How to Watch the TOUR Championship, Round 3: Featured Groups, live scores, tee times, TV times

Sixteen months ago, when it was announced that Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, would be the replacement host of the 2022 PGA Championship, no doubt golfers who remembered the 2007 PGA on the course quickly were relieved remembering that the major would be contested in May, not August like it was oppressively 15 years ago. Still, in a pandemic, there hasn’t been a total exhale, but all systems now are go for the 104th edition of what recently has transitioned into the second major of the year. RELATED: Play Pick ‘Em Live | The First Look | Inside the Field Of course, it’s not like just any stage can be ready in such a short period of time to host a premier event, much less occupy a footprint capable of supporting its infrastructure, but Southern Hills isn’t just any stage. Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and their team restored the Perry Maxwell design in 2019 and it hosted the 2021 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. It doesn’t look like the same track on which Tiger Woods prevailed by two strokes in 2007, but that didn’t test how Maxwell intended. How Southern Hills presents this week, what it will take to win and, naturally, an early peek at the weather are below the extended ranking of professionals poised to contend for the Wanamaker Trophy. POWER RANKINGS: PGA CHAMPIONSHIP Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Talor Gooch, Tyrrell Hatton and Louis Oosthuizen will be among the notables reviewed in Tuesday’s Draws and Fades. To put some perspective on how long it’s been since Southern Hills last hosted, when the PGA of America descended here in 2007, it’d be another two months before Dustin Johnson would make his PGA TOUR debut and the only Kim in the field was Anthony, then a PGA TOUR rookie and not far removed in time and space from his collegiate stomping grounds of the University of Oklahoma. DJ has gone on to record 24 TOUR titles, including two majors, and there are four Kims in this week’s field, including Joohyung. Also known as Tom, he’s this year’s youngest qualifier at just 19 years of age. He was five during the 2007 PGA. (Insert “shocked” emoji here.) Of the 156 in the field at the PGA Championship – all entrants are professionals; it’s the only major sans amateurs – 17 were at Southern Hills for the 2007 PGA. Woods departed with the best memory of all – his 13th victory in a major – but recall on how the course tested is irrelevant this week. Southern Hills still is a stock par 70, but the restoration in 2019 reintroduced wider fairways, unique structure to every bunker and greens without thick rough around their perimeters. At 7,365 yards, it’s 234 yards longer than its previous turn, but technology advances in equipment and how golfers are using measured data serve as equalizers. Approaches from bermuda fairways aim at bentgrass greens that average just over 5,000 square feet. In the context of size of the targets and basic agronomy, it comps to Colonial Country Club, site of next week’s Charles Schwab Challenge, so it’s not an unfamiliar combination. Creeks that snake through the property also were recovered, and only three holes are spared water in play to some degree. As should be the case in every tournament worthy of this billing, the routing will demand patience, course management and a dash of heroics where the course permits. Emerging atop the leaderboard will require tee-to-green precision and touch around the greens. The mystery of the putting surfaces will elevate the long game into the weekend. While 90-degree heat and prevailing winds from the south will greet the players on Thursday, there is zero chance of a repeat from the conditions of 2007. That week, daytime highs reached 100 degrees with higher heat indices, so an excessive heat warning was in effect throughout. This week, a system will pass through later on Friday, and it could yield rain and possibly severe weather. Also with it, much cooler air will drop Saturday’s daytime high into the 60s thanks to a rotation of a strong breeze pushing in from a northerly direction. Sunday’s conditions are expected to be so nice that the Chamber of Commerce might blush. Winds also are forecasted to calm by then, but in these parts, don’t hold your breath. The champion will be exempt for life into the tournament. He’ll also be reserved spots in the next five editions of the other three majors, and his PGA TOUR membership will be extended through the 2026-27 if it already isn’t. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Pick ’Em Preview, Sleepers, Draws and Fades SATURDAY: Medical Extensions SUNDAY: Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Rookie Ranking * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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Top that! Every performer understands the challenge of taking the stage immediately after the previous performer killed. It’s daunting. Add the not-so-insignificant fact that the most recent standing ovation was for Tiger Woods winning for the 82nd time on the PGA TOUR at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP and, well, so it goes. Someone has to do it. Whoever prevails at this week’s World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions will go into the record books beside Jack Nicklaus, so that’s not too shabby. It was Nicklaus who won the 1965 Masters in the week after Sam Snead connected for win No. 82 at the Greater Greensboro Open. There are two main differences 54 years later. Snead competed in the Masters, whereas Woods is taking the week off, and Snead missed the cut at Augusta National, but there is no cut at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai, China. Scroll past the projected contenders for what the field of 78 faces in the host course and what should define the winner of the Old Tom Morris Cup, 550 FedExCup points and $1.845 million. Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider will include Jordan Spieth, Francesco Molinari, Danny Willett and Matthew Fitzpatrick among the notables. Just like at Jeju Island’s NINE BRIDGES, the most recent among a handful of courses on the PGA TOUR set up for the worst-case scenario of gusty winds, the greens at Sheshan International are slow by PGA TOUR standards. So, when the flags are limp, as they are forecast to be for most of this week, the winner likely will reach at least 20-under on the stock par 72. In three of the last six editions (since only Sheshan International has hosted the WGC-HSBC Champions during the wraparound era), three winners finished 20-under or lower. The other three settled for 11 under (2014) and 14-under twice (2017, 2018). Rain isn’t expected and the daytime highs will eclipse 70 degrees, so this will be a green-light special. This isn’t to suggest that Sheshan International is a pushover. No matter the wind, the par 5s always are challenging. In 2016, in what were similarly benign conditions as expected this week, the par 5s ranked fifth-hardest among all courses at 4.83. Last year when the par 5s were hardest of the season in averaging 4.85, Xander Schauffele ranked T2 in par-5 scoring (4.44) en route to victory. Tony Finau paced the field with an average of 4.25 on the set. Not surprisingly, Adam Scott’s field-leading 4.31 in the breezes at NINE BRIDGES was one of only two par-5 leaders with a higher average among all tournaments. (Ollie Schniederjans and Jordan Spieth shared the honor with the same average at the Valero Texas Open.) Also in 2016, winds kicked up only in the second round, but it was in that round when champion Hideki Matsuyama carded his lowest score of the week (65) en route to a seven-shot runaway title at 23-under 265. It’s all the evidence this field needs to know for a course that rewards good shots as much as it penalizes the not-so-good. Hitting GIR is the primary objective. Course experience also is key given the strength of the field and the learning curve of the undulations on the greens. The only change at Sheshan occurred at the par-4 fifth hole. Extended by just three yards, the course now tips at 7,264 yards. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings (WGC-HSBC) TUESDAY*: Power Rankings (Bermuda), Sleepers, Fantasy Insider * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesdays.

