Park rallies to KLPGA title with final-round 67

Brendon Todd’s first two victories of the season were the feel-good story of the fall, but he’s proving to be more than a sentimental storyline at the World Golf Championship-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Todd sits atop a field of the game’s elite. Some stellar short-game play helped him shoot 11-under 129 (64-65) for his first two trips around TPC Southwind. Todd now has 10 rounds of 65 or lower this season, tied with Bryson DeChambeau for most on TOUR. RELATED: Full leaderboard | New coach helps Koepka Todd will start the weekend with a two-stroke lead over Rickie Fowler. Brooks Koepka is in third place, lurking four shots off the lead, along with Presidents Cup participant Byeong-Hun An and Chez Reavie. A win this week would undoubtedly be the culmination of Todd’s incredible comeback from a four-year slump. This is just his seventh WGC start. A win would make him the first three-time winner this season. Todd’s two wins in the fall – at the Bermuda Championship and Mayakoba Golf Classic – proved that not only could he survive those difficult seasons, but become better than ever. He could move as high as No. 2 in the FedExCup standings with just two weeks remaining in the regular season. “In my whole life, this is definitely the most confident I’ve ever felt with my golf game. It’s probably the most versatile I’ve ever been ball‑striking‑wise,” Todd said Friday. “I still don’t hit it far, but I feel like I’m able to shape shots a little bit. And my short game’s solid, so it just kind of comes down to how the putting is.” Todd ranks 68th in the 78-man field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee but is in the top 10 in the other three Strokes Gained categories. He has just one bogey this week despite missing 12 greens. His putting has been even better, calling it “as good as it gets.” Todd holed a 46-footer Thursday and added a 50-footer Friday. He’s missed just one of his 12 attempts from 4-8 feet, as well. Todd leads the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. He’s gained 6.8 seven strokes on the greens in the first two rounds, setting a new career-high for the first two rounds of an event. His previous record for the opening two rounds was +6.04 in the 2014 AT&T Byron Nelson, which was the first win of his career. Todd had to wait five years after that Nelson win to re-enter the winner’s circle. In between his first two wins, he finished outside the top 180 in the FedExCup in four consecutive seasons and made just five cuts from 2016-18. He had to return to the Korn Ferry Tour to regain his card. Fowler hasn’t had a top-10 since January, but is pleased with his ball-striking after some recent work with swing coach John Tillery. Koepka hasn’t hoisted a trophy since winning at TPC Southwind last year, but he shot 62 on Thursday. He reached 10 under par and was in the lead when he made the turn Friday, but stumbled to 38 on the final nine holes. A duel between Todd and Koepka would be a contrast in styles. Koepka is 21st on TOUR with an average driving distance of 307.2 yards. That’s more than 35 yards longer than Todd, who ranks ahead of just seven players in the driving-distance statistic. Koepka can overpower a golf course, though his length often overshadows his stellar iron play and underrated short game. He leads the field in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green this season. Todd, on the other hand, relies on his putter to overcome his lack of length. This won’t be the first time since the season’s resumption that Todd has gone toe-to-toe with one of the game’s big bombers, though. One month ago, Todd took a two-shot lead over Dustin Johnson into the final round of the Travelers Championship. Todd opened the final round with 11 straight pars as he watched several birdie putts slide by the hole. He was still just two back before playing the final seven holes in 5 over, including a triple on the 12th hole. Todd said he wasn’t intimidated by his final-round foe, though. “Sunday at Travelers was a tough day for me, but I felt prepared for that round. I felt like I handled it really well. I was calm, I was confident, I hit awesome shots for the first 11 holes and really even for the last six holes, but 1 through 11 I burned five or six edges,” Todd said. “I was hitting really good putts and it just wasn’t my day on the greens and it was Dustin’s on the greens. He kept making putt after putt after putt and put pressure on me. “I think that was just a day that just didn’t go my way and kind of spiraled the wrong way.” Now Todd has a chance to make amends and walk away with the biggest title of his career. “It would be really, really satisfying,” he said. “I feel like as a junior golfer, college golfer, I was always winning big events. Now I’m capable of winning big events on the professional stage. I’m really excited to have the confidence now and the tools in my game to compete for these titles. Just having a chance to win one is a big deal right now.”

