Chris Stroud, Bobby Gates team up for Hurricane Harvey relief pro-am

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – World No. 1 and reigning FedExCup champ Dustin Johnson has missed consecutive major cuts in the same year for the first time in his career after he failed to make the weekend at the PGA Championship. Johnson backed up his 4-over 76 from round one at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course with a 74, leaving the Carolina local to miss out on weekend play by a single shot at six-over. RELATED: Full leaderboard | DJ sees promise with new driver shaft Gusty winds proved difficult for many players with the scoring average hitting 75.15 over the opening two rounds. Teeing off on the 10th hole, Johnson’s second round started positively with an opening birdie but he dropped five shots in 11 holes during the middle of his day. A late reprieve appeared possible when he eagled his third to last hole but the 24-time PGA TOUR winner backed it up with another bogey. Johnson wasn’t the only big name to struggle. Fellow major winners Justin Thomas, Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott also missed out by a shot as did multiple time TOUR winners Marc Leishman and Xander Schauffele. Thomas produced a brilliant 37-foot birdie on the brutal par-3 17th setting up a birdie or bust final hole scenario. Despite a brilliant drive and approach to 16-feet his birdie putt burned the edge and his week was over. Schauffele was 4 over on his final eight holes and five-time TOUR winner Leishman finished double bogey, bogey to earn the weekend off. Former world No. 1 Jason Day thought he’d missed the cut after the morning wave when he posted in at 5 over only to see the high winds help his chase for a spot in the US Open at Torrey Pines alive. Day entered the week at 65th in the world rankings, his lowest spot since 2010, needing to move inside the top 60 to earn a ticket to the US Open to be held at San Diego’s Torrey Pines – a venue where he won two of his 12 PGA Tour titles. In what turned out to be a prophetic exchange, U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau reminded Day what could happen as the two crossed paths Friday. Day was packing up his bag as DeChambeau headed out to prepare for his afternoon tee time. “Don’t do what I did. It was an expensive mistake,” DeChambeau joked to Day in reference to his mercy dash during the Wells Fargo Championship two weeks ago. The big-hitting bomber thought he had missed the cut and flew from North Carolina to Texas only to find out on arrival he was still alive, leaving him to fly back again. Good thing the Australian listened.

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Most golfers, when considering a purchase to possibly improve their play, are more apt to look for something that goes in their golf bag, rather than on their face. However, Oakley with it’s PRIZM Golf lens, makes the latter worth considering. Before we get into the “how” of Oakley’s PRIZM Golf lenses, consider this possibility: the better you see, the better you’ll play. Think about everything a golfer has to process in the course of planning and executing shots (and putts). In addition to being able to more clearly see a white golf ball against the blue sky, a golfer benefits from more clearly seeing transitions between fairway and rough, and from being able to more accurately see a lie in the rough and process depth cues on an approach from the fairway. On the putting green, the ability to more clearly discern grain and undulations is a welcome one. Oakley’s PRIZM Golf Lenses’ High Definition Optics (HDO) dial back distortion for sharper, clearer vision. According to the company, the PRIZM family of lenses began with an environment-optimized lens for snow and a solution for the loss of visual acuity that’s common in wintry environments. Oakley engineers learned that if they could control and filter light, wearers could see better. The technology has evolved into, among other things, PRIZM Golf Lens technology. According to Wayne Chumbley, Oakley R&D Engineer Manager, PRIZM Golf lenses are a ultimately a tool for golfers to facilitate better information — to better leverage the strengths of their eyesight, and to compensate for natural weaknesses. The lenses allow “good light” through (which enhances contrast and aids depth perception) while filtering out “bad light” (which creates visual confusion). “You have to trust the information to make the right choice,” Chumbley said, pointing out the fact that golf course architects and superintendents often try to create visual confusion with blurred transitions, false fronts, and other techniques. So, does what does a golf course looks like through PRIZM Golf and PRIZM Golf Dark lenses? First, as all golfers know, golf is played in a predominately green landscape. The lenses work primarily to reduce the dominant green tones and amplifies colors adjacent to green. Among other effects, this amplifies the white of the golf ball, allowing golfers to track it better against the backdrop of both course and sky. By contrast, a traditional lens is very flat with no colors amplified and little color separation. By creating peaks and valleys across the spectrum and color separation, PRIZM Golf lenses are able to deliver more beneficial information to golfers’ eyes. PRIZM Golf vs. PRIZM Golf Dark: What’s different about the two? Drilling down further, Oakley has two golf-specific lenses. PRIZM Golf and PRIZM Golf Dark. The company has found the Dark Golf lens, which presents a more balanced, less contrasting view, is more appearing to the weekend warrior. Initerestingly, the pros, perhaps because of their already heightened on-course visual acuity, prefer the standard PRIZM Golf lens with its more pronounced color amplification and higher contrast. Additionally, Oakley says PRIZM Golf is ideal for low to medium light with a VLT of 30% and has a lighter tint, and PRIZM Dark Golf will excel in bright and sunny conditions and has a darker tint with VLT 22. Both lenses feature Plutonite lens material, which blocks 100% of UVA and UVB rays up to 400nm. Flak 2.0 XL The company’s most popular frame for the PRIZM Golf lenses, not surprisingly, has been the flagship Flak 2.0 XL. An iconic Oakley style, Wayne Chumbley called the Flak 2.0 XL “a sport frame that has crossed over for universal appeal” citing the fact that it fits a vast number of head shapes and sizes. With an O-Matter frame for durability, the Flak 2.0 XL is considered Oakley’s most comfortable frame offering “performance fit with lifestyle comfort,” according to Chumbley. As a final note, PRIZM Golf lenses are available in prescription, and a few of the PGA TOUR professionals you’ll see in the lens are actually sporting the prescription variety.

