Garcia and Stenson shine at BMW International

After an adjustment to the PGA TOUR schedule, the Houston Open returns after an 18-month break with a new spot during the season. The longtime lead-in to the Masters is now part of the fall stretch of tournaments in 2019-20, and will return to the Golf Club of Houston’s Tournament course for this year for the final time before shifting to a new course in 2020. A former FedExCup winner, past Houston champions and multiple major winners headline the field in Humble, Texas. FIELD NOTES: Sanderson Farms Championship winner and current FedExCup leader Sebastián Muñoz will play his fourth tournament in a row to start 2019-20. Muñoz has Lone Star state connections, as he went to the University of North Texas. … 2013 FedExCup champion Henrik Stenson returns to the Houston Open after finishing T6 in the last edition. He was also runner-up in 2016. … Cole Hammer, the No. 2-ranked amateur in the world and current Texas Longhorn, has received a sponsor exemption and will make his first non-major PGA TOUR start (he played the 2015 U.S. Open as a 15-year-old). … Safeway Open winner Cameron Champ will be making his third start of the season next week. … Past Houston Open winners Jim Herman, Russell Henley, D.A. Points, Johnson Wagner, Hunter Mahan and Matt Jones are teeing it up. … Jimmy Walker, who is one of six golfers who hold the course record at the Golf Club of Houston (63) is one of trio of major champions in the field (the others being Stenson and Jason Dufner). … After making his first PGA TOUR start in more than two years at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, Graham DeLaet is set to play again in Houston. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points COURSE: Golf Club of Houston (Tournament), 7,441 yards, par 72. The course plays host to the PGA TOUR for the 13th time. STORYLINES: The 2019 edition of the Houston Open is the first of a five-year agreement between the PGA TOUR and the Houston Astros Foundation. The tournament will move to Memorial Park Golf Course next October after the course finishes at $13.5-million renovation. … The Houston Open was long known as the pre-Masters tune up, but this year it moves to the fall for the first time. It remains to be seen if the course will be set-up as it has been in the past (as comparable as possible to Augusta National). … After 2018’s edition, there has now been a playoff 24 out of 73 times at the Houston Open. Only the U.S. Open has had more playoffs on the PGA TOUR. …There are a ton of Texas connections in the field at the Houston Open including university alums and locals with Texas ties. Multi-time TOUR winner Jhonattan Vegas, Beau Hossler and Kramer Hickok went to the University of Texas and Scottie Scheffler (the Korn Ferry Tour’s top golfer for 2019) is a Dallas resident. 72-HOLE RECORD: 266, Curtis Strange and Lee Trevino (1980 at Woodlands CC), Vijay Singh (2002 at TPC Woodlands). Golf Club of Houston record: 268, Phil Mickelson (2011), Russell Henley (2017). 18-HOLE RECORD: 62, Ron Streck (3rd round, 1981 at Woodlands CC), Fred Funk (3rd round, 1992 at TPC Woodlands). Golf Club of Houston record: 63, Johnson Wagner (1st round, 2008), Adam Scott (1st round, 2008), Jimmy Walker (1st round, 2011), Phil Mickelson (3rd round, 2011), Scott Piercy (1st round, 2015), Sung Kang (2nd round, 2017). LAST TIME: The last time the Houston Open was played in April 2018 it delivered a big-time result. Ian Poulter drained a 20-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to force a playoff with Beau Hossler. The Englishman made a slippery par putt on the first playoff hole to top Hossler (who made a triple-bogey 7) and earn a spot in the Masters the following week. Poulter closed with a 5-under 67 and his Houston Open title was his third on the PGA TOUR. Jordan Spieth shot a final-round 66 to finish T3 alongside Emiliano Grillo. Sam Ryder rounded out the top five. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 3 p.m.-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 4 p.m.-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel) PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 8:15 a.m.- 7 p.m. ET (Featured Groups) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 1 p.m.-7 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m.-7 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).

