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How much money each PGA Tour player earned at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship
it pays to play well on the PGA Tour, folks. Just ask this week’s winner, Lucas Herbert.
The 25-year-old Australian claimed his first victory on Tour on Sunday, battling the elements in the final round at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda, to claim the 2021 Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Herbert, a two-time winner on the European Tour, shot a 2-under 69 to finish one shot clear of Patrick Reed and Danny Lee to take home the top-prize of $1,170,000. Reed and Lee will each split $578,500.
Check out how much money each PGA Tour player earned this week at the 2021 Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
Prize money
Position
Player
Score
Earnings
1
Lucas Herbert
-15
$1,170,000
T2
Danny Lee
-14
$578,500
T2
Patrick Reed
-14
$578,500
4
Patrick Rodgers
-13
$251,063
T5
Taylor Pendrith
-12
$251,063
T5
Scott Stallings
-12
$190,775
T7
Peter Malnati
-11
$190,775
T7
Davis Riley
-11
$190,775
T7
J.J. Spaun
-11
$190,775
T7
Curtis Thompson
-11
$190,775
T7
Vincent Whaley
-11
$190,775
T12
Brian Gay
-10
$129,025
T12
Russell Knox
-10
$129,025
T12
Graeme McDowell
-10
$129,025
T12
Seamus Power
-10
$129,025
T12
Alex Smalley
-10
$129,025
T17
Patrick Flavin
-9
$99,125
T17
Justin Lower
-9
$99,125
T17
Chad Ramey
-9
$99,125
T20
Jonathan Byrd
-8
$82,875
T20
Stephan Jaeger
-8
$82,875
T22
Thomas Detry
-7
$57,363
T22
Austin Eckroat
-7
$57,363
T22
Dylan Frittelli
-7
$57,363
T22
Mark Hubbard
-7
$57,363
T22
Sean O’Hair
-7
$57,363
T22
Chase Seiffert
-7
$57,363
T22
Greyson Sigg
-7
$57,363
T22
Adam Svensson
-7
$57,363
T30
Matthew Fitzpatrick
-6
$41,600
T30
Kramer Hickok
-6
$41,600
T30
Seung Yul Noh
-6
$41,600
T30
Mito Pereira
-6
$41,600
T34
Garrick Higgo
-5
$33,865
T34
David Skinns
-5
$33,865
T34
Peter Uihlein
-5
$33,865
T34
Camilo Villegas
-5
$33,865
T34
Brandon Wu
-5
$33,865
T39
Kiradech Aphibarnrat
-4
$25,675
T39
Scott Brown
-4
$25,675
T39
Brett Drewitt
-4
$25,675
T39
Scott Gutschewski
-4
$25,675
T39
David Hearn
-4
$25,675
T39
Ben Kohles
-4
$25,675
T39
Denny McCarthy
-4
$25,675
T46
Luke Donald
-3
$18,343
T46
Robert Garrigus
-3
$18,343
T46
Adam Hadwin
-3
$18,343
T46
Nick Watney
-3
$18,343
T46
Dylan Wu
-3
$18,343
T51
Brandon Hagy
-2
$15,717
T51
Ben Martin
-2
$15,717
T51
Matthias Schwab
-2
$15,717
T51
Sepp Straka
-2
$15,717
T51
Johnson Wagner
-2
$15,717
T51
Ludvig Aberg
-2
$15,717
T57
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
-1
$15,717
T57
Jim Knous
-1
$15,717
T57
David Lingmerth
-1
$15,717
T57
Guido Migliozzi
-1
$15,717
T57
Seth Reeves
-1
$15,717
T62
Max McGreevy
E
$14,885
T62
Aaron Rai
E
$14,885
T62
Kyle Wilshire
E
$14,885
T65
Sang-Moon Bae
1
$14,365
T65
Kurt Kitayama
1
$14,365
T67
Ryan Armour
3
$14,040
T67
Ben Crane
3
$14,040
T67
D.A. Points
3
$13,650
T67
John Senden
3
$13,650
T71
Arjun Atwal
4
$13,195
T71
Hayden Buckley
4
$13,195
T71
Lee Hodges
4
$13,195
74
Sahith Theegala
8
$12,935
75
John Merrick
10
$12,805
Lucas Herbert battles elements, holds off challengers for first PGA Tour win at 2021 Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images
Pelted
by rain and whipping wind, Lucas Herbert tried to keep dry under a palm
tree on Thursday after bogeying two of his first three holes of the
opening round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. “We’re in for a
long week,” he said to himself.
