Breaking down the balls used at the Presidents Cup

Sergio Garcia ends a seven-year absence from the PGA TOUR venue he helped design, while Kevin Chappell makes his first career title defense as the TOUR heads back to Texas for the third of five stops this year. Beau Hossler, a former University of Texas standout who just missed a Masters berth in a Houston Open playoff, heads a solid list of players with Texas ties. That also includes Garcia – now an Austin resident – former PGA Championship winner Jimmy Walker and Jhonattan Vegas. FIELD NOTES: U.S. Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk returns to San Antonio for the first time since 2015, with two top-10 finishes in three visits to TPC San Antonio. … In all, the lineup features six of the top 30 in the current world rankings. … Joaquin Niemann, who held the No.1 amateur ranking for nearly a year, will make the VTO his professional debut. The Chilean teen already holds conditional Web.com Tour status…. The list of international invitees also features two-time major champion Martin Kaymer, India’s Shubhankar Sharma and England’s Chris Paisley. For Paisley, it’s his first start on U.S. soil since his college days at Tennessee. … Julian Suri, a Florida native who has spent the past two years on the European circuit, hopes to build on his top-10 finish in Houston earlier this month. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points. STORYLINES: Garcia tees it up for the first time since a disappointing title defense at the Masters, where a 13 at Augusta National’s feast-or-famine 15th produced a hole too big to climb out of. Garcia was a consultant on the host AT&T Oaks course, but hasn’t been back since its 2010 debut. … John Senden makes his second PGA TOUR start since taking a nearly yearlong break to deal with his son’s brain tumor. He was on track to make the cut at the RBC Heritage, until a bogey/bogey finish put him on the wrong side of the line. … Chappell now seeks to become the third man this century to win back-to-back in San Antonio. Justin Leonard did it in 2000-01, followed by Zach Johnson in 2008-09. COURSE: TPC San Antonio (AT&T Oaks), 7,435 yards, par 72. Winding through Texas Hill Country north of the city, the Oaks tends toward a minimalist look and feel – often employing native vegetation as a peril for wayward shots. Garcia served as a consultant in the 2010 Greg Norman design, which is widely considered to present a tougher challenge than its sibling Canyons layout built by Pete Dye. The Oaks’ most memorable moment may have come in 2011, when Kevin Na recorded a 16 at the par-4 ninth hole after struggling to free himself from rocks and underbrush. A year later, Na returned with a chainsaw for a good-natured publicity shoot. 72-HOLE RECORD: 254, Tommy Armour III (2003 at LaCantera). TPC San Antonio record: 274, Adam Scott (2010), Martin Laird (2013). 18-HOLE RECORD: 60, Bart Bryant (3rd round, 2004 at LaCantera), Zach Johnson (3rd round, 2009 at LaCantera). TPC San Antonio record: 63, Matt Every (1st round, 2012), Martin Laird (4th round, 2013). LAST YEAR: Chappell finally notched his long-awaited first PGA TOUR victory, ramming home an 8-foot birdie putt on the final hole to hold off Brooks Koepka’s Sunday charge. Chappell began the final day with a one-stroke advantage, but found himself tied going to the 18th tee after Koepka birdied ahead to complete a 7-under-par 65. Two solid shots left the California native 89 yards from the pin, where he got the ball below the hole to set up the winning putt. Chappell’s triumph followed four runner-up finishes the previous season, including THE PLAYERS Championship and TOUR Championship. Tony Finau and Kevin Tway tied for third, three shots behind Chappell. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 3:30-6:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 8:15 a.m.-3:30 p.m. (featured groups), 3:30-6:30 p.m. (featured holes). RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 1-6:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).

