Cameron Champ Returns To Scene Of His Breakthrough Win Humbled, Healthy Again

Cameron Champ

A year ago the longest driver in professional won the Sanderson Farms and returns this week having struggled most of the time since due to back issues and a balky short game.

GolfDigest.com’s Brian Wacker profiles Cameron Champ, who has plenty of interesting things to say about his experience since being the breakout player of fall 2018.

Rarely is the road so smooth for seasoned players used to navigating it, never mind a rookie suddenly thrust into the spotlight while still trying to learn new courses each week not to mention the rigors of treating a game like the job it had become. Over his next 19 starts after a T-11 at the limited-field event Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua, Champ missed the cut 10 times and withdrew once.

“Expectations,” Champ says when asked as he gets set to defend his title this week in Mississippi what the most difficult thing was for him in his first year. “Whether you realize it or not, they’re always going to be there.

“Once you get to a certain point—and Matt and Collin are going through this now—it’s all new. You’re suddenly playing in featured groups, have a lot of people following you, you’re dealing with crowds and comments. It’s not anything I ever played in.”

Don't Tell Brooks: 2019 PGA Championship Merch at Firesale Prices For A Good Cause

Not only was he snubbed by his peers, but now Brooks Koepka’s win at Bethpage does not appear to have been commemorated with a big rush of post-championship sales despite discounts. Or, perhaps, the original pricing was a tad aggressive in a market that has had plenty of majors with more on the way.

Thanks to all of the PGA pros who sent this Met PGA notice on prices up to 65% off 2019 PGA Championship merchandise, with code REACH giving you an additional 35% off.

Now, I know I’m not great at match, but I feel like that adds up to 100% off.

Anyway, this isn’t just a sale of XXXXL Greg Norman Collection polos, but a nice array of all items in all sizes from all of the major brands, including Adidas, Polo, Nike, Ahead, Tervis, Puma, Cutter and Buck, Under Armour, Footjoy, Vineyard Vines, New Era and 47 Brand. Even better, the Met PGA is putting an unspecified return of the sale proceeds into their junior golf foundation.

Here is the link to the sale, while supplies last! And remember code REACH.

17-Year-Old Akshay Bhatia To Test Boundaries Of Pro Golf's Youth Movement

While he has picked the third weakest PGA Tour field of 2019 with only four world top 50 players and no one inside the top 40, Akshay Bhatia is still moving into bold territory leaping from junior golf to professional play.

The 17-year-old turns up fresh off a Walker Cup appearance to debut in the PGA Tour’s Sanderson Farms. He’s got a new Callaway deal, new woods, maybe a new putter and high expectations for a player jumping from the junior circuit to a PGA Tour event.

“Akshay is one of the most prolific amateurs the golf world has seen in a long time, and we’re thrilled to have him join our Professional TOUR Staff,” said Tim Reed, Senior Vice President of Global Sports Marketing at Callaway Golf, in a press release.

Bhatia has one previous appearance in a Tour event and one Korn Ferry Tour cut made as an amateur, but has long targeted a pro debut in lieu of college golf.

Bhatia generates plenty of speed:

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@akshaybhatia_1 getting ready for pro debut this week 💦💦💦

A post shared by George Gankas (@georgegankasgolf) on Sep 17, 2019 at 4:55pm PDT

I would agree with Morning Drive’s Damon Hack that too many cautionary tales are getting lost in the rush to push players into cashing checks at a young age.

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Too much too soon? @damonhackgc gives his take on young PGA pros, let us know what you think!

A post shared by Golf Channel's Morning Drive (@gcmorningdrive) on Sep 17, 2019 at 8:15am PDT

Hank Haney Is Back, This Time As A Podcaster

At the PGA Tour’s instruction Hank Haney was suspended from SiriusXM’s PGA Tour Network in May for comments deemed insensitive.

As I explain here for Golfweek, Haney is returning as part of iHeartRadio’s move into golf. Haney spoke to me exclusively to update on his new show, the reaction he’s gotten to his comments and what he has in store for his large following of listeners.

The new show debuts September 23rd and is already listed for subscription in some podcast outlets, but not the iTunes store just yet.

Not Surprisingly, Michelle Wie's Got A Future In TV

As compelling as the Solheim Cup final day was, the week was also marked by Michelle Wie’s start in television.