Well, the meteorologists were right for once about the forecast, but
Herbert should avoid the prediction game. The 25-year-old Australian who
expected to be heading home on Friday with a missed cut, did better
than that. He overcame the elements to shoot a final-round 2-under 69 at
Port Royal Golf Club in Southampton, Bermuda, and win his first PGA
Tour title.
In just his third start since earning his Tour card, Herbert did the
best job of any of the contenders on Sunday of dealing with another day
of nasty conditions, which forced tee times to be moved up and a short
weather delay.
“I love playing when it’s really hard,” he said. “I think it makes
you be that little bit better and it just eliminates the guys who maybe
aren’t as good. I just enjoyed the struggle out there as well today.
There was times where I was nearly sitting on the ground behind an
umbrella and just embracing it all that was so much fun.”
Herbert entered the final round trailing by four strokes, but holed a
bunch of lengthy birdie putts, including at Nos. 12 and 14 — a 35-foot
left-to-right bender — to finish 15-under 269 and edge Patrick Reed and
Danny Lee by one stroke. The birdie at 14 is one he won’t soon forget.
“I got over that putt on 14 and went, like this is your range, you’ve
holed so many of these this week, like you’re probably going to hole
this one as well,” Herbert recalled. “From the moment it left the
putter, I was like, that’s not going to miss, that’s going in.”
Up ahead, Reed birdied four of the last six holes to grab the clubhouse lead and found the tough conditions to his liking.
“Might as well just throw the yardage books away today,” he said of
playing in a howling wind. “I felt like it needed to be hard today for
me to have a chance at this golf tournament.”
Reed picked up his first top-10 finish since the Memorial in early
June, but his 65 was eclipsed for round of the day by Scott Stallings,
who started Sunday 14 shots back before posting a bogey-free 9-under 62
to tie for fifth with 54-hole leader Taylor Pendrith. The Canadian, who
shot 61 on Friday to assume the lead, failed to make a birdie on Sunday
and stumbled to a 76.
“Lots of positives,” said Pendrith, a PGA Tour rookie. “It’s my best
finish out here. It was a tough Sunday, which I guess I’ll learn a lot
from that, but to have a good week was great.”
Having missed his previous two cuts, Herbert asked his coach, Dom
Azzopardi, who he started working with at age 13, to fly from Australia
to Bermuda for an emergency tuneup. They spent two weeks working
primarily on his takeaway.
“To be honest, like Thursday and Friday this week I still didn’t 100
percent trust it, so it was really nice this weekend it felt like
everything was matching up, what I felt like I was making a move at, the
ball felt like it was coming out exactly as I thought, so it was good
it turned out this week, for sure,” he said.
Herbert counted two previous victories on the European Tour,
including at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open in July. This title had the
added benefit of earning him a spot in the Masters, and it also lifted
him into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first
time.
“The next 12 months are going to be really cool. I’ve never played
Augusta, so being able to play the Masters is going to be pretty cool,”
he said. “I don’t even want to try to put expectations on anything right
now. Too easy when you win to think you’re never going to not win
again.”
Jim Knous keeps his job on the PGA Tour thanks to the 'Greatest top 60 of all time'
There is Sunday pressure on the PGA Tour trying to win a tournament, which is immense, and then there’s the pressure of playing for your livelihood.
Jim Knous, making his final start on his medical exemption, needed to earn at least 3.516 FedEx Cup points at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship to secure conditional Tour status as well as full Korn Ferry Tour status for the remainder of the 2021-22 season. That amounted to finishing T-61 or better and when he started with four bogeys in his first eight holes, it looked as if he may need to start looking in the help wanted ads on Monday. But Knous righted the ship with four birdies against a single bogey coming home to shoot 1-over 72, finish T-57, and keep his job for the rest of the season.
“Greatest top-60 (finish) of all time,” he cracked.
Knous injured his right wrist at the 2019 RBC Canadian Open and it required surgery that August, sidelining him for the rest of the year and all of 2020. He held the 54-hole lead at the Fortinet Championship in September, but a final-round 74 dropped him to T-11 and left him with one event to get the job done – or else be jobless.
“It’s just been weighing on me,” he said. “The emotions were going crazy today. I was running through all the scenarios in my head, which is exactly what you don’t want to do, but it’s hard to block those out. Once that first tee ball was in the air, it was game time, everything kind of pushed to the back in my mind, so I was just able to focus on golf.”
