Bradley eagles final hole for share of Valspar lead

The United States Team withstood a gallant fightback from the International Team to win the Junior Presidents Cup for a second consecutive time at a sun-baked The Royal Melbourne Golf Club on Monday. After taking a comfortable 9-3 lead from the opening day’s Four-Ball and Foursomes sessions, the American junior golfers saw the International Team pull to within three points in the Singles session through five wins in the top six matches before Ian Siebers, Michael Thorbjornsen, Alexander Yang and Vishnu Sadagopan secured vital wins for the U.S. Team to secure a 13-11 victory. Yang, a two-time Rolex Junior All-American, battled to a 2-up win over Jordan Duminy to bring the U.S. Team’s total to 12 points before Sadagopan clinched the winning point with a 2-up victory over Joshua Greer. The International Team won the session through victories by Jayden Schaper, Kartik Sharma, Andi Xu, Bo Jin, Jang Hyung Lee, Samuel Simpson, Martin Vorster and Christo Lamprecht. U.S. Team Captain Justin Leonard said: “I knew it would be harder than they (his players) thought it would be and I tried to convey that and it was. I’m glad to see the International Team came out today. I knew they were capable of it and they did that. “It’s hard playing against a player or team that is kind of mad and has nothing to lose. That’s a pretty dangerous combination. They started great and we were down on every match except the top match for a while. We got a couple of close ones go our way in the end, just like yesterday morning and afternoon. Those really made the difference for our team.� Leonard, who featured in five Presidents Cups, believes his 12 junior golfers have every potential to become stars on the PGA TOUR in the near future. “For the guys, I think this is a peek into what the PGA TOUR looks like, at least in a team aspect. This event mirrors the Presidents Cup in almost every way imaginable, maybe outside a few more thousand people and TV cameras. It was fantastic. Going forward, this should prepare them to want to achieve these kinds of things in the game of golf. “When you get into a room and you are with the best 11 players in the field and where you are at the point, it makes you a better player. You look around and realize you’re one of the special groups, but it takes a lot of work to stay in that special group. A week like this can propel them to bigger and better things.� Yang never held the lead against Duminy until the 17th hole which he won with a par and then clinched the 12th point for the Americans after his rival got into trouble with an errant drive on 18. “Really happy. I couldn’t have thought about a better situation than to get the 12th point. It’s such an awesome experience to be here. I had two solid two putts on 17 and 18 that closed out the match. It’s so much fun to be around these guys. As a team, we fought back in the closing holes really well. I was worried but I thought I could certainly win my match. It was kind of worry and confidence at the same time. I’m going to watch how the pros attack this course in the Presidents Cup and see how their games are different and see how I can improve in the future,� said Yang, who holds one AJGA victory. Sadagopan, winner of the C.T. Pan Junior Championship in April, was 1-down to Greer through 10 holes but won holes 11 and 13 to gain the upper hand before closing out the match with a par on the 18th hole, much to the jubilation of his teammates who were at greenside. “It’s amazing, it’s probably the best thing I’ve ever accomplished in my life,� said Sadagopan. “To win the winning point for my country is amazing, these guys are amazing. It was just a great week. Just all the memories and fun, I have learned a lot from my captain. I’ll take a lot from this. I’m going to watch the Presidents Cup and compare myself with how the pros play and what they do.� International Team Captain Stuart Appleby was proud with how his charges made the Americans fight for their victory. “We had a chat and a chuckle yesterday about what it’ll be … the Melbourne massacre, the Sanbelt-ing, you know, and I was so impressed today. The odds weren’t good and I told the guys to take it six holes at a time and try to get to a good start and move on. It wasn’t always pretty as the course was the biggest opponent today with the weather and they focused. I’m super proud how they turned around some matches.� Like Leonard, Appleby believes many of his 12 players can go onto become leading golfers on the PGA TOUR. “I think so,� said the Australian, who has played in five Presidents Cups. “I’ve tried to give them an idea of what golf is really about and how you try to break it down and how you should look at your progress and problems. Very rarely you hold that trophy and you’ll hold that trophy for five minutes but it’s taken hundreds, if not thousands of hours, just getting up to that point where you hold that trophy for five minutes and you put it down and you move on again. And that’s what Tiger (Woods) has done his whole career.� “There’s a lot of talent. They’re good enough here, they’re much better when I was their age.�

Click here to read the full article…

Michael Thompson, who entered the week 151st in the FedEx Cup standings, won the 3M Open by two strokes on Sunday.