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NAPA, Calif. - If the Safeway Open had spectators on Sunday they wouldn't know where to look. As it stands, the PGA TOUR season opener is set for a Sunday sprint as an incredible 35 players sit within six shots of the lead, with 32 of those within five. And it is an eclectic group at that. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Higgs’ walk-off albatross From 18-year-old teenage star Akshay Bhatia to 47-year-old wily veteran major winning Stewart Cink those in contention span almost three decades. Of the 35 players, 22 of them have yet to win on the PGA TOUR making Sunday one full of potential. One of those players is Cameron Percy, the Australian journeyman who at 46 is one of the veterans in the mix. Percy sits tied for the lead a 16 under with Brian Stuard and James Hahn. Stuard has one win from 2016 on his resume, Hahn is a two-time winner but the last of his triumphs also came in 2016. Percy had a chance to win just shy of a decade ago at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas. He found himself in a playoff with Jonathan Byrd and Martin Laird only to watch as Byrd made an ace in the playoff for a heartbreaking loss. In eight seasons on the TOUR, Percy has never made the FedExCup Playoffs but a win here would see him leading the FedExCup given it's the season opener. "Winning would mean the world to me. It would be fantastic. I've got a bit more focus and set a few goals and it’s amazing what happens when you set some goals. You’re not just out here running in circles," Percy said. Hahn is returning from an elbow injury and has 14 starts to make 305 FedExCup points. A win is worth 500. "It’s the same as trying to win a golf tournament, I can tell you that, because you’ve heard it before, winning takes care of itself. It takes care of a lot of problems," Hahn said of the battle to regain his status. "The medical is just something in the back of my mind, to be honest with you. I come out every week trying to win a golf tournament, so if I can keep my focus there, I think I’m doing things right." While the three on top have a combined 590 starts on TOUR the three one shot behind have just 105 starts between them and not a win to speak of yet. Harry Higgs, Sam Burns and Kristoffer Ventura are all 20-somethings looking to kickstart their careers with a bang at Silverado on Sunday. Higgs and Burns have been close with a runner-up and third place finish respectively in their young careers but Ventura's previous 20 starts on the TOUR have yet to yield a single top 10 finish. On Saturday though, the former college teammate of Matthew Wolff and Viktor Hovland spent some time in the lead. "On nine after I made that chip for eagle, I saw that I took the lead and I told my brother, ‘Hey, like it’s pretty cool, that’s the first time I ever led in a PGA TOUR tournament’ and kind of marked that off, I guess if you want to call it that. It’s just cool," Ventura said. With Hovland and Wolff already winners on TOUR, Ventura is ready to add himself to the list. "It’s just more motivation," he said about his friends success. "Obviously they’ve proven they can win out here and hopefully I’ll get the next one, but if anything, there’s no jealousy or anything, it’s just motivation." Cink sits just two shots back of the lead after a sublime 30 on the front nine on Saturday. The six-time TOUR winner is one of three major winners in the mix. Jason Dufner and Charl Schwartzel are four shots back. "I don’t get in these positions every time I play anymore. I would like to," Cink said. The veteran is in the midst of his 596th TOUR start and hasn't won since his Open Championship triumph in 2009. "My son, Reagan’s on the bag, it’s a really special week," he added. "We’re having a great time and he’s doing an awesome job. I’m just going to enjoy tomorrow and keep on pushing." With Cink in the 14-under crowd are fellow TOUR winners Emiliano Grillo, D.J. Trahan and Russell Knox. Grillo won the Safeway Open five years ago while Knox's has two wins, the last of which came just over four years ago. The last of Trahan's two wins was in 2008. Scattered throughout the rest of the contenders are youngsters Sahith Theegala (seventh start), who shot 64 on Saturday to move within three shots of the lead, and Bhatia who is just four behind. Neither has banked a top 25 finish on TOUR yet with this marking the first made cut for Bhatia in his eighth start. Ben Taylor (21st start, 0 Top 25s, three back), Nelson Ledesma (19th start, 0 top 25s, four back), Vincent Whaley (16th start, five back) and Michael Gligic (23rd start, 0 Top 10s, five back) also have the chance to change their lives early in their careers. Joining Percy as veterans still searching for the difficult breakthrough are Kiwi Tim Wilkinson (179th start, three back) and Canadian David Hearn (288th start, four back). Both have been runner up before on TOUR but failed to clear the final hurdle. Ricky Barnes (311th start, four back), Tom Hoge (158th start, four back) and Bud Cauley (185th start, five back) also fit this category. Whoever comes out on top one thing is certain. They will have well and truly earned it.

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While Srixon’s Z-Star and Z-Star XV golf balls remain the golf ball of choice for PGA TOUR players, the company’s line of Q-Star golf balls are made for amateur golfers with relatively slower swing speeds who still want premium feel and performance without the premium pricing. This year, the Q-Star golf balls are designed for more distance with an all-new core design. With its new 2019 Q-Star golf balls, Srixon has developed a new “FastLayer Core� that’s made for more ball speed and distance, according to the company. It’s designed to be softer in the center of the core, and it gets firmer around the edges of the core. This design creates more distance without sacrificing feel at impact, says Srixon. The Q-Star golf balls have a 338 Speed Dimple Pattern on their outer layers that’s made to reduce drag as it flies through the air, thus creating a more penetrating ball flight to achieve maximum distance regardless of weather conditions. This dimple pattern combines with Srixon’s familiar Spin Skin technology that’s made with a “Slide-Ring Material,� or SeRM, which is a urethane compound. The material on the outer layer of the golf ball is designed to dig into the grooves of wedges and irons at impact to impart more friction and greater spin on the golf ball. “With the addition of the new FastLayer Core and Spin Skin with SeRM, the latest generation of Q-STAR golf balls deliver superior, all-around performance compared against similar offerings in the market,� said Jeff Brunski, Vice President of Research and Development, in a press release. Srixon’s new Q-Star golf balls will be available on June 28 in both Pure White and Tour Yellow, selling for $26.99 per dozen.

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