Click here to read the full article…

Gary Player remembers 1974 well. He ought to. That year, he won 10 tournaments worldwide, including three titles in his native South Africa. He also won his third Open Championship (all in different decades), picked up his second green jacket at the Masters, added one additional PGA TOUR win and took home hardware at two national opens, in Australia and Brazil. The cherry on Player’s sundae was his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame as part of the Hall’s inaugural class. So of all those accomplishments, what is Player talking about 43 years later? How about a little design project in Johannesburg that he says is “near and dear to my heart?� In the same year Player was turning in one of his best year’s on the golf course, Player the designer was putting the finishing touches on Soweto Country Club, a course that has been described as a “beacon of hope for South Africa’s historically disadvantaged black professional golfers.� Even with all his success as a player, even with his work getting Soweto Country Club ready for opening, Player still found time and arranged for South African golfer Vincent Tshabalala to go to the United States to play two PGA TOUR events—the Kemper Open and the IVB-Philadelphia Golf Classic. In those two tournaments, Tshabalala only broke 80 once. But as one of those “historically disadvantaged black professional golfers,� Tshabalala stuck with the game, spending a lot of time at the new Gary Player-designed course, and the South African emerged from Soweto’s fairways, benefiting from Player’s tutelage and guidance, Two years after shooting a second-round 87 in Philadelphia, Tshabalala was standing on the 18th tee at Golf du Touquet in France with a three-stroke lead during the final round of the European Tour’s French Open. Tshabalala made a routine par at the last and defeated Spain’s Salvador Balbuena by two shots, in the process making history by becoming the first black player to win a European Tour event. Following the win, Tshabalala, who died earlier this year, at age 75, had his thoughts turn to Soweto Country Club, Gary Player and the unlikely nature of his triumph. “Without Gary, I would not have started in golf. Gary is the only one who has helped me a great deal. He taught me the basics, how to think right, how to save strokes around the greens and how to keep fit,� said Tshabalala. He also referenced Soweto Country Club, a course that was just as “near and dear� to his heart as it is to Player. With this backstory in mind, it’s of little surprise that Player is in the midst of re-designing Soweto Country Club, the course’s rebirth receiving considerable support from the PGA TOUR. “We are delighted to announce the PGA TOUR as a partner in our efforts to restore Soweto Country Club to its former glory,� said Selwyn Nathan, Executive Director of the Sunshine Tour. “This investment means we can now begin with the upgrade of the golf course with immediate effect.� Player can only agree, acknowledging what needs to be done at the 43-year-old course where Tshabalala became a championship golfer. “No doubt the renovation of Soweto Country Club is bringing a smile to Vincent’s face as he looks down on us. He certainly will be watching over all the new young golfers that we hope this project brings to Soweto,� said Player.   If Tshabalala is watching, as Player suggests, what he will see is the familiar Player design with a few new touches, including reworked green complexes, the enlargement and relocation of tee boxes, added length, a new irrigation system, a lake and new grass on all the fairways. “As the designer of the course, it was important to us to keep the integrity of the original design,� Player explained. “But we are introducing a little more length to the golf course by relocating several greens and adding tees. “The addition of fairway bunkers,� Player continued, “will also be part of the design enhancements, which will provide added strategy to the golf course experience overall.� Non-golf course additions and renovations include a wall along the south boundary of the golf course, the completion of a conference facility and the refurbishing of an existing storage facility into a fully operational pro shop. PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan gladly explained why the TOUR chose to get involved. “The PGA TOUR’s global reach has been enhanced by the significant contributions of South Africa and its players. World Golf Hall of Famers Gary Player, Bobby Locke, Nick Price, Ernie Els and many more from South Africa have all played important roles in the growth of the PGA TOUR and in golf in general. South Africa also served as the backdrop for one of the most dramatic moments in golf history, the very exciting 2003 Presidents Cup. With this rich history in mind, we are more than pleased to contribute to help golf grow in South Africa with this very worthwhile endeavor at Soweto Country Club.� Player admits the renovation of Soweto Country Club is long overdue, and admitting the people of Soweto deserve a course of which they can be proud. “It is our dream that this project will garner more community interest and hopefully, with a little luck, produce a champion,� said Player. Why not? It’s worked before.   

