It may be Super Bowl weekend, but the stars are out in Phoenix. Team USA Ryder Cup stalwarts Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay are all within three strokes of the lead. But it’s Sahith Theegala, who got into the WM Phoenix Open on a sponsor’s exemption who they’re all chasing. Theegala followed up
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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — “Go Waves!” spectators shouted as Sahith Theegala — a sponsor’s invitee to this week’s WM Phoenix Open — strolls down the fairway at TPC Scottsdale, where he is among the leaders through 36 holes. Spectators may be familiar with the PGA Tour rookie’s alma mater, Pepperdine, but do they know how to
SCOTTSDALE — It’s a question that’s gotten exponentially harder to answer in the post-Tiger days: who is the best golfer in the world? The algorithms and the eye test point to Jon Rahm, but there are a handful of challengers hoping to make his stay on the throne an ephemeral one. World No. 3 Viktor
5:40 PM ET Associated Press Ryan Fox will take a six-shot lead into the final round of the Ras Al Khaimah Classic as he goes in search of his first win on the European tour. The 211th-ranked New Zealander shot 7-under 65 in the third round on Saturday for a 54-hole total of 19-under 197.
1:08 AM ET SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Charley Hoffman expressed his displeasure with the PGA Tour on Friday night after a rules issue cost him a penalty stroke on a drop in the second round of the WM Phoenix Open. In a lengthy Instagram post, Hoffman criticized the Tour’s rules officials, who he thinks aren’t held
9:25 PM ET Associated Press SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Sahith Theegala made up for a messy finish Friday morning in the suspended first round of the WM Phoenix Open in a hurry — and kept on going. Making his tournament debut on a sponsor exemption, Theegala shot a 7-under 64 to take a 2-stroke lead over
4:50 PM ET Associated Press Ryan Fox shot 3-under 69 to open a three-stroke lead after two rounds of the Ras Al Khaimah Classic on Friday. The 211th-ranked New Zealander mixed six birdies with three bogeys for a 36-hole total of 12-under 132 at Al Hamra Golf Club in the latest stop on the “Desert
10:23 PM ET Associated Press SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Sahith Theegala crashed golf’s biggest party. Playing in the last group off the 10th tee Thursday in his first WM Phoenix Open start, Theegala was 7 under with two holes left when the round was suspended because of darkness. K.H. Lee was second after a 6-under 65.
5:24 PM ET SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It took Zach Johnson a second to remember what he did on the 17th tee. When it finally dawned on him, he laughed. He has knocked a ball off the tee before he hits it so many times that’s it’s not a thing to remember anymore. Johnson did it
10:39 AM ET Associated Press VIRGINIA WATER, England — The Indian Open was canceled and the China Open was postponed as restrictions associated with the coronavirus pandemic continued to cause problems on golf’s European Tour. The Indian Open had been postponed from its original scheduled date of Feb. 17-20 but now will not take place
Ever since we launched Local Knowledge with a focus on narrative storytelling, we’ve wanted to produce an “in the field” episode.” How cool would it be if, instead of telling a story that happened weeks or months or years ago, to tell it in real time? To get out in the field, press record and
SCOTTSDALE—Harris English and Webb Simpson both withdrew from the WM Phoenix Open on Wednesday. They will be replaced in the field by Cameron Young and Hayden Buckley. English enjoyed a career-best year in 2021, winning twice and getting a captain’s pick for the victorious U.S. Ryder Cup team, but has been dealing with a nagging
This watercolor—a man practicing his stroke in the enclosure of an upscale garden—is untitled and undated. It was painted around 1950 and might be the first artwork of a Black golfer by a Black artist. “Black Americans have played the game since the 1880s but for decades were invisible to most Americans,” says Rand Jerris,
How does the world’s No. 2 player and top-ranked American—a good-looking kid with global appeal, a radiant smile, two major championships, a college sweetheart-turned fiancee and a business degree from a top university—finish outside the top 10 in the PGA Tour’s popularity contest? The $40-million Player Impact Program is designed to reward players who bring
IN A PAST LIFE, MORGAN HOFFMANN was a world No. 1 amateur, Oklahoma State phenom and PGA Tour check-casher with cropped hair, biceps bulging out of his polo and a sparkling new crib in Jupiter, Fla. That was before a half-decade slog through a nightmare somehow brought him to paradise. He now stands proudly inside
Some recent maneuvers on the PGA Tour bring to mind the time Howard Hughes, the richest man in America, tried to buy pro golf. He wanted Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus to play in Las Vegas at his Desert Inn but was turned down. “They didn’t need gambling on the landscape of the careers they
Iwas raised on No. 12 at Eagle Trace Golf Course in Coral Springs, Fla., with my brother, Nick, and sister, Lexi. We could play as much golf as we wanted, and we did. Lexi has always done her thing—that’s probably why she’s so good—but we’d pull her into sibling competitions. We’re a family back at
10:00 AM ET Charlotte GibsonESPN Two-time major champion and 13-time LPGA Tour winner Stacy Lewis has been named captain of Team USA for the 2023 Solheim Cup. Lewis will lead a team of the top 12 American golfers who will seek to reclaim the cup when they face a Team Europe squad captained by Suzann
6:42 PM ET SiriusXM has fired former PGA Tour pro Mark Lye, who made controversial comments about women’s basketball during a show on Saturday. “You know the LPGA Tour, to me, is a completely different tour than it was 10 years ago,” Lye said Saturday on PGA Tour Radio. “You couldn’t pay me to watch.
