Power Rankings: AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

After a successful debut last year, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans returns with its unique team format. Many of the game’s biggest names have descended on TPC Louisiana for the opportunity to partner with a friend for the only team event during the FedExCup season. The two-man teams will play four-ball on Thursday and Saturday and alternate shot in the second and fourth rounds. Last year’s tournament included one of the best shots of the year, as Kevin Kisner chipped in for eagle on the 72nd hole to force a playoff with Jonas Blixt and Cameron Smith. Smith clinched the title by hitting a wedge to 3 feet on the fourth hole of the sudden-death playoff, which concluded Monday because of darkness. Blixt and Smith have returned to defend their title. They’ll be part of PGA TOUR LIVE’s Featured Groups coverage, as will two of the past three FedExCup champions (Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas), Masters champion Patrick Reed and all three medalists from the 2016 Olympics. The Thursday broadcast will begin at 8 a.m. Eastern, while the Friday broadcast will begin at 9:15 a.m. Featured Holes will begin at 3 p.m. and run until the end of the broadcast at 6:30 p.m. TPC Louisiana’s two back-nine par-3s, Nos. 14 and 17, are this week’s Featured Holes. PGA TOUR LIVE also can be viewed on Twitter from approximately 8 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. on Thursday and 9:15 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Friday. Here’s a closer look at what you can see this week on PGA TOUR LIVE (Note: FedExCup rankings in parentheses): THURSDAY Justin Thomas (1)/Bud Cauley (61), Daniel Berger (66)/Gary Woodland (22): FedExCup leader Justin Thomas is teaming with fellow Alabama alum Bud Cauley for the second consecutive year. The duo finished fifth in last year’s Zurich Classic. Thomas won last year’s FedExCup and holds the lead again this season after victories at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES and The Honda Classic. They’ll play alongside Thomas’ Presidents Cup teammate, Daniel Berger, and another of this season’s winners, Gary Woodland. He won earlier this year at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Tee times: 8:39 a.m. Eastern off No. 10 on Thursday; 2:08 p.m. Eastern off No. 1 on Friday. Jordan Spieth (28)/Ryan Palmer (84), Wesley Bryan (153)/Jon Rahm (7): The Texas twosome of Ryan Palmer and Jordan Spieth has reunited after a fourth-place finish here last year. Bryan and Rahm are good friends who promise to make a colorful pairing. Rahm’s strong driving and Bryan’s crafty wedge play could make them a dangerous duo. Tee times: 8:52 a.m. Eastern off No. 10 on Thursday; 2:09 p.m. Eastern off No. 1 on Friday. FRIDAY Patrick Reed (6)/Patrick Cantlay (15), Jonas Blixt (162)/Cameron Smith (25): The Patricks are back after a 14th-place finish at last year’s Zurich. They were one shot off the lead at the halfway mark. For Reed, this will be his first PGA TOUR start since his Masters victory. Cantlay picked up his first PGA TOUR title earlier this season at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. They are the only team with two players ranked inside the top 15 in the FedExCup standings and the only team of PGA TOUR winners this season. Smith is coming off fifth-place finishes at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play and the Masters. Click here to read Ben Everill’s feature on Smith. Tee times: 1:44 p.m. Eastern off No. 1 on Thursday; 9:53 a.m. Eastern off No. 10 on Friday. Justin Rose (8)/Henrik Stenson (37), Matt Kuchar (58)/Bubba Watson (3): All four of these players competed for their countries at the 2016 Olympics. Three of them won medals (sorry, Bubba). However, Watson is the only one with multiple titles this season. He won both the Genesis Open and WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. Kuchar earned a bronze medal in Rio de Janeiro. Kuchar and Watson are among an elite group of players who have qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs in all 11 seasons of the FedExCup. Rose and Stenson, the gold and silver medalists, respectively, have reunited despite a surprising MC at last year’s Zurich Classic. Rose (2015) and Watson (2011) also are former Zurich champions. Tee times: 1:57 p.m. Eastern off No. 1 on Thursday; 10:04 a.m. Eastern off No. 10 on Friday.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – Notes and observations from Friday’s second round of the Wyndham Championship, where Henrik Stenson shot 66 to take the lead at 12 under. Kevin Na shot 63 and a resurgent Hunter Mahan carded his second straight 65 to go into the weekend two shots back MAHAN BACK FROM THE ABYSS Hunter Mahan was the only player not to miss a FedExCup playoff event from its 2007 inception until he failed to make the 2015 TOUR Championship. He reached a career high of fourth in the Official World Golf Ranking after winning The Barclays in 2014. He played in four Presidents Cups, two Ryder Cups, and racked up roughly $30 million in career earnings. No one would have looked twice if that Mahan had shot 65 at steamy Sedgefield, getting him to 10 under and just two off the lead at the Wyndham. But today, at 35 and the father of three kids age 4 and younger, Mahan is 197th in the FedExCup and 809th in the OWGR. His best result so far this season: a T17 at the Travelers Championship, where he got his first win in 2007. If his name on the leaderboard surprises you, well, yes—it should. “I’ve been on a little bit of a journey in the last year trying to figure out what kind of—what kind of golfer I am, what kind of swings I need to make,â€� Mahan said after making six birdies and one bogey. “It kind of starts from scratch. It feels a little better. I’m trying to get back to what I did when I was successful and my kind of fingerprints and what I do well and—it’s difficult.â€� What happened to Mahan? The short answer is: parenthood. He held a two-shot at the 2013 RBC Canadian Open, but withdrew to be home for the birth of his first child with wife Kandi. It’s too easy to call that the line of demarcation in his career, since he won The Barclays the season after that, but Hunter and Kandi had their second and third kids in quick succession. “I think it overwhelmed me,â€� he told the AP last year. “And I lost track of my swing a little bit.â€� Mahan took a new caddie. He changed coaches, hiring Dallas-based Chris O’Connell, and the two went on a deep dive in search of the stuff that made Mahan the winner of two World Golf Championships and six total PGA TOUR titles. The results at Sedgefield suggest they’re on the right track. Mahan especially liked the way he responded to bogeying the sixth hole Friday. Over the past few years, he said, he might have faltered. This time, the former Oklahoma State star flushed a 6-iron onto the green at the par-3 seventh hole, leading to an easy par. At the par-4 eighth, he split the fairway and stuck a wedge inside 16 feet, then made the birdie putt. Can he keep building on his success? Mahan admits he doesn’t know. Some fixes have helped him one day only to hurt him the next. “Sometimes the cure becomes the cancer,â€� he said. Stenson, who has played his way out of the golfing wilderness more than once, said one of the hardest things for a player in Mahan’s shoes is to keep taking the long view. “The tendency is to try to turn things around too quickly,â€� Stenson said. “When I’ve been down, the key for me has been committing to the long-term process. You’ve got to give yourself time, and once you get into that mindset you get a different calmness and you can kind of climb your way up. It’s good to see Hunter playing well again. Mahan says his life is “pretty good,â€� and adds that he has learned what he can and can’t control with three young children. He watches the big events like last week’s PGA Championship go on without him, and while that’s disappointing, he tells himself that he’s doing the right things. Like any parent, he tries to stay patient. He tries to appreciate the small victories even if they don’t necessarily translate on the scorecard. Peers like Sean O’Hair, with whom Mahan played junior golf and who himself is a parent of four, tell him to keep his head up, that it’ll turn around. “I feel excited to play,â€� Mahan said. “Excited to learn about what I can do to get better. I’m not tired of golf, not sick of playing tournaments. I’ve got keep learning about myself and what I do well and what ‘feels’ work for me.â€�

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