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The 42
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The 42
'F**k this place'- How Quail Hollow became so frustrating for McIlroy, Lowry and Harrington
YOUR GUIDE TO the Irish challenge at Quail Hollow here is Michael Kartrude. By way of introduction. Kartrude is the assistant club pro at the Bear's Club in Jupiter, Florida, of which Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry are members. Each year, the PGA of America run a championship from which 20 club pros can earn a spot at the PGA Championship, and Kartrude battled his way into the 2025 field by enduring a four-man, five-hole play-off. Once Kartrude was in the field, Lowry invited him to a Tuesday practice round with he, McIlroy, and Pádraig Harrington. We tracked down Kartrude on Thursday evening to ask for him his impressions of his practice partners. Rory: 'He gives the people what they want' Kartrude knew he couldn't miss his practice opportunity this week and McIlroy generously granted the wish. McIlroy bounced into his press conference a day after the practice round, wearing a hat a shade deeper than his green jacket and the weightlessness of a man suddenly without burden. He's playing with house money now, he says, having finally sloughed off the Grand Slam pressure that clung to him like skin. What's more, his record around this course Quail Hollow this week gave him effective home field advantage. Which all begged a question. Is McIlroy now going to waltz through these major championships as he does regular tour events? And if so, where's the fun in that? McIlroy's brilliance attracted an audience, but it was his torturous struggles that built that audience into the biggest seen since Tiger Woods'. Sure, people admired McIlroy's shot-making and the runaway victories, but people loved him for the sheer humanity of his epic longing, and all of its lurches between brilliance and baffling error. The good news from the opening two days of Quail Hollow: the Rory McIlroy Experience abides. It's impervious even to the Grand Slam. All that stuff you read about him gliding frictionlessly about the place now? Nah. Playing with Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, McIlroy rocked up on Thursday once again wearing green, before then blasting drives all over the property en route to a three-over round of 74, leaving us all wondering if he had once again started a major championship by playing himself out of contention right away. He declined to speak to the media on Thursday as he wanted to go straight to the driving range. It emerged on Friday that he has been forced this week to play without his favoured driver, as its wear and tear left rendered it illegal under the gnomic, pernickety rules. That neither player, tournament, or governing body thought they needed to come out and explain this to the world was bizarre. McIlroy made a strong start to Friday, getting himself back to one-under for the tournament and stirring hopes he was ready to make his charge for the tournament. Then came an inexplicable error on the 17th green: he watched Scottie Scheffler lip out from three feet and then proceeded to do precisely the same thing to make bogey. Suddenly he was battling to stay inside the cutline. The one thing he needed to do was to find the fairway on the brutally difficult 18th. The one thing he did was to blow his drive so far left it hit the roof of a grandstand and dropped down to the bank of the creek. He managed to scramble another bogey to make the cut on the number: a relief but a let-down, given he had stood on the previous green with an eye on the leaders. McIlroy again swerved the press arced about the scoring room afterwards, with his manager giving a half-apologetic shake of his head as McIlroy bounded up the steps to race home and get some sleep before returning to a crack-of-dawn tee time. He arrived for an 8.25am start, had his warm-up briefly interrupted by a weather warning, and was then walking from the range to the first tee when the claxon sounded again to halt play, turning to Harry Diamond and letting out a hearty, Fuck. Off. He went back inside to be told he'd now be playing in a group of three off the 10th tee, and not starting for another five hours. It's not what he nor anyone envisaged for this return to Quail Hollow. The Rorycoaster rides on. Shane: 'He's fiery – I like it' 'You see him frustrated,' says Kartrude of Lowry. 'He just wants to fix it.' Lowry arrived off the back of an agonising near-miss at the Truist Championship on Sunday, his devastation such that the media waiting to speak with him were treated to an Irish goodbye. The Monday deluge at Quail Hollow forced him into a rest day, doing a bit of gym and recovery work and catching up on The Sunday Game. By the time he spoke to the Irish media on Wednesday, he was trying to talk himself into a challenge. 