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Daily Mail
28-04-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Tiger Woods reaches all-time low with unwanted career milestone
Tiger Woods has hit an undesirable milestone, reaching an all-time low in his illustrious career this week. The 15-time major winner hasn't teed it up competitively since missing the cut at The Open at Royal Troon last July and, as a result, his standing among golf's elite has taken a hit. The 49-year-old, who recently confirmed his relationship with Vanessa Trump, the former daughter-in-law of President Donald Trump, slumped to his worst-ever world ranking amid his latest injury woes. Following the PGA Tour's Zurich Classic, which saw Americans Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin emerge victorious at the weekend, Woods' latest Official World Golf Ranking was revealed. And it didn't paint a pretty picture as the golf great came in at No. 1,341 - the lowest of his career, according to popular golf Twitter account Nosferatu. Woods' previous low came in November 2023 when he was in 1,328th position, having sat on the sidelines for the majority of the year after being forced to withdraw from The Masters that April. He missed the major championship this year, including even the Champions Dinner, as he continued his recovery from the Achilles tear that has plunged his career into fresh doubt. It was the second time he's missed the dinner - an exclusive ritual for past winners of the tournament at Augusta National. The first was in 2021 when it was held two months after the serious car accident where he could have lost his leg. Woods revealed last month that he underwent surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles after feeling a 'sharp pain' in his left heel. In a statement, Woods said: 'As I began to ramp up my own training and practice at home, I felt a sharp pain in my left Achilles, which was deemed to be ruptured. 'This morning, Dr. Charlton Stucken of Hospital for Special Surgery in West Palm Beach, Florida performed a minimally-invasive Achilles tendon repair for a ruptured tendon. 'I am back home now and plan to focus on my recovery and rehab, thank you for all the support.' Woods has not played at Tour-level since The Open last summer, with back surgery accounting for much of his lay-off before he withdrew from the Genesis Invitational in February following the death of his mother. There had been suggestions that he was lining up a return at the PGA Tour's Players Championship in Florida in March. Yet, he had indicated earlier this month that he was focusing instead on practice. Woods played alongside son Charlie to continue their annual tradition at the PNC Championship, a family exhibition, in December, returning from back surgery he underwent last September. He has swung a club competitively, albeit on a simulator rather than on the course. He competed alongside his Jupiter Links teammates in TGL - the tech-infused, indoor league he founded with Rory McIlroy - throughout its inaugural regular season. Jupiter Links, also comprised of Tom Kim, Max Homa and Kevin Kisner, failed to make the playoffs. This latest injury continues a miserable run of ailments, which included almost losing his right leg in a car accident. He has previously torn the Achilles tendon in his right ankle as well as rupturing ligaments in his left knee. Last September, Woods had a sixth back operation in 10 years. The surgery was formally referred to as 'microdecompression surgery of the lumbar spine.' Woods, an 82-time winner on the PGA Tour, suffered extensive injuries from a horror, single-vehicle car crash in 2021 that broke his right leg and ankle and required emergency surgery. He later had another ankle surgery to address lingering issues in 2023, weeks after withdrawing from that year's edition of The Masters.
