Golf

The mayor of Augusta, Georgia, predicts there also won’t be any patrons when the Masters is played in November.

One perk of fan-less events? Being able to hear candid conversations between players. On Thursday, Tiger and Rory talked sports on the fourth hole.

Charley Hull marches supreme into an historic day for female golf in this country. Wentworth’s famous West Course hosts the first women’s professional event of its 94-year existence and it is not just her bounce-back 65 that makes the 25-year-old fancy her chances in the final round of the Rose Ladies Series. After a remarkable seven-under at The Berkshire in the second round of the Computacenter Grand Final - featuring an eagle, seven birdies, a bogey, a double-bogey, a three-putt and a four-putt - Hull revealed that she enjoyed a practice round at the West Course last week. “Yeah, I had 11 birdies that day so I am looking forward it,� she said with a smirk. “It’s great we are getting to play there and I hope we play good golf for the occasion.� More of this and surely the whole of Surrey will swoon. After starting with a sloppy 73 at North Hants on Wednesday, she wrested back all but one of the six-shot deficit she had conceded to Alice Hewson. It was not as if her 22-year-old playing partner did much wrong. “I played nicely enough,� Hewson said after a 71 took her to five-under. “But I have to say, it was really special to see Charley play today. It was cool to watch and just to learn from.�

2K's new golf game introduces a series of improvements to help new players enjoy golf, and we made the most of them to go low at this real-world golf course.

The PGA Championship, golf's first major of 2020, kicked off on Thursday amid chilly and silent conditions at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco where Tiger Woods was among the early starters on a course closed to spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament typically does not garner anywhere near the same attention as golf's three other blue-riband events but was getting the marquee treatment this year as it is the first major championship since the July 2019 British Open. Woods, whose only PGA Tour event since February was a share of 40th at the Memorial Tournament in mid-July, began his quest for a 16th major championship in the company of four-times major winner Rory McIlroy and world number one Justin Thomas.

Scottie Scheffler is the first one in the clubhouse at 4-under in the opening round of the PGA Championship. Scheffler was up there at minus-5 with Martin Kaymer, Xander Schauffele and Zach Johnson before hitting his tee shot into the left rough and making bogey on his final hole of the day. Scheffler was in the first group off the 10th tee in the morning.

Follow the Round 1 leaderboard for the 2020 PGA Championship and get updates on the first round from TPC Harding Park.

PGA officials informed players late Wednesday that dining restrictions would be tightened at TPC Harding Park.

The 2020 USPGA Championship begins on Thursday, the first of three golf majors in a rearranged 2020 schedule. You can follow the latest scores as the first day progresses here. Ahead of the tournament starting, Rory McIlroy - a winner in 2014 - admitted it is "easy to lose focus" without the noise and excitement generated by crowds. "Obviously it isn't new to us at this point. We've been back playing on Tour for the last eight or nine weeks or whatever it is," McIlroy said. "I've found myself looking at leaderboards a little more just to see where I am on there and see where other people are. There's no feedback from anywhere else; there's even no scoreboard holders, so you don't even know how the guys in your group are doing, (but) at this point we should all be used to it.

The year's first major finally is here.

Greg Roskopf has heard the whispers. And he addressed them head-on.

Rachel Heck went more than nine months without playing a tournament before returning to action at last month. Now, she’s the U.S. Women’s Amateur medalist.

It's been a straight path for Collin Morikawa, from college standout at California and the game's No. 1-ranked amateur to the rarefied air of golf's elite.

Gamblers starved of sports action are expected to go all in on this year's PGA Championship, the first golf major of the year and the biggest single sporting event in the United States since February's Super Bowl. The coronavirus pandemic quieted sports books when it forced leagues to halt play in March and even though some have returned, the PGA Championship at San Francisco's TPC Harding Park has distinct advantages, said Chris Altruda, national sports betting expert from Pennbets.com. "With at least 12 states offering wagers on the PGA Championship, an estimate on the cumulative legal sports betting handle could reach $20 million," by far the biggest handle of the year to date in the sport, he told Reuters.

