Soto getting MRI on calf after leaving Nats gameSoto getting MRI on calf after leaving Nats game
The Nationals say Juan Soto is undergoing an MRI on his calf to determine the extent of the injury suffered Sunday vs. the Marlins.
Day: July 3, 2022
Five Things to Know: The Renaissance ClubFive Things to Know: The Renaissance Club
The Genesis Scottish Open celebrates its 50th anniversary with a new chapter in the tournament’s history. The national open for the birthplace of the royal and ancient game is making its debut as a co-sanctioned event on both the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour. Fourteen of the top 15 players in the world are scheduled to compete at The Renaissance Club in one of the strongest fields of the year. To prepare you for this historic week, here are 5 Things to Know about the venue for the Genesis Scottish Open, The Renaissance Club in North Berwick. It was designed by an American but fits in among its historic neighbors in the golf-rich East Lothian region of Scotland. 1. MODERN LOOK, HISTORIC SETTING It was in 1744 that the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers established 13 rules for the game of golf. That was three decades before the United States declared independence from Great Britain. The Honourable Company found a permanent home at Muirfield in 1891. Muirfield, which remains part of The Open rota, borders The Renaissance Club, which is a modern venue in this historic setting. It was not a group of 18th-century Scotsmen who founded The Renaissance Club, but instead a group of Americans in the 20th century. The Sarvadi family was in Pinehurst, North Carolina, two decades ago when an associate asked if they’d be interested in building a course in Scotland. That associate was Don Lewis, whose father-in-law, Pandel Savic, was one of the co-founders of Jack Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village (a course that Nicklaus named after Scotland’s Muirfield, the setting of his first triumph in The Open). Jerry Sarvadi, who made his fortune in aviation fuel, took the lead among the nine siblings. He was invited to play Muirfield shortly before the 2002 Open Championship and loved what he saw in the neighboring property. He met with trustees from the proposed site of the new course, which was owned by the Duke of Hamilton, and after multiple trips to Scotland, signed a 99-year lease in 2005. The Sarvadis added another American to the fold, hiring Tom Doak to design the course. Doak hails from Michigan but has plenty of experience working with the firm seaside turf that’s best suited for links courses, most notably at Oregon’s Bandon Dunes Resort, where he built Pacific Dunes. That course, ranked 18th in Golf Digest’s list of top courses in the United States, opened in 2001. Doak, one of today’s most prominent architects, is known for using short grass, dramatic slopes and firm conditions to create a challenge, much like Augusta National’s architect, Alister Mackenzie, about whom Doak wrote a book. Doak’s other top 100 designs include Sebonack Golf Club in New York, Colorado’s Ballyneal, the Old Macdonald course at Bandon Dunes and Montana’s Rock Creek Cattle Company. “Our intent was always to create a course that feels like it belongs on that site and on the coast of East Lothian,” said Doak, a scholar of global golf architecture who spent his first year out of college caddying at St. Andrews and studying the great courses of the U.K., just as his mentor, Pete Dye, had done. The result at The Renaissance Club is not an American-influenced course in Scotland, but a tribute to Scottish golf that was created by Americans. 2. THE MUIRFIELD TRADE While trees are mostly absent from Scottish courses, The Renaissance Club was built on a site that featured 300 acres of pine trees and needed 8,500 tons of wood cleared. According to Sarvadi, the property’s unusual treeline was the result of Britain’s Forestry Commission planting large stands of pine and sycamore after World War II. When the team from The Renaissance Club pulled out tree stumps, they found pure sand beneath the trees. Upon opening, Sarvadi and Doak kept a chunk of trees on the property. These well-placed pines exert their influence on some tee shots and approach shots. Many of them were still present when the Scottish Open arrived in 2019, but a batch of trees were stripped from the land before the 2020 event, altering the aesthetics of the track. The trees actually proved to be an important trade asset for The Renaissance Club, as they also served to shroud neighboring Muirfield. “Muirfield owned all the dunes to the north of the course,” Doak recalls. “But The Renaissance Club owned the woods right up to the wall at the eighth green of Muirfield, so to protect that boundary … the (Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers) offered to trade a bit of their land in the dunes, which we happily accepted.” Doak told The Fried Egg podcast last year that “for all Muirfield knew, we’d knock down all the trees and build a hole right there and wave at the members of Muirfield.” Doak says Sarvadi and the team never planned on doing this, but nonetheless, the leverage was useful. Along with establishing a defined buffer, Muirfield used some of its acquired land to move around the ninth tee box during