Latest news with #ShaunMicheel
The Independent
23-06-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Tommy Fleetwood and the psychological torture of being golf's greatest nearly-man
By PGA Tour standards, Shaun Micheel was not a particularly good golfer. After turning professional in 1992, aged 23, the American battled just to stay on the tour for more than a decade, keeping his career afloat with wins at obscure events in Asia and on the development circuit. Micheel was barely known when he teed it up on the first hole at Oak Hill Country Club for the 2003 PGA Championship, playing in only his third major. To most observers he was just another name on the start list. That name is now forever etched in the 18th fairway, on a plaque which commemorates his trophy-winning shot on the 72nd hole, a seven-iron from 175 yards which finished two inches from the hole. 'I got to the green, marked my ball and knew I was going to win,' Micheel later said. 'I told my caddy that I couldn't believe I'd just won a Tour event. He replied: 'This isn't a Tour event, it's a major'.' Micheel never won again on the PGA Tour despite years of trying, retiring in 2012 with health issues. As a past winner he is still invited to play the PGA Championship each summer, but hasn't made the cut since 2011. In many ways Micheel's career is the antipode of Tommy Fleetwood 's. Micheel won once, a major championship no less; Fleetwood holds the unwanted record for the most top-10 finishes without winning a PGA Tour event, now up to 42 after his gut-wrenching collapse at the Travelers Championship on Sunday in the latest example of why golf hurts. Fleetwood took a three-shot lead into the final round and said on Saturday night that he hoped 'this was my time'. He led by two shots with three holes to play but made bogey at 16 and again on 18, missing a par putt from six feet which would have at least salvaged a play-off. US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley saw the door ajar and stepped through it with a nerveless birdie to steal the trophy. Fleetwood could barely watch. Golf has a uniquely cruel habit of tormenting the mind, and the irony is that for all their very different successes in the game, both Micheel and Fleetwood are haunted by what they haven't achieved. Micheel later admitted that the rest of his career was dogged by a desperation to prove he was worthy of his major-champion status, which had been widely characterised as a freak event, a lightning strike. 'I always wanted to validate my name on the trophy and my name amongst those hall-of-famers with another win,' he said. 'Each shot I hit was life and death. The trophy hung over my head and followed me everywhere.' Fleetwood was visibly shocked on Sunday and it will linger in the mind a little longer than some of his other top-10 finishes which never threatened to be anything more. 'I'm upset now, I'm angry,' he said afterwards. 'When it calms down I will look at the things I did well and look at the things I can learn from. I did plenty of things well enough this week to win, but I didn't do that and it hurts.' He is undoubtedly one of the best ball-strikers of his generation and the zero in his win column increasingly feels like an aberration. The other players on the list of most top-10 finishes without a trophy are mostly unheralded journeymen (American player Brett Quigley is next on the list with 34), few of whom can claim to have Fleetwood's craft with a mid-iron in his hand. The numbers underline his quality: 159 events played; 135 cuts made; 85 finishes in the top 25; 42 in the top 10; 27 in the top five; 11 in the top three; six times a runner-up. Among them there have been some agonising near misses, like the 2018 US Open when Fleetwood had an 8ft putt for a record round of 62 and a play-off, but it slid by the hole and Brooks Koepka won by a stroke. Or the 2023 Canadian Open, when Nick Taylor sunk a miracle 72ft putt for eagle on the fourth play-off hole, to the raucous delight of his home crowd. Yet rarely had Fleetwood earned such an indisputable chance as Sunday's final round in Connecticut, and it had to sting. Afterwards he gave an insight into his mindset, in which he tells himself he is already a serial winner on tour. 'I haven't really been in a position where I've been in contention to worry about when my win might come [recently], but today was one of those days,' he said. 