The three-time champion is no longer listed in the field of active players, but instead as a past champion who is not playing.

Phil Mickelson is no longer on the list of players scheduled to compete in next month’s Masters, having been moved to the section of the tournament website that lists past champions who are not competing.

As of Sunday, Mickelson had still been listed as a participant, as had past champion Trevor Immelman, who is now also out of the field.

The Masters only removes players from that section of the website upon request, and Augusta National confirmed the request was made. Tiger Woods, who has not played since a February 2021 car crash, is still listed as a participant in the tournament. Players have until tournament week to decide if they are playing or not.

Mickelson, 51, who won the Masters in 2004, 2006 and 2010, has been embroiled in controversy due to disparaging comments he made about the PGA Tour in relation to his conversations with LIV Golf Investments about joining a rival league being fronted by Hall of Famer Greg Norman.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, speaking March 8 at the Players Championship, stepped around questions about whether or not the Hall of Fame golfer had been suspended. Such a suspension would not apply at the Masters, which invites players based on qualifying criteria that include past champions.

A representative for Mickelson declined to comment.

“I have not talked to Phil since he made his comments and since he said that he was stepping away,’’ Monahan said. “I think the ball is in his court. I would welcome a phone call from him. But it’s hard for me to talk about the different scenarios that could play out.’’

SOURCE: si.com

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Some courses demand strength. Muscle. Brawn. Success is determined by a golfer’s ability to overpower the obstacles—which in this case can usually be found on the scorecard under total yardage.

Other courses demand finesse. Strategy. Accuracy. Success is determined through course management and shot-making, the ability to maneuver through tight spots and avoid penal areas.

So what does the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass demand of the 144 golfers hoping to claim The Players Championship title each year? Well, it demands everything.

“It’s a great test in golf,” Collin Morikawa said. “It really tests all aspects of your game.”

Two-time PGA Tour Players of the Year, Dustin Johnson, added: “The golf course is very demanding. You’ve got to drive it well, hit it well, putt it well. I mean, you’ve got to do everything.”

In other words, the key to success is difficult, yet simple. What makes Pete Dye’s historic course—celebrating its 40th anniversary of hosting the PGA Tour signature event, having first done so in 1982—so unique is its egalitarian trait. No course offers more social equality—it favors everyone and yet favors no one.

You don’t have to be the longest hitter, or the most adept shot-maker, or a streaky-hot putter to win The Players. You just have to be the best golfer that week.

Jon Rahm, who could lose his world No 1 status this week, said: The golf course is such a good design, nobody has ever dominated it. The best player truly usually wins it, right?

Rahm’s views are echoed by Australian Marc Leishman, who said: “You need every single shot around there—draws, fades. You need to hit those shots at the right time—and then hit those shots under pressure. If you come to the end of that tournament, you need to execute under the greatest pressure. It doesn’t reward one type of player.”

SOURCE: skysports.com

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Joaquin Niemann figured out the best way to avoid Los Angeles-area traffic, staying ahead of the pace while going wire-to-wire to win the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

Niemann, a native of Chile, fired a closing round of even-par 71 on Sunday to finish at 19-under 265, two shots ahead of Cameron Young (70) and local fan favorite Collin Morikawa (65), who hails from nearby La Canada Flintridge.

Australia’s Adam Scott (66) and Norway’s Viktor Hovland (70) finished tied for fourth place at 14 under.

“Obviously it’s the toughest tournament, I think, during the year,” Niemann said. “It’s got the best field, the best players are here and that proves (to) myself that I can be competing with the top guys, I can be up there in the world ranking. I think it’s going to give me a lot of confidence for what is coming next.”

Niemann, 23, became the first wire-to-wire of the event since Charlie Sifford in 1969. It was also his second career victory after winning at the A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W.V., in 2019.

After blistering the historic Riviera course to the tune of 16-under par through the first two rounds, Niemann backed off the throttle to shoot 3 under on Saturday before Sunday’s controlled final round.

Niemann had a bogey and a birdie on the front nine for an even-par 35, then took control with an eagle 3 at the par-5 11th hole to move to 21 under. Bogeys at Nos. 14 and 15 brought him back to 19 under and he closed with a trio of pars, including a two putt from 27 feet at 18.

“This weekend took me forever; it felt like a month,” Niemann said on the CBS broadcast. “I am so happy it’s finally done. I’m really proud of the way we battled with my caddie Gary (Matthews). All of the hard work, there is nothing like this. This is amazing.”