the 2013 Open Championship. Meanwhile, The Renaissance Club applied to extend its course into the newly-acquired dunes, a process that took approximately five years. When given the green light, Doak was brought back in to make three new holes directly on the coast. Those holes are Nos. 9, 10 and 11 on a normal day and Nos. 12, 13 and 14 for the Scottish Open. 3. PATH TO THE COAST Starting with the 10th hole, a short par-5 that is the seventh hole for everyday play, viewers this week will watch as the course marches out toward the Firth of Forth. The next hole is a long par-4 that can be stretched to 510 yards and sometimes plays into the wind. Then comes The Renaissance Club’s signature stretch along the dunes. “The prettiest view on the course is when you walk up onto the 12th and the lighthouse on Fidra (an uninhabited island in the Firth of Forth) comes into view after you couldn’t quite see it from the tee,” Doak said. “Then the next hole plays right along cliffs with a secluded beach to the left. And then at the 14th, you turn around and play back toward Arthur’s Seat (an ancient volcano) in Edinburgh around the curve of the shoreline.” Nos. 12 and 14 for the Genesis Scottish Open are par 3s, while No. 13 is par 4. It’s a beautiful stretch for players making the turn on a normal day, but the routing is altered for the Genesis Scottish Open to avoid shuttling players to the far side of the course for a 10th-tee start. The tournament uses the regular routing’s first six holes before closing out the front nine with what the members play as Nos. 16, 14 and 15. The tournament’s back nine starts on the members’ seventh hole. Nos. 7-13 are the opening of the back nine for the Genesis Scottish Open before the layout concludes with the same two holes that the members finish on. This routing may lead to some longer walks between holes, but it does keep half the field from starting with the treacherous tee shot along the cliffs on No. 13 (No. 10 on the normal layout). 4. HARRINGTON’S HELP While The Renaissance Club has a uniquely American history for a Scottish course, it recently enlisted a links legend to improve it for tournament play. Padraig Harrington, who’s twice hoisted the Claret Jug, was brought on as a player consultant shortly before last year’s Genesis Scottish Open. “From the beginning, the goal for The Renaissance Club was to host big events, but that was back in 2005, and the best players just keep getting better,” Doak said at the time. Harrington, who also served as the European captain in last year’s Ryder Cup, noted that his job would be to both pass along his own ideas to Doak while also gathering feedback from the top professionals in the world. “Padraig has been great, both as a sounding board for my ideas on changes and as a source of ideas himself,” Doak says. “I was always taught not to take the driver out of players’ hands, but it’s a new era, and he has underscored that we needed to tighten the landing areas of the longer holes or the game is too easy for these guys. Sometimes it’s an added bunker (to the right of the first) and sometimes just some added contour so they’ll have to hit from an awkward lie if they bail away to the safe side of the fairway. Most of all, though, Padraig has been steady in saying the course is a good test and we don’t want to overreact to the low scores just as players are starting to come around to it.” The winning score in the three Genesis Scottish Opens at The Renaissance Club has been 22, 11 and 18 under par. Soft and calm conditions are a big reason for that. “In particular, we are looking to strengthen the par-5 holes, where a lot of the red numbers come from,” Doak said. “But we have been going slowly with changes because the truth is that over 12 rounds, the pros have yet to see the course with firm conditions and the normally strong winds from the west. You have to design a links course to be playable in strong winds, but if it rains just before the tournament every year, they’re going to keep shooting low scores.” Harrington, who also has twice won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews, arrives at this year’s Genesis Scottish Open on the heels of his win at the U.S. Senior Open. He’ll also be in the field at St. Andrews as a past Open champion. 5. WAITING FOR WIND A lack of wind is one reason for the low scores thus far at The Renaissance Club. Courses built along the Scottish coast have to be designed with the wind in mind, but Scottish Open competitors have yet to see the course in the most difficult conditions. “It’s designed around windy conditions and so far, the Scottish Open weeks have been unusually calm, apart from one very nasty round in 2020,” Doak said. It’s also worth noting that the 2020 Genesis Scottish Open was played in October because of the COVID-19 pandemic. If the expected wind hits this week, The Renaissance Club should play to its full challenging potential. “The windier and firmer it is, the more ball-striking plays a premium,” Doak says. “If it’s soft, it becomes more of a putting contest, and that’s not what the best players want to see. There are a few greens with some really tricky short-game shots – the back pin on the 18th is one, but more of them are on the front nine, as well as the shots around the 10th and 11th greens.”
