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The post Why this nearly century-old women’s golf club is enjoying a revival appeared first on Golf.

The snapshots depict members of the Harding Park Women’s Golf Club in the early years of their organization, which was a long while ago.

Among the oldest institutions of its kind in California, the club was founded in the 1930s, shortly after Harding opened. For generations, it endured, its members keeping their appointed weekday rounds on the San Francisco muni they called home. They saw Harding through the wake of the Depression and its glory years of the post-War era when the course hosted a regular Tour stop. They continued playing through forlorn stretches in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when conditions grew so scruffy, it was hard to tell the fairways from the rough.

Over time, club membership dwindled. But the group held on until the early aughts, when Harding shut down for major renovations, destined to become a tournament-worthy track once more. With the course under construction, women’s club members took to playing elsewhere. When Harding reopened, with a modest rate hike for residents, few opted to return.

In 2003, the women’s club disbanded, and for nearly 20 years, it went largely forgotten. But now, like Harding itself, it has been reborn.

Credit for its revival goes to Lily Achatz, a Bay Area native and an unlikely champion of the women’s game. Growing up in the ‘80s, Achatz didn’t play golf. She first picked up a club at age 12, when her father took her to the driving range. Achatz liked it but was wary of the all-dude demographic. Golf, she figured, wasn’t quite a fit for her.

Life went on. Achatz moved to New York, graduated college, embarked on a career in the fashion business. Athletic and outdoorsy, she enjoyed a range of sports. But golf only flashed into the picture now and then, when guy friends invited her to play. Again, she felt the pull — and the hesitation.

“The courses were so beautiful, and I loved being out there,” Achatz says. “But it also seemed like such a bro society. I just thought it would be weird for me to go out alone.”

After the attacks of Sept. 11, Achatz relocated to San Francisco, busying herself with work and friends, all the while thinking that maybe one day, someday, she’d give golf another crack. When Covid hit, her motivation reached a tipping point. Achatz booked a lesson at Presidio Golf Club, a public-access course in the heart of the city. While learning to swing, Achatz also learned that she wasn’t alone. The Presidio was home to a women’s club, players of all levels, in it for community more than competition. 

Achatz signed up and — raise your hand if you could see this coming — was smitten by the fresh air, the fellowship, the challenge: the happy gateway drugs to golf addiction.

News

It was official. Golf became her thing.

Soon, Achatz made a wish list of other local courses. Harding was high on it, though she worried its demands might be too much. Her newfound Presidio golf friends helped her past that hurdle, skipping across town to guide her first round at the intimidating muni.

“They made me feel so comfortable,” Achatz says. “And they helped me understand that it didn’t matter what you shot, as long as you understood the etiquette.”

Around the same time, Achatz attended her first LPGA event, the Mediheal Championship, at nearby Lake Merced Golf Club. There, she crossed paths with Tom Smith, Harding’s general manager. The two got talking. When Achatz mentioned her dual interests in golf and fashion, Smith pulled up photos on his phone, black-and-white images from the 1930s that he’d first seen in a scrapbook at his workplace: portraits of members of the Harding Park Women’s Golf Club, dressed in their Babe Didrikson Zaharias-era duds.

Achatz loved the clothes. But something else was even more alluring: the idea of bringing back the club.

With help from Smith and Lyn Nelson, director of golf development and property manager for San Francisco’s Recreations and Parks Department, Achatz spent the next few months pushing through the hoops to make that happen. In late 2021, the Harding Park Women’s Golf Club was reinstated, sanctioned by the city and under the umbrella of the Northern California Golf Association. This past February, Achatz opened the doors for enrollment. Overnight, 50 women signed up. Based on early feedback, Achatz projects that the number will swell to more than 100 by the end of the year.

The robust response reflects a broader trend: During golf’s recent boom, girls and women have become the fastest-growing sector of the game. It also speaks to golf’s wide demographic reach. The new club membership runs the gamut in age, background and ability, ranging from Nicole Holm, a 28-year-old former high school golfer-turned-public health researcher, to 80-year-old Jane Grimm, who works as a sculptor but knows how to shape shots, too.

“Aside from playing with my sister, I can’t recall the last time I showed up at a course and wound up playing with another female golfer,” Holm says. “That’s what makes this so special — having a community of women who love the game as much as I do.”

In the two months since its relaunch, the club has gathered regularly for nine-hole twilight rounds on Harding’s scenic back side. But Achatz and her cohort have bigger ambitions. Along with monthly 18-hole outings, plans are in the works for educational clinics; Toptracer league play; online happy-hour Q&A’s; mixed-gender events with a sibling group, the Harding Park Golf Club, which is open to all but whose active members all are men.

