Brand new equipment unveiled at The RSM Classic

Seamus Power has tested positive for COVID-19 and withdrawn from the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. He will be replaced by Zack Sucher as David Hearn’s partner for the event.

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SAN DIEGO – FedExCup leader Xander Schauffele has plenty of big goals remaining this season but one of the biggest – at least in his mind – comes this week at Torrey Pines. The San Diego native has never played well at the Farmers Insurance Open – a fact that grates at him like nails on a chalkboard. After all he grew up here. He played high school events here. He went to college here. He started watching PGA TOUR golf here. But in his three attempts at the Farmers Insurance Open the 25-year-old four-time PGA TOUR winner has three missed cuts to show for it. He has yet to post a round in the 60s. His scoring average is 73.83. And that has to change. But just how will it? When asked if had any form to speak of at the iconic coastal venue going back to his junior days, he couldn’t come up with a single time. “Wait … maybe I won a high school match play event here,â€� Schauffele said while going into his deep thought tank. “No … you were second in that. Twice,â€� father and swing coach Stefan interjects. Schauffele laughed it off but he at least has some warm memories of those days when he attended Scripps Ranch High School about 10 miles inland of Torrey. “I just remember being excited to leave school early to come out to Torrey Pines, eating onion rings in the Lodge after nine holes,â€� he smiled. “My high school teammates and I would do some stupid race, we would sprint down No. 9 and the loser in the race would have to buy the onion rings. I just remember all kind of kid‑ish fun things about this property, so I need to sort of revive those thoughts and bring them into this week.â€� And therein lies the key. Schauffele feels perhaps his three Farmers Insurance Open appearances have been laced with a bit more pressure than they should have been. He has spent a huge chunk of his preparation in the past trying to say hi to as many of his friends and acquaintances as possible. This time around Schauffele intends to get away from the property more and feed into his more comfortable “recluseâ€� type existence. “Playing in front of my friends and fans is sort of what’s put more pressure on me to be impatient and to get a little more ticked off than I normally do,â€� he figures. “I always want to do that little extra … If I’m playing poorly, it will (tick) me off a little more than if I’m in New York or somewhere way away from home. There’s added pressure just to perform better.â€� But this is the first time he enters the week with much less pressure given he has already claimed the World Golf Championships–HSBC Champions and the Sentry Tournament of Champions this season. He can virtually book his place at the TOUR Championship – which he won in his rookie year –given the way he’s trending atop the FedExCup and Wyndham Rewards Top 10 lists. “Mentally, I’ve never come into this tournament with a win that fresh, so I’m in a good state,â€� Schauffele adds. “Two wins early is something new to us and it’s something I’ve always dreamt of since I’m sort of a late-in-the-season kind of guy, but hopefully we can kind of keep this trend going.â€� If the pressure is coming from anywhere it could be the fact he’s been paired with 80-time PGA TOUR winner Tiger Woods and Tony Finau during the opening two rounds. Woods has double the amount of Schauffele’s career wins just at Torrey Pines alone and always brings a huge gallery as a fellow southern California native. “It’s really cool. I’ve never played with him, not even a hole, so looking forward to the zoo that’s going to be out here Thursday, Friday,â€� Schauffele said. “This is going to be a little bit bigger of a zoo than I’m used to, but I just sort of block it all out. I’ve just got to sort of handle my own thing. “Mentally I should be okay. I’m not one to have a fanning moment there where I’m going to try to run up to him or take a picture with him or whatnot … We’re still out here to compete.â€� Schauffele remembers being part of the crowd zoo as a child at the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines when Woods made his clutch 72nd hole putt to force a playoff that he would win over Rocco Mediate. He’s now hoping to create a similar winning moment on the same patch of grass this week.

