Ron Green Jr. is a senior writer for Global Golf Post. He has covered golf for more than 30 years including nearly 90 major championships. He is the incoming president of the Golf Writers Association of America and a regular contributor on SiriusXM radio’s golf coverage.
Articles by Ron Green Jr.
The RBC Heritage in Hilton Head, S.C., is unassuming and quaint by modern PGA Tour standards. Spanish moss, alligators and bicycle riders are part of the scene. And it is the perfect event in the perfect place for the week after the Masters. Our Ron Green Jr. explains why.
Standing behind the Augusta National clubhouse late Saturday afternoon, a drop of sweat hanging off the bottom of his chin, Tiger Woods looked toward the 18th green and the big white scoreboard in the distance. Three days down, one storm-threatened Sunday to go.It was easy to wonder if Woods was looking back or looking forward. Back to where he’d come from or forward to where the closing 18 holes might lead. Sunday, writes our Ron Green Jr., we find out.
Of all the captivating elements about Augusta National and the Masters – from the spellbinding scenery to the greatest gathering of golf course logos in the world – the best may be the irrepressible notion of imagination. It pulses like blood through this place and it feels almost as essential. The magic of Augusta National and the Masters isn’t about what can’t happen. It’s about what can happen, our Ron Green Jr. notes in his essay covering Friday's play and the weekend's potential.
Imagine winning the Masters for the first time. There are no more shots to hit, no more putts to study, no more interviews to give. It’s that moment when the achievement begins to settle in. There’s a green jacket and a place in history that comes with it. We asked several Masters champions to share their moments with us.
Soon, golf and gambling will become a marriage of sorts, wagering on professional golf having been sanctified by a Supreme Court ruling last year that struck down a federal law prohibiting legalized sports gambling. Within five years, legalized sports betting is expected to be a familiar piece of the national landscape and the PGA Tour will be a part of it. Perhaps more to the point, the PGA Tour wants to be part of it. Staff Writer Ron Green Jr. examines the story.
In the latest rendition of Green in Regulation, Ron Green Jr. writes – among other things – that Jon Rahm took one step forward and one step back at the Players Championship.
Since finishing third at the Masters last April, Jordan Spieth’s only top-10 finish was a tie for ninth at the Open Championship, where he could have won last July at Carnoustie. Since then, Spieth’s golf has blurred further, a mash-up of inconsistencies of every form. Our Ron Green Jr. tries to answer the question of what's wrong with Jordan Spieth?
Twenty years on, the glow remains for David Duval. In a confluence of fate, family and fortune, Duval and his father, Bob, won golf tournaments on the same early-spring Sunday, David capturing the Players Championship while his father won the PGA Tour Champion’s Emerald Coast Classic about 350 miles south. Ron Green Jr. recalls the magic weekend.
“Be the right club, today,” Sutton said 19 years ago on the 18th fairway of the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course. His 6-iron approach was just that, but every shot on the often-overlooked final hole is fraught with danger. The Post's Ron Green Jr. surveyed players about the final hole on the eve of the Players Championship.
March. This is where the Players Championship belongs on the golf calendar, writes The Post's Ron Green Jr. He's in Ponte Vedra Beach with early observations from the Stadium Course.
Sam Saunders has become, in some ways, the face of his grandfather Arnold Palmer's PGA Tour event at Bay Hill. He is the unofficial host even as he goes about the business of playing in the tournament. He accepts well wishes, shakes hands, and does his best to concentrate on playing competitive golf. GGP+ Correspondent Ron Green Jr. writes about the experience.
Green In Regulation this week: Ron Green Jr. writes that the bubbling back and forth between professional golfers and the game’s rulesmakers has been a bad look all around. Green writes that it is time to clean it up and move on, which is what PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan’s memo to players on Monday was intended to do.
When Tiger Woods rip-sliced a 9-iron around a tree last week in Mexico, landing his ball on the green 20 feet left of the hole then pulling it back with vicious side spin so that it settled to a stop 11 feet below, he had pulled off the shot of the season. Ron Green Jr. asks several sources to break it down for GGP+.
Ron Green Jr. opines that Dustin Johnson, a truly exceptional player, may not be receiving the admiration he deserves for what he's accomplished in his career.
Steve Stricker may have teared up at the news conference introducing him as Ryder Cup captain, but don’t think the new American Ryder Cup captain is a softie, at least not when it comes to golf and what will happen 19 months from now at Whistling Straits, writes Ron Green Jr. in his analysis of Stricker's selection and the future of the American team.
Now that J.B. Holmes has finally finished and the overblown Matt Kuchar/caddie kerfuffle has been put to rest, let’s take a moment to appreciate Gene Littler.
When PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan decided to play in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for the first time this year, he asked his father, Joe, to be his caddie. That’s a big ask – lugging a bag around at an age more commonly associated with the early-bird special. But the scenery, the excitement and the chance to spend all that time together made it a natural decision for the Monahans.
USGA CEO Mike Davis, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Davis Love III react to the prompt clarification of the caddie alignment rule in a report from Pebble Beach by Ron Green Jr.
This will be Johnny Miller’s final weekend in the television tower and it will be an abbreviated visit. He will sit with his longtime NBC Sports broadcast partner Dan Hicks on Saturday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and say his public farewells then, ceding the Sunday seat to Paul Azinger, who will succeed him.
LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA | Like the hang gliders and the hypnotic views from the cliffs that frame the Pacific Ocean, Tiger Woods is part of the scenery at Torrey Pines. Every year that he comes to the Farmers Insurance Open, he tells the story of this being the place he saw his first PGA Tour event, walking with his father, Earl, getting an up-close look at the game he would soon change.
Brooks Koepka is done for the day in Hawaii, a gym session and a practice round having been checked off his to-do list, as he settles into a chair in the players’ dining area at Kapalua’s Plantation Course.
HONOLULU, HAWAII | All those years on back roads, the shared car rides through the night, the paychecks that couldn’t cover expenses and those evenings wondering if playing mini-tour golf could ever be the highway to heaven were still with 42-year-old Chris Thompson as he stood on the edge of Waikiki Beach this week and looked around.
LAHAINA, HAWAII | Brandel Chamblee stood with his light blue golf bag slung over his left shoulder outside the Plantation Course clubhouse at Kapalua, an hour from his pro-am tee time, and laughed at how he got here.
Rarely a day goes by, Nantz says, that someone doesn’t want to talk about the Masters with him. It could be November in Green Bay, Wis.; or July in Pebble Beach, Calif., where he lives. The Masters is like his eternal flame.