The list goes on.

“We are open to all ideas,” Achatz says.

The women’s club costs $105 a year to join, and another $49 to establish and maintain an official handicap. Not that scorekeeping is required. Members compete mostly against themselves. The group currency is camaraderie. Post-round cocktails are valued, too.

Like the abiding spirit, the dress code is relaxed, though retro threads might earn you style points. It is, after all, an historic club, updated, where everything old is new again.

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For some of us, it was a lovely walk through the tall trees in California. For others, it was a delightful romp on a par-69 in Maine. And of course, for the lucky bunch, the best that Bandon Dunes and Pinehurst have to offer. Here are the places that stood out to us in 2021.

TPC Harding Park, California

Northern California’s Bay Area is chock full of quality golf. Private courses like Olympic Club, San Francisco Golf Club and Cal Club highlight the menu, but there are plenty of high-caliber public tracks as well.

Presidio Golf Course, Sharp Park and (if you venture a little further south) Pasatiempo are all solid public-access tracks that should be on your radar if you’re in the area. But after receiving a facelift and hosting several big-time events over the last 20 years, TPC Harding Park might be the most well-known. – Zephyr Melton

Read more here.

Saratoga National, New York

Yes, we’d had a few close calls, but through some amalgam of skill, mental endurance and good fortune, Dad had always managed to wind up on top. And, as most good dads do, he never let me forget it.

“Oh, who’s the best golfer in the family?” He’d say to no one in particular. “Well, let me check the scorecard … Oh! That’s right. Me.” – James Colgan

Read more here.

Bandon Dunes, Oregon

Trapped in a bunker, I was thrown a lifeline. Or, in this case, a more-lofted sand wedge.

Over Labor Day weekend, I was fortunate enough to have made my first trip to Bandon Dunes, and over three days, I was fortunate enough to have played five of the six courses on the Bandon, Oregon property. (I missed just Old Macdonald.) And fortunately for me, Tyson was along for the ride. Especially deep into the back nine, and deep in the sand, at Bandon Trails.

“Here, use this,” Tyson said, handing me a wedge. – Nick Piastowski

Read more here.

Pasatiempo Golf Club, California

As with most courses that hold plenty of fanfare online, I held some skepticism about Pasatiempo. But when Alister MacKenzie calls it his best layout, well, you have to take the man at his word. It must be pretty good.

On paper, it might not wow you. Your view off the 1st tee offers a tattered driving range along the left side and a brutally long par-4 that slaps you from the jump; hope you’re ready. It plays just 6,450 yards from the tips and is priced at $325 during prime season, encouraging numerous golf buddies of mine to ask if Pasatiempo is worth extending their Bay Area or Monterey Peninsula golf trips. The answer is yes, every single time. Because at Pasatiempo you’ll pay a pricey rate but receive a 200-level class in course design. Thanks, Prof MacKenzie. – Sean Zak

Read more here.

Pinehurst No. 2, North Carolina

Pinehurst Resort is a bucket-list golf destination, and for good reason. There are nine courses to choose from, first-rate lodging, delicious dining, a quaint village, the list goes on.

Course No. 2 is also one that lives large in our collective imaginations. – Jessica Marksbury

Read more here.

Cape Arundel, Maine

I’d driven through Maine before, but had never spent any time there prior to this trip. My knowledge of the state was limited to fresh lobster and what I’d seen in L.L. Bean magazines, so I was excited to experience it for the first time. I was also a little nervous — this was my first trip for GOLF where I’d actually be the person playing golf, rather than just watching the pros do their thing.

I drove up to Boston, where I met Dylan fresh off his redeye from Seattle. The two of us then hopped on the road up the coast, meeting Sean in Portland. Our first stop (after lunch in Kennebunkport) was at Cape Arundel, and it was the perfect course to kick off a few days of golf. – Claire Rogers

Read more here.

Goat Hill Park, California

I was fortunate enough to play a lot of great public courses for the first time this year. From Pinehurst No. 2 to Harbour Town to every course at Bandon Dunes, I checked quite a few boxes off the Top 100 Courses list. Sorry for the humblebrag, but you don’t need me to explain how great any of those courses are. But when I look back on a public course that left a different kind of first impression on me, Goat Hill Park, in Oceanside, Calif., comes to mind. – Tim Reilly

Read more here.