Reigning US Open champion Gary Woodland says shedding some extra pounds during the global pandemic was a life-changing decision that will ultimately extend his golf career. While some PGA stars like Bryson DeChambeau are packing on 50 pounds of muscle in order to hit the ball further, Woodland decided to use his down time during the isolation period to lose 27 pounds. "I would say a three-year old probably eats better than I used to," Woodland said.

Reigning U.S. Women's Amateur champion Gabriela Ruffels' title defense is still alive after the USC senior easily advanced to match play at Woodmont.

Golf shut down for three months in America, leading Ryder Cup organizers to adjust the selection criteria to allow U.S. captain Steve Stricker to use wild-card picks for half of the 12-man team. Before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down golf and eliminated 11 tournaments - including three majors - from the qualifying window, eight players could earn spots on the team and Stricker had four picks. ''We just thought that it was in the best interests of the team, to put our best team forward, to give us that flexibility to get the pairings that we feel are best, to get the guys that are playing well, maybe guys that suit that course better than some other guys,'' Stricker said.

Tiger Woods appears to have something new in store for this PGA Championship: his putter. Woods has won all but one of his 15 majors with a Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS, the putter he borrowed from Mark O’Meara in 1998 and never returned. Woods has experimented with other putters since then, such as a TaylorMade variety in 2018 before going back to his regular putter at the Tour Championship, which he won.

Dustin Johnson cited his bad back for failing to break 80 at the Memorial tournament last month in his first event since winning the Travelers Championship to extend his career win streak to 13 years. The injury also caused him to withdraw from the US PGA Tour's 3M tournament before rebounding with a 12th-place finish on Sunday at the WGC St. Jude Invitational in Memphis. Johnson is hoping his sore back doesn't flare up again at this week's PGA Championship, which will be played without spectators because of the coronavirus pandemic.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A brief look at the 102nd PGA Championship, which starts Thursday:

Harding Park is a public golf course with a history of elite champions. Tiger Woods was No. 1 in the world when he won a World Golf Championship here in 2005, and when he went 5-0 in his matches at the Presidents Cup in 2009. Rory McIlroy was No. 1 when he became the first player who had to win seven matches to capture the Match Play in 2015.

U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker played a practice round with one of his potential young players on Monday: Collin Morikawa.

Tiger Woods has been tinkering with a new Scotty Cameron putter this week. It's a longer putter that should help Woods practice without pain.

It's hard to find a reason to like Bryson DeChambeau. Bulked up on protein shakes and M&M's, DeChambeau has so far this year been making a mockery of golf courses designed by architects who had no idea what golf of the future might look like. In a sport where conformity is king, he is the most compelling player not named Tiger Woods.

Steve Stricker will still have six captain’s picks to fill out his squad for the postponed Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.

Everyone at TPC Harding Park has something to prove, but here are five players who could use some serious answers.

Rory McIlroy has played some of the world’s best golf courses. But when’s the last time he’s paid to play?

The weight of history would bother most. To Brooks Koepka, it's nothing major.

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy is hoping the first major championship of the year can spark his game and get him back to the form that saw him reach world number one earlier this year. The four-time major winner got off to a rousing start in 2020 with a string of top ten finishes but then the coronavirus pandemic hit and the PGA season went into a hiatus. "Before the world sort of shut down, I was playing some really good golf," McIlroy said.

Some good news: The PGA of America reports no positive COVID-19 tests at this week's PGA Championship.

For the second time in PGA Championship history, there will be not one but two Zach Johnsons in the field this week at TPC Harding Park.