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Sergio Garcia closed out 2017 as an equipment free agent. When the calendar turns to 2018, the reigning Masters champion should be unveiled as the newest member of Callaway’s Tour staff once new equipment contracts go into effect on Jan. 1.  Garcia has remained coy about his status since he parted ways with TaylorMade after 15 years. Just last month in Italy, Garcia said he would “probably start testing some new things and see what’s kind of out there that drives me and go from there. Then at the end of the year, we’ll make a decision and move forward.” Since the Dell Technologies Championship, Garcia has slowly added new Callaway products, including a Toulon Design putter and Callaway prototype wedge. In a surprise move, he accelerated the equipment transition process last week at the DP World Tour Championship with a new Callaway GBB Epic driver and Apex MB prototype irons that were spotted in the bag for the first time. While the driver appeared to be a stock GBB Epic head, Garcia’s irons were stamped with his personal logo on the toe.  If that wasn’t enough evidence to confirm Garcia’s pending arrival, he also tagged Callaway’s Twitter account in a tweet that included that rest of his current sponsors, following a T4 finish in Dubai.  Garcia and Callaway will have to wait until the beginning of the year to make things official, but it would appear his landing spot is all but assured.  TaylorMade Hi-Toe wedge makes appearance: Dustin Johnson had equipment forums buzzing several weeks ago when he let slip he was testing a new high toe wedge from TaylorMade. Based on his glowing review, many were surprised when Johnson opted to keep the wedge in the locker and stick with his usual Milled Grind setup.  Instead of Johnson getting to do the unveiling honors, Jon Rahm and Justin Rose became the first two staffers to break in the new wedge at the DP World Tour Championship. Based on the wedge photo posted on social media by Rose, the Milled Grind “Hi-Toe” has a distinct high toe that’s reminiscent of the classic Ping Eye 2 and, more recently, Callaway’s Mack Daddy PM Grind popularized by Phil Mickelson.  The three openings in the back of the head likely remove weight that’s repositioned in the toe, shifting the center of gravity even higher in the head for open-face shots.  Cook stretches fairway wood: The rise in popularity of larger-headed fairway woods has seen TOUR players embrace the technology in recent years. Austin Cook became the latest winner to have one in the bag at the RSM Classic. The TOUR rookie is one of four PING staffers using the company’s G400 Stretch 3-wood. With 13 degrees of loft, the fairway wood features a slightly larger overall head shape — 193cc vs. 184cc — for those who primarily use a fairway wood off the tee. Compared to the standard 3-wood, the CG weight was repositioned towards the back of the head to produce low-spin characteristics. For Cook, the club gives him another option to use off the tee on tight driving holes where driver isn’t necessarily the play. The club came in handy at Sea Island, where Cook won by four shots and ranked 12th in Strokes Gained: Off the tee (plus 2.325). Kirk’s strong finish sans gear contract: Along with Brooks Koepka’s nine-shot win at the Dunlop Phoenix Open, Chris Kirk put together a strong week on the course without an equipment contract. Kirk split from PXG at the beginning of the 2017-18 TOUR season to play a mixed bag of equipment.  His T-4 finish at the RSM Classic was his best showing since a T2 at the 2016 Sanderson Farms Championship. During the fall portion of the TOUR season, Kirk made four cuts in five starts. The only noticeable change he made at Sea Island was a driver swap from Callaway’s GBB Epic to TaylorMade’s M1 2017. 

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The essence of every additional event – as this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship is designated, the first of five this season – is to provide playing time for the golfers who did not qualify for the concurrently contested invitational. While these tournaments have been considered an expectation for some time, inherent to the competition is the bonus of a surprise champion no matter how characterized. A year ago, Ryan Armour was a journeyman with four seasons of PGA TOUR status and over 100 starts dating back to 2007. He was a Web.com TOUR Finals graduate at the age of 41. What transpired at the Country Club of Jackson was nothing short of remarkable and impossible to predict. Scroll past the ranking for what he achieved, how the course has tested in its first four years as host and more After opening with 6-under 66 to co-lead the Sanderson Farms Championship last year, Armour held outright advantages after 36 and 54 holes before galloping through the tape to post 19-under 269. His five-stroke margin of victory equaled the tournament record. He was essentially untouchable, finishing third in both fairways hit and greens in regulation while leading the field in proximity to the hole and strokes gained: putting. Excelling in more than one of those areas is commonplace for most champions, but to flourish in all drifts into career-defining stuff. This is all that the Country Club of Jackson has known. All four of its winners were first-timers, each was locked in with the putter en route to victory and each is committed to this week’s tournament. Nick Taylor (2014) and Cody Gribble (2016) were PGA TOUR rookies. Peter Malnati’s triumph in 2015 was his first top 10 in 22 career starts. The test is a stock par 72 capable of stretching 7,440 yards. The only significant modification since last year occurred at the par-5 third hole. A new tee has extended it by 29 yards — it can now play 590. It reflects the increase of overall yardage. Bermudagrass canvasses the entire property with two-inch primary rough laying in wait for wayward drives and 6,200-square foot greens rolling up to 12 feet on the Stimpmeter. Last year’s scoring average of 71.828 both places Armour’s execution on a pedestal and deserves a double-take in reaction to it as the Country Club of Jackson stands tall. Hitting greens in regulation is a soft spot with little terror to salvage par if in that predicament, so aggressive strategies are rewarded more than they’re penalized. This is validated in the consistency of its resistance in yielding distance off the tee, fairways hit, proximity to the hole and par-5 scoring, as the course easily has ranked inside the top half-hardest in each stat in every season. Rain is all but guaranteed during if not throughout the opening round when it might not touch 60 degrees. It could feel slightly colder, too, given a moderate wind out of an easterly direction (read: not prevailing). Dry, warmer conditions move in but more precipitation cannot be ruled out through Saturday. The stage for the finale is for a classic autumn day in the South. 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 (WGC-HSBC) TUESDAY*: Power Rankings (Sanderson Farms), Sleepers (WGC-HSBC), Fantasy Insider WEDNESDAY: One & Done (WGC-HSBC), One & Done (Sanderson Farms), Twitter live fantasy show * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO, which also publishes on Tuesdays.

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