Quick look at the Safeway Open

Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff brought golf back Sunday. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but that it was a performance — and raised a lot of money — was what mattered most.

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Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Matt Jones, Jonas Blixt, Cameron Smith – these were the PGA TOUR winners young Australian Cameron Davis upstaged with a blistering final round at the Australian Open. Davis, who played his rookie season on the MacKenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada this year but failed to fire a shot, proved his big game acumen with a 7-under 64 in high winds at The Australian Golf Club. His 11-under total was enough to join the likes of Gene Sarazen, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Greg Norman, Rory McIlroy and Spieth as winners of the Stonehaven Cup. While he sat on cloud nine after winning the fifth oldest national championship in the history of golf, Davis immediately started to shift his focus to final stage of Web.Com Tour Q-School set for a week’s time. He hopes to get status there but also has higher aspirations. The 6-foot, 4-inch Davis played in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba last season and was T15 in his only PGA TOUR event but was unable to keep up the form in Canada, finishing 76th on the order of merit. He’s hopeful this win might encourage a few tournament directors to extend invitations to TOUR events. “I always felt like if I play my very best golf I’d be able to compete (on the PGA TOUR),� the 22-year-old Davis said. “I’m going to try my best to come down from the excitement I’ve obviously got after winning this and then it’s another big week that we’ve got to get on top of. “I feel like I’m playing well obviously at the moment, so I’m feeling pretty good going into final stage, but it’s a whole different week, whole different golf course. “We’ve got to go back to work, start mapping the golf courses, get there early, just treat it like another week and you’ve got to start from scratch again.� For Day, it was a gut-wrenching finish to a tough year. Holding the 54-hole lead the 10-time PGA TOUR winner was the prohibitive favorite but shot a dismal 73 to drop to fifth. It’s the first time since 2012 he’s failed to have a win anywhere in the world and sends him into 2018 trying to find his feet once more. “It’s obviously a little bit disappointing to come out and not finish it, but I’ve just got to kind of look back on it and see what I need to do for next time, because you can’t be perfect all the time and I played three terrific rounds and I just didn’t put it together on Sunday,� Day said. “When you hold the lead and when everyone is expecting you to win, there’s a bit of added pressure. I was on the wrong side of momentum and if I could just get on the right side of momentum it may have been a different outcome.� Jones bogeyed four of his first six holes Sunday before storming back with seven birdies. Sadly he needed eight. Blixt had a 12-footer on the last to force a playoff only to leave it short. Their consolation was a berth in the 2018 Open Championship at Carnoustie along with Davis. Smith bogeyed the 13th and 15th holes down the stretch to surrender his chances. And the defending champion Spieth actually played nicely for a 67, moving him into eighth place and feeling better as he heads to the Hero World Challenge. Spieth failed to make many putts of importance throughout the week despite some impressive ball-striking. But with coach Cam McCormick as acting caddie while Michael Greller spends time with his new child the Texan is hopeful the learning curve from Sydney will be easier at Albany. “I’m playing beautifully, the putter felt great today, I found a nice trigger and I was getting through my putts a lot better than I was at the beginning of the week, and had that happened the whole week, I would definitely have been in contention,� Spieth said. “The game feels good, so I’ll get in there and having Cam see pretty much all the swings that I hit on the range and on the golf course, and all the putts, I have that kind of extra confidence that I know where things are throughout the swing and, so it should be easy, I shouldn’t have too many questions next week, which will be nice.�

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – PGA TOUR LIVE will offer fans more access than ever before during the 2019-20 PGA TOUR Season by adding early-round featured groups coverage from seven events between September and December. This includes, for the first time ever, live streaming of “featured matches� all four days of competition from the upcoming Presidents Cup at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia (December 12-15, 2019). All told, approximately 140 hours of additional live content will be available, bringing more than 1,100 total hours to subscribers and extending live content across each month of the calendar year. Available in the United States on NBC Sports Gold and Prime Video Channels and internationally on GOLFTV powered by PGA TOUR, the TOUR’s OTT subscription service will provide Thursday-Friday coverage of featured  groups starting in September from the six domestic tournaments on the 2019-20 PGA TOUR schedule: A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier; Sanderson Farms Championship; Safeway Open; Shriners Hospitals for Children Open; Houston Open; and The RSM Classic.  “In year one of our partnerships with NBC Sports and Amazon, we’ve exceeded expectations on multiple fronts, and we’re thrilled our fans will have the opportunity to watch the exciting early-round action from these 6 fall events and Presidents Cup,� said Rick Anderson, Chief Media Officer for the PGA TOUR. “It’s clear that fans love the depth and breadth of PGA TOUR LIVE coverage, which is a byproduct of both its increasing accessibility and the expanding volume of live content we’re able to deliver.� Coinciding with the announcement of additional coverage, the PGA TOUR and NBC Sports are offering a limited time subscription offer, whereby fans signing up for an annual pass (September 2019-August 2020) for $64.99 will also receive bonus coverage from the upcoming FedExCup Playoffs for free. Current annual pass-holders will retain access through December 31, 2019, thus receiving access to these seven additional events. International fans can find out about local offers and pricing by visiting GOLF.TV, with access to PGA TOUR LIVE coverage and on-demand content available online and on mobile via the GOLFTV powered by PGA TOUR app. NBC Sports Gold and Prime Video Channels, as well as GOLFTV powered by PGA TOUR internationally, began distributing PGA TOUR LIVE in January 2019, each now with more than 1,000 hours of content from 35 tournaments. An expanded list of platforms and streaming devices to access PGA TOUR LIVE through these relationships has led to a significant increase in engagement and consumption, including a 25-percent year-over-year increase in time spent per user (2 hours, 30 minutes watched per user, per week).  Additionally, with NBC Sports Gold and Prime Video Channels being available on dozens of connected devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV and Chromecast, connected device consumption of PGA TOUR LIVE has spiked to about one-third of total minutes in 2019.  About PGA TOUR LIVE PGA TOUR LIVE is the PGA TOUR’s Over-The-Top subscription service that features more than 1,100 hours of live video from 35 PGA TOUR events.  Coverage showcases the TOUR’s biggest stars with live Featured Groups coverage each week beginning at A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier and running through the TOUR Championship.  Fans can subscribe to PGA TOUR LIVE via NBC Sports Gold or Amazon Prime Video Channels, offering fans more viewing options and platforms than ever before.  In addition to its exclusive live coverage, PGA TOUR LIVE now features Speed Rounds that showcase every shot from a Featured Player in under 10 minutes, as well as integrated statistics, rounds replays and event recaps.  About PGA TOUR By showcasing golf’s greatest players, the PGA TOUR engages, inspires and positively impacts our fans, partners and communities worldwide. The PGA TOUR co-sanctions more than 130 tournaments on the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, Korn Ferry Tour, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR Series-China. Members on the PGA TOUR represent the world’s best players, hailing from 27 countries (90 members are from outside the United States). Worldwide, PGA TOUR tournaments are broadcast to 226 countries and territories in 23 languages. Virtually all tournaments are organized as non-profit organizations to maximize charitable giving. In 2018, tournaments across all Tours generated a record $190 million for local and national charitable organizations, bringing the all-time total to $2.84 billion.

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