player after player, five in all, held or shared the lead until there was the 24-year-old Thomas holding it for good.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2017, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times: Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy both thinking of April, but differently

By Art Spander
Los Angeles Times

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It may be August, but after the final round in the PGA Championship both Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy were more intent on April. For Johnson last April, for McIlroy next April.

Johnson had his best round of the week on Sunday at Quail Hollow, a four-under-par 67, that brought him to even-par 284 for the tournament. That’s encouraging with the FedEx Cup Playoffs about to start, but discouraging when Johnson, No.1 in the world rankings, thinks of what might have been.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2017, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times: Jordan Spieth has plenty of time get his career Slam, but it won't be this week

By Art Spander
Los Angeles Times

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A few days after his 24th birthday, Jordan Spieth came to the PGA Championship attempting to become the youngest golfer to win each of the four Grand Slam tournaments. But by the start of Saturday’s third round at Quail Hollow Club his expectations had been lowered.

“My goal was to try to work our way into a backdoor top 10,” Spieth said.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times: Quail Hollow still winning at the PGA Championship, with Kisner the human leader

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.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times: Rory McIlroy plays hole just like a duffer, right down the cart path

By Art Spander
Los Angeles Times

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It was a shot known to high-handicap golfers, a six-iron bounced along a paved cart path. Only the guy playing it was four-time major champion Rory McIlroy, and he was doing it Friday in the second round of the PGA Championship.

On the 592-yard, par-five 10th, his first hole of the day, McIlroy’s second shot went right toward the gallery, ricocheted off the macadam cart path and rolled into rough on the 11th hole, 110 yards from the pin on No. 10.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times: Kisner, Matsuyama are tied at halfway point of the PGA

By Art Spander
Los Angeles Times

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — He was the basketball player who wasn’t tall enough, the football player who got crushed. So Kevin Kisner, a feisty sort who enjoyed the camaraderie and competition of team sports, took the advice of a high school coach who told him, “I think you ought to stick to golf.”

For a while, lacking confidence in his ball-striking — the very essence of the game — it seemed he was stuck with golf. “I was like, ‘I got no chance the way I’m hitting it,’” Kisner said of his early days as a pro in the sport’s minor leagues.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2017 Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times: Some big names struggle as Olesen and Kisner share PGA Championship lead

By Art Spander
Los Angeles Times

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In the first round of the year’s last golf major, Jordan Spieth couldn’t make a putt until he absolutely had to. U.S. Open champ Brooks Koepka was troubled by the greens but still managed to break par. Jim Herman, who was a pro for one of Donald Trump’s courses, briefly was the leader. But it was Thorbjorn Olesen, a very good Dane if not a great one, and Kevin Kisner who shared the lead.

By the time this 99th PGA Championship comes to a close — that would be Sunday, barring a thunderstorm or two — one of the pros will be receiving the Wanamaker Trophy, but the winner most likely will be the course, Quail Hollow Club.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times: Awe-inspiring Jordan Spieth has the tools to complete a career Grand Slam. And he's only 24

By Art Spander
Los Angeles Times

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — He’s one of many: Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Rory McIlroy — all winners, champions. Yet Jordan Spieth also is one of a kind, a golfer who has others in awe, has them using words such as intangible when reflecting on his game.

“You can’t really describe it,” said Ernie Els when called on to analyze Spieth’s success, most recently in the British Open. Spieth was about to self-destruct with a terrible tee shot but went five under the last five holes to win.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times: Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els reach 100 majors at the PGA

By Art Spander
Los Angeles Times

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — On a rainy Tuesday in the Piedmont, two days before the last big golf tournament of the year, there was nothing finer in Carolina than to hear Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els talk about reaching the century mark — and Rory McIlroy talk about Phil and Ernie, along with some comments of his own game.

