By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM
Jordan Spieth is foregoing his final two years at the University of Texas to turn pro, he announced on Friday.
The 19-year-old was a first team All-American, helping the Longhorns to a national championship this year, and was named the Big 12 Conference Player of the Year. A year after receiving Freshman of the Year honors, he was one of three finalists for the 2012 Ben Hogan Award, presented annually to the nation's top amateur golfer.
Spieth is one of only two players — Tiger Woods is the other — to have won multiple U.S. Junior Amateur titles, which he did in 2009 and 2011. He also reached No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings earlier this year before ending the season at No. 8.
"The decision to turn pro was a difficult one, but I'm looking forward to the challenge of competing at the highest level and accomplishing the many goals I've set for myself on and off the course," Spieth said in a statement. "I owe everything I've achieved thus far to the support of my family, friends, teammates, and the University of Texas. While I'm proud of what my teammates and I have accomplished, I couldn't be more excited to fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming a professional golfer. "
In eight starts on the PGA TOUR as an amateur, Spieth made the cut five times, finishing in the top 25 twice. His best result was a tie for 16th at the 2010 HP Byron Nelson Championship, where he became the sixth-youngest player to make the cut in a TOUR event and was tied for seventh heading into the final round.
He was also the low amateur at this year’s U.S. Open at The Olympic Club, where he tied for 21st.
Spieth made one start on the Web.com Tour, tying for 44th at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational earlier this year.
As an amateur, he was a standout member of the 2011 U.S. Walker Cup team. Though the U.S. lost to Great Britain & Ireland, Spieth did his part, winning a pair of singles matches and halving a foursomes match.
As a freshman at Texas, he won three events and led the team in scoring average.
By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM
Brendon de Jonge took home Sportsperson of the Year and Sportsman of the Year honors in his native Zimbabwe Thursday night.
The 32-year-old native of Harare who now lives in Charlotte, N.C., edged out swimmer Kirsty Coventry and distance runner Cutbert Nyasango, among others, for the awards.
De Jonge enjoyed his best season on the PGA TOUR this year, finishing 41st in the FedExCup standings and earning more than $2 million after four top 10s, including a runner-up at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, where he also shot his career-best score, a 62 in the opening round.
He also tied for fourth at The McGladrey Classic and the CIMB Classic and climbed to 81st in the Official World Golf Ranking.
De Jonge is the latest golfer from the small African nation to find success on TOUR with Hall-of-Famer Nick Price being its most prominent, along with Mark McNulty and Tony Johnstone.
The first six events of the PGA TOUR's new wrap-around schedule that begins in the fall of 2013 have just been announced.
All six will award a full complement of FedExCup points and three will be played outside the United States in Malaysia, China and Mexico. All six will be be televised on the Golf Channel.
The 2013-2014 schedule begins with the Frys.com Open (Oct. 10-13) in San Martin, Calif., the week following the Presidents Cup. Next up is the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas (Oct. 17-20).
Three of the final four events are international.
The CIMB Classic (Oct. 24-27) becomes an official PGA TOUR event for the first time and will be held at The MINES Resort & Golf Club in Selangor, Malaysia. That is followed by the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions (Oct. 31-Nov. 3) at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai, China.
The McGladrey Classic will be played the following week (Nov. 7-10) at Sea Island, Ga. and the OHL Classic at Mayakoba completes the schedule (Nov. 14-17) at Playa del Carmen Mexico.
The official PGA TOUR season then breaks before resuming in January 2014 at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. The winners of these six events qualify for the event on Maui.
The full schedule will be announced later next year.
Injured servicemen from the UK and USA bonded in a friendly battle for the inaugural Simpson Cup at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
Davis Love III has been named the winner of the 2013 Bob Jones Award. The USGA’s highest honor, the award recognizes an individual who demonstrates the spirit, personal character and respect for the game exhibited by the legendary Jones.
“Throughout his impressive career, Davis has distinguished himself with his sense of fair play, integrity and reverence for the game’s traditions,” USGA President Glen D. Nager said. “His passion for the game, as well as the values and principles that guide his everyday life, are emblematic of the characteristics that the Bob Jones Award seeks to identify. Golf and all those who play it are inspired by Davis' example.”