'I led (through) 71 holes and it didn't happen. But in my mind I've won loads of PGA Tour events, I just haven't done it in reality and I'm sure that time will come if I keep working.' There has undoubtedly been some bad luck along the way – what can you do when a guy holes a play-off-winning putt from another time zone? – but Fleetwood could be accused of white line fever, of seeing the finish and bottling it. Can there be any other explanation when you finish in the top five 27 times and don't actually win? And yet there is a sackful of evidence to the contrary. Fleetwood has seven wins on the European Tour, notably holding off Rory McIlroy to win the Dubai Invitational last year. Two of those seven tournaments were won via play-offs and another four by one stroke, proving he has the stomach for a tense finale. This reporter was in Rome when Fleetwood struck 'the shot of my life', a pure three-wood to effectively win the Ryder Cup for Team Europe two years ago, with a ball that pierced the air before landing in the middle of the green to send already half-cut fans into giddy delirium. It came with the enormous pressure of delivering for his European teammates, and he delivered. The shot of Micheel's life brought him a major trophy and a litany of unforeseen consequences, as he embarked on a years-long 'quest for perfection' that manifested in mental health struggles. 'When you win a major as your first Tour victory, you're at a loss,' he said. 'Especially the way I finished, how could I upstage that? I had my walk-off moment.' It can be a devastating game. Fleetwood will be sore, replaying moments in his head and wishing he could change them. But he has the talent and the mentality to create another opportunity like this one. Crucially, he has the ability to find perspective, and to hold on to the belief that one day his time will come. 'I would have loved to have done it today, but the search goes on, I guess. When it happens, it will be very, very sweet.'
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Snakes & turtles, oh my! Animals making presence known at PGA Championship
Shaun Micheel watches his approach shot the on the first fairway during the 2024 PGA Championship golf tournament. Friday at the 2025 PGA Championship in Charlotte, NC, Micheel's encounter with a snake during his second round is being widely shared on social media. Shaun Micheel thought his ball was getting eaten — at best, just chomped up like a Tic Tac — which would have made for quite a ruling. One could imagine the scene: A rules official walking up, asking what's the matter, and Micheel having to explain that a snake slithered across the fairway and gobbled up his golf ball. Friday, at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, Micheel hit a 182-yard layup to the right side of the 10th fairway and, well, something got to Micheel's ball before he did — a long black snake, twisting through the grass. 'I don't know what it was? A king snake?' Micheel said. 'My ball was in the place he wanted to be. We had a guy come over and kind of shoo him away, but the snake was in no hurry.' Advertisement Micheel — who won the 2003 PGA Championship, earning a lifetime exemption into the tournament — was playing this week with his son, Dade, as his caddie. Dade was a few months from being born when his dad lifted the Wanamaker Trophy, but is now inside the ropes. He was walking just behind his dad on the 10th fairway when they saw the snake. Micheel waved his glove at the reptile and stepped back. Then a tournament employee walked over. 'He kicked it and then the thing turned around,' Dade said, still a little perplexed the employee was that comfortable. 'It was a decent-sized snake.' It came in a week when animals have been a part of the story at Quail Hollow. Especially for Micheel. Thursday, his group was halted for a little while on the 14th hole because a turtle had damaged a bunker and the grounds crew needed a minute to rake it back to perfection. Advertisement 'They're big,' Micheel said of the turtles. On the same hole, Ryan Gerard hit a chip that rolled over the green and was halted because of a turtle. Was it the same turtle? Maybe. If so, he's a star. 'It was a Mother Nature week,' Micheel said. What Micheel was quick to point out about his wildlife encounter was the good fortune that followed. When the snake was whisked away ('It kind of just went off into the rough,' Micheel said. 'It's probably out there somewhere.') he hit his 144-yard approach shot to inside 12 feet and sank the birdie putt. Then he made a birdie on No. 11 — his final two red numbers in a tournament where he finished 8-over and missed the cut. Advertisement 'There was a guy following me,' Micheel said, 'and he goes, 'Man, you need that snake on every hole.' And I said, 'Well, bring him along.'' The clip of his turtle encounter was a hit on social media. Outside the clubhouse after the round, Dade pulled out his phone, went to X and watched the video with his dad. 'That's hilarious,' Dade said. 'That is so funny.' 'I've got that.' Micheel added.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Watch: Patrick Reed holes out for albatross, only fourth in history of U.S. Open
