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3:27 PM ET Associated Press NAPLES, Fla. — Jin Young Ko missed most of the LPGA Tour season and still won the yearlong money title. That’s what a $1.1 million check does. Ko, the No. 1 player in the world, put an emphatic capper on her truncated year Sunday by shooting a final-round 6-under 66

It has not been a year synonymous with “feel good,” and as much as we love this game, 2020 was a reminder that golf is just that—a game. That doesn’t mean golf, and how we feel about it, should be devalued in priority, for that overlooks the truth that in these chaotic and divided times:

The PGA of America’s chief operating officer, Darrell Crall, will be leaving the organization following his arrest last month for an alleged assault on his girlfriend. According to an announcement from the PGA of America on Tuesday, the decision was mutual. “We will be providing a further update on operations and staffing in the near

4:09 PM ET ESPN News Services ORLANDO, Fla. — Justin Thomas and Tiger Woods traded text messages on the eve of the final round at the PNC Championship, their teams tied for the lead and in contention. Neither mentioned winning. This was about Woods getting to play alongside 11-year-old son Charlie, watching him twirl the

Imagine trying to explain 2020 to your former self from, say, 2014. “Things got really weird,” you’d say, and your former self would have to ask, “How?” And when you began to explain the inexplicable, your former self would think this was some kind of prank, get angry and start an argument. And there you

5:02 PM ET ORLANDO, Fla. — Tiger Woods will be 45 years old the next time we see him, and even though age is just a number, it is not his friend at this point. The ongoing back problems, the fall down the World Rankings, the inevitable struggles are there regardless what the calendar says.

For the most part, no one of note placed any unfair expectations on Charlie Woods, even after the 11-year-old put on a show at the PNC Championship. Of course, there was always going to be a few folks who took it too far on social media, some even claiming Charlie will be winning majors in

To say it’s hard to become a rookie on the LPGA Tour for the 2021 season is an understatement. But A Lim Kim, the surprise U.S. Women’s Open winner earlier this month, has done it. A week after her victory at Champions Golf Club in Houston, the 25-year-old from South Korea accepted LPGA Tour membership

6:43 AM ET Associated Press VIRGINIA WATER, England — Lee Westwood was voted as the European Tour’s golfer of the year for 2020 on Monday, winning the award for the fourth time in his career after ending the season as the Race to Dubai champion at the age of 47. Westwood started the 27th year

It’s been quite a 2020 for Lee Westwood. The year started with his 25th European Tour victory in Abu Dhabi and is ending with another first-place finish. For the fourth time in his distinguished professional career, the 47-year-old Englishman has been named the European Tour’s Golfer of the Year. Westwood built on his early success

7:07 PM ET ORLANDO, Fla. — He walked in the birdie putt and looked like he had been doing so forever, the couple of dozen fans surrounding the ninth green at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club chuckling at what they were witnessing. Charlie Woods looked like a mini pro golfer out there, all the mannerisms on

Jin Young Ko took nearly a year away from the LPGA Tour and returned with a prohibitive goal to accomplish, even for the No. 1 player in the world. With just three events left to play in the regular season, Ko set out to score enough points to qualify for the LPGA Tour’s season finale,

There were a few wayward shots later in Sei Young Kim’s third round at the CME Group Tour Championship on Saturday that up foreshadowed what was to come in her final round. Kim scrambled her way out of trouble in round three and entered Sunday’s final round with a one-shot lead over Jin Young Ko.

4:08 PM ET ORLANDO, Fla. — Wearing the same customary Sunday red as his dad, Charlie Woods exhibited many of the same characteristics of his accomplished father, including the walk, the talk and the swing. But if he’s really like Tiger Woods, Charlie will be wondering how to make up the five strokes they lost

There’s a reason why everyone on the LPGA Tour wants to play in the CME Group Tour Championship. Competing in the no-cut, limited-field wrap-up to the tour year is a symbol of a season well played, even if the season was interrupted by a pandemic. And what’s on the line on Sunday at Tiburón Golf