Forest Dunes — The Loop, Michigan

When my friends and I received a wedding invite to take place in Northern Michigan, we immediately thought one thing: golf trip. We figured a road trip through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan with a few rounds of golf, a few baseball games and lots of Enya would be more memorable than an indirect flight out of JFK (yuck).

And, we were right. We played three rounds of golf and crossed Progressive Field and Comerica Park off our stadium bucket-lists (in truth, I didn’t even have one of those until this trip). The most memorable stop though, was to Forest Dunes. – Emily Haas

Read more here.

Need help unriddling the greens at your home course? Pick up a custom Green Book from 8AM Golf affiliate GolfLogix.

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TPC Harding Park, San Francisco, Calif.

Northern California’s Bay Area is chock full of quality golf. Private courses like Olympic Club, San Francisco Golf Club and Cal Club highlight the menu, but there are plenty of high-caliber public tracks as well.

Presidio Golf Couse, Sharp Park and (if you venture a little further south) Pasatiempo are all solid public-access tracks that should be on your radar if you’re in the area. But after receiving a facelift and hosting several big-time events over the last 20 years, TPC Harding Park might be the most well-known.

That’s why, during my trip out to San Francisco last summer to cover the U.S. Women’s Open at Olympic Club, I decided to venture across Lake Merced to see what Harding Park was all about.

First impressions: While the other courses on Lake Merced are private and gated, Harding Park has much more welcoming vibe. When I arrived, the parking lot was packed with cars as joggers and bikers traversed the paths that surround the property.

The clubhouse is expansive — and quite nice for a municipal course — and it offers a great view of the 18th hole. Get there early enough and you can grab a bite to eat while players try to navigate the difficult closing hole.

Difficulty: If you get crooked off the tee, Harding Park will get some good punches in. Keep it in the fairway, however, and birdie opportunities are out there. That task is easier said than done, though.

Putting

After having hosted a major championship in 2020, the fairways were still quite narrow.  But luckily, the course is not exceedingly long at just 6,400 yards from the white tees. The rough is penal at Harding Park, so avoid it best you can. The greens are not too difficult in terms of slope, but if you get out of position, there are three-putts lurking.

Fun facts: While the main course gets most of the press, there is a nine-hole short course located on property as well. Tucked in the middle of the main 18, the Fleming 9 features six par-3s and three par-4s, with the longest hole topping out at 400 yards. If you can’t snag a tee time on the main course, head to the Fleming 9 and enjoy the walk.

What I loved: The last six holes are awesome. That closing third of the course hugs Lake Merced and gives gorgeous views of Olympic Club in the distance. Not to mention, this stretch now has a place in golf history. Collin Morikawa chipped in for birdie at the 14th to insert himself into contention at the 2020 PGA, and he hit the shot of the tournament at the 16th to set up the deciding eagle. And while the 18th is a ho-hum finisher for Tour stars, it’s quite beefy for your average joe. A forced carry over a hazard makes for a daunting tee shot, and the approach isn’t easy either. Not to mention the added pressure of onlookers from the clubhouse grill. Don’t let the pros fool you — 18 is no joke!

Travel

What I didn’t love: The first 12 holes are a bit bland. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy those holes, but the architecture leaves quite a bit to the imagination. The entire front nine feels like a down-and-back exercise, and none of those holes will stick in your mind very long when you look back on your round.

Favorite hole: No. 16 is a sweet hole. The short, dog-leg right par-4 came to notoriety during Collin Morikawa’s back-nine charge, and it’s always fun trying to recreate historic shots. Plus, at just over 300 yards, it’s a great birdie chance at the tail end of your round. Just remember to fade the ball enough; if you don’t, you’ll see your ball trickle down an embankment into Lake Merced.

Final verdict: Harding Park is definitely a fun course, and worth a tee time if you’re in the Bay Area. The price can get a little steep depending on the time you play it, but if you like playing courses the pros do, it’s worth it. Don’t expect to be knocked off your feet by every hole, but there are certainly some stretches that are noteworthy.

NEWSLETTER

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The 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park was the golf world’s first major championship in 13 months, and came on the heels of a canceled Open Championship and severely delayed U.S. Open and Masters. It was hosted just as the sports world began to reawaken from a Covid-forced shutdown, and ultimately provided a grand reintroduction to major championship golf.

A jam-packed leaderboard filled the week at Harding Park, a municipal course in San Francisco. The early rounds were dominated by Bryson DeChambeau and Tiger Woods — the former’s driver-snapping madness perfectly juxtaposing the latter’s putter woes. But by the weekend, the conversation had shifted yet again. This time, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson were at the forefront.

