Tiger Woods struggles mightily at U.S. Open

Local favorite Abraham Ancer is ready this time. When the World Golf Championships moved to Mexico, an exemption category was included to ensure the best Mexican player in the world would be included. In the first two iterations of the event at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City, some in the main stream dismissed the place in the field as nothing more than placating the local fans. But it was always included for a much deeper purpose – a purpose that is coming to fruition. As the title suggests the World Golf Championship–Mexico Championships is about bringing together the world’s best golfers. It’s also about growing the game across the globe. Showcasing the wide array of talent. And while Lorena Ochoa had been a dominant force at the top of women’s golf for Mexico, the men’s game had failed to really take any sort of foothold in the sport. Until now. Those in the know were not concerned when Roberto Diaz was given the first WGC–Mexico Championship exemption two years ago with his world ranking nearing 500. At the time Ancer was in the 700s but looked up and saw a serious attainable goal. All of his contemporaries did. A year later it was Ancer, now 260th in the world, who got the spot. It was the start of a serious drive that now sees four Mexican players on the PGA TOUR this season in Ancer, Diaz, Jose de Jesus Rodriguez and Carlos Ortiz. The most the country has ever boasted at one time. Ancer returns to Mexico City this season ranked 61st in the world, a ranking that while is outside the top 50 who get automatic invites, would have netted him a place regardless of his heritage thanks to a handful of withdrawals. He is the current Australian Open champion having travelled down under to win in Sydney last November, a result he followed up with a T2 for Mexico with Diaz at the ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf. He truly belongs on this stage. So much so he’s been slated to play with 80-time PGA TOUR winner Tiger Woods in the opening two rounds. And this time – thanks in part to last season’s experience – he’s ready. “Last year was my first WGC in my career and while I had so much support and had a lot of fun, I put a little bit too much pressure on myself to play really well,� Ancer said. “I certainly learned from that and I intend to try to make a better appearance this year. My game has elevated. “After Mexico City last year I started playing some really solid golf and it gave me a lot of confidence. I also got a win in Australia which gave me more confidence. It showed me I can win. I feel I am way better prepared this year.� The results show Ancer’s words aren’t just cliched lip service. Over his next three starts he finished no worse than 16th. At the Quicken Loans National in the summer Ancer shot a blistering third-round 62 to share the 54-hole lead with Francesco Molinari. History shows the Italian played a near flawless final round to win before weeks later doing so again at The Open Championship. No one would’ve beaten Molinari that day. Ancer responded with another top-5 finish at the RBC Canadian Open before once again contending heavily at the Dell Technologies Championship where he led after 54 holes but faded to seventh. Learning to close out tournaments is a process. Ancer found a way in Australia, much like Jordan Spieth did as a youngster before going ballistic the following season to win two majors, five events and the FedExCup. Ancer isn’t banking on five wins this season but he already has two top 10s and is a solid 42nd in the FedExCup standings heading into this week. One goal firmly in his mind in making the International Presidents Cup team. If he is able to do so, he will be the first ever Mexican player to take part. Ancer is currently sixth on the points list. “It’s obviously early now but I think about it every time I tee it up. I use it as drive, keeping in my mind that I am also playing for something else, something bigger than myself,� Ancer admits. “It is a primary goal of mine this year. I know that if I make that team it means I have had a successful season – it is something that I am really looking forward to. I love playing in a team atmosphere. And I couldn’t ask for a better stage to do that than the Presidents Cup.� International team captain Ernie Els is a fan. He paid close attention to Ancer’s form in Australia. After all, the 2019 Presidents Cup is being held at Royal Melbourne. Els expects to add at least a few new countries to the 14 who have previously been represented. Along with Mexico (Ancer) and China (Haotong Li) being likely to come aboard the likes of Chinese Taipei (C.T. Pan), Chile (Joaquin Niemann), Malaysia (Gavin Green) and the Philippines (Miguel Tabuena) have the chance to surge into contention. “It would be really amazing to be the person to add Mexico to the list for the first time,� Ancer says. “This year is very exciting for Mexico. Not only in the men’s side but the women also. Mexican golf is trending in the right direction and we are all very excited about that and very determined to take Mexico and golf to the next level.� A win on the PGA TOUR is not far away for Ancer. And winning on home soil this week is seriously not out of the question. But to the thousands of Mexican fans watching this week he is already a winner. Ancer is happy to be someone they can get behind. “I like challenges and I try to be a role model on the golf course,� he says. “I am not trying to stand up and say you should be like me… I just try to do my best every time I’m out there. I take this game, and my place in it, very seriously and hopefully that can inspire some young people to start golf.�

