How to watch Barbasol Championship, Round 1: TV times, live scoring, tee times

Already a multiple PGA TOUR winner, Ryder Cupper and U.S. Amateur champion, Viktor Hovland is undoubtedly one of the most exciting young players in the game today. When Hovland won last year’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, he became just the fifth European player since World War II to win multiple times on the PGA TOUR before the age of 24. The other four – Seve Ballesteros, Sergio Garcia, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm – have all gone on to win major championships, and three of the four reached No. 1 in the world. Hovland, who has qualified for the TOUR Championship in each of his first two seasons, has a tremendous opportunity to become Norway’s first male major champion. RELATED: Twenty First Group The former Oklahoma State star has not only flashed explosive ability, but has shown the tee-to-green consistency of a TOUR veteran in his 56 career starts on the circuit. Unwavering Elite Ball Striking Since the beginning of the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season, there are 208 players with at least 50 rounds measured by ShotLink. Hovland is one of just 17 players in that group – 8.2% of the overall collection – to average at least 1 full stroke gained tee-to-green per round. Players on the PGA TOUR gain 2 or more strokes on the field tee-to-green in about 19% of rounds played. Hovland has done this a whopping 33.8% of the time over the last 3 seasons, the 13th-highest rate of any player. But Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green incorporates short game shots, like chips and blasts from greenside bunkers. When you isolate just performance off the tee and on approach, his numbers are even more impressive. Hovland has averaged 1.22 Strokes Gained: Ball-Striking (off-the-tee plus approach) per round over the last three seasons. In that span, only three players have averaged more: Collin Morikawa (+1.39), Jon Rahm (+1.30) and Justin Thomas (+1.25). In 75% of his rounds played during that span, Hovland had a positive number in the Strokes Gained: Ball-Striking category. Only six other players can make that claim among that group (with 50 or more rounds in that span). Hovland averages 0.64 Strokes Gained: Approach per round since the beginning of the 2019-20 season, tied for seventh-most of any player. He has registered a positive strokes gained number on his approach shots in 70.6% of his rounds in that span, the fifth-highest rate on TOUR. In each of the last two PGA TOUR seasons, Hovland ranked in the top 20 in both Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and Strokes Gained: Approach. Only one other player was able to do that: Corey Conners. Improved Short Game While it still isn’t quite a strength of his game, Hovland has made notable strides in his short game since turning professional. Hovland jumped 44 spots in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green last season, from 168th to 124th. When scrambling from the rough, Hovland got up-and-down just 51.9% of the time in 2019-20. Last season, that number climbed to 61.0%, an improvement worth more than 120 spots in the standings. Hovland has also cut down on the frequency of costly performances around the green. In 2019-20, he had 12 rounds where he lost at least 1 stroke to the field around the green. That number was cut to eight last season. Birdies in Bunches Last season, Hovland skyrocketed from 40th to sixth in birdie average. Since the 2019-20 season began, Hovland has recorded six birdies-or-better in a round 43 times, tied for 10th-most of any player during that stretch. Since the start of last season, Hovland has put a circle on his card six-plus times in about 28% of his rounds played. The average PGA TOUR player does that in about 16% of his rounds. Hovland made a career-best nine birdies in the third round at El Camaleon Golf Club last year on his way to victory. This ability has been no more evident than in Hovland’s two victories, both of which came with a winning score of 20 under par. Hovland is one of just five players to have multiple PGA TOUR victories at -20 or lower since the beginning of the 2019-20 season, along with Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay, Kevin Na and Brendon Todd. With the average winning score right around 20 under at El Camaleon over the last decade, Hovland will need another prolific scoring week to become the first two-time winner of this event.

