Back on the green: Tiger Woods spotted at Florida golf course with his son

DETROIT – Given the locale, Brandt Snedeker understands why he wasn’t showered with congratulations in the aftermath of his alma mater’s victory in the College World Series. “We are surrounded by University of Michigan fans here,� said Snedeker, who watched every pitch in the deciding game of Vanderbilt’s victory over the Wolverines. He even Tweeted out his support for the Commodores, with a clever reference “to being behind enemy lines.� It was all good fun, but Snedeker – who made the cut on the number at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, then shot a third-round 7-under 65 to roar up the leaderboard – did confirm that he was blown away by what has greeted him here at Detroit Golf Club: Fan appreciation. Related: Tee times | Lashley keeps lead after second-round 67 “I have been showered with ‘Thank you for coming to Detroit’ all week. Literally, hundreds of times every day, the appreciation is unheard of,� said Snedeker. “The way they have embraced this tournament is incredible.� The Rocket Mortgage Classic marks the first time a PGA TOUR tournament has ever been held in Detroit and it’s the first event in the area since 2009. Clearly, the desire to be part of it was enormous; corporate hospitality sold our quickly and so, too, did tickets. As a PGA TOUR member, Snedeker felt the love. But as a guy who is invested in a Korn Ferry Tour event in his hometown, the Nashville Golf Open Benefitting the Snedeker Foundation, he identifies with the task that was pulled off here. “A lot of power to them. It takes a lot of different people to do this,� said Snedeker. “You have to have support from people at the host club, people in the community, people with the title sponsor – and the support has to be 100 percent. If not, it would show.� Snedeker, who began Round 3 in a tie for 58th, put together a bogey-free effort that featured a chip-in eagle at the par-5 seventh. As he signed his card, he was only two off the clubhouse lead, but he knew that the front-runners were just going out and plenty of birdies awaited. “I just hope to be within four or five at the end of the day,� he said. Whether that happened or not, Snedeker would still be happy, in large part because of a warm homecoming here for the PGA TOUR. “I can’t think of a better start to a new event that I’ve ever seen,� he said.

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The 44th edition of the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide gives us everything we can handle, and even a little more. As of midday Monday, 11 of the top 15 in the FedExCup standings are scheduled to compete alongside numerous other notables including five-time winner Tiger Woods (22nd) and defending champion Bryson DeChambeau (26th). Related: PGA TOUR LIVE | How Jack created a masterpiece | Featured Groups | The First Look | Tiger Woods, Chasing 82 Among several perks, whoever emerges victorious from this week’s field of 120 will earn a three-year PGA TOUR membership exemption and a spot in THE PLAYERS Championship through 2022. Scroll past the ranking to learn more about Muirfield Village Golf Club, how DeChambeau prevailed and more. Xander Schauffele, Kevin Kisner, Henrik Stenson, Kyle Stanley and 2018 champion Bryson DeChambeau will be among the notables reviewed in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. Unlike last week’s annual stop at Colonial, which also hosts a limited-field invitational, experience and talent of a certain age aren’t prerequisites for success at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. Simply put, Jack Nicklaus’ design rewards sound course management and execution. Course knowledge and a few years in the rear-view mirror are merely side notes on the résumé. Those who can send it off the tee are welcomed by spacious landing areas on the stock par 72 that tips at 7,392 yards. Smallish greens prepped to run upwards of 13 feet on the Stimpmeter protect par, but last year’s field scoring average of 71.396 is a reasonable target again this week. In just his second appearance last year, DeChambeau ranked inside the top 15 in distance of all drives, greens in regulation, proximity to the hole and strokes gained: tee-to-green. He led the field in scrambling and finished sixth in strokes gained: putting. As a whole, the field hit 11.86 GIR per round, which is about the TOUR’s average, and connected for a par breaker 33.12 percent of the time, good for the sixth-highest clip of the season. To emphasize the value of setting up scoring opportunities, even if it’s to lag a long look to secure par, Muirfield Village surrendered a stingy 54.36 percent in scrambling, 11th-lowest among all courses. When the weather cooperates, those are expected measurements across the board. The unsettled pattern that’s been sustained for months won’t relent for the tournament. Rain is all but a guarantee on Thursday, and the threat for storms will keep local meteorologists busy. A milder chance remains in the forecast on Friday and returns on Sunday. Daytime temperatures won’t reach 80 degrees and winds will be light once action on the first day is complete. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider WEDNESDAY: One & Done, Champions One & Done * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesdays.