Morikawa, in just his third tournament on United States soil since the Ryder Cup in September, made a late charge Sunday after he was as far back as eight shots at one point. He was 2-under through the first nine holes before he chipped in for an eagle 2 at No. 10.

Morikawa had birdies at Nos. 16 and 17 but missed a birdie putt at 18 that would have pulled him to within one of the lead.

“You know, I just had to put together a few better rounds and make a few less mistakes, but overall, I’m happy with the way things kind of played out,” Morikawa said. “Wish I had that putt on 18 again, but it is what it is.”

After shooting even par on the front nine, Young had a wild ride on the back. He had a bogey at No. 10 before a birdie at 11. His roller coaster continued with a birdie at No. 15, a bogey at 16 and a birdie at 17. Young, who started the day alone in second place, had the round of the tournament with a 62 on Friday.

“Overall, you finish tied for second at Riviera, I can’t complain,” Young said. “I mean, I’m lucky just to be here and I know it does some good things for me going forward, so I am happy with the week, for sure.”

Hovland started the day alone in third place but was six shots off the lead. All hope for getting into contention late was lost when he went 2-over par on a five-hole stretch from Nos. 12 to 16.

Justin Thomas shot 70 and finished alone in sixth place at 13 under, while Maverick McNealy and Scottie Scheffler were tied for seventh at 12 under after carding 69s.

Source: robinhoodnews

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The 25-year-old Texan sank a 26-foot birdie putt on the third extra hole to defeat Patrick Cantlay at the WM Phoenix Open and claim his first PGA Tour victory.

“I think the first one is probably always the hardest and I definitely made it pretty difficult on myself today,” Scheffler said.

To hear former Tour pro turned CBS broadcaster Colt Knost tell it, he always knew Scheffler was destined for greatness. He remembers when the rangy Scheffler was knee-high to him, a kid who couldn’t get enough of practicing at Royal Oaks Golf Club in Dallas, where Tour winners such as Justin Leonard, Hunter Mahan and Harrison Frazar were regulars.

“He just followed us all around like a little puppy dog,” Knost recalled.

At the range, Scheffler became known for peppering a yellow pole from 70 to 90 yards depending on where the tee was set up that day.

“That was kind of Scottie’s pole,” Knost said. “Every five minutes, you just heard this ding, and Scottie would just turn around and smile. He would wear that thing out.”

Knost has never forgotten the time he was practicing in a bunker and Scheffler sat on top of a bucket of balls watching him for at least 30 minutes and then helped Knost pick them up. But that wasn’t all he did.

“I see this ball come flying out of the bunker and land and kind of spin. I’m like, ‘What in the world was that?’ And I look over and it’s Scottie and I say, ‘How the hell did you do that?’ He said, ‘I was just watching you and just did what you did.’ He just had that weird ability. He would see things, and then he could go do it himself, and to get a ball to spin out of the bunker at nine years old was just really, really impressive.”

So was Scheffler’s resume, which included U.S. Junior Amateur champion, All-American at Texas and Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year. Scheffler already had shot 59 in a FedEx Cup playoff event, had a chance to win a host of Tour events, most recently at the Houston Open, but victory had remained elusive. Entering the week at No. 16 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Scheffler was the highest-ranked player in the world without a PGA Tour victory.

He added Ryder Cup stud to that resume in September, teaming with Bryson DeChambeau in Four-Ball and knocking off World No. 1 Jon Rahm in singles on Sunday. On Saturday, he was asked what he thought was harder: winning a Tour event, shooting 59 or beating Rahm?

“Well, apparently winning a tournament might be the hardest,” he said.

Scheffler opened with rounds of 68-71 and trailed by nine strokes at the tournament’s midway point. But he torched the back nine at TPC Scottsdale to the tune of seven threes on the scorecard en route to tying the back-nine record of 29. His 62 was the lowest round of the tournament and earned him a spot in the final threesome for the second straight year.

On Sunday, Scheffler overcame three bogeys in a four-hole stretch on the front nine at TPC Scottsdale and trailed by three strokes after a bogey at No. 12. Having the veteran presence of caddie Ted Scott, who won 12 times on the PGA Tour with Bubba Watson and joined Scheffler at the RSM Classic in November, was a calming influence.

“I think we kind of sit on the same wavelength. We get along really well. He does a good job keeping me level-headed and making jokes and having fun,” Scheffler said. “We never felt totally out of the golf tournament, and I looked at him on 14 green, we were only I think maybe two back at the time, and I think I was a little bit surprised still to be that close to the lead.”

