Uresti holds on, earns trip to PGA Championship

One of the most interesting facets of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans is seeing how different two-man teams form for this unique event. Some are easy to piece together. Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose? European Ryder Cup teammates who have enjoyed a generation of success. Greyson Sigg and Sepp Straka? Teammates at the University of Georgia. Fellow countrymen match up easily on the pairings sheet, too, from Scotland (Martin Laird and Robert MacIntyre) to South Korea (Sungjae Im and Byeong Hun An) and many points in-between. Not all teams imply a clear origin story, though. And one of this week’s marquee teams – Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland – could have been forged together in some sort of stripe-show, analytical golf fantasy. Two of the best young players in the game will come together this week as one of the more formidable teams to play together since this tournament went to a team format in 2017. Lethal Combination Strokes Gained: Ball Striking combines a player’s performance off the tee and on approach shots. Basically, it’s the Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green metric, but with shots around the green eliminated from the equation. In this statistic, as one might expect, the Morikawa-Hovland team is a monster. There are 226 players with 30 or more ShotLink-measured rounds on the PGA TOUR since the beginning of 2021. Of that group, Morikawa and Hovland rank second and third in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking per round, trailing only Jon Rahm. The sum of their two rankings – 5 – is enormously smaller than any other team in this week’s field. The only other duo to have both players rank in the top-20 in ball striking during that stretch is the all-Chilean team of Mito Pereira (11th) and Joaquin Niemann (18th). Essentially, the two best ball-strikers in the field are on the same team. Going back another year, to the beginning of 2020, Morikawa ranks second in SG: Ball Striking per round among qualified players (+1.37 strokes), while Hovland ranks fourth (+1.27). The other two players in the top-four – Rahm and Justin Thomas – are not in this week’s field. When isolating their Strokes Gained: Approach numbers, the pair is equally as impressive. This season, Hovland ranks third on the PGA TOUR in that metric (+1.02 per round), while Morikawa is ranked seventh (+0.82). Looking at the larger sample size – back to January 2021 – Morikawa leads the TOUR, while Hovland is ranked fifth. The duo are forecasted to give themselves bushels of birdie opportunities all week long. Short Game Questions? In the Four-ball (best ball) format, played in Rounds 1 and 3, pressure on players’ short games is typically alleviated. That’s a nice break for the immensely-talented Hovland, who himself has bemoaned the deficiencies in that part of his bag. This season, Hovland is ranked last on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Around the Green (No. 205 of 205), losing 0.84 strokes per round. Since the beginning of 2021, he is ranked 216th of 226 players with 30 or more rounds played. Morikawa has lost strokes to the field around the greens, too. Since January of last year, his average of -0.10 Strokes Gained: Around the Green is just 168th on TOUR. Both are perfectly capable of turning those figures around, but it will be an interesting subplot, especially if they are in contention on Sunday. Statistically, Hovland has been the better putter of the two since turning pro. Hovland has been right around neutral in regard to Strokes Gained: Putting per round since January 2020, while Morikawa has lost about two-tenths of a stroke per round. Morikawa, however, has enjoyed one of the biggest improvements in Strokes Gained: Putting on TOUR this season, leaping up 119 spots from the 2020-21 season. A Morikawa that is consistently gaining strokes on the greens should be a terrifying prospect to his peers. Fast Success Those figures haven’t stopped both players from becoming prolific champions around the world in their young professional careers. With his win at last summer’s Open Championship, Morikawa became the first player since Bobby Jones to win two majors in eight or fewer career starts. His fifth-place finish at the Masters earlier this month made him the fourth-youngest player all-time to record a top-five finish in each of the four major championships. Last fall, he became the first American player to win the Race to Dubai, the DP World Tour’s season-long points competition. Hovland has won in each of the last three PGA TOUR seasons, in addition to two DP World Tour wins. Hovland’s third PGA TOUR title came just after he turned 24 – over the last 40 seasons, only Rory McIlroy won more times at an earlier age among players from outside the United States. Last December, Hovland capped off his year by coming from six back in the final round to win the Hero World Challenge. The man he chased down? Collin Morikawa. The duo appear poised to go toe-to-toe for the biggest titles in the game for years to come. This week, golf fans get the treat of seeing them compete together for a victory in Louisiana.