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If it feels like it’s a treat to able to lean on course history as a tool, you’re right. Of the most recent eight completed tournaments, only the Charles Schwab Challenge and the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday were contested on courses with enough reasonable history to apply to our decisions. This week’s Travelers Championship has been at TPC River Highlands for decades. That kind of bank of data not only can weed out a few talents, it serves as entry-level intel for rookies among us. That said, when scanning over your considerations in PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live, historical record is but one component to the madness, er, responsibly generated preview material. Yeah, that’s it. In addition to combing through our stand-alone content for the Travelers, Rob and Glass have zeroed in on opening selections for PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live below. Naturally, they’ve used said stand-alone content because, well, they reviewed the data, analyzed it and compiled it for the purposes of all. Here’s your chance to use it against them if you don’t scale into the top five as well. Register for PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live here and monitor Rob’s and Glass’ progress as Influencers. For a broader explanation of the format and FAQs, click here. TOURNAMENT TO WIN Glass … Mackenzie Hughes (+12500) Trending nicely, yet quietly, with T24-T28-T37 in his last three. He’ll enjoy the “break” this week as the three above were The Country Club, St George’s and Muirfield Village. The Canadian is 5-for-5 here and opened with 60 en route to T3 in 2020. Rob … Beau Hossler (+10000) Glass has owned me for three weeks, but his mini-reign of terror, er, terrific form ends now. Beau knows. One of the most popular questions posed to me this week was how Hossler could start as fifth alternate despite slotting 56th in the FedExCup. If you, too, are curious, understand that only invitationals use in-season FedExCup standings to fill fields. It’s how he got into THE PLAYERS, Schwab and Memorial. However, opens like the Travelers use the season-opening Priority Ranking in which he’s way down in Category 32 on conditional status. The category reorders but he can’t be promoted from it without a victory. Although the 27-year-old never has won on the PGA TOUR, he’s going to be a popular pick to do just that at TPC River Highlands. It’s the site of one of his pair of runner-up finishes (2018) and he finished T10 last year. He’s a phenomenal putter who will need to sharpen his tee-to-green game to elbow for position come Sunday, which is when the real fun begins. In 11 final rounds this season, he’s broken par just twice – neither for a sub-70 – and ranks 202nd in final-round scoring average.. TOP 10 Rob … Kevin Streelman (+900) Because this window unlocks every night, I’m comfortable in reaching, but is it, really? Streels famously walked off the win here with seven straight birdies in 2014. It’s one of five top 10s in 14 consecutive trips, the last a solo second in 2020. In this week’s edition of “PGA TOUR: The CUT,” he reiterated his affinity for TPC River Highlands, the tournament and the community, and that’s plenty good for me. Glass … Brendan Steele (+500) No point overlooking the intersection of form meeting course history! Steele has found another gear after a dreadful winter. It’s six straight cuts made on his own ball with a T9 at Southern Hills and a T10 at Memorial in his last two. His eight paydays from 11 starts at TPC River Highlands are T25 or better. DNS at The Country Club, so he should be fresh as well. TOP 20 Glass … Hank Lebioda (+750) I was lined up early last weekend for changes and they worked out quite well. Something about early birds and worms! Taking chances in this format is what makes the action round to round enjoyable, so try to take advantage. The lefty has found a bit of form lately and his best round of the spring was 66 to close in Canada last time out. He’s never MC here in three tries, and he cashed T5 last season, so let’s try and catch him on the up. If not, I’ll switch my horse. Rob … Tommy Fleetwood (+270) Unlike Glass, I can’t stay up late enough in Arizona for this window to open on weekends – I’ve tried! – so I need to cast aside that plan. The proper adjustment is to choke up and accept what the pitcher gives. In his only prior appearance, the Brit finished T13 in 2019 with a set of sub-70s, and he’s piled up the top 20s worldwide in 2022, eight to be exact. Since the kickback on this play doesn’t have as strong of an impact on other bets – even if Glass connect with Lebioda at +750 – easing off the throttle should contribute to the enjoyment. ROUND 1 LEADER Glass … Jason Day (+5000) Posted 62 here in Round 2 last year and 63 in Round 2 in 2019, so he’s got the LOW figured out. Now, just shift it into Round ONE and we have action. Well, we ALWAYS have action, and the Aussie is out at 7:15 am on No. 10. Not perfect but plenty of time to chase down whoever is leading if not him! Rob … Xander Schauffele (+3300) Not that we need incentive in PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live to circle an early starter, but rain overnight and into Thursday morning will present TPC River Highlands for target practice when the balls start flying. Because the nines are equal enough, I’m not partial to either side of the draw. I just want a guy who’s comfortable being aggressive in part because he’s done it here before. In three trips, Schauffele (7:35 a.m. ET) has scored 66, 67 and 63 in opening rounds of the Travelers. The tail of that trio was in 2020 when Mackenzie Hughes opened with 60. Hughes also co-led with an opening 64 in 2019. Jordan Spieth can match the multiple with at least a share of the R1 leads in 2017 and 2018, both times with 63. I’d have plucked either of those two, but both go out in the afternoon. So, they are Plans 1b and 1c. NOTE: While Glass and Rob typically stick with their selections as detailed in Pick ‘Em Preview, they are allowed the right to make changes at any time.

