Martin Trainer gets first PGA TOUR win at Puerto Rico Open

Click here to read the full article…

Paul Azinger will become NBC Sports’ lead golf analyst in 2019, following Johnny Miller’s retirement at the Waste Management Phoenix Open (Jan. 31-Feb. 3). Azinger won 12 times on the PGA TOUR, including the 1992 TOUR Championship and 1993 PGA Championship. He also was captain of the 2008 Ryder Cup team. He has enjoyed a lengthy broadcasting career since retiring as a player, serving as the lead golf analyst for ABC and ESPN from 2006-2015. He joined Fox Sports’ broadcast of USGA championships in 2016 and will continue to serve in that role. “I have great admiration for both the quality of NBC Sports’ coverage and commitment to great storytelling, as well as the network’s deep commitment to the game I love,� Azinger said. “It is a great honor to cover a tremendous slate of PGA TOUR and marquee events, including THE PLAYERS, The Open, Ryder Cup and Tokyo Olympics. Additional opportunities to contribute to instructional and historical projects, as well as Golf Channel’s top-notch news platforms, makes this the role of a lifetime.� Following his breakthrough major championship victory at the PGA Championship at Inverness, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. After battling the disease for months with intensive chemotherapy and radiation, he was able to return to golf and received the Golf Writers Association of America Ben Hogan Award in 1995, which recognizes a professional golfer who remains active in the sport despite serious illness or physical handicap. Azinger’s comeback was fully realized in 2000, when at the age of forty, he won the Sony Open in Hawaii. Additionally, Azinger will contribute to Golf Channel’s portfolio of platforms, ranging from Golf Central’s Live From the Masters alongside former colleague Mike Tirico; develop instructional content for both on-air and via Revolution Golf; and develop documentary projects for Golf Channel’s Emmy-nominated and critically-acclaimed Golf Films. Azinger’s NBC Sports schedule in 2019, which will regularly include all four days of tournament coverage on Golf Channel and NBC, will kick off at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship (Feb. 21-24). NBC Sports will allow Azinger to continue to call The Masters for the BBC, as well as the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open on FOX. “Paul is one of the most perceptive minds in golf,� said Tommy Roy, lead golf producer, NBC Sports. “His innate ability to dissect the action in front of him and convey it to the viewer in such a concise, assured manner is what we value most across our tournament broadcast team.�

Click here to read the full article…

ORLANDO, Fla. – Arnold Palmer was watching a pro-am round at Bay Hill Club and Lodge a number of years ago when Phil Mickelson launched a short iron to the heavens at the par-4 first hole, only to watch in pure disbelief as the ball bounded high off the green, 8 feet high, as if it had caromed off a trampoline. Not sure Palmer, the late tournament host of his namesake PGA TOUR stop, ever flashed a bigger smile as he sat in his cart along the side of the fairway. Palmer loved to create a test of golf that was firm, and tougher than a $3 steak, where pars meant something, and every birdie carried away was as valuable as a gold brick. When scores soared on Saturday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, he is one that would have enjoyed the show. Somebody will walk away on Sunday with a winner’s check for $2.16 million (gulp!), but it’s going to take an honest week’s work. You win at Bay Hill the old-fashioned way. You earn it. Welcome to that new yearly suspense thriller, titled “Weekend at Arnie’s.” Billy Horschel (1-under 71) and Talor Gooch (72) were the best Saturday survivors, considering they played late in the day, when conditions were toughest, and will enter Sunday sharing the lead at 7-under 209. That’s two shots to par backwards than it was 24 hours earlier. Viktor Hovland, who had a four-shot lead at one point, faded with a 40 on the back nine to slide to 75 and lose his grip on the tournament lead. He is one shot back, with Scottie Scheffler (68) two behind and Gary Woodland (70) three. The day did not go so well for many others. World No. 1 Jon Rahm, playing here for the first time, made one birdie all day. Seasoned Lee Westwood, a runner-up at Bay Hill a year ago, shot 33-43. Cameron Young, a hot stick of late, finished his front nine with a double bogey and back nine with a triple. He shot 76. The greens were glassy, and players had difficulty just getting the putter to settle behind the ball. Scheffler, who teed off two hours ahead of the last group and tied the day’s low round of 68, paused to think about the last time he had such a challenge just getting his putter to sit still as he readied to putt. Let’s see … Oh, it would be two years ago, right here. “Brutal” became a well-worn word muttered inside the scoring area. Billy Horschel, who grew up in Florida not far from Orlando and Bay Hill, often would visit the tournament to watch the stars play as a youth, hoping that he might make it inside those ropes one day. Winning here would be extra special for the Florida Gators alum. It just won’t be easy, that’s all. Saturday’s rough conditions (scoring average: 74.06) was not everyone’s cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean that some men cannot enjoy the challenge. “This is awesome golf,” Horschel gushed as dusk settled in after a long and demanding round. “It’s testing and it wears you down, but this is the golf that I think – I can’t even say we all ‘enjoy’ all the time, but we do enjoy, because it does reward fairly good golf shots on a regular basis. “It rewards people who think their way through a shot, and how it needs to be played to really turn out properly.” How tough was it? Horschel stood on the tee at the 163-yard 14th hole, wind helping, with a pitching wedge in his hand, just praying that he could hit a shot that stayed on the green. Mind you, the 14th green isn’t an island, either. “How many times are you happy to just hit the green with a pitching wedge for a PGA TOUR pro?” Horschel asked. Rory McIlroy had promised that Saturday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was going to be a wild ride. More prescient words never were spoken. The Northern Irishman has a great feel for this place, was the tournament’s champion in 2018, and seemed very much in control two days earlier when he opened with 65. On Saturday, he was 11 shots worse, and relieved that a round of golf only lasted 18 holes. “Yeah, look, it’s so tough out there,” said McIlroy, who tumbled to 3-under 213, and will start Sunday four shots out of the lead, hoping to chase. “It’s so tricky. It’s just on a knife edge, like you’re literally talking like feet. Two feet here, two feet there from 200 yards can make a huge difference in where the ball ends up.” McIlroy wasn’t whining, just giving an honest assessment. His back nine on Saturday appeared like an EKG graph: A double bogey, three bogeys, three birdies and even a couple of pars. It added up to 76. There were only seven players who shot in the 60s, and most of them turned in those scores earlier in the day, before the hardest winds kicked up and players flipped the switch to survival mode. Nick Watney barely made the cut (74-72), but a 69 on Saturday rocketed him all the way to a tie for 12th. “I guess, the last few years, we sort of know what to expect coming here,” McIlroy said. “It just seems to be this way over the weekend. It’s just hard. It’s hard not to get frustrated.” Max Homa was 2 over for his day – not all bad, truthfully – when he reached the par-3 14th on Saturday afternoon. He floated a nice high cut with a pitching wedge, the ball traveling the direction of the flagstick, and soon it vanished into the hole for an ace. A well-earned bright spot. Take that, Bay Hill! Scheffler was playing alongside Homa, and after his round, was asked if Homa, Mr. Ace himself, had offered to buy him a drink. “I think he owes all of us a drink,” Scheffler said. “Isn’t that how it works?” After Saturday’s round, players at Bay Hill appeared ready to line up behind him. The test had been brutal. Just the way Palmer liked it.

Click here to read the full article…