When the 99th PGA Championship begins Thursday at Quail Hollow Country Club, Mickelson and Els each will be playing in his 100th major championship, a total achieved by only 12 others and topped by the 164 of the great Jack Nicklaus.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017, Los Angeles Times

Newsday (N.Y.): Jordan Spieth scrambles to British Open win

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SOUTHPORT, England - Jordan Spieth was playing against one of the world’s best golf courses, against his friend Matt Kuchar and no less significantly against himself. On one of the longest days in the 146-year history of British Open he was able triumph over all three.

Spieth, having tossed away the lead and seemingly the Open, burst out with an eagle and three birdies Sunday to go 5-under par the last five holes, win by three shots and at age 23 join the great Jack Nicklaus as the only golfer to win three majors before the age of 24, which he turns Thursday.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Matt Kuchar dealt crushing blow after leading British Open with five to play

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SOUTHPORT, England — Matt Kuchar called it crushing, having a chance at age 39 to win his first major, coming from behind to take the lead and then having it all snatched away by a remarkable performance from his playing partner — and friend — Jordan Spieth.

Kuchar moved a shot in front at the 13th hole of the final round of the 146th British Open yesterday when Spieth took about a half hour to declare an unplayable lie, take a drop on the driving range and scramble for an amazing one-putt bogey.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Jordan Spieth shoots 65 to lead British Open by three shots

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SOUTHPORT, England — On a day when Branden Grace made golfing history, shooting the lowest round ever in a major championship, Jordan Spieth continued along the path to making his own.

Playing early, Grace shot a 62 on Saturday in the third round of the British Open at Royal Birkdale. Playing in the last group of the day, Spieth shot a 65 and has a three-stroke lead as he tries to become the second youngest player to win three majors.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Branden Grace’s 62 at British Open sets major championship record

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SOUTHPORT, England — Branden Grace said he wasn’t aware of what had been accomplished, but his caddy knew quite well.

“You’re in the history books,” Zack Rasego told Grace after Grace shot a 62 Saturday in the third round of the British Open, the lowest round ever in a major golf championship. And that’s 422 majors over 157 years.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Jordan Spieth toughs out windy, rainy conditions to lead British Open

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SOUTHPORT, England — With a 2:48 p.m. starting time, Jordan Spieth could watch a bunch of the British Open on television before he showed up at Royal Birkdale.

Wind, rain, cold, the type of weather associated with links golf, was on his horizon. He wasn’t exactly excited about playing. “I would gladly have stayed on the couch,” he said. “Even par? I would have loved that.”

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): British Open: Americans Jordan Spieth, Brooks Kopeka, Matt Kuchar lead after first day

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SOUTHPORT, England — This first round of the 146th British Open was less about weather Thursday, although there was a wee bit of rain and considerable wind, than it was about names, big names.

Three of the biggest, Americans Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka and Matt Kuchar, each shot a five-under par 65 at Royal Birkdale to top an impressive leaderboard.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Royal Birkdale tough but ‘a fair test’ for British Open, says Jordan Spieth

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SOUTHPORT, England — The town, all Victorian architecture and weathered citizens, somehow escaped the 19th Century. Southport, 25 miles up the coast from Liverpool, has dance halls, pubs and entertainment featuring comedians who apparently are funny if you understand English, as opposed to American.

It also has one of the great golf courses anywhere, Royal Birkdale, a place of 50-foot sand hills and wonderful history — just check the plaque to Arnold Palmer on the 16th fairway — stretched across a lunar landscape but hardly stretching the imagination when it comes to deserving champions, a list that includes Palmer, Johnny Miller, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.

S.F. Examiner: Brooks Koepka claims first major title with US Open win

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

ERIN, WIS. — It wasn’t the Olympic Club or Pebble Beach, sites of history. It was Erin Hills, derisively nicknamed “Errant Hills.” But if the course wasn’t memorable, a place scraped from Wisconsin pastureland, the game Brooks Koepka played there definitely was.