I would agree with the Forecaddie that it’s not a huge shock given her Stanford degree and communications experience since the age of 12 or so, but it’s still another thing to be thrown onto a set with bright lights and captain’s decisions to dissect. Wie not only did that smoothly, but had not problem questioning Juli Inkster’s Sunday singles lineup.

Rory Hoping This Rivalry Is Finally The One

There is plenty of great stuff from the latest Rory McIlroy podcast with Carson Daly in the latest installment of his Golfpass contributions.

Golfweek’s Roxanna Scott highlights his comments on creating a rivalry to raise his game at the 2019 Tour Championship.

Finally, it seems maybe McIlroy has met his rivalry match after years of flirtations.

“Brooks has been undoubtedly the best player in the world for the last couple years. I’ve been lucky that my career and my consistency level has been good for the last 10,” McIlroy said. “I feel like they’ve tried to create a rivalry between myself and Tiger, myself and Jordan (Spieth), myself and Dustin (Johnson), myself and Brooks, myself and Jason Day.

“It’s nice there’s a common denominator and it’s usually me, which means that I’m doing something right.”

As for the rivalry mindset, this was interesting:

“I needed that mentality going into East Lake because, you know, there was a little bit of revenge in there. He talked about trying to be the dominant player in the game and that was said to me in the media and I said, ‘He’s going to have to go through me first.’

“If that’s both of our mentalities going forward, I think that’s good for the game.”

Daly responded, “I love that. That’s what you should say. If you didn’t say that, you’ve got a problem. As a fan, that’s what you want to see.”

You can listen to the Rory & Carson podcast wherever fine pods are given away for free. Here is the iTunes store link.

Flyovers: Hirono's C.H. Alison Restoration

Always high on the list of courses architecture aficionados hoped to see restored: C.H. Alison’s design of Hirono Golf Club design. Not only did it exhibit some extraordinary bunkering, but the amazing property has long been seen as one of the more dramatic in golf and deserving of a sensitive replenishment.

Brad Klein at GolfAdvisor.com scouted out the work recently and filed this piece.

And now architect’s Mackenzie and Ebert are tweeting side-by-side aerials showing the work before and after. I believe this is the first time I’ve seen such a thing and it’s quite compelling.

You can check out the holes posted so far at their Twitter account.

Here is the third hole. And if you go to full screen with a decent connection, the details really shine through.

Hirono has been regarded as the Pine Valley of Japan. The creation of a sand area in the carry of the 3rd strengthens this comparison. Two world class courses which benefited from Colt & Company input. pic.twitter.com/zCwIzhhZh4

— Mackenzie & Ebert (@golfarchitects) September 16, 2019

Club Pro Guy Shows How You Can Improve Your Fairway Bunker Lies, Just Like Matt Kuchar

Finally, answers to solving the dreaded fairway bunker shot, thanks to Matt Kuchar’s liberal interpretation of the golf’s revised Rules. (Thanks reader Stephen for the head’s up.)

In this edition of the ClubProGuy #LearningCenter, I'll show you how the new rules of golf have made a once difficult shot, much easier. @usga pic.twitter.com/UEQwAwevNy

— Club Pro Guy (@ClubProGuy) September 16, 2019

Tiger Reveals Plenty About His Presidents Cup Plans

Usually Captain blog entries are full of fluff and merely part of the job as outlined in whatever agreement the cart drivers sign to fetch bananas and pick out rainsuits.

But Tiger Woods’ latest blog post updating his Presidents Cup thoughts telegraphs more than I would have expected about December’s much-anticipated match at Royal Melbourne.

Before we get to the meaty stuff that matters, the initial post included this unfortunate mistake that was not picked up by the Ponte Vedra Senior VP of Microediting.

Of course there are many innocent explanations for Viktor Hovland’s inclusion: he speaks better English than most Americans! And with a nice Oklahoma twang. And he’s kind of looking like one of the best players on the planet right now.

However, he’s 2020 Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington’s to have since the Norwegian on his squad than Tiger does of bringing Mr. 64 (another one Sunday at Greenbrier) to Melbourne.

For starters, it’s clear now that Tiger’s play in Japan this fall (Zozo, skins game with Rory) will determine whether he is the first playing captain since Hale Irwin:

While I was disappointed to not earn one of the top 8 spots, I’m hopeful to perform well at my next start in Japan. In the meantime, I’m going to rely on playing with some of the guys in Florida to stay sharp. I’ll practice hard, work on my game, and we'll have some matches. It’s a lot of work, but it’s also always fun.

