Cameron Young’s affection for Arnold Palmer comes full circle as Rookie of the Year

AVONDALE, La. — Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele are a good team even when they’re playing for cash and not just a flag. Cantlay holed a 25-foot eagle putt early and chipped in from 40 feet for birdie late, while Schauffele contributed six birdies of his own, and their three straight birdies to close gave them a 13-under 59 in fourballs Thursday to lead the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. It set a tournament record since the Zurich Classic switched to team play in 2017, and the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup partners were willing to claim a piece of golf’s magic number. “I haven’t done it before. I don’t think Pat has, either. I’ll count it in my book,” Schauffele said. They had a one-shot lead over the team of Matthew NeSmith and Taylor Moore. The group at 61 included Robert Garrigus and Tommy Gainey, and Aaron Rai and David Lipsky. Masters champion Scottie Scheffler and Ryan Palmer were five shots behind at 64. The second round moves to foursomes, and while alternate shot is the more difficult of the format, Cantlay and Schauffele have put together a 4-0 mark in their partnerships at the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne and he 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. “It’s just the first quarter. We’re only one ahead,” Cantlay said. “But we are going into a format on Friday that we really like — I think Xander and I really like alternate shot. It’s one of our strengths for the week, and we’re really looking forward to it.” Moore was lucky to have much strength at all. He was in the emergency room Wednesday morning from food poisoning, got some fluids and nausea medicine and finally was able to keep some food down Thursday morning. “Just tried to finish every hole,” Moore said. “That was kind of a win within its own right.” Lipsky avoided the hospital, though he was involved in a car accident earlier in the week. Turns out there was a car in front of him that had broken down, and as Lipsky went to change lanes he said the driver behind him slammed on the brakes and hit him. “I’m all right. I think the other two drivers were fine,” Lipsky said. “Yeah, I was a little bit of a hectic beginning to the week.” Cantlay and Schauffele — who have gone on vacations together when they weren’t representing their country in the cups — were extremely effective on the greens. Only three of their 11 sub-par holes were from putts inside 10 feet. “We played really well, made a lot of putts today on a day that was a little tricky with the wind and didn’t birdie a lot of the same holes,” Cantlay said. “When you do that in this format, that’s really the key.” Equally impressive was the father-son duo of Jay and Bill Haas. The 68-year-old father had four of their seven birdies, three of them from the 15-foot range, in their 65.