Alice Hewson made headlines around the globe in March by not only winning her first tournament as a professional on the Ladies European Tour but also doing it at the South African Open, the last big-time event contested in the sport before the lockdown. And now, the 22-year-old rookie from Hertfordshire is threatening to leave the star names in her shade once again after taking a commanding lead after the first round of the three-day Computacenter Grand Final of the Rose Ladies Series. After missing the first green at North Hants, the fine Fleet layout where Justin Rose learned to play the game, Hewson proceeded to hit the next 17 greens in succession. It was a remarkable bogeyless display in windy conditions and her dominance was written all over the scoreboard as the only player under par. With a four-under 66, Hewson is four clear of her nearest pursuers - Kent’s Sian Evans and Australian Whitney Hillier - with another stroke back to Liz Young and Inci Mehmet in fourth and a group on two-over, including Georgia Hall and Charley Hull. “I just played very solidly and struck the ball really well,� she said. “It’s funny, but I played here five years in the Hampshire Hog [the elite amateur event] and remembered that you should play sensibly and lay up short of the greens and allow it to bounce on. It worked! I know I’m quite a few clear but all I’m going to do is stick to my gameplan and play fairways and greens.� Even with double-points on offer, Hewson cannot quite top of the American Golf Order of Merit, which comes with a £20,000 bonus for the winner. Hall and Hull are the top two in the standings, with the latter knowing that should she win the tournament proper then Hall will not be able to stop her scooping the bounty. However, neither will be satisfied with their 72s, regardless of the severity of the test. Hull was one-under after five, but then the world No 25 failed up to pick up a single birdie with three bogeys on the sixth, ninth and 17th. In contrast, Hall had a poor start dropping two shots in the first three holes, before battling back to level par - and then bogeying the last two holes. The second round will be played on Thursday at The Berkshire, before Wentworth’s West Course hosts the first professional women’s tournament of its 94-year existence.

Tiger Woods is on the course in the first round. See if he can get off to a fast start at TPC Harding Park.

Shane Lowry has gone from wondering when his British Open victory will finally sink in to thinking how long before he gets another shot at more glory. The 33-year-old won golf's last major championship by capturing the British Open at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland 13 months ago, making him golf's longest reigning major champion. Golf's first major of 2020, the PGA Championship, will be contested this week without spectators at the TPC Harding Park in San Francisco after the season was placed on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

TPC Harding Park will play long in the NorCal chill. But as important as power is, so, too, is precision on this layout.

Rory McIlroy said it's been strange to play tournaments with no fans and lots of COVID-19 protocols, but he was able to safely sign some autographs for some kids last week in Memphis.

Majors ask different questions of elite players, and so the best way for Bryson DeChambeau to bolster his “brand� – and to silence some skeptics – is to become a serious challenger.

Majors are in the habit of producing sparks and Rory McIlroy is praying that the first major in more than a year will jolt him out of his lockdown malaise. Otherwise, the Northern Irishman fears that his six-year drought will continue. The world No 3 admits that in the quintet of events he has played since June’s restart he has struggled to maintain his focus in the fanless arena. Where there was remarkable consistency before the coronavirus sounded, suddenly there was erratic mediocrity with not a single top 10, his worst five-event spell in more than three years. Can he possibly snap out of the ennui and deliver a third USPGA title? The odds are plainly against the 31-year-old, but McIlroy understandably points to a couple of positives. The first is his thirst to resume the major hunt. In an interview at the start of this week, McIlroy maintained the bizarre opinion that this barren period “is not an irritation�. Yet on the eve of the championship he at least acknowledged that “when I play these majors, [the winless run] is something that I think about�. “But yeah, look, it's the first major in over a year, and this would be a great week to get back into some form and give it a good run,� McIlroy added. “Before the world sort of shut down, I was playing some really good golf. And then, having that three-month break, coming back, everything changed and everything feels different. “But my game doesn't feel that far away. I haven't scored as well as I was doing before the lockdown, haven’t been as efficient as I was. But the good thing is we have three major opportunities this year - seven major championships in the next 12 months basically. I've got plenty of opportunities coming my way.�

Shane Lowry plans to stay in the U.S. through September's U.S. Open. As hard as it was to say bye to his family, he told them he's "not going off to war."

In one of the most anticipated sporting events since the COVID-19 pandemic sent sports into a deep freeze in March, the PGA Championship comes to San Francisco this week with several top players out to make history. Originally scheduled for May, the tournament was pushed back to August, when San Francisco's thick fog often blankets the city. "It's going to be very different," said four-time PGA Championship winner Tiger Woods, who in normal times would have a flock of fans at every hole he played.

