2022 U.S. Open: Tee times for first and second rounds

Four years ago in April, China’s Haotong Li walked off the 18th green at the Mission Hills Golf Club’s Sandbelt Trails Course. He had just completed the first round of his first PGA TOUR Series-China tournament, the Mission Hills Haikou Open. He was 18 years old. That day comes to mind as players gather this week at the Sandbelt Trails Course for the first International Qualifying Tournament as PGA TOUR Series-China makes its return to the golf calendar, with players looking to become the next big thing to come out of China. For right now, however, that honor belongs to the 22-year-old from Hunan. At the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday, Li rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole of the tournament to seal his second European Tour triumph, beating Rory McIlroy by a stroke. The Dubai win was the latest in a long line of successes by Li, who burst on the scene winning three times during his 2014 PGA TOUR Series-China season and capturing Player of the Year honors. He subsequently qualified for the 2015 and 2016 Web.com Tour seasons, and in early 2016, Li traveled home to play in his national open and ended up winning the Volvo China Open. He accepted European Tour membership after the triumph in Beijing. Li’s upward trajectory continued at The Open Championship in 2017 when he fired a final-round 63 to tie for third, the best finish by a player from China in a major championship. His performance earned him invites to all four of golf’s 2018 major championships. That showing at Royal Birkdale, among several other top-10s, led to Li’s 17th-place finish on the European Tour’s 2017 Race to Dubai rankings. Finishing inside the top 20 on that list also garnered him the opportunity to play in his first World Golf Championships event outside of China—the 2018 Mexico Championship, coming in March. Happy and incredible were the only two words Li could come up with when asked to describe how he felt winning in Dubai and putting his name next to, among others, Seve Ballesteros, Ernie Els, Fred Couples, Tiger Woods, Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia and McIlroy, who have also won that tournament. Li also noted that the oversized, traditional Arabic coffee pot that serves as the tournament’s trophy left him “happy to lift that heavy thing.� “I think my game is in good position now, and especially after this week. It gives me a lot of confidence, especially (after) last week (when I) missed the cut (at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship),� he explained. When Li’s week began in Dubai, he was 60th in the Official World Golf Ranking. He is projected to move to somewhere in the low 30s when the next Ranking is released Monday. Regardless of his number, it will be his career-high position—and place in the OWGR potentially will open even more PGA TOUR playing opportunities for Li. Besides the PGA TOUR events he already has on his busy 2018 playing calendar, more tournament invites very well could materialize. The top-64 players in the OWGR as of March 12 receive invitations to play in the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas (March 21-25). And any player inside the top-50 in the OWGR through the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (April 29) is invited to play at TPC Sawgrass and THE PLAYERS (May 10-13). When Li was still living in Florida during his Web.com Tour days, he spent many hours practicing at TPC Sawgrass’ renowned practice facility. He just hasn’t spent any time there during THE PLAYERS. From all appearances, that is about to change.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The U.S. Team has won the 14th Presidents Cup, clinching the title by reaching 15.5 points on Sunday at Quail Hollow Club. PRESIDENTS CUP: Scoring The U.S. improves to 12-1-1 all-time in the biennial competition, remaining undefeated on American soil at 8-0-0. The U.S. Team entered Sunday Singles with an 11-7 advantage over the International Team, and the United States weathered an early opposing surge with consistent play across the lineup. Here’s a match-by-match breakdown of Sunday’s 12 Singles matches at Quail Hollow Club. SUNDAY SINGLES MATCH 19 Si Woo Kim (Intl.) def. Justin Thomas (U.S.), 1-up This first match got tense on the back nine, with the normally stoic Kim showing some fire as he won the 14th (par) and 16th (birdie) holes and “shushed” the partisan crowd with a nice par putt at 15. Thomas, who led most of the match, hit his approach close for birdie at 17 to tie; both players had good birdie looks at 18. Kim putted first and made from 10 feet. Thomas, just inside, missed his putt left. Thomas had a strong week (4-1-0) but fell to 0-3 in Presidents Cup Singles. QUOTES: “I’ve never (felt) like pressure, even when I won THE PLAYERS Championship. It was a really hard match. … My goal was playing 18 holes. I kept the pressure on him.” – Si Woo Kim Score at match’s conclusion: U.S. Team 12, International Team 8 Player records this week: Thomas (4-1-0), Si Woo Kim (3-1-0) MATCH 20 Jordan Spieth (U.S.) def. Cameron Davis (Intl.), 4 and 3 Spieth, the most seasoned U.S. player, came into Sunday having never won in Presidents Cup/Ryder Cup Singles play, holding a record of 0-6-1. He lost his first two holes, but he got going with the putter, birdied Nos. 4 and 5 and was tied after nine. Spieth would run away by winning six of the last seven holes. Not only did he get his Singles victory, but Spieth became only the sixth player in Presidents Cup history to finish 5-0-0. QUOTES: “I had a great back nine … I rattled off three straight birdies (starting at 11) and then just kept trying to hit greens. It feels really good. I was more nervous than I probably should have been today, just because I wanted to get that monkey off my back.” – Jordan Spieth Score at match’s conclusion: U.S. Team 12, International Team 7 Player records this week: Spieth (5-0-0), Davis (2-3-0). MATCH 21 