Patrick Reed did something Thursday that only three others have ever done in the history of the U.S. Open. Playing his fourth hole during the opening round of the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, Reed hit a 3-wood from 286 yards on the par-5 second hole. His ball landed at the front of the green and took a couple of hops before releasing, and it never left the cup. The ball rolled into the hole, and voila, it was an albatross for Reed. The other three golfers to accomplish the feat are Nick Watney at Olympic Club in 2012, Shaun Micheel at Pebble Beach in 2010 and T.C. Chen at Oakland Hills in 1985. Advertisement The big bird moved Reed from 1 over to 2 under in the first round and to T-5 on the leaderboard. This article originally appeared on Golfweek: U.S. Open 2025: Patrick Reed holes out for albatross from 286 yards
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Watch as volunteer gets a little too close to massive snake at PGA Championship
Watch as volunteer gets a little close to massive snake at PGA Championship Turtles on Thursday, snakes on Friday. Play on the 10th hole of Quail Hollow at the PGA Championship was briefly stopped during the second round as a snake slithered across the fairway. The reptile slithered near 2003 PGA Champ Shaun Micheel, who quickly hopped backwards to let it pass. Advertisement A PGA Championship volunteer then stepped up to help nudge the snake into the rough and away from Micheel's ball. 'I wouldn't mess with that fella,' analyst and former Masters champ Trevor Immelman said on the ESPN broadcast. The volunteer got a little too aggressive at one point, poking it in the midsection to try and hurry it up. The snake quickly snapped its attention to the volunteer. 'That's what you got to avoid. … Now, he's riled up,' another announcer said. A snake at the 10th hole of Quail Hollow on May 16, 2025. SportsCenter/X The snake seemed to move into the rough of the Charlotte-area course before ESPN returned to the golf portion of their coverage. Micheel was unfazed by the incident, knocking his shot to 11 feet and then pouring in the birdie putt. Advertisement The 56-year-old was just outside the cut line as he moved through his second round. A volunteer trifles with a snake at the PGA Championship. X/SportsCenter 'They'd have to take it to the next county over for me to continue playing,' one commenter wrote on X. During the opening round Thursday, turtles had emerged from a nearby lake and settled into a bunker that forced play to be halted for repairs.
7NEWS
17-05-2025
- Sport
- 7NEWS
Former champion Shaun Micheel has run in with snake at US PGA
Former champion Shaun Micheel has shrugged off an unwelcome encounter with a snake on day two of the 107th US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. Micheel, who lifted the Wanamaker Trophy in 2003, was pacing off the distance of his third shot on the 10th hole when he came across a snake crossing the fairway on the par five. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Snake interrupts play during US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. Micheel appeared to be terrified as the snake slithered to him. He was happy to give it - believed to be a non-venomous eastern kingsnake - a wide berth before a tournament volunteer stepped in and used his foot to help usher the reptile out of the way and into the rough. But in doing so he seemed to agitate the snake. ESPN commentator and former Masters champion Trevor Immelman said: 'I wouldn't mess with that fella.' While another commentator said: 'That's what you got to avoid. Now we've got a problem. Now, he's riled up. 'I need him to take a bite of the ball.' After hitting his third shot to 12 feet, Micheel converted the birdie putt and also picked up another shot on the 11th as he battled to make the halfway cut which he missed in the US PGA for the first time since 2011. The 56-year-old won his sole major title at Oak Hill in 2003, beating Chad Campbell by two shots after a birdie on the 72nd hole. He also finished second in the same event at Medinah in 2006, five shots behind Tiger Woods. The snake issue followed an incident with a snapping turtle that appeared in a sand trap near the 14th as Ryan Gerard approached his ball.
