Biggest remaining questions after Tuesday’s PGA Tour-PIF hearing

Bryson DeChambeau's first start since winning the U.S. Open is off to a good start. The long hitter, whose physical transformation has been the talk of the TOUR, shot 59 in Wednesday's pro-am for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. DeChambeau's round got off to a relatively slow start. He made birdie on the first hole but was just 3 under par after eight holes. A birdie on the par-5 ninth hole gave him a 4-under 31 on the front nine. He turned it on when he made the turn, making birdie on the first six holes of the back nine before an eagle at the par-5 16th. DeChambeau lipped out a putt on 18 for 58. The longest club he hit into any of the par-5s was a 7-iron. He had just 169 yards into the 16th hole. DeChambeau's career-low round is a 62 in the second round of the 2019 3M Open, where he finished runner-up to Matthew Wolff. DeChambeau got revenge at Winged Foot, where he overtook Wolff with a final-round 67. DeChambeau, Wolff and Cameron Champ are paired together in the first two rounds at TPC Summerlin. The lowest round at TPC Summerlin in competitive play is 60, shot by J.J. Henry in 2013 and Rod Pampling in 2016. DeChambeau has a good history at TPC Summerlin, winning the 2018 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and finished fourth last year. "I wanted to come back to this tournament because the Shriners have been so great to me for the past couple years. Winning their event and being part of my foundation I felt like I had to come back and support the event. It’s just the right thing to do," DeChambeau said Wednesday. "I love the golf courses here, too." A 59 will only increase his affection for TPC Summerlin.

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MELBOURNE, Australia — Teams from Belgium and South Korea emerged from the rain, gusty winds and generally miserable conditions after a demanding round of foursomes to share the 36-hole lead at the World Cup of Golf on Friday. Belgium’s Thomas Pieters and Thomas Detry shot 1-under 71 and South Korea’s Byeong Hun An and Si Woo Kim had a 72 for two-round totals of 10-under 134. Teams from Italy, India, Malaysia and England were tied for third, two strokes behind. Rain showers fell all day on Metropolitan, heavy at times, and tested the players’ patience levels in the alternate-shot format. On the 10th hole, when England’s Tyrrell Hatton’s tee shot went into the woods, he angrily smashed a tee marker with his driver. His partner, Ian Poulter, had to take a penalty drop out of the woods and the English bogeyed the hole. On the 13th, Hatton maintained his patience when he had to take a drop out of casual water in a bunker. The drop took about 10 minutes while officials determined whether the drop was legal. Hatton then hit the lip of the bunker and the ball ended up in casual water — again. Poulter played it out of the water and England bogeyed that hole but finished with a 74. Anirban Lahiri combined with Gaganjeet Bhullar to keep India near the top of the leaderboard after a 72. “I think it’s one of the toughest rounds of golf I’ve played in my career,” Lahiri said. “I think we both did really well out there and it wasn’t easy.” Australia’s Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith shot 76 and went from a tie for first to a tie for eighth. Americans Matt Kuchar and Kyle Stanley shot 79, including bogeys on their last five holes, playing like they were in a hurry to get out of the rain. That was a 13-shot turnaround from their opening 66, moving them to a tie for 21st in the 28-country field, a drop of eight places. There were only four rounds under par, but five in the 80s. The format reverts to fourballs (best ball) on Saturday before a return to foursomes for the final round on Sunday. The Mexico team of Abraham Ancer, who won last week’s Australian Open, and Roberto Diaz, had the low round of the day — 70, including a bogey on the last, their only dropped shot of the day. They finished about an hour before the later groups, when the rain became heavier. Ancer was impressed with Metropolitan’s ability to stay in decent shape despite all the rain. “I thought it was just absolutely (going to be) probably unplayable, but it was good,” Ancer said. “There were a little bit of puddles here and there, but the fairways are phenomenal. The golf course can take a lot of rain.” Temperatures were just 13 Celsius (56 Fahrenheit) when play began and only went a degree higher the rest of the day. And with winds gusting to 35 kilometers an hour (20 mph) it appeared much cooler.

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Legendary golf architect Pete Dye died Thursday at age 94 but leaves an undeniable stamp on the game. As the news filtered through the golf fraternity TOUR players and others who have been touched by his contribution to the world begun reflecting on the World Golf Hall of Famer’s legacy en masse. RELATED: Pete Dye passes away at age 94 “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Pete Dye, a true friend of the PGA TOUR and one of the most important course architects of this or any generation. A 2008 inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame, Pete’s influence is far-reaching, leaving a global imprint on both the amateur and professional games. He designed some of the best known golf courses in the world, though none more recognizable than THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. It was here that Pete masterfully brought Commissioner Deane Beman’s revolutionary stadium golf concept to life, melding Deane’s vision with a brilliantly designed course that is celebrated annually as one of the game’s great strategic courses during THE PLAYERS Championship. Pete, though, was always quick to credit his beloved wife, Alice, with his success, including the concept for his most famous hole, the 17th island green at TPC Sawgrass. Together, Pete and Alice made a formidable team in golf and life, and with sons Perry and P.B., themselves successful course architects, they are recognized as one of the most accomplished families in golf. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Dye family.â€� – PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan “He leaves a huge footprint on the game. One of my best experiences with Pete was playing Whistling Straits one of the first times we went there and I was lucky enough he walked nine holes with me in a practice round and I would ask him, “Mr. Dye why would you put that bunker right there… what were you thinking?â€� and he would look at me and said dryly, “just to piss you off, that’s the only reason.â€� He was a good man who obviously loved golf and just a wonderful course designer who knew how to make difficult golf courses. If you were going to play well around his places you couldn’t fake it and it’s a sad loss for golf. His footprint was at all of his places, undeniably and not a lot of designers can say that. And boy you knew it was going to be tough.â€� – Charles Howell III “Pete and Alice Dye are royalty in golf, no question. My mother was friends with Alice and always enjoyed talking with Pete every chance I could get. I love TPC Sawgrass and my parents were members at The Honors Course which I think is one of his best of all time. He revolutionized golf, changed it, and made it better. We are all lucky to have had him. If you look at the history of golf I’m not sure there is a bigger change in architecture than when Pete Dye came along. It was the most radical change and it was a great change. He is timeless. They’ll be copying him till the end of time.â€� – Jerry Kelly “You can’t mistake a Pete Dye. You knew it was his as soon as you played it. He had a different set of rules when he built golf courses and every single one he built was tough. He built TPC Sawgrass and helped build THE PLAYERS, and Whistling Straits, plus so many golf courses that are amazing. It is sad to lose someone who meant so much to not just the game of golf but to so many of its players as well. I had so many good experiences with him, I learnt a lot from him and he was clearly a very smart man. He will be missed.â€� – Vijay Singh “There’s fingerprints (of influence), and if Pete Dye doesn’t have one of the biggest, certainly in the last 50 years, I don’t know who would rival that. I was fortunate enough to play with him at Hilton Head, one of his gems, in the Pro-Am. It was me and Mr. Dye, Mr. Finchem, and I believe there was another executive of the TOUR. I believe Mr. Dye shot 78 or 79 that day in the Pro-Am and this was within the last 10-12 years for sure. Just hearing the stories, you know, what he did with this hole and that… it was awesome. It was just fantastic to see a golf artist on his canvas he made. Very special. Condolences to his family obviously. He’s a legend.â€� – Zach Johnson “He was an icon when it comes to golf course design. He was a guy who really made you uncomfortable the whole round. And he did it visually. He’d always make you think. He’s one of those guys that you respected him because he built some great golf courses but in the midst of playing them, you hated his guts.â€� – Brandt Snedeker

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