'I've no record around here at all. Bad. Not played well,' was his Joycean summary of his previous with Quail Hollow. He was among the many pros frustrated that the tournament organisers did not allow players to clean the mud from their ball after landing in the sodden fairways, which played havoc with their ball flight. Advertisement Lowry asked Harrington to try and convince the organisers to play the lift, clean and place rule. Given Harrington has previously persuaded the PGA of America to nearly double the size of the replica trophy given to champions, it was worth a shot on Lowry's part. No dice. Lowry struggled his way to a two-over round of 73 on Thursday morning, before his Friday turned into a scene from the Book of Job. He smacked a dive down the eighth fairway but found his ball embedded in a pitch mark. Had it been his own, he'd have been allowed to take a drop, but a referee ruled it was a separate mark so, unfortunately, he'd have to play it as it lay. Lowry was aggrieved by an on-course commentator for ESPN, who raced over to stress the ball wasn't in Lowry's pitch mark before it could be trashed out with the referee. Gouging the ball out of the ground, Lowry sent his ball forward with a blizzard of f-bombs, grunting, 'Fuck this place.' He flipped his ball a middle finger after making his putt. He missed the cut by a single shot, with the cutline moving as Lowry walked back to the clubhouse. Lowry's chosen a testing life for himself. The result of his impressive consistency in the last two years is more attention, under which Lowry appears to be chafing. He mentioned earlier in the week of how the American golf media liked to talk so much about his solo tournament victory drought, and he wouldn't have had to deal with the ESPN commentator had he not been put in a featured group with Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler. 'I just said to the rules official, 'What happens the guy who's at 7.10 and not on ESPN live?' I guarantee he's down there arguing it's his pitch mark,' said Lowry. Lowry has no filter, and he's now playing beneath a great spotlight in the world's most maddening sport. Pádraig Harrington. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Pádraig: 'He's intense, man.' Kartrude hadn't met Harrington before. Safe to say that's an Experience Like No Other. 'He's hitting three balls off the tee to make sure he gets it right,' says Kartrude. 'He takes it very seriously and he wants to perfect his craft.' As a past winner, Harrington has an exemption to play this championship, and chose to be here rather than compete at the clashing major on the champions' tour, scheduling he dismissed as silly. He played this week primarily to get in tune for his next two months of competition on the champions tour and the Open at Portrush. Hence he had his sports psychologist Bob Rotella on site this week to help get his mental game in the right place, as he said he is having no technical or physical issues. Rotella is also working with McIlroy and Lowry – the man has spent so long working his way through the kinks and quiddities of the Irish psyche he should qualify for membership of Aosdána – and he walked the course for that practice round alongside Kartrude and his trio of clients. Harrington said they would get Rotella for three holes each. Harrington was also here to create a bit of content, with Paddy's Golf Tips making him the second most popular golf influencer on the course outside of Bryson DeChambeau. Hence he was one of the handful of players on the course beneath biblical rain on Monday, as he wanted to capture a photo of flooded greens so as to read their breaks more easily. We're not sure whether he would appreciate the comparison, but DeChambeau has also something of Harrington's sheer pig-headedness in the face of consensus and conventional wisdom. With everyone complaining on Thursday about the mudballs, Harrington dismissed the topic and told he hadn't even heard the word growing up in Ireland. Scheffler and Schauffele both caught mud as they and McIlroy all made double bogey on the par-four 16th hole, which was playing as the most difficult hole for most of Thursday. We asked Harrington what made it so difficult. 'A drive and a five iron? Not an issue at all.' But what about the length of the course, Pádraig? Is this not a bombers' paradise? 'I didn't find this course a bit long. I hit three-wood off a number of par fours today, it didn't play long. I just need less stress and tension in my putting.' Like Lowry, he opened with a two-over par on Thursday, but started on Friday with three-straight bogeys. The Harrington Fight was present and willing, though, and he wrestled his round back under control and with three holes remaining he stood on the seventh tee and told himself to do a Rory McIlroy: play the final three holes in three-under to make the cut on the number before going on to win, as McIlroy did in his debut at Quail Hollow in 2010. Harrington played them in two-under, birdieing seven and eight but making par on nine. He thought his two-over par might just be enough to make the weekend, and so he walked off to the clubhouse, saying to nobody in particular as to what the rest of his day would look like: sitting inside and wishing people badly. His afternoon didn't work out as it needed to, and he wasn't alone. Michael Kartrude shot a pair of 76s to finish at 10-over and miss the cut. When Lowry and McIlroy are next down at the Bear's Club, he won't hear them trading many warm memories of the 2025 PGA Championship.
