What happens when a golf tournament gets canceled — and what comes next

The holiday season is about togetherness – the more, the merrier – so it only makes sense that the last two tournaments of the calendar year hosted by the PGA TOUR are team formats. Next week’s PNC Championship associated with the PGA TOUR Champions connects generations. It’s fitting that it’s the last stop before everyone celebrates the holidays in earnest. There won’t be a Power Rankings for it, but the entire field of 12 two-person teams at this week’s QBE Shootout is slotted below. As it has since taking over as host of the three-day competition in 2001, Tiburón Golf Club’s Gold Course in Naples, Florida, is the stage. Details of it, the format, and more can be found below. POWER RANKINGS: QBE SHOOTOUT For two of the competitors in the field – Nelly Korda and Lexi Thompson – the Gold Course at Tiburón is exceptionally familiar, for it’s also the annual host of the LPGA’s CME Group Tour Championship. It was contested just three weeks ago. Save nine holes borrowed from the Black Course in 2014, only the Gold has hosted the QBE Shootout throughout the Tiburón’s tenure. The Gold is a stock par 72 that can tip at 7,382 yards, but it’s all about the format in an event like this. Length off the tee will matter only in retrospect if it’s paid off, for there is a reason why this is dubbed a Shootout with a capital S. Nothing has changed concerning the sequence of the scoring for every round. Friday’s opener is a traditional scramble. There will be 18-hole totals in the mid-to-high 50s. Last year’s highest R1 score was 62. The second round will played as modified alternate shot. Everyone hits a tee ball on every hole, but only one ball is used to complete each hole. There was one 62 and one 71 in this format last year, but all of the others ranged from 64 to 69. Sunday’s conclusion is better ball for which the lower of the scores among teammates goes on the card. There was one 68 in this format last year, but all of the others ranged from 60 to 65. The tournament record is 37-under 179. That was authored by the dynastic duo of Harris English and Matt Kuchar in 2020. Their margin of victory of nine strokes that week also is the largest in tournament history. They make up one of just two teams in this week’s field that has partnered together before. This week’s winning combo will share $950,000 of a record purse of $3.8 million. Spectacular weather is forecast. Daytime temps probably will creep into the low 80s and mostly blue skies will be accompanied by light winds. NOTE: PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf will resume with the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Jan. 5-8.

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SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Si Woo Kim narrowly missed a second hole-in-one on consecutive days and saw his four-shot lead trimmed to one over Monday qualifier Corey Conners after Saturday’s third round of the Valero Texas Open. Kim, the 2017 THE PLAYERS Championship winner, aced the 16th hole at the TPC San Antonio on Friday, and he missed it by inches on the way to a third round 3-under 69. He was at 15 under, and Connors, trying to become the first Monday qualifier to win on the PGA TOUR since 2010, was a stroke back after shooting a 6-under 66. Charley Hoffman, the 2016 Valero Texas Open winner, moved up the leaderboard with a birdie-birdie-eagle finish and the week’s best round of 64. He was two back of Kim at 13-under. Scott Brown turned in a second straight 67, and Jhonattan Vegas also shot 67. Both were at 11 under with Kyoung-Hoon Lee (69) and four strokes back. Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth started the day tied for second, four shots back. Both finished eight shots out of the lead after ballooning to rounds of 1-over 73. Kim flirted with the 16th hole on the second bounce on Saturday. This time, the ball rolled past the hole to inside four feet for what looked like an easy birdie. He missed, Conners made his from inches shorter and they shared the lead again. But Conners returned the favor on the next hole, missing a birdie from inside seven feet. Kim got out of a greenside bunker at the par-5 18th and sank a four-foot par to get the one-stroke advantage. Conners is trying to become the first Monday qualifier to win on the PGA TOUR since Arjun Atwal nine years ago. Before that, no one had done it in 24 years. He birdied the opening three holes, including a near-ace at the third, and almost had a fourth to start the day when his 58-foot putt rested a couple of inches from the cup on No. 4. He birdied again at the fifth, which gave him a share of the lead with Kim, and joined Kim in birdieing the seventh. Conners, 27, was a finalist in the 2014 U.S. Amateur, but he has not won on the PGA TOUR or any of its affiliate tours. This season he has finished second in the Sanderson Farms Championship and, after Monday qualifying, was third at the Sony Open. Hoffman’s hot finish came with a birdie at the 14th. He wrapped it up with a 22-foot birdie putt at 16 and a 15-footer at 17 before he reached the green in two at the downwind 607-yard finishing hole. Fowler bogeyed his first two holes, part of five on the day. Even with an eagle on the 18th, Fowler dropped 14 spots to 16th and 7-under. Spieth was in the last group of the day with leaders Kim and Conners, but he quickly joined Fowler in going the other way. He didn’t hit a fairway until the 11th hole and by that time had two double bogeys. After his front-nine 42, Spieth’s first birdie came on the 12th. He added four more on the backside.

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Fall movers make an early splash on the PGA Tour

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