Scheffler birdied four of the last six holes to make up his deficit, but missed a 6-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win in regulation. He signed for 4-under 67 and finished with a 72-hole total of 16-under 268.

The calendar may have flipped but Cantlay, who was named PGA Tour Player of the Year and is the reigning FedEx Cup champion, continued his torrid run with a bogey-free 4-under 67 on Sunday. He, too, missed a 10-foot birdie at 18 for the win. Still, he’s won two times and hasn’t finished outside the top-10 in his last six starts, and is an impressive 132-under par in his last 30 Tour rounds, with 28 of them in the 60s.

Cantlay, however, could only manage three pars in the playoff, including missing from 11 feet to extend it to a fourth hole.

“I played well today,” Cantlay said. “I hit a lot of good putts and didn’t really get anything to go in all day. Scottie obviously played really well this weekend and deserves to win.”

Seeking his first win, rookie Sahith Theegala, the 54-hole leader who was playing on a sponsor’s exemption, built a three-stroke lead after five holes, but made a bogey at the par-3 seventh and Cantlay rolled in three birdies on the front side to catch him at 15 under. Theegala hung tough with birdies at Nos. 12 and 15, but his tee shot at the drivable par-4 17^th hole rolled into the water to the left of the green and he made bogey.

“I thought I hit a great shot on 17. It was cutting,” Theegala said. “As long as it’s another yard right, I think that’s perfect. Kick straight and it’s good; kicked left into the water there.”

Theegala closed in 1-under 70 to finish tied for third with defending champion Brooks Koepka (69) and Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele (68).

One day after Sam Ryder made an ace at the infamous par-3 16th hole, Carlos Ortiz of Mexico made it rain in the desert again, holing his 9-iron from 178 yards for an ace. A shower of beer, ice and cans, one of which nailed Ortiz in the back, created a rain delay of sorts on another picture-perfect weather day. Ortiz said he used the time for cleanup in aisle 16th green to calm down, and he drove the 17th green to make back-to-back eagles. Ortiz shot 67 and finished in a tie for 33rd place.

“That was pretty special,” Ortiz said. “And then making that 2 on the next, that’s a first for me, making a 1 and then a 2.”

“Today was a little bit better,” Rahm said. “The only time I really felt in command of the golf swing was the first 18 holes and the last nine. That’s about it. Everything else in between, there was a bit of doubt in a lot of the swings.”

But there’s no doubting that Scheffler is officially a Tour winner, becoming the fifth first-time winner on the Tour this season and third in a row – following in the footsteps of Luke List and Tom Hoge. It took longer than expected for Scheffler to bust through, so, it was only fitting he should have to wait three extra holes to taste victory.

“He’s a worldbeater,” Knost said. “Now that he’s got that first one, I think the floodgates are going to open for him.”

Source: usatoday.com

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Another cliff-hanger at Pebble Beach, this one memorable for Tom Hoge, who delivered all the right shots on the back nine Sunday to surge past Jordan Spieth and win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for his first PGA Tour title.

Hoge, one of seven players who had at least a share of the lead in the final round, came within inches of holing out from the 16th fairway, tapping in for birdie to catch Spieth. Then after Spieth made bogey from the bunker on the par-3 17th, Hoge rolled in a birdie from just outside 20 feet.

He closed with a par for a 4-under 68.

“It’s awesome,” Hoge said. “I’ve worked through so many hard times.”

The 32-year-old Hoge, who grew up in North Dakota, had been runner-up twice in his previous 202 starts on the PGA Tour, most recently at The American Express two weeks ago.

His time came amid the magnificent setting of Pebble Beach under a clear California sky, and it didn’t come easily with so many players in the mix for so long.

“I’m almost a little in shock,” Hoge said. “It’s been so long since I won anything that I forgot how to celebrate.”

Spieth looked like a winner when he birdied the 12th and 13th holes, and he reached the 15th tee with a two-shot lead. But he missed a 5-foot par putt on the 17th, and only as he stood under the pine in fairway on the par-5 18th did he realize he needed an eagle.

He caught a sandy lie that left him in a fairway bunker, and the best he could do was par for a 69. Hoge had to wait for Beau Hossler, one of three players who shared the 54-hole lead, who needed eagle on the 18th to force a playoff.

Hossler sent his fairway metal right into a bunker, blasted out long, and three-putted for bogey for a 71 to finish alone in third.

Hoge earned his first trip to Augusta National for the Masters, along with getting a two-year exemption. Until this year, his best season on the PGA Tour was in 2020 when he was 50th in the FedEx Cup and won just over $1.8 million.

