PGA Tour golf best bets: The American Express

In his first PGA TOUR start in nearly two months, Bryson DeChambeau said he will ease into his return to action at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. “No expectations,” DeChambeau told the Golf Channel. “A great week is being here.” This week will mark just the third start of the PGA TOUR season for DeChambeau, who has been beset by a fractured bone in his left hand and a torn labrum in his left hip. He missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open in late January and hasn’t played on TOUR since. Despite hoping to be able to defend his title at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, he said in a taped message to fans that he was still not at 100 percent. DeChambeau also missed THE PLAYERS Championship, and his return to the TOUR will come in match play, against England’s Richard Bland, 49, in the first round of pool play Wednesday. Lee Westwood and Talor Gooch are the other two players in their group. “People are going to say it’s off of speed training and all that and, sure, some of the things have been a part of that, just abuse and working really, really hard,” DeChambeau said. “But at the same time, I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. I’ve learned so much about my body as time has gone on and learned how to manage things and how important rest is.” An eight-time TOUR winner, DeChambeau, 28, entered the Professional Long Drivers World Championship in Mesquite, Nevada, last fall, and exceeded expectations by finishing seventh. He brought that power game to the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, driving the first green in his singles victory over Sergio Garcia. DeChambeau won’t be touching 400 yards at Austin Country Club, though, and won’t even try. He said he doesn’t plan to go after the ball at full speed, and likely won’t do so until the Masters Tournament next month. He hasn’t made it out of pool play in two starts at the WGC-Dell Technologies, going 2-4-0.

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LA QUINTA, Calif. – Jon Rahm, the Desert Classic’s defending champion, overcame the flu and some uncharacteristic weather conditions to shoot 66 at La Quinta Countrty Club on Thursday. Those were two reasons he struggled with distance control on Thursday. The weather in the California desert is often so pristine that people refer to it as “dome golf.â€� Thursday started with a one-hour fog delay. Then players had to deal with rain during their round. “(I’m) still pretty weak, which is possibly why I wasn’t hitting it quite as far,â€� Rahm said. “(I’m) not fully recuperated, my body is not a hundred percent, so I could definitely feel when I hit a driver and I thought I hit it far enough it was definitely a 10 yard gap. Even today a couple of the shorter irons I could feel my body not being able to swing as hard. But I don’t have bad feelings in me, I just need to rest up a little and hopefully I get better every day.â€� Rahm made his only bogey of the day after his approach shot to the second hole came up short and he missed a 5-foot par putt. He made seven birdies over his next 16 holes. He is six shots behind Phil Mickelson, who shot 60 at La Quinta. Rahm missed just three greens despite saying that he struggled with his distance control. “The air density, it’s pretty heavy right now. So sometimes it’s hard to believe, especially when you get closer to the hole, how hard you had to hit the ball,â€� Rahm said. “And when you are hitting one or two clubs more than what we’re used to, it’s hard to be absolutely certain of doing it. But again, that only happened a few holes. For the most part I had a pretty good day, a pretty good ball striking day.â€� He is 69th in the FedExCup standings after starting his season with a T22 at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions and eighth-place finish at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. He also won the Hero World Challenge in December.

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