World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions, Round 1: Leaderboard, tee times, TV times

There's been little to celebrate for Joel Dahmen through the early part of 2021, but that could change in a big way in Punta Cana. Dahmen, who shot a 4-under-par 68 in the third round at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, heads into Sunday's finale tied for the lead with local favorite Rafael Campos. Campos, who is from Puerto Rico but calls the Dominican his second home, drained a birdie on the difficult par-4 18th from off the green to tie Dahmen at 10-under, much to the joy of the small crowd on site this week. Michael Gligic and Danny Willett are a shot back at 9-under and tied for third. Gligic is, like Campos and Dahmen, searching for his first TOUR win. Dahmen, meanwhile, has made only one cut in the 2021 portion of this season, a T60 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. After Thursday's 67 - only his second round in the 60's in 2021 - he admitted his clubs were bent incorrectly earlier this year. While his swing was sound, the ball wasn't flying the way he was hoping it would. His coach in Arizona, Rob Rashell, got him back to normal. "I played four weeks basically, with maybe clubs that weren't fit properly. And that sucks, obviously," said Dahmen. "Things were squirrelly at the beginning of this year and I felt like I was playing better than I was scoring and we kind of worked through some of those things. Then you work on your swing, you don’t chip and putt as much, so I knew it was all right there, I knew I would wake up one day and it was going to be there. "I was putting in the time, I was putting in the effort, just doing the right things. But golf’s really hard that way." He said despite the results being "ugly" so far in 2021, he said he's been hitting it well, and it's showed through 54 holes in Punta Cana. "I've been getting my butt kicked out here since the start of the year, so it feels good to play well," said Dahmen. Dahmen's third-round 68 included four birdies on the windswept back nine at Corales. He admitted his putter has been "hot and cold" this week but gave himself a kick after making the turn Saturday. He saw he was going down the leaderboard, but felt like, the way he was hitting it, he should be moving up. He made birdie on No's 9 and 10, added a couple more on both the par fives, and saved par on the tricky par-3 17th and par-4 18th, after a poor tee shot, to finish it off. Dahmen felt he should have been in the World Golf Championship-Dell Technologies Match Play field based on his body of work in 2020 (he was ranked as high as 64th in the world at the end of last year) and despite thinking he was going to take this week off, not getting into the Match Play was the motivation he needed to tee it up at Corales. Dahmen's been a mainstay on the PGA TOUR since he finished 80th on the FedExCup standings in 2018. He's gotten better every year since, finishing 55th in 2019 and 38th last season. This coming a half-decade on Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada until his breakout season in 2014 when he won twice and was Player of the Year. The 33-year-old's journey in professional golf - including beating testicular cancer when he was 23 - has been well documented, and now he'll be in the final group on Sunday on the PGA TOUR for the first time. He credits his wife, Lona, for supporting all of his on-course success over the nine years they've been together. The couple calls Scottsdale home and have been married for two years now - with Lona documenting much of their travels on her well-followed Instagram account, @TravelEatsAndTreats. She worked two jobs to pay rent when Dahmen was trying to get to the TOUR and said she's always been a positive influence on his life. "I just had a rough seven, eight weeks, it’s not that bad, but the way I play - super consistent, make a lot of cuts - you know, it seemed like it was pretty bad. It’s never as bad as you think it is, it’s never as good as you think it is, and Lona’s been great for me," said Dahmen of his 2021. "She still gives me a hug and a kiss and tells me to go kick butt, so it’s been good." And with Dahmen tied for the lead and 18 holes away from his first PGA TOUR victory, there might be an even better reason for a hug and a kiss Sunday night.

