Where will Tiger play in 2020?

The full list of where you could see Tiger Woods play golf in 2020

In the aftermath of the U.S. Presidents Cup victory on Sunday, a reporter asked Tiger Woods — with tongue firmly planted in cheek — if he would mind going over his 2020 schedule through the Masters.

After a moment of consternation, Woods broke into a wide grin, dropped a good-natured riff and moved on. Of course, he was never going to divulge what he’s doing next week, let alone in the coming months. But it was worth a shot.

And so is trying to figure out where he will play next, how many tournaments his schedule will entail and where he will visit.

Coming off a Masters victory for his 15th major title, his Zozo Championship win for his 82nd PGA Tour victory to tie Sam Snead’s record and a successful year-end run at the Hero World Challenge and the Presidents Cup, expectations might be even higher than they were to begin 2019. Woods will end the year ranked seventh in the world.

And given the way Woods has looked since August knee surgery, there is considerable reason for optimism.

Before delving into some educated guesses as to where Woods will play in 2020, there are some obvious predictions.

• The schedule is built around the majors. Getting in the correct number of starts before the Masters, and then the PGA Championship (at Harding Park), the U.S. Open (at Winged Foot) and The Open (at Royal St. George’s) will be part of the decision-making.
• The Olympics add a new wrinkle. Whenever asked, Woods has made it clear he’d love a shot at what likely will be his only Olympic Games, to be played two weeks following The Open, in Japan in early August. To qualify, he must be among the top four Americans as of June 22.
• He will play more. Woods — who turns 44 on Dec. 30 — competed in just 14 PGA Tour events during the 2019 season, mostly due to injury. He skipped some starts he might otherwise have played. With the Japan tourney counting, expect that number to be around 18.
• Balancing competition and proper preparation. After the Masters this year, Woods did not play before the PGA Championship, and it showed. He did not play an event between the U.S. Open and The Open. While it is unlikely he will play back-to-back weeks more than twice, you can expect him to add a tournament or two he did not play in order to be better prepared for the majors.

With that, here is what appears likely for 2020, with a few thoughts on tournaments that have been kicked around as well.

Sentry Tournament of Champions (Jan. 2-5)

This seems an extreme reach, but we mention it because Woods is eligible and there are some compelling reasons to play. Small fields are his friend, as are no-cut events. And given that it’s only two weeks away and his game is in form, you could see him going to Hawai’i and winning. But of course, the fact that the tournament is in two weeks and right after a hectic stretch, and with the holidays mixed in, makes it a long shot. Woods most recently played the event in 2005.

Farmers Insurance Open (Jan. 23-26)

This makes sense as the place to begin the new year. Woods has won eight times at Torrey Pines and on several occasions has made this his launching point. It also gives him five weeks to decompress and build back up.

Genesis Invitational (Feb. 13-16)

Woods has already committed to the Los Angeles event that is run by his foundation, and it’s now one that has similar status to the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial. Woods tied for 15th in 2009 despite numerous delays and cold weather.

WGC-Mexico Championship (Feb. 20-23)

The only thing standing in the way is if Woods decides he’d rather play his hometown Honda Classic the following week. Don’t look for him to play three in a row at any point. But Mexico offers several advantages. The WGC short field and automatic ranking points are key. And he tied for 10th in 2019 despite a poor week of putting.

Arnold Palmer Invitational (March 5-8)

Even if Woods skips Mexico, playing Honda would mean three consecutive tournaments, with the Arnold Palmer and the Players Championship to follow. Woods skipped the event he’s won eight times due to a neck strain in 2019. Unless he is determined to mirror his 2019 schedule, it’s difficult to see him skipping this tournament.

Players Championship (March 12-15)

The new schedule unveiled in 2019 meant a move of the Players to March and Woods skipping two tournaments he played in 2018, the Honda Classic and the Valspar Championship. If healthy, he’s not missing the Players.

WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship (March 26-29)

Woods made it to the quarterfinals last year after a memorable match-play victory over Rory McIlroy. The WGC format and automatic ranking points seemingly make this Texas event a slam dunk, as it is two weeks prior to the Masters, a time when he likes to play.

The Masters (April 9-12)

Woods is looking at giving himself six starts before the Masters, one more than in 2019. He would play twice in consecutive weeks but just once in the three weeks leading up to the tournament, with time to make a visit to Augusta National.

Wells Fargo Championship (April 30-May 3)

We got this one wrong last year, as did many others who figured Woods would want a start between major championships. The emotional toll from the Masters victory kept him at home rather than in North Carolina, but the lack of preparation for the PGA Championship resulted in a missed cut.

PGA Championship (May 14-17)

Woods won the 2005 WGC-American Express Championship at Harding Park and went 5-0 in the 2009 Presidents Cup there. He’ll be hoping for some warmer temperatures in San Francisco than he had at Bethpage in 2019, when he missed the cut at the PGA.

The Memorial (June 4-7)

No reason to skip Jack Nicklaus’ tournament in Ohio. In one of just six post-Masters starts through the FedEx Cup playoffs, the tie for ninth in 2019 was his best.