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For most of us, golf is a hobby, a way to put work in our rearview mirrors, at least for four or five hours at a time. Chesson Hadley plays the game for a living, though, and he had to look elsewhere “so it’s not just golf, golf, golf all the time.â€� He tried hunting and liked it. Hadley, who is a gregarious sort, was particularly partial to turkey and bird hunting, which he found to be a little more social than hunting for four-legged wild game. “You don’t have to stand completely still and not speak and you don’t have to get up at zero o’clock in the morning to do some of these things,â€� he explains. But at the same time, Hadley doesn’t have land to hunt on. The father of two young children also felt guilty coming home from weeks on the road and then disappearing again to go out and hunt. So Hadley eventually decided to take up woodworking. It’s something he can do at home when the kids are asleep. Plus, he used to watch his dad build things so he has his own teacher — and what his dad can’t show him how to do, YouTube can. “You can just watch — I mean, it’s unbelievable,â€� Hadley says. “You pick up techniques and it’s very simple. And so I started doing a little bit that it’s fun.â€� Hadley’s biggest challenge has been staying focused on the project at hand. “I’m a little bit scatterbrained so once I start like multiple different projects and seemed to like get halfway through them all and just kind of set them down for several months,â€� Hadley says. “So I need to pick one, stick to it and finish it and move on. But I enjoy it.â€� One of the projects that Hadley has actually finished is a side table for his man cave. It’s made of walnut and maple with a butcher block top that has routed edges. “If I had to do it again, I could make it look better, I think, but it was a good first kind of project,â€� Hadley says. “… You can actually open the lid and there’s a cooler inside so I don’t have to go keep going back to the fridge for soda or maybe a beer.â€� He started a project for the kids, too. They have a small table made out of a laminated particle board and Hadley wanted to build some sturdy chairs for them. “I never quite finished it because I was trying to do it with dowels,â€� he says. “And your measuring has to be so, so precise in order for the dowels to the line up here and then you’ve got to attach the end and if one’s off the whole thing is going to be off.â€� “I did OK. But I wasn’t doing it the easiest way possible. You really need a drill press to draw perfectly straight down into your wood and I didn’t have that.â€� But Hadley is starting to accumulate tools for his workshop which is now in the garage of his Raleigh, North Carolina, home. He’s got various sanders and drills as well as a planer, a router and a joiner. “But as a man, you always need more,â€� Hadley says with a grin. “I don’t have enough. So I’m always eying a bargain here and there.â€� He doesn’t have enough room for a table saw yet, but Hadley does have miter, circular and jig saws. The way he sees it, that might not be a bad thing, either. “The table saw is just super easy, you’ve got the fence, you just run up against that,â€� Hadley says. “But those are also incredibly dangerous. And believe it or not, my golf is more important to me than woodworking. “I need my fingers.â€� Hadley is working on another side table for his man cave. This time he’s replacing the pocket screws he used on the first one with biscuit joints for a more seamless look. “I attach the legs together by biscuits,â€� Hadley says. “So there’s no screws, there’s nothing visible. It’s pure — that’s really the more fine woodworking.â€� Hadley would also like to make something with a concrete tabletop. “It’s not hard at all and you can do anything,â€� he says. “You can make a side table or a coffee table or whatever. You’ve just got to build a frame, pour the concrete and sand it flat. It’s really neat.â€� That is, if he can just find the time.

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