Koepka’s trash-talking, three-peat seeking effort served as a direct affront to DJ, who’d finished runner-up to Brooks at Bethpage Black in 2019.

“I mean, I like my chances,” said the man with four majors to his credit. “When I’ve been in this position before, I’ve capitalized. I don’t know. (DJ’s) only won one. I’m playing good. I don’t know, we’ll see.”

By Saturday evening, even Rory McIlroy had jumped to Johnson’s defense.

“It’s a very different mentality to bring to golf that I don’t think a lot of golfers have,” McIlroy said. “Whether he was trying to play mind games or not — if he’s trying to play mind games, he’s trying to do it to the wrong person. I don’t think DJ really gives much of a concern for that.”

On Sunday, the stage seemed set for a three-headed battle between DeChambeau, Johnson and Koepka. But as the tournament shifted to the back nine, a little-known youngster surged to the top of the leaderboard.

His name? Collin Morikawa — a 23-year-old who’d played his college golf at nearby Cal-Berkley — and he seemed entirely undaunted by the moment. A chip-in from the front fringe on the 14th vaulted him past a four-way tie at 10 under and into the solo lead, but the tournament wasn’t decided until the 16th tee.

On the short, drivable par-4 16th, Morikawa blasted his tee shot into a minuscule gap between a pair of bunkers and onto the green. A few minutes later, he drained the eagle for a three-shot lead.

Morikawa strolled home from the 16th to win the 2020 PGA Championship. The victory was the first of his professional career — evidenced by his hilarious Wanamaker Trophy blunder — and the first of the bizarre 2020 season.

“It’s amazing,” he said after the win. “It’s been a life goal, obviously as a little kid, kind of watching everyone grow up, all these professionals, and this is always what I’ve wanted to do. I felt very comfortable from the start. As an amateur, junior golfer, turning professional last year, but to finally close it off and come out here in San Francisco, pretty much my second home where I spent the last four years, is pretty special.”

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***

During the second round of the 2020 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, Tiger Woods four-putted the 1st green.

The golf world freaked.

Tiger’s response was more matter-of-fact.

“It’s just poa,” he said.

As in poa annua, the game’s favorite agronomical whipping boy. Bad-mouthing the stuff is a grand golf tradition.

Lifestyle

“It makes the greens uneven, bumpy, fast, unpredictable, unreadable,” the famed golf writer Dan Jenkins opined, in a Sports Illustrated piece about Jack Nicklaus’s struggles with poa.

The headline decried poa as a “blotchy weed.”

That was in the early 1970s.

And poa’s reputation hasn’t improved much since. But is that fair? Or does poor little poa get a bad rap?

We asked three superintendents to get down in the weeds and help us root through questions about a type of turf a lot of golfers love to hate.

First of all, what is poa?

Also known as annual bluegrass, or simply poa, it’s a low-growing plant with short, canoe-shaped leaves, and it does best in temperate climates. But those are just the broad strokes. Truth is, there’s mo’a than one kind of poa. “Some have longer leaves. Others are shorter. Some are thicker-bladed, and on,” says Ken Nice, director of agronomy at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. “There are hundreds and hundreds of bio-types, and everybody’s poa is a little bit different.”

Lifestyle

Why do superintendents abhor it?

Not all of them do. Attitudes toward poa are often regional. In the north and northwest, many superintendents embrace it, or learn to manage it, while plenty of their counterparts in warmer climates stand on guard against it. “We treat it as a weed, and we want it out as fast as possible,” says Matt Guilfoil, superintendent at Desert Canyon Golf Club, in Phoenix. On his course, which is planted to Bermuda, poa is regarded as “unsightly,” its lime-green color clashing with the deeper greens of the dominant turf. What’s more, Guilfoil says, once poa gets a foothold, it takes over quickly. It outcompetes Bermuda in the cooler months, and then, come summer, when the poa dies, it leaves browned and barren patches in its place.

What makes poa so bumpy?

For starters, it doesn’t have to be. Early in its life, Ken Nice says, “poa is coarse and rank and it puts out a lot of seed heads.” The more seed heads, the less smooth the putting surface. Those seed heads also create a silvery sheen on greens, and there aren’t many people who like that look. Here’s the thing, though. Over time, and under regular maintenance practices such as tight mowing and verti-cutting, poa evolves. It produces fewer seeds. It firms up and smooths out, creating surfaces that can be as pure as any. Oakmont’s fabled greens are poa. At Bandon Dunes, three courses with greens that were originally planted to fescue and bentgrass have since transitioned naturally toward poa without any ill effect. In fact, guests surveys show that golfers prefer them now to how they played before.

