Four big questions for the Sony Open

Stenson wins by 1 at Wyndham with closing 64

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SCHEFFLER WINS MASTERS FOR FOURTH TOUR TITLE IN SIX STARTS Scottie Scheffler is currently the world’s best golfer, statistically and aesthetically, and a Green Jacket is now part of his all-world 2022 memorabilia collection. The New Jersey native took a five-stroke lead into the weekend at the 86th Masters Tournament, held steady in Saturday’s cold, windy conditions, and kept the pedal down in Sunday’s final round at Augusta National Golf Club. Scheffler, 25, finished with a 10-under total and three-stroke victory over Rory McIlroy, who matched the Masters final-round record with an 8-under 64, punctuated by a bunker hole-out birdie at the 72nd hole. Scheffler wasn’t fazed by McIlroy’s historic charge from five groups ahead, nor has he been fazed by much in the last two months. A selection of Scheffler superlatives: He becomes the first player since Jason Day in 2015 to earn four TOUR wins in six starts. He wins in his first start as world No. 1. With his first four TOUR wins occurring in a 57-day span, he even nudges Bobby Locke (1947, 59 days) for shortest span between first and fourth wins. Scheffler increases his lead in the season-long FedExCup standings, 600 points accrued, as well. After assuming the No. 1 spot on the Official World Golf Ranking with his win at last month’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, Scheffler said he “never really got that far in my dreams.” His dream season continues. TIGER WOODS ‘THANKFUL’ TO COMPETE AT MASTERS By golf terms, it wasn’t the result he wanted. In the big picture, it was a success. The record will show that Tiger Woods finished at 13-over 301 at the Masters, his highest 72-hole total at this event by eight shots. It also is the second-highest 72-hole total of his career. Score was secondary this week, though. Woods made the cut and was able to get through four rounds on the extremely hilly Augusta National Golf Club, just 14 months after a single-car accident nearly cost him his right leg. “I think it needs a couple more days to heal after this,” Woods said. “But we’ll get back after it, and we’ll get into it.” Next up? It will be up for plenty of debate, but Woods did say he plans to play The Open at St. Andrews in July. The only question will be what event, or events, he will play leading up to that major. STARS HIGHLIGHT HARBOUR TOWN Cameron Smith leads a stout field for the RBC Heritage, which includes five of the top 10 players in the world. Smith won THE PLAYERS Championship in March and was in Sunday’s final group at the Masters before finishing T3. Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa are all set to make the short trip from Augusta along with Jordan Spieth, who heads to Harbour Town off a missed cut at the Masters. Stewart Cink returns to defend his 2021 triumph. Cink, 48, is looking to become the first person to defend his title in Hilton Head since Boo Weekley in 2007-08. South Carolina residents in the field include Aiken’s Kevin Kisner, North Augusta’s Matthew NeSmith, Columbia’s Wesley Bryan and Greenville’s Lucas Glover. Including Cink, each of the last nine winners at the RBC Heritage is set to tee it up. The 2023 Ryder Cup captains, Zach Johnson and Henrik Stenson, will be in the field. Morgan Hoffmann, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, returns to the TOUR for the first time since 2019 with three starts left on his Major Medical Extension. The Pete Dye/Jack Nicklaus design will play as a 7,121-yard par 71 and has hosted the RBC Heritage since the 1960s. The winner receives 500 FedExCup points plus a new jacket to add to the wardrobe. VIDEO OF THE WEEK MIC CHECK “That’s as happy as I’ve ever been on a golf course right there.” – Rory McIlroy after carding a final-round, 8-under 64 to record a career-best finish at the Masters (solo second) BY THE NUMBERS 22 – Consecutive Masters cuts made by Tiger Woods. 24 – Holes-in-one at the 16th hole after Stewart Cink made another in Round 2 with an 8-iron from 166 yards. 100 – Rounds by Sungjae Im of 67 or better on TOUR (Round 1 of the Masters). He joins Justin Thomas and Webb Simpson as players with 100 or more rounds of 67 or better since 2018. COMCAST BUSINESS TOUR TOP 10 The Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10 highlights and rewards the extraordinary level of play required to earn a spot in the TOP 10 at the conclusion of the FedExCup Regular Season as determined by the FedExCup standings. The competition recognizes and awards the most elite in golf.