Live updates from Round 2 of Hero World Challenge

It was vintage Tiger Woods during the third round of The Open at Carnoustie firing a 5 under 66, the first major he’s started with 3 straight rounds at par or better since the 2012 Open at Royal Lytham.

Click here to read the full article…

The PGA TOUR’s lone match-play event returns to Austin Country Club with a 64-player field divided into 16 groups of four for round-robin play. Billy Horschel is back to defend his title. He beat Scottie Scheffler 2 and 1 in last year’s final. FIELD NOTES: Sixty-four of the world’s top 69 players are set it to tee it up… The field includes eight-time TOUR winner Bryson DeChambeau, who has been sidelined with a wrist injury since he missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open in late January… Five of the top five players in the OWGR are in the field, including Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, and Scottie Scheffler. Since his runner-up result in 2021, Scheffler has shone for the U.S. Ryder Cup team and won twice on TOUR… Eleven players are set to make their Match Play debuts, including TOUR winners Sam Burns, Seamus Power, Lucas Herbert, and Tom Hoge… Sepp Straka, who won The Honda Classic for his maiden TOUR title, was the last golfer to earn a spot in the field… Those who qualified for the event and are not playing in Austin include Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Harris English, Phil Mickelson, and THE PLAYERS Championship winner Cameron Smith… Recent WGC-Match Play winners in the field include Horschel, Kevin Kisner, Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 550 FedExCup points. COURSE: Austin Country Club, par 71, 7,108 yards (yardage subject to change). The Pete Dye design has yielded different kinds of winners, from long-bombers Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson to short-game wizards like Kevin Kisner. This is the sixth year Austin CC has hosted. With roots dating to 1899, the course is believed to be the oldest in Texas; it was relocated twice before landing on its current location. The course features two distinct nines. The front showcases some of the Texas hill country, while the back is more in the lowlands beside Lake Austin – a scenic backdrop as the matches reach their conclusion. STORYLINES: Final seeds will be determined based on the OWGR released on March 22… The field will be divided into 16 four-player groups with the top 16 players being the top player in each group. The remaining players will be picked randomly. Points are awarded based on the following results: 1 point to the winner of a match, 0 to the loser, and 0.5 for a halved match. After group play, the format turns to single elimination… After injury prevented him from defending his title at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, DeChambeau – who lives in Dallas, only a three-hour drive away – is back in action… The last No.1 seed to win it all was Dustin Johnson, who defeated another No.1 (Jon Rahm) in 2017. Jason Day was a No.2 seed when he won in 2016, while Rory McIlroy was another No.1 seed when he won in 2015… The rankings of the last three winners have been 32-48-35… Tiger Woods is the only one to successfully defend his title. Woods won in both 2003 and 2004. There have been some other close calls, though: Paul Casey finished runner-up two years in a row (2009, 2010), while Hunter Mahan won in 2012 and was runner-up in 2013. Jason Day won in 2014 and 2016. LARGEST MARGIN OF VICTORY: 9 & 8, Tiger Woods def. Stephen Ames (1st round, 2006 at La Costa Resort & Spa). LONGEST MATCH: 26 holes, Mike Weir def. Loren Roberts (1st round, 2003 at La Costa), Scott Verplank def. Lee Westwood (1st round, 2006 at La Costa) LAST TIME: Billy Horschel defeated Scottie Scheffler in the championship match 2 and 1. It marked Horschel’s sixth TOUR title and came after he failed to get past the round of 16 in his past four starts at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. Matt Kuchar defeated Victor Perez 2 and 1 in the consolation match. For the first time since group play was introduced in 2015 the semifinals did not include a seed from the top 16. Horschel also defeated Kevin Streelman, Tommy Fleetwood, and Perez on his way to capturing the title. Jon Rahm, Fleetwood, Sergio Garcia, and Brian Harman were the other quarterfinalists. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Wednesday-Friday, 2 p.m.-8 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (Golf Channel), 2 p.m.-6 p.m. (NBC). Sunday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-7 p.m. (NBC) Radio: Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m.-8 p.m. ET. Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 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