Does the Tour influence our view of poa?

Without a doubt. Remember the final round of the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and Tiger’s epic putt to force a playoff with Rocco Mediate? The greens were poa, and Tiger’s putt knuckled so wildly, it looked more a like a Phil Niekro pitch. Throughout that championship week, a number of top players vented their frustrations about the greens at Torrey: too soft and inconsistent was their gripe. It was another public-relations hit for poa, broadcast on national TV.

It’s true that poa can be problematic. Because poa grows faster than other types of grass, it can lead to bumpy surfaces late in the day. Because it also demands more water than some other strains, it is prone to getting spongy and pocked with footprints. But again, Ken Nice points out, it doesn’t have to be that way. Maintenance is a major factor. So are climate and time of year. Consider the conditions at Pebble Beach when it hosts the AT&T Championship in mid-winter. Then picture how the course plays in the heat of a U.S. Open summer. Same poa greens. Very different putting surfaces.

Anything else you should know-a?

Oceans of ink have been spilled on poa, with doctoral dissertations devoted to the grass. Some researchers argue that poa is woefully misunderstood, that myths surround it, that, among other things, it doesn’t need as much water as people think. But ask your local superintendent, and they’ll likely tell you that poa is about as high-maintenance as grass gets. “There’s no doubt it can produce a very good putting surface,” says Marc Logan, superintendent of Corica Park Golf Course, in Alameda, Calif., one of the best-conditioned munis in the country. “But it also requires a lot more chemical inputs. It’s more susceptible disease. It requires more cultivation, more water. There are reasons I’m not a big fan of it. It simply costs more, on both an economic and an environmental front.”

Lifestyle

Why is there no poa at TPC Harding Park?

Poa is prevalent around the West, all the more so the closer to the coast you get. Eventually, it takes over a golf course, unless a superintendent stands in its way. Many course caretakers try combating poa with herbicides and other applications. Others live with it, or tend lovingly to it. One of Ken Nice’s mentors once told him that more superintendents lose their jobs trying to kill poa than they do by simply trying to manage it. Once poa is in, it’s hard to get out.

At TPC Harding Park, site of the PGA Championship last week, the greens were torn up in 2013 and replanted entirely with bentgrass. In the years since, poa hasn’t managed much of an incursion. “Definitely not much poa in those greens, which is a credit to the greenskeeper,” the Tour pro-turned-Golf Channel commentator Arron Oberholser tweeted during Thursday’s opening round. “Can’t remember the last California course that close to the coast that kept the poa out.” He was praising Harding, and poo-pooing poa. Pity golf’s most polarizing grass. It can’t seem to catch a break.

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In fact, the rough alone was a storyline of the week. We watched as players missed fairways and prayed for safe lies, as Rory McIlroy asked for his ball to be buried even further, and as Collin Morikawa’s ability to not play out of the thick stuff (he missed just two fairways during his final round) vaulted him to a closing 64 and his first-ever major championship victory.

For all the well-deserved attention the rough received as it lashed back against golf’s best players, it’s easy to forget that Harding Park returned to public play immediately after Sunday’s final round.

News

And why is that important? Well, because from Sunday to Monday, the rough didn’t change much, but the golfers did. Finally, a select few could answer every golfer’s biggest question: how penal would that second cut be for the Average Joe?

On Monday, the PGA of America provided that answer to the masses, with a hilarious video of one average golfer trying his damndest to conquer the thick stuff.

“This is what a 17-handicap looks like out of the Harding Park rough,” the cameraman says, shortly before our poor, misguided golfer takes a wild hack at his ball.

The swing sent the ball skittering out toward the fairway no more than 50 yards past its original starting point, as our cameraman laughs maniacally. Check the video out for yourself below.

Hey, we’re not saying we could’ve done any better. In fact, we’re pretty glad our sweatshirt-clad friend is there to handle the carnage from PGA Championship Monday on his own while we can watch from the comfort of our decidedly less intimidating homes.

But still, it’s always good to land a reminder that golf’s best players aren’t just better than us, they’re MUCH better than us.

Now if you’ll forgive us, we think we’ll go back to working on our driving accuracy so we don’t land anywhere near rough like THAT anytime soon.

NEWSLETTER

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The post Why this PGA Championship, on a public course, was a model for what it could become appeared first on Golf.

