Bjork, Uihlein share lead in France

Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, owners of six Pebble Beach titles between them, seek to add to their totals as they top the marquee along with a resurgent Matt Kuchar and defending champion Ted Potter Jr. Jason Day, who shared runner-up honors last year alongside Mickelson and Johnson, also is back in quest of an elusive first Pebble Beach crown. This year’s pro-am field runs heavy on country musicians (Toby Keith, Jake Owen, Darius Rucker, Colt Ford), joined by comedian Ray Romano, surfer Kelly Slater and quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan. FIELD NOTES: Adam Scott, fresh off a runner-up finish at the Farmers Insurance Open, comes to Pebble Beach for a second straight year. The Aussie remains in pursuit of his first win since 2016 at Doral. … In all, Pebble Beach expects to welcome 16 of the top 30 in the current FedExCup standings. … European Ryder Cup hero Tommy Fleetwood makes his Pebble Beach debut, playing on U.S. soil for the first time since last year’s FedExCup Playoffs. … Doug Ghim, who tied for 20th at Torrey Pines, steps back into the fray on an exemption. … Peter Jacobsen, age 64, is one of six entrants who have crossed the 50 threshold. The others: Davis Love III, Jerry Kelly, Steve Stricker, Vijay Singh and Kenny Perry. … Korean pro Ho Sung Choi, a recent winner in Japan and an Internet sensation for a swing that ends in a near-pirouette, tees it up on a sponsor invite. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points. STORYLINES: Mickelson is back for a 23rd start at Pebble Beach, where a fifth win would draw him alongside Mark O’Meara atop Pebble Beach’s all-time list. Eleven of Mickelson’s 43 PGA TOUR wins have come in California, plus seven runner-up finishes. … Johnson makes his first TOUR start since the Sentry Tournament of Champions, having played two of the past three weeks in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia. … Though Day owns four top-6 finishes at Pebble Beach in the past six editions, the Aussie has yet to finish on top. He arrives off a share of fifth at Torrey Pines. … Arizona Cardinals wideout Larry Fitzgerald defends the team division title he won alongside Kevin Streelman. Fitzgerald recently made headlines with an ace at Seminole Golf Club’s 13th hole – with former president Barack Obama as a playing partner. COURSE: Pebble Beach Golf Links, 6,816 yards, par 72. Celebrating its 100th anniversary, the scenic marvel along Carmel Bay gets two turns in the spotlight this year with the U.S. Open to follow in June. It’s been a PGA TOUR staple since 1947, when crooner Bing Crosby revived his popular “Clambake� pro-am after World War II. Amateurs Jack Neville and Douglas Grant worked to build as many holes as possible along the Pacific coastline, a plan that puts Pebble Beach at or near the top of every list of America’s top courses. Though Pebble Beach welcomed the first of five U.S. Amateurs in 1929, it wasn’t until 1972 that the U.S. Open first arrived. Four more Opens have followed, along with the 1977 PGA Championship. Spyglass Hill GC (6,953/72) and Monterey Peninsula CC’s Shore course (6,958/71) also are utilized over the first three days. For those visiting the area, must-play courses include Poppy Hills (Pebble Beach, Calif.) and Pasatiempo GC (Santa Cruz, Calif.). Book your reservations via TeeOff.com. 72-HOLE RECORD: 265, Brandt Snedeker (2015). 18-HOLE RECORD: 60, Sung Kang at Monterey Peninsula (2nd round, 2016). Pebble Beach record: 62, Tom Kite (3rd round, 1983), David Duval (3rd round, 1997). Spyglass Hill record: 62, Phil Mickelson (1st round, 2005), Luke Donald (1st round, 2006). LAST YEAR: Potter stole the spotlight from his big-name pursuers, making four birdies on the front nine and closing with 11 consecutive pars to finish three shots clear of Johnson, Mickelson and Day. An opening bogey made for an uncertain start, but it proved to be Potter’s only blemish on the way to a 3-under-par 69 that sealed his second PGA TOUR victory. Johnson shared the top spot until No. 7, when Potter chipped in for birdie and Johnson couldn’t save par after flying the green. Johnson’s Sunday 72 was his first par-or-worse round at Pebble Beach in five years. Mickelson carded 67, Day shot 70 and Chez Reavie rounded out the runner-up foursome after a 68. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 3-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 1-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS). Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6:30 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (featured groups). Sunday, 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (featured groups). GOLFTV: International fans can stream PGA TOUR LIVE coverage from Thursday-Saturday, 16:00 to 23:00 GMT. Sunday, 16:00 to 23:30 via subscription to GOLF.TV. RADIO: Thursday-Saturday, noon-6 p.m. Sunday, 1-7 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – A casual round on a par-3 course may have changed the course of Davis Thompson’s career. Thompson had impressed at the University of Georgia, having reached No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, won the SEC’s Player of the Year Award in 2021 and ranked second in that year’s class of PGA TOUR University presented by Velocity Global grads. As an amateur, he separated himself with his strong ballstriking. The margins are much smaller in professional golf, however, and his putting struggles were proving too costly. After missing the cut in the Korn Ferry Tour’s Nashville stop last year – his fourth missed cut in five starts – Thompson played a local par-3 course with a friend and started tinkering with his putting grip. Admittedly a creature of habit, the Korn Ferry Tour rookie was reluctant to depart from a traditional grip. But, as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures. Thompson decided to try the cross-handed, or left-hand-low, style of putting. “I was in a bad place mentally with my putting. … I needed to make a change,” he said recently at Sea Island Golf Club, the venue of this week’s RSM Classic and a course Thompson knows well. His father, Todd, is the RSM’s tournament director and Davis Thompson makes his home in St. Simons Island. He has already played the RSM three times, but this will mark his debut as a PGA TOUR member. He arrives home at 54th in the FedExCup thanks to two top-15 finishes, and credits his mid-season putting switch with making him a TOUR member at just 23 years old. He relied on two drills to get accustomed to the new grip, and they bore almost immediate fruit. He finished fifth in his second event with the new grip – before the final round, he watched putting highlights of Jordan Spieth, the gold standard for the left-hand-low grip – and won his next start. A month later, he’d earned enough points to officially clinch his first TOUR card. The drill: Thompson would hit putts from 3, 6 and 9 feet, requiring himself to make all five 3-footers he attempted, four of five from 5 feet and three of five from 9 feet. He had to start the drill over if he failed to hit all three benchmarks. He’d perform that drill from a variety of angles to the same hole to work on putts with different breaks. Thompson also would hit nine putts of 30 to 40 feet with a goal of averaging two strokes per hole. He said the cross-handed grip has made it easier for him to start his putts on their intended line and keeps his left shoulder from rising too early in the through-stroke. “It kept my left shoulder down—my shoulders are more level,” he said. “One of my flaws when I was putting traditionally was that my left shoulder was up and out of it pretty quickly.” A change to the tempo of his stroke accompanied the grip change. Thompson used to have a “pop” stroke, a la 2012 FedExCup champion Brandt Snedeker, but he found it difficult to control his speed on faster greens. Now his tempo is more even throughout the stroke. He practices while using a metronome app on his phone to dial in his tempo. He also counts in his head, a habit that has the added benefit of clearing his mind before he strikes his putts. “It gives my brain something to trigger the stroke and something besides the result to think of,” Thompson said. “I’m more focused on my counting instead of the line or speed or anything like that. “It’s one, look at the hole. Two, look back at the hole. Three, start my backstroke and four, make impact with the ball. It’s really helped create more positive energy on the golf ball. I used to take it back quick and decelerate coming through (impact) because I was trying not to kill it on fast greens. Creating more positive energy, you don’t see as much break because you’re hitting it solidly and the ball is rolling well.” Positive energy in his putting moved Davis Thompson’s career in a positive direction, straight to the PGA TOUR.