Dodgers’ Betts returns after 15-game absenceDodgers’ Betts returns after 15-game absence
Mookie Betts was reinstated from the injured list Sunday and was in the lineup against the Padres, playing right field.
1B coach away from Jays after daughter’s death1B coach away from Jays after daughter’s death
Mark Budzinski, the Blue Jays’ first-base coach, is away from the team after the death of his eldest daughter.
Inside the Field: Genesis Scottish OpenInside the Field: Genesis Scottish Open
Scroll below for the Genesis Scottish Open field list as of Sunday, July 3: Check here for updates. Top 30 on prior season’s FedExCup Patrick Cantlay Jon Rahm Justin Thomas Xander Schauffele Viktor Hovland Billy Horschel Jason Kokrak Cameron Smith Sam Burns Harris English Jordan Spieth Sungjae Im Scottie Scheffler Corey Conners Erik van Rooyen Collin Morikawa Hideki Matsuyama Stewart Cink Joaquin Niemann Current leaders in FedExCup Will Zalatoris Max Homa Matt Fitzpatrick Tom Hoge Cameron Young Sepp Straka J.J. Spaun Luke List Mito Pereira Keegan Bradley Cameron Tringale K.H. Lee Sebastián Muñoz Keith Mitchell Maverick McNealy Mackenzie Hughes Lucas Herbert Matt Kuchar Marc Leishman Chris Kirk Si Woo Kim Harold Varner III Tyrrell Hatton Sahith Theegala Anirban Lahiri Troy Merritt Gary Woodland Joel Dahmen Matthew NeSmith Brian Harman Tommy Fleetwood Alex Smalley Kurt Kitayama Alex Noren Danny Lee Aaron Rai Patrick Rodgers Justin Rose Russell Knox David Lipsky Jhonattan Vegas Christiaan Bezuidenhout Andrew Putnam Brandon Wu Nick Watney Wyndham Clark Taylor Moore Lucas Glover Dylan Frittelli Nick Taylor Ryan Palmer Lee Hodges Players from DP World Tour Eligibility Ranking Francesco Molinari Henrik Stenson Danny Willett Min Woo Lee Brandon Stone Thorbjørn Olesen Chris Wood Haotong Li Kalle Samooja Victor Perez Adria Arnaus Ewen Ferguson Ashun Wu Ryan Fox Nicolai Hojgaard Rafa Cabrera Bello Rasmus Hojgaard Garrick Higgo Dean Burmester Jorge Campillo Sami Valimaki Steven Brown Sebastian Soderberg Andrea Pavan Marcus Kinhult Mikko Korhonen Stephen Gallacher Scott Hend Thriston Lawrence Joachim B Hansen Jeff Winther Kristoffer Broberg Johannes Veerman Grant Forrest Daniel Gavins Nacho Elvira Jonathan Caldwell Marcus Armitage John Catlin Daniel van Tonder Antoine Rozner Padraig Harrington Thomas Bjørn Luke Donald Robert MacIntyre Alexander Björk Guido Migliozzi Jason Scrivener Thomas Detry Jamie Donaldson Adrian Meronk Francesco Laporta Sean Crocker Masahiro Kawamura Joakim Lagergren Maximilian Kieffer Tapio Pulkkanen James Morrison Andy Sullivan Edoardo Molinari Fabrizio Zanotti Matthieu Pavon Shubhankar Sharma Jordan L Smith Kiradech Aphibarnrat Richie Ramsay Matthew Jordan Jazz Janewattananond David Horsey Jack Senior Matt Wallace Maverick Antcliff Rikard Karlberg Wil Besseling Three Korean Players from KPGA Bio Kim Joohyung Kim Jaekyeong Lee Sponsor’s exemption (restricted) Charley Hoffman Callum Tarren Alternate List Rickie Fowler Michael Thompson
Five Things to Know: The Renaissance ClubFive Things to Know: The Renaissance Club
The first Scottish Open was played 50 years ago in 1972, as Neil Coles edged Brian Huggett in a playoff at Downfield Golf Club. Coles won £2,000 as the champion after holing a 12-foot putt on the second extra hole. In 2022, for the first time, the Scottish Open will be co-sanctioned by both the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR. With one week to go before The Open Championship at St Andrews, the best of the world will collide across the Firth of Forth at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick. But these 18 holes in East Lothian are not without American influence, going back to their founding. 1. Modern Scottish-American look It was in 1744 that The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers established the 13 rules of golf. For reference, that was before the United States had even declared independence from Great Britain. In 1891, the club would find a permanent home at Muirfield, which today, borders The Renaissance Club. The Renaissance Club has a more modern history. And it doesn’t involve 18th Century Scotsmen, but rather a group of Americans. In 2002, the Sarvadi Family was on a golf trip at Pinehurst when an associate asked them a question, “You want to build a golf course in Scotland?” That associate was Don Lewis, whose father-in-law Pandel Savic was one of the co-founders of Muirfield Village with Jack Nicklaus. Among the nine Sarvadi siblings, Jerry, who made his fortune in aviation fuel, took the lead. He was invited to play Muirfield shortly before the 2002 Open Championship and loved what he saw in the neighboring property. He met with trustees from the proposed golf course land, which was owned by the Duke of Hamilton. Multiple trips to Scotland followed and in 2005, Jerry signed a 99-year lease. Working with a U.S.