All these “rules” that we cling to so stubbornly — and they’re not true. If anything good has come out of this pandemic it has shown us to look at things in a new way.

You have to be a bomber to win a major these days.

Collin Morikawa proved on Sunday that that’s not true.

You need years of training, and some considerable distance from your playing prime, to be an effective golf color analyst.

Phil Mickelson showed on Saturday that that’s not true.

You can’t have a major golf event in the middle of an international pandemic.

The four days of golf at Harding Park proved that that is not true.

This is not the time to accept the status quo, old ways, business-as-usual.

We’ll limit the discussion here to golf. 

The Masters is the Masters. The U.S. Open is the U.S. Open, and British is the British. But what is the PGA Championship?

It’s past, grand though it has been, does not have to be its future.

This outstanding 2020 PGA Championship at Harding Park, despite the many impositions wrought by the pandemic, was an eye-opener.

The PGA Championship could be the one major title played only on public courses.

On the West Coast.

In early August.

Talk about your West Coast Cool.

This is just to get you in the mood:

Torrey Pines in San Diego. A revived Rancho Park in Los Angeles. One of the Bandon Dunes courses, on the southern coast of Oregon. An improved Chambers Bay, near Seattle. A Washington State course built by the PGA of America. Pebble Beach. Harding Park.

Courses with a summer wind. (Wasn’t it great to see the flags on the flagsticks waving?) Courses close enough to the ocean that they almost never get uncomfortably hot. (Wasn’t it great seeing the players in sweaters at Harding Park?) Courses where you can grow some rough. (Wasn’t it great to see the players praying every time they hit a wayward shot?) Courses that celebrate scruffiness as a traditional golfing value. (Wasn’t it great to see the players flummoxed by those thin Harding Park traps?) Courses that any of us can play.

As for early August: East Coasters and Midwesterners can play a morning round, mow the lawn, start the grill and watch the PGA while eating supper!

The PGA Championship can have an identity that is completely its own.

Yes, there are obstacles.

The PGA Championship is slated to be a May event for the foreseeable future, smackdab between the Masters and the U.S. Open. Last year, at Bethpage Black, was its first time in that slot. But then came pandemic.

Can you eat at home night after night after night?

You can.

Can you read a book at home instead of going to the mall?

You can.

Can you have a major without fans?

You can.

It’s not nearly the same thing, but you can.

Can you rejigger the professional golf schedule in late-night Zoom meetings, introduce Covid-19 testing, teach the hundreds of players and caddies new ways to eat and travel and acknowledge one another?

You can.

We are an adaptable species.

The PGA Championship’s past grounds it in greatness. Some names on the trophy: Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen; Hogan and Nicklaus; Woods and Koepka. Collin Morikawa. The championship’s future can be equally great, but take the event in a new direction.

Morikawa, standing at the winner’s press conference, the Wanamaker Trophy attached almost to his hip, was asked if he could imagine a steady stream of PGA Championships on West Coast public courses.

“Yeah, of course,” the winner, a Los Angeles native, said.

He talked briefly about his affection for public golf.

Rancho Park, for years, was the home of the L.A. Open. Tiger has the junior course record there. A 64, at age 13. For Rancho Park to be suitable for a PGA Championship, it would need a major renovation. But that was once true of Harding Park, too.

Morikawa was asked if he could imagine that kind of revival happening at Rancho, where he’s been, but not for a long while.

“No,” he said good-naturedly.

Well, the West Coast is 1,300 miles long, with Torrey Pines down the road and Pebble Beach up it. The ’77 PGA at Pebble, won by Lanny Wadkins, was one of the best ever. Morikawa’s West Coast PGA win is right alongside it.

Michael Bamberger may be reached at Michael_Bamberger@Golf.com

This is also part of our Muni Monday series, spotlighting stories from the world of city- and county-owned golf courses around the world. Got a muni story that needs telling? Send tips to Dylan Dethier or to munimondays@gmail.com and follow Muni Mondays on Instagram.

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The post Here’s what Steph Curry asked Collin Morikawa after he won the PGA Championship appeared first on Golf.

The second was from deep.  

“I’m free for the next three months if you need a caddie or replacement,” said Curry, whose Warriors are off until the next NBA season. “No, J.J. (Jakovac) is a great guy, but if you need me, I’m available.”

“Perfect,” Morikawa said. “I can’t wait. I want to see your game.”

Curry is both a golf fan and a Harding Park fan. 