USA Today
21-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Savannah's own Brian Harman has best-ever finish at RBC Heritage, tying for third
Savannah's own Brian Harman has best-ever finish at RBC Heritage, tying for third HILTON HEAD S.C. — Brian Harman was right there in the hunt for the title on the back nine of Harbour Town Golf Links Sunday within a shot of the lead after a birdie on the par-4 13th hole at the 57th annual RBC Heritage. But the University of Georgia and Savannah Christian alum had back-to-back bogeys at the par-3 14th hole and the par-5 15th that set him back. The 38-year old kept his head down and finished with a flourish with an approach shot inside two feet for a kick-in birdie on the tough 18th hole. He shot 69 in the final round in his 16th appearance at Harbour Town and closed out the tournament in a tie for third at 14-under par, his best finish in the RBC Heritage. He was three shots back after 72 holes of eventual winner Justin Thomas, who beat Andrew Novak on the first playoff hole with a birdie at No. 18. Harman has been playing some excellent golf. He had his fourth PGA Tour win two weeks ago at the Valero Texas Open and entered this tournament at No. 24 in the World Golf Ranking after the first victory since his win at the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. "If I had four or five swings back over the tournament, I think I would have been right there," Harman said. "I did my best, but was still short. But I enjoyed it — as you get older, you certainly take those times in contention. You sit around a little bit longer and try and soak it in a little bit." Harman drained a 22-foot birdie putt on the par-3 fourth hole and converted from 17 for another birdie on the par-4 sixth. He made another long putt from 23 feet for birdie at the 12th, and then cashed in on a 110-yard approach to six feet for another birdie at the par-4 13th. He bogeyed the par-3 14th when he missed the green left and missed a four-footer to save par. On the par-5 15th, his second shot found the water, and after taking a penalty stroke, he missed a nine footer for par. He lipped out a 16-footer for birdie on No. 17, then dialed in a 9-iron to 21 inches on the last for a closing birdie. "I finally played that hole (No. 18) like it's supposed to be played. I just wish I could have had a couple swings back on that back nine," said Harman, who lives on Sea Island. "But I wouldn't have done anything different. I felt really good over the ball. Hole 14 was just odd, and then 15 was a nothing lay-up; I probably got little cute with it trying to get it down there to get a perfect number and should have been a little more focused on trying to get it into the right quadrant of that fairway." The 5-foot-8, 155-pound lefty had a strong contingent of supporters as he always does at Harbour Town, where he made his first appearance in a professional tournament as a junior at Savannah Christian in 2004 at the age of 17, when he got a sponsor's exemption after winning the 2003 U.S. Junior Amateur the summer before. "This place is real special to me. It's nice to play in front of so many friends and family, and everybody did a great job," he said. Harman said he will take a couple weeks off before coming back for a run of four straight tournaments starting with the Truist Championship in Philadelphia May 8-11. He'll play in the PGA Championship May 15-18 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he won his second PGA title at the Wells Fargo Championship in 2017. "The game feels great. I'll take a couple weeks off and rest up," Harman said. "I'm pretty tired. I'm pretty worn out. It'll be nice to rest up and try to come back and get back in contention as quick as I can. That's the best feeling in the world — being in contention." In the meantime, Harman is looking to spend some quality time with his family and enjoy one of his favorite pastimes in hunting. "Yeah, turkeys aren't going to be safe the next few days," he said with a laugh.
USA Today
18-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Brian Harman is continuing his run of strong play at the 57th RBC Heritage
Brian Harman is continuing his run of strong play at the 57th RBC Heritage Harbour Town Golf Links has always been a special place for Savannah native Brian Harman, who made his PGA Tour debut on the course as a 17-year old in the 2004 RBC Heritage after receiving an exemption to play as the U.S. Junior Amateur champion from the summer before. Now the 38-year old is at No. 24 in the World Golf Ranking and playing some excellent golf after winning his fourth PGA Tournament title two weeks ago at the Valero Texas Open. The University of Georgia and Savannah Christian alum had an excellent opening round Thursday as he shot a 5-under par 66 that sits in a tie for fifth place. Harman came out on fire as he birdied the par-4 first hole with a 12-footer. He kept his foot on the gas with an eagle on the par-5 second hole with an approach from 262 yards to 28 feet, where he drained an impressive putt. He birdied the par-5 fifth and holed a 24-foot putt on the par-4 ninth to make the turn at 5-under par 31. He said the round should have been even lower after his only bogey of the day on No. 18, where he missed a short putt for par. "I've been waiting on some good golf," said Harman, whose victory in San Antonio was his first since taking home the Claret Jug as the winner of the 2023 Open Championship. "I've been playing a lot better than I've been scoring, so I'm just going to try and take advantage of some good form and see what I can make out of it." Last year, Harman tied for 12th at the RBC Heritage after shooting his career best on the Harbour Town course with a 64 in the final round. He said the course is a good fit