Love, 48, will receive the Bob Jones Award during the USGA’s Annual Meeting, to be held in San Diego in February. Love has won 20 PGA TOUR events including the 1997 PGA Championship at Winged Foot Golf Club and the 1992 and 2003 PLAYERS Championships.
“Davis epitomizes everything that Bob Jones stood for with his character, integrity, displays of sportsmanship and his spirit of giving back,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem. “He truly understands what it means to be a role model and has been a great ambassador for the PGA TOUR and the sport of golf, both on and off the field of competition. He is a worthy addition to the list of distinguished winners of the USGA’s Bob Jones Award.”
Love finished second in the 1995 and '99 Masters, as well as in the 1996 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills Country Club. Love’s poise, dignity and graciousness in those disappointing outcomes – in addition to the humility, respect and sportsmanship he displayed in his numerous triumphs – were strong factors in his selection for the Award.
So were Love's outreach efforts to both his local community and to the golf world. He established the Davis Love Foundation in 2005 to assist national and community-based programs that work to build a better future for at-risk children.
Based in St. Simons Island, Ga., the foundation is the host organization of the PGA TOUR’s McGladrey Classic, which benefits the Special Olympics and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeast Georgia, two of the USGA’s allied organizations.
Love has also represented his country as a player in six Ryder Cups and captained the 2012 U.S. Team. He has also played in six Presidents Cups and in the 1985 Walker Cup.
In 2008, Love received the PGA TOUR’s Payne Stewart Award, which is awarded to a player who shares the conduct, respect and philanthropy that were displayed by the 1991 and 1999 U.S. Open champion who died in a plane accident in 1999.
He also earned the 1997 USGA International Book Award for "Every Shot I Take," a tribute to his late father, Davis Love Jr.
By Ryan Smithson and Chris Dunham, PGATOUR.COM
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Nicholas Bradley's golf gear is not normal. For starters, he keeps his "alive date," the day his convoy was attacked in Afghanistan, on a headcover in his bag. He marks his ball with a Purple Heart coin. Even the grips he likes are a tad different -- they are smooth and velvety to better accommodate his damaged hands.
Bradley, 29, is at TPC Sawgrass on a misty Monday preparing to take part in the inaugural Simpson Cup, a Ryder Cup-style competition that pits wounded American veterans vs. their counterparts in the British military. The two-day event was founded by John Simpson, the former manager of Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer and Greg Norman.
On the Stadium Course, the two teams have gathered for a pro-am. The Simpson Cup players are treating it as a full day of practice for the two days of play, which begin Tuesday on the Dye's Valley Course (Four-Ball, better ball) and conclude Wednesday on the Stadium Course with 12 Singles matches.
Bradley has already played the Stadium Course a couple of times, so he's using this Monday to get his swing grooved. His mangled right arm -- the one with 51 screws in it -- won't straighten much, but it allows Bradley to take the club back on a wonderful plane. Even with a right hand that won't close properly, he's able to use a low draw that enables him to boast an 8 handicap. When he's swinging well, his action is Hoganesque: A flat, quick action that compresses the ball.
It's hard to believe that Bradley didn't play much golf before Aug. 3, 2008. On that Sunday, the Air Force Staff Sargent was in the last truck in a three-vehicle group that was escorting an officer to a firing range. A pair of Taliban fighters were waiting with an improvised bomb, and they hit the button just as the second truck went through. The blast rocked Bradley -- driving the third truck -- and it exploded right under his right arm. He was knocked out for a couple of minutes, and when it was over, he was left with a crushed face, bone and foot.
Sixteen surgeries later, Bradley is out of the Air Force -- and playing golf anytime he can. He's already gotten a taste of what it's like to be a PGA TOUR regular -- he was invited to stay with Bubba Watson in September during The Barclays, and he caddied for Rickie Fowler in the pro-am that week. Bradley was there when Bubba shot video of himself hitting golf shots out the window in their rented house. That same week, Watson and Bradley played golf together at an exclusive club near Bethpage Black, swapping stories.
