Mar 9, 2021 PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Rory McIlroy is the defending champion of a tournament that wasn’t played last year. That’s strange enough, but McIlroy actually shot a 72 on the first day of the Players Championship that was later canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic a year ago this week. “I think

7:09 AM ET PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — One of the most-liked and popular players on the PGA Tour is struggling. He has sniped at his long-time caddie, whom he has known since childhood. He has admitted it has been hard not taking his troubles on the course home to his wife. Rickie Fowler is

7:20 AM ET PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — One year ago, on Thursday afternoon at the Players Championship, Rory McIlroy wasn’t worried about a virus. He was annoyed. The defending champion at the PGA Tour’s signature event, he had just opened with even-par 72, sat 9 shots behind leader Hideki Matsuyama and was staring at

8:32 PM ET Phil Mickelson has fallen out of the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time since 1993, when he won the International tournament for his second PGA Tour victory. He stayed in the top 100 for a record 1,425 weeks. Mickelson, 50, who did not play this week’s

7:08 PM ET Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. — The long ball helped Bryson DeChambeau outlast Lee Westwood on Sunday to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational, only the key shots were as much with his putter as his driver. DeChambeau holed a 40-foot birdie putt on the front nine and a 50-foot par putt early on

Mar 7, 2021 Brooks Koepka, who was making a strong return in 2021 after several frustrating injuries, has withdrawn from this week’s Players Championship because of a right knee strain. It is not the same knee that plagued him at the end of 2019 and into 2020. Koepka had a stem cell procedure on his

1:57 PM ET ORLANDO, Fla. — Steve Stricker wore red and black in honor of Tiger Woods on Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and said he hopes to have his longtime friend at the Ryder Cup this fall “in one way, shape or form.” But the U.S. Ryder Cup captain would not go so

7:00 PM ET ORLANDO, Fla. — Bryson DeChambeau has relished the opportunity to try to drive the green at the Bay Hill Club’s par-5 sixth hole and celebrated as if he had done so Saturday during the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. DeChambeau’s drive, which cut across a huge lake, ended up 50

7:41 PM ET ESPN News Services ORLANDO, Fla. — Lee Westwood made a pair of 30-foot putts over the final three holes Saturday, one for eagle and the other a closing birdie, posting his lowest score ever at Bay Hill with a 7-under 65 that gave him a one-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau and Corey

7:11 PM ET Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. — Corey Conners spent more time grinding out pars than chasing birdies, and that proved to be the right recipe Friday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational as Bay Hill began to bake under a warm sun. Conners surged into the lead with a 25-foot eagle putt on the