World Golf Championship – Memphis Flyer

Harris English will be a familiar face when fans return to TPC Southwind this week for the World Golf Championships — FedEx St. Jude Invitational. The 32-year-old PGA veteran has risen to 14th in the World Golf Rankings and finished third in this year’s U.S. Open. His very first Tour win came in Memphis (in 2013).

Memphis Flyer: Welcome back. What do you recall about your first visit to TPC Southwind eight years ago?

Harris English: A lot of good memories there. I rented a house off the first tee with some good friends. We had a fun week. One of my best friends from high school in Chattanooga was in med school there. It felt like I had a big crowd cheering me on. Closing it out with a birdie on 17 and a solid par on 18 will always make special memories. You never want to have a tournament given to you, and I felt like I had to earn it. It makes you believe in yourself, and it couldn’t have happened at a better place than Memphis.

You have found a groove in 2021, doubling your career victories (now four). What’s been the difference in your game?

I’ve found more consistency. I don’t like missing putts. My putting and short game have always been the backbone of my game. And tee to green, I’ve gotten better, given myself more chances to win golf tournaments.

You finished third in the U.S. Open (at Torrey Pines in San Diego), the closest you’ve come to winning your first major. What was that final round like, knowing you were in the mix for that trophy?

That’s why you put all the hours in, both in the gym and on the course. I love how the U.S. Open is set up. You have to play smart and be good, all-around, and disciplined. It’s nice to showcase that. I really enjoyed it. I’m getting closer and closer.

Memphis is getting used to World Golf Championships status (third year for the FedEx St. Jude Invitational). Could you share some perspective on the significance of the WGC events?

I’m really happy for Memphis. FedEx has been the biggest sponsor on the PGA Tour for years. It’s great that they have a tournament where they’re guaranteed many of the biggest names in the sport, right in their backyard. [The WGC status] has given me even more of spark to get back there. I love the people that run the tournament. It made it even sweeter. You have to earn your spot there. It’s not easy to make the field.

Crowds are back. They’ll be cheering a familiar face when you arrive. Did the lack of fans in 2020 impact your game at all?

You get used to crowds lining the fairway, and lining the greens. You feel their energy, especially on Saturday and Sunday. It was weird [without fans]. Almost like you’re playing a practice round. You had to really psyche yourself up, have your caddy pump you up. A lot of people struggled with it. I don’t usually have a ton of people following me, not like Tiger [Woods]. It had to be really weird for him. We love having fans on the course.

When you plan a round at Southwind, are there certain holes you give extra focus?

Southwind is sneaky. Holes can seem pretty benign, but they can get you. It’s one of the more underrated courses we play. Number three can be an eagle hole, or it can be a bogey hole if you don’t put the ball in the fairway. Same for number nine. Fifteen, that short par four. You’ve got to put the ball in the fairway.

The PGA Tour is entering what amounts to a post-Tiger era. Do you feel like the sport is in good hands with new headliners, including yourself?

There are so many good young golfers. It shows where college programs have been the last twenty years. Players are ready for action on the PGA Tour. They have experience and they’re not scared. They can play under pressure. In our sport, you can have a 22-year-old win a tournament or a 52-year-old win a tournament. It’s unique to our sport. The game’s in great hands. Like everyone else, I want Tiger to come back healthy and win more tournaments. But we have some other big names playing well, and carrying what Tiger and Phil Mickelson are leaving behind.

The tournament remains deeply connected to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Any thoughts on this relationship?

It’s incredible. It puts things in perspective. Here I am, playing golf, doing what I love to do. And a few miles away, there are kids struggling with something they didn’t deserve. As much money as we can raise, it’s amazing. I donate to St. Jude every year. It’s one of the charities I hold dear to my heart. I love helping kids get healthy, so they can grow up and be whatever they want to be. It’s cool how the Tour gets behind the cause.

There’s an odd sensation to being a Memphis sports fan while away from Memphis. I spent last week on the North Carolina coast, a gathering of family scheduled before the dates of the first World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational were made public. Which means I had to follow, from afar, the greatest gathering of golfers the Bluff City has ever seen.
CBS Sports

Brooks Koepka takes the trophy in Memphis.

And what an extraordinary event it turned out to be. In pulling away from the world’s third-ranked player (Rory McIlroy), Brooks Koepka — the world’s top-ranked player, and rising — won his first WGC event, took home $1.7 million, and made a new fan for every dollar earned, it seemed, by all the glowing things he had to say about Memphis, the Southwind course, and especially, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The greatest golfer in the world relished winning in Memphis.

Emphasis on that last sentence, as the lead-up to this first WGC in Memphis seemed to be dominated by one of the three top-50 players who chose not to make the trip. As one top-10 player after another — Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm — booked a flight to Memphis, social media throbbed with the question, “Will Tiger be here?”

After missing the cut at the British Open — and with health concerns, again — Tiger Woods chose to skip Memphis, again. The finest golfer of the century has yet to play a competitive hole at TPC Southwind, and you know what? It’s Tiger’s loss. I got called for BS when I suggested at the commitment deadline that Woods needs the Memphis tournament more than we need him, but I was precisely right. Tournament director Darrell Smith and his staff have put on a world-class event for years, and in support of the fight against childhood cancer. For crying out loud, anyone who chooses not to be part of such a weekend is missing more than a paycheck.

Let’s pause a moment to relish the international impact of last weekend’s tournament. At the end of the first found last Thursday, seven countries were represented among the top 12 players. Koepka and McIlroy were not among them. And it kept getting better. At the end of play Friday, five players were within three shots of the leader, England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick, but Koepka still wasn’t among them. With a 64 in Saturday’s third round, Koepka climbed into second place, behind McIlroy who shot an 8-under-par 62. So two of the world’s top three players walked Southwind’s 18 holes Sunday, the planet’s golf axis tilting here in Memphis. You had to wonder if Woods was watching, wherever he happened to be nursing what ails him.

I got home in time to see the final few holes on TV, to see St. Jude patients greeting the leaders as they finished a tournament the players will remember as much as us fans (even those of us getting updates during a cross-state drive home). There are days that feel like sunshine at the beach, no matter how land-locked we might be at the time. I left the Atlantic coast Saturday, only to find the sunniest moment of my vacation right here in our back yard.

• It’s been a slog of a season for the Memphis Redbirds, but two outfielders made some history last week. On Friday night in Oklahoma City, Randy Arozarena became only the third Redbird to hit for the cycle in a Memphis win over the Dodgers. All three cycles have come away from AutoZone Park, Mark Little accomplishing the feat at Colorado Springs in 2000 and Luke Voit pulling it off last year at Iowa. Then on Saturday night, Lane Thomas became only the eighth Redbird to hit three home runs in a game. It’s an achievement he can discuss in detail with teammate Adolis Garcia, who knocked three baseballs over the wall last year in a game at Salt Lake.