Hoge, who finished at 19-under 268, earned $1,566,000.

So many others had chances, including Patrick Cantlay, at No. 4 the highest-ranked player in the world at Pebble Beach. He opened with two birdies and was still atop the leaderboard until a bogey at the eighth that left the final three hours wide open.

Cantlay didn’t make another birdie until the 18th when it was too late. He spent most of the back nine scrambling for par and his luck finally ran out on the 15th and 16th hole. He shot 71 and tied for fourth along with Troy Merritt (67).

Joel Dahmen (72) and Andrew Putnam (73) also had a share of the lead during the final round. They were in the group that tied for sixth.

Spieth won at Pebble in 2017, had a two-shot lead going into the final round last year and had everything seemingly in his favor. That includes the signature moment of this week, when he had his left foot planted on the edge of a 60-foot cliff on the eighth hole Saturday that only gave him anxiety after he realized the risk he had taken.

His hopes began to fade with an 8-iron he was starting down on the 17th, shocked that it came up short and in the sand.

“Maybe my best swing of the day,” he said. “I thought it was going to be 2 feet.”

Instead, he blasted out 5 feet long and hit the putt too hard to take the left-to-right break.

Hoge hit the ball so pure on the back nine that he had a birdie putt from inside 20 feet on every hole until he got to the 17th, and that’s where he made the biggest putt of his career.

Hoge, who played college golf at TCU, has been on the PGA Tour since 2015. He started out on the Canadian tour, where he won in 2011.

SOURCE: bostonglobe.com

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Lydia Ko came into the press room after her win on Sunday at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio smiling. She admitted to having had a little something to drink before meeting the press. Who could blame her? The win marked her 17th on the LPGA Tour, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact she’s just 24. After an up and down from a greenside bunker on 18 secured a par and the win by one shot over Danielle Kang, Ko was asked to sum up her feelings in three words.

“Excited. Cocktail. Sleep.”

Hearing her break it down into such simple, relatable terms is a juxtaposition to the jaw-dropping list of stats that go along with this victory. This was Ko’s 17th win on the LPGA Tour and earns her a 21st LPGA Hall of Fame point (you need 27 to get inducted). The $300,000 payday bumps her past Se Ri Pak to ninth on the all-time LPGA career money list (Ko’s total is $12,668,796), and it lifts her into a tied for 32nd on the all-time wins list.

Ko began the day two ahead of Kang. But a bogey-birdie exchange on the second and third holes at Boca Rio Golf Club in Boca Raton, Fla., tied things up.

For Ko, it was the 15th hole that provided the most important moment in the final round. Still tied with Kang, who came off a win at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions the week before, Ko rolled in a big, swinging 25-foot birdie putt there. It put Ko back in the lead, and put in her a position where steady putting and confident greenside bunker shots down the stretch wrapped up the win with a closing 69 and a 14-under 274 total.

“I think holing that putt on 15 was kind of the momentum shifter for me. That wasn’t the easiest putt,” Ko said. “I just kept aiming more and more right, and I said, Hey, at the end of the day I just got to have the right speed. I obviously wanted to hole it, but it didn’t really have a high probability of me holing it. It ended up being perfect. Sometimes, I get frustrated because I end up trusting my feel over the ball. But in that case, that feel helped me out on that hole.”

Ko credits Jon Rahm, of all people, as one of the keys to her success this week. She was scrolling through Instagram and came across a quote of his: “He said, ‘It’s not about how many times you hit the fairway. Golf, at the end you have to try and play [and score] the best you can in the circumstances,’” Ko said. “I think his quote really helped me to realize that you know what? It’s golf. Sometimes I’m going to hit great shots; sometimes I’m going to hit not-so-pretty ones. I have to manage my way around and try and shoot the best score I can. Today, I don’t feel like I had my A game, but I was able to make up and down when I was out of position and then not get too down when did I make mistakes.”

Ko, currently the No. 3 player in the world, believes the quote really clicked with her because it taps into something the New Zealand native thinks she needs to work on: Not trying to be perfect on the golf course. It’s a task that must be difficult after collecting 14 LPGA wins as a teenager; if there’s such a thing as a perfect start to a career, that might’ve been it.

“I think sometimes I try and become too much of a perfectionist,” Ko said. “And to kind of hear that I was like, Yeah, you’re right. I’m just trying to play golf and not control everything out there.”

While perfection on the golf course is impossible, Ko seems to have the post-win formula perfected: Excited, cocktail, sleep.