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The first redesign by noted course architect Tom Doak for the PGATOUR is featured this week as Memorial Park in Houston assumes the role host of the Vivint Houston Open. The TOUR returns to its roots as this municipal track is back on the schedule for the first time since 1963. The inaugural event in Houston took place in 1946 and the first one at Memorial Park debuted the following year, running until 1963. The Houston Open sat as the preparatory exam for Augusta National, for most of the last 15 years and returns to that position on the schedule, albeit accidentally, this time around. Tom Doak and Brooks Koepka (player consultant) have positioned only 19 bunkers through 7,432 yards on this Par-72 (36-36). The focus this week will be on excitement and scoring chances rather than grinding out pars and surviving. With five Par-5 holes, five Par-3 holes and a pair of Par-4 holes that can possibly be driven, a full array of shots will be required, not to mention a bunch of birdies, to pick up the trophy this week. Think ZOZO but with a few hundred additional yards and Bermuda on the greens. We all remember who was on the podium that week (Cantlay, Rahm and Thomas). RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks | Sleeper Picks With a new test it’s always the ball-strikers who move to the forefront. With 28 acres of fairway, less than three inches of rough and only four holes with water, I would think scoring will be a major focus this week. Greens are large, averaging 7,000 square feet, and running slick with Mini-Verde Bermuda so hitting plenty of them will be the angle. The more GIR will give more scoring chances and it won’t hurt to have shorter clubs into those scoring holes. Lanto Griffin is the defending champion at the event and will lead the field of 132 as they look to get their hands on $1.26 million (winner) of the $7 million prize pool plus 500 FedExCup points. The winner won’t get into the Masters next week but will be eligible in 2021. Event Winners at Golf Club of Houston Recent Winners 2019: Lanto Griffin 2018: Ian Poulter (not entered) 2017: Russell Henley Key stat leaders Top golfers in each statistic on the 2019-2020 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week. Those listed in BOLD deserve deeper inspection if not already on your RADAR. Strokes-Gained: Tee-to-Green 2 Hideki Matsuyama 4 Sergio Garcia 8 Harold Varner III 9 Dustin Johnson 10 Scottie Scheffler 11 Tony Finau 13 Tyrrell Hatton 14 Russell Henley 16 Corey Conners 20 Viktor Hovland 21 Luke List 24 Emiliano Grillo 25 Cameron Tringale Par-5 Scoring 6 Wyndham Clark 6 Matt Jones 10 Hideki Matsuyama 10 Dustin Johnson 10 Kevin Streelman 10 Tyrrell Hatton 10 Ryan Palmer 10 James Hahn 18 Alex Noren 21 Cameron Davis 21 Sam Burns 21 Jhonattan Vegas 21 Sungjae Im 21 Scottie Scheffler Strokes-Gained: Putting 1 Denny McCarthy 3 Andrew Putnam 4 Kristoffer Ventura 8 Mackenzie Hughes 9 Maverick McNealy 11 Patrick Rodgers 14 JT Poston 16 Wyndham Clark 23 Troy Merritt 24 Beau Hossler 25 Patton Kizzire Top players at Bermuda Championship (entered this week) 1 Brian Gay P2 Wyndham Clark 3 Ollie Schniederjans 4 Matt Jones 4 Stewart Cink 4 Denny McCarthy 4 Doc Redman 8 Ryan Armour 8 David Hearn 14 Scott Piercy 16 Russell Knox 21 Maverick McNealy 21 Brice Garnett 21 Andrew Putnam 21 Sepp Straka 26 Paddy Harrington 26 Beau Hossler Top 25 ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD (entered this week) 4 Russell Henley 4 Ryan Palmer 8 Corey Conners 11 Tony Finau 11 Dylan Frittelli 11 Lanto Griffin 17 Alex Noren 17 Scottie Scheffler 26 Brian Harman

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