2020 VW Golf Gets 20-Inch ABT Wheels: Overkill Or Just Right?

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Rory McIlroy and Webb Simpson both had to consult with rules officials on Friday. The new rules helped McIlroy save strokes. They had the opposite effect on Simpson. McIlroy was originally assessed a two-stroke penalty when he touched a clump of sand that he believed was a pebble in a bunker on the 14th hole. The penalty was rescinded when he consulted with Slugger White, the PGA TOUR’s vice president of rules and competitions, after the round. Simpson realized that his driver was cracked after his tee shot on No. 3 flew on a funny trajectory. The new rules that debuted this year allowed players to either repair or continue using damaged clubs. They were no longer allowed to replace a broken club, though. A local rule added in April once again allowed players to replace a club that is “broken or significantly damaged.â€� That no longer includes clubs with cracked faces, though. Simpson tried to hit the driver a handful more times Friday, but each shot with the damaged face resulted in a ball that flew low and left. “It didn’t fly anywhere,â€� said Simpson. He was resigned to hitting 3-wood on several holes on the back nine where he’d usually hit driver. He shot 73 to end a streak of six consecutive rounds of 65 or lower. Simpson, who was runner-up in his last two starts, shot 65 in the first round at Liberty National. He will start the weekend in 34th place. “(I’m) glad it didn’t cost me a missed the cut, but it’s unfortunate,â€� Simpson said. “I feel like it cost me a few shots.â€� McIlroy will start the weekend in seventh place, three shots behind 36-hole leader Dustin Johnson, after shooting 65-68. He said he accepted a two-stroke penalty on the course because he didn’t want to hold up play and wanted to know exactly where he stood on the scoreboard. “It was like, okay, I sort of need to get these two shots back, and I had a little bit more intensity the next few holes,â€� said McIlroy, who birdied 15 but missed short birdie putts on the next two holes. The penalty was rescinded because McIlroy did not intend to improve his lie or test the surface of the sand and did not cause his lie to be improved. “It came down to me and they said, ‘OK, are you comfortable telling us you didn’t improve your lie, and for me, I am comfortable saying that,â€� McIlroy said.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Marking the culmination of a long-term strategic planning process designed to best serve fans through traditional broadcast, Over-the-Top streaming (OTT) and emerging technologies, the PGA TOUR today announced its new nine-year domestic media rights portfolio for 2022-2030. “Following a comprehensive process of studying the market, talking to all interested parties and analyzing our various options, we’re excited to announce that we have entered into new agreements with our existing partners ViacomCBS and Comcast/NBC Sports Group, while establishing a new long-term relationship with Disney and ESPN+,� said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “We were extremely pleased with the interest we received from the market – both with incumbents and other media companies – and are excited that our current partners shared our vision for the future, and we are equally excited to be back in business with Disney and ESPN+.  These new deals will be a major win for our fans, bringing an elevated commitment from all three partners to help us expand and innovate our content and its delivery.� Financial details will not be disclosed, but Monahan continued, “The nine-year deals will put us in a position to significantly increase player earnings, deliver more value to our tournaments and sponsors, and ultimately allow us to continue to grow our charitable footprint. Additionally, we are now able to reinvest in our sport in a way never before possible, including production, personnel and technology, and are well positioned to best serve and grow our fanbase in the years to come.� Broadcast & Cable Television CBS and NBC will maintain weekend coverage of most FedExCup tournaments, with CBS averaging 19 events and NBC eight events each season through the life of the agreements. Under the new schedule, one network will televise all three FedExCup Playoffs events each year, starting with NBC in 2022 and generally alternating with CBS, creating powerful, three-week coverage of the conclusion of the race for the FedExCup. NBC Sports Group also will continue as the TOUR’s cable partner, with GOLF Channel providing all early-round coverage and early weekend coverage of every FedExCup event each season, along with PGA TOUR Champions and the Korn Ferry Tour. Further strengthening the ties, the TOUR and NBC Sports will expand their collaborative content and programming relationship. Another central component of the new agreements will see the PGA TOUR assume responsibility of the onsite production area and technical infrastructure each week, enabling the TOUR to more efficiently aggregate, distribute and develop content for its various platforms worldwide. CBS and NBC will still use their own production and announce teams, led by their producers, directors and production personnel. Additionally, the TOUR and its media partners will collaborate on creating more sponsorship and marketing opportunities, inside and outside PGA TOUR golf coverage, including access to the vast resources of ViacomCBS, Comcast/NBC Sports Group and Disney and ESPN+. “We’re excited to extend NBC Sports’ historic partnership with the PGA TOUR as its foundational media partner.  