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Sahith Theegala is the latest player to make a quick transition from the college game to the PGA TOUR. He was college golf’s consensus player of the year in 2020, sweeping the Haskins, Hogan and Nicklaus awards. Now he is a PGA TOUR rookie and coming off a T8 finish in his second start of the new season, at last week’s Sanderson Farms Championship. He held at least a share of the lead in each of the first three rounds before shooting 71 on Sunday. The top-10 finish – his third in his last four starts between the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR – also earned Theegala a start in this week’s Shriners Children’s Open. A new driver has played a large role in his recent success. He made adjustments to that club after missing the cut in the first event of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. They paid immediate dividends. Thanks to an extra 15-20 yards off the tee and a narrowed dispersion, he finished in the top-10 of the next two events to earn his TOUR card. “It’s a longer driver. I’m like, if I’m going to hit it off line, I might as well hit it a little bit farther and funny enough I’m hitting it way straighter,” he said after his first-round 64 at the Sanderson Farms Championship. “So that helped a little bit, seeing something new. Still getting comfortable with the driver, only had it a month now. But it’s been really nice to see some of the work paying off and being in more fairways.” Theegala finished 10th in driving distance (317.1 yards) and 19th in fairways hit (60.7%) last week, a solid combination. Several changes were made to Theegala’s Ping G425 LST driver to dial in the cut he likes to play off the tee and eliminate the dreaded double-cross. Ping’s Korn Ferry Tour rep, David Bray, installed a new shaft in Theegala’s driver – True Temper’s Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black RDX 6.5 – and made it 45.25 inches long, 0.75 inches longer than Theegala’s previous shaft. The shaft was “tipped” 1.5 inches – Bray said he usually tips players’ drivers about an inch — to control the spin and dispersion of Theegala’s shots, as well. “Tipping” a shaft means removing length from the clubhead end instead of the grip end. This makes the shaft stiffer and also increases its resistance to twisting. Braylso added hot melt to the toe of the club to promote a fade. Also known as “rat glue” by gearheads — owing to the similarity between the properties of the substance and the material found in glue traps — hot melt is injected into clubheads via a hot glue gun with a long nosel. The changes dropped about 500 rpms off Theegala’s tee shots, to about 2,500, and an increase of 3-4 mph of ball speed. “He hits a high ball to begin with. This just controlled the spin for him,” Bray said. “He likes to cut the ball, so he’s going to have more spin, but this is more penetrating. It’s not ballooning on him. I would say he probably picked up 3-4 more mph because he was hitting it more in the center of the clubface than the heel misses he had before. “It just builds confidence. For these guys, everything starts with driving. When you’re struggling with driving, you press with every other part of your game.” Theegala has found a club that fits him off the tee, and is exhibiting the potential he displayed during his promising college career.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. – No one had ever come from nine-shots back. No one had ever shot 63 at Augusta National on a Sunday. But Jordan Spieth made us all believe anything was possible with an incredible surge that lit up the course and energized the patrons at the Masters. With nine birdies through his opening 16 holes the 2015 Masters champion found himself atop the leaderboard – and the unlikely challenger to Patrick Reed’s quest for the Green Jacket. It was sublime stuff. Back-to-back birdies to open the round. Another on the tough fifth hole. And two more to close out a front nine 31. Surely he couldn’t keep it up. Mid-range birdie tries on 10 and 11 went close but didn’t go down and then it was time to head to the 12th tee. The infamous Golden Bell. The par-3 over Rae’s creek where Spieth had drowned away his chance at the 2016 title and revisited last year. This time he took aim and safely found the back fringe. In one of the moments of the tournament he raised his hands in triumph and proceeded to high five the patrons nearby. They repaid him with an almighty roar soon after when he drained a birdie from 27 feet. “What we did on 12 today was really cool,â€� Spieth admitted. “To play a disciplined shot, probably the most pressure‑packed shot I’ve ever hit, again, I had no idea where I stood, but still the Sunday pin at Augusta and I know what I’ve done, and my history there, to stand in that kind of pressure and hit the shot to the safe zone to knock that putt in was massive for me going forward.â€� The drama wasn’t over. His drive on the par-5 13th nestled into the pine straw 234-yards from the pin. It was decision time. Go for it? Yes. Stock 4-iron or fade a hybrid? Caddie Michael Greller says hybrid fits the hole better and gives more margin for error. When Spieth returned the iron and pulled the head cover off his hybrid he had to quieten the nearby cheers. He then hit it to 12 feet. If only the eagle would have dropped. But the birdie did. Another went in on 15. By the time he lined up a 33-foot birdie try on the 16th hole he had the attention of everyone on the course who were looking at leaderboards. Roars came from the 18th hole every time a new number went up. But the man himself says he had no idea where he stood. He refused to look at the famous big boards around Augusta National. “The first time I saw the leaderboard was after I tapped in on 18. Honest to God. Didn’t look once today,â€� he said. “That was my plan going in. I’m nine back. Go out and just have fun. Don’t worry about the golf tournament itself, worry about playing Augusta National.â€� When the ball disappeared into the cup at 16 he was on top. Even Spieth couldn’t believe how well he was playing. “Are you kidding me?â€� he said to Greller. Were we witnessing the greatest final round in major history? It certainly felt possible. Two holes left. Two birdies for a never been done before major 61. One birdie to break the Masters record and join Branden Grace’s major record 62. Two pars to tie the Masters record 63 but be the first to do it on Sunday. An 18-foot effort on 17 heartbreakingly burned the edge. The dream remained alive though. Plenty have birdied 18 on Sunday before. And then… it happened. Trying to produce a cut through the infamous chute off the 18th tee Spieth clipped a branch of a tree and his ball did what is usually only reserved for weekend hackers – it dropped straight down having not even made the start of the fairway. He still had 267 yards to go. Uphill. The Texan was “guttedâ€� but rebounded to give himself an 8-foot look at par. When it slid past he signed for an 8-under 64 to post at 13 under. Ultimately it would finish two shots back of Reed in third place. “I heard roars,â€� Spieth said when prodded about his claim to not know where he stood. “I knew somebody was playing well. With eight people ahead of me starting the day, to get that much help and shoot a fantastic round was nearly impossible. “But I almost pulled off the impossible. I had no idea. When I finished and I looked at the board I could have been in the lead by two and I could have been down four. And neither one would have surprised me.â€� It did surprise Reed. Sunday was supposed to be a showdown between him and Rory McIlroy. But McIlroy didn’t deliver. Instead Spieth charged first, and Fowler charged late. “I knew somebody was going to make a run at me… I knew someone else was going to go post a number early. Did I think they were going to post that type of number? No,â€� Reed said. “Every time I looked at a board, they always threw up a number and it seemed to always get closer and closer to me; it was kind of nerve‑wracking. I was kind of glad he ran out of holes.â€� Spieth has now finished T2-1-T2-T11-3 in his five Masters appearances. He was T3 in his last start prior at the Houston Open despite suffering from some putting woes this season. “I look back, and, man, I did everything right,â€� Spieth added. “From where I was two or three weeks ago to now has been probably the most successful couple of weeks I’ve ever had in my career. “In general, this round was fantastic. I mean nobody’s going to have a great Sunday every year at Augusta National. To be able to have a chance to win this Tournament five years in a row is really, really cool. And that’s how I’m going to take today.â€�

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