How The Open came back to Northern Ireland

Harris English … If we’re keeping it real, the seven-year TOUR member should be beyond Sleeper status by now. It was only 20 months ago when he eked inside the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking. Alas, prior to last week’s T11 at the CareerBuilder Challenge, he had sunk to 287th. Now slotted 252nd, he’s positioned to marry four strong rounds in the Coachella Valley with a perfect record in five trips to the Farmers Insurance Open. His record here includes a playoff loss in 2015 and a T14 last year, which was his second-best finish in all of 2017. Ollie Schniederjans … Speaking of talents who don’t project to cheat as Sleepers for long, the Georgia Tech product is looking to build off both a T9 at last year’s Farmers and a T7 at the Sony Open in Hawaii two weeks ago. He led the field at Waialae in fewest putts per GIR and co-led in par breakers. Piggybacking course success and solid current form is a potentially intriguing sub-narrative of where he’s deciding to compete. The 24-year-old has four top 25s this season and he’s already withdrawn early from two commitments, both at sites where he struggled previously in his brief career (Mayakoba, CareerBuilder). Each may have been for different reasons, but possessing the intelligence and patience to pick and choose layouts that best suit his game is as invaluable as the rest those decisions yield. Michael Thompson … The 32-year-old is competing with the safety net of conditional status if he doesn’t collect a little over 37 FedExCup points in his next three starts via a medical extension (in the Web.com Tour graduate reshuffle category), but those starts are still precious, so choosing where to burn the next one is critical in terms of leveraging playing time for the remainder of the season. Considering he needs no worse than a two-way T23 to get the job done, he’s made a great decision in showing at Torrey Pines where he’s 5-for-6 with top-15 finishes in 2015 and 2017. Corey Conners … He hasn’t missed yet – cuts, that is. The rookie has finished no better than T30 at the season-opening Safeway Open in northern California, but he’s 7-for-7 upon arrival for his latest tournament debut, so the former standout from Canada is figuring out how to survive. Torrey Pines will give him all he can handle, but he’s equipped with the proper skill set to make noise. Currently T34 on TOUR in total driving, T48 in greens hit and 29th in strokes gained: off-the-tee. Julian Suri … If you’re not familiar with him, that will change. A year ago at this time, he sat 1,125th in the Official World Golf Ranking. Today, he’s 62nd. That’s what happens following a pair of European Tour victories, a trio of T8s and a co-runner-up finish in his last start in Hong Kong two months ago. He finished sixth in scoring average on the European Tour in 2017, ahead of the likes of Jon Rahm (seventh), Peter Uihlein (eighth), Henrik Stenson (ninth) and Matthew Fitzpatrick (11th). Now 26 years of age, the Duke product will barnstorm the next three stops on the West Coast Swing.

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After thrilling the patrons at Augusta National with an opening-round, 1-under 71 at the Masters, Tiger Woods sets his sights on moving up the leaderboard in Friday’s second round. Woods tees off at 1:41 p.m. ET Friday alongside Joaquin Niemann, after third group member Louis Oosthuizen withdrew prior to the round, citing injury. This week marks Woods’ first TOUR start since the (November) 2020 Masters, as he works back from severe injuries to both legs suffered in a single-car accident in Los Angeles in February 2021. After his opening round, Woods said his plan for Thursday evening involved “lots of ice,” with the goal of remaining as fresh as possible into Friday. Keep it here for hole-by-hole updates on Woods’ second round at Augusta National, as he aims to advance to weekend competition at the 86th Masters.

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The PGA TOUR returns to Minnesota next week for the second 3M Open – and just the second tournament during the Return to Golf that was in its original spot on the calendar this season. Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, and last year’s winner Matthew Wolff highlight the field, while Tommy Fleetwood returns to action. FIELD NOTES: Tommy Fleetwood makes his PGA TOUR return and 3M Open debut. The Ryder Cup star was in the field for THE PLAYERS Championship, but hasn’t played four rounds on TOUR since a third-place finish at The Honda Classic in March… Brooks Koepka will tee it up at the 3M Open alongside his brother, Chase. The elder Koepka has only one top-10 finish this season… Dustin Johnson makes his tournament debut… Tom Lehman, who helped work on the design of TPC Twin Cities, received a Sponsor Exemption… Erik Van Rooyen (who went to the University of Minnesota and won an award named after Lehman) and current University of Minnesota star Angus Flanagan are also among the sponsor invites. FEDEXCUP: Winner gets 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: TPC Twin Cities, 7,114 yards, par 72. A longtime stop on PGA TOUR Champions, TPC Twin Cities opened in 2000 and began hosting the 3M Championship on the over-50 circuit the following season. The Arnold Palmer design used Tom Lehman, a Minnesota native, as a consultant. STORYLINES: A year ago Matthew Wolff became just the third golfer in history to win an NCAA individual national championship and a PGA TOUR title in the same year – Ben Crenshaw and Tiger Woods are the others… Wolff returns to defend his title in Minnesota, which came in just his third TOUR start as a pro. His runner-up result at the Rocket Mortgage Classic a few weeks ago was his season-best so far… Six other golfers, besides Wolff, who finished in the top-10 at last year’s 3M Open (Lucas Glover, Troy Meritt, Carlos Ortiz, Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns, and Brian Harman) look to build off their 2019 success… The 2019 3M Open marked the return of the PGA TOUR to Minnesota after a 50-year absence. 72-HOLE RECORD: 263, Matthew Wolff (2019) 18-HOLE RECORD: 62, Scott Piercy (first round, 2019), Bryson DeChambeau (second round, 2019), Matthew Wolff (third round, 2019), Lucas Glover (fourth round, 2019) LAST TIME: Matthew Wolff got his professional career started with a bang as the 20-year-old notched his first TOUR victory less than a month after making his pro debut at the Travelers Championship. Wolff topped Bryson DeChambeau and fellow collegiate star Collin Morikawa by one shot after a Sunday 65 left him at 21-under for the week. Adam Hadwin finished fourth alone while Carlos Ortiz and Wyndham Clark rounded out the top five. With the win Wolff became the first player since 2016 to win have receiving a Sponsor Exemption. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 2:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday 7:45 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (Featured Groups). Saturday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. (Featured Groups), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Holes). Radio: Thursday-Friday, 1 p.m.-6:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday 1 p.m.-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).

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