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AUSTIN, Texas – Another fun week in Austin for the world’s best culminated with a great win for Kevin Kisner at Austin Country Club. Kisner avenged his final loss from a year earlier, besting Matt Kuchar 3 and 2 in the championship match. Kuchar still continues his impressive renaissance, moving to the top of the FedExCup and Wyndham Rewards standings. Let’s take a look back at the highlights… and perhaps a few lowlights… of the week. MATCH OF THE WEEK Tiger Woods beat Rory McIlroy 2 and 1: This one might not have had the most birdies or haymakers being thrown, but it was enthralling and hyped none-the-less. Woods took an early lead thanks to birdies at the fifth and sixth holes and maintained it over the front nine as McIlroy’s putter refused to be helpful. A short par putt missed on the 10th from the PLAYERS Champion gave Woods a 3-up lead and it appeared he may cruise to victory. But then the real Rory showed up. He picked up a win on the par-5 12th, played the short par-4 13th to perfection to make it back-to-back birdies and wins and set up a grandstand finish. Woods was forced to make a fighting par save on the 15th before the critical hole – the par-5 16th. McIlroy made a statement by absolutely crushing a drive some 395-yards down breeze into the fairway. Woods pulled his tee shot left into a terrible lie in a bunker. It meant that after a lay-up, Woods was still away some 204-yards from the hole. The 80-time PGA TOUR winner then produced one of his trademark long irons up the hill, a laser to find the putting surface some 24-feet from the flag to keep birdie alive. With a shot up his sleeve and just 173-yards to the hole McIlroy executed poorly, flaring his shot to the right. He came up well short and unluckily stopped in the rough just above the lip of a bunker, creating a terrible lie and stance. His third shot came out hot and flew the green, ending up in an unplayable spot. After a few more hacks from around the green he conceded the hole and fell 2-down with just two to play. Just as Woods looked to have potentially given him life with an average tee shot and chip on the par-3 17th the three-time WGC–Dell Technologies Match Play champion drained his 13-foot par putt for the win. Honorable Mentions Louis Oosthuizen beat Marc Leishman 2 and 1 in the Round of 16: Out in front of the hyped Tiger/Rory match a pair of International Presidents Cup teammates were producing some unbelievable golf. Three birdies apiece over the opening six holes had the players all square before Leishman made the only mistake either produced in the match. Facing a 6-foot par putt to tie the hole, the Australian burned the edge to go 1-down. It was then the critical play came from Oosthuizen. He made a 31-foot birdie on the ninth hole and then hit his approach on the 10th to gimme range to race to a 3-up lead. Leishman refused to quit and birdied the 14th to cut the lead to two holes. He made a huge birdie putt on the 16th to give hope only to see Oosthuizen make his own on top of it. Leishman than gave himself a quality close look at birdie on the 17th hole only to see the South African curl in a 23-foot birdie from the fringe for the win. Lucas Bjerregaard beat Tiger Woods 1 Up in Quarterfinals: Three birdies in a row helped Woods overturn an early deficit to be 2-up on the Dane through five holes. Bjerregaard could have been forgiven if the moment got the better of him, but his fighting spirit became very evident against the wave of crowd support. Through 11 holes he trailed by just a hole and matched birdies with Woods on 12 and 13 to stay in it. By the time they came to the par-5 16th, Woods still appeared to be in control. But then Bjerregaard dropped a lengthy eagle bomb on the 80-time TOUR winner to square the match. He then poured in a must make birdie on the 17th before navigating the last better than Woods for the shock comeback win. BIGGEST “UPSETâ€� There are no real upsets when you put the best 64 players in the world head to head however: Lucas Bjerregaard beat Justin Thomas 3 and 2: The result that became the catalyst for the Danish star to make it all the way to the final four, taking out four major champions and three FedExCup champions along the way, was his first up start in the event against Justin Thomas. Thomas was 2-up through three holes and seemingly cruising as the fifth overall seed against the Dane, who came in as the 50th overall seed. But Bjerregaard had stolen the lead four holes later and then never let up. As he headed around the turn, Bjerregaard stepped up his offensive with three birdies, leaving Thomas in his wake. Kevin Na beat Justin Rose 2 Up in Round of 16: While Rose doesn’t have the greatest WGC–Dell Technologies Match Play record, he was still the number two overall seed coming up against Na, the 57th seed. And Na had limped into the final 16 despite a loss in his group. Through 11 holes, Na was 2-down and Rose was seemingly heading to a win, a result that would have seen him return to world No. 1 status. But Na made back-to-back birdies on the 12th and 13th holes to square the match and then Rose made back-to-back bogeys to relinquish his grip on advancing. BIGGEST ROUT John Rahm beat Si Woo Kim 7 and 5: Jon Rahm won five holes in a row on the back nine to give former PLAYERS champion Si Woo Kim a match play bath. Sadly he couldn’t continue the form, losing to J.B. Holmes and tying Matt Kuchar to miss out on the round of 16. PRESIDENTS CUP WATCH International Team captain Ernie Els might have hoped for more but a quarter of the final 16 were players eligible for his team for December’s Presidents Cup to be held in Melbourne, Australia. Three of them – South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace and Australian Marc Leishman are basically certainties to be part of the team as former standouts. China’s HaoTong Li continues to stake his claim to be the first Chinese