The First Look: THE NORTHERN TRUST

Ping has yet to comment on its new “Blueprint Forged� prototype irons, but Bubba Watson and Tony Finau both had the irons in play during competition at the 2018 Hero World Challenge. We caught up with Finau and Watson on Wednesday at the 2018 QBE Shootout Pro-Am at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, for a closer look. Check out the photos below. Bubba Watson Watson uses True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 iron shafts (+0.50 inches). Also, Watson recently changed drivers, from a Ping G400 LST driver to a standard G400 driver, in order to attain more spin. Here’s a look at his new, pink G400 driver. Tony Finau In his Blueprint irons, Finau uses Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3 120TX iron shafts and Lamkin UTX Mid (Green and Yellow cord) grips.

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It’s a big week for the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, where the defending champion, Jon Rahm, comes in hot on the heels of his second PGA TOUR victory at last week’s CareerBuilder Challenge, and seemingly everyone is talking about the 647th ranked player in the world. TEE TIMES: Farmers Insurance Open, Rounds 1 and 2 | Watch PGA TOUR LIVE Tiger Woods will make his first official TOUR start in one year when he tees it up at Torrey on Thursday. The anticipation is high any time he competes, but especially so at Torrey, where he has won the Farmers seven times and has five other top-10 finishes in 16 starts. Add his 2008 U.S. Open win, and his 1991 Junior World victory, both at Torrey, and you begin to see why there are few courses on the planet where Woods feels more comfortable. He’s hardly the only one, though, who circles this week on the schedule. Defending champion Jon Rahm is on a major roll, and Rickie Fowler, Hideki Matsuyama and Justin Rose give the Farmers four of the top 10 players in the world, and 11 of the top 25. Brandt Snedeker is a two-time winner at the Farmers and shot one of the all-time great rounds in the history of the TOUR in his victory in 2016, beating the field average by 10 strokes. Xander Schauffele, officially awarded Rookie of the Year honors Tuesday, is a San Diego State product who should feel comfortable playing in his hometown tournament. And former No. 1 Jason Day, the 2015 champion at the Farmers, is looking to get back to his winning ways. Players will alternate on the (slightly easier) North Course and the South Course on Thursday and Friday, then switch to the South exclusively on the weekend. PGA TOUR Live will have coverage Thursday and Friday starting at 11:45 a.m. ET, and PGA TOUR Radio and Golf Channel will have coverage all four days. Here’s a look at this week’s Featured Groups (current FedExCup rankings in parentheses). Rickie Fowler (15), Xander Schauffele (36), Patrick Cantlay (9) Fowler tries to keep it going after his impressive victory at the unofficial Hero World Challenge last month. San Diego product Schauffele is coming off a season in which he won twice, including his surprising victory at the TOUR Championship, and should feel right at home at Torrey. And Patrick Cantlay, one of the biggest movers from last season, is already a winner this season after his breakthrough at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. North Course tee time: Thursday, Rd. 1, 12:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m. local) off the 10th tee; South Course tee time: Friday, Rd. 2, 1:30 p.m. off the first tee. Justin Rose (10), Hideki Matsuyama (38), Phil Mickelson (45) Rose is one of the hottest players anywhere after reeling off back-to-back wins in Europe to end last season. Matsuyama aims to rediscover the magic he found at the Presidents Cup (singles win over Justin Thomas) and World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational last season. And Mickelson, another San Diegan, tries to rebound from a missed cut at last week’s CareerBuilder. North Course tee time: Thursday, Rd. 1, 12:40 p.m. off the 10th tee. South Course tee time: Friday, Rd. 2, 1:40 p.m. off the first tee. Jon Rahm (2), Jason Day (76), Brandt Snedeker (167) Easily the hottest player in golf, Rahm, 23, is not only this week’s defending champion, he is coming off a playoff victory at the CareerBuilder Challenge, which vaulted him to second in the FedExCup standings. Day, the 2015 Farmers champion, is trying to get back into the winner’s circle after a sub-standard 2017. And Snedeker is a two-time Farmers champion who is eager to make up for lost time after missing much of last season with a rib injury. South Course tee time: Thursday, Rd. 1, 1:30 p.m. off the first tee; North Course tee time: Friday, Rd. 2, 12:20 p.m. off the 10th tee. Patrick Reed (71), Charley Hoffman (48), Tiger Woods (NA) Reed is coming off a rare winless season, but one in which he and his wife, Justine, welcomed their second child. It surely hasn’t escaped his notice that this is a Ryder Cup year. San Diego product Hoffman knows Torrey Pines well, and just made his first Presidents Cup team at age 40. And Woods, coming off back fusion surgery last April, is making his first official TOUR start since exactly a year ago. South Course tee time: Thursday, Rd. 1, 1:40 p.m. off the first tee; North Course tee time: Friday, Rd. 2, 12:30 p.m. off the 10th tee.

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ATLANTA, Ga. – PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan has confirmed THE ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP will go ahead in Japan on Oct. 21-24 as part of the new 2021-22 TOUR season but the World Golf Championships–HSBC Champions due to be played the week after in China has been cancelled. “ZOZO has been a great partner and we have been in regular contact with the government and local authorities about the plans to successfully stage this event this fall. The successful and safe golf competitions at the Tokyo Olympic games helped provide some confidence going forward,” Monahan said from East Lake Golf Club in the lead up to the TOUR Championship. Patrick Cantlay won the first of his now three wins this season at THE ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP last fall, however the event was held at Sherwood Country Club in Los Angeles due to the pandemic. It’s first staging in Japan in the 2019-20 season saw Tiger Woods claim his record equaling 82nd PGA TOUR win. Once again Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club will be the host. While Japan will host their event, China will miss out for the second consecutive year. “Following discussions with HSBC, we can confirm the cancellation of the 2021 WGC-HSBC Champions. Although it’s unfortunate to have to do so, we must ensure that we abide by the epidemic prevention policies of different markets which may cause inconvenience to the players and make tournament operations very challenging. Therefore, after careful consideration we had to make this difficult decision to cancel the event,” Monahan said. The commissioner allayed any fears for the events long term future. “It’s unfortunate that we’re not going to be able to play in Shanghai,” he said. “I expect that we will be playing there as soon as it’s acceptable, feasible, to do so, from a pandemic standpoint. We feel like we have got a long-term commitment to that marketplace in the form of a WGC.” Monahan also announced that with the cancellation in China the Bermuda Championship will now be played as a stand-alone event with full FedExCup points and an increase in the purse size. It was previously being staged as an opposite-field event.

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