In what was a tight race to the finish for the PGA Championship with several players tied for or only a few strokes behind the lead, it was unclear who was going to pull ahead of the pack until 23-year-old Collin Morikawa stepped up to the 16th tee, a par four, and hit the drive of his life,

This shot set him up for a two-shot eagle and he followed it up with a birdie on 17, which put him ahead of the pack securing Morikawa’s first major championship. The only imperfect part about this moment was that there were no fans to give the obligatory roar. “This is one time I really wish there were crowds,” Morikawa said. “I was just praying for a straight bounce … and then after it bounced, it kind of got behind a tree that we couldn’t see around the corner. So once it bounced, I was like, ‘OK, I will take it anywhere.’

The only imperfect part of Morikawa’s afternoon was his celebration of all things which can generously be described as awkward.

In a world that will soon be post-Tiger, it seems that many people are looking for his successor much in the way everybody clung to Kobe after Jordan retired. I am already seeing some next-Tiger buzz for Morikawa, which is ludicrous and tends to crush the person that fans lay that burden on – Rory Mcilroy hasn’t won a major since 2014 and Jordan Spieth disappeared from the top of the leaderboards as quickly as he appeared. There will never be another Tiger, but Morikawa has a chance to pave his own legacy and this was a great start.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the PGA Tour was forced to reshuffle its season around, pushing a lot of its tournaments to the fall. The PGA Championship was supposed to be held from May 14-17, but has since been pushed back to August 3-9.

Tickets for this year’s PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco are available for purchase.

GET YOUR 2020 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP TICKETS HERE!

Here is the breakdown for tickets as of the time of this writing:

PGA Championship Weekly Grounds Pass Tickets (August 3-9, Rescheduled from May 11-17)
from $495 Only 1 ticket left at lowest price

Monday, August 3 PGA Championship Monday Practice Round Tickets
from $13, 54 tickets left

Tuesday, August 4: PGA Championship Tuesday Practice Round Tickets
from $19, 50 tickets left

Wednesday, August 5: PGA Championship Wednesday Practice Round Tickets
from $18, 43 tickets left

Thursday, August 6: PGA Championship Thursday Championship Round Tickets
from $89, 52 tickets left

Friday, August 7: PGA Championship Friday Championship Round Tickets
from $165, 50 tickets left

Saturday, August 8 PGA Championship Saturday Championship Round Tickets
from $149, 73 tickets left

Sunday, August 9: PGA Championship Sunday Championship Round Tickets
from $150, 61 tickets left

This year’s PGA Championship should be interesting, as Brooks Koepka is seeking his third straight PGA Championship and the fifth major of his career, Jordan Speith could complete the career grand slam with a win, Tiger Woods could win his 16th career major and after how he played in The Match: Champions for Charity, fans should be excited for what is to come, and not to mention that the field projects to be extremely deep with Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffle and Patrick Cantlay to name a few players, all of whom are some of the top players in the world. Being that the PGA Championship will be the first major of the adjusted 2020 season, this will be highly anticipated and you will want to be there for it.

GET YOUR 2020 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP TICKETS HERE!

The 148th British Open started early on Thursday morning in Portrush, Northern Ireland. Rory McIlory, native of Northern Ireland, didn’t start off the way he wanted to, hitting a quadruple-bogey on his first tee-off.

McIlory’s opening drive was struck out of bounds and hit a bystander, cracking the screen of her phone while it was in her pocket.

After hitting the ball out of bounds on his tee-off and acquiring an extra one-stroke, the Irishman re-hit his tee shot into the rough, this time on the left side. With three shots already tallied up, he took his fourth shot and ended up in the rough outside the green. He luckily recovered well, or it would have ended worse for him. He two-putted and finished hole one by computing eight strokes.

SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2019 – IN MEMORIAM SLIDESHOW 

“I’m just treating this like any other Open Championship,” McIlroy said, according to ESPN. “I’ve played well here for the last few years. I’ve played well on this golf course. So I’ve just got to go out and hit the shots and stay in the present. If I just keep putting one foot in front of the other, hopefully by Sunday night that will be good enough.”

McIlroy entered the Open as 8-1 favorites in terms of odds, and immediately moved to 33-1 after his first hole, according to the York Daily. 

Around the other participants in the tournament, Tiger Woods enters the tournament with three Open titles (2000, 2005, 2006), but struggled in the most recent Pebble Beach Tournament in the damp weather. The British Open tends to be relentless in terms of weather, and CBS Sports predicts Woods will struggle to endure this one.

Brooks Koepka has finished in the top-two in six of the last nine Open tournaments he has played in. He is on a hot streak right now in major tournaments. He placed second in the Masters at Augusta, won the PGA Championship and placed second in the U.S. Open at Pebble Peach. According to USA Today, he has a miraculous combined score of 43-under-par in the last six major tournaments. He places as the favorite after McIlory’s tough start in his home country.

John Daly has officially announced his withdrawal from the upcoming British Open after he was denied being able to use a golf cart to travel between holes. According to Daly, he has a cited medical condition, which the R&A declined.