He later signed the blog post with this, as I believe he’s done before:

Maybe I’m reading to much into thoughts that I know Tiger slaved over while doing his nightly novel writing at the computer, but Kevin Kisner seems a more logical addition to the team given his recent match play record.

There are so many guys who are world-class players who aren’t yet on the team like Rickie Fowler, Tony Finau, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Gary Woodland, Jordan Spieth and many more.

Thankfully, he remains high on Royal Melbourne and how much the players will enjoy it.

The guys will thoroughly enjoy the fact that the ball runs. It'll move on the fairways and it'll move on the greens. Some of the guys who have played events in the Sandbelt in the past will tell you it’s one of the best collections of golf courses on the planet. It’s really a unique experience and some of the greatest golf you play.

I can’t wait to feel the atmosphere at Royal Melbourne. Melbourne is one of the greatest sporting cities in the world and I know their fans will turn out to watch another great Presidents Cup. If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, make sure you head to PresidentsCup.com.

Now there’s a buried lede: good seats still available. While supplies last.

Perhaps sales are lagging since my visit to PresidentsCup.com this evening was producing an error message, but according to Ticketmaster, weekly badges are AU$530 and weekend dailies go for AU$155, about $364 an $106 in US dollars.

AT&T: Stephenson Makes Exit Plan Known, Activist Investor Pounces And Lodges Proxy Fight

And we in golf just want to know what will happen to one of the best corporate partners in the game.

The Wall Street Journal’s Drew FitzGerald, Shalini Ramachandran and Corrie Driebusch lay out in fascinating detail how AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson signaled his forthcoming exit and set off an activist investor proxy by Jesse Cohn of Elliott Management. The battle for AT&T is sure to have ramifications for golf down the road and more immediately, upcoming PGA Tour television contract negotiations where the company is reportedly prepared to offer a new golf-only channel.

The next day, Elliott Management issued a 23-page report that publicly questioned the logic of AT&T’s $49 billion takeover of DirecTV in 2015, shortly before cord-cutting accelerated, and its $81 billion deal last year to buy Time Warner, home of HBO and Warner Bros, only to replace almost all of its experienced entertainment bosses.

Elliott’s report Monday also questioned whether Mr. Stephenson’s presumed successor could successfully integrate the conglomerate into a force able to compete for advertising dollars against the likes of Google and win a costly battle for streaming supremacy with rivals like Netflix Inc. and Walt Disney Co.

Plans for Mr. Stephenson’s triumphant exit, as early as next year, now threaten to turn into a monthslong fight over the direction of the $280 billion telecom company and a test of the board’s loyalty to his long-term vision.

The challenge issued by Elliott pits the 59-year-old AT&T chief executive against a 39-year-old Wall Street manager known for pressuring his targets to shake up their operations.

The letter does not question any of AT&T’s investment in golf, which includes sponsorship of two PGA Tour events and the Masters. So there’s that.

A Solheim Cup Finish For The Ages: Pettersen Makes The Ultimate Walk-Off Winning Putt

I feel like we’ve had more “sad someone had to lose” events in golf in recent years, and you can add the 2019 Solheim Cup to the list. Team USA and Team Europe—once they actually hit their shots—put on valiant efforts under intense pressure. Everyone really should get a trophy for the show they put on.

But it was the final 45 minutes, where the outcome was in doubt and a screenwriter seemingly scripted the series of events in brilliant coordination with Golf Channel, that makes this one so unforgettable. (It replays at 11 am ET Monday.)

Beth Ann Nichols of Golfweek captured the magical day here very well, and in this paragraph summed up the stunning composure of Bronte Law and Suzann Pettersen, along with the brilliant captaining by Catriona Matthew to place them in the last to singles slots.

Everything down the stretch had to go Europe’s way. Bronte Law, an English lioness who sprinted out the tunnel and onto the first tee, walked in a birdie putt on the 16th hole and closed her match against alternate Ally McDonald on the 17th to leave the fate of the Cup in Suzann Pettersen’s hands. They are cut from the same mold, Law and Pettersen. High-octane players who feed off of moments like this, particularly in team competition.

Ron Sirak has seen has share of great moments and writes “you’d have to search far and wide to find a more dramatic finish anywhere in the history of sports.”