Click here to read the full article…

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Bryson DeChambeau will make the cut at the Masters, but just barely. And he'll move on to the final two rounds despite not feeling 100 percent. "Not good, to say the least," he said of his play. "I was feeling something a little weird last - two nights ago, and I came out yesterday and was fine for the most part. As I kept going through the round, I started getting a little dizzy. I don’t know what was going on, a little something weird. "So I got checked for COVID last night, and I was fine, nothing," he added. "But I had to do the right thing and make sure there was nothing more serious than that. I don’t know what it is or what happened, but these past couple days, I’ve felt really, really odd and just not a hundred percent. Some of that’s played into it. I just feel kind of dull and numb out there, just not fully aware of everything, and making some silly, silly mistakes for sure." After he had bogeyed his last two holes for a 2-over 74 to sit at even par, DeChambeau needed help from Jordan Spieth at the 18th hole and Rafa Cabrera Bello at the ninth. Had either made birdie it would have moved the cut to 1 under par, knocking out everyone at even par. Spieth lost his drive in the trees and had to fight just to make the cut himself, the 2015 Masters champion rolling in a 15-foot par putt to keep his tournament alive. "You know, sometimes it’s more nerve racking trying to make the cut than it is trying to win the tournament," Spieth said. Cabrera Bello missed the ninth green but got up and down for par, also making the cut. Augusta National announced on Monday that the Masters cut would no longer use the 10-shot rule and would be changed to only the low 50 and ties. DeChambeau was part of an 11-way tie for 50th, as was Collin Morikawa, the winner of the PGA Championship. The winners of the last two majors survived by the skin of their teeth, as did Tony Finau (69-75) and past champions Zach Johnson (73-71) and Charl Schwartzel (73-71) and Spieth (74-70). Notables to miss the cut included: Matthew Wolff – Runner-up to DeChambeau at the U.S. Open and Rocket Mortgage Classic, Wolff got off to a hot start in his first Masters but scores of 70-77 weren't good enough. Tyrrell Hatton - Winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard never clicked at Augusta National, shooting 73-74 to finish 3 over and miss by three. Francesco Molinari - Was in control of the Masters last year until double-bogeys on 12 and 15 sent him down to a T5 finish, two behind Tiger Woods. Shot 72-78 this time to miss cut by six. Jason Day - Trendy pre-tournament pick had four top-10 finishes at the Masters, including a T2 in 2011, but blew up with a 78 in the second round to bow out early at 4 over. DeChambeau fought a right miss in Round 2, and for the second straight round hit just 11 greens in regulation. He double-bogeyed the 13th hole in the first round, and triple-bogeyed the par-4 third hole in the second. The third and 13th holes are two of the shortest on the course. Where exactly his tee shot wound up at the third hole - he had to take a lost ball and return to the tee to hit three - is unknown. It's assumed to have plugged in the wet grass. "It just seems like there’s a lot of things going not in the right way," DeChambeau said. "I’ve certainly played worst golf than this and won golf tournaments. So, you know, it’s one of those things where it’s golf. You can’t control everything as much as you try. He had an eagle putt when he returned to the 13th hole at 7:30 a.m. Saturday to complete his second round, but missed it and settled for a birdie to get to even par. A birdie at 14, where his drive missed way right but kicked off a tree back into the fairway, got him into red numbers. More driving problems, though, left him in the right trees at the par-5 15th, where he had to settle for par. A birdie at the par-3 16th seemed to give him breathing room, but he closed with bogeys at 17 (again missed right with his drive) and 18 (airmailed green from 150 yards in fairway). As for his health, he said he started feeling dizzy Thursday night. "Yeah, every time I’d bend over and come back up, I’d like lose my stance a little bit," he said. "So I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve got to go and do some blood work and get checked out and figure out what’s going on for this off‑season."

Click here to read the full article…