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida – Today the PGA TOUR introduced PGA TOUR AR, a brand new augmented reality (AR) app bringing live AR tournament coverage to life for fans around the world on their iPhone and iPad. Live AR coverage on PGA TOUR AR will begin in conjunction with the opening round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard on Thursday, March 15. The PGA TOUR AR app is available for free exclusively in the App Store. Mastercard is the Official Launch Partner of the PGA TOUR AR app that will feature exclusive branding within the AR app and will showcase the app in fan areas at Bay Hill Club. “Exploring unparalleled technologies like AR helps the PGA TOUR reach new audiences around the world,” said Rick Anderson, PGA TOUR Chief Media Officer. “Tapping into ARKit in iOS 11 allows us to showcase real-time data provided by ShotLink and CDW in a rich, visual way for fans. The PGA TOUR takes pride in bringing new technology to the sports world as a way of communicating to a large, diverse audience.” PGA TOUR AR puts augmented reality golf experiences into the hands of hundreds of millions of iPhone and iPad users, allowing fans to interact with 3D featured holes and live 3D shot trails on any flat surface right in front of them. On featured holes throughout the season, fans will be able to select their favorite player on the golf course, compare shot trails from each round and compare the shots of different players. Starting at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the featured hole is the par-5 No. 6, while the par-3 seventh hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links will be available for fans to go back and review shot trails from this year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. THE PLAYERS Championship will feature Nos. 16, 17 and 18 live and in AR, and at the season-ending TOUR Championship, East Lake Golf Club’s No. 18 will be highlighted. The PGA TOUR plans to add more holes from other tournaments leading up to the TOUR Championship and ultimately plans to feature at least one hole at every tournament on the PGA TOUR schedule. “We are thrilled to partner with the PGA TOUR in bringing live AR to fans this week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational,” said Raja Rajamannar, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Mastercard. “Mastercard shares a common bond with the PGA TOUR that revolves around innovation, and this technology aligns with our promise to our cardholders to provide Priceless experiences. We are excited about continued conversations on how the PGA TOUR’s AR app will rollout new enhancements and provide consumers from around the world a new way to engage with the game of golf.” An update to the PGA TOUR AR app later this year will enable an on-course AR experience where fans at a golf tournament can hold up their device in front of any hole and the technology will display shot trails for selected players live or during a past round of the user’s choosing. The development of the PGA TOUR AR app in collaboration with POSSIBLE Mobile, part of the creative agency POSSIBLE, was aided by existing data gathered by ShotLink powered by CDW, the TOUR’s longstanding state-of-the-art scoring system. ShotLink through CDW technology captures and reports real-time vital information on every shot, by every player, during tournament competition. Every shot is translated into thousands of statistics, changing the way fans watch – and now interact with – the PGA TOUR, bringing them closer to the action. ShotLink and CDW’s vision is to turn data into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into entertainment. “This app empowers us to creatively display and share data captured by ShotLink and CDW with fans in an entirely new way,” said Devon Fox, PGA TOUR Director, Digital Platform Innovation, who was recently named as one of the Top Women in Digital by Cynopsis. “Utilizing the biggest AR platform in the world, we can instantly reach millions of new golf fans around the world in an exciting and fun style.” The PGA TOUR AR app was built using ARKit in iOS 11 to provide immersive AR experiences for the game of golf. ARKit helps app developers like the PGA TOUR blend digital objects and information with the environment, taking apps far beyond the screen and freeing them to interact with the real world in entirely new ways. For more information on ARKit visit: https://developer.apple.com/arkit/. The TOUR is considering several enhancements within the PGA TOUR AR app for fans who attend tournaments to help them locate their favorite venues, merchandise locations and concession stands, or finding their favorite player on the course. This allows the TOUR and its partners to develop creative ways to interact with fans to form a more enjoyable on course experience. As the technology progresses, the TOUR expects to work with sponsors to display their brands within the app in innovative ways. Possible enhancements include creating custom AR experiences such as displaying branded venues on each hole, video boards that show highlights from the event, or giving fans the opportunity to take full 360 views of a product. “New technologies are exciting, but only if they can add a new and valuable dimension to an experience,” said Ben Reubenstein, CEO, POSSIBLE Mobile. “Golf is a perfect fit for leveraging augmented reality by providing a cutting-edge way for fans to interact with the sport.”

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