Click here to read the full article…

THE OVERVIEW In the last 13 months, Mac Hughes a) married his fiancée Jenna Shaw; b) won his first PGA TOUR event; c) saw the birth of his first child; and d) changed his name. Essentially, it’s been one life-altering event after another for the Canadian. “I would say the name change is probably the biggest deal of all those things,â€� Hughes said with a grin. “It’s really hard to adapt to that.â€� OK, maybe not too much. Formally known as Mackenzie Hughes, he often told everybody he met just to call him Mac. Last week, he decided to make it official. “If that’s what I’m going to go by,â€� he said, “I’ll just write it down on paper so everyone just calls me that, make my life a little easier.â€� (Side note: Hughes received the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada Player of the Year in 2013. Don’t expect the Mackenzie Tour to shorten its name to the Mac Tour.) Life might be easier going forward for Hughes, but it’s certainly been productive over that 13-month span. On Oct. 22, 2016, he married Jenna, and a month later, he won a five-man playoff at The RSM Classic to become a TOUR winner in just his ninth career start. Two days after that, he celebrated his 26th birthday. That victory – he became the 13th different Canadian to win a TOUR event – left him in a great position in the FedExCup standings. He eventually finished 36th. That’s an impressive result for any TOUR rookie, but Hughes was disappointed in failing to advance to the TOUR Championship. “Not making East Lake was tough,â€� Hughes said, “but there’s not a lot of rookies that are able to say they had a chance to get there, or to even get there. Yeah, that stung for a little bit.â€� So now he’s back in Sea Island this week as the defending champ, this time as a father. His son Kenton was born last month on Oct. 30. A week later, Hughes played the OHL Classic at Mayakoba, missing the cut. Earlier this week, while driving toward the course, he saw promotional posters of him cradling the trophy from last year. It’s been a whirlwind stretch. “I’ve had so much fun the last two weeks being a dad,â€� he said. “But even being away in Mexico last week was tough. First time leaving and being away for a week when my wife’s home alone, it was tough. So I’m learning how to deal with these things.â€� As for the name of his son, well, the natural inclination will be to call him Kent. After all, it offers a connection with Kent State, the university that both Mac and Jenna attended. But unlike what he did with his own first name, Mac doesn’t plan to shorten his son’s name, one in which they didn’t finalize until the next morning after his birth. “We want him to go by Kenton,â€� Hughes said. “I’m sure Kent will inevitably come up as a short form at some point. I will always say Kenton.â€� He’s the tournament host, but Sea Island hasn’t treated him well. Three MCs and just one top-25 finish (T-4 in 2012) in seven starts. Good to have him back on TOUR after sitting out since June with an injury. How quickly can he find his groove? Making his season debut after producing his most productive campaign of his career. Looking forward to his encore. THREE PLAYERS TO PONDER RANK PLAYER COMMENT THE FLYOVER In 2010 when Sea Island hosted The RSM Classic for the first time, the 470-yard par-4 18th at the Seaside layout ranked as the toughest hole on the course (a 4.198 stroke average). Since then, other holes have played tougher each year, but the 18th remains a difficult hole to play. It has never yielded a stroke average below par in any single year, although it came closest last year with a 4.013 average when it ranked as the sixth most difficult hole. Here’s a look at the finishing hole that could very well determine the winner on Sunday. LANDING ZONE The 429-yard par-4 fourth is the most difficult hole on the Seaside Course. It played to a stroke average of 4.147 a year ago, ranking it T-140 among the 538 par 4s played on the PGA TOUR last season. Water on the other side of the right-side cart path will collect a few errant drives; a year ago, there were 26 penalty shots incurred, 13 of those in the third round. Here’s a look at where all tee shots at the fourth landed last year. WEATHER CHECK Other than a small chance of showers this weekend, weather conditions should be pleasant this week – at least until Sunday when gusts of up to 25 mph could impact play. PGA TOUR meteorologist Stewart Williams’ forecast includes temperatures from the mid- to upper-70s on Saturday are expected “ahead of an approaching cold front. This front may produce isolated showers Saturday night into Sunday. Otherwise, breezy and cooler conditions return Sunday with highs in the 60s.â€� For the latest weather forecast from Sea Island, Georgia, click here for the Travelers Weather Hub. SOUND CHECK It’s great because I can drive up. That’s a great event, and Davis is a great role model for all of us, a Hall of Famer, and he’s got his name around the event. We need to be there. ODDS AND ENDS 1. TWO COURSES. The par-70 Seaside Course will be the primary venue this week, with the par-72 Plantation Course in the rotation for the first two rounds. Plantation is the easier of the two; a year ago, it played to a stroke average of 2.237 under par, while the stroke average for Seaside was 1.111 under par. “They’re both kind of different styles,â€� said Mac Hughes. “I think the Seaside’s more, I don’t want to say linksy but it has that linksy feel to it, and the Plantation’s a bit more tree lined. But they’re both great.â€� 2. SHORT DRIVES. The 7,005-yard Seaside Course has ranked as one of the shortest driving distance courses of any TOUR since it became a host venue in 2010. It has been inside the top 10 of driving distance average each season; a year ago, the average distance was 277.3 yards, ranking it seventh shortest among all courses. Less than 15 percent of all drives at Seaside were 300 yards or more, again one of the smaller percentages of all courses. 3. 67 OR BETTER. Charles Howell III has more rounds of 67 or better at The RSM Classic than anybody else, having done it 12 times since the tournament’s inception in 2010. Next on the list are Kevin Kisner and Webb Simpson with 10 rounds of 67 or better.

Click here to read the full article…