We will continue to utilize our extensive platforms to showcase golf with unparalleled live tournament coverage, comprehensive news and high-quality content. Golf is a part of NBCUniversal’s DNA across our broadcast, cable, streaming and digital properties – nowhere more so than GOLF Channel,� said Pete Bevacqua, President, NBC Sports Group. “With more live golf coverage than all other U.S. media companies combined, our relationship with the PGA TOUR also includes THE PLAYERS and Presidents Cup, as well as elevating the PGA TOUR Champions, Korn Ferry TOUR and LPGA Tour via our world-class coverage.� “Extending our successful long-standing relationship with the PGA TOUR was a top priority, and we are thrilled to add nine more years to this terrific partnership,� said Sean McManus, Chairman, CBS Sports. “As the PGA TOUR’s primary broadcast network, we are excited to showcase over two-thirds of all broadcast network coverage of the PGA TOUR, expand our schedule with all three FedExCup Playoffs events in alternate years, and to increase our use of PGA TOUR content across all CBS Sports platforms, with even more expansive content exclusivity.  For over 60 years the PGA TOUR, its tournaments and sponsors have been outstanding partners. We look forward to many more years of growth and success together.� PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ For the first time, the TOUR’s digital rights were negotiated concurrently with its linear offering and will have a new, exciting, direct-to-consumer home: ESPN+.  As a result of the new agreement, PGA TOUR LIVE – the TOUR’s subscription video service that was launched in 2015 – will live exclusively on ESPN+ beginning in 2022 and will be dramatically expanded to include multiple live content channels nearly every week of the FedExCup season. Jimmy Pitaro, President, ESPN and co-Chairman, Disney Media Networks said, “We are looking forward to working with the PGA TOUR to bring current and future golf fans the next generation of TOUR coverage. ESPN+ will offer golf fans unprecedented access and storytelling at an incredible value on the industry’s leading sports streaming platform.� Rick Anderson, Chief Media Officer, PGA TOUR added, “The relationship with Disney and ESPN+ gives the TOUR the opportunity to expand and diversify audiences, and the TOUR and ESPN will work together to bring new and unique content to our fans.� ESPN+, the leading sports streaming service from Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer and International (DTCI) segment and ESPN, has grown quickly to reach 7.6 million subscribers (as of February 3, 2020) and the new relationship will provide a significant growth opportunity for PGA TOUR content via ESPN+’s digital reach, innovative platform and young and diverse audience.  PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will bring fans more access to the 30,000-plus golf shots hit each week on the PGA TOUR by delivering more than 4,000 hours of live streaming coverage annually.  PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will include live coverage from 36 tournaments – from the TOUR’s Hawaii events in January all the way through the year – with at least 28 events having four full days of coverage, with four simultaneous live feeds each day. PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will also feature on-demand replays of PGA TOUR events, original golf programs, edited speed round recaps and more. All of this will be available to ESPN+ subscribers as part of the base subscription, alongside more than 12,000 other live sporting events, an unmatched lineup of studio programs, original series and documentaries, along with a library of other, on-demand programming.  ESPN+ is available through the ESPN App, (on mobile and connected devices), ESPN.com or ESPNplus.com.  It is also available as part of a bundle offer that gives subscribers access to Disney+, Hulu (ad-supported), and ESPN+ at a discounted price. LPGA As part of its Strategic Alliance with the LPGA, the PGA TOUR also successfully negotiated rights agreements that will see the LPGA Tour continue as anchor programming on GOLF Channel, along with expanded exposure for LPGA Tour events on NBC and CBS each year, beyond the U.S. Women’s Open, KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and AIG Women’s British Open, which are already on network. Specifically, the TOUR secured the long-term extension of the LPGA/GOLF Channel partnership (2022-2030) with ancillary programming, including a season preview, season review and Road to the CME Group Tour Championship.  In addition, GOLF Channel will provide dedicated programming for the Symetra Tour each year, as well as enhanced marketing and promotional assets and expanded benefits for LPGA sponsors. As part of the agreement, the LPGA maintains control of all of its media rights outside the United States and receives expanded digital content rights. “This agreement is an important milestone in the strategic partnership between the LPGA and the PGA TOUR and a great example of the collaboration happening among golf’s biggest stakeholders,� said LPGA Tour Commissioner Mike Whan. “Thanks to the enhanced agreement with GOLF Channel and increased network coverage on NBC and CBS, more viewers in the U.S. and around the globe will experience the quality and diversity of the LPGA Tour. This gives us a domestic broadcast partner to help deliver another decade of unprecedented growth and provides a foundation that will springboard the women’s game into the future.� “The LPGA is a very important industry partner, and we are proud that our strategic alliance has enabled these results,� said Monahan.  “I’m so impressed with Mike Whan’s leadership and the world-class talent of the LPGA’s athletes, and it’s exciting to know that when fans want to watch professional golf at the highest level, they are going to see both Tours on the same platforms – with the same partners – for the foreseeable future.� Evolution Media Capital, a division of Creative Artists Agency (CAA), served as the media advisor to PGA TOUR.