Click here to read the full article…

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Recent incidents about pace of play have led the PGA TOUR to take a deeper look at its policy on the issue, and ShotLink technology could provide an answer. The TOUR’s current pace-of-play policy only addresses players whose groups have fallen out of position. The TOUR is now exploring whether to expand its policy to also address players whose groups are in position, but who take an excessive amount of time to hit a shot. “We know that the individual habits of players when they are preparing to hit a shot can quickly become a focal point in today’s world, and our players and fans are very passionate about this issue,â€� said Tyler Dennis, the PGA TOUR’s Chief of Operations. “We have leveraged our ShotLink technology to provide every player with a pace of play report that they can access which breaks down the varying parts of their game and gives feedback on the amount of time on average that the player takes to hit a particular shot. “We are currently in the process of reviewing this aspect of pace of play and asking ourselves, ‘Is there a better way to do it?’ We think technology definitely plays a key role in all of this and we are thinking about new and innovative ways to use it to address these situations.â€� There are many factors to consider when deciding an appropriate amount of time to play a shot, Dennis said. “We have learned over the years that pace has a lot of factors that play into it, and it’s actually quite complicated,â€� he added. “The overall time to play a round is affected by things like the number of players on the course, tee time intervals, amount of daylight, course set-up and the weather. Some of these are things we can influence, and some are not.â€� The amount of fans and media following a group also can impact the pace of play, said Justin Rose. “The crowds are a lot bigger here and a lot more vocal and there’s a lot more movement and distraction, I think which obviously creates the atmosphere that we want to play in front of,â€� Rose said. “You can’t have it both ways. You can’t have it fun and rowdy out here and yet expect guys to hit shots on a clock through situations where the environment isn’t ready for them to play.â€� The topic became a hot-button issue again this week after two videos of Bryson DeChambeau went viral on Twitter. DeChambeau felt compelled to defend himself after seeing the response on social media. “When people start talking to me about slow play and how I’m killing the game, I’m doing this and that to the game, that is complete and utter you-know-what,â€� DeChambeau said after his third round Saturday. “That’s not fair.â€� The first video showed DeChambeau pacing off a 70-yard approach shot after he hit his tee shot well left of the drivable par-4 16th hole in the second round. After returning to his ball, DeChambeau had to wait for the players on the nearby sixth tee to hit their shots. He let playing partner Tommy Fleetwood play his shot while DeChambeau waited for the tee to clear. Those factors increased the amount of time it took for DeChambeau to hit his shot. Another video showed DeChambeau taking 2 minutes, 20 seconds to hit a putt on the eighth hole, his second-to-last hole of the day on Friday. DeChambeau defended himself by saying that he walks quickly between shots to reduce the overall time it takes to play a hole. “It was a very difficult read,â€� he said about the putt on No. 8. “It was on a bit of a crown, trying to read it to the best of my ability. I couldn’t figure out a way to play it four inches out because that’s what the book said. That’s what it looked, or that’s what it said in the book, but it didn’t look like that to my eyes. We walked around, took a little bit of time. I was ready to hit. My caddie pulled me off because he saw something different. That’s just what’s going to happen every once in a while. “Is that every time? No. That’s probably 1% of the time that I take over two minutes. “You look at me, most of the time, I am doing my absolute best to get to that next shot. The time to hurry for me and the way I play the game — this is not always how some people view it, but the time to hurry is in between shots.â€� Justin Thomas played with DeChambeau in the first two rounds at Liberty National. “I like Bryson as a person, but he’s a slow golfer,â€� Thomas told reporters Saturday. “I hate saying this because I don’t want Bryson to think I’m throwing him under the bus or anything like that, but it’s just unfortunate where the pace of play is in the game at the moment.â€� DeChambeau’s group still played in 4:51 on Friday. That was just one minute slower than in Round 1 and consistent with other groups in the second round. The TOUR has seen positive results from increasing the intervals between tee times this year. “We are seeing great improvements to the flow and in particular to the speed with which we can recover following an issue with a group that results in a momentary slow-down in pace,â€� Dennis said. Under the TOUR’s current pace-of-play policy, players are “on the clockâ€� when their group falls out of position. Players are given an allotted time between 40 and 50 seconds (depending on factors such as order of play) to hit a shot. The first bad time results in a warning, while a second bad time in the same round is a one-stroke penalty. Players are fined for a second bad time in a season, and each bad time thereafter, and for each time they are put “on the clockâ€� after the 10th time. There is not currently a policy to assess penalties or fines when players’ groups are in position, but the TOUR could consider adding one. “We are really focused at the moment on leveraging our ShotLink technology to assist us with these factors,â€� Dennis said. “This year, we have rolled out version 2.0 of an application which allows the officials to monitor every group in real-time, from their positions out on the course, and respond more quickly when a group is getting behind.â€�

Click here to read the full article…