Rory McIlroy, battling the weather.
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Jacksonville Seashore is holding agency.
It’s been raining now for 2 full days. Two-and-a-half, I suppose, if you happen to rely Wednesday afternoon. TPC Sawgrass is underwater. The greens are puddles. All that inexperienced, inexperienced grass is intermixed with patches of mud. However some eight miles north, down the road from our rental unit, the sand on Jacksonville Seashore is holding agency.
Prolonged rain delays are a rip within the material of the PGA Tour universe. There’s a pure rhythm to those issues, fastidiously calibrated. Tee occasions aren’t programmed with a margin for error. Even when the climate is excellent, it’s powerful to get 144 gamers by means of TPC Sawgrass in a day. As soon as tee occasions get bumped, then bumped, then bumped once more? Chaos.
What to do, if you happen to’re a golfer? What to jot down about, if you happen to’re a author? You possibly can solely learn so many climate stories. I can’t inform you any greater than your apps.
James Colgan is right here, too, impressed with Jacksonville Seashore’s agency sand. He’s writing for a similar web site you’re at the moment studying. Colgan was right here in 2020, too, overlaying his first PGA Tour occasion. We made plans to go to the course that Friday, that March thirteenth, pandemic eve. When Friday dawned, one group nonetheless needed to end their first spherical. They by no means acquired that probability. Now James has been right here for 4 totally different event days, two units of Thursdays and Fridays, two years aside. He has but to see a event spherical accomplished.
We’re on the seaside as a result of we’ve snuck out in a second of lighter rain. Neither media facilities nor rental homes are supposed to be sat in for too lengthy, uninterrupted. It feels good to be out, however the lighter rain appears to be coming down more durable. Nonetheless, the seaside stays agency, the kind of agency you’d see in a waste space, not a bunker. You could possibly journey your bike on this sand, no downside. You could possibly play a golf event on it, too, if it weren’t for the ocean, and gravity.
What do the gamers do on a free day like this? Half the sphere completed its first rounds on Thursday, which implies half the sphere didn’t play any golf in any respect on Friday. I attain out to at least one caddie whose participant is on the bench for the day. I’m imagining a caddie home moving into some shenanigans. He mentioned they’d been watching Ozark. Subsequent they have been plotting a visit to the films; The Batman beckons. Jax Seashore is transferring slowly.
Can the Gamers Championship be shortened? Or end on… Tuesday?! Your questions, answered
Again on the home, the 2019 Gamers Championship is on. It’s powerful to consider how a lot has modified. This event occurred 100 in the past, but additionally simply three.
There’s Eddie Pepperell, 14 underneath, chopping a chip shot out of the tough to the proper of the 18th inexperienced. I do know Eddie a bit; we have been pen buddies in early 2020. I ship him a photograph of the chip. He writes again.
“Proper, proper, proper all the best way up that gap…” Higher than left, I level out.
That felt like a coming-out week for Pepperell. He’d performed his manner into the world prime 50 and now, in his Gamers debut, he’d completed T3. An expanded American schedule doubtlessly awaited. The pandemic was arduous on the schedules of loads of execs however hit few more durable than Pepperell, who entered 2020 on the fringe of the highest 50 and now sits on the fringe of the highest 500.
Alan Shipnuck’s on the 18th tee, standing within the background of the shot. We have been nonetheless months away from a lot discuss of a Saudi-backed golf league. We have been years away from Shipnuck’s impromptu chat with Phil Mickelson dealing that very same league a severe blow.
Jim Furyk is within the group behind Pepperell, 49 years younger and charging. He almost fist-pumps a birdie putt on 17 that just about goes in — and almost tumbles into the water, too. He hits an aggressive tee shot on 18 and flags his method, too, strutting after it because it settles to kick-in vary.
There’s Rory McIlroy, hitting his tee shot into the seventeenth inexperienced. I understand with a begin that I’m within the background, crouching on the fringe of the tee field. I suppose I’ve modified since then, too. It’d be enjoyable if the golfers talked about how we’ve modified the best way we speak about how they’ve. That Dethier appears to have misplaced his manner, hasn’t he? I miss his outdated stuff…should surprise if he’s getting complacent.
Jon Rahm comes by means of subsequent. He was the 54-hole chief. Tied for the lead with eight to play. By now, although, he’s three again. He appears unmistakably youthful, although it’s arduous to pinpoint precisely why. Perhaps it’s the hair; he used to develop it longer. Now he retains it excessive and tight.
Tommy Fleetwood is beside him within the last pairing; his tee shot at 17 lands pin-high on the plank bordering the inexperienced. Splash. Rahm follows on an aggressive line, however quick. Splash.
Up forward, McIlroy is positively strutting down the 18th fairway. He has much less grey hair. He has extra bounce. He wants simply par to win, however there’s nothing protected about his method, which someway settles left of the left gap location, not removed from the water. He bounces all the best way right down to the inexperienced. Ro-ry! Ro-ry! What a win this was.
My thoughts wanders, the best way it has all day. It’s nonetheless raining, in spite of everything. I feel to December, once I spoke to McIlroy and his caddie Harry Diamond on the Hero World Problem. We talked about their partnership — and their dream to win a serious championship collectively.
“Two guys that grew up collectively, from a small city in Northern Eire? That’s a dream,” McIlroy mentioned. “It’s not as if we haven’t gained. I imply, we’ve gained some huge stuff collectively already. Simply no majors.”
Diamond chimed in. “Every thing however!”
McIlroy agreed. “Every thing however.”
Every thing however. The Gamers isn’t a serious. However it’s one of the best of the remainder. The highest of the “all the pieces however.”
Mike Tirico is again on the display. Gary Younger is, too, the foundations official in control of climate updates. It’s 2022 once more. It’s Friday, too. Younger declares that whereas we’re accomplished for the day, they’re nonetheless hoping for a event conclusion earlier than the tip of the day on Monday. This, I suppose, is meant to be excellent news. Monday? Oh, proper. Friday’s accomplished, and the primary spherical isn’t but full.
The following time I look up, we’re again to a re-run from earlier within the spherical. Exterior, rain patters on the home windows, coming more durable now. I ponder if the seashores are getting soggy. I doubt it. On the published, previously, the greens are simply beginning to puddle up.
I already know what’s going to occur subsequent.