He started playing when he was 9, he told GOLF.com last year, his handicap has dipped as low as +1.5, and he’s competed on the Korn Ferry Tour and the celebrity tournament circuit. He’s played Harding, too. Recently, he’s been in talks with the PGA Tour to host an annual event at the course, which is just across the bay from where the Warriors play. 

On Sunday, Curry was seen across Harding. At various times, he watched with teammate Damion Lee and Sean Foley, the coach of one of the tournament’s contenders, Cam Champ. On the 7th hole, he videotaped Morikawa putting. 

When the tournament was over, Curry walked over to Morikawa’s press conference. 

He even introduced himself.  

“Yes, Stephen Curry with Underrated Media — working title, just started about an hour ago,” Curry said.

The first question was golf related. 

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“Question for you,” Curry started. “Coming down the stretch in the back nine of a major, everybody knows that that’s the moment that you go take it. Are you a leaderboard watcher? Did you know where you were? What’s your mindset in that moment the last two and a half hours of your round?”

Morikawa needed to see Curry’s credentials. 

“Steph, you mind taking off your hat? I think everyone wants to see you,” Morikawa said. “Yeah, there you go. That’s amazing man. No, it’s fun to see you. I saw you out there on 9, and my caddie is a huge Warriors fan, I think you heard him — I’m not. I’m an L.A. boy at heart.”

Morikawa then answered Underrated Media’s questions. 

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The post Collin Morikawa’s joyous PGA Championship win was the perfect antidote for our times appeared first on Golf.

The post Collin Morikawa’s joyous PGA Championship win was the perfect antidote for our times appeared first on Golf.

Then a star was born. Collin Morikawa, the first 23-year-old mature enough for the senior tour, fanned his approach shot into the 14th green, coming up 15 yards short with a 9-iron in his hand. It was a stunning miscue for the young Iron Byron…and then Morikawa holed the pitch for a birdie to pull one shot ahead of the pack. A few poignant cheers rang out for the erstwhile Cal Bear.

(Editor’s note: you can hear Alan break down the PGA Championship’s conclusion on the podcast below, or on Apple Podcasts here

On the 294-yard par-4 16th, Morikawa decided to go for it for the first time all week. Fortune favors the bold — he smoked a drive that is already an instant classic, a butter-cut that rolled to within seven feet. “The shot on 16 looked like it was out of a video game,” said playing partner Cameron Champ. Morikawa drilled the eagle putt, a denouement that was stunning in its swiftness.

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It was the most unwieldy major championship Sunday since the 2011 Masters, and the resounding way Morikawa closed the deal evoked Charl Schwartzel’s finishing kick nine years ago. How does one separate themselves from so many world-class players? “You had to be perfect,” Day said. Only Morikawa was; his bogeyless 64 tied the lowest final-round score ever by a PGA Championship winner, and his closing 36-hole total of 129 was the best weekend for a major winner ever.

Morikawa doesn’t have the flashy game of some of the players who were chasing him, nor does this soft-spoken, self-contained Southern California native chew up much scenery on social media or in the press room. What he has is an almost perfect swing and the golfing intellect of another player who came of age at a Bay Area Pac-12 school, Tiger Woods.

This was Morikawa’s 29th start on Tour; in Woods’s 29th, he won the 1997 Masters. No one expects Morikawa to reshape the game the way Tiger did, but he is clearly going to be a week-in-and-week-out force as long as he stays healthy and motivated. “When you start comparing him to somebody like Tiger Woods, you just know how special you have to be to even be in that conversation with Tiger,” Tony Finau said. “[Morikawa] is a heck of a player. He doesn’t have a weakness in his game. He doesn’t have a weakness mentally. So when you’re dealing with that type of talent, he’s going to be somebody to beat in major championships for a lot of these things.”

Going back to a glittery amateur career, Morikawa has long been a can’t-miss kid. He turned pro after winning the 2019 Pac-12 championship, part of the same heralded class as Matt Wolff and Viktor Hovland, both of whom received more attention, the former because of his wildly idiosyncratic swing, the latter due to an exuberant personality. But it turns out that Morikawa’s unflappable demeanor and fairways/greens game is tailor made for the grind of Tour life and tough setups like Harding Park. “I love his consistency,” Wolff says. “He’s missed just one cut [since turning pro]? It’s pretty unbelievable.”

In the end, it was Morikawa’s refusal to make a mistake that allowed him to prevail. Paul Casey, 43, put up the best fight, but he duffed his approach shot on 13 to make bogey just as Morikawa was spurting away. Casey now has the most starts in a major without a victory among active players (63).

