Jordan Spieth rues late fade at The Open Championship

DETROIT – It’s not like he needed to take out his phone and call up the GPS. But Kevin Kisner did have to turn to playing competitor and tournament host Rickie Fowler Thursday morning after playing his ninth hole at Detroit Golf Club, the par-4 18th, and ask, “How do you get to the first tee?� Fowler, who is surely in demand here at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, smiled, then nodded, as if to say, “follow me.� Kisner laughed, but no apologies were necessary. Like virtually every other competitor in the 156-player field, Kisner had never seen Detroit Golf Club before this week, but extenuating circumstances kept him from a full practice look. He played Monday in Rhode Island at the CVS Charity Classic and “I felt like I needed a little more rest this week after two long weeks (U.S. Open and Travelers Championship) in a row.� He took Tuesday off, played just the back side in his nine-hole practice round Wednesday, then started on the back nine Thursday morning. Was Kisner worried as he took his 4-under score to foreign territory, Detroit GC’s front nine? Not at all. The man’s a trained professional, after all, and he had a pair of aces up his sleeve. “A good caddie (Duane Bock) who has seen the golf course and great yardage books that pretty much tell the story before you get there.� Wouldn’t you know it, Kisner’s introduction to the front nine started birdie-birdie-birdie. Quality stuff, for sure, but on this warm and sun-splashed day, the PGA TOUR’s first-ever tournament in Motown provided local fans with a parade of low scores and birdies by the buckets. It was a daytime fireworks display led by Nate Lashley, who didn’t find out he was officially in the tournament until Wednesday at noon. He took advantage, for sure, peppering Detroit GC with five birdies over the final six holes to post the lowest score (9-under 63) in his brief TOUR career (33rd tournament, 96th round). When you one-putt nine of the 13 greens you hit in regulation and require just 23 overall, it’s a very good day, so Lashley, who is currently 132nd in the FedExCup standings, was obviously content. But this figures to be a shoot-out and no pairing demonstrated that quite like the marquee draw of Kisner, Fowler and Charles Howell III. They combined for three eagles (two for Howell, one for Fowler), 14 birdies, and 17-under and when the red numbers were finalized, Howell’s 65 put him just off of Lashley’s morning pace, Kisner was at 66, and Fowler’s 68 left him thinking he had to step it up Friday. That Howell and Kisner scored beautifully made for an intriguing study, for their 2018-19 seasons have been eerily similar. Drift back to late November, the RSM Classic in Sea Island, Ga., where Howell won for the first time since 2007 and Kisner was joint seventh. Productive stuff for both and each carried it over into the early months of 2019, Howell with two more top 10s, Kisner with a win at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. But while neither can complain about their FedExCup standing (Howell is 15th, Kisner 17th), each concedes that the results the last three months haven’t been as impressive as they were early on. “The TOUR has gotten so good, it doesn’t take much out here,� said Howell, trying to explain why he piled up all four of his top 10s in his first nine starts, but hasn’t had any in his last 11. He looks like he’s still 20, jokes that “I feel 100,� but the kid from Augusta, Ga., recently turned 40 and is in his 20th season, playing his 546th TOUR tournament this week. OK, so he might not stretch back to hickory, but Howell knows what it was like out here with balata balls and fields not quite as deep as they are in this era. “It’s why you see guys working so hard out here, hiring coaches to help them. It feels like’s it’s a razor’s edge,� said Howell. “If you can get even one percent better or a slight advantage, because everyone’s so dang good out here, it’s important to push yourself and push the limit to find ways to get better.� Kisner’s only top 10 in a stroke-play event this far this year remains that RSM start in November (he won in match play and was joint fifth with Scott Brown in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event), but insists that’s not a true reflection of his overall play. “The consistency of my game has probably been as good as anytime in my career,� said Kisner. “I just haven’t been able to put it all together. The momentum hasn’t carried through an entire week.� Maybe it will this week, especially now that he’s actually played all 18 holes? Kisner smiled. “No time like the present,� he said.