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The final round is underway at the Sedgefield Country Club. Here’s how to follow all the action from Sunday at the Wyndham Championship. Round 4 leaderboard Round 4 tee times HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION and INTERNET: Thursday-Friday, 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 1-2:45 p.m. (Golf Channel/NBCSPORTS.com), 3-6 p.m. (CBS/CBSPORTS.com/PGATOUR.com). Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. (Golf Channel/NBC Sports Live), 3-6:30 p.m. (CBS/CBSPORTS.com/PGATOUR.com). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 7:15 a.m.-6 p.m. (featured groups). Saturday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. (featured groups), 3-6 p.m. (featured holes). Sunday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. (featured groups), 3-6:30 p.m. (featured holes). International subscribers (via GOLF.tv): Thursday-Friday, 11:15 to 22:00 GMT. Saturday, 13:00 to 22:00. Sunday, 13:00 to 22:30. RADIO: Thursday-Friday, noon-6 p.m.; Saturday, 1-6 p.m. Sunday, 1-6:30 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com). FEATURED GROUPS Collin Morikawa, Harold Varner III: 10:20 a.m. ET Bill Haas, Sebastian Munoz: 10:40 a.m. ET MUST READS An seeking first win at Wyndham Championship Hovland eyes PGA TOUR membership at Wyndham Championship Spieth misses 54-hole cut at Wyndham Championship Weir sees good signs at Wyndham Championship Wyndham Championship Round 3 updates: FedExCup, Wyndham Rewards, Aon Risk Reward Challenge CALL OF THE DAY

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