for his game. "It's a position golf course. I'm pretty comfortable driving it around here, and it's pretty demanding on the second shots," said Harman, who finished in a tie for 36th at the Masters last week. "But I enjoy trying to fit irons into those smaller spaces. I've always enjoyed playing the golf course. "I missed a few opportunities on the back nine, so we'll try to tighten that up a little bit. Missed a couple uncharacteristic putts ... I missed two putts inside of eight feet for birdie and then missed a short one on 18 for par, so yeah, could have been three or four better," he said. "But overall, a good day. Got off to a good start. Really drove the ball well, so I was happy about that." Harman said he wasn't surprised that Thomas had a round that tied the course record on what he called a "benign day" as far as the wind and course conditions went. Thomas was firing at flags as he recorded 11 birdies in his round. He had a shot to shoot the course record of 60, but just missed a 6-foot putt on 18. His 61 tied the course record shared by Troy Merritt (in the second round of the 2015 tournament) and David Frost (1994's second round). Thomas is three shots clear of defending champion and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley, who are tied for second. Wyndham Clark shot 65 and is in solo fourth place. "I just played really solid. I feel like I didn't do anything crazy. I just drove the ball well, which is very, very important out here, and I felt like it was just one of those days I put the ball in a spot that I had a lot of good numbers," Thomas said. "I had a lot of kind of full wedges to where — although you have to be a little conservative at times out here, I felt like they were kind of pins and angles and everything that I could be a little aggressive and just kind of got rolling with it." Dennis Knight covers sports for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at Dknight@ Twitter: @DennisKnightSMN
New York Times
09-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
How to watch Masters 2025: Round 1 tee times, groupings, odds and info
The 89th edition of the Masters Tournament commences on Thursday morning, with a warm and mostly sunny forecast for Augusta, Ga. The $20 million tourney has no shortage of intrigue this year: Defending champion Scottie Scheffler goes for his third green jacket, while Rory McIlroy tries to win his first and complete the career grand slam. We have ascendant PGA Tour talents like Collin Morikawa and Ludvig Åberg being joined by LIV luminaries Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson. Golf's major season is officially open. offerings will also be available on the Masters App and Paramount+. Morikawa hits Augusta as No. 4 in the official World Golf Ranking. The Los Angeles native is making his sixth Masters start, has never missed the cut at Augusta and has finished inside the top 10 in each of his last three tries. From Amos Morale III: 'Morikawa has been particularly sharp on approach, picking up a tour-leading 1.47 true strokes in that range. Golfers who are accurate with approach shots tend to do well at Augusta National. Morikawa was good with the irons in his last three Masters starts, and his worst finish was T10. He's heading into this year's tournament with those sticks working and the tour's fourth-highest driving accuracy percentage (71.48). With the exception of some forecasted rain on Friday, things seem to be in line for Morikawa to make a run at his first green jacket.' Mickelson, now with LIV Golf in his mid-50s, has won the Masters three times (2004, 2006, 2010) and was a runner-up in 2023. Bradley is ranked 15th in the World Golf Ranking, while Day is 36th. The 28-year-old Scheffler is firmly atop the sport's hierarchy right now. He won here in 2022 and again last year. Fellow American Thomas was ranked 19th at the end of 2024 and has since surged up to eighth. A decade ago, Spieth pulled off his historic Masters triumph. From NYT's Karen Crouse: 'Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Justin Rose and top-ranked Rory McIlroy, who have a combined 24 major championships, all tried, but no one could catch the 21-year-old Spieth at the Masters on Sunday. Spieth closed with a two-under-par 70 to win his first major in clarion-call fashion, with a 72-hole score of 18-under 270 that matched the mark Woods set in 1997 on his way to his first major title, also at age 21. With a birdie on the par-5 15th, Spieth, who had already broken the 36-hole and 54-hole tournament records, became the first player to get to 19 under in the history of the Masters — first played in 1934. Earlier, at the 10th hole, Spieth recorded his 26th birdie to break a tournament record set in 2001 by Mickelson; he finished with 28.' Spaun was ranked 119th last December and is now No. 29 after taking McIlroy to the brink at the Players Championship. His second-place finish netted him more than $2.7 million. Fellow LIV Golf member Koepka nearly won the Masters in 2023, surprising the field and ultimately tying for second with Mickelson. He won the 2023 PGA Championship a few months later. Advertisement Schauffele was sensational in 2024, winning two majors and rising to the world's No. 2 ranking. A ribcage cartilage tear derailed his offseason, but he's made all four cuts since the return from injury and has been playing with TGL's New York squad. Norway's Viktor Hovland is also a top-10 ranked golfer and is coming off a win at the Valspar Championship. After winning the FedEx Cup and helping Europe clinch the Ryder Cup in 2023, Hovland began painstakingly reworking his swing and hadn't had another win until the Valspar this March. The Masters is his next test. McIlroy and Åberg in the same group? Loaded. From Brody Miller: 'When [Åberg] arrived in Tallahassee, he was a rookie with promise. By the time he left, he was getting stopped in Target. Life would no longer be normal. Now, Åberg goes to Augusta as one of the five or so best players in the world. He's considered by most to be the current best golfer without a major, and he's only played in four. It is simultaneously all in front of him, and it's all right here already. He was asked in October his goals for 2025, his first real season as a top star. Win a tournament: Check. Make the Ryder Cup team: Unofficially a check. After that, he doesn't think in those types of terms. He thinks about processes. 