Quick 9: New Augusta chairman won’t forget Bobby Jones

Round 3 of the Barracuda Championship gets underway Saturday from California. The event uses the Modified Stableford scoring format. Click here to see how the scoring works. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action. Leaderboard Full tee times HOW TO FOLLOW (All times ET) TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. ET (Golf Channel), 12 p.m.-1 p.m. ET (Golf Digital). Saturday-Sunday, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. (Golf Channel). MUST READS The First Look Power Rankings Expert Picks

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If you don’t remember what we wrote in the opening last week, here’s the timely and relevant excerpt: “It’s unlikely that we’ll see this kind of real-time fluidity on the extreme again, but we didn’t expect to see it the first time.” That referred to Justin Thomas’ board values of +30000 and +25000 during his final round of the PGA Championship, both landing for multiple users en route to paydirt. Last week, it was Sam Burns who was positioned at +20000 on Sunday at Colonial Country Club. Again, boom! All of that suggests that you never know what you’re going to see and experience in PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live. It’s also blazing evidence of what to do with those odds when you do. Navigate to PointsBet and lay the wager. Even just $5 bets on JT and Burns would’ve netted as much as a total of $2500. That equals the top prize here and only when other levers would need to be pulled at the right time to contribute to the title. The commonality of the last two events extends to this week’s Memorial Tournament presented by Workday; that is, par will be a good score most of the time. If you think about how JT and Burns prevailed – both recorded the lowest rounds in their respective finales – they were the nuggets that emerged and without threatening course records. Think about it – and, anecdotally, you already know this – it’s much more likely for exactly one of the world’s best to have a great day at the right time in extreme conditions than it is for the same talent in a shootout. Who knows, maybe lightning can strike thrice in the same spot! Register for PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live here and monitor Rob’s and Glass’ progress as Influencers. For a broader explanation of the format and FAQs, click here. TOURNAMENT TO WIN Glass … Kevin Streelman (+15000) As always with this selection, shooting the moon is the No. 1 priority JUST IN CASE. The flexibility of changing, swerving and ducking is the best part of this game. There’s absolutely no reason to ride chalk Thursday. Or even Friday. Streelman hasn’t missed in his last seven here and five of them have cashed T18 or better. He’s a stalwart at Valspar because he’s had the reps and this week is similar. minus claiming the ultimate prize. You know what they say, Rob: The 14th time is a charm! Rob … Bryson DeChambeau (+9000) To win?! That’s so Bryson. Pure and simple, when are you going to find him at these odds? His opening line is based entirely on the mystery of his health, so to paraphrase Al Czervik, let’s pounce! If DeChambeau is above the projected cut line at the conclusion of R1, then you know the kickback will drop. But look, given how the winners of the last two weeks have reached the summit, I’m not holding my breath even if he’s poised for a wire-to-wire victory. TOP 10 Rob … Matthew Wolff (+1400) He’s a default fade for me in, where else, in Draws and Fades, but where isn’t he a fade? In PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live! Brendon Todd opened at +1100 last week, and I didn’t have to touch the remote control. He finished third. I don’t expect that to be the case with Wolff, but he’s more explosive than Todd, and we know he won’t slump forever. Take your cuts when the wind is blowing out, gang. Glass … Cameron Champ (+1100) If there is an angle to MVGC and ANGC this week, I’m going to ride it a bit. Champ has found his form on Magnolia Lane over the last few seasons and his ball-striking has a chance to carry over. He’s never broken 72 here in five rounds, but that’s why we’re getting +1100. He’ll have no problem eating it up if he finds a way to keep it in play. TOP 20 Glass … Brendan Steele (+400) Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me for two months, well SHUT UP, I GET IT. I’ve learned my lesson, finally, about trying to sync this angle up. NO LUCK. Steele has cashed in six straight here and has top 10s at both the PGA Championship and Zurich Classic (in two of his last three and among six straight paydays), so I’m not begging for form to appear. Connect dots. ANY DOTS! Rob … Patrick Rodgers (+425) Playing it safer with this bet. Only the Top 10 has opened regularly (during awake hours in Arizona), but we’ve learned not to expect the same here. The veteran of 207 PGA TOUR starts as a professional has logged six of them here. Two resulted in top 20s — T8 (2018) and T18 (2020). He’s comfortable to return to the FedExCup Playoffs, so it’s like old times. He has only one top 20 on his own ball in seven months, but he has the length and the precision to deserve this hope. ROUND 1 LEADER Glass … Cameron Young (+4000) I’d prefer him to be going off the front but my hedge is he’s in the first group out. His ride of podiums over the last three weeks has covered bermuda, bent and a major, but most importantly all new venues. I’ll highlight 66 at Riviera and 63 at Harbour Town – not exactly easy places to play or score – as my evidence to ride this rookie. And if not, I’ll recalibrate throughout the morning/afternoon. Rob … Patrick Cantlay (+2800) Let my Cameron go. Glass sniped me on the rook. This isn’t a draft, but I’ll counter with the defending champion and two-time winner who goes off No. 10 at 8:00 a.m. ET. If you include the Zurich Classic of New Orleans where Cantlay and his partner, Xander Schauffele, went wire-to-wire, he’s connected as the FRL twice in his last eight stroke-play starts (Amex). It’s a coincidence that Cantlay is in the same threesome as the 2021 FRL, Collin Morikawa, but I’ll take the cosmic connection. NOTE: While Glass and Rob typically stick with their selections as detailed in Pick ‘Em Preview, they are allowed the right to make changes at any time.

