Back at Royal Liverpool, Rickie Fowler resumes his major quest

JACKSON, Miss.  – The transition to pro golf can be a tough one, even for a player whose physical talents drew comparisons to Tiger Woods. Sub-par scores almost always spell success in college golf. They can lead to missed cuts at the highest level. Players who felt unbeatable competing against their peers can lose confidence when they start losing to men who are old enough to be their father. Norman Xiong learned that after turning pro this summer. When he arrived at this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship, where he’s playing on a sponsor exemption, he’d missed all six of his cuts as a pro. “When I turned pro, it was a little bit overwhelming, I guess,� Xiong said. “I think I’ve done a really good job of learning and getting used to it.� He didn’t just make his first cut this week. He was atop the leaderboard after shooting 67 on Friday. He sits at 9-under 135 after two rounds at the Country Club of Jackson. Xiong, 19, is leading a PGA TOUR event while his high-school classmates are early in their sophomore years of college. If he can win, he’d be a day older than Jordan Spieth was when he claimed the 2013 John Deere Classic. Spieth was the youngest PGA TOUR winner since Ralph Guldahl in 1931. A newfound strength – his short game – has carried Xiong over two rounds played in cold, windy conditions at this century-old layout. Like many of his peers, Xiong plays aggressively off the tee, opting for driver despite the Country Club of Jackson’s penal Bermuda rough. It’s paid off on the par-5s, which he has played in 6 under par, including an eagle on Friday’s second hole. The 55-footer he holed from the fringe on that hole was one of three hole-outs for Xiong on Friday. He also saved par all seven times he missed a green in the second round. Xiong has hit 11 greens in each of the first two rounds but has saved par on all but one occasion. He leads the field in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green. He chipped in on No. 16 and holed another putt from the fringe on the sixth hole. Xiong also holed a 56-foot birdie putt Thursday. Xiong said his short game used to be a weakness, but it has improved since employing coach Josh Gregory after turning pro. Bermudagrass poses unique challenges, especially to those who grew up outside the Southeast. Gregory has helped Xiong, who grew up in Southern California before attending the University of Oregon, change his clubhead path on chip shots. Xiong’s club was closed and traveling to the left through impact. Now he feels like he’s drawing his chip shots. A strong short game is a helpful addition to an impressive repertoire of physical skills. “At 19 years old, I think Tiger is the only guy I would defer to as being better than Norman. I haven’t seen much better than him at that age. He’s really that good,� Oregon head coach Casey Martin said in a GolfChannel.com profile earlier this year. Martin was teammates with Woods at Stanford. Xiong turned pro this year as college golf’s consensus player of the year. He won both the Jack Nicklaus and Fred Haskins awards, which are given to the top player in college golf. He won six times in his sophomore season, including four of his final six starts. Xiong already is ahead of the curve. He came to Oregon a semester early, halfway through his senior year of high school, and immediately entered the Ducks’ lineup. He was the national freshman of the year in just half a season. He entered the lineup immediately and won in his third start. Amateur accomplishments can help secure big endorsement deals and sponsor exemptions, but they are meaningless once the tee is in the ground. The score is all that matters. Xiong saw that this summer. He shot under par in his first four stroke-play starts on the PGA TOUR. He received nothing for his efforts, missing the cut all four times. He also missed the cut in the Barracuda Championship, which uses a Stableford format, and the European Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links. “It was very frustrating,� he said. “I felt as though my whole game was really solid.� Xiong recently saw success a month ago at the first stage of Web.com Tour Q-School, shooting 16 under par to share medalist honors. He is scheduled to play the second stage next week in California but can change his site if he qualifies for next week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Of course, a win means he can scrap the whole Q-School quest. He’s halfway there.