-based limited liability partner and a UK investment business, the Sarvadi Family owns 66 percent of the club, while the Hamilton-Kinneil Family Trust own the rest. The Sarvadi Family added another American to the fold, hiring Tom Doak to design the course. However, Doak, a scholar of global golf architecture, who spent his first year out of college in the United Kingdom and once wrote a whole book on English design legend Alister MacKenzie, says, “Our intent was always to create a course that feels like it belongs on that site and on the coast of East Lothian.” The result is not an American-influenced course in Scotland, but a tribute to Scottish golf that happens to be funded, designed and appreciated by Americans. 2. The Muirfield Trade While trees are mostly absent from Scottish courses, The Renaissance Club replaced a landmass that featured 300 acres of pine trees and needed 8,500 tonnes of wood cleared. According to Sarvadi, the property’s unusual treeline was the result of Britain’s Forestry Commission planting large stands of pine and sycamore after World War II. When the team from The Renaissance Club pulled out tree stumps, they found pure sand beneath the trees. Upon opening, Sarvadi and Doak kept a chunk of trees on the property, influencing some tee shots and approach shots. Many of these were still present when the Scottish Open arrived in 2019, but a batch of trees were stripped from the land before the 2020 event, altering the aesthetics of the track. The trees actually proved to be an important trade asset for The Renaissance Club, as they provided a forest of mystery. “Muirfield owned all the dunes to the north of the course,” Doak recalls. “But The Renaissance Club owned the woods right up to the wall at the 8th green of Muirfield, so to protect that boundary, and their access to the dunes in back, the HCEG offered to trade a bit of their land in the dunes, which we happily accepted.” In 2021, Doak told The Fried Egg, “For all Muirfield knew, we’d knock down all the trees and build a hole right there and wave at the members of Muirfield.” Doak says Sarvadi and the team never planned on doing this, but nonetheless, the leverage was useful. Along with establishing a defined forest buffer, Muirfield used some of its land to move around the 9th tee box during the 2013 Open Championship. Meanwhile, The Renaissance Club applied for extending its golf layout into the newly-purchased dunes, a process that would take roughly five years to get planning permission approval. When given the green light, Doak was brought back to make three new holes directly on the coast, which make up No. 9, 10 and 11 on a normal day and No. 12, 13 and 14 for the Scottish Open. 3. Path to the coast Without the Muirfield trade, it is hard to imagine the Scottish Open being played at The Renaissance Club. On TV this week, starting with the 10th hole (7th hole for members), viewers will watch the march out to the Scottish coast. That hole is a short par 5, while the 11th hole is a long par 4 that can play 510 yards sometimes into the wind. What follows is The Renaissance Club’s siganture stretch along the dunes. “The prettiest view on the course is when you walk up onto the 12th and the lighthouse on Fidra comes into view after you couldn’t quite see it from the tee,” Doak says. “Then the next hole plays right along cliffs with a secluded beach to the left. And then at the 14th, you turn around and play back toward Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh around the curve of the shoreline.” No. 12 and 14 are par 3s, while No. 13 is par 4. As No. 12 and No. 13 usually play as the turn, players will have to navigate a patch of natural dunegrass and moss Doak was not permitted to alter while they hike to the 13th tee. This stretch may be beautiful for players making the turn on a normal day, but the Scottish Open found it would not make sense to shuttle half the field out to the coast on Thursday and Friday. Thus, adjustments were made to make the front nine holes 1-6, 16, 14 and 15, while the back nine is 7-13, 17 and 18. Doak admits this leads to some longer-than-usual walks between holes, but it does avoid having half the field start with the treacherous