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Tiger Woods and Mark Calcavecchia were never supposed to play in Foursomes (alternate-shot) at the 2002 Ryder Cup at The Belfry. Birdie-machine Calcavecchia seemed more appropriate for Four-ball play, but two things led to the Tiger-Calcavecchia pairing. First of all, they were friends, having played practice rounds together, and “Calcâ€� wouldn’t be intimidated by Woods’ aura. And secondly, there was something Calcavecchia knew that U.S. Captain Curtis Strange didn’t, or at least didn’t seem to take into account: Playing with Ken Green and Payne Stewart, Calcavecchia had gone 4-0 in previous Ryder Cup Foursomes. “I actually had to talk Curtis into it,â€� Calcavecchia said recently. “I brought it to his attention. I said, ‘Let me play with Tiger, I’ll get you a win.’ “I would have thought, teeing off, that there was no way we could lose.â€� A lot of people have thought that way upon partnering with Tiger, who is coming off a seismic victory at the TOUR Championship at East Lake last weekend, the long-awaited 80th of his career at age 42. He is perhaps the greatest player in history, knows more about winning than anyone short of PGA TOUR victories leader Sam Snead (82), and would appear at first glance to be the perfect teammate. What could go wrong? Plenty, as it turns out. In seven Ryder Cups, Woods has had 12 partners in Foursomes and Four-ball play, going 4-8-1 and 5-8-0 respectively, for an un-Tiger-like 9-16-1 record in the matches that make up the first two days (and 16 of 28 points) of the competition. One of the stories heading into this week’s Ryder Cup at Le Golf National in Paris will be the U.S. Team’s effort to win on foreign soil for the first time since 1993. But to do that, U.S. Captain Jim Furyk may need to find a way to help Woods find a partner. His record in Ryder Cup Foursomes and Four-ball has been a head-scratcher, to say the least. Woods’ frustrations certainly haven’t been for a lack of trying. Three times, in ’99, ’02 and ’04, he has been paired with three different players in a single Ryder Cup. He settled down and went 2-2 with Furyk in ’06, and 2-1 with Steve Stricker in 2010. The Woods/Stricker tandem had been potent the previous year in the 2009 Presidents Cup, winning all four of their matches. But in the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah, they went 0-3 as the U.S. lost a heartbreaker. What gives? I think Tiger’s not easy to pair with people. Because the attention that he brings … you’re expected to win, and then you’re going up against the best players in (Europe), and over an 18-hole match. So, a lot of funny things can happen. As it turns out, it may not be that complicated. It’s the ball — or it was. Although Ryder Cups in America never abide by the one-ball rule, Ryder Cups in Europe used to do just that, forcing Foursomes teams to pick a ball (brand, compression, cover softness) and stick with it for the day. Woods played a soft, high-spin ball that was unfamiliar to the rest of the TOUR, sometimes leaving his partners to try and adapt on the fly. They didn’t always have much success. So it went for Calcavecchia as he and Woods never quite clicked at The Belfry and lost 2 and 1 to Europe’s Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood. “I had a problem playing with his Nike ball,â€� Calcavecchia recalled. “I hit a couple iron shots that I thought were perfect and came up 30 feet short. And on a par-5 on the front nine, I thought I could carry this fairway bunker and it crashed into the lip, which surprised me. I basically hit his ball 10 yards shorter than I hit my ball. It just felt softer than the Titleist I was playing. “And neither of us played very well,â€� Calcavecchia added. “Tiger missed a couple 4-footers for par, which he never does, and on 14, the par-3, he half-shanked an 8-iron about 50 feet right and it buried in the corner of a bunker. I could barely get a club on it and we lost that hole. Prior to that, I’d hit a couple bad drives and put him in a bad spot. But that’s alternate-shot.â€� How bad was it? Garcia and Westwood won three holes with pars. The good news is that the one-ball rule is no longer in effect in Europe, allowing Foursomes teammates to each use their own ball off the holes where they tee off, simplifying the process. Woods, at least, believes the rule change might help him going forward, whether he’s paired with Bryson DeChambeau, as speculated, Phil Mickelson or somebody else in France this week.

“Now when you’re pairing guys — a little bit more on personality than your golf ball,â€� Woods said. “So that’s changed the alternate shot. … It’s so much easier now because we’re able to hit whatever we want off the tees. And that makes a world of difference.â€� Both he and DeChambeau play a Bridgestone ball, albeit different models. Woods calls it, “a firmer version of what I play.â€� Perhaps more indicative of a potential partnership, the two have formed a rapidly growing friendship, teaming up for practice rounds and also playing together in the third round of the Dell Technologies Championship, when DeChambeau shot 63 on the way to his second victory in as many weeks to start the FedExCup Playoffs. “If he goes around and shoots 8-under par every time, that will work,â€� Woods said. Shooting 65, as Woods did twice at East Lake last week, would also work. As for why his record isn’t better in Four-ball, more often called best ball in the States, NBC/Golf Channel commentator Justin Leonard says that’s more complicated. There’s heightened attention on anything Woods does; players are especially fired up to beat him (ask former No. 1 Greg Norman about being a target); and match play can be a fickle beast. “I think Tiger’s not easy to pair with people,â€� Leonard said. “Because the attention that he brings … you’re expected to win, and then you’re going up against the best players in (Europe), and over an 18-hole match. So, a lot of funny things can happen.â€� Funny things that as Joe Pesci might say are not exactly “hah-hah funnyâ€� for the Americans. Leonard, one of the 12 Americans who have partnered Woods, fared better than most; they halved a Foursomes match against Jesper Parnevik and Ignacio Garrido at Valderrama in 1997. Phil Mickelson has a different theory about Woods’ woes. “When you’d be partnered with him, you’d let him do all the work because he’s so good,â€� Mickelson said. “And you don’t get focused in on your own game and play our best golf.â€� Who will be Woods’ partner in France? That might be up to Woods himself; after all, he was a Vice-Captain until Furyk tabbed him as a captain’s pick. “Tiger tells you who he wants to play with; he’ll tell the captain,â€� Calcavecchia said. You get the sense that he’s probably right, be the year 2002 or 2018. As for Woods’ partner problems, though, the one-ball rule isn’t the only thing that’s changed over the decades. “It was a little bit different 15, 18 years ago than it is now,â€� Calcavecchia said, “especially with all Tiger has been through. He’s a little easier to be around. Whoever gets paired up with him, whether it’s DeChambeau or someone else, I think will feel more comfortable.â€� DeChambeau already sounds comfortable. “I don’t really want to say it,â€� he said, “but I think maybe we can potentially intimidate a couple of people out there. I think it would be kind of cool.â€� Your move, Captain Furyk.

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