That Knous even had a chance on Sunday was remarkable. Playing in the worst of the weather on Thursday, he opened with seven bogeys on his first eight holes and shot 76. He needed to go low to make the cut on Friday and did just that – making eagle at 17 en route to shooting 66 and making the cut on the number. But 71 players survived the 36-hole cut so he still had his work cut out for himself over the weekend. On Saturday, he posted 2-under 69 to give himself some wiggle room, but not much.
All the emotions. Fought my way into the weekend. Now let’s keep it going! https://t.co/qqy3tb38Rj
And then the weather turned nasty on Sunday and Knous got off to a brutal start. Having played the back nine first, Knous rallied with birdies at Nos. 2, 4 and 7 before a bogey at 8 made his chances a bit dicey again with one hole to go.
“I knew making birdie would be great and would vault me up the leaderboard a little bit. I saw T-61 on the tee when I teed off, so I said, ‘I don’t know about that.’ I said, ‘Let’s make a par and I’m going to try to make this birdie putt just like any other putt, I’m going to try to make it.’ Luckily, rolled it in,” he said. “I was so ecstatic to see it go in. And relief, too. A lot of relief.”
Which was more difficult – making the cut on Friday or the comeback on Sunday?
“Maybe tied. They were both brutally hard,” Knous said. “Your mind kind of goes all the wrong places, but I just told myself, ‘We’re going to do this.’ I just kept fighting and just proud to have done it, you know.”
Here’s to a job well done and a job for another season.
Lucas Herbert battles elements, holds off challengers for first PGA Tour win at 2021 Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Paradise was anything but beautiful on Sunday.
Inclement weather in the forecast forced the the Butterfield Bermuda Championship’s final-round tee times to be pushed up in the morning, but that doesn’t mean players were in the clear. High winds and intermittent rains battered the field all day at Port Royal Golf Club, where four players were within a shot of the lead on the final hole.
After laying up with an iron off the tee, Lucas Herbert lipped-out for birdie on the 18th after sticking his approach shot to finish at 15 under and win for the first time on the PGA Tour. Herbert shot a 2-under 69 to hold off clubhouse leader Patrick Reed and Danny Lee, who finished T-2 at 14 under. Patrick Rodgers finished fourth at 13 under after a 1-under 70. Scott Stallings put together the round of the day with a bogey-free 9-under 62, three shots better than the second best effort, a 6-under 65 from Reed.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect Lydia Ko's decision to re-commit to the Pelican Women's Championship.
Lydia Ko will have a chance to win the Vare Trophy after all.
After Golfweek first reported
that Ko would skip the LPGA’s penultimate event, the Pelican Women’s
Championship, in between starts in Saudi Arabia and the LPGA’s season
finale in Florida, Ko’s agent told Golf Digest
that Ko would be in the field for the Pelican, which will allow Ko to
satisfy the minimum number of rounds to be eligible for the LPGA’s
scoring title.
LPGA rules stipulate that a player must complete
either 70 rounds or 70% of official tournaments rounds, whichever is
fewer, to be eligible for the Vare Trophy. Ko is fourth in scoring
average – behind three players who are ineligible: Nelly Korda, Jin
Young Ko and Inbee Park – and boasts a 69.615 mark in 65 rounds, just
ahead of In Gee Chun’s 69.794 in 68 rounds.
The Vare Trophy also
comes with a full point towards a player’s LPGA Hall of Fame
eligibility. It takes 27 points to qualify; Ko currently has 19.
Ko
is still slated to tee it up in the Nov. 4-7 Aramco Saudi Ladies
International, the first of back-to-back events in Saudi Arabia. She
will then play the final two events on the LPGA schedule, the Pelican on
Nov. 11-14 in Belleair, Florida, and the CME Group Tour Championship on
Nov. 18-21 in Naples, Florida.
The second Saudi Arabian event, the Aramco Team Series – Jeddah, is
Nov. 10-12. It is the fourth and final team/individual tournament of a
series, which has contested events in London, England, Sotogrande,
Spain, and New York.
Several notable LPGA and LET players have
competed in the Aramco series, including Charley Hull, who won the
individual tournament in New York, and Jessica Korda, who was part of
the victorious New York team. Major champions Georgia Hall and Anna
Nordqvist are committed to the Jeddah event.