Bradley, who lives near Dallas, was then invited to play in the Warrior Open, which was a two-round stroke play event put on by the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Bradley ended up tying for fourth there, posting rounds of 81-86. Not long after that, Bradley was told that he had been selected to play in the first Simpson Cup.
"The last four months have been insane," Bradley said. "Lot of golf, lot of competition. It has been awesome. I can't get enough of it."
Neither can his teammate, Jorge Zapata. Like Bradley, he was hit by a roadside bomb. Zapata's alive date is Nov. 27, 2006, when his Humvee was hit in Iraq. The blast shattered his tibia and fibula, and it was a year before Zapata was able to walk at what he considered a “close to normal” level.
While at a V.A. hospital in Orlando, Zapata found a brochure for Fairways for Warriors and decided to give golf a try. Now an avid golfer, he is studying at the Professional Golfers Career College in Orlando and hopes to become a teaching pro. But first, his sights are set on competing with his teammates at the Simpson Cup.
“We are all brothers in arms,” Zapata said. “Even if we don’t know each other, we fought the same fights and work together, so there’s a link.
“It’s a true honor to be here, to be selected, to participate and to represent the United States. (It’s great to) just get the word out there to raise awareness and show future wounded warriors that there’s more to life after their injuries.”
Bradley was especially interested to meet and play against his British counterparts in the Ryder Cup-style event. British team member Stuart Ellis, who lost his right leg below the knee, teed off with a prosthesis bearing the Union Jack flag.
"The chance to get to play with other wounded vets inspires me ... and intrigues me," Bradley said. "They are great. They are just like us. We have multiple common bonds; We have all been wounded and love the game of golf. It’s an amazing thing that brings us all together."
Bradley's team ended up winning the pro-am after he got hot on his back nine and strung together a load of pars. The two teams ate dinner together Monday night in the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse, and honorary Captain Billy Krazert, a four-time PGA TOUR winner, got to say a few words, but there's plenty of emotion involved.
"The fraternity that defends our countries are special," Krazert said. "The inaugural Simpson Cup is off to a great start, and I am looking forward to seeing how it grows, grows and grows."
By Alex Turnbull, Shotlink
In 2010, Rory McIlroy ranked 33rd on TOUR with a scoring average of 70.35. Since then, he's improved that by a shot-and-a-half, leading the TOUR in 2012 with an average of 68.87 in 2012.
How has he done it? ShotLink provides some answers.
He's 10 yards longer off the tee. In 2010, Rory McIlroy averaged 300 yards from the tee, ranking 12th on the PGA TOUR. That mark jumped to 310.1 yards in 2012. This season, McIlroy hit one out of every three drives over 320 yards. That ranked seventh on TOUR.
|Category||McIlroy: 2012||McIlroy: 2011||McIlroy: 2010|
|Driving Accuracy||56.61 percent/156th||60.29 percent/116th||62.64 percent/115th|
In his 12 stroke play starts in 2012 (where he made the cut), he led the field for driving distance three times and did not rank worse than 15th any week.
|Event won||Driving Distance||Rank|
|BMW Championship||306.9 yards||5th|
|Deutsche Bank Championship||310.3 yards||5th|
|PGA Championship||311.5 yards||1st|
|The Honda Classic||297.6 yards||8th|
His iron play continues to improve. McIlroy's greens in regulation numbers have remained consistent over the past three years on the PGA TOUR. However, his proximity to the hole numbers have improved drastically this season. In 2010, he ranked T129th on TOUR for proximity to the hole, averaging 35 feet to the pin on all approach shots. In 2012, his ranking has improved up to a tie for fifth on TOUR for proximity to the hole.
|Greens in Regulation||2012/66.36/60th||2011/68.30/20th||2010/66.24/120th|
|Proximity to Hole||2012/33' 0"/5th||2011/32' 1"/T3||2010/35' 6"/T129|
|Approaches: 125-150||2012/19' 9"/5th||2012/19' 5"/4th||2010/23' 10"/T126|
Long iron improvement: In 2010, Rory ranked T-133rd on TOUR for approach shots from outside 200 yards, averaging 51 feet 5 inches. However, he's made a huge climb up the rankings from this distance averaging nearly 10 feet closer to the pin (42 feet 2 inches) ranking second on TOUR in 2012 from outside 200 yards.
