How to watch the Rocket Mortgage Classic, Round 3: Featured Groups, live scores, tee times, TV times

Augusta National cofounder Bobby Jones once said, "There's golf. And then there's tournament golf." The greatest amateur golfer of all time understood the fundamental difference between playing for fun ... and playing for real. The nature of competitive golf is to simply get the ball in the hole in the fewest number of strokes. The player with the lowest score wins. But, as everyone who has ever entered a golf tournament knows, there's nothing simple about it. As soon as a player must putt everything out, as soon as you know a score will be posted by your name, the game is unforgiving. You got to get the ball in the hole. Somehow. Whatever it takes. Especially on the PGA TOUR where the quality of play is the best in the world. RELATED: Tee times, groupings | Determining where DeChambeau could drive it at Augusta | Pro long drivers discuss DeChambeau’s length Great putters, such as Jones himself, thrive on the greens. But for every Masters champion who is an outstanding putter, such as Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Tiger Woods or Jordan Speith, there are dozens of their contemporaries who could hit the ball well from tee to green, but couldn't keep up once they reached the putting surface. Players will go to great lengths to improve their putting. The Claw. Croquet. Left-handed. Eyes closed. Cross-handed. Bryson DeChambeau is the latest example. He is the hot topic entering this year's Masters because of his physical transformation, but a focus on his driving distance overlooks his drastic improvement on the greens. DeChambeau has become one of the TOUR's best putters with a unique arm-lock style, using an extremely upright putter that sits almost perpendicular to the putting surface. The narrative around DeChambeau is that he bludgeoned Winged Foot en route to winning the 2020 U.S. Open. Sure, he bombed it off the tee, but he didn't lead the field in driving that week. Rory McIlroy did. Bryson led the field in putting. He's steadily climbed in the rankings for Strokes Gained: Putting, finishing 10th in that statistic last season. He's also hitting more greens in regulation and his short game was spectacular at Winged Foot. That's the true narrative: Bryson has improved everything about his game. And that's why he's considered a serious favorite at this week's Masters. DeChambeau is the latest to experiment with a different or unique putting style in an attempt - sometimes a desperate attempt - to get the ball in the hole in fewer strokes. He's certainly not the first. Four-time U.S. Open champion Ben Hogan said, "There is no similarity between golf and putting. They are two different games; one played in the air, and the other on the ground." The legendary ball-striker would have been perfectly happy without the need for putting. "There shouldn't be any cups... just flagsticks," Hogan famously said. "And then the player who hit the most fairways and greens and got closest to the pins would be the tournament winner." Anyone who's ever four-putted has probably thought the same thing at least once. The competition on the PGA TOUR is so intense that even the slightest improvement on the greens can be a huge boost. We've seen right-handers putt left-handed. Langer is credited with bringing the arm-lock method into the spotlight after using it to win the 1993 Masters. Spieth has looked at the hole while hitting short putts. Johnny Miller putted with his eyes closed (he also won the 1976 Open Championship while focusing his eyes on a spot of red nail polish he painted on his putter). Here's a list of some of the unique styles we've seen, and photos illustrating them. • Left-arm locked - notables Bernhard Langer, Matt Kuchar, Bryson DeChambeau, Will Zalatoris • Eyes closed - Johnny Miller, Sergio Garcia • Looking at the hole - Johnny Miller, Jordan Spieth (on short putts) • Left-handed — Blaine McCallister (hit all other shots right-handed) • Left-handed and right-handed — Notah Begay (used a Bullseye putter and putted both right-handed (on putt that broke right-to-left) and left-handed (on putts that broke left-to-right) • One-handed - Mike Hulburt • Croquet style - Sam Snead (until USGA banned it) • Side saddle - Sam Snead • Long putter — Bernhard Langer, Adam Scott, Scott McCarron and many other PGA TOUR Champions players • The Claw - Chris DiMarco, Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose Whatever it takes. At least for one week. Especially on the PGA TOUR.

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Brooks Koepka’s first tee shot at the 2019 U.S. Open rolled into a divot. It didn’t matter. Koepka has been unstoppable in this event. An imperfect lie wasn’t going to stop him. He birdied the hole, then added three more in the next five holes, including a chip-in, to quickly put his name on another leaderboard in a major championship. Koepka couldn’t keep up the pace after exiting Pebble Beach’s easy opening stretch, though. He struggled with his ball-striking and made three bogeys and just a single birdie the rest of the way. His 2-under 69 leaves him just four shots off Justin Rose’s lead, however. RELATED: Tee times | Tiger cards 1-under 70 | Calm conditions lead to low scores | Koepka chases three-peat | Fowler opens with 66 Koepka hit half his fairways Thursday and 12 of 18 greens. “It’s a battle if you’re not going to hit fairways. If you’re not going to hit greens, it’s going to be tough,â€� said Koepka, who’s seeking a third consecutive U.S. Open title. “I’m actually quite pleased. I don’t know how many fairways I hit from 8 on in. I didn’t hit many.â€� He was scheduled to start his second round at 8:02 a.m. Friday, some 13 hours after he signed his scorecard. “Considering how I hit it coming in, I’m pretty pleased,â€� Koepka said. “I didn’t shoot myself out of it. I’m right there. I feel like if I get off to a good start tomorrow, I’m right back into it.â€� Koepka is third in the FedExCup thanks to wins at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES and PGA Championship. Last month’s win at Bethpage Black was his fourth major championship.

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The great start to the Tour Championship was nice and all. But he arrived with no expectations, given the biggest part of the week, the birth of his and wife Erica’s first child, a daughter, had already happened.

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