7:38 PM ET ESPN News Services PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Another cliff-hanger at Pebble Beach, this one memorable for Tom Hoge delivering all the right shots on the back nine to surge past Jordan Spieth and win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for his first PGA Tour title. Hoge, one of seven players who had
11:54 AM ET Associated Press Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard held his nerve to win his second DP World Tour title at the Ras al Khaimah Championship in United Arab Emirates on Sunday. The 20-year-old had led by three shots overnight, but a mid-round wobble on Sunday left him trailing Jordan Smith by two on the back
10:32 AM ET Associated Press KING ABDULLAH ECONOMIC CITY, Saudi Arabia — Overnight leader Harold Varner III eagled the par-5 18th by sinking a long putt to overtake clubhouse leader Bubba Watson and win the Saudi International in dramatic fashion Sunday. The 31-year-old American shot a 1-under 69 in his final round at Royal Greens
7:44 PM ET Associated Press PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Jordan Spieth put himself into the mix Saturday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and he lived to tell about it. On a day when Seamus Power went backward to allow a half-dozen other players back in the game, Spieth went backward just to make sure
6:06 PM ET Associated Press FORT MYERS, Fla. — Leona Maguire became the first Irish winner in LPGA Tour history Saturday, closing with a 5-under 67 for a three-stroke victory in the LPGA Drive On Championship at Crown Colony. “It’s huge for Irish golf,” Maguire said. “There was never an Irish player on the tour,
It’s not a surprise Team USA has decided to go with a new captain for the 2023 Solheim Cup—but the name might be a little different than expected. On Wednesday, the LPGA announced Stacy Lewis has been selected to lead the Americans at the 2023 matches in Andalucia, Spain Lewis, a 13-time LPGA Tour winner
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.— Monday qualifiers are having a moment. Much of that is due to the work of one man: Ryan French, known in the Twitterverse as Monday Q Info, who has shined a light on the colorful characters and rich storylines percolating below the glitz and glamor of the PGA Tour. Nothing like them exists
After last year’s muted event—COVID-19 restrictions forcing a reduced gallery—the traditionally raucous Waste Management Phoenix Open will return to full roar this week with a loaded field set to play TPC Scottsdale. Brooks Koepka, a two-time winner of the event, returns to defend his 2021 title. Joining him are World No. 1 Jon Rahm, FedEx
With the new year came a new title sponsor for the LPGA developmental tour. Epson has replaced Symetra, and on Tuesday, officials released the tour’s 2022 schedule, making good on a promise of significant purse increases throughout the season. A total of 21 events are on the new schedule, and not one event has a
The PGA of America announced on Tuesday legendary photographer David Cannon as the second recipient of their recently created Lifetime Achievement Award in Photojournalism. Cannon follows Leonard Kamsler, who was named the inaugural recipient of the award at the beginning of 2020. Cannon, from Sussex, England, has been a fixture at the biggest events in
7:05 AM ET SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It’s one of the most iconic shots in PGA Tour history, not as much for the feat itself but for the celebration that ensued. After Tiger Woods‘ hole-in-one on the par-3 16th hole on the Saturday of the 1997 Phoenix Open, there were the missed high-fives, beer showering the