U.S. (wide) Open: Challenging course levels field

Tiger Woods has added another competition to his calendar for next month. Woods will play in his Hero World Challenge, he announced Wednesday on Twitter. It will be his first time teeing it up in competition since his emotional appearance in The Open at St. Andrews. The tournament, which he has hosted since 2000, will be played Dec. 1-4 at Albany Golf Club in The Bahamas. Woods also is scheduled to take part in Capital One’s The Match, where he will partner with Rory McIlroy to take on Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida. The PNC Championship, which Woods has played the past two years with his son Charlie, is Dec. 17-18 in Orlando. Woods has not yet committed to this year’s event, but playing again in the PNC would mean the 82-time TOUR winner would compete in three consecutive weeks in December.

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Patrick Cantlay winning tournaments was never supposed to be a surprise given the seemingly limitless talent he showed at the junior and collegiate levels, but injuries and such conspired against him. That was then. This is now. Welcome to the Monday Finish where Cantlay’s incredible poise and guts under pressure was there for all to see, particularly for tournament host Jack Nicklaus, as he surged home to win at Muirfield Village. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Cantlay is an extremely good compartmentalizer. That means he is able to separate things in his mind with ease. And in golf, this is a very important skill. Cantlay does not get bogged down by outside distractions. He is basically all business, all the time. Something not right at home? Doesn’t matter on the course It doesn’t enter his thinking. Something weird happening in the crowd or with another player in his group? It doesn’t matter to Cantlay. He’s like a machine. And so when the pressure was applied down the stretch at Muirfield Village, it was as if it wasn’t there. All that was there was the next shot. And all he had to do was execute his golf swing. He did that and produced a brilliant 8-under 64 final round. The lowest ever by a Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide winner. 2. Cantlay is a very intelligent individual. When Jack Nicklaus gives you advice, you listen. Almost all people would pay the legend that courtesy. But then you have to decide if you use it. Cantlay has been close to Nicklaus since being awarded the Jack Nicklaus award in 2011. Two years ago when he came to Muirfield Village he sounded out the 18-time major winner for a 90-minute strategy session on how to play the course. This year Nicklaus found him and had some different advice for Cantlay. He told him enjoy the moment more. Take it all in. Maybe even smile. Those who have watched Cantlay a lot know he’s not much of a smiler. He’s all business. But he did heed Jack’s words. And he did win. For more on their special relationship, click here. 3. Adam Scott has to win again soon. It has been over three years since Adam Scott went 2-1-1 in three straight tournaments in early 2016, the last of his 13 PGA TOUR titles. At times, the Australian has looked like he may not scale the heights again at all. In fact a year ago he was scratching his way through a U.S. Open sectional qualifier. But since then he has clawed back to some of his best golf. He contended heavily in the 2018 PGA Championship (third) and THE NORTHERN TRUST (T5) near the end of last season. This season he was T10 at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES, runner up at the Farmers Insurance Open, T7 at the Genesis Open, T8 at the PGA Championship and now runner up to Cantlay this week. At Torrey Pines his 19-under total would have won the event most years. His 17-under this week would have been enough to win the last eight Memorial Tournaments. Sometime soon Scott will salute again. Read more about Scott’s near miss, as well as Martin Kaymer and Jordan Spieth’s efforts here. 4. Martin Kaymer is a great thinker as well as golfer. For most of the weekend it appeared Kaymer would end a near five-year win drought before a tough final nine holes took away that opportunity. But while he play at Muirfield Village was eye opening for some, it was his talk and demeanor that was the biggest positive takeaway. Kaymer has won a PGA Championship, THE PLAYERS Championship and a U.S. Open. He has a throng of European Tour wins. But of course it has been a long time between drinks. His straight talking about it was very refreshing. The German star has ditched distractions from his life. “Just getting away from so many things, social media, watching TV, reading stuff that is not important. What do you really gain from social media during tournament days? There’s so much gossip, so much talk, so much distraction,â€� he explained. “And I just got out of that. I just didn’t want to read that because there’s nothing really to gain from it. And that was a big one for me … It’s just distraction, stimulation for your brain, just not thinking, not being there. So I tried to get away from that. And that automatically makes you more aware, makes me more conscious, and I think leads to more calmness, I guess. It helped me.â€� That calmness continued Sunday despite three late bogeys relegating him to third place. Kaymer fronted up to the media to talk about it all and when done actually asked if there was any more he could do. A true class act. 5. Tiger Woods can win the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Well duh … He did win the U.S. Open there by 15 shots in 2000. But there was some lingering doubt Woods might not be at his best heading there this time after he missed the cut at the PGA Championship. After his amazing Masters win, Woods was clearly down on energy at Bethpage Black, a symptom of some illness and also lack of competitive rounds since Augusta. But at Muirfield Village there were enough signs to show he can be in the mix at the U.S. Open. Woods scraped his way to a top-10 finish this week despite not having his best stuff. Some crucial double bogeys just as he was on a run stopped any hope of a sixth Memorial title. He will need to keep those mistakes from his game at Pebble Beach. But on Sunday he showed that he has the ability to be deadly accurate. He hit the first 12 greens in regulation and finished with 12 of 14 fairways. If he brings that to the U.S. Open then look out. Click here to read more about Woods. FOUR INSIGHTS 1. In the last three seasons, only five players have won with a bogey-free final round of 64 or better. It’s quite a group: Patrick Cantlay, Francesco Molinari (twice), Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama and Justin Thomas. 2. Cantlay shot 19-under at the Memorial without holing a shot longer than 20 feet. He holed just two shots from outside 15 feet. He moved to sixth in the FedExCup. 3. Cantlay played the par 5s a combined 12-under par, tying his career-best Par-5 Performance in an event on TOUR. Since 2017, Cantlay has the best Par-5 scoring of any player at the Memorial Tournament, playing them a combined 30-under par. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is in its first season and adds another layer of excitement to the FedExCup Regular Season. The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will earn bonus payouts from the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. Patrick Cantlay surged into the Top 10, at sixth, following his win at Muirfield Village. The man to drop out of the reward zone at his expense is Jon Rahm. He slides from ninth to 12th. Marc Leishman moved from 14th to 11th, just outside.

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Dustin Johnson nearly threw away his big lead by hitting the trees three times Saturday, but he still has a four-shot lead over Rory McIlroy in the WGC-Mexico Championship.

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