tee shot along the cliffs on No. 13 (No. 10 on the normal layout). As for future coastal plans in East Lothian, Muirfield owns roughly 200 more acres of dunes along the water, but for now, it does not appear Muirfield or any other golf entity will be getting permission to bulldoze through that land. 4. When will the wind blow? While many American courses may be characterized by their green shapes or treelines or hazards, a coastal course in Scotland has to start with one natural factor: wind. “It’s designed around windy conditions and so far, the Scottish Open weeks have been unusually calm, apart from one very nasty round in 2020,” Doak says. To the critics of The Renaissance Club’s lenient scores (notably a Northern Irishmen by the name of Rory McIlroy), Doak believes patience is needed. It is also worth noting the 2020 edition of the Scottish Open took place in October due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If the expected wind hits in July, The Renaissance Club should play to its full challenging potential. “The windier and firmer it is, the more ball-striking plays a premium,” Doak says. “If it’s soft, it becomes more of a putting contest, and that’s not what the best players want to see. There are a few greens with some really tricky short-game shots – the back pin on the 18th is one, but more of them are on the front nine, as well as the shots around the 10th and 11th greens.” With Jon Rahm among those headlining the field, Doak better hope the wind picks up or he might get hit by some stray muttering. As for the greens in relation to The Open, depending on the year, The Renaissance Club could be a great tune-up. This is not one of those years. “Last year, Colin Morikawa said he was glad to have played, so he could adjust to the slower green speeds in the UK. The [DP World] Tour coordinates with the R&A to have the green speeds the same for both events,” Doak says. “We actually built our greens flatter than my usual, thinking they’d be faster for the tournament, but the greens at Sandwich and St Andrews (and their exposure to the wind) require slower speeds.” 5. Padraig Harrington’s help While The Renaissance Club has a unique American history for a Scottish course, it recently added the assistance of a links legend. Just before the 2021 Scottish Open, Padraig Harrington, a six-time PGA TOUR winner, with two Open Championship titles, was named as a player consultant for the course. Harrington noted that his job would be to both pass along his own golf course ideas to Doak, while also gathering feedback from the top professionals in the world, coming through The Renaissance Club for the Scottish Open. “Padraig has been great, both as a sounding board for my ideas on changes and as a source of ideas himself,” Doak says. “I was always taught not to take the driver out of players’ hands, but it’s a new era, and he has underscored that we needed to tighten the landing areas of the longer holes or the game is too easy for these guys. Sometimes it’s an added bunker (to the right of the first) and sometimes just some added contour so they’ll have to hit from an awkward lie if they bail away to the safe side of the fairway. Most of all, though, Padraig has been steady in saying the course is a good test and we don’t want to overreact to the low scores just as players are starting to come around to it.” One influential player in particular has expressed some candid thoughts on The Renaissance Club. During the club’s Scottish Open debut in 2019, McIlroy claimed the setup was not difficult enough for the best players in the world. The winning score of 22-under that year was and still is a Scottish Open record. “We have a lot of respect for Rory McIlroy’s opinion and I hope I will have a chance to speak to him directly about the course one of these days,” Doak says. “That’s one reason the club enlisted Padraig Harrington to provide some input from the players’ side. In particular, we are looking to strengthen the par-5 holes, where a lot of the red numbers come from. But we have been going slowly with changes because the truth is that over twelve rounds, the pros have yet to see the course with firm conditions and the normally strong winds from the west. You have to design a links course to be playable in strong winds, but if it rains just before the tournament every year, they’re going to keep shooting low scores.” Harrington, who just conquered a USGA layout in the U.S. Senior Open, finished 11-under at The Renaissance Club in 2021, good for a T18 finish.