“While I trust the R&A’s decision was made with good intentions, I could not disagree more with their conclusions,” Daly tweeted after finding out about his denial of the cart request. “Just visited my good friend Dr. Jim Bradley yesterday in Pittsburgh. He is the orthopedic surgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He reconfirmed bi-compartmental degenerative arthritis grade 3-4 of my right knee … Fingers crossed I can make it (through) the pain.”

According to ESPN, the R&A, who oversees the British Open, denied his use of a golf cart earlier on Tuesday. Saying that walking to the player’s ball was “an integral part of the Championship.” There has been a repetitive and longstanding policy against the use of golf carts for players on the Royal Portrush Golf Club field. Daly referred to the Americans with Disabilities Act, saying that he could receive a golf cart for the PGA Championships in May when he played at the Bethpage Black. His knee condition limits his ability to walk.

SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2019 – IN MEMORIAM SLIDESHOW 

Daly won the British Open back in 1995, and received an invite to attend this year’s open. According to CBS Sports, Daly has mentioned repetitively his battling with osteoarthritis that could eventually lead to a surgery to replace his knee. He tweeted earlier this week that he was bitten by a spider in England that resulted in a sepsis diagnosis and an infection was spreading.

Along with saying the carts aren’t allowed on the Royal Portrush, the Open’s statement reads, “we must also ensure that, as far as possible, the challenge is the same for all players in the field.”

The 100th annual PGA Championship will start on Thursday, and here is what you need to know for the event that will end golf’s major tournament season.

PGA Championship 2018 Preview

The tournament will be held at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri. Justin Thomas is the reigning champion, and the 25-year-old has won several other big competitions this year, including the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio on Sunday. This marked Thomas’s third PGA Tour title of the season.  Thomas was named PGA Tour Player of the Year in 2017.

SLIDESHOW: 30 Best Sports Instagrams! 

Meanwhile TIger Woods — who is set to face off against Phil Mickelson in a much-anticipated, one-on-one, winner-take-all match Thanksgiving weekend — is seeking a fifth PGA championship trophy and a 15th major title. A victory at Bellerive would also mark the 42-year-old’s 80th PGA Tour win in the last month.

Woods, who recently made a comeback following a DUI arrest and multiple injuries, last won a Grand Slam at the 2008 U.S. Open. He and Thomas are both favorites to win the PGA Championship, as are Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson. 

The first two rounds of the tournament (Thursday and Friday) will air on TNT, and live coverage will begin at 2pm EST. (2-8pm).

30 SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2018 – TRIBUTE SLIDESHOW

Here are the favorites to win the tournament, according to Oddsshark.com:

Jordan Spieth (+1000)

Rory McIlroy (+1000)

Dustin Johnson (+1200)

Jason Day (+1200)

Hideki Matsuyama (+1600)

Rickie Fowler (+1800)

Justin Rose (+2200)

Justin Thomas (+2800)

Justin Thomas was named PGA Tour Player of the Year for the 2016-2017 season on Wednesday after claiming five trophies, a major championship and the FedEx Cup.

Justin Thomas Award News

The 24-year-old Kentucky native beat top golfers like Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama to earn the honors. Thomas also won the Arnold Palmer Award as the top money winner.

“It’s a huge honor. Any time you can win an award with someone like Jack Nicklaus’s name on the award, it definitely means a lot, and it’s something that I’ll cherish for a while for sure,” said Thomas. “It’s kind of crazy, especially for someone with the expectations I’ve always had for myself. It never really entered my mind winning it.”

“Any time you can win an award with someone like Jack Nicklaus‘ name on the award, it definitely means a lot,” added Thomas.

PGA Tour members vote for the recipient of the award.

This past season, Thomas captured the PGA Championship, the Dell Technologies Championship during the FedEx Cup playoffs and then the FedEx Cup title at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Thomas also played in his first Presidents Cup last week, where the U.S. beat the International team 19-11.

By shooting a nine-under-par 63 at the U.S. Open in Erin Hills, Thomas set the championship record for scoring in relation to par. He finished the season ranked fourth in the World behind Johnson, Spieth and Matsuyama.

Thomas — an Alabama alum — won the CIMB Classic in Malaysia last fall — a title he will defend next week.

“I’ll just continue to do what I have,” he also said. “I don’t know who I heard it from back in college or whenever it was, but you just have to break it up. You have to have two to four goals that are very achievable, two to four goals that are in grasp but will be tough, and two to four goals that are maybe a little bit out of the realm and are going to be very difficult to do, but are somewhat achievable if you have a great year like I did this year.”

Thomas also reportedly won a $10 million bonus after claiming the Dell Technologies trophy.

CHARLOTTE, NC – AUGUST 12: Justin Thomas of the United States plays his shot from the 16th tee during the third round of the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club on August 12, 2017 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Justin Thomas won the 99th PGA Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday to secure his first major title, and several of his shots stood out.