'I have a lot of acceptance for expectations,' he says. 'I understand there's always going to be a lot of expectations outside, from the inside, and I'm OK with that. I'm OK with a lot of people thinking I'm going to do this or that. I'm OK with myself thinking that way. But it doesn't change the way that I approach the game or my training or my practice. That's still going to be the same.'' The Japanese phenom Matsuyama enters play as the world's No. 6. Ireland's Lowry isn't far behind him at 13th, and the American DeChambeau is 19th. From Gabby Herzig: 'Rahm says he hasn't spent a lot of time thinking about LIV Golf and the PGA Tour coming back together — or at least uniting the best players back on the same stages more often — but he shares the same sentiment as many. ''I mean, I think we all would like to see that,' Rahm said during Tuesday's pre-Masters news conference. 'But as far as I can tell, and you guys can tell, it's not happening anytime soon.'' Betting/odds, ticketing and streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication. (Photo of Scottie Scheffler: Katie Goodale / Imagn Images)
USA Today
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
2025 Masters pool picks: Five players to help you win
2025 Masters pool picks: Five players to help you win Show Caption Hide Caption Jon Rahm laughs off rumor about cutting it over the cabins on 10 Jon Rahm on Augusta's missing trees: 'Somebody did tell me you can hit a high cut over the cabins on 10. I don't believe it.' The Masters The Masters is all about celebrating the world's best golfers. It's about the best in the sport coming together at one of America's best courses and vying for a coveted green jacket. It also presents a great opportunity for gambling. Yes, while the Masters is a beautiful mixture of golf's best aspects, it's also a gambler's haven, with fans creating pools and placing bets on a rather unpredictable event. However, just because golf is tough to predict doesn't mean you can't win those pools with a little research. Following trends and understanding who's been hot lately are key factors in determining whether or not you make like Scottie Scheffler and walk away victorious. Here are five golfers at the Masters flying under the radar that could help you win your pools. What is a Masters pool? A Masters pool is usually a tiered system that distinguishes how well golfers do at Augusta compared to their World Golf Ranking. Usually, this process has each person in the pool picking eight players, with each person's top six earning them points while the bottom two are tossed out. Essentially, in order to do well, you want to choose a mix of golfers that are expected to do well and a few that are flying under the radar that could earn you massive points. While choosing the eight favorites to win the green jacket certainly gives you a high floor, the ceiling isn't high enough for it to be a very viable strategy. Furthermore, selecting players that other members of the pool are likely to pick isn't a great strategy because if they do well, you might get points, but so does everyone else. It does very little to separate you from the rest of the pack. So, who are some of the lesser-known golfers that could help you win big? Five players to help you win your Masters pool *All odds provided by BetMGM Jason Day (+6600) Day has four top-10 finishes at Augusta throughout his career. While the most recent one came in 2019, he's playing phenomenally well in 2025 with his putter being one of the best in golf right now. The short game wins big events and if he can find a little consistency with his woods and irons, he could drastically outperform his odds. Sepp Straka (+6600) Straka is second in FedEx Cup points currently and has quietly risen to 13th in the World Golf Rankings. Despite his stellar play and methodical rise, his odds place him around 25th. He could easily outperform that. Patrick Reed (+6600) Here's someone who has not only won the Masters before, but has finished top-12 or better in four of his last five tournaments at Augusta. Reed may not be the golfer he once was, but he still consistently flashes streaks of greatness. He's also playing his best golf of the year right now, finishing top-10 in two of his last three tournaments with LIV. Shane Lowry (+3300) Lowry is someone who has been playing very well recently. In seven events played in 2025, he's finished top-25 in five of them, leaning heavily on his consistency with his woods and irons. While he has struggled somewhat with his putter, he's able to find greens quicker than most, which tends to be the biggest issue most golfers face when playing Augusta. Lowry has finished tied for third at this event before and has three other top-25 finishes, as well. Maverick McNealy (+9000) Coming off a third-place finish at the Valero Texas Open, McNealy has been playing surprisingly well with four top-10 finishes to his name in 2025. In fact, he's playing so well that his Official World Golf Ranking saw him climb into the top-10 in the most recent update. Despite that, though, McNealy has odds that would place him outside the top-30.