Adrian Meronk becomes first Polish winner on DP World Tour with Horizon Irish Open winAdrian Meronk becomes first Polish winner on DP World Tour with Horizon Irish Open win
THOMASTOWN, Ireland (AP) — Adrian Meronk became Poland’s first winner on the DP World Tour Sunday with a superb closing stretch at Mount Juliet for a 6-under 66 and a three-shot victory in the Horizon Irish Open. Meronk was one shot behind Ryan Fox of New Zealand with four holes remaining when he went birdie-birdie-eagle to give himself room for error on the tough closing hole. He made par and walked off the 18th green soaked in a champagne celebration. “It’s such a relief,” Meronk said. “After coming quite close a couple of times, to finally open the door it’s just a dream come true.” Fox closed with a 64, and he feared a bogey on the final hole might cost him in the end. Meronk played so well over the closing stretch that it didn’t matter. Meronk, who finished at 20-under 268, Fox and Thriston Lawrence (67) already were exempt for the British Open. The three spots available from the Irish Open went to American John Catlin, David Law of Scotland and Fabrizio Zanotti of Paraguay. They all finished on 273. Meronk, who played college golf at East Tennessee State, will be the first Polish player in the Open Championship at St. Andrews in two weeks. That’s a label he knows well. He already was the first Pole in the U.S. Open last year at Torrey Pines, and the first to even earn a DP World Tour card. And now he’s the first winner, the best title of all. He had finished two shots behind in Qatar and Catalunya this year, and a month ago missed the Dutch Open playoff by one shot. Meronk made sure there was no tight finish in Ireland. His big run started with a 25-foot birdie putt that broke sharply to the left on the 15th hole to tie Fox for the lead. From the left rough on the 16th, he hit gap wedge to 18 feet for birdie to take the lead. The clincher came at the par-5 17th when his second shot was just short of the green, leaving an uphill putt from 25 feet that made for eagle and a three-shot advantage. He finished strong with a 7-iron to the middle of the green and two putts for par. He was sprayed with a bottle of champagne and then took a drink before raising it to the gallery. “When I hit the green on 18 is the moment I realized, ‘That’s it.’ I’m just super happy,” he said.
