Xander has Scottish lead, seeks 2nd straight win

AUGUSTA, Ga. - It might as well have been a sick patient. Such was the pre-tournament hand wringing and concern shown the frail, largely defenseless 510-yard, par-5 13th hole, aka Azalea, coming into this Masters. Although the club is reportedly considering adding a new back tee, the hole looked overmatched against the prodigious driving distances of the modern golfer, chiefly Bryson DeChambeau. "I had pitching wedge in," he said after an early practice round this week. "I cut the corner drastically." RELATED: Leaderboard | Pro long drivers discuss DeChambeau’s length Well, the golf gods must have been listening. And they didn't like it. DeChambeau hacked his way to a shocking double-bogey 7 on 13, a misadventure that included a sliced drive; a hook into the bushes left of the green; a provisional ball; a search and found ball/unplayable lie; a one-shot penalty/drop; a chunked flop shot; and two putts. Having begun his Masters on the back nine, red-hot U.S. Open champion DeChambeau - the most talked about player in golf and some pundits' favorite to win the green jacket - was suddenly 2 over par through his first four holes. He rallied from there to salvage a 2-under 70. "I’m very happy with the patience I delivered to the course today," he said. That patience was tested early as he missed a short birdie putt at the 10th hole, his first of the day, and badly pulled his tee shot into the trees left of the 11th fairway. He hacked out and salvaged par. His birdie putt at the par-3 12th lipped out. Then came his crazy 13th. "I just didn’t draw it around the corner enough, and I got greedy," DeChambeau said. "This golf course, as much as I’m trying to attack it, it can bite back. It’s still Augusta National, and it’s the Masters. It’s an amazing test of golf no matter what way you play it." DeChambeau birdied five of his last 13 holes, including the eighth and ninth to end his day. "I tried to take on some risk today," he said. "It didn’t work out as well as I thought it would have, but at the end of the day I’m proud of myself the way I handled myself and finished off. Birdieing 8 and 9 was a testament to my focus level and wanting to contend here."

Click here to read the full article…

SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda – Harry Higgs said he went on a “deep dive” to right himself for this week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course, where he opened with a 7-under 64. He was missing shots left, going through the motions, and generally “having a bad attitude” last season, when he missed the FedExCup Playoffs. Missing left? OK, fine. But hang on. Harry Higgs with “a bad attitude?” The guy who brought the house down at the WM Phoenix Open, has 80,000 Twitter followers, and seemingly connects with fans by the busload? Yes, that Harry Higgs. He confessed that his attitude has been miserable but after starting strong in Bermuda, he asked that you hear him out. “I know there are a lot of people who watch and follow me no matter what I do,” said Higgs. “And that’s great. The last couple of years I’ve had some notoriety for things not tied to my successes on the golf course and I understand that. “But I want to be really good at this game,” he continued. “I have lofty goals. I’m self-aware that I play my best golf when I’m smiling and happy … but in the last six months there have been dark thoughts. I legitimately have not played good golf since (finishing T-14) at the Masters.” Higgs followed his Masters high with 10 missed cuts in 14 starts and only one finish inside the top 30, missing the Playoffs for the first time in three years. That hurt, and while he wants people to know that his sour attitude didn’t impact the big picture (“I still consider myself very lucky to be doing this”), he knew he had to make an adjustment. That has meant kicking himself “in the rear” and letting his lousy season shock his system. Be that as it may, he added with a laugh, that doesn’t mean you won’t see Higgs enjoying himself. You will. Often. “That is who I am,” he said. “It’s not an act.” His improved attitude came into play on his first hole Thursday, when he split the fairway at the par-4 10th and found his ball in a divot. “I could have said to myself, Great, so this is how it’s going to go,” said Higgs. “But instead, I said, I can still hit a good shot here.” He did, too, and while it carried a little long and to the back of the green, the 30-year-old from Camden, New Jersey, got up and down for par. It was the first of many highlights (just 24 putts; he saved par all seven times he missed a green) in a bogey-free round. Higgs did what one has to do on a day when scores were low – he kept himself in it, just two off the torrid morning pace established by Austin Smotherman (62). “It’s very nice to get off to a good start,” Higgs said. “… Fun to get in the mix. Fun to at least look at your name close to the top of the leaderboard again for the first time in a long time.” Fun. He said it twice, and insists that is still a very big part of his persona, but he vows to throw in some better golf to make it even more fun.

Click here to read the full article…

Former Presidents Cup International team member Graham DeLaet will undergo another procedure on his ailing back, keeping the Canadian Olympian away from the PGA TOUR for an undetermined amount of time. DeLaet, 39, announced on Twitter he would be undergoing a Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) procedure on his lower back. The goal of the procedure is to alleviate the chronic pain he has been dealing with for the past few years. "I am very hopeful that this will give me the day-to-day relief to enjoy more quality time with my family and friends," he said. "I am also hopeful it will enable me to put in the time needed to practice again and get back to the PGA TOUR. "It's definitely been a frustrating few years." The native of Weyburn, Saskatchewan (a town of about 10,000 people about an hour north of the U.S. border) has suffered a myriad of injuries over the last few seasons but was in the midst of returning to the TOUR via a Major Medical Exemption. DeLaet was a bright light for the International Team at the 2013 Presidents Cup - where he went 3-1-1 and delivered some final-hole dramatics alongside Jason Day and against Jordan Spieth - finished 8th in the FedExCup that same year, his career-high. He first earned his PGA TOUR card in 2010. DeLaet played five tournaments in 2019-20, making two cuts. He's since played five tournaments in 2021 but missed four cuts and withdrew from the Vivant Houston Open, citing his back as the culprit. "I've been through this now so many times over the past 10 years and all the warning signs were there for me to shut it down and take care of my body," said DeLaet at the time. DeLaet flashed some brilliance at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in 2020, shooting a second-round 64 - his lowest TOUR round since a matching 64 at the Travelers Championship in 2017. In that season he notched six top-10 finishes - but has been away from the TOUR for the better part of two years. He withdrew from THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES in late October of 2018 and did not play the whole of 2019. DeLaet failed to get relief from a steam-cell treatment in December 2017 claiming at the time it "has not helped regenerate my L4-L5 disc and in fact has gotten worse since the procedure." The hirsute star ended up having an L4-L5 microdiscectomy surgery in 2018, his second such procedure after an earlier one in 2011. DeLaet was non-committal about a timeline to return to the TOUR. While he's been recovering DeLaet appeared on the Canadian broadcast of the Masters in November as an analyst and has become prolific with his barbecue on social media while placing focus on being an attentive father to his now 5-year-old twins Roscoe and Lyla.

Click here to read the full article…