Cink’s 64 good for 1st-round Charles Schwab lead

Sometimes, nearly a football field is between his drives and those of big hitters like Bryson DeChambeau or Rory McIlroy. At 63, Bernhard Langer can still keep up with the young guys, especially at Augusta National.

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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Peter Uihlein hasn’t been playing that poorly, even though he came into this week’s Honda Classic having missed five consecutive cuts. With the PGA TOUR shifting to the East Coast, he knows it’s time to start making hay, and on Thursday at PGA National, Uihlein started nicely, opening with a 3-under 67. A shot behind him on the board was Brooks Koepka, who played solidly if not spectacularly at PGA National’s penalizing Champion Course. Koepka opened with 68, four shots off the low score (Kurt Katayama) from the morning wave. Uihlein was first off on the 10th tee at 6:50 a.m., the sun just awaking, and Koepka played about an hour behind him. It was sort of old times for the two, who used to room together just down the road from PGA National in a residential community when they were fresh out of college, taking a breather from the European Challenge Tour, and both dreaming big. “It’s cool. When we were playing overseas and we would be in town for Honda week, just based on the schedule, we would be around and hang out with some guys,” Uihlein said. “Obviously, BK has had a tremendous career and it’s still only going to get better. It’s been awesome to see.” Uihlein, 32, who won the 2010 U.S. Amateur on his 21st birthday, earned his way back onto the PGA TOUR through playing the Korn Ferry Tour a year ago, winning once (MGM Resort Championship at Paiute) and finishing runner-up twice. Koepka, 31, doesn’t have to worry quite as much about his playing opportunities. As a four-time major champion ranked 15th in the Official World Golf Ranking, he plays when and where he wants. He, like Uihlein, seemed to enjoy the challenge as the winds kicked up around the demanding PGA National layout, where trouble lurks just about everywhere. “The wind got up there probably a little bit earlier than I thought it would,” Koepka said. “I just kind of ho-hummed it around. … Didn’t deserve anything worse, didn’t deserve anything better.” Koepka is a four-time major winner. Meanwhile Uihlein, once the world’s top-ranked amateur, has played five years on the European Tour, and is in his fifth season on the PGA TOUR, with a year on the Korn Ferry mixed in. He got a chuckle on Thursday when a reporter asked if he considered himself to be a journeyman. “Golf’s hard. Everybody is good,” Uihlein said. He currently is ranked 306th in the world, but four years ago was inside the top 50. “I saw somebody posted a statistic showing the guy who finished 130th and the guy who finished 10th on the FedExCup … (the differences are) minute. Very, very small.” There has been a silver lining to having a few extra weekends off during the West Coast Swing for Uihlein. Five weeks ago, Uihlein’s wife, Chelsea, gave birth to a boy named Tucker, the Uihleins’ first child. They took young Tucker for a trial run to Bradenton last week for the Korn Ferry’s LECOM Suncoast Classic; when his newborn showed up, Peter birdied his last two holes to make the cut. When Tucker made an appearance on Thursday at PGA National, his pops came through with a nice par at the sixth hole (his 15th) followed by chip-in birdies at Nos. 7 and 8. “So far, he’s been good luck,” Uihlein said. “He’s been fun. It’s different. In Europe, you’d play and maybe go downtown and eat, do whatever. Now it’s like play, practice, go home. I bottle-fed him when I got home last night. So you do things like that. Life is different than what it was.” He and Koepka have fun memories of their time living under the same roof in Jupiter. Koepka followed Uihlein’s post-college path by turning pro, getting his passport, and heading to Europe, first learning to win on the Challenge Tour before eventually graduating to winning on what is now the DP World Tour. A South Florida native who was familiar with Palm Beach County, Koepka was looking for his own place to settle into when he wasn’t traveling in Europe. Uihlein, who traveled with Koepka some overseas, decided to move from Orlando to the east coast of Florida, and he and Koepka and Matt Broome (now Uihlein’s manager) moved in together into a community called Evergreen. When Uihlein bought a house in Jupiter a short time later, they moved in there, too. “Four or five years, maybe?” Uihlein said, recounting the rooming arrangement. “We just played golf and hung out every day and had a good time.” Added Koepka, “It’s nice to see him play well, and hopefully he plays well the next three days.”