SOURCE: golfdigest.com

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After Saturday’s third round of The American Express, Hudson Swafford was asked his strategy heading into Sunday’s final round.

“[Caddie Kyle Bradley] and I just talked about just giving ourselves as many looks as possible, whether it’s 30 feet or 10 feet,” Swafford said. “[I’ve] been rolling it great, so just try to get on the green as fast as possible. … [The course] is a little visually intimidating, so the fat side of the green’s not always terrible out here. And that’s kind of going to be my game plan and just don’t have to come out and try to birdie every hole early. Just kind of plod along.”

As it turned out, that strategy still led to plenty of birdies early and a pretty good number of them late as well—along with a timely eagle at the par-5 16th. In all, Swafford made nine birdies and the eagle en route to a final-round 64, winning the event for the second time (he also won in 2017 when it was known as the CareerBuilder Challenge).

All but two of Swafford’s birdies on Sunday came from putts inside 13 feet with one notable exception—a 45-foot bomb on the par-4 10th that sparked a run of three straight and four in five holes. A 19-footer for birdie at the par-3 17th sealed things.

Among a number of key shots was Swafford’s second from 198 yards at the par-5 16th, which stopped just eight feet from the hole and set up his eagle. The shot was struck with a PXG 0311 ST 7-iron. The ST stands for “Super Tour” as the clubs are a solid-body blade style designed for elite players. Swafford ranked fourth in strokes gained/approach-the-green with the irons, picking up more than four shots on the field.

On the greens, Swafford not only ranked second in strokes gained/putting (gaining five-plus strokes on the field), but he produced a field-leading 28 birdies with a Scotty Cameron by Titleist Phantom X 7.5 tour prototype mallet.

Not bad for a guy just trying to plod along.

What Hudson Swafford had in the bag at The American Express

Ball: Titleist Pro V1

Driver: TaylorMade Stealth Plus (Project X HZRDUS), 9 degrees

3-wood: Ping i25, 14 degrees

5-wood: Ping i25, 18 degrees

Irons (4-9): PXG 0311 ST; (PW): PXG 0311 Sugar Daddy

Wedges: PXG 0311 Sugar Daddy (50 degrees); PXG 0311 Sugar Daddy II (56 degrees); Titleist Vokey WedgeWorks prototype (60 degrees)

Putter: Scotty Cameron by Titleist Phantom X 7.5 tour prototype

SOURCE: golfdigest.com

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Russell Henley shot 23 under at the 2022 Sony Open this week, finishing in the top three in the field in putting, iron play and strokes gained from tee to green … and somehow did not win. That’s because Hideki Matsuyama shot 63-63 on the weekend and hit the shot of the season on the first hole of a playoff for the eighth – and perhaps most exciting – win of his PGA Tour career.

Rewind to the turn in Sunday’s final round. Henley took a commanding five-stroke lead to the second nine. Data Golf said his chances of winning at that moment were about 97%. It was not a foregone conclusion because nothing in golf is a foregone conclusion, but as far as sure bets go, it was up there.

Henley played the next nine holes in 1 over after touching the edge of the cup with putts on two of the last three holes. Nothing fell. He’d torched the golf course for 63 straight holes with at least two birdies or eagles on every previous nine-hole stretch. He made none over the final nine. Matsuyama played them in 4 under, including a birdie at the 72nd hole, to tie the tournament at 23 under and send it into bonus holes.

In the playoff, Henley drove one into a bunker. After getting out of trouble but with work to do to make birdie at the par-5 finisher – which was also being used as the first hole of the playoff – Henley looked to be fighting an uphill battle. Matsuyama could control the tournament by finding the green and two-putting for birdie. So of course he blistered a 3-wood from 276 yards to 32 inches for eagle to win the event.

It will go down as one of the 10 best shots of the entire season.

For Henley, it was a dagger in what had otherwise been such a tremendous week. He was trying to bookend his 2013 victory at this tournament with another one, which would have been the fourth of his underrated career. He did everything right, but he still couldn’t close out the reigning Masters champion.

There was good reason for that, too. Matsuyama is obviously a menace from tee to green, and he was again this week at Waialae Country Club. But the bigger problem for Henley was that Matsuyama led the field in putting for the first time in his career. He gained nearly half of his strokes on the greens, which is always going to be a problem for everyone else.

For Matsuyama, it’s the latest addition to an underrated résumé that includes two WGC victories, a Memorial win, two Phoenix Opens, a Zozo Championship in his home country of Japan and that famous Masters triumph last April. He’s earned over $37 million in his career and has essentially been a top-10 player in the world for the last seven years.