The Sun
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Rory McIlroy set for major move after US Open that will make wife Erica happy after she was ‘itching to start afresh'
RORY MCILROY and his wife Erica Stoll are set for a major move this summer. The Northern Irishman completed the career Grand Slam by winning a thrilling play-off at the Masters last month. McIlroy, 36, will be back in action at the US Open in five weeks time. But once the tournament at Oakmont Country Club is over, he is set to move his family to the UK and into a new mansion at Wentworth. The golfer purchased a plot of land on the exclusive estate in Surrey two years ago and building works have since been underway. McIlroy's new property is now ready, with Erica and their daughter Poppy, 4, joining him at Wentworth this summer. The Telegraph claim they have chosen to live there due to its close proximity to London and cooler climate than Florida. And the switch will make Erica delighted as the Daily Mail claim she is ' itching to start afresh". McIlory is not selling his £16million property in Jupiter, which he bought off legendary golfer Ernie Els in 2017. Situated on a 2.4-acre plot, the nine-bedroom pad will remain his base while he is competing in the US. It gives McIlroy easy access to the prestigious private members Bear's Club and 69 golf courses within a 15-mile radius. He can also take his mind off majors in the home cinema, games room, tennis court, gym, swimming pool and putting green. 'Would do well' - Shane Lowry cracks joke about doubting Rory McIlroy would play Zurich Classic after Masters glory McIlroy also owns a home in his native Northern Ireland, where he has been relaxing since his Masters triumph. Reports suggest he also owns apartments in New York and the United Arab Emirates. Inside Rory McIlroy's whirlwind love life RORY MCILROY enjoyed a high-profile romance with former tennis world number one Caroline Wozniacki before their split in 2014. The following year, the golf ace began dating Erica Stoll, who he had first met on the PGA Tour in 2011. Erica often interacted with players through her role as the PGA's manager of championship volunteer operations. She even prevented McIlroy from missing his tee time at the 2012 Ryder Cup after some confusion over the time zone. The incident began a firm friendship between the pair, four years before their relationship turned romantic. McIlroy and Erica were spotted on a string of dates in Rochester, New York, in the early days of their relationship. Just eight months later, the couple got engaged in Paris and walked down the aisle at Ashford Castle in Ireland in 2017. The pair then welcomed daughter Poppy into the world three years later. Throughout their time together, McIlroy and Erica have kept their relationship to themselves, with the golfer keen to protect his family from the cameras during filming of Netflix's Full Swing documentary series. However, after seven years of marriage, McIlroy filed for divorce from Erica. The reasons for the divorce were not disclosed, but the Northern Irishman submitted documents to a court in Florida. However, a few weeks later, performed a U-turn on their decision to divorce. McIlroy told the outlet: "Thankfully, we have resolved our differences and look forward to a new beginning.'
