Tiger Woods has a lot of work to do at The Open, and here is how his second round is going

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W. Va. – Joseph Bramlett saw 15 different spine surgeons. The first 14 told him that an operation to fix the annular tear to his L5-L6 disc would likely end his budding golf career. The 15th was willing to do exploratory surgery but Bramlett’s girlfriend Samantha Boozer put her foot down and said no. “She’s helped me out of some desperate moments,â€� Bramlett said with a smile. Those moments appear to be behind the 6-foot-4 Californian, though. After being sidelined for the better part of four-and-a-half years, Bramlett finally rehabilitated his back and rebuilt his swing, and now, after two seasons on the Korn Ferry Tour, he has his PGA TOUR card again. RELATED: Tee times | Chappell’s ‘surreal’ return after back surgery Bramlett will tee off Sunday at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier with a chance to win, too, after a third-round 65 that tied for the day’s low, propelling him to 11 under and four strokes off the lead held by Joaquin Niemann. He called it a “solidâ€� day. “I wouldn’t say I did anything out of the ordinary,â€� said Bramlett, who made four birdies and a 50-footer for eagle at the 12th hole while dropping just one shot to par. “… Kept the mistakes to a minimum.â€� The personable Bramlett played at Stanford, graduating in 2010 with a degree in communications, and promptly made it through Q-school to get his TOUR card for the following season. After finishing 196th in the FedExCup, though, he found himself on what is now known as the Korn Ferry Tour in 2012. Bramlett narrowly missed regaining his TOUR card that year, falling from 24th to 28th on the money list, three below the cutoff, in the final event of the year. Then midway through the 2013 season, his back flared up while he was preparing a Korn Ferry Tour event in Utah. That was in July. Bramlett didn’t play again until January of 2016 and lasted just three events. He missed all of 2017 before being able to return full-time in February of 2018. “I just trying to warm up on the driving range and my back went out and fell over and couldn’t move for a while,â€� Bramlett said matter-of-factly. Annular tears like the 31-year-old had usually take about 18 months to heal. But Bramlett’s recovery was complicated by poor posture, tight hips and several flaws in his swing, so every time he started to practice, he’d soon find himself flat on his back again. “I used to have really poor footwork,â€� Bramlett explained. “I was the guy that jumped off the ground and was on his toes at impact, and my hips were rotated way too fast and I was in a lot of side bend. I was just cranking the low right side of my back.â€� About three years into the process, Bramlett found John Scott Rattan, a teaching pro at Congressional Country Club in Washington, D.C., and physical therapist Cody Fowler, and things began to change. Together he and Rattan rebuilt his swing from the ground up. “It was just a ticking time bomb,â€� Bramlett said. “I didn’t realize that I was putting myself at risk like I was at the time.â€� The rehab, which was “tedious,â€� he said, worked in concert with the swing changes. Bramlett did foot exercises and worked on his hip mobility, trying to become more fluid. He’d work for 15 minutes, rest for 45 and start again. Over and over. “When I first started I had almost zero internal rotation on both my hips,â€� he said. “It wasn’t a structural issue. I just didn’t know how to use them, go through the motion. … My nervous system had kind of shut me down and I was rigid and locked. So, yeah, just had to break that stuff down.â€� Bramlett said he could understand what Kevin Chappell, who shot a 59 on Friday at the Old White TPC, has gone through. The Greenbrier is Chappell’s first event since having back surgery in November and while Bramlett’s layoff was much longer, the emotions and effort both had to endure are similar. “I feel bad for him because no matter what amount of time it takes it feels like a lifetime,â€� Bramlett said. “I think it was great to see what he did. I thought it spoke to his confidence to be able to come out having not competed and get in that position and just believe in yourself the whole way through. “That was something I fought last year. I started getting really nervous towards the end of tournaments because I hadn’t been in that position for a long time. I had to really work through that.â€� Bramlett says he tells his friends that he doesn’t cry happy tears. At the same time, though, he admits to getting misty-eyed when he finally teed up in his first Korn Ferry Tour event after all the rehab was done. He got a little emotional when he hit the road on Sunday and headed to The Greenbrier, too. “It’s been my dream since kindergarten to play out here,â€� Bramlett said. “I’ve had a one-track mind. This is what I’ve always wanted to do. From when I first started playing golf I fell in love with the game and PGA TOUR. That was my dream my whole life.”