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Plenty of others were left to ponder the one that got away. After two early birdies to take the solo lead, Dustin Johnson spent the next nine holes playing prevent defense, making pars, not putts. (He had led the field in strokes gained: putting across the first three rounds.) Then on the 14th hole Johnson visited the rough and a greenside bunker en route to a deflating bogey. Johnson is now oh-fer-four converting 54-hole leads in the majors.

Bryson DeChambeau bashed his way to four birdies in the first seven holes to snag a share of the lead but immediately withered, bogeying 8 and 9 and then making a buzzkill par on the par-5 10th after a 359-yard drive. Day birdied four of the first 14 holes to roar into contention but on his way to the clubhouse couldn’t summon one more defining swing or putt.

Wolff, playing in the first major championship of his promising young career, was electric in the middle of the round, playing holes 7-10 in five under, and then birdieing two of the last three holes. Yet he is going to be thinking for a long time about the three-footer for par he missed on the 14th hole. Champ made two bogies and a double over the final 10 holes.

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Finau had only one blemish on his scorecard but it came at the worst possible time, as he took three to get down from the fringe on the 12th hole.

So it was left to Morikawa to make all the history, including becoming the first man of Japanese and Chinese descent to win a major. (If the Olympics get played next year in Tokyo, and he is there representing the U.S., Morikawa has a chance to become a cross-cultural hero throughout all of Asia.) He is the third-youngest winner since the PGA Championship went to stroke play in 1958, behind fellas named Nicklaus and McIlroy. He becomes the first winner in the ShotLink era to lead a tournament in driving accuracy, approach shot proximity and strokes gained putting (per stats whiz Justin Ray).

“I’m on cloud nine right now,” Morikawa said Sunday evening. “It’s hard to think about what this championship means, and obviously it’s a major, and this is what guys go for, especially at the end of their career, and we’re just starting. So I think this is just a lot of confidence, a lot of momentum, and it just gives me a little taste of what’s to come. I got a taste of this now.”

At this PGA unlike any other, Morikawa concluded his round in front of maybe 200 on-lookers, many of them off-duty marshals and volunteers who tried their best to give the new champ the ovation he deserved. Morikawa smiled sheepishly and, with typical good manners, said thank you to those who called out in tribute.

And yet, despite appearances, Morikawa is not perfect. As he walked to the scoring area to make his victory official, girlfriend Katherine Zhu, who played golf at Pepperdine, went in for a hug. Morikawa gave her the Heisman, no doubt concerned about appearances in a world of social distancing. Then Morikawa reconsidered and pulled her in for a squeeze. “That was awkward,” said Zhu with a laugh. Of course it was. In 2020, nothing goes according to plan. But Morikawa’s rock-star performance? That’s the new normal.

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The post Collin Morikawa fumbles Wanamaker Trophy, has priceless reaction appeared first on Golf.

The post Collin Morikawa fumbles Wanamaker Trophy, has priceless reaction appeared first on Golf.

The 23-year-old phenom had just clinched his first major championship, besting a leaderboard filled to the brim with a half-dozen of golf’s biggest names. He had deconstructed the greens at Harding Park, which had eluded many of the 163 players currently ranked above him in Strokes Gained: Putting all week. And so, as he reached for the trophy having claimed a two-stroke victory at 13 under par, it was only fitting that he’d do the same.

In one motion, Morikawa hoisted the trophy over his shoulders. And in one motion, the giant, silver lid flipped off the trophy and fell loudly onto the ground.

Morikawa gave a mortified grimace, Jim Nantz laughed audibly on the broadcast, social media rejoiced.

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If there’s one thing Morikawa can hang his hat on, it’s that he’s not the only person to have a trophy celebration blunder with the Wanamaker. As our Sean Zak keenly pointed out, Rory McIlroy also stood in horror as the trophy’s lid popped off following his 2014 PGA win in Valhalla.

After the round (and ceremony) were over, Morikawa insisted that first-time jitters weren’t to blame for his trophy blunder.

“Yeah, I feel very comfortable in this spot,” he said. “When I woke up today, I was like, this is meant to be. This is where I feel very comfortable. This is where I want to be, and I’m not scared [of] it.”

Indeed, it was merely a budding superstar doing what he does best: surgically, tactically dismantling everything in his path, opponents (and trophies) be damned.

“I love golf,” Morikawa said. “I love every part of it. I love being in this position and I love just being able to come out here and play with a bunch of guys that love the sport, too, and that’s why I think I love being in this position.”

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The post Collin Morikawa fumbles Wanamaker Trophy, has priceless reaction appeared first on Golf.