The Atlanta Hawks are using a high-tech virtual tour to give current and potential season ticket holders a glimpse of their renovated arena. With Philips Arena currently undergoing major renovations, the Hawks recently launched ”The Preview,” an interactive tour of the transformed
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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Two moments in Friday’s second round summed up the turbulent travails of super-group Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler. The first came when Woods’ caddie, Joe LaCava, tripped over Mickelson’s golf bag on the 18th green, the group’s ninth of the day. “I never brought it up again, but boy, I think Phil gave him a pretty good one,â€� said two-time PLAYERS champ Woods, who signed for a 1-under 71 and is the only one of the three players who emerged inside the cut line at 1-under total. The second moment was when 2015 PLAYERS champion Fowler, binoculars in hand, peered up into a tree that had eaten his golf ball at the sixth hole. He could never positively identify the ball and double-bogeyed the hole, then doubled the seventh hole, too, and signed for a 71 that left him 1-over and on the wrong side of the cut line. “Obviously didn’t make a great swing,â€� Fowler said of his tree shot, “but it’s five yards right of the fairway, and the marshals and fans were standing right there, saw it was in the tree. It hit and obviously got stuck up there. Unfortunately, the part of my ball that was showing was just all white and dimples; I couldn’t see any of my markings and so, yeah, couldn’t identify it, so back to the tee.â€� As for Mickelson, the 2007 winner here, he played slightly better with a 1-over 73 Friday, but the damage had already been done with his disastrous 79 in the first round. Although few might have guessed that only one member of this group would make the cut, Woods was the only one still standing as the tournament heads into the weekend rounds. “No, no, I have my own struggles,â€� Woods said, when asked if it was hard to focus amid the copious calamity in his group. “I have my own business I need to take care of. This golf course is so demanding, and it puts so much stress on you from tee to green, it’s very stressful, a very stressful ball-striking course because there really isn’t a let-off.â€� Woods played okay from tee to green, hitting eight of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens in regulation, but he suffered some uncharacteristic misses. He took dead aim with a wedge from 106 yards away on the fourth hole, but “stuck it in the ground and hit it long,â€� into the back bunker. He three-putted, he misread greens, he didn’t make much of any length. Mostly, though, he didn’t put himself in position to make birdies. TPC Sawgrass is often called a second-shot course, and Woods was not sharp with his irons, much as he wasn’t at the Masters. “I wasn’t close enough,â€� he said. “I didn’t hit the ball close enough and in the right—in a section where, yeah, I had those 10-, 12-footers and which I should do with my 9-iron on down. I didn’t leave myself hardly any of those opportunities today.â€� Well before he donned his much-chronicled long-sleeved golf shirt to play alongside Woods and Fowler, Mickelson worried aloud that he had worn himself out with his T5 at the Wells Fargo Championship last week. That turned out to be the case at THE PLAYERS. He made his fourth double-bogey in two days at the par-3 13th hole, his fourth hole of the day, and while his six birdies Friday were a vast improvement over the day before, he never threatened to make the cut. Mickelson’s other prophetic comment, prior to the first round: “I can’t believe I won here.â€� Fowler had birdied three of his last four holes and was well inside the cut line when he hit his ball into the top of a palm tree at the sixth hole. He had done the same thing at THE PLAYERS last year, on the 18th hole, but was able to identify his ball. This time, he could not. He tugged his tee shot into the water at the par-4 seventh hole, leading to his second straight double-bogey, and pars at the eighth and par-5 ninth were not enough. Fowler and Mickelson will now go home and regroup, while Woods gears up for the weekend. “Well, I got to shoot something in the probably mid 60s both days to get myself up there to have a chance or something,â€� he said. “Hopefully give myself some more looks. Feel like I’m putting well, I’m just never inside that range which I should be with the irons I’m having.â€�
Tiger Woods’ 1-under-71 Friday has him flirting with the cut while Rickie Fowler and Phil Mickelson both faltered at the Players Championship.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Fifty-three weeks ago, Amanda Hadley felt helpless as she watched her husband compete at the Wells Fargo Championship. His slump had become so severe that he’d considered taking an indefinite leave from the game. Now Chesson Hadley was struggling to two scores in the mid-70s at Eagle Point Golf Club in Wilmington, North Carolina. He had no idea how to fix a game that was good enough to win on the PGA TOUR just three years earlier. “It was the saddest for me watching him, that tournament. He just looked lost,� she said. “That’s heartbreaking to watch. I think that’s when he actually hit rock bottom.� Now Chesson Hadley is near the top of THE PLAYERS Championship leaderboard. The first-round co-leader shot a 69 early Friday to finish 36 holes at 9 under par. Despite playing his final two holes in 3 over, he was a stroke behind co-leaders Charl Schwartzel and Patrick Cantlay after the morning wave was finished. “I did a lot of great things, and I’m really not worried about the last two holes for a second,� Chesson Hadley said. He hit his tee shot into the water at No. 17 and failed to get up-and-down from right of the 18th green. Every player in the field will likely endure a similar stretch this week. Such is the nature of the penal Stadium Course. That’s why resiliency is a requirement for any PLAYERS champion. Chesson Hadley’s trials over the past year should come in handy as he chases the largest title of his career. He was 588th in the world ranking a year ago and wasn’t at TPC Sawgrass for the first time in four years. He was back on the Web.com Tour and in a “dark spot, not only in golf but in life,� he said. “He knew what was wrong, but he didn’t know how to fix it,� Amanda Hadley said. Chesson Hadley started to see his game turn around after reuniting with longtime swing coach, Jeff Patton, last spring. He finished second at the Rex Hospital Open in his hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina, in June, then won the LECOM Health Challenge the following month. He sobbed into his baseball cap after his win was complete. “You start to spiral, lose your confidence and get negative,� he said that day. “I’ve gone from the top to the bottom and it doesn’t take long.� Another win came in the Web.com Tour Finals, earning Chesson Hadley the Web.com Tour’s Player of the Year award. Then he began the PGA TOUR season with three consecutive top-four finishes. He’s risen more than 500 spots in the world ranking since and is now 19th in the FedExCup. His six top-10s this season are second-most on TOUR. “It certainly is something to be proud of, to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and move forward when you’re kind of down, scraping the bottom of the barrel,� Chesson Hadley said. “You can only dwell on that for so long. You have to keep moving forward and getting better.� The statistics say that iron play has been his biggest improvement. He is fourth on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green (+0.97) after ranking 91st and 143rd in that statistic in his previous two PGA TOUR seasons. His confidence with those clubs has allowed him to play safely on the Stadium Course’s tee shots that make him uncomfortable. He’s hit 20 of 28 greens this week and leads the field in Strokes Gained: Putting, gaining nearly 8 strokes on the greens through two rounds. He made a 44-footer to birdie the fifth hole in the first round and a 24-footer for birdie on No. 15 on Friday. He had an 11-foot eagle putt at the next hole to reach 13 under, but missed that opportunity. “Off the top of my head, I think it was the first time I saw him miss when he had a chance,� said playing partner Matthew Fitzpatrick. “He holed everything he looked at.� Hadley has made all 30 putts from inside 10 feet this week, including all seven from 5-10 feet. He needed just 24 putts Thursday, during what he described as a “blackout� performance on the greens, and 27 on Friday. He already has won once at TPC Sawgrass, at the 2013 Web.com Tour Championship. That tournament was played on the property’s other course, Dye’s Valley. Hadley won two Web.com Tour titles that year, then won the Puerto Rico Open and was named the PGA TOUR’s 2014 Rookie of the Year. He was flirting with the top 50 in the world ranking after his win in Puerto Rico. He finished 49th in the FedExCup as a rookie but fell to 98th the following season. He missed 13 of 27 cuts in 2016 and finished 159th in the FedExCup to lose his card. “It’s a testimony to his character to get as far down as he did and come back up,� Amanda Hadley said. “I would attribute that to his faith and to his work ethic. … I knew he was going to bounce back. It just depended on how long it was going to take.� From considering quitting to contending at THE PLAYERS, Chesson Hadley has come a long way in a year.
This series has it all. Two former MVPs and this year’s likely winner. An all-time sharpshooter and a playmaking legend looking to exorcise playoff demons.
This series has it all. Two former MVPs and this year’s likely winner. An all-time sharpshooter and a playmaking legend looking to exorcise playoff demons.