New York Post
29-04-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Be neighbors with Michael Jordan at this $38.5M Florida home
Tucked behind the gates of the elite Bear's Club in Jupiter, Fla., with its Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, is a mansion that's listing for $38.5 million. Neighbors in the exclusive enclave include Michael Jordan, who owns two homes there, and Grand Slam golf champ Rory McIlroy, who won the 2025 Masters Tournament in early April. This new-construction luxury home, at 228 Bears Club Drive, is a roomy 10,000 square feet and sits on an acre of land. 10 Neighbors in the area include Michael Jordan, who owns two homes there. NBAE via Getty Images 10 The modern residence with a handsome pool in Jupiter, Fla., is asking $38.5 million. Melton Dynamics 10 Jack Nicklaus and his wife Barbara founded the Bear's Club in 1999. REUTERS 10 Residents of the enclave also include Rory McIlroy. Getty Images 10 This modern abode also dazzles in the evening hours. Melton Dynamics 10 The gorgeous home sits on 1 acre in the exclusive gated community. Melton Dynamics Nicklaus and his wife Barbara founded the Bear's Club in 1999. It's South Florida's largest golf community — with less than 100 homes — on 400 acres in Jupiter. The golf amenities — like an 18-hole championship golf course redesigned in 2023 by Nicklaus, along with a 9-hole par-3 course and a 24-hour practice area — are a big draw for all levels of golfers. Several PGA and LPGA tour players are also homeowners in the community. The ritzy residence that's on the market features seven bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and a five-car garage with lifts to hold eight — plus a golf-cart garage. 10 Interior details include 75 slabs of imported marble. Melton Dynamics 10 The open chef's kitchen. Melton Dynamics 10 A second-floor loft with a terrace overlooks the pool. Melton Dynamics 10 The Bear's Club sits on 400 acres with less than 100 homes. Melton Dynamics Interior details include 75 slabs of imported marble, a 1,680-bottle wine cellar, a chef's kitchen with a hidden catering kitchen, a club room with a wet bar and a soundproof theater. There's also an elevator to a second-floor loft with a terrace. The main bedroom suite boasts two baths, fluted marble and a fireplace. With interiors by Randall Stofft and Decorators Unlimited, the home — built by Onshore Construction — also features a midnight blue pool and spa, a 15-seat sunken fire pit, an outdoor kitchen, limestone-wrapped columns and lush landscaping. The listing brokers are Christian Prakas and William Volpe of Serhant.
USA Today
18-03-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Bud Cauley authors one of golf's best comeback stories at 2025 Players Championship
Bud Cauley authors one of golf's best comeback stories at 2025 Players Championship Show Caption Hide Caption Players Championship standard bearer of the year for 2024 is Parker Neal The Players Championship standard bearer off the year gets the last group in the final round on Sunday the following year. Parker Neal had the honors. Bud Cauley, who overcame multiple injuries and surgeries, tied for sixth place at the 2025 Players Championship. This was Cauley's first top-10 finish in a PGA Tour event since returning from a three-year hiatus due to injuries. Cauley's performance earned him $843,750 and moved him up to 47th in the FedEx Cup standings. PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Until Bud Cauley got a phone call last week at the Bear's Club in Jupiter to inform him Lee Hodges' withdrawal from the 2025 Players Championship put him in the 144-man field, his weekend game plan was 'changing diapers' of 6-week-old son Miles and 'not sleeping very well.' Instead of changing his son's underpants, the former Jacksonville resident may have just altered the path of his once lost golf career. While the most buzz Sunday from the gallery at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass was reserved for global star Rory McIlroy ending in a tie with unheralded J.J. Spaun, forcing a three-hole aggregate playoff on Monday that McIlroy won handily, it was hardly the Players' most heartwarming story. That would be reserved for another 35-year-old playing one group behind McIlroy, where Cauley came through to give himself the best birthday present of his professional life. Cauley, playing on a major medical exemption for the past 13 months, received a significant career boost by tying for sixth place to ensure securing a PGA Tour card for the remainder of 2025. He needed at least a solo 18th-place finish to earn the necessary FedEx points to retain his card, easily surpassing that mark by staying in the top 10 over the entire final round. Though disappointed he didn't make a better push to seize the lead after starting out Sunday just one stroke behind leader Spaun, shooting a final-round 74 hardly diminished Cauley's most memorable career performance. 'To finish top 10 in a tournament this big is a great step forward for me, and I'll try to build on that for the rest of the year,' said Cauley. 