A 27-year-old who literally became a golfer by accident — a car crash when he was a boy kept him from playing contact sports — Koepka on Sunday won America’s golfing championship, the U.S. Open, in a record-tying performance.

Read the full story here.

©2017 The San Francisco Examiner

‘Errant’ Hills gets what it needed, a 63 by Justin Thomas

By Art Spander

ERIN, Wis. — They were calling it “Errant” Hills, saying it was the most forgettable course in U.S. Open history. But that changed on an historic Saturday, changed when a kid who’s been touted as one of the next greats went out and shot the lowest score in relation to par in the 117 years that the championship of American golf has been held.

If you didn’t know the name Justin Thomas, didn’t know he was destined to what was done on a warm, humid afternoon in the pastureland of Wisconsin, shoot a 9-under-par 63, well, you do now.

That’s been a magic score in majors, 63, since Johnny Miller, the kid from San Francisco, shot it the final round at Oakmont near Pittsburgh to win the 1973 Open. Since then, there have been numerous 63s, including one by Phil Mickelson last year in the British Open.

But none was at a par-72 course, like Erin Hills. Until Saturday.

“It was an awesome day,” said Thomas. ”I’m not sure when it’s going to sink in or when I’m going to realize what I did. I know one thing. If it happened (Sunday) and the result is what I want it to be, then I’d probably have a different feeling.”

Then he’d be a U.S. Open champion like his longtime pal and rival, Jordan Spieth.

But until Sunday it’s just a score to place in the record books, a score that verifies what sort of talent a 24-year-old who stands 5-foot-10 and weighs only 145 pounds can offer.

All that 63 was worth on the leaderboard was as part of a cumulative 11-under-par 73-69-63—205, tying Thomas for second with Brooks Koepka and Tommy Fleetwood, after Fleetwood double-bogied 18. Brian Harman holds the lead by a shot at 12-under 204.

Thomas had an eagle three on the 637-yard 18th, reaching the green in two and then holing the putt. “I was just trying to take advantage of the opportunities I had,” said Thomas.

More accurately, the opportunities he created.

The grandson and son of tour pros, Thomas, who grew up in Louisville, was a star before his teens. He once won two junior tournaments in a single day. At 16, he played in the Greensboro Tour event and shot 65.

“I was completely unconscious,” Thomas told Mark Whicker in 2015. “But I remembered how it motivated me. I was sitting in the players’ dining room and looking at all the food they get. They were making us omelets, and I was grabbing candy and ice cream. It was the coolest experience ever.”

That statement is up for amendment.

“I don’t know what I’m going to feel tonight,” he said. “I know I’m not going to sleep in. I’m going to be nervous, but it will be a good nervous.”

On Saturday, Thomas was saying how proud he was of his home town and the state of Kentucky, but he played his college golf at Alabama, helping the Crimson Tide win an NCAA title.

He has four PGA Tour wins, two in Malaysia in the CIMB and two in Hawaii. His friends, including Spieth, chide him, saying he’s never won on the American mainland.

“I mean, it would be special,” he said of this possibility. “It would be special, because it’s the U.S. Open, not because it’s on the mainland. I mean that’s kind of funny to me.”

The way Thomas plays golf is not at all funny, it’s exciting. At the Sony Open in January, he became the seventh player overall and the youngest to shoot a sub-60 round, a 59. Yes, he won.

Whether he wins this Open won’t be determined for another 18 holes, but obviously he’s in a great position after a great round. Then again, so are many others, including last year’s PGA champ, Patrick Reed, a star of the U.S. Ryder Cup team last year, and at 10-under the first-round leader, Rickie Fowler.

“As long as it’s a good tournament,” said Thomas, “I don’t think the USGA cares what the score is. They want a good tournament and an action-packed leaderboard. I mean, to be selfish I hope it isn’t, and I have a day like (Saturday).

“But you don’t know what’s going to happen. That’s the thing.”

Someone could even go out and shoot 63 like Justin Thomas.