representative to play in the Cup. For Tiger Woods and his American team, the case for inclusion was clearly put forth by finalists Matt Kuchar and Kevin Kisner. Kisner was unlucky not to be part of the Ryder Cup in Paris and has now surely ensured he won’t be overlooked again. WEIRDEST MOMENT Sergio Garcia’s brain fade in his quarterfinal against Matt Kuchar proved to be the most talked about quirk of the week. Already 1-down in his match, Garcia had a seven-foot par putt on the par-3 7th hole to bring the match back even following a Kuchar bogey. But he pulled it slightly offline, missing barely to the left. Before Kuchar could verbally concede the four-inch tap in for a half, Garcia swiped at it with the back of his putter and the ball lipped out of the hole. Without a concession Garcia was then ruled to have lost the hole, sending him 2-down. But rather than let it lie, Garcia then spent the next few holes trying to get Kuchar to concede a hole to square the ledger. While Kuchar said he didn’t feel comfortable with what happened, he stopped short of acquiescing to Garcia’s proposal. “It is quite simple. I screwed up. Simple as that,â€� Garcia said. “The only issue was that Kuch was like I didn’t say good, but I don’t want to take the hole, I don’t want to do this like this, and I was like OK that’s fine  – so what do you want to do?” “Because there are many options that you can do if you don’t want to take the hole, even though you’ve already lost that hole. Obviously, he didn’t like any of the options that were there. So it’s fine. At the end of the day I am the one who made the mistake.â€� THREE NAMES TO WATCH GOING FORWARD Lucas Bjerregaard: Just take a look at the players the Danish 27-year-old star beat to make the final four. Among them major winners Justin Thomas, Keegan Bradley, Henrik Stenson and Tiger Woods. Those four players combine for 17 majors, 99 PGA TOUR wins and four FedExCups. Justin Harding: The South African has been in hot form of late on the European Tour with a win and runner up over the last month or so. Only a red-hot Rory McIlroy stopped him coming out of group play. Does Ernie Els have his eye on this guy for the Presidents Cup in Melbourne? Abraham Ancer: Nerves – and a pretty good opponent in Paul Casey – got the better of Ancer in his WGC–Dell Technologies Match Play debut. But the Presidents Cup hopeful rebounded from a first up loss with impressive wins over Cameron Smith and Charles Howell III. Put up eight birdies in 15 holes against Howell.

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NORTON, Mass. — Dustin Johnson could have used a finish like this for a record score. The birdie-eagle ending to his round Saturday at THE NORTHERN TRUST gave him a 7-under 64 and stretched his lead to five shots in the FedExCup Playoffs opener. Johnson, coming off a remarkable day in which he was 11 under through 11 holes and finished with seven pars for a 60, pulled away from Harris English and Scottie Scheffler with a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th and a 40-footer for eagle on the closing hole at the TPC Boston. He was at 22-under 191, his lowest 54-hole score by three shots. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Scheffler cards 59 at THE NORTHERN TRUST “I’m in a great position and like where I’m at, but I’m still going to have to go out and shoot a good score,” Johnson said. “You can go low out here and guys are going low every day, especially with the conditions we have — perfect greens, golf course is in great shape and not a lot of wind.” English had three birdies in a four-hole stretch early on the back nine and was tied for the lead when Johnson made his lone bogey of the round on the 13th hole when he failed to get up-and-down from a bunker. English, however, followed with consecutive bogeys when he missed the green well to the right of the water on the par-3 16th, and three-putted from 70 feet on the 17th. He missed a third consecutive putt from 7 feet or closer, the last one for birdie, and had to settle for a 66. Scheffler closed with a birdie to follow his second-round 59 with a 67. He played in the final group with Johnson, just like he did two weeks ago on the final day of the PGA Championship. Even so, they’re five shots behind Johnson, who is going for his second victory of the year. “Try to make as many birdies as I can and see what happens,” English said. Louis Oosthuizen (68) was seven shots behind, and his best hope now would appear to be moving into the top 70 who advance to the second FedExCup Playoffs event next week at Olympia Fields south of Chicago. Tiger Woods predicted Friday there would be low scoring in the third round, and he was right — just not from him or Rory McIlroy, a star pairing for the breakfast hour. Woods birdied the last hole for a 73. McIlroy made two triple bogeys in his round of 74. They get to play together again Sunday morning. Johnson will be going for his fifth FedExCup Playoffs victory, and third in this event on a third course. What matters more is how he finishes the season. The FedExCup trophy winners already feature some of the best players in golf — Woods, McIlroy, Vijay Singh, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth among them — and Johnson wants to be on that list. Johnson set the target with four birdies in eight holes before heavy rain moved in and halted the third round for 45 minutes. It also softened a TPC Boston that was getting slightly firmer. He came back and hit to tap-in range for birdie on the 12th, and the had the great finish. Johnson needed a birdie on the 18th on Friday for his first 59, and said he regrets hitting driver off the tee with a shot that tumbled down a small slope into the rough. Lesson learned? Not really. With the rain, he opted for driver again, teed it low and hit this one perfect, setting up a 5-iron to the green and his long eagle putt.

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