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At first, Addison Seban made the candles for fun. Or maybe, as a present to give to a friend. When she wanted to be fitted for a new set of golf clubs, though, she turned her hobby into a business. “It was real expensive and my mom was like, no, you’re going to have to earn your money to buy the golf clubs – they’re just not going to give them to you,” Addison recalls. “And so, we thought of ideas that would make the money and that I know I enjoyed doing.” So far, she’s made enough selling candles – the pumpkin spice, peppermint and cedar-scented ones do especially well with the holidays approaching – to pay for a set of irons. She’s now saving up for her woods and hybrids. Each candle, which sells for $5 or $10, depending on the size, has a card attached explaining that Addison, who is a member of First Tee-Golden Isles, is trying to make money to further her golf career. The high school freshman has sold more than 100 candles so far. “I would hope people would like them because I try hard on them,” Addison says. So far, the candles have been sold by word-of-mouth, many to her mother’s friends. But Addison plans to sell them at a crafts fair this month in Brunswick, Georgia, and a web page is also in the works. “But right now, it’s mainly just by, I was asking local people around here or us just being sitting at a restaurant and having the candles with us,” she says. “Someone will be asking how much they are and most of the time they’ll buy.” Each candle sold is an investment in a once-shy youngster who has turned into a confident teenager, one with enough poise to be selected to help tell the story of the RSM Birdies Fore Love program during the Golf Channel broadcast of this week’s RSM Classic. Addison will also be on-site at Sea Island on Wednesday where she’ll get a behind-the-scenes tour of the event that is hosted by Davis Love III. She’ll also spend time with PGA TOUR pro Kyle Westmoreland, who is an RSM Ambassador. Tammy Palmer, who is the executive director of First Tee-Golden Isles, has seen Addison’s transformation first-hand. It’s not just the golfer she’s become, it’s how the teen has matured and been empowered by the organization’s core values. “I guess the one word, if I were to have one word for Addison, it’s joy,” she says. “Like, every time I see Addison and I talk to Addison, she’s always got a very bright smile on her face, and she’s just a beautiful young girl, and she’s got a bright future ahead of her. … “She has developed so much confidence over the last few years and she has really developed into a wonderful young woman. And she has started being a part of a couple of organizations at her school where she’s on the leadership board. … And the amazing thing about that is, is it’s a new school for her. … And so, she’s jumped right in with both feet and. And she’s just going to do amazing.” Addison has been a member of First Tee-Golden Isle, which is a beneficiary of the RSM Birdies Fore Love program since her grandfather Rich Seban signed her up for a summer camp at the age of 7. He lives in a golf course community, and she liked tagging along with him. “It was just a way for me to get out there and hang out with him,” Addison says. She played soccer, volleyball and basketball, too, but by the time she was 10, Addison began taking golf more seriously. She and her grandfather play together weekly, but while she’s come close, she has not beaten him yet, “sadly,” she says. A ninth grader at Frederica Academy on Saint Simon’s Island, Addison is drawn to the challenge of the game, as well as the friendships she’s made. She’ll be playing golf for the Knights this year, and she was pleased to find out there is another girl on the team who plays “serious” golf. “I think my favorite part about golf is just being out there and playing it and just enjoying seeing how well I’m doing for the day or how bad and how I can improve with it,” Addison says. Now that she’s older and a veteran, of sorts, at First Tee-Golden Isle, Addison volunteers three or four times a week. She started out working with the youngest kids and now focuses on the 7-9 age group, teaching them the core values and the game, as well as respecting the golf course. Palmer says the donation from the RSM Birdies Fore Love program has allowed First Tee-Golden Isle to expand into three additional counties and provide life and leadership opportunities to more kids like Addison. “We’ve been able to add a lot more specialty programs like PGA Junior League and LPGA Girls Golf and our school program, where we have our curriculum and our equipment inside 25 middle and elementary high schools,” she says. “And so, we’ve been able to expand that and create a much further reach than we did before.” The First Tee lessons Addison teaches to the youngsters are ones she knows well. The core values – particularly honesty and perseverance — are an integral part of her daily life. “It’s taught me a lot about leadership,” Addison says of the First Tee tenets. “I’m a part of my school’s leadership teams that they have, and I think it’s helped a lot with that and just also building confidence with that to being able to say I’m going do this and actually doing it and just not saying it and not doing it.” Addison’s ultimate goal is to earn a college scholarship to play golf. While she has already played in some tournaments, particularly on the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour, she hopes to be a more regular participant in 2023, competing in at least one a month. Looks like it’s time to sell some more candles.

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Dustin Johnson sat 77 on Saturday to create a logjam at the top of the leaderboard at the U.S. Open.

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