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“The Clambake” returns to its full glory in 2022 as it welcomes back amateur players and Monterrey Peninsula Country Club to the three course rotation. RELATED: Five Things to Know: Pebble Beach Golf Links | The First Look Pebble Beach serves as the host course as it has every year since 1947. Last year was the first since 2009 that Monterrey Peninsula Country Club was NOT included in competition. A field of 156 will be cut to the top 60 and ties after 54 holes. All will play each course once and the top 25 Pro-Am teams qualify for the final round at Pebble Beach. Because of the Pro-Am, the setup won’t have slick greens, deep rough or demanding pin positions a la the US Open’s held at Pebble. The last 10 winners have ranked in the Top 10 GIR and the last seven winners have ranked T2 or better in Par-4 Scoring. On the greens, five of the last six winners have ranked in the Top 5 in Birdie or Better Percentage. Official Scorecard Yardages – 2022: Pebble Beach – 6,972 yards, Par 72 Spyglass Hill – 7,041 yards, Par 72 Monterrey Peninsula Country Club – 6,957 yards, Par 71 Let’s find some horses for courses! Horses for Courses Odds sourced on Tuesday, February 1 at 3 p.m. ET. For live odds visit betmgm. Recent Event Winner Stats *Stats for Strokes-Gained are from Pebble Beach ONLY* Extra Credit (players entered this week only) 2021 Winner Daniel Berger played Pebble Beach 13-under and had FOUR eagles for the week; career event scoring average 68.33. … Local Maverick McNealy (2nd) T7 Fairways, T3 GIR. … Patrick Cantlay (T3) tied Pebble course record (62) in Round 1 and is trending here with T3-T11-T35-T48 in last four visits. … Jordan Spieth (T3) led after 36 and 54 holes. … Nate Lashley (T5) played Pebble 14-under. … Jason Day (T7) joined McNealy as only two players to post all four rounds in the 60s and has now cashed 8 of 9 T11 or BETTER. … Charley Hoffman (T7) T7 GIR. … Russell Knox (T7) co-led the field GIR and has cashed T28 or better in his five paydays. … Cameron Tringale (T7) has cashed in seven of his last eight with 2021 being the best. … Kevin Streelman (T13) picked up his sixth straight T17 or better. 2020 Nick Taylor became second player to go wire-to-wire this century. … Kevin Streelman (2nd) was only player with all four rounds in the 60s. … Jason Day (4th) was T3 GIR. … Daniel Berger (T5) was 3rd in Fairways. … Thru 2021, Matt Jones (T5) has cashed eight of his last nine. … Maverick McNealy (T5) posted only BOGEY FREE round in Round 4 (68). … Charl Schwartzel (T5) hit top five on debut. … Lanto Griffin (T9) opened BOGEY FREE (67) on Spyglass Hill. … Only four rounds in the 60s on Sunday led by Jordan Spieth (T9) and his 67. … Matthew NeSmith (T11) followed up with T26 last year in his first two appearances. 2019 Scott Stallings (3rd) cashed T7 in 2018 and T14 in 2017, his best three. … Jason Day (T4) only seven bogeys. … Si Woo Kim (T4) swished 31 of 35 putts inside 10 feet on PB. … Brian Gay (T7) T8 Fairways, T2 GIR and thru 2021 has cashed in eight straight. … Kevin Streelman (T7) posted 65, co-low round of Sunday. … Lucas Glover (T7) led field in Proximity. … Scott Piercy (T10) is on run of five straight thru 2021 with 2019 being his best. … Michael Thompson (T10) closed with a bogey free 66. Notes: • Pebble Beach has the smallest greens on TOUR. • Only 4 international winners, ever, including ZERO Europeans. • Dustin Johnson is the last player to defend (2009-2010). • The last first-time winner on TOUR was DA Points (2011). • Former winners Jimmy Walker, Ted Potter, Jr., and Brandt Snedeker have all MC in their last three visits. • Snedeker holds the tournament record at 22-under (2015). • Chez Reavie was T2 2018 and T3 at the 2019 US Open here. • Troy Merritt has cashed three straight events for T8-T25-T16. • Cal alum Brandon Harkins has T16 and T28 in two visits and won The Great Abaco Classic last week on the KFT. • Justin Rose cashed T6 and T39 in two visits pre 2018 but was T3 US Open in 2019. Key stat leaders Top golfers in each statistic on the 2020-2021 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week.

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – U.S. Captain Davis Love III foresees Tiger Woods playing an important role in next year’s Presidents Cup. Woods’ duties are to be determined, however. “His role is whatever his role wants to be,” Love said Tuesday from the tournament he hosts, The RSM Classic. Woods’ future, especially as it pertains to his playing career, remains uncertain after his February car accident that caused major leg injuries. After his success as a playing captain in the previous Presidents Cup, Woods was a candidate to assume the role again at Quail Hollow in 2022. He turned it down, however, because he wanted to focus on his game. “It would have been a great captaincy for Tiger to continue on,” Love said. “At the time we were discussing it, he said, ‘No, I’m playing really good. I’m gonna make the team, and I enjoyed Australia being playing captain, but I want to be a player on the team.’ So his role is whatever his role wants to be. If Tiger calls me up and says, ‘Hey, you’re kicked out, I’m taking over,’ that’s Tiger’s role. If he wants to be an assistant, you know, I would hope that he comes back and starts playing and can make that a goal, to be on the team.” Woods was an assistant under Love III in the 2016 Ryder Cup and served a similar role for Steve Stricker at the 2017 Presidents Cup. Then Woods returned to his winning ways and played on the next two U.S. teams. He was unable to travel to this year’s Ryder Cup but stayed in communication with the team and aided with decisions. As for Phil Mickelson, Love thinks he may be at Quail Hollow as a player after missing the last two U.S. teams. Mickelson played on every U.S. squad from 1994 to 2018, but that streak came to an unceremonious end at the Ryder Cup in Paris. Mickelson went 0-2 as the U.S. was roundly defeated. He won this year’s PGA Championship, becoming the oldest major winner in history, but admitted in the months before Whistling Straits that his game was not good enough to qualify for the U.S. team. He made his debut as a vice captain, instead, entertaining the team with his banter on the walkie-talkies. Mickelson has dominated PGA TOUR Champions with four wins in six starts, however, and has a strong record at Quail Hollow, finishing in the top 10 in 10 of 16 starts in the Wells Fargo Championship at the Charlotte course. “I would look at Phil right now more getting ready to play. I think he can have a big year on the PGA TOUR,” Love said Tuesday. “I would look for Phil as a player right now, yes, more than anything.”

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