The First Look: Genesis Scottish OpenThe First Look: Genesis Scottish Open
The Genesis Scottish Open makes its debut as a co-sanctioned event between the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR with a player field split between members of both Tours. The FedExCup’s top-ranked golfer Scottie Scheffler leads the way, while nine of the top-10 in the world are set to tee it up. FIELD NOTES: There will be 75 golfers from the PGA TOUR in the field, 75 from the DP World Tour, three from the KPGA, and three unrestricted sponsor exemptions… The 75 PGA TOUR players come from those who qualified for the 2021 TOUR Championship, sponsor exemptions, and the top available players from the FedExCup standings through the U.S. Open… Plenty of notables are teeing it up in Scotland including last season’s FedExCup winner Patrick Cantlay, recent winner Xander Schauffele, PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas, the current FedExCup leader Scottie Scheffler, and former world No.1 Jon Rahm… Matt Fitzpatrick, who lost in a playoff at the Scottish Open a year ago, will tee it up for the first time since his U.S. Open triumph… Min Woo Lee, who defeated Fitzpatrick and Thomas Detry in the three-way playoff in 2021, returns to defend… Nine of the top-10 ranked golfers in the world are set to play in Scotland… Rickie Fowler, who won this event in 2015, is one of the Sponsor Exemptions… Bob MacIntyre is the highest-ranked Scotsman who is teeing it up. He’s looking to become the first local to win the Scottish Open since Colin Montgomerie in 1999. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: The Renaissance Club, par 71, 7,293 yards (yardage subject to change). Opened in 2007 in North Berwick, The Renaissance Club has already hosted lots of championship golf. This year will mark the fourth edition of the Scottish Open to be contested at the Tom Doak design. The course is located between North Berwick and Muirfield, both iconic Open Championship layouts. The course has a reputation as a tough driving layout. The average winning score has been 17 under. Each of the three previous editions of the Genesis Scottish Open contested at The Renaissance Club have gone into playoffs. STORYLINES: By field strength, the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open is set to be the strongest in DP World Tour history… Three spots are available for golfers not already qualified to earn their way into The Open Championship… This marks the first year that the Genesis Scottish Open is co-sanctioned between the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour. It’s one of three events with such a distinction. The Barbasol Championship, played opposite to the Scottish Open this week in Kentucky is one, while the Barracuda Championship (next week opposite The Open Championship), is the other. The three co-sanctioned events are just one example of the strengthened strategic alliance between the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour. 72-HOLE RECORD: 262, Bernd Wiesberger (2019) 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Bernd Wiesberger (2nd round, 2019) LAST TIME: Min Woo Lee defeated Matt Fitzpatrick and Thomas Detry in a playoff with a birdie on the first extra hole to win for the second time on the DP World Tour. Lee, who fired a sizzling Sunday 64, topped a serious field that included Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas – who both finished in the top 10. There was a 90-minute weather delay late in the final round, but it didn’t quash Lee’s momentum, who had earlier birdied six holes in a row. The previous week’s DP World Tour winner, Lucas Herbert (he won the Irish Open) finished just one shot back of joining the playoff at 18 under. Lee and Detry earned spots in The Open Championship with their finishes along with England’s Jack Senior, who finished tied for 10th. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. ET (Golf Channel – World Feed), 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. (Golf Channel), 12 p.m.-3 p.m. (CBS) For outside of the U.S., click here for GOLFTV powered by the PGA TOUR Radio: Thursday-Friday, 8 a.m.–1:30 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio PGA TOUR Live (All times ET): PGA TOUR LIVE PGA TOUR Live is available exclusively on ESPN+ • Main Feed: primary tournament-coverage featuring the best action from across the course • Marquee Group: new “marquee group” showcasing every shot from each player in the group • Featured Groups: traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage of two concurrent featured groups • Featured Holes: a combination of par-3s and iconic or pivotal holes
The First Look: Barbasol ChampionshipThe First Look: Barbasol Championship