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DETROIT – It would seemingly qualify as minutia, a detail about Charles Howell’s remarkably consistent playing career on the PGA TOUR. Only when the man himself knows about it, is it really minutia? “I’m aware of it. I am,� he said after shooting a 5-under 67 in Friday’s second round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic. It pushed Howell to 12-under 132, two off Nate Lashley’s 67 – 130, with Cameron Champ (65 – 131) sandwiched between. That would certainly qualify as Howell being in contention for his second TOUR win of the year and yet another top 10, which is where the minutia enters the picture. Since 2012, Howell has piled up a whopping 34 top 10s – but only one of them has come in the summer months. And since we’ve been roasting with sultry weather here at Detroit Golf Club on this first full week of summer, it was asked of Howell to explain that quirky piece of information. But he merely shook his head after a round in which he made three straight birdies on the front, then two in a row on the back to vault into third. “I really don’t know why that is, but you know one thing great about turning 40?� said Howell, who reached that number on his recent birthday (June 20). “You stop worrying about things like that. It used to keep me up at night, I would grind over stuff like that.� He had a sly smile on his face, apparently having some fun with the minutia, but it was all good. “I tried it all. I took more weeks off in the summer, I played more in the summer. One (summer) I actually tried having neck surgery.� To no avail. His only summer top 10 since 2012 came two years ago when he lost in a playoff to Kyle Stanley at the Quicken Loans National. Should things progress as they have the last two days, Howell knows he’s in position to derail that summer drought line of thinking. But he suggested he and the rest of the 71 players who made the cut at 5-under 139 will be greeted by a tougher test on the weekend. “The scores are lower than I thought they would be from playing the practice days,� he said. “(But) the greens started to firm up a little bit (and if it doesn’t rain), I think you’ll see the balls bouncing on the greens tomorrow, especially in the afternoon.� The field average for the first two days has been 70.161 and Lashley, who got in as an alternate, continued his torrid play with three birdies on each side, the only miscue coming at the par-3 11th when he came up just short with his 228-yard shot and couldn’t get it up-and-down. He pretty much did everything else, though, even though he conceded he was nervous trying to back-up the first-round 63. The nerves stem from sitting 132nd on the FedExCup points list. “I need a good week to move up into the Top 125,� he said. “To do it this week comfortably would be great. To be able to kind of relax the last few events of the season would be really nice.� Lashley knew Champ’s 13-under was the lead when he teed off late and he got within one with a 33 on the front. His bogey at 11 negated the birdie he had made at 10, but a birdie at the par-3 15th got him tied, then he made his fifth birdie of the tournament at a par-5, the 17th. “If you hit fairways here, you can really score,� said Lashley, echoing a sentiment that has been shared by most of the competitors. It was felt going into the competition that Detroit GC could be attacked, but the lack of wind and excessively warm temperatures have made it even more of a shoot-out. Howell, however, is playing in his 546th TOUR tournament (in comparison, this is Lashley’s 33rd and Champ’s 28th) and he’s what they say is “qualified� to offer perspective. “(If it doesn’t rain), I think it’s going to change quite a lot,� said Howell. “The greens will start to get a little bit of that light-gray tint to them when the ball’s bouncing a bit. I think tomorrow afternoon it will be pretty firm.� Summer weather, which could be Howell’s time of year this week.

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