Suzann Pettersen was blocked out on 18, wedged out, wedged close and made the winning putt. A controversial captain’s pick, she returned from a maternity leave and announced her farewell soon after the matches, writes Alistair Tait.

Brentley Romine with the Sunday singles roundup…each match mattered.

As with all team events, the day yielded many emotion-laden images.

As for Sunday’s strategy, Michelle Wie made her TV debut and confidently questioned Juli Inkster’s decision to middle-load the USA lineup with veterans while Matthew clearly looks brilliant for backloading hers with the most fiery competitors:

Golf Central’s highlight package:

This Week In Game-Killing Pace Of Play, Slowheim Cup Edition

Four-ball play has become a glacial-paced nightmare at all team events, yet appears to be festering in new and amazing ways at the 2019 Solheim Cup, writes Golfweek’s Beth Nichols.

The day one debacle, which did not improve as day two conditions deteriorated and matches barely finished in daylight, earned this rant by Golfweek’s Alistair Tait.

Snails, turtles and tortoises move faster than some of these players, especially in the fourball matches.

Yet only one player was given a bad time.

Just one!

How slow were they? The first fourball match featuring Suzann Pettersen and Anne van Dam against Danielle Kang and Lizette Salas took 2 hours and 57 minutes for nine holes. Nine.

They took five hours and 11 minutes to play 16 holes.

USA Captain Juli Inkster added:

"Yes [it was an issue], it's painfully slow out there," said Inkster. "I know we had maybe a couple on our side that are maybe a little bit slower, but they have a few on their side, too, that are a little slow. So I don't know, I don't know what to do.

During Saturday’s play, pace talk took up much of the broadcast as players often took shockingly long over putts and poor weather added to the misery.

That said, the matches are tied heading to Sunday singles and things should move faster.

Ponte Vedra: “What’s not up for debate is the Tour’s integrity — in this process or otherwise.”

The PGA Tour is pushing back at transparency deficiencies, including this from Alex Miceli noting that we even know vote totals in Russian elections but not in the PGA Tour Player Of The Year race.

Josh Berhow at Golf.com contacted the Tour and was provided the Player of the Year ballot and was told the voting process by the PGA Tour’s Laura Neal. Why this wasn’t disclosed before, I have no idea.

Neal said the ballot is delivered electronically to eligible voters — players who have played in at least 15 events. The completed ballots go directly to the Tour’s accounting firm, Grant Thornton.

A Proud Partner at The Players won by Player of the Year Rory McIlroy, btw.

Employees there tabulate the votes without Tour supervision and send the results to the Tour. The process is broadly similar to how Academy Award votes are tabulated.

“Feel free to debate whether the PGA Tour membership should have voted Rory or Brooks as Player of the Year,” Neal wrote in an email Friday. “What’s not up for debate is the Tour’s integrity — in this process or otherwise.”

Exactly. It’s not like Tour recently waited until the afternoon to send a 30 player field out in Atlanta with afternoon thunderstorms predicted and people almost died!

100 Years Old And Hitting A Shot At The KLM Open

Susan Hosang has to be the most agile and sprightly 100-year-old of all time.

Great stuff from the European Tour’s annual KLM Open stunt, where everyday golfers hit a shot or play a hole with the pros mid-tournament:

Meet 100-year-old golfer Susan Hosang 👵🏻💪

Today she played alongside Matt Wallace, Thomas Pieters and Patrick Reed at the #KLMOpen. pic.twitter.com/a5W6ptjbxg

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) September 12, 2019

Golf Getting Behind Efforts To Help The Bahamas

While the southeast United States was quickly back up and running after its brush with Dorian, parts of the Bahamas are gone as documented by GolfDigest.com’s Brian Wacker and photographer Dom Furore , just back from the unfolding humanitarian crisis.

They report on that and the golf scene which is devastated at a few high-end locations, but that’s not stopping all involved from raising money to help the islands ravaged by Dorian. Tiger and Justin Timberlake are stepping up to endorse a fund with lofty fundraising goals.

Amazingly, the home of Woods’ World Challenge, Albany, was spared, writes Wacker.

Albany, on New Providence and site of Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge, meanwhile, was unaffected by the storm and a tournament official told Golf Digest the event, scheduled for Dec. 4-7, will go on as planned.