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Sahith Theegala met with the media and tried to compose himself. RELATED: Leaderboard | Get to know Sahith Theegala in 10 stories | Inside Sam Ryder’s epic ace on WM Phoenix Open’s 16th hole He had just come one shot short of a playoff at the WM Phoenix Open, the killing stroke a tee shot that took a bad bounce into the water at the short, par-4 17th hole, leading to a bogey. His whole family had been here. So had his old coach at Pepperdine, and his coach’s young boys. “Sorry,” Theegala said as he fought back the tears. The cameras waited. “I thought I hit a great shot on 17,” he said. “It was cutting. 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. “Then I was worried about the ball – it was such a steep slope,” he continued. “I was worried about the ball kind of rolling back, so I maybe rushed my process just a little bit there and hit a poor chip and hit a poor putt. I just didn’t hit the shots at the right time when it counted, but definitely proud of the way I played this week.” All week Theegala, 24, said he’d already won just by being here. He only learned he’d gotten into the field as a sponsor’s exemption two weeks ago; given that he otherwise would’ve been watching from his couch, anything he did was gravy. As it turned out, there was a lot of gravy. Star-struck all week, he learned that he can go toe-to-toe with the players he used to watch on TV. He also won something that won’t show up in the FedExCup table, namely the admiration of a whole lot of new fans. By the end they were chanting his last name and giving him a loud ovation after his last-ditch birdie chip skittered past the cup on the 18th hole. After making the comebacker for par, Theegala signed for a final-round 70 that left him in a tie for third with Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele, one back. Then he went down to meet the media. What did he learn? What did we learn? Most importantly, a lot of people learned what those in his inner circle already knew, that you can’t know Theegala without liking him. All you had to do was check out what friends and family did to get here. Sahan, his little brother and a freshman at Seton Hall, sat on a snowy tarmac in Newark for two hours before making the journey west Sunday morning and landing in time to join his parents, cousin, uncles and assorted others watch perhaps the biggest round of Sahith’s young life. The two hugged when Sahith caught a glimpse of him outside the ropes on the eighth tee. “Oh, I was so surprised,” Sahith said. “I couldn’t believe it … the middle of the school year on a Sunday. He’s going to have to go back and go to school. That’s incredible that he did that.” Meanwhile, Michael Beard, who was Sahith’s coach at Pepperdine, gathered up his two young sons and an assistant coach and flew from Southern California to Phoenix. “I’m wearing the ring to give him good luck,” Beard said, flashing the national championship ring Pepperdine won last year, after Theegala turned pro. “He got one, too. He was such a positive influence on our kids and program, we felt he deserved it. “He’s one of those people,” Beard continued, “you can’t be around him and not really like him.” Vying to become the first sponsor’s exemption to win since Martin Laird at the 2020 Shriners Children’s Open, Theegala made no secret of being wide-eyed. Playing with guys like Koepka and Schauffele? Incredible, he said. They were so nice, he said. But don’t be fooled; Theegala himself is an incandescent talent, tabbed for stardom for a while now. An All-American at Pepperdine, he became just the fifth player to sweep the major awards as the top collegiate golfer in 2020. He played the Korn Ferry Tour last season and did well enough to earn his TOUR card. He hits it forever and has an otherworldly short game. Muralidhar Theegala, Sahith’s father who moved from India to the United States and was more of a tennis player than a golfer, had an inkling he had a budding star. Sahith demonstrated a fondness for the big stage when he won the Junior World and other tournaments, and in the family’s garage Muralidhar hung a two-part wooden sign. It says: THE WORLD’S BEST GOLFER LIVES HERE. And: BETTER IN THE WOODS THAN A TIGER. This time the trophy wasn’t to be for Theegala, who still lives at home. But he was right: There’s winning in the strict constructionist style and winning in the larger sense. Those new fans will have his back when he tees it up at The Genesis Invitational in his hometown of Los Angeles later this week, and you can’t help but suspect another kind of win is coming.

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