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It’s a big week for the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, where the defending champion, Jon Rahm, comes in hot on the heels of his second PGA TOUR victory at last week’s CareerBuilder Challenge, and seemingly everyone is talking about the 647th ranked player in the world. TEE TIMES: Farmers Insurance Open, Rounds 1 and 2 | Watch PGA TOUR LIVE Tiger Woods will make his first official TOUR start in one year when he tees it up at Torrey on Thursday. The anticipation is high any time he competes, but especially so at Torrey, where he has won the Farmers seven times and has five other top-10 finishes in 16 starts. Add his 2008 U.S. Open win, and his 1991 Junior World victory, both at Torrey, and you begin to see why there are few courses on the planet where Woods feels more comfortable. He’s hardly the only one, though, who circles this week on the schedule. Defending champion Jon Rahm is on a major roll, and Rickie Fowler, Hideki Matsuyama and Justin Rose give the Farmers four of the top 10 players in the world, and 11 of the top 25. Brandt Snedeker is a two-time winner at the Farmers and shot one of the all-time great rounds in the history of the TOUR in his victory in 2016, beating the field average by 10 strokes. Xander Schauffele, officially awarded Rookie of the Year honors Tuesday, is a San Diego State product who should feel comfortable playing in his hometown tournament. And former No. 1 Jason Day, the 2015 champion at the Farmers, is looking to get back to his winning ways. Players will alternate on the (slightly easier) North Course and the South Course on Thursday and Friday, then switch to the South exclusively on the weekend. PGA TOUR Live will have coverage Thursday and Friday starting at 11:45 a.m. ET, and PGA TOUR Radio and Golf Channel will have coverage all four days. Here’s a look at this week’s Featured Groups (current FedExCup rankings in parentheses). Rickie Fowler (15), Xander Schauffele (36), Patrick Cantlay (9) Fowler tries to keep it going after his impressive victory at the unofficial Hero World Challenge last month. San Diego product Schauffele is coming off a season in which he won twice, including his surprising victory at the TOUR Championship, and should feel right at home at Torrey. And Patrick Cantlay, one of the biggest movers from last season, is already a winner this season after his breakthrough at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. North Course tee time: Thursday, Rd. 1, 12:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m. local) off the 10th tee; South Course tee time: Friday, Rd. 2, 1:30 p.m. off the first tee. Justin Rose (10), Hideki Matsuyama (38), Phil Mickelson (45) Rose is one of the hottest players anywhere after reeling off back-to-back wins in Europe to end last season. Matsuyama aims to rediscover the magic he found at the Presidents Cup (singles win over Justin Thomas) and World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational last season. And Mickelson, another San Diegan, tries to rebound from a missed cut at last week’s CareerBuilder. North Course tee time: Thursday, Rd. 1, 12:40 p.m. off the 10th tee. South Course tee time: Friday, Rd. 2, 1:40 p.m. off the first tee. Jon Rahm (2), Jason Day (76), Brandt Snedeker (167) Easily the hottest player in golf, Rahm, 23, is not only this week’s defending champion, he is coming off a playoff victory at the CareerBuilder Challenge, which vaulted him to second in the FedExCup standings. Day, the 2015 Farmers champion, is trying to get back into the winner’s circle after a sub-standard 2017. And Snedeker is a two-time Farmers champion who is eager to make up for lost time after missing much of last season with a rib injury. South Course tee time: Thursday, Rd. 1, 1:30 p.m. off the first tee; North Course tee time: Friday, Rd. 2, 12:20 p.m. off the 10th tee. Patrick Reed (71), Charley Hoffman (48), Tiger Woods (NA) Reed is coming off a rare winless season, but one in which he and his wife, Justine, welcomed their second child. It surely hasn’t escaped his notice that this is a Ryder Cup year. San Diego product Hoffman knows Torrey Pines well, and just made his first Presidents Cup team at age 40. And Woods, coming off back fusion surgery last April, is making his first official TOUR start since exactly a year ago. South Course tee time: Thursday, Rd. 1, 1:40 p.m. off the first tee; North Course tee time: Friday, Rd. 2, 12:30 p.m. off the 10th tee.

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