Landry, Spaun among 5 on lead in Mississippi

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Fans of Jordan Spieth will have to wait a few weeks longer than expected to see the 11-time PGA TOUR winner in 2020 after he withdrew from the Sony Open with a cold. RELATED: Players to Watch in 2020: Jordan Spieth Spieth had previously committed to the trip to Honolulu next week but has pushed his return to competition to the Farmers Insurance Open on Jan. 23-26 after battling illness. The 2015 FedExCup champion hasn’t won since the 2017 Open Championship and sits 97th in the FedExCup standings with a T8 at THE CJ CUP @NINE BRIDGES the best of his three starts. The 26-year-old has missed the TOUR Championship over the past two seasons but still has never finished worse than 44th (last season) in the FedExCup since coming on to the TOUR in 2013. In the 2017-18 season Spieth struggled with his putter, ranking 123rd on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting. But in 2018-19 he rebounded on the greens to be second on TOUR only to see his ball striking fall back. Spieth was 176th on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and 145th in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green. He is hopeful of bringing everything back together in 2020. “I’m actually really confident about what 2020 holds for me,â€� Spieth said late last year at the Hero World Challenge where he was 16th of 18 players. “I feel things starting to get on the right track, it’s just timing stuff and again some visuals … The toughest part is kind of trying to wrap my brain around where things are, thinking so much about the swing over the last year … like constantly thinking about how to get it back on track. “I see light at the end of the tunnel to where I could be able to just feel like I’m in control of the club the whole time, like it’s in front of me and I don’t feel like I have to save it every shot.â€�

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OAKVILLE, Ont. – News and observations from the first round of the RBC Canadian Open, where Ollie Schniederjans, Hudson Swafford. Kevin Chappell, Matt Every and Brandon Hagy share the lead after firing matching 7-under 65s at Glen Abbey Golf Club. There was a rain delay Thursday that halted play for one hour and 55 minutes.  Smylie’s solid debut   The last time Smylie Kaufman was in Canada, he played poorly at a Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada Monday Qualifier in Saskatoon, Sask. It was the opposite Thursday at the RBC Canadian Open, as he fired a 6-under-par 66. His 66 was his best opening-round result in 2017, and it was kick-started by going 5-under par over his opening five holes. “I’ve had starts like that in my career, so it’s kind of tough to keep it going as low as it felt like I was going. Definitely was on point with everything to start the round,â€� said Kaufman. Heavy rain started as Kaufman’s group arrived at the par-3 7th, and he saw his tee shot plug in a bunker en route to a double-bogey five. However, he chipped in on the very next hole to keep the momentum going. “It was one of those days kind of got some good breaks and I also got some bad breaks, too. I was able to kind of stay as levelheaded as possible and just try to bounce back and do as well as I can the next hole,â€� he explained. It’s no secret Kaufman is friends with Jordan Spieth, and although he said Thursday he didn’t get a chance to watch Spieth’s finish Sunday, he’s been in touch with the now 24-year-old a lot since his win. “I FaceTimed him right after the round, of course, and … it doesn’t seem like the Claret Jug has left him since he’s left The Open. He’s definitely enjoying it,â€� said Kaufman. “Looks like he’s staying hydrated out of the Claret Jug as well.â€� ‘Part-Canadian’ Bubba off to his best-ever start at Glen Abbey Whenever Bubba Watson returns north of the border, he makes sure everyone knows he’s practically Canadian. “We’re back to playing American golf (this week). I know we’re in Canada, but I’m part-Canadian since I married a Canadian,â€� Watson said after his 6-under-par 66 Thursday, his best-ever opening round at Glen Abbey Golf Club. Watson, whose wife Angie is from Markham, Ontario (about 50 miles from Glen Abbey), is having one of his poorer seasons in recent memory, sitting 117th in the FedExCup with only three top 10s. But you wouldn’t know it Thursday, as Watson was bogey-free and sits just one shot back of the lead. It was his first bogey-free round this season.   “I had a couple, I would say, maybe two wayward shots, two mistakes that I can think of. Other than that, though, it was a good day,â€� said Watson. The nine-time PGA TOUR winner admitted he’s struggled with his swing for ‘about a year’ and is unsure why. But it looked like he got things back on track Thursday and is looking forward to the upcoming stretch run. “Maybe it’s because of losing weight,â€� said Watson. “But that’s why I wanted to play so many rounds. That’s why I wanted to play six tournaments in a row so I can keep building on it and try to get better for the (FedExCup) Playoffs.â€�  Jared du Toit returns, now as a professional A lot has changed for Jared du Toit since he was the story of the 2016 RBC Canadian Open, playing in the final group Sunday and eventually finishing tied for ninth as an amateur. He’s finished school and turned professional – holding status on the Mackenzie Tour – and inked a handful of new sponsorships announced this week. On Thursday, du Toit, with brother Russell on the bag, fired a 1-under 71 and admitted he left a few shots out there on a day that was prime for scoring. “I was 3 under through 15 and cruising, and I would have liked one or two more because I was hitting my irons well and putting well. Missed a short birdie to get to 4 under and than had two bogeys coming in, so kind of a bitter way to end,â€� said du Toit. “I felt like I could have been 4 or 5 under, so to be 1 under is definitely disappointing.â€� With a smile, du Toit admitted there were ‘a little more’ fans following him on Thursday versus last year, but he had a fun day with his brother on his bag and good memories of a year ago to reflect back on. “A lot of things went my way (last year),â€� I was playing well and making putts and I’ve got a lot of good memories here,â€� he said. CALL OF THE DAY SHOT OF THE DAY BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