Justin Thomas PGA Championship highlights

One putt that particularly drove the crowd at Quail Hollow wild was a chip-in on the par-5 tenth hole. After sinking a 36-footer for birdie on hole No. 9, Thomas added another birdie from eight feet on the tenth when the ball hung on the edge of the cup for about 10 seconds before tumbling into the hole.

The Louisville, Kentucky native — who is now the World No. 6 golfer — also hit a tee shot on the tenth that hooked way left into the trees, then miraculously rebounded in the fairway. That put Thomas in a five-way tie for the lead with Francesco Molinari, Hideki Matsuyama, Kevin Kisner and Chris Stroud.

Thomas, 24, also wowed on the par-3 13th, where a chip-in from 40 feet for a birdie gave him a two-shot lead. He ultimately finished with a 72-hole total of eight-under 276, two strokes ahead of the runners-up, Molinari and Patrick Reed, who both ended with 67s, and Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 British Open champion, who closed a 70.

“I just stayed patient and knew scores were not going to be crazy low,” Thomas said. “And that chip-in on 13 was huge.”

Thomas had made the cut for the U.S. Open earlier this year after carding a third-round 63 but fell behind eventual winner Brooks Koepka after three-putting three times on the final front nine. Thomas missed out on qualifying for the British Open, however, after posting a second-round 80.

“I just had an unbelievable calmness throughout the week, throughout the day,” added Thomas, who won $1.89 million. “I truly felt like I was going to win. I remember my girlfriend was supposed to fly out at about 7 and I was like, ‘You need to change your flight to later, because I don’t know, I just feel like I don’t want you to miss this. I feel like I’m going to get it done.’ I just was very confident. …

“I just didn’t get flustered. I felt like I kind of kept everything in front of me.”

Matsuyma, 28, was attempting to become the first Japanese player to win a men’s major but finished fifth after tying for second early in Sunday’s final round.

Jordan Spieth was seeking to continue his winning streak this year after claiming the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February and the Travelers Championship and British Open earlier this summer. However, the 24-year-old winner of the 2015 Masters and U.S. Open fell ten strokes short in his bid to become the youngest player to win all four majors (Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, PGA Championship). With rounds of 72-73-71-70, Spieth —the World No. 2 — finished 3 over.

Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, announced he could be out for the rest of the year after suffering a rib injury. The 28-year-old Northern Irishman — the World No. 4 — finished Sunday’s Championship with a round of 68 that left him tied for 22nd overall.

“You might not see me until next year,” McIlroy said after finishing one over par for the event. “You might see me in a couple of weeks’ time. It really depends.”

McIlroy sustained the injury earlier this year and said it had flared up again, which is why he had decided to take an indefinite break from the Tour.

“Right now, I can feel my left rhomboid going into spasm,” he said. “Inside of my left arm goes numb.”

The Belfast native has not won since the Tour Championship a year ago and has not had a major victory since 2014, when he captured his second P.G.A. Championship in Louisville.

CHARLOTTE, NC – AUGUST 12: Justin Thomas of the United States plays his shot from the 16th tee during the third round of the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club on August 12, 2017 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

As the opening round of the 98th PGA Championship has been underway in Baltusrol, four Americans are in the top ten places.

American Jimmy Walker leads the way at 5-under 65. He birdied five of his first ten holes Not bad for someone who missed the cut in two of the last four PGA events. Walker is sitting ahead of fellow Americans Harris English and James Hahn by two strokes tied at fifth and Rickie Fowler by three tied for ninth.

Fowler started the day on the tenth hole and had four birdies and a bogey on the front nine. After the first nine holes Fowler was tied with Walker and American Brian Stuard. Stuard finished the day tied for 36th spot.

Australian golfer Scott Hend and American golfer Vaughn Taylor had the first birdie runs of the Championships. Both golfers birdied holes 13 – 15 all par 4s.

American Brooks Koepka finished his first round with 68, tied for ninth. He had to pull out of Bridgestone at the beginning of June due to a torn ligament in his right ankle. For the Championships he’s got tape and a brace to keep it secure as this will be his last major of the year. He had four birdies throughout the day and made an eagle on the 18th hole.

Sergio Garcia, Jordan Spieth and Bubba Watson combined had a total of two birdies on the first seven holes. A bit of a lackluster start for the trio. The birdies belonged to Garcia and Watson who both made them on the same, and second, hole to put Garcia and 1 under and Watson at 1 over. Garcia and Watson finish the day 1 over tied at 55th and Spieth finished the first day even tied at 36th.

Rory McIlroy started on the back nine and finished the day 4 over 70. Dustin Johnson finished 7 over 70, no doubt we will see better performances from these two in the coming days after Johnson won the U.S. Open in June.

German Martin Kaymer, who won his first major at the PGA Championship in 2010, gave Walker a run for first place on opening day. He started on the back nine and had four birdies over five holes to rest at 4 under. The second half of the course he bogeyed No. 2 leaving him and 3 under and he birdied the 17th and 18th hole.