5:45 PM ET ORLANDO, Fla. — Tiger Woods has a notoriously bad back, but it was his son, Charlie, who might have been feeling the pain Saturday after carrying his dad for most of the first round of the PNC Championship. Charlie Woods, 11, made his debut in the tournament reserved for major champions and

Sei Young Kim entered the CME Group Tour Championship coming off a low. She’d just shot her worst LPGA Tour round of the year: a five-over 76 during the Monday final round of the U.S. Women’s Open, finishing T-20. But after she arrived in Naples, Fla., it was like it never happened. After rounds of

ORLANDO — Let’s get this out of the way first: Charlie Woods is 11 years old. He could wake up next Thursday and decide golf is for nerds. (And his father, for the record, would be perfectly cool with that.) It’s vital to keep that in mind in the days and months and years ahead.

1:05 PM ET There have been glimpses of 11-year-old Charlie Woods’ golf swing. Some social media footage leaked out into the world. Then this week, some range sessions next to his famous father, Tiger Woods, at the PNC Championship. With the cameras on, it took three holes for Charlie to post his first highlight-reel moment.

Martin Slumbers, R&A chief executive, has let it be known that all those golfers—106 in total—who qualified for the lone men’s major that was canceled in 2020, the Open Championship, are already in the field for the 2021 Open at Royal St. George’s. But on Friday, the R&A helped clear up who might be joining

6:00 PM ET Associated Press NAPLES, Fla. — LPGA Tour Commissioner Mike Whan no longer measures success by making it to the end of year disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. A schedule for 2021 he released Friday suggests the LPGA Tour came out stronger than ever. The LPGA Tour has added two tournaments and didn’t

The PGA Tour announced Thursday that Workday will become the new sponsor of the Memorial in 2021. In a virtual roundtable event, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said the Dublin, Ohio event at Muirfield Village has signed a 10-year deal with the financial and human capital management software vendor. Earlier this year Workday sponsored a

As the LPGA Tour plays its final event of 2020, Commissioner Mike Whan revealed on Friday the 2021 schedule and his plan for playing a full season as COVID-19 continues to spread. The LPGA made it through the difficult 2020 season by staging 18 events, and Whan has reason to be optimistic looking ahead to

3:32 PM ET ORLANDO, Fla. — Padraig Harrington is playing in the PNC Championship for the third time and loves the idea of bonding with his son, Patrick, and exposing him to the game he has excelled at as a pro. He also enjoys checking out the various golf swings of legends and amateurs alike.

There were golfers in 2020 who never thought they’d be golfers. Or they had been before life intervened—kids, jobs, herniated discs. They coached soccer, or took spin classes. They packed trains every morning and shuffled home every night. A game played in four-and-a-half hour increments wasn’t much of an option—until, abruptly, it was. “I can’t

6:55 PM ET Associated Press NAPLES, Fla. — With brother Curtis back at her side at Tiburon Golf Club, Lexi Thompson shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday to take the first-round lead in the LPGA Tour’s CME Group Tour Championship. Curtis Thompson, a Korn Ferry Tour player, also caddied for his sister in 2018 when

The difference between us mere mortal golfers and tour pros isn’t that they don’t hit bad shots and we do. Pro golfers hit bad shots and end up in trouble, too. It’s what they do from those bad spots that reveal how amateur we really are. Take Anne van Dam’s on the 18th hole during

ORLANDO — For once, Tiger Woods wasn’t the main attraction on a driving range. That honor went to a sweet-swinging 11-year-old who shares his last name. All eyes at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, and on the golf interwebs, were fixed Thursday on Charlie Woods. He teed it up for a full 18 alongside his 15-time

12:31 PM ET ORLANDO, Fla. — PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan on Thursday said he does not envision requirements for players, officials or spectators to be vaccinated for the coronavirus as they look to slowly bring back more fans as tournaments continue into 2021. “I think vaccination is a choice, and I would apply the

The lineup of major championship venues in 2021, aside from the traditional stop in Augusta, Ga., is not what most would be inclined to describe as inspirational. It’s not that the scheduled host courses—operative word being scheduled—are devoid of redeeming qualities. You certainly can’t complain about their respective global coordinates adjacent to water. It’s just