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TOKYO – Justin Thomas never questioned whether he wanted to play in the Olympics’ golf competition. The Games were a goal “as soon as they announced it was in the Olympics,” he said Wednesday in his pre-tournament press conference from Kasumigaseki Country Club. Thomas has embraced the Olympic experience, or as much as one can in these COVID-19 times. He went to the Olympic Village for a workout and spent time with the U.S. basketball team. He’s proud to be associated with the best athletes in a wide variety of sports. Walking into his hotel room and seeing all the red, white and blue apparel emblazoned brought a smile to his face. “It might be the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of,” he said. “There’s not very often where you get so excited about just being part of a tournament.” Wearing his new clothes doesn’t just bring a sense of pride, however. It serves another purpose. “If I walk around in my normal clothes, they probably wouldn’t think I’m an athlete playing in the Olympics, just because of my stature,” Thomas said. He joked on Twitter that no one in the Olympic Village was fighting him for the 20-pound dumbbells. No one will confuse him for a shot putter, but he’s one of the favorites to medal in this week’s men’s competition. The same can be said for the rest of his fellow Americans this week. The U.S. is the only country that qualified four players for this week’s field. Three of the Americans are in the top five of the Official World Golf Ranking. Calling them the Dream Team may be a bit of a stretch, especially when they’re competing in what is still an individual, and highly unpredictable, sport, but the Americans are the clear favorites this week. Jon Rahm’s WD after a positive COVID-19 test left the United States with the three highest-ranked players in the field. Collin Morikawa, making his first start since winning his second major, is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 3. The fourth-ranked Thomas is trying to add a gold medal to the gold statue he won at THE PLAYERS in March. And, while Xander Schauffele has not won on TOUR since 2019, his incredible consistency has him ranked fifth in the world. Since 2019, Thomas and Schauffele both have 13 top-three finishes in individual stroke-play events on TOUR. That’s three more than anyone else in that span. This week, that would earn them a place on the podium. The U.S. squad could be even stronger but sixth-ranked Bryson DeChambeau also had to withdraw because of COVID-19. His replacement, Patrick Reed, is one of just a handful of players in the field making a second Olympics appearance. He gladly made the 11th-hour trip from Minnesota, where he played the 3M Open (T34), to Tokyo, saying it was a “duty of mine to go out and play for our country … whenever I get the call.” Morikawa and Schauffele both have ties to Japan. Schauffele’s mother grew up in Japan and Xander’s grandparents live in Tokyo. His pro debut came on the Japan Tour. Morikawa is half-Japanese. This week’s venue, Kasumigaseki Country Club’s East Course, reminds the Americans of home, as well. While many courses on this densely-populated island nation are shorter and narrower than American courses, Kasumigaseki is what’s often referred to as a “big ballpark.” The course is more than 7,400 yards long. Combine it with Japan’s emphasis on immaculate conditioning, and players praised this week’s venue. “You’ll see some low scores, for sure, but you could kind of see a big disparity depending upon how the golf course is set up,” Thomas said. There is a lot of the room off the tee, with no water coming into play and ample space between the tree lines. The main trouble is fairway bunkers that Morikawa called “perfectly placed, at least for me to them right in it.” Thomas said the ball sits down a bit in the sand, making it difficult to make clean contact. The Zoysia rough and fairways reminds Thomas of East Lake, the annual site of the TOUR Championship, and other courses in the southeastern United States. That grass gives players clean lies in the fairway while providing difficult rough. The bentgrass greens are large, but divided into smaller sections. Slopes can feed good shots closer to the hole or leave players with difficult two-putts if their approach shot is off-line. That plays to Team USA’s strengths. Morikawa and Thomas are two of the best iron players on TOUR. Morikawa is gaining 1.5 strokes per round with his approach play, on pace to have the best single-season performance in that statistic, which began in 2004, by a player not named Tiger Woods. Thomas led the TOUR in that statistic last year (with Morikawa finishing second). In other words, their irons could be worth gold this week.

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Tony Finau feels better, and he is thankful for that. With his health and his game improving, he has his eyes set on the Masters.

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