Lastly, and most importantly, McIlroy is much better on the greens. McIlroy ranked 82nd on the greens for strokes gained – putting on the 2012 PGA TOUR. 2012 marked the first season in the last three years where McIlroy did not lose strokes to the field on the greens.
|Putts Per Round||2012/28.72/T32nd||2011/29.76/166th||2010/29.27/T81|
|Putting - Inside 10'||2012/88.36/30th||2011/85.80/157th||2010/85.35/170th|
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Four wins, including his second major, on the PGA TOUR. The money titles on both sides of the Atlantic. The Byron Nelson Award and Vardon Trophy for low scoring average.
So what's not to like when newly-named PGA TOUR Player of the Year Rory McIlroy looks back on 2012? Well, he does have one regret, and it speaks volumes about the young Northern Irishman.
"We are judged on wins ultimately, and this year has been a great year with four wins on the PGA TOUR and winning in Dubai a couple weeks ago," McIlroy said in a teleconference on Tuesday. "But next thing, I won my first major in '11, I backed it up this season with another one, and I'd love to go into '13 with that same goal of obviously trying to win another major.
"But I think really what was disappointing this year for me, if there was a disappointment, that I was only in contention once in the majors, and luckily I was able to win it. But next year I'd love to be in contention in all four of them and have a chance to win all -- not saying I'm going to win all of them, but at least give myself a chance."
McIlroy's victory at the PGA Championship, which came by a whopping eight strokes courtesy of a flawless 66 on Sunday, sparked a surge that saw him win consecutive tournaments during the FedExCup Playoffs.
He ended up second in the FedExCup to Brandt Snedeker, who won the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola, and then turned his attention back to the European Tour where McIlroy won the season-ending Dubai World Championship.
McIlroy was named Player of the Year in a vote of his peers. The ballot, as PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem noted, was a "stout" one, featuring Snedeker; Masters champion Bubba Watson, three-time winner Tiger Woods and Jason Dufner, who broke through with two victories.
"It's always nice to get recognition from your peers, the guys that you're trying to beat week in, week out, and obviously there's been a lot of guys on the PGA TOUR that have had great years this year," McIlroy said. "... So to beat those guys is ... a very nice feeling. It's very rewarding, and I guess it's just a great way to end what has been a great year and my best season so far."
McIlroy said he drew confidence from a tie for fifth at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational the week before he headed to Kiawah Island, S.C., for the season’s final major. In his previous five starts, the 23-year-old had missed three cuts, including in his title defense at the U.S. Open and tied for 60th at the Open Championship, while posting a single top-10 in Memphis.
"I think everyone knows that my game wasn't where I wanted it to be sort of through the start of the summer and leading up to the PGA," McIlroy said. "But I felt like the week before in Akron I had a good week. I finished fifth and actually got a bit of confidence from that. I felt like my game was coming back to where I wanted it to be.
"Of course every time I go into a major I have expectations, but maybe at the PGA my expectations were maybe slightly lower just because of the form that I was in, and I got myself into a great position going into the weekend, and ... I didn't want to sort of let this opportunity pass me because it was a great opportunity to win my second major, and obviously I was able to do it, and from that I gained a lot of confidence.”
McIlroy is the third European to be named Player of the Year, following Luke Donald in 2011 and Padraig Harrington in 2008. The world No. 1 is also the youngest to earn the distinction since Tiger Woods did in 1997.
In addition to his many accolades earned for his work on the golf course, Finchem said McIlroy was equally accomplished outside the ropes. "He is at a very young age already making a very solid contribution to what is the most important asset of the PGA TOUR, and that is the image of its players, " the commissioner said.
Finchem also announced John Huh's selection as the PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year. Huh won the Mayakoba Golf Classic in just his fifth start on TOUR, beating veteran Robert Allenby in an eight-hole playoff.
Huh is the first player of Korean descent to be honored with the award and was the only rookie to reach the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola, finishing 29th in the FedExCup.