Last year’s Saudi
Ladies International, won by Solheim Cup player Emily Kristine Pedersen,
was the first women’s tournament contested in Saudi Arabia.
The
events are backed by the Saudi government’s Private Invest Fund, which
is the same group that is supporting LIV Golf Investments. The LIV
company announced on Friday Greg Norman as its CEO, in what is believed to be the beginning of a Saudi-backed rival to the PGA Tour.
Vare Trophy in Lydia Ko’s sights again as she's back in Pelican Women’s Championship field
Andrew Redington
Lydia Ko is once again in the field at the LPGA’s Pelican Women’s
Championship. And so long as she plays, the 24-year-old will now be
eligible for one of the LPGA’s most prestigious year-end awards, the
Vare Trophy, for the lowest season-long stroke average.
The 16-time LPGA winner recently announced she would be playing the
Aramco Saudi Ladies International on the Ladies European Tour, which is
being held Nov. 4-7. With the LPGA’s season-ending CME Group Tour
Championship help Nov. 18-22—and offering a first-place check of $1.5
million—Ko was going to take the week of the Pelican (Nov. 11-14) off to
rest up.
However, missing the Pelican would leave Ko one round short of the
70-round minimum needed to be eligible for the Vare. Contacted by Golf
Digest, Ko's agent, Jay Burton, said that she is currently on the
Pelican playing list. The news was first reported by Golfweek.
Ko is currently third on tour in stroke average at 69.615, trailing
Jin Young Ko and Nelly Korda. However, both those players will fall
short of the 70-round minimum, allowing Lydia Ko to become the
front-runner for the Vare. And winning the trophy offers a unique
spoil—it’s worth a point for a player as she attempts to qualify for the
LPGA Hall of Fame. Players need a total of 27 points to get in, and Ko
sits at 19.
Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen dresses as Phil Mickelson before Miami Dolphins game on Halloween
Chances are you know Josh Allen as the quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. The 25-year-old Pro Bowler is in his fourth season under center in the NFL and was second-team All-Pro after a breakout season last year.
But did you know he’s also quite the golf fan?
Exhibit A: Allen showed his Halloween spirit and dressed up before the Bills game against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday as none other than 2021 PGA Championship winner Phil Mickelson. But it wasn’t just the Kiawah gear. From the coffee mug, sunglasses and golf glove in the back pocket to the thumbs-up and calf flex, Allen nailed his Lefty costume. Even Mickelson approved, tweeting: “Josh Allen just became the most seductive man on the planet.”
Josh Allen just became the most seductive man on the planet.
Trick or treat? Golfers celebrate Halloween and we've got a round-up of the best costumes
Trick or treat? Hope your neighbors passed on the candy corn (no thank you) and went with the good stuff. And by good stuff, we mean Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, an old-school Kit Kat, and perhaps Starbursts, the red ones, please, right?
Some of our favorite pro golfers let their hair down and got in the Halloween spirit for the October 31 celebration. Here’s a round up of our favorite costumes posted to social media either by golfers, or people who dressed as golfers. We’ll keep adding to the gallery as the day goes along so check back frequently.
Butterfield Bermuda Championship Sunday final-round tee times, TV info
It’s time for a spooky final round in beautiful Bermuda.
The final round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship is being played at the Robert Trent Jones-designed Port Royal Golf Course, which is playing as a par 71 measuring 6,828 yards.
Scott Gutschewski, Dylan Frittelli, Chase Seiffert
6:56 a.m.
Seung-Yul Noh, Scott Brown, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
7:07 a.m.
Kramer Hickok, D.A. Points, Matthias Schwab
7:18 a.m.
Ludvig Aberg, Scott Stallings, David Hearn
7:29 a.m.
Ben Crane, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Sean O’Hair
7:40 a.m.
Brandon Hagy, Jim Knous, Camilo Villegas
7:51 a.m.
David Lingmerth, Seth Reeves, Aaron Rai
8:02 a.m.
Denny McCarthy, Robert Garrigus, Max McGreevy
8:13 a.m.
Lee Hodges, Kurt Kitayama, Sepp Straka
8:24 a.m.
Kyle Wilshire, Sahith Theegala, Nick Watney
8:35 a.m.
Ben Martin, Ryan Armour, John Senden
8:46 a.m.
Hayden Buckley, John Merrick, Arjun Atwal
TV, radio information
You can watch Golf Channel for free on fuboTV. All times ET.