Ahead of Rockets vs. Warriors, here are three pressing questions to consider when the NBA’s two best teams lock horns in the Western Conference finals.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Fifty-three weeks ago, Amanda Hadley felt helpless as she watched her husband compete at the Wells Fargo Championship. His slump had become so severe that he’d considered taking an indefinite leave from the game. Now Chesson Hadley was struggling to two scores in the mid-70s at Eagle Point Golf Club in Wilmington, North Carolina. He had no idea how to fix a game that was good enough to win on the PGA TOUR just three years earlier. “It was the saddest for me watching him, that tournament. He just looked lost,� she said. “That’s heartbreaking to watch. I think that’s when he actually hit rock bottom.� Now Chesson Hadley is near the top of THE PLAYERS Championship leaderboard. The first-round co-leader shot a 69 early Friday to finish 36 holes at 9 under par. Despite playing his final two holes in 3 over, he was a stroke behind co-leaders Charl Schwartzel and Patrick Cantlay after the morning wave was finished. “I did a lot of great things, and I’m really not worried about the last two holes for a second,� Chesson Hadley said. He hit his tee shot into the water at No. 17 and failed to get up-and-down from right of the 18th green. Every player in the field will likely endure a similar stretch this week. Such is the nature of the penal Stadium Course. That’s why resiliency is a requirement for any PLAYERS champion. Chesson Hadley’s trials over the past year should come in handy as he chases the largest title of his career. He was 588th in the Official World Golf Ranking a year ago and wasn’t at TPC Sawgrass for the first time in four years. He was back on the Web.com Tour and in a “dark spot, not only in golf but in life,� he said. “He knew what was wrong, but he didn’t know how to fix it,� Amanda Hadley said. Chesson Hadley started to see his game turn around after reuniting with longtime swing coach, Jeff Paton, last spring. He finished second at the Rex Hospital Open in his hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina, in June, then won the LECOM Health Challenge the following month. He sobbed into his baseball cap after his win was complete. “You start to spiral, lose your confidence and get negative,� he said that day. “I’ve gone from the top to the bottom, and it doesn’t take long.� Another win came in the Web.com Tour Finals, earning Chesson Hadley the Web.com Tour’s Player of the Year award. Then he began the PGA TOUR season with three consecutive top-four finishes. He has risen more than 500 spots in the world ranking since and is now 19th in the FedExCup. His six top-10s this season are second-most on TOUR. “It certainly is something to be proud of, to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and move forward when you’re kind of down, scraping the bottom of the barrel,� Chesson Hadley said. “You can only dwell on that for so long. You have to keep moving forward and getting better.� The statistics say that iron play has been his biggest improvement. He is fourth on the PGA TOUR in strokes gained: approach-the-green (+0.97) after ranking 91st and 143rd in that statistic in his previous two PGA TOUR seasons. His confidence with those clubs has allowed him to play safely on the Stadium Course’s tee shots that make him uncomfortable. He has hit 20 of 28 greens this week and leads the field in strokes gained: putting, gaining nearly eight strokes on the greens through two rounds. He made a 44-footer to birdie the fifth hole in the first round and a 24-footer for birdie on No. 15 on Friday. He had an 11-foot eagle putt at the next hole to reach 13 under, but missed that opportunity. “Off the top of my head, I think it was the first time I saw him miss when he had a chance,� said playing partner Matthew Fitzpatrick. “He holed everything he looked at.� Hadley has made all 30 putts from inside 10 feet this week, including all seven from 5 to 10 feet. He needed just 24 putts Thursday, during what he described as a “blackout� performance on the greens, and 27 on Friday. He already has won once at TPC Sawgrass, at the 2013 Web.com Tour Championship. That tournament was played on the property’s other course, Dye’s Valley. Hadley won two Web.com Tour titles that year, then won the Puerto Rico Open and was named the PGA TOUR’s 2014 Rookie of the Year. He was flirting with the top 50 in the world ranking after his win in Puerto Rico. He finished 49th in the FedExCup as a rookie but fell to 98th the following season. He missed 13 of 27 cuts in 2016 and finished 159th in the FedExCup to lose his card. “It’s a testimony to his character to get as far down as he did and come back up,� Amanda Hadley said. “I would attribute that to his faith and to his work ethic. … I knew he was going to bounce back. It just depended on how long it was going to take.� From considering quitting to contending at THE PLAYERS, Chesson Hadley has come a long way in a year.
Tiger Woods reacts to a missed putt on the 14th green during the second round of The Players Championship. PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tiger Woods stepped to his 11-foot putt on the iconic 17th green here, eyed it for a while, and then left it six inches short. The island green at The Players Championship is one of the loudest spots in golf, with grandstands nearly all around.