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Saturday will bring another star-studded Featured Group – Tony Finau, Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose – and the opportunity for fans to pick the other threesome they’d like to watch. Voting will take place on the PGA TOUR’s Twitter account. PGA TOUR LIVE will broadcast from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The coverage also will be available on Twitter for approximately the first hour of the broadcast. Here’s a look at this week’s Featured Groups (Note: FedExCup rankings in parentheses; all times Eastern): FRIDAY Marc Leishman (24), Tiger Woods (25), Chez Reavie (26): Woods won here in 2006, the year before the FedExCup Playoffs began. Leishman and Reavie both contended at TPC Boston en route to their best FedExCup finishes. In five starts at TPC Boston since the start of the FedExCup, Woods has finished in the top 11 four times. Leishman finished third at TPC Boston last year, then won the BMW Championship and finished sixth in the final FedExCup standings. Reavie was the runner-up here seven years ago to earn his lone TOUR Championship berth. Tee times: 8:51 a.m. off No. 10 on Friday; 1:16 p.m. off No. 1 on Saturday. Bryson DeChambeau (1), Dustin Johnson (2), Justin Thomas (3): Take me to your leaders. These are the top three players in the FedExCup. Johnson and Thomas also played in this group last week, while DeChambeau moved into this elite company with his win at THE NORTHERN TRUST. DeChambeau is the youngest player to lead the FedExCup standings after the first event of the postseason. Thomas is the defending champion at TPC Boston after last year’s three-shot win. Tee times: 9:03 a.m. off No. 10 on Friday; 1:28 p.m. off No. 1 on Saturday. SATURDAY Tony Finau (4), Brooks Koepka (5), Justin Rose (6): Finau moved into the top five with his second-place finish at THE NORTHERN TRUST. It was his third runner-up, and ninth top-10, of the season. Koepka and Rose both have two wins this season. Koepka’s victories came at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open, while Rose won the Fort Worth Invitational and World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions. Tee times: 1:28 p.m. off No. 1 on Friday; 9:03 a.m. off No. 10 on Saturday. These are the groups that you will be able to vote for on Twitter. One group will be selected as Saturday’s second Featured Group: 8:51 a.m. off No. 1: Austin Cook (36), Gary Woodland (37), Ian Poulter (38) 8:51 a.m. off No. 10: Billy Horschel (14), Aaron Wise (15), Cameron Smith (16) 9:15 a.m. off No. 1: Paul Casey (20), Kyle Stanley (21), Tommy Fleetwood (22) 9:15 a.m. off No. 10: Phil Mickelson (10), Patrick Cantlay (11), Patrick Reed (12)

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