Sunday, Oct. 31
TV
Golf Channel: 1-4 p.m.
Radio
SiriusXM: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
We recommend interesting sports viewing and streaming opportunities. If you sign up to a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee.
Taylor Pendrith leads by three entering the final round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Taylor Pendrith went to bed Friday night with his first 36-hole lead/co-lead on the PGA Tour after firing a tournament-record 61. Saturday, Pendrith backed up his historical round with a hard-fought 6-under 65. After making a bogey on the par 4 fifth, Pendrith played his next eight holes in 5 under.
He would later add back-to-back circles on 16 and 17 to extend his lead to three shots going into Sunday’s final round.
“There’s a lot of familiar names up on the top of the leaderboard that I played with the last two years on the Korn Ferry Tour, so, I mean, there will be some nerves for everybody in the top-10 I think going into tomorrow,” Pendrith said after his round. “Just going to try to focus on what I can control and just go play golf and try to battle the wind.”
His performance this week isn’t a huge surprise, as he’s made all three cuts this season prior to Bermuda with no finish worse than T-47.
On Pendrith’s PGA Tour profile, one of his personal notes reads: “Hopes to play Augusta National someday.” With a win tomorrow, that dream would become reality, as the winner of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship earns an automatic invitation to the Masters.
Just another example of how weird and unpredictable golf is: Danny Lee’s last nine starts on the PGA Tour consisted of five missed cuts, two withdraws, and one top 20 finish (Palmetto Championship). This week, Lee is solo second, three shots back of the lead entering the final round in Bermuda.
He made the turn Saturday with a bogey-free 4-under 32, but had a more roller coaster back-nine. Lee mixed four birdies and two bogeys coming home for a moving day total of 6-under 65.
“I haven’t had this kind of round or this kind of week in a while,” Lee said when asked about playing good golf again. “It’s good to be back in contention and feel a little bit of nerves and seeing the crowds and getting to mix with the crowds, hitting a lot of good golf shots, making a lot of birdies out there. It’s been a lot of fun.”
He’ll look to win for the second time on the PGA Tour Sunday, his previous victory came at the 2015 Greenbrier.
Patrick Reed, one of the lone stars in the field this week, was in his bag for most of moving day until a double bogey on the par 5 17th derailed his blemish-free effort. He’ll need a water-to-wine miracle Sunday as he’s nine back, sitting at T-17.
Quick note for those interested in watching the final round action:
Due to Sunday weather forecast, starting times for round four at @Bermuda_Champ will be 7:45am-9:57am (local time) off of the 1st and 10th tees.
Watch: Pack of kangaroos swarms woman as she's about to tee off
The nerves we feel on the tee box largely come from the internal pressure we put on ourselves.
But amateur golfer Wendy Powick had an external distraction as she went to tee off recently during a round at Arundel Hills Country Club, which sits near the Golf Coast in Queensland, Australia.
Powick was going through her pre-shot routine, lining up her drive when she witnessed a pack of kangaroos streaming down the fairway before stopping right on the edge of the tee box.
“They’ve come to watch me tee off,” Powick joked with a playing partner who was filming the incident.
It’s not the first time Powick has posted a video or image of kangaroos on the course, as seen below, but even she seemed caught off-guard by the way the group came toward her on this day.
After scurrying about, the kangaroos finally cleared so Powick could play through.
After Dubai defeat, Maria Fassi joins LPGA Pelican Women's Championship field as sponsor invite
Maria Fassi was one of the last women standing in a thrilling battle for the Dubai Moonlight Classic title this past week. Ultimately, Bronte Law shut the door with a well-timed eagle on her next-to-last hole and a stuffed approach shot on her last to edge Fassi, but it’s not the last you’ll hear of the fiery player from Mexico this year.
Fassi will tee it up Nov. 8-14 at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida, for the LPGA’s Pelican Women’s Championship, the final full-field event of the regular season and the next-to-last event on the LPGA’s 2021 schedule.
The tournament opportunity comes on the heels of what amounts to Fassi’s best finish this season. Since finishing 12th at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational in July, Fassi has had three top-25 finishes in five LPGA starts, which included a fifth-place finish at the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer. She also recently launched the Maria Fassi Foundation and Fassi’s Friends, a series of inclusive and adaptable clinics that bring disabled and full-bodied kids together to learn the game of golf.
