Bronson Burgoon leads CIMB Classic after Round 1

Wyndham Clark … After enduring a spring slump, which is common for rookies, the 25-year-old connected top 20s at TPC River Highlands and Detroit Golf Club to position himself for a return to the PGA TOUR in 2019-20. With two top 10s among six top 20s this season, he’s 99th in the FedExCup. At a glance, it’d seem logical that a sketchy tee-to-green game not only would get in the way of success, it’d apply too much pressure on his short game. But, wow, his short game. He’s ninth on the PGA TOUR in strokes gained: putting, first in putts per GIR, fifth in one-putt percentage, second in conversion percentage inside 10 feet, third in putting: birdies-or-better and first in three-putt avoidance. Yet, he’s hardly a one-trick thoroughbred at sixth in par-5 scoring. Denny McCarthy … No sophomore slump for this guy. Besides, when you’re exempt from the reshuffle and lead the PGA TOUR in strokes gained: putting, expectations are higher and there are no excuses. Save a week off in early March, he’s been positioned inside the top 125 of the FedExCup standings since a T7 at the Sanderson Farms Championship in his second start. Thrills and spills ensued, but a rock-steady T21 in Detroit last week lifted the 26-year-old to 110th. One more decent showing and he’s a lock to keep his card. Tom Hoge … Regional flavor. The 30-year-old from Fargo, North Dakota, could use a injection of the kind of confidence that guided him to state amateur titles in Minnesota in 2009 and 2010. He arrives with consistent form, albeit lackluster. Since late April, he’s 7-for-8 but without a top-30 finish. However, he did place T43 at the U.S. Open, so that demands some respect. Currently 170th in the FedExCup standings. Tyrone Van Aswegen … Buried in the same category out of which Nate Lashley emerged with victory at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, the South African is no stranger to playing for his job, it’s just that the deck is stacked against him this deep into this season. He’s just 3-for-11 with only one top 40 in 2018-19, and that was but a T29 at Colonial near his residence in late May. So, the bad news is that he’s 217th in the FedExCup standings. The good news is that he needs only 32 points to crack the current top 200 and qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals to begin anew in 2019-20. He’s also gliding in on a T14 at the Utah Championship presented by Zions Bank where he led outright after 36 holes. Collin Morikawa … It’ll take some time before the Class of 2019 can be compared fairly to the Class of 2011 that includes Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Daniel Berger, Emiliano Grillo and others, but it has the makings. With Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Matthew Wolff and Justin Suh all having turned pro in recent weeks, the clock has started. The very early leader as the most impressive is the 22-year-old who logged a decorated career at Cal. Morikawa already is 3-for-3 with a T14 at the RBC Canadian Open. His equivalent of 88.833 FedExCup points as a non-member would slot him 192nd among members and inside the bubble to qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. NOTE: Sleeper is a relative term, so Rob uses unofficial criteria to determine who qualifies. Each of the following usually is determined to be ineligible for this weekly staple: Winners of the tournament on the current host course; winners in the same season; recent major champions; top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking; recent participants of team competitions.

Click here to read the full article…

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Prior to Thursday, Jon Rahm had never seen the front nine holes at TPC Southwind. So it came as a bit of a surprise when he fired a 5-under 30 on the stretch as part of an 8-under 62 in the opening round of the World Golf Championships – FedEx St. Jude Invitational. It was enough for a three-shot lead over Patrick Cantlay, Bubba Watson, Cameron Smith, Hideki Matsuyama and Shugo Imahira. Jetlagged and exhausted from his last five weeks of golf that included two majors on different continents, a home appearance at the Spanish