U.S. Open (June 18-21)

New York’s Winged Foot is the site of Woods’ first cut in a major as a pro, in 2006. It was his first event following the death of his father, Earl, approximately a month earlier.

WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational (July 2-5)

Woods skipped this Tennessee tournament in 2019 when it was played the week following The Open. He is more likely to play it this time, to give himself a start between the U.S. Open and The Open. Possible glitch: if he makes the Olympic field.

The Open (July 16-19)

In Woods’ only appearance at Royal St. George’s, in 2003, he had a lost ball on the first hole, ended up making a triple-bogey 7 and finished two shots back of winner Ben Curtis in England.

Olympic golf tournament (July 30-Aug. 2)

Woods continues to say that he would love to play in the Olympics. To do so, he will need to be ranked among the top four Americans not outside the top 15 as of the June 22 cutoff. At seventh in the world, he is currently the fourth American, behind Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson. It’s hard to see the first two going anywhere. So Woods is effectively fighting for two spots with Johnson, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Webb Simpson, Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau. With two major championships, the Players and two WGCs prior to the cutoff, there is a lot that can happen.

The Northern Trust (Aug. 13-16)

The first of three playoff events shifts to TPC Boston, and the only reason for Woods to skip it is if he needs a break after the Olympics and doesn’t want to play three in a row in the playoffs.

BMW Championship (Aug. 20-23)

The tournament moves to Olympia Fields, where Woods tied for 20th at the 2003 U.S. Open in his only time playing the Illinois venue.

Tour Championship (Aug. 27-30)

After missing this event in 2019 after winning it a year earlier, you have to figure it is a priority for Woods to make it back to Atlanta.

Final notes

If you include the Zozo Championship he won in October, that is 18 official PGA Tour events. That doesn’t include the Olympics, and if Woods makes it to Tokyo, expect there to be some juggling to bring the total down by an event or two. All of this, of course, is subject to health and fitness.

As for the fall of 2020, after the PGA Tour season has concluded, there is the potential for the Ryder Cup (Woods is currently fourth in the U.S. standings with a very limited number of events counting), a possible title defense in Japan, with some sort of made-for-TV event added in again, and the Hero World Challenge.

SOURCE:  ESPN

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Have you already booked your golfing trip for 2020?

Nine Golf Courses We Can’t Wait To Play in 2020

(Bloomberg) — Golf architecture, to use today’s jargon, is in its 2.0 phase. Fewer courses are being built than during the boom of the 2000s, but what we are getting now are leaner, cleaner, and, at least environmentally speaking, greener experiences. Today’s designs have more in common with golf’s original course designs in Scotland and the British Isles than they do with the suburban country clubs at which many of us grew up playing.

If you haven’t already booked your golfing trip for 2020, here are the openings that we’re most looking forward to next year—whether you prefer the coast of Oregon, the middle of Missouri, or 20 minutes from St. Andrews.

Sheep Ranch, Oregon

Perhaps no opening has been more anticipated in golf than the fifth, and final, full course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. The remote location in Oregon has consistently ranked among the top 10 in America since the original course opened in 1999, thanks to the jaw-dropping cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Before now, the Sheep Ranch course existed mostly as legend and lore—you had to call a guy, pay him $100, and he’d open a gate to let you in—but when it opens on June 1, it’ll have the full treatment from popular design duo Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. Tight, intimate routing lets golfers play out and over cliffs along nine stunning holes hugging the coast. And there isn’t a single sand bunker to hit into. This is a case of the rich getting richer that we can all celebrate.

Payne’s Valley, Missouri

No one moves the needle in golf as Tiger Woods can. This spring, his design firm TGR will debut Payne’s Valley at the Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Mo., and it’ll be his first public course design in America. (He’s previously designed courses for Bluejack National, a private club 50 miles north of Houston, and the Diamante luxury resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.) Woods has made no secret that he takes inspiration for his own designs from Augusta National Golf Club, with its low rough, “flashy” bunkers, and playability. Like many others, Woods thinks the game needs to be faster and more user-friendly. Payne’s Valley, named in the memory of late Hall of Famer Payne Stewart, will invite an early look at Woods’s vision for doing that over a 7,300-yard layout of impeccable Ozarks terrain.

Mickelson National, Alberta

Phil Mickelson appears to be not only on the back nine of his career but on the closing holes. As he branches into social media and podcasts and increases his popularity off the greens, Mickelson’s role as a designer may be one more thing for the masses to celebrate. Mickelson National Golf Club, outside Calgary in Alberta, has been letting a few lucky golfers preview a selection of holes on the course this year. The reviews have largely been positive, touting forgiving fairways, treacherous fescue, and “blowout” bunkers. The course was built with design partner Rick Smith and offers plentiful views of Canada’s Rocky Mountains.

Dumbarnie Links, Scotland

If you’re going to build a true links course in Scotland, it had better be great. And if you’re going to build it 20 minutes from St. Andrews, it needs to be spectacular. Sitting on 345 acres on the eastern coast, Dumbarnie Links looks to be all that and more. The course features dual elevations connected by a flowing escarpment and has a mile and a half of beach and sea frontage. Plus, there’s a number of elevated tees whose holes play directly toward panoramic views of the Firth of Forth estuary.