It’s easy for Matsuyama to get a bit lost in the shuffle when Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth are swiping headlines, but he’s accomplished all of this before the age of 30, which both goes unnoticed and should be celebrated more than it is. This win ties him with K.J. Choi for the most all-time by an Asian-born player (8). Matsuyama has played just 203 official PGA Tour events, while Choi has played nearly 500 (though he won his eight in the first 300).

This was a terrific week for the PGA Tour, too. The week after the scoring record was reset at the Tournament of Champions, two perennially underrated golfers combined to shoot a best-ball 59 on Sunday with the tournament on the line, and the shot of the year was struck in a sleepy week with a below-average field. Another star built his narrative and his résumé with several big-time events just around the corner. If that’s what a mediocre weeks look like, imagine what the good ones are going to hold the rest of the year.

This is how it goes in golf, though. You never know when you’re going to see one of the great shots of the last few years. You never know when a run-of-the-mill golf tournament is going to deliver the finish of the season. You never know when the Masters champ is going to close like the superstar he is.

SOURCE: cbssports.com

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Three players briefly held the PGA Tour scoring record to par on Sunday at the Tournament of Champions

Imagine shooting 32 under, or better, over four rounds and losing a PGA Tour event. That’s what happened to multiple players at this year’s Tournament of Champions in a historic start to the 2022 PGA Tour year. Cameron Smith came out on top at 34 under on the week as he beat Jon Rahm (33 under) and Matt Jones (32 under) at Kapalua on Sunday for his fourth PGA Tour title.

All three, at one point on Sunday, held the 72-hole PGA Tour scoring record to par.

Jones finished first with a 12-under 61 after shooting 62 on Saturday in soft, windless conditions. His 23-under 123 on the weekend was the best 36-hole score in consecutive rounds in the history of the PGA Tour, and his 32 under on the week was, very briefly, the best 72-hole score to par ever. Still, it wasn’t enough to get the win or even to finish second.

Rahm finished next with a 7-under 66 to finish at 33 under on the week, and he briefly held the 72-hole PGA Tour scoring record to par after making a run at eagle on the 72nd hole that would have sent the event into a playoff. It was the end of a weekend in which he made 18 birdies and an eagle in his run at a first win of 2022.

Smith then finished off his 8-under 65 with a birdie — his 34th birdie or better on the week! — to get to 34 under and lock up that 72-hole scoring record and the victory. If it sounds like a whirlwind finish in Maui, that’s because it was with records falling multiple times, but Smith held on for the wire-to-wire win.

“It was intense,” Smith told Golf Channel. “Jon and I played well the whole day … unreal round and something I’ll never forget, for sure. I was just trying to hit one shot at a time. I know that sounds cliche. We wanted to get to 35 under, we missed it by one. In that sense, disappointing, but happy to come away with the win.”

The scoring record is certainly impressive, but given how soft conditions were all week, how little wind blew and how easy scoring normally is on this course, it’s not the most impressive part of Smith’s win. The most impressive part of Smith’s win is who he outlasted.

The 2022 Tournament of Champions will be remembered for the three guys who broke the all-time scoring record, and it should be. But don’t let that obscure how it should change the way you think of Smith. From a nice player who wins occasionally to legit threat to stand up to the very best players in the world in one of the best fields of the entire year. That’s a graduation of sorts for him, and it will be exciting to see how he applies that confidence throughout the rest of the season. Grade: A+

Here are the rest of our grades from the 2022 Tournament of Champions.

Jon Rahm (2nd): The wins have to fall at some point, right? Rahm is averaging around 3.0 strokes gained per round for eight straight months, and he only has a single trophy — albeit a very nice one at the U.S. Open — to show for it. I’m ecstatic for the rest of his year because clearly there is no dropoff coming. He was, understandably, a bit melancholy in the aftermath, but I legitimately think he could win three or four times throughout the rest of the year. Grade: A+

“It’s a weird feeling,” Rahm told Golf Channel. “I have every reason to be smiling right now except one. I’m in a bittersweet moment right now.”

Matt Jones (3rd): Imagine setting the PGA Tour scoring record and losing to two different guys!

“If you told me I would have shot 32 under, I would have been more than happy to sit in the clubhouse and let everyone play and see what happens,” said Jones after his historic 23-under 123 on the weekend.