'Yeah, I have a lot more confidence, I think, leaving here today than what I showed up with, which I think will help me throughout the year. I'm really excited.' Recovery from golf hell After all of Cauley's health calamities the past seven years and questions about whether he would compete on Tour again, he capitalized on a lucky break to get into the Players. With an impressive third-round 66 to get into contention, then staying on the leaderboard most of Sunday, he became the tournament's most uplifting storyline. Growing up in Jacksonville and treasuring every moment of watching the Players in person — dreaming of someday doing something special at the Stadium Course — his 9-under-par finish and being three shots out of a playoff is a redemption that many wondered would ever happen. It's now official: Cauley, who turned 35 on Sunday, is back from golfing hell. While it's not the historic rebound of the legendary Ben Hogan after his near-fatal collision with a bus in 1949, Cauley still deserves some kind of perseverance medal. First, he endured a horrific car accident in Dublin, Ohio in 2018, which broke six ribs, fractured his left leg and punctured a lung. After playing for the next two years, medical complications from the accident began setting in with his ribs. That required more surgeries, forcing Cauley out of competition for 40 months through January, 2024. When Cauley's wife, Kristi, spotted wetness on his shirt in 2020, Bud noticed one side of his chest had a hole in it. He underwent more operations and got C-diff from antibiotics. 'Everything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong,' Cauley said in his first public discussion about it at last year's WM Phoenix Open. 'That just set me back obviously just over three years.' 'Scariest time of my life' Cauley has no specific memories of the crash that involved four people on a Friday night of the 2018 Memorial tournament because he was knocked unconscious. By most accounts, he was fortunate to not be more seriously injured, though the damage to some of his body parts can hardly be classified as minor. One year after the accident, after returning to play in the Memorial, he said: 'For the first month or so, the swelling was so bad on my side, I couldn't even grip a club, let alone swing one. ... even just sitting around or talking or breathing with the lung was pretty tough.' Cauley described it as 'the scariest time of my life,' and that was before the follow-up medical complications that put his golf career in limbo. Besides Kristi, few people have as much insight into what Cauley went through as Tour player Justin Thomas. He followed Cauley, a three-time All-American at Alabama, to Tuscaloosa and the two became fast friends after Thomas turned pro. When Cauley had his accident, he was living in Jupiter with Thomas, who still struggles discussing the ordeal his buddy went through. After Thomas finished his Sunday round, he didn't hestiate when asked about the most impressive part of Cauley's comeback. 'Just staying positive, having optimism that you're going to play again,' Thomas said. 'He definitely had some moments, I would say, where he was like, 'Okay, what next? What now?' He saw so many different doctors, so many different [physical therapists], traveled anywhere and everywhere to get opinions. 'Man, it's hard to stay patient and believe that it's all going to work out in the end. That's such a cool, unique thing about golf is, other sports, at his age, his career's done. But he realistically could play competitively for another five or 10 years, so I'm glad he stuck it out.' Cauley struggled to build momentum Getting his first Tour victory at The Players would have been a dream scenario for Cauley, but a balky putter left him playing uphill all day. He missed par putts from inside 10 feet at Nos. 3, 4 and 8. A 34-foot birdie putt to close out his front nine was encouraging, but at the turn, McIlroy and Spaun were both two shots ahead of Cauley. Following a four-hour weather delay, Cauley bogeyed the par-five 11th hole when his approach shot landed in a back bunker. Though playing his last seven holes in 1-under, including a birdie at the No. 17 island hole, Cauley's early putting woes were too much to overcome. Still, the benefits of having an $843,750 payday and moving from 128th to 47th in FedEx Cup points should give Cauley plenty of incentive to keep it going at the Valspar Championship on Thursday in Palm Harbor. A decade from now, the lasting memory from the 2025 Players will likely be the outcome of the McIlroy-Spaun playoff. But let's not forget this is also a potential life-changing moment for Cauley, especially if the confidence he now feels leads to him getting his first Tour win after so much medical trauma. 'He's such a good player, I think it would be a crime if he doesn't win at some point in his career,' said Thomas. 'He's just got that much game. Man, he's been through a lot. He's had a lot of injuries and just battled a lot of ups and downs and just craziness.' Cauley, whose best career stretch came in 2012 at age 22 with three top-5 Tour finishes in a 28-day span, has never lost faith in his game. With his world ranking about to take a massive jump from No. 251, maybe staying healthy enough is all Cauley needs to become a golf force. 'I've always believed that I can compete with the best guys in the world, and I should be hopefully winning tournaments and playing on Presidents Cup teams and Ryder Cup teams,' said Cauley. 'That's always been my dream, and I still believe I can do that.' For now, it's just heartwarming to see William Carl 'Bud' Cauley III being on a Sunday leaderboard at the Players. Given all Cauley has been through, he was overdue for the golfing gods to deliver something special.