Rancho San Lucas Golf Club, Cabo

The Greg Norman Signature Course at Rancho San Lucas is a private golf facility scheduled to open in February. Those who own real estate on the site, as well as guests of Solmar Hotels & Resorts, including the new on-site Grand Solmar at Rancho San Lucas, will have exclusive access to the course. It was created with playability in mind but still exudes fun, like the 17th hole’s island green (pictured). The links-style design travels through “three ecosystems,” exposing golfers to desert, a cactus forest, and views of the ocean from every hole.

Plantation Course, Hawaii

After the PGA Tour’s Sentry Tournament of Champions last year at Kapalua Golf in Maui, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw returned to update one of their earliest designs, focusing on ways to make it both harder for the pros and easier for the Joes (and Josephines), with wide fairways and generous greens. Plantation Course, already world-famous, keeps its grand scale, thanks to its location on the slopes of the West Maui Mountains. It offers a lot of downhill shots for those looking to hit long. The course renovation was completed in the summer and reopened late this year. The refreshed course will host the Tournament again in January, so you can see it for yourself on TV and decide if you want to book your tickets.

Memorial Park, Houston

The reopening of a municipal golf course might not ordinarily raise eyebrows, but when Tom Doak is at the helm, you take notice. The former boy wonder of golf course architecture has more than a handful of designs that rank among the world’s best, including Pacific Dunes at the Bandon Dunes resort in Oregon and Ballyneal in Colorado. Doak was retained by the Astros Golf Foundation, headed by the wife of Houston Astros owner Jim Crane, to reimagine the Memorial Park course and keep the Houston Open on the PGA Tour’s schedule. His Renaissance Golf Design team consulted with current world No. 1 Brooks Koepka on the new layout. Technically, the course opened late this year but will play in prime condition once warmer weather helps the Bermuda grass flourish.

Cabot Links, Nova Scotia

You wouldn’t book a trip for a Par 3 course alone, but one of two to watch for this year is the new Par 3 Course at the highest point of the Cabot Cliffs Course in Inverness, Nova Scotia. The 10-hole routing was designed by Rod Whitman and Dave Axland and is a prelude to other happenings at the beloved Canadian resort, which includes new residencies, a wellness center, a putting course, and a new clubhouse.

Pebble Beach, California

Likewise, if you wait until next fall to visit Pebble Beach, you’ll have the chance to play Tiger Woods’s new Par 3 course, which is to be built on the grounds of the former Peter Hay Golf Course. Woods’s TGR Design firm will begin construction immediately, though details remain scarce. Woods has said: “We at TGR Design look forward to building on and enhancing this vision with our redesign, which will incorporate more variety into the hole lengths and shot options, add more puttable areas within the green surrounds and take advantage of the spectacular ocean views.”

SOURCE:  MSN

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Play to the left green or the right green?

Why do Japanese golf courses have two greens on every hole?

During Monday’s Japan Skins, the high-powered foursome of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama and Jason Day were presented with a challenge at the fourth hole: Play to the left green or the right green — dealer’s choice. Woods took aim at the right green but misfired, hitting a pull that ended up directly between the right and left greens.

“That was such a bad shot,” he said, exasperated but trying to stay light-hearted on the broadcast. “I tried to hit a cut and pull-hooked it!”

Up near the green, he adjusted his plan, chipping instead to the left green, where he rolled in a putt for par.

It’s not rare for a course to feature a hole with an alternate green. No. 8 at Pine Valley, No. 13 at Streamsong Black and No. 4 at Cabot Cliffs are three high-profile examples. But many courses in Japan, including this week’s Zozo Championship host course, Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club, have two such greens on every single hole.

The two-green system originated from a desire to keep greens playable across different seasons. Because Japan has hot, humid summers and cold winters, they could use a different grass type on each green to allow for options based on the weather. Tyler Pringle of American Golf notes that summer greens would typically feature bermuda or zoysia, while the winter greens would favor bent grass.

Advancements in turf management mean that two greens with two different grass types has become less necessary at many courses. Still, many in Japan and some others in South Korea maintain two greens on every single hole. There are benefits to having double the greens, of course. Twice as many putting surfaces means half as much wear and tear. It means no need to reduce greens fees for aeration periods. It also frees up one green per hole for required renovation or maintenance, and it provides some variety for course regulars.

18 holes.
36 greens.

All 18 holes at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club have two greens, a common practice in Japan. pic.twitter.com/j1BJxDGF0y

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 23, 2019

There are also drawbacks, of course — twice as many greens means twice as much maintenance, which means increased budgets and transfers indirectly to more expensive golf. Still, the dual green phenomenon is something different. This week, Zozo Championship competitors will see action on both the left and right greens at No. 4, though not at the same time like in the skins game. Collin Morikawa, for one, was amused by the dual greens.  “I don’t know a place that has two greens unless you’re playing soccer golf,” he said. You can see more examples of the double-greens below.

SOURCE:  Golf.com

 

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