Unfortunately for Jones, he would have lost either way. Still, finishing solo third is a big deal at a tournament like this one for somebody like Jones who will be trying to make it to the Tour Championship at East Lake later this year. Grade: A

Collin Morikawa (T5): The two-time major winner actually was second in the field in driving this week by a pretty wide margin, but a slow middle of his week — he lost strokes overall on his combined middle two rounds — meant his 62 on Sunday was well short of Rahm and Smith (and Jones!). Still, Morikawa said the finale was a buoy to him as he embarks on an encore year to the incredible start to his career. Why was that buoy needed? Well, he said he took a lot of time off over the holidays and needed something to get him rolling again as 2022 started. Grade: B

“I mean scores out here this week, obviously it was a little too late, but I needed it, I needed it just because as kind of a boost for the rest of the year. Coming into this week I didn’t really know exactly how the game was going to play out.”

Justin Thomas (T5): I said after his 74 in Round 1 on Thursday that J.T. had no chance of winning the tournament but could still finish in the top 10. He tried to prove me wrong for a bit on the weekend by setting the course record of 61 on Saturday to rocket up the leaderboard. But that 74 in Round 1 left him too far back to truly contend over the final 18 holes (he finished nine back of Smith). It was nice to see him catch some fire over the final three days, though, and the floor on him remains extraordinarily high from week to week. Grade: B

SOURCE: cbssports.com

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Though playing the game may be a non-starter in many areas, it doesn’t mean we can’t plan for our future golf rounds, whenever those might be. To help occupy the mind, consider these thoughts for ways to freshen up and upgrade your equipment.

Re-grip your clubs

What’s that you say? You don’t know how to do this? Come on, man. We’re in the age of do-it-yourself tasks. All you need is some two-way tape, solvent and grips. Remove your old grips and the tape underneath and clean the area with solvent. Place two-way tape on each side of the shaft. Pour some solvent in the grip (with your thumb covering the hole on the butt end) then put the solvent over the two-way tape then slide the grip on. Adjust it so it is on straight, then cut away any excess tape that is exposed. See, we knew you could do it.

Do a ball fitting … at home

You would think fitting might be one of the least likely activities you can take advantage of in these stay-at-home days, but with a little creativity and some technology, you’d be surprised. For example, there’s ball fitting, a complicated process that seemingly requires a launch monitor and your own personal data analytics team. Well, with Bridgestone’s VFit ball-fitting app, you can get a ball recommendation based on the swing data obtained from your smartphone’s camera. The system works best when you’re hitting a real ball, but you can hit a ball into a net or any other type of backstop. The VFit video is uploaded to Bridgestone’s ball-fitting team and a recommendation is returned within 24 hours that includes not only the right Bridgestone ball for you but also your swing data, including clubhead speed, ball speed, launch angle, spin rate, carry distance and total distance. As Bridgestone’s golf ball fitting manager Adam Rehberg said, “It’s simple and effective.”

Or a clubfitting with Ping via Zoom

Interesting times make for interesting ways to solve problems. In the case of Ping, how do you conduct clubfittings when you’re supposed to be social distancing? The solution: do them via Zoom. Ping is making its fitters available for 30-minute one-on-one fitting sessions where its fitters will use tools at their disposal as well as look at video of your swing and/or putting stroke to get you into the right clubs, shaft and set makeup. The Tele-Fittings are available in North America only and can be scheduled at ping-golf.appointlet.com. Watch the video below for more.

Clean your grooves

You’ve just hit a shot with one of your wedges and some of the dirt from impact is in the grooves. But instead of cleaning the dirt out, you just give the face a quick wipe with your freshly cleaned towel (see below) and leave it at that. That’s what we call an unforced error. Now, if you’re playing from the fairway, it won’t make much difference. But if you’re in the rough, the grooves are designed to channel away water and debris and assist spin. But that’s difficult to do if the groove is filled with dirt. And seriously, it’s not like you’re ripping the ball back on shots out of the rough. You need all the help you can get.

Wash your golf towel

You’ve spent the last month wiping down everything known to mankind, but still that towel adorning your bag hasn’t seen the inside of a washing machine since the first term of the Obama administration. In the meantime, you’ve wiped off many a filthy clubface and—come on, admit it—probably blown your nose in there once or twice. When we’re busy cleaning everything else, it’s time to throw the towel in as well.

Empty your bag of unnecessary items

Never has there been a better time to get rid of dead weight in your bag. Walking or pushing a cart are likely to be the norm for some time, so take everything (and we mean everything) out of your bag and only put back in what you absolutely have to. That means six balls max; two gloves, a scorer’s pencil (because it might be awhile before those are distributed) and maybe 10 tees, a ball marker and a rangefinder along with your 14 clubs. This will lighten the load considerably. Trust us, your back will thank you.

