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Want to see the world’s best golfers play? This summer gives you plenty of chances

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6 months ago

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Want to see the world’s best golfers play? This summer gives you plenty of chances

Want to see the best golfers in the world play?

This summer gives you four chances to see the world’s best and none of the trips will require a hotel stay.

New England has been blessed with some elite tournaments over the years but it’s hard to remember a year that can match what 2024 is offering.

If you want to see the best amateurs, men, senior men and women play, you can do all of that this summer and most of it in the next two weeks. In fact, you don’t even need an itinerary — I’ll put it together for you.

FIRST STOP: Northeast Amateur on Saturday

The Northeast Amateur is one of the most prestigious amateur golf tournaments in the world and you’re all but guaranteed to see at least one future PGA Tour champion, and perhaps the winner of a major, in the field.

Getting your weekend started on Friday isn’t a bad idea, but Saturday’s final round will certainly be a show. Last year, Nick Dunlap trailed by four shots with seven holes left, came back and closed strong on 18 to pick up a two-shot win over Caleb Surratt.

More: Todd White starts vacation with 20th appearance at NE Amateur golf tournament.

Seven months later, Dunlap became the first amateur player since Phil Mickelson in 1991 to win a PGA Tour event, taking The American Express tournament at the PGA West Stadium Course in California and has since turned pro. Surrat also went the professional route, joining LIV Golf.

Get to Wannamoissett early on Saturday and camp out behind the third green, watching the amateurs fire darts at the legendary short par 3, where Hunter Thomson made a hole in one on Day 1 on Wednesday. After players finish the hole, you’ll enjoy a nice view of them hitting interplanetary shots off the fourth tee.

After you hang out on 3 for a bit, take the long walk to get behind the 12th green and watch these competitors try to pick it apart. The massive bunkers present a problem for ordinary golfers, as I learned on media day, but these amateurs will be chasing aces. The 14th tee is nearby, so you can again watch them rip bombs and enjoy the ample shade that’s in the area.

Wait for the leaders to reach the 12th, then follow them in and enjoy the show.

SECOND STOP: Travelers Championship on Sunday

The Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., has long been a favorite of the pros, and while the fields have had some top-end talent, they were usually littered with players you may or may not have heard of or up-and-coming stars.

That changed this year as The Travelers earned Signature Event status from the PGA, meaning a limited field featuring most of the top players in the world playing for significantly more money than they had in the past.

River Highlands is a terrific course for fans to watch golf. Pros routinely comment on the practice facilities and watching the pros warm up, with purpose, for a final round is a great way to get yourself warmed up as well.

Whatever hole you decide to watch, you’re going to see a ton of birdies. Last year, Rory McIlroy, who withdrew from the event after his debacle at the U.S. Open, said technology had rendered the course obsolete, and while there were some changes, scoring will be low.

The front nine is very walkable, so find your favorite pro and follow him for a bit. Just make sure you give yourself enough time to find a spot to camp out near the 15th green, which allows for views of Nos. 16, 17 and the tee box at 18.

If you’d rather be there at the finish, the 18th green is spectacular viewing and you don’t need to be in a luxury box to watch the end. The amphitheatre setup allows any fan with a ticket the chance to watch the finish from above and 18 has provided some memorable moments, such as when Jordan Spieth holed out from the bunker in 2017, which was followed by one of the more awkward celebrations in golf history.

The loaded field includes the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama, Collin Morikawa (a former Northeast Amateur champion), Tony Finau, Justin Thomas, Spieth and rising stars such as Akshay Bhatia, Matthieu Pavon, Sahith Theegala and Ludvig Aberg, so this tournament is bound for an exciting finish.

The best part is that once you’re done watching the best players in the world finish up, you can hop in the car for a very reasonable drive home.

THIRD STOP: Newport Country Club, any day next week

There are few better ways to enjoy a perfect summer day than spending it in Newport, and with the U.S. Senior Open coming to Newport Country Club next week, dealing with bridge and beach traffic will certainly be worth it.

Depending on your level of golf fandom, multiple days of watching is highly recommended. Practice rounds run Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and the course should be less crowded. That is probably your best bet to have some sort of interaction with your favorite player.

There are more than a few familiar names you can follow on the course. Defending champion Bernhard Langer is set to play, as are former U.S. Open champions Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Jim Furyk, Masters winners Vijay Singh and Mike Weir, PGA champions Padraig Harrington and Y.E. Yang and Open Championship winners Darren Clarke, Justin Leonard and Stewart Cink.

Rhode Island will be well represented, with Billy Andrade and Brett Quigley in the field.

After experiencing a practice round, you should try to get there on a day that matters to the players. The full field will go off Thursday and Friday, so getting out there on one of those days will be an experience. The weekend should be even better and if you can find a dinner reservation, you can have yourself quite a summer’s day.

Newport Country Club’s masterful layout makes the course incredibly walkable for fans, but bring plenty of sunscreen and wear a hat because shade is limited.

For the Senior Open, Newport CC switched its nines, so it may cause some confusion for the blessed people that have played the course during regular play. Either way, you’ll want to spend some time near the majestic clubhouse, which has three tees and four greens all within a pitching wedge of each other.

But the best way to watch this tournament — enjoying the course itself. The sun will be shining. The breeze will be coming off the ocean. Bring a coozie, get a beverage — and don’t forget to mix in a few waters — and just walk the grounds, enjoy what should be a perfect day for golf.

FOURTH STOP: TPC Boston, Aug. 28-Sept. 1

For more than 15 years, TPC Boston was the place to be on Labor Day weekend as an end-of-season playoff event for the PGA Tour. In 2020, TPC Boston held its last professional event and hasn’t had one since.

That changes in August, as TPC Boston in Norton, Mass., will host the LPGA’s 2024 FM Global Championship, a tournament that will have 144 players competing for the largest prize fund on the LPGA Tour, aside from the majors and Tour championship.

So, what does this mean? Basically, the prize pool alone should ensure the best women in the world will be teeing it up in Norton that weekend.

The scores should be interesting. The men torched TPC Boston — Scottie Scheffler set the course record with a 59 in 2020 during a morning round, and in the afternoon, it looked like Dustin Johnson was going to break it until he failed to make a birdie on the back. Four-day totals were routinely absurd.

For the women, the course is set to play around 6,500 yards. They’ve created a couple of new tee boxes to accommodate the tournament.

There are plenty of men out there who are single-digit handicaps and think they could enter this tournament and run away with a win.

As someone who’s caddied at the course for more than a decade, I can confirm I have a better chance of winning the Boston Marathon than a guy who says he’s a scratch golfer has of winning this tournament.

Check out the tournament just to watch how good these women are. Their play is extremely impressive.

You’ll be missing out if you’re not there for at least one of the competitive rounds — and if you hit the Pro-Am on Wednesday, you’ll see a certain sportswriter toting a bag — and there are plenty of places to watch.

Putting yourself between No. 16, the peninsula par 3 — TPC Boston’s signature hole — and the 17th hole gives you a chance to watch potential carnage and how players respond. Perhaps the sneaky-best viewing point is on the elbow of the dogleg-left par 4 17th hole, where players will be firing to a green that’s smaller than it looks.

The other great spot is a bit of a walk, but if you can put yourself between the fifth green, sixth tee and seventh green, it will allow you to see a variety of shots on three holes that will create birdies and bogeys.

And if you happen to be there on Sunday, you’ll be missing out if you don’t check out No. 18. The risk-reward nature of the par 5 will certainly come into play and the end should be a perfect way to put a bow on a terrific summer of watching the world’s best golfers play.

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