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If you thought that last week was easy, good. This week ain’t. No, I didn’t have Max Homa at the Wells Fargo Championship. No one did. Seriously. Zero gamers in PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done selected him. However, Justin Rose, Paul Casey, Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia all finished inside the top five and two-time champ Rory McIlroy checked in at T8. Save Homa’s storybook achievement, it was chalk central in the Queen City. Perhaps one day Trinity Forest will boast a comparable Who’s Who of go-to talent in our format. Until then, we default to logical analysis, sound reasoning and, of course, the spinning dartboard. Rarely does a first-time defending champion who was a rookie when he prevailed deserve attention in fantasy circles, but Aaron Wise defies conventional, ahem, wisdom. Obviously, no one has better course history, but he’s also arriving with solid form in tow. Still, I’m advising him as a tail of a tandem in two-man games. No need to lead. If you need to swing from your heels and Brooks Koepka is burning a hole in your chinos, then I’m not going to stop ya. Just remember that he’s defending two of the remaining three majors and he plays his best in them. He’s available to me and I didn’t think twice at pulling the trigger, but I’m the pacesetter. His offense will be a dandy defense later. Marc Leishman sits atop my Power Rankings and he’s also on my board, but I’m leaving only for my lineup in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. While the Aussie has lifted into the category of the consistently strong, his core value is a reliability to stay hot. If I could use Charles Howell III again, I wouldn’t hesitate. Alas, I’m left with merely endorsing him emphatically if you still possess the pleasure. He connected four sub-70s here en route to a T9 last year and projects to do the same this week. He’s done nothing to suggest that his comfort level dipping deep into red numbers has been adversely affected. Scott Piercy is beside CH3 in terms of my confidence in this format. He’s been fantastic all season and you already know how much he loves to go low. I already invested confidently in his title defense at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (T13). Sungjae Im leads the PGA TOUR in rounds under par and he’s performed well on all kinds of tests. If lightning is to strike twice for rookies at Trinity Forest, he’s most likely to be raising the 1-iron overhead. (He’s yet another who I’ve already exhausted.) Holster Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth, Henrik Stenson and Patrick Reed. There’s too much random to the madness this week. I was torn between Keith Mitchell and Rory Sabbatini, a couple of guys who should present as complementary pieces in two-man formats and not the primary or the only selection, such as in our game. However, both strut in with momentum and success at Trinity Forest last year. In fact, if both are available to you in your two-man league, there’s your ticket. Thomas Pieters, Seamus Power and Scottie Scheffler are calculated fliers for two-man teams as well. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2018-19. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Daniel Berger … Travelers (1) Rafa Cabrera Bello … Wyndham (4) Branden Grace … Byron Nelson (5); U.S. Open (4) Bill Haas … Charles Schwab (2); Wyndham (6) Brian Harman … Charles Schwab (1); Travelers (5); John Deere (4) Brooks Koepka … PGA Championship (2; defending); Charles Schwab (6); U.S. Open (1; two-time defending); Open Championship (8) Martin Laird … Barracuda (2) Marc Leishman … Byron Nelson (6); Memorial (4); Travelers (3); Open Championship (8) Hideki Matsuyama … PGA Championship (13); Memorial (8); U.S. Open (14); Wyndham (7); TOUR Championship (5) Ryan Moore … Memorial (11); Travelers (6); John Deere (8); Wyndham (2); TOUR Championship (9) Kevin Na … Charles Schwab (3); Wyndham (5) Ryan Palmer … Charles Schwab (4) Scott Piercy … Canadian (7; last winner at Hamilton in 2012) Patrick Reed … PGA Championship (4); U.S. Open (3); Travelers (7) Jordan Spieth … PGA Championship (7); Charles Schwab (5); Memorial (13); U.S. Open (4); Travelers (9); Open Championship (6); TOUR Championship (8) Henrik Stenson … PGA Championship (4); Open Championship (6); Wyndham (8); TOUR Championship (7) Jimmy Walker … Byron Nelson (6)

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