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Takumi Kanaya could be an overlooked bracket buster this week. At just 23 years old, the former top-ranked amateur in the world already has three wins on the Japan Tour and is a candidate to make this year’s International Team for the Presidents Cup. He also finished seventh in this season’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in Japan and he even shares an alma mater, Tohoku Fukushi, with his country’s biggest star, Hideki Matsuyama. To learn more about the equipment setup of this rising star, we spoke with his club fitter, Will Yanagisawa, who’s currently the collegiate player development manager at Ping (and a former college teammate of Tiger Woods). Below are three noteworthy takeaways from Yanagisawa on Kanaya’s unique equipment setup. 1. Once he finds the right fit, he sticks with it Kanaya is still using a Ping G410 driver, fairway wood and hybrid, which were all launched to retail back in 2019. According to Yanagisawa, Kanaya tests all the new products, but he’s particular about his golf clubs. He launches the ball low, so he works to increase his launch angle to carry the ball farther. But he also doesn’t want the ball to spin too much. Apparently, the Ping G410 series still fits his eye and his performance preferences just right. “Once he gets set and comfortable, he just rides that out,” Yanagisawa told GolfWRX. “He’ll play the same clubs until he finds something better. He always tests everything and we’ll take numbers, but at the end of the day, he keeps playing what he’s comfortable with.” The same goes for his putter. Kanaya has been using the same Ping Sigma2 Arna putter since his amateur days, and it has a special hosel that was only released in limited markets overseas. Take it from Takumi: Comfort with performance is often better than going with something new just to do it. 2. He uses two different 5-irons It’s not often that you see a golfer use two irons with same number on them, but Kanaya has a specific reason. According to Yanagisawa, Kanaya is precise with the yardage gaps between his irons. He doesn’t want the gaps between clubs to be too far apart or too close together. While the two Ping irons both say “5” on their soles, the irons are two different models that were designed for different performance characteristics. His Ping i210 5-iron is designed for better players, but with a touch of forgiveness added. While it has a cavity-back construction with perimeter weighting for additional relief on mishits, it has a compact shape, reduced offset and a thin topline. His Ping G710 5-iron, on the other hand, is more of a game-improvement club that has a fast face made for higher launch and more carry distance. While his G710 also is a 5-iron, it’s designed to fly farther and higher than Kanaya’s i210 5-iron. For amateur golfers, it’s important to hit all of the clubs in your bag on a launch monitor to see exactly how far they fly. You may notice you have two clubs that fly about the same distance. In that case, you’ll want to find a different club to replace one of them, since there’s no sense in having two clubs that serve the same purpose. 3. A 60-degree specialty wedge Kanaya’s highest lofted wedge is a Ping Glide Forged Pro 60-degree lob wedge, which is only 2 degrees more than his 58-degree sand wedge. “What’s the point of having two wedges so close together in loft?” you may be wondering. Well, Kanaya doesn’t hit full shots often with his 60-degree wedge. For longer shots, Kanaya opts for the 58-degree wedge, which is slightly easier to hit and more forgiving on full swings. He keeps the 60-degree wedge in his bag for specialty shots around the green when he needs the extra loft. “He likes to have that 60-degree for certain shots around the greens,” Yanagisawa said. “He’s a very good short-game player. He’s world class, in my opinion. He uses the 58-degree for full shots and most of his chipping, but for many specialty shots around the green, he uses the 60-degree.” For amateurs, it’s important to take a good, hard look at your wedge setup and why you have certain wedges in the bag. It could be in your best interest to get rid of the lob wedge altogether and fill your bag with clubs that are slightly easier to hit on long shots. Remember, the lob wedge is a specialty club, not a prerequisite.

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