University of Kentucky golfer Cullan Brown died Tuesday, less than a year after being diagnosed with a form of bone cancer.

As one of the 20 club pros making a start at the PGA Championship this week, Rob Labritz finds himself in possession of one of the most coveted tee times in golf. Labritz is the director of golf at the exclusive Glenarbor Golf Club in Westchester County, New York. It's the same story seemingly everywhere in America, from local munis to posh country clubs to places like Harding Park in San Francisco, this week's host of the PGA, which is open to the public (except for this week).

Adam Scott took his own sweet time returning to competitive golf. When he finally showed up at the PGA Championship in San Francisco this week, everyone else ranked inside the top 10 had already revved up for the season's first major by playing at least one tournament somewhere. Tiger Woods was an exception, playing only once.

GolfChannel.com writers weigh in with their predictions for the 102nd PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park.

The European Tour has cracked down after a player breached COVID-19 protocols.

American golf player John Catlin and his caddie Nathan Mulrooney have been removed from this week’s English Championship by the European Tour after they breached its COVID-19 protocol. The European Tour said in a statement on Wednesday that the pair dined a local restaurant on Tuesday evening outside the tournament bubble, “hence compromising the Tour’s health guidelines, and were withdrawn from the tournament with immediate effect as a result." In comments published by the European Tour, Catlin offered apologies for his behavior.

New world No. 1 Justin Thomas deserves consideration when crafting DraftKings lineups for this week's PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park. (AP)

The European Tour promised to get tough if any of its strict Covid-19 protocols were breached, and it has been true to its word by kicking out the American pro John Catlin and his caddie from this week's English Championship at Hanbury Manor. Catlin and Nathan Mulrooney visited a local restaurant in Hertfordshire on Tuesday evening outside the tournament bubble and when it was discovered, the punishment was immediate. They were immediately withdrawn from the event, which is the third since the circuit restarted last month with its six-strong “UK Swing�. "I apologise to my fellow players and everyone involved with the tournament this week for this error of judgement," Catlin, the world No 242, said via a statement. "I understand the European Tour's decision and accept the sanction." The pair could hardly plead ignorance. In contrast to the PGA Tour, on which players and caddies are free to stay where they please and go out where they please whilst playing in a tournament, the European Tour insists on everyone involved in the “bubble� - players, caddies, support staff and media - staying at a designated hotel and not leaving unless it is straight to the course. The rigidity of the regime is one of the reasons why the UK Government allowed the Tour special dispensation for players arriving from overseas to be exempt from the quarantine restrictions. It is not for everyone, as Andrew “Beef� Johnston highlighted when withdrawing after nine holes of the British Masters - the Tour’s first event back after a four-month hiatus - two weeks ago. "Being here and being confined to the hotel, confined to the course... is ultimately not what I want at this moment and not how I want to live my life," Johnston said in Newcastle. Catlin, the 29 year-old who played in last week’s Hero Open at the Forest of Arden, and Mulrooney chose, for whatever reasons, to ignore the rules. The officials should be applauded for their decisive action, explaining there was no way back after the duo had "compromised the Tour’s health guidelines". Catlin's place in Thursday’s first round has been taken by South African Wilco Nienaber.

Daniel Berger has been a Top-5 machine this year, and Bryce Danielson suggests including him in your lineups for this week's PGA Championship contests on Yahoo.

The spotlight on Jordan Spieth should be bright enough to cut through the marine layer blanketing Harding Park this week at the PGA Championship. Win this major and he joins the most exclusive club in golf with the final leg of the career Grand Slam. Only five other players - Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen - have won all four majors since the Masters began in 1934.

Brooks Koepka will be chasing history at the PGA Championship on Thursday as the two-time defending champion attempts a rare major championship three-peat in San Francisco. The 30-year-old American is seeking to join Walter Hagen as just the second player to win the major for a third consecutive year. After winning the 2018 PGA Championship, Koepka successfully defended his title last year at Bethpage Black and is now aiming to become the first to win three straight since Hagen captured four in a row, beginning in 1924.