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They are going to start calling Playa del Carmen “Playa del Hovland” if Viktor Hovland keeps dominating El Camaleón Golf Club the way he did once again over the weekend. The 2020 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba winner successfully defended his title with a four-shot win over Mexico’s own Carlos Ortiz. Hovland, 24, flashed his trademark smile on the way to his third PGA TOUR title, perhaps fitting for one of the only stops on the PGA TOUR where monkeying around is par for the course. 1. Hovland goes back-to-back Mexico is about 5,000 miles from Norway, but Viktor Hovland has found a home at Mayakoba. He edged Aaron Wise by one a year ago, finishing at 20 under for his second TOUR title. This time Hovland had even more juice, getting to 23 under, four clear of runner-up Carlos Ortiz. Hovland’s third-round 62 gave him a two-shot advantage over Talor Gooch headed into the final round, which he began with a three-under front nine while Gooch went one-over on the same stretch. Ortiz, Justin Thomas and Scottie Scheffler showed some fireworks, but Hovland was never quite tested on the back nine, and he carded a 67 for the win. In his two Mayakoba wins, Hovland has rounds of 63, 65, 62 and 67 on the weekends. “I probably putted better throughout the whole week this year,” Hovland said. “I feel like I still hit the ball really, really well last year, but my short game was still not as sharp.” Hovland’s 23-under score is the lowest at Mayakoba since 2007, when the tournament took its place on the PGA TOUR schedule. He is also the first player to go back-to-back on TOUR since Brooks Koepka successfully defended his PGA Championship crown in 2019. The fifth-straight international winner on TOUR this fall, Hovland follows Sungjae Im, Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama and Lucas Herbert. 2. Hometown fans get a show Mexico has two players in the top 100 in the world and both gave the home fans reasons to roar. Abraham Ancer, world No. 14, shot 68, 68, 68 and 65 to finish T8 at 15 under. His 65 was tied for the fifth-lowest score Sunday and included four straight birdies on holes 10-13. In his last five starts at Mayakoba, Ancer has five top-25 finishes, including three top-10s. Runner-up Carlos Ortiz has been even hotter at El Camaleón. Coming off at T2 in 2019 and T8 in 2020, Ortiz opened the 2021 event with rounds of 67, 65 and 67. After a mostly pedestrian final round, he birdied Nos. 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17 to put some light pressure on the eventual winner. “I’m really proud,” Ortiz said. “It was a tough day. I couldn’t really find anything on the front nine and I just kept pushing. The people, having them out here, all my friends, I just found a way to get something going. And it’s funny how golf works, but once you hit that first shot that you see and how you want, it just clicks and I just found that confidence that I needed to finish strong.” Ortiz signed for a final-round 66. He’ll take that mojo over the border to this week’s Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open, the site of his first TOUR win a year ago. Roberto Diaz, who won on the Korn Ferry Tour at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open last March, finished as the third-highest Mexican at T45. 3. Wolff continues hot streak Matthew Wolff is enjoying one of the most consistent streaks in golf, a statement that would have come as a surprise as recently as two months ago. After opening his season with a T17 at the Sanderson Farms Championship and a runner-up at the Shriners Children’s Open, Wolff opened with a 10-under 61 on Thursday at Mayakoba. He added a 68 on Friday, his tenth straight round in the 60s, for a two-shot lead headed into the weekend. An off-day led to a 74 on Saturday, but his final-round 65 got him to 16 under (T5). “I felt like even (Saturday) my game really felt good, just stuff wasn’t really going my way,” Wolff said. “I had a lot of bad breaks, and the putts weren’t dropping. I easily could have shot maybe a couple under if I made a couple of the short ones coming in, but it just didn’t turn out that way. “I knew that I felt really good with every part of my game,” he continued, “and I knew that if I came out today, especially with it being a little windy, and put a really solid round together, then I could shoot up the leaderboard and that’s what I did.” Wolff’s two top-10s so far this season have already matched his total from 2020-21 (which happened to be his first two events of that season). Still, he was the second-highest Oklahoma State finisher this week, behind his college teammate Hovland. 4. Thomas enjoying ‘fresh start’ Justin Thomas was in a slump last year, no other way to put it. After his win at THE PLAYERS Championship in March, he didn’t record another top-10 finish until THE NORTHERN TRUST. But now, over the last three months, Thomas has climbed back toward his former world No. 1 form. He finished 4th at the TOUR Championship, went 2-1-1 at the Ryder Cup and opened his 2021-22 campaign with a T18 at the CJ CUP. His four rounds in the 60s at Mayakoba were good for solo third, his best finish since the aforementioned PLAYERS in March. His strongest stretch came on Friday and Saturday (65 and 64, respectively). It was a solid week considering he went 3 over for his opening nine but birdied six of his last seven holes Thursday. He’s also using a new permanent caddie in Jim “Bones” Mackay. “This is a new season, completely different,” Thomas said. “Especially with Bones, it kind of feels like a fresh start, a new start.” 5. Kirk makes first-swing hole-in-one Many pros will tell you that starting a round on a par 3 isn’t ideal. Chris Kirk, on the other hand, began his week with an ace at the par-3 10th hole at El Camaleón. Part of the first group off the back nine on Thursday – 6:55 a.m. local tee time – Kirk carded his ace before most of the field had even taken a swing on the range. It’s safe to say some hadn’t even woken up. He was the first player to make a hole-in-one on his first swing of the tournament since Keith Mitchel, also at the par-3 10th hole at El Camaleón, in 2017. It was a mixed bag from there, as Kirk birdied 12 and eagled 13 – 5 under through five holes – and opened with a 64. But with ensuing rounds of 73, 70 and 71, he settled for a T64 (6 under). Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10 The Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10 highlights and rewards the extraordinary level of play required to earn a spot in the TOP 10 at the conclusion of the FedExCup Regular Season as determined by the FedExCup standings. The competition recognizes and awards the most elite in golf.

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Rookie Park leads in bid for historic LPGA win

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