USA Today
16-03-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Bud Cauley was at the Bear's Club when he got the Players call. Now he could win the thing
Bud Cauley was at the Bear's Club when he got the Players call. Now he could win the thing Show Caption Hide Caption Justin Thomas discusses his third round of the 2025 Players Championship A day after tying the Players Championship single round record with a 10-under, Justin Thomas shot a 1-over 73 on a windy day at TCP Saygrass. Bud Cauley, who was initially an alternate, is in second place going into the final round of The Players Championship. Cauley shot a 6-under 66 on Saturday, putting him one shot behind leader J.J. Spaun. Cauley's has suffered through complications from a 2018 car accident. Cauley needs to finish in the top 18 to earn his PGA Tour card. PONTE VEDRA BEACH — Bud Cauley was in The Players Championship field. And then he was out. Then on Monday, he got the call. Lee Hodges had withdrawn. He was back in. Now, Cauley, a Palm Beach Gardens resident for the last decade, enters the final round of The Players in second place after shooting a 6-under 66. He is one shot out of the lead held by J.J. Spaun, who held onto the solo 54-hole lead with a 25-foot putt that rolled around the cup before dropping. Spaun sits at 12-under. Cauley has a two-shot lead over Jupiter's Lucas Glover and Alex Smalley. The final round has been pushed up and golfers will play in groups of three because of an incoming cold front. Leaders will tee off at 10:01 a.m. Cauley, who turns 35 Sunday, was in the original Players field released March 7 before Karl Vilips' victory at the Puerto Rico Open last Sunday knocked him out. More: Rory McIlroy, golf's most consistent player for 15 years, seeking second Players title | D'Angelo As first alternate, he learned Monday he was back in. Bud Cauley practicing at Jack Nicklaus' Bear's Club when call came Cauley was practicing at Jack Nicklaus' Bear's Club in Jupiter when he got the call. "I was kind of hopeful that being one out I might get a chance, but you never know," Cauley said. "But it was nice that it was on Monday, also where I didn't have to sweat it until Wednesday afternoon or something. I was able to come out here Tuesday and Wednesday and have a normal couple days." Cauley equaled the low round of the day Saturday, but the others — Danny Walker and Jupiter's Corey Connors — played before the winds started whipping to about 20 mph sustained and gusts of 30. Cauley grew up in the Jacksonville area and played TPC Sawgrass several times as a young golfer. He was asked if he's ever seen the wind this gusty. "If it was blowing this hard, I probably would have just went home," Cauley said. "Probably not. "Seemed like every hole was a challenge with the wind and just trying to somehow get it on the fairway and get it on the green and roll in a putt. But it was tough." Cauley has played three previous Players Championships, missing the cut three times. He has never finished higher than third in 206 PGA Tour events. Cauley, ranked 251st in the world, was tied for 16th entering the weekend after shooting 68-71. On Saturday, he carded seven birdies, three bogeys and an eagle on No. 9, where he chipped in from 35.6 feet. "I've been driving the ball pretty well all week and I've also been putting well," Cauley said. "I feel like when I've had those 10-, 12-, 15-footers for birdie, I've been able to make most of them, and that's helped a lot." Bud Cauley playing last 13 months on major medical extension Cauley has been playing the last 13 months on a major medical extension. He was in a serious car accident in 2018 in which he broke five ribs, his lower left leg and suffered a collapsed lung. Although he returned later in 2018, Cauley was missed more than three years starting in 2021 due to complications from the accident. Cauley had 27 events to retain his PGA Tour card once he returned early in 2024. He played 17 tournaments in 2024 and The Players is his fifth this year. He has two top 30s at the Phoenix Open and Sony Open. Now, he needs a top 18 to earn enough FedEx Cup points for his card. "I've tried to just really practice with a purpose and just make little changes and just get a little bit better," he said. "I feel like some things are starting to come together that I've been working on for a while now." Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@