By extending Fassi the exemption, tournament officials have assured her a spot in the field should she not qualify on her own. Stephanie Meadow was granted a sponsor exemption, too, along with Destiny Lawson, the 2021 North Florida PGA Women’s Section champion and assistant golf professional at Ocala Golf and Equestrian Club in Ocala, Florida.
“We are excited that Maria and Stephanie will be joining the field at the Pelican Women’s Championship,” said Marci Doyle, executive director of the Pelican Women’s Championship. “Maria has had a strong second half of her season and Stephanie is hoping to replicate her play at the 2020 Pelican Women’s Championship. They are outstanding players who also have a tremendous passion for growing the game.”
The Pelican Women’s Championship is in its second year on the LPGA schedule.
Greg Norman will maintain role in QBE Shootout amid becoming commissioner of new league
In a story posted on ESPN.com Friday morning, QBE Shootout founder and host Greg Norman confirmed that he will be the commissioner of a new golf league and stepping away from his business enterprises.
But Norman will remain in his role as host of the Shootout, which is played Dec. 8-12 at Tiburón Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Florida, and just announced its field Tuesday.
Wasserman Events operates all of the golf tournaments previously operated by Greg Norman Production Company. Wasserman bought GNPC in 2015. That includes the Shootout, so Norman’s move doesn’t directly affect his role in that event.
On Friday, Norman announced his association with Liv Golf Enterprises, which is backed by the Private Investment Fund. That fund operates on behalf of the government of Saudi Arabia. According to ESPN.com, Norman will be chief operating officer as well as commissioner.
Norman will stay in South Florida, where he purchased a new home in Palm Beach Gardens after selling his one on Jupiter Island for $55 million. He also sold his ranch in Colorado for $40 million earlier this year.
Norman will remain involved with his golf course design business, according to the ESPN story.
“What do I do with the Greg Norman Company?” Norman told ESPN.com. “It has 12 divisions. I can’t do both. I can’t put both feet in both office buildings and give 100% effort. So I decided to step away from Greg Norman Company. I’m handing the reins over for the first time in my life to other individuals to run my company.”
The Shootout field is led by three-time champions Matt Kuchar and Harris English, who won by nine strokes last year. U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker and LPGA Tour star Lexi Thompson also are part of the 24-player field that features scramble, modified alternate shot and best ball in three tournament rounds. Thirteen players in the field are in the top 50 in the world golf rankings.
The Shootout also features Live Fest, a concert on Saturday, Dec. 11 that has Thomas Rhett and Cole Swindell as headliners, with Runaway June and Ben Allen Band also on the lineup.
Tournament officials expect to announce the 12 two-player teams for the Shootout this week.
Fitness with Averee: Band bicep curls for bombs (and you can do them anywhere)
Hitting bombs isn’t just about working at the range. It’s putting in some time on your biceps, too. But a gym isn’t always available or feasible.
How do you handle that?
This week, our fitness guru Averee Dovsek is in Central Park in the heart of New York City, to show you a quick and easy exercise to strengthen your arms — and all it takes is a simple band. It’s easy enough to do anywhere but will net tremendous results.
Welcome to Play Smart, a game-improvement column that drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from Game Improvement Editor Luke Kerr-Dineen to help you play smarter, better golf.Today, we’re talking about Phil Mickelson’s diet.
Phil Mickelson fasts for 36 hours every week but also eats healthier overall!
.But how he could possibly do the unthinkable and win a major at age 50, against men half his age, Phil Mickelson’s answer was simple.
“I worked harder,” he said.
“I
work harder physically to be able to practice as long as I wanted to
and I’ve had to work a lot harder to be able to maintain focus
throughout a round. If I work a little harder, spend a little more time
in the gym, eat well, practice hard, there’s no reason why I can’t put
it all out there for 18 holes.”
At 50, Phil Mickelson is in the best shape of his life.
Getty Images
And nowhere is that hard work and sacrifice more apparent than in Phil’s physical transformation.
For
most of his professional golf career and, indeed, his life, Phil looked
like the rest of us: Slightly soft around the middle. And then, rather
than letting his career vanish into the twilight, something switched.
“I wasn’t educated,” Phil told me ahead of the 2020 U.S. Open.
“I either wasn’t aware or didn’t want to know the things I was putting
in my body, whether it was diet soda and how toxic that is, or whether
it was the amount of sugar and how much inflammation it causes, or
whether it was the quantity; all of those things, I just kind of shut my
eyes to.”