Sam Burns (U.S.) tied Hideki Matsuyama (Intl.) Another close match near the top of the lineup, with Burns, a rookie on the U.S. Team, and Matsuyama, an International Team veteran, heading to the 18th hole tied. Matsuyama hit a drive down the left side that struck a marshal and caromed left into the rough, a terrible break. From 182 yards, he hit his approach just over the green. Burns piped a drive, and hit his approach to 24 feet. Matsuyama’s long curling chip hit the flagstick and stayed out. Burns, playing the 18th hole for the fourth time, watched his birdie putt to win drift off right. Burns played much better on the week than his record would show. QUOTES: “He just blew the lid off this place.” NBC’s Paul Azinger after Burns made birdie from 48 feet at the 10th hole Score at match’s conclusion: U.S. Team 13.5, International Team 8.5 Player records this week: Burns (0-3-2), Matsuyama (1-3-1) MATCH 22 Patrick Cantlay (U.S.) def. Adam Scott (Intl.), 3 and 2 Cantlay came out a determined man after he and partner Xander Schauffele lost their afternoon Four-ball match on Saturday. He birdied the second, third and won the fourth with a par when Scott putted off the green. There was some beautiful golf in this match at times. Scott, the oldest man of the match at 42, stiffed his approach at the ninth with Cantlay’s ball sitting just 2 feet from the hole. Cantlay simply left Scott with few openings in a tactical victory. Score at match’s conclusion: U.S. Team 13, International Team 8 Player records this week: Cantlay (3-1-0), Scott (2-3-0) MATCH 23 Sebastian Munoz (Intl.) def. Scottie Scheffler (U.S.) 2 and 1 Scheffler, the world No. 1, came in fired up after going winless (0-2-1) in three team matches, but he faced a formidable foe. Munoz, from Colombia, was 2-down through seven, but kept punching. He won holes 8-10, then holed a bunker shot for eagle at the short 11th. Scheffler would answer, holing a curling downhill putt from 62 feet to keep from going 2-down. Munoz had a 1-up lead when the players traded birdies at 15 and 16. A poor tee shot by Scheffler at 17 cost him, his bogey clinching the match for Munoz. QUOTES: “It was tough. I really had to focus. It’s probably one of the best things I’ve ever achieved in my life, playing this week, holding him off two times this week. I threw everything at him, and luckily we got the win.” – Sebastian Munoz Score at match’s conclusion: U.S. Team 13.5, International Team 9.5 Player records this week: Scheffler 0-3-1, Munoz 2-0-1 MATCH 24 Tony Finau (U.S.) def. Taylor Pendrith (Intl.), 3 and 1 Finau clinched at least a half-point for the U.S. side when he birdied the 16th hole against the long-hitting Canadian rookie, then secured a full point at the par-4 17th when he made his seventh birdie of the round. Pendrith, winless on the week, led from the sixth hole through the 11th, but did not win a hole after 11. Finau won five of the final nine holes of the match. QUOTE: “I fought as hard as I think I’ve ever fought in a match. We know what’s on the line here this week, and it just adds that little intensity. I needed every bit of it. I played really nicely. I had to if I was going to beat Taylor today.” – Tony Finau Score at match’s conclusion: U.S. Team 14.5, International Team 9.5 Player records this week: Finau (3-1-0), Pendrith (0-4-0). MATCH 25 Xander Schauffele (U.S.) def. Corey Conners (Intl.), 1-up The man who won gold at the 2020 Olympics now owns a clinching point at the Presidents Cup, too. Schauffele was struggling mightily on the back nine, tugging his tee shot into the water at the par-3 14th and then driving his ball into the left-side creek at 15, but he showed lots of fight. He hit an incredible third shot from 218 yards after his drop and saved his 4 at 15 to regain a 1-up lead. Schauffele was 1-up with two to play and cold-shanked his approach at the par-4 17th with Conners sitting on the green in two. Conners, who had a rough week, three-putted to allow Schauffele to tie the hole with bogey. A scrambling par at 18 sealed his 1-up victory and the cup for the U.S.. QUOTES: “This is a really strange feeling. Man, we were struggling out there, and I’m really happy there are no pictures on the scorecard. I had all the boys pulling for me. I knew it was going to be close. Corey just let me in, and I was able to take advantage of it.” – Xander Schauffele Score at match’s conclusion: U.S. Team 15.5, International Team 9.5 Player records this week: Schauffele (3-1-0), Conners (0-4-0) MATCH 26 Sungjae Im (Intl.) def. Cameron Young (U.S.), 1-up Young had a nightmare start. Im came out with three pars and was 3-up on the fourth tee. But Young, one of six U.S. rookies, can go on some incredible stretches of golf, and he worked his way back into the match. When he birdied the par-4 15th, Young owned the lead. Im, an incredible ballstriker, was tough all week, and he would birdie the last two holes – making from 22 feet at 18 – to turn around the deficit and pull out a hard-earned point. Score at match’s conclusion: U.S. Team 15.5, International Team 11.5 Player records this week: Young (1-2-1), Im (2-2-1) MATCH 27 K.H. Lee (Intl.) def. Billy Horschel (U.S.), 3 and 1 In a battle of two Presidents Cup first-timers, the South Korean Lee steadily built a 3-up advantage through 11 holes, and he held off the fiery Florida Gator with just one hole surrendered the rest of the way – Horschel’s birdie at No. 13. Lee two-putted for birdie at the par-5 16th to match Horschel’s up-and-down from a greenside bunker, and the reigning back-to-back AT&T Byron Nelson champion was conceded the match while facing a 21-foot birdie try on No. 17, as Horschel faced 43 feet for par. Score at match’s conclusion: U.S. Team 15.5, International Team 10.5 Player records this week: Lee (2-1-0), Horschel (1-2-0) MATCH 29 Collin Morikawa (U.S.) def. Mito Pereira (Intl.), 3 and 2 Score at match’s conclusion: U.S. Team 16.5, International Team 11.5

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