Throw out last year’s gloves

Parting is difficult, but gloves that have holes in them, have the cuff unraveling or are all crusted up are of zero value—even if they’re the only gloves you own. Toss those puppies out and start anew, buying two or three gloves that you can use in a rotation.

Upend your bag

As part of that bag purge, let’s not forget about all the crap that gets into the bottom of your bag. Take the clubs out and turn that sucker over and give it a shake. Along with dirt and grass we wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple of tees, maybe a bag tag or scorecard and possibly a coin or two. You don’t want all that mingling with your grips and it takes seconds to do. Hint: Do this in your driveway unless you want to add vacuuming to your chores for the day.

Buy a small carry bag or pushcart

Walking is now almost mandatory. That makes that steamer-trunk of a bag you have a liability. Now is probably the time to get online and purchase a lightweight carry bag and/or a pushcart to help get you around the course without undue fatigue. Walking is more enjoyable with the right equipment.

Work on your course management

In many places, the only golf a lot of folks are playing is in their heads. That can be an effective way to better understand strategy, but it’s even more effective if you’ve got artificial intelligence and your own statistical profile to guide you. That’s where Arccos Caddie comes in. The GPS-based stat-tracking app that records performance data through club sensors uses its machine-learning powered analytics through its Arccos Caddie Preview mode to show each user the best strategy to play every hole on a course, taking you through the round shot by shot and showing the best percentage plays in each situation. The feature is available after five full 18-hole rounds and shows you ideal strategies for any hole on any course in the world. It even will let you replay certain historical shots with predictions of your own personal stat-based probable outcome. Pro tip: We’re not liking your success rate at replicating Bubba Watson’s shot from the 2012 Masters playoff.

Take a hard look at your set makeup

Can’t play golf right now (or as much as you would like)? Take some time and play some imaginary rounds in your head. But instead of holing out on the 18th at Pebble Beach to snatch the U.S. Open from Tiger Woods, play your home course and be realistic. What shots are preventing you from scoring better? Maybe you’re flaring those long irons every time. Maybe you have wedge shots that you don’t have a wedge for? Perhaps you can’t turn your driver over off the tee, but a majority of holes have trouble on the right. What we’re talking about is set makeup. Maybe you need hybrids in place of long irons or another wedge. Whatever it is, now is a good time to do some set makeup soul searching.

Change out the cleats in your shoes

Now’s a great time to get a grip. That includes with your golf shoes. If they’re worn-down, they’re easy enough to replace yourself. In fact, most online golf retailers offer a cleat pack that also comes with a cleat wrench. In other words, no excuses. By the way, don’t wait for all the cleats to go. Cleats in certain parts of a shoe tend to wear out faster than others.

Clean your shoes

We know. Along with having the locker room attendant change your cleats, you also usually have them clean your shoes, too. But we live in a different time than we did a month or two ago. While easy to ignore doing these, some liquid soap and warm water along with a soft towel or soft bristle brush will get the job done. You’ll be so proud of yourself you’ll be tempted to drop yourself a few bucks as a tip.

Fiddle around with adjustability

If you’re playing, you’re not playing competitively. As such, it’s the perfect opportunity to tinker around with different settings on your adjustable clubs. Charles Howell III tries out his clubs in all the possible settings just to see what it does. There’s a lesson there. The settings might end up back where they were originally, but you might find something that’s a better option.

Trade in clubs

Now’s a great time to take inventory of all the clubs you will never use again and do a little research. The PGA.com Value Guide lists some 60 brands and more than 6,000 models that will be accepted as trade-ins, even online. And who doesn’t like free money?

Mark all your golf balls

We’re all guilty of it. We wait until we get to the first tee and then we mark our ball. If you still have those four dozen balls from the holidays, use your extra time to mark them as you normally would, leave them out for a few minutes, then put them back in their sleeves. Not only won’t you have to rush to mark your ball, but the marking won’t smudge on your first couple of shots.

Change the battery in your rangefinder

You know what sucks? Grabbing your rangefinder on the second hole and getting that flashing light that your battery is dead. Even if your battery isn’t at that level yet, unless you’ve changed the battery recently do so now. It beats the heck out of guessing at distances, pacing off yardages or looking for that 150 marker and holding up the groups behind you.

SOURCE: golfdigest.com

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