J.T. Poston returns to the Barbasol Championship to try to avenge a six-hole playoff loss to Seamus Power a season ago. In order to do it he’ll have to top an field with international flare, as 2022 marks the first season the Barbasol Championship will be co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour. FIELD NOTES: Past winners including Jim Herman, Grayson Murray, and Aaron Baddeley are teeing it up… J.T. Poston, who held the 36-hole lead at the John Deere Classic, will be back in Kentucky looking to take the Barbasol Championship across the finish line after last season’s late Sunday stumble. Poston is the highest-ranked golfer in the field… Local legend Josh Teater, a Kentucky native who is from about 40 minutes away from Keene Trace, is in the field on a Sponsor Exemption… Teater is one of six golfers who have Kentucky ties – whether it be high school or otherwise – who are teeing it up… There will be 50 places available for DP World Tour members to kick it over to Kentucky. Those places go to the top 50 available players from the DP World Tour category ranking to a floor of Category 17… Chase Hanna, an All-American in 2016 at Kansas, will make his PGA TOUR debut. He’s currently ranked 35th on the DP World Tour… If Taylor Pendrith didn’t have bad luck, he’d have no luck at all. After notching a solid T13 at THE PLAYERS Championship it was discovered he had broken his rib. Pendrith was ramping up to return at the John Deere Classic last week but tested positive for COVID-19 and was forced to withdraw. He’s set to (finally) make his return at Keene Trace. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 300 FedExCup points. COURSE: Keene Trace Golf Club (Champions), 7,328 yards, par 72. The 1987 Arthur Hills layout will host the PGA TOUR for the fourth time. Located just south of Lexington, Kentucky, Keene Trace is one of the top-ranked courses in the state. Laid out through the rolling hills of Central Kentucky, the drama of Keene Trace hits its apex on the par-4 finisher, a dramatic closer that’s built around the edge of a lake. Seventy-six bunkers will challenge some of the TOUR’s best, while big greens will place less of an emphasis on ball-striking and more on putting. STORYLINES: The winner of the Barbasol Championship, if he is not already qualified, will earn the final spot in The Open Championship… For the first time, the Barbasol Championship will be played as a co-sanctioned event with the DP World Tour. While plenty of TOUR winners – including two past FedExCup champions in Brandt Snedeker and Bill Haas – will be teeing it up, keep an eye out for the international star power that has come across the pond to play the PGA TOUR this week… With only four events left in the PGA TOUR’s 2021-22 season after the Barbasol Championship, this is a key time for guys on the FedExCup bubble earn some valuable FedExCup points. Max McGreevy is one of those golfers – he sits 126th on the FedExCup standings, just one point behind No. 125. 72-HOLE RECORD: 262, Jim Herman (2019) 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Kelly Kraft (3rd round, 2019) LAST TIME: Seamus Power captured his first PGA TOUR title in a six-hole playoff. Poston was in the driver’s seat through most of Sunday’s finale in Kentucky until he made a double bogey on the par-5 15th and followed that up with a three-putt bogey on the very next hole. Power shot a 5-under 67 in the final round to Poston’s 2-under 70. The pair played No. 18 four times and No. 9 twice in the playoff, but Poston launched his drive on the sixth extra hole into the water and couldn’t scramble to match Power’s par. Anirban Lahiri and Sam Ryder shot the rounds of the day Sunday, 7-under 65, and fell just one shot short of the playoff. They finished tied for third. Six golfers finished tied for fifth including Mito Pereira in just his third TOUR start since earning PGA TOUR status via a Three-Win Promotion on the Korn Ferry Tour. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Saturday, 4 p.m.-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Sunday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Golf Channel).
How to Watch the John Deere Classic, Round 4: Featured Groups, live scores, tee times, TV timesHow to Watch the John Deere Classic, Round 4: Featured Groups, live scores, tee times, TV times
Round 4 of the John Deere Classic begins Saturday from TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois. J.T. Poston leads by three heading into Sunday over Scott Stallings, Emiliano Grillo and Denny McCarthy. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action, including Featured Groups for PGA TOUR LIVE and newly expanded and extended coverage on ESPN+. Click here for more details. Leaderboard Full tee times HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Sunday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (CBS) Radio: Sunday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) For outside of the U.S., click here for GOLFTV powered by the PGA TOUR PGA TOUR LIVE PGA TOUR Live is available exclusively on ESPN+ • Main Feed: primary tournament-coverage featuring the best action from across the course • Marquee Group: new “marquee group” showcasing every shot from each player in the group • Featured Groups: traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage of two concurrent featured groups • Featured Holes: a combination of par-3s and iconic or pivotal holes FEATURED GROUPS SUNDAY Marquee Group Kevin Streelman, Morgan Hoffmann Featured Groups Dylan Wu, Rory Sabbatini Brendon Todd, Aaron Baddeley Featured Holes: No. 3 (par 3), No. 12 (par 3), No. 14 (par 4), No. 16 (par 3) MUST READS Opportunity knocks ahead of John Deere Classic final round J.T. Poston takes three-shot lead into Sunday at John Deere Classic A name to remember: Gotterup in contention at the Deere Monday qualifier Chris Naegel in early John Deere Classic contention Why Morgan Hoffmann wasn’t penalized after being struck by sand shot Clair Peterson’s tenure as tournament director transformed the John Deere Classic