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Professional golf resumes with Sunday’s charity exhibition, the TaylorMade Driving Relief best-ball Skins match, with the team of Rory McIlroy-Dustin Johnson facing the team of Rickie Fowler-Matthew Wolff at legendary Seminole. All proceeds from the match will go to COVID-19 relief. Although not long by today’s standards, Seminole is tough and will require the very best of each player to navigate the famed track. GolfWRX has identified a key club for each of the four golfers. Rickie Fowler’s Cobra RF “Rev33â€� MB irons (4-PW) RF SPECS 4 – 23° / 61.5° / D3 5 – 27° / 62° / D3 6 – 31° / 62.5° / D3 7 – 35° / 63° / D3 8 – 39° / 63.5° / D3 9 – 43° / 64° / D3 PW – 47° / 64.5° / D3 Length: -.5 inches from standard Shaft: KBS C Taper 125 S+ Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Align “un-brushed RF style” Rickie Fowler thrives on courses where precision is at a premium. Long in his own right, but not in the same category as a Johnson or McIlroy, Rickie will rely on his iron game as the key to success at Seminole. This week he will have a brand new setup to show off to the world with the new Cobra Golf RF “Rev 33” muscleback irons. WRX spoke with Head of Cobra Golf Tour Operations Ben Schomin on the unique profile of Fowler’s irons and what exactly “Rev 33” stands for. WRX: Let’s get this outta the way — REV 33, what does it mean? BEN SCHOMIN: “It represents the 33 revisions that it took Rickie, myself and our engineering team to finally hone in and get to where we are today. Rickie and I worked closely over the course of a year to find and create his dream iron. This is the finished product.â€� WRX: As the man who put them together, what is the part of this iron that really stands out to you? SCHOMIN: “The engineering and creativity of this iron is quite unique. The blade has ZERO offset and even more, there is very little if any separation from the heel to the scoring lines. Even irons with minimal offset have some room there; these have none. I’d say the most unique aspect of this iron is what it represents to Rick. It’s his iron and represents his creativity and what inspires confidence. It’s not necessarily a guaranteed success when players are involved in creating their own clubs, but Rickie is one of the rare breeds that can make it work.â€� WRX: What influences from the past inspired the RF Iron? SCHOMIN: “That’s where this project got really interesting. It was more of a history lesson/reality check on how things have changed. I went into our archive for inspiration. Gathering iconic blades from years past; MP14/29, Ram FX Tour Grinds, Wilson Staff Fluid Feel sets, Cobra Norman grinds, etc. .. The crazy thing was I forgot how much offset many of those old school blades had. That’s when I realized we could pick out certain design features and aesthetics, but ultimately this new iron idea was going to be just that, an entirely new creation. Remember — Muscle Backs typically follow the similar design rules, where we and many other great companies get creative is in the engineering of it all. Edges, lines, widths, etc. — all while making sure they hold up for the best players in the world. No easy task.â€� Text provided by GolfWRX Director of Content @johnny_wunder Click here for more information on Cobra irons at PGA TOUR Superstore PREVIOUSLY: Rory McIlroy’s driver, Dustin Johnson’s wedges, Matthew Wolff’s putter

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