Armed with a new diet and a sense of purpose, the soft-and-smiley Phil became lean-and-macho seemingly overnight.
Phil Mickelson’s diet:
Phil Mickelson fasts for 36 hours every week but also eats healthier overall.
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If you’re looking for a proper deep-dive into Phil’s diet, I’d highly recommend my friend and colleague Sean Zak’s first-hand look trying Phil’s coffee-and-water fast.
If you’re looking for something a little more high-level, think of it
this way: Generally speaking, Phil eats less of everything and better
overall. It’s a good rule to follow for anyone looking to lose weight.
Specifically, Phil structures
his eating around periodic fasts. He goes on longer fasts, like the kind
Sean tried, and shorter ones. He does three-day fasts every few months
as a way of resetting his immune system; he does shorter fasts more
often, saying after his final round that he fasts for 36 hours straight
once a week.
“It gives my body a chance to reset,” he said.
Phil
said he alters his 36-hour, day-and-a-half weekly fast depending on his
schedule. Usually, if he’s playing, it’s at the start of the week.
That’s
the formula for Mickelson’s diet that works for him: 1.5 days of
fasting to cleanse and detox his body so it can recover, 5.5 days of healthier eating overall. But while the results are self-evident, it doesn’t come without sacrifice.
“Food,”
Phil said, when asked what his biggest sacrifice was, before taking a
more holistic view on his new healthier lifestyle. “I’ve got to eat a
lot less and I’ve got to eat better. I just can’t eat as much and I have
to let my body kind of recover. But it’s also been a blessing for me
because I feel better and I don’t have inflammation and I wake up
feeling good. It’s been a sacrifice worth making.”
A sacrifice worth making, indeed.
PGA Championship Notebook Dump: 3 stories we’re just getting around to
At the PGA, Padraig Harrington and Phil Mickelson proved that age is just a number.
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The story of the 103rd PGA Championship was, of course, Phil … and Brooks. And the brutish, breezy Ocean Course. And the 72nd-hole chaos.
But there were smaller, less consequential moments and observations.
There always are at the majors. In the wake of the thrilling week that
was, we asked our three on-site reporters to shake out their notebooks
and spin us a yarn they didn’t tell last week.
The Tour de Kiawah by Michael Bamberger
The best way to get to the golf course was by bike. On Kiawah Island,
all through the playing of the PGA Championship, you saw bikes. Not
like Bike Week in Daytona Beach, where thousands and thousands of
helmeted fellas and gals chug into town on their Harleys. During the
Florida Swing, in and around Orlando and Jacksonville, you see the
bikers whenever you stop to buy gas or a six. It’s a great scene. Great
Americana. But the bike-week scene at Kiawah was not that. Nothing like
that. These were bike bikes.
You know the kind. Picture
David Feherty on his bike, on the side of the road after another mishap.
The 27-speed gear-shifter mangled beyond repair. Not that. Or Rory McIlroy and our own Jonathan Wall on their Peletons. Nothing like that, either.
What
this was was hundreds of men, and some women, most of them on the north
side of 55, cruising slowly along wide bike paths on fat-tired bikes
with foot brakes, big baskets above the front tires, wide,
mushy saddles (seats) and upright handlebars. And still the cyclists
slouched..
One of the best ways to access the Ocean Course is by bike.
google earth
These were rental bikes, or bikes borrowed from the owners of
the houses and villas and condos that were occupied for the week by fans
of the golf. Should you wear a helmet while wearing a bike? You should.
Was this crowd? It was not. At 4 or 5 or 6 miles per hour, the risks
were minimal.
Just like the Daytona Bike Week crowd, this gang had
a uniform, too. Shirts with club logos tucked into khaki shorts, the
whole package secured by embroidered belts. Golf caps, of course. White
golf shoes. Faces slathered with sunblock.
Most of the fans came
to the course on giant air-conditioned tourist buses, roaring and noisy
and cumbersome on the island’s narrow roads. The bikers snorted, their
mode of transportation so superior. Their main struggle was to get
enough speed up to keep going forward on a reasonably straight line.
Either that, or they were drunk.
And then they’d dismount near the
main entrance, where there was a parking lot for bikes, maybe a
quarter-acre big, deep in a woods, a shortish walk to the course. They’d
hike on in. They were there for the golf, but their iPhones were
already giving them credit for some burned calories. Talk about your
win-wins.
At Home on the Range by Dylan Dethier
Playing partners Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson
cut opposite figures warming up before Sunday’s round. Mickelson is
lefty. Koepka is not. Mickelson was going fully technical. Koepka was
not. Mickelson was replacing clubs, tweaking alignment and dialing in
new swing thoughts. Koepka was not. Mickelson is (theoretically) in the
twilight of his career. Koepka is not. Mickelson didn’t have a top 10 in
a major since 2016; Koepka had won four majors — and counting — since
then.
The only commonality they had was a shared intensity, but
even that was different: Koepka seeks to exude effortless, nonchalant
jock swagger, while Mickelson’s intensity is decidedly effortful. His
golf, all week, looked difficult (and brilliant!).
But an hour
earlier two other final-round playing partners approached their range
session very differently. Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler each began the
day at even par, on the edge of contention. Fowler and caddie Joe
Skovron set up first, near the far right end of the range. The entire
range was open, but Spieth and caddie Michael Greller took the spot
directly next to Fowler. Their respective warm-ups were dotted with
brief interruptions; the caddies chatted, the players chatted, they all
chatted together. Skovron pulled up a video on his phone of Greller
hitting a pivotal shot in a match they’d played together and all four
huddled around to check it out.
The range at Kiawah last week.
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None of this is easy. All four of the aforementioned golfers are reminders of that.
Koepka,
despite his greatness, is a reminder that golf is plenty taxing on your
body and that to play at the highest level your entire engine needs to
cooperate.
Fowler, despite his talent, is a reminder that coming
out of a slump is not actually inevitable. Out here, it’s awfully
difficult just to keep pace.
Spieth, despite his mixed results of
late, is a reminder that coming out of a slump certainly is possible.
Even with the eyes of the golf world upon you.
And Mickelson,
despite his age, is a reminder that the golf ball doesn’t know a whole
lot about the person hitting it. The ball is more concerned with the
object colliding with it.
The range at a professional golf tournament is a reminder just how many ways there are to do this
successfully. Swings look wildly different. Body types, too. Demeanors.
Routines. What they all have in common is an attention to detail and an
ability to hit the ball on the ground with the dead center of that
clubface. I spent a lot of time there last week, just watching.
Lowcountry for Old Men by Luke Kerr-Dineen
For
the past few years, the narrative has been set: That golf is changing.
That the inevitable march of human progress is breaking apart the game
as we know it. That a fusion of technology and athleticism is giving
rise to a new crop of emerging golfers. Innovators, ready to render
everybody else obsolete. They’re coming. Watch your back.
And
then 50-year-old Phil Mickelson became the oldest man to win a major,
fending off a player nearly half his age with relative ease.
With
history officially re-written, it’s perhaps time to consider the growing
body of evidence that the real innovation from the current revolution
may not be giving rise to new careers, but in extending the life of
existing ones.
Padraig and Phil, 98 years between them.
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It’s undisputable that young players are equipped with better
information than ever (and more of it!). Their games have been shaped by
that information, which means there’s an underlying level of trust.
But
here’s the thing about information: It comes in many forms. Some of
it’s good. Some of it’s great! Some of it is just okay. You can have too
much information, or not enough. Sometimes the information you have is
underdeveloped, flawed or just plain wrong.
It’s why the best
information is the kind served with a hearty dose of skepticism, the
kind that comes with having been there and done that. To know a salesman
when they see one because they’ve fallen for that schtick already, or
to bat away something that makes sense in theory but doesn’t work in
practice, because they’ve already tried it.
Phil Mickelson,
navigating the Ocean Course with his 48-inch high-tech driver and 19th
century-style blade putter, embodies the best of both schools of
thought. But he’s not the only one. Alongside Phil in the top 5 last
week was 49-year-old Padraig Harrington. A month earlier, 48-year-old
Stewart Cink won the RBC Heritage. A few months before that 49-year-old
Brian Gay again found himself in the winner’s circle. (Cink and Gay both
made the cut at Kiawah.) Meanwhile, 63-year-old Bernhard Langer
continues to be the man to beat on the Champions Tour.
These are
players who have access to the latest and greatest information, then use
their life experience to take the essential next step of figuring out
how to actually use it.
“As you gain experience, you lose innocence,” Harrington said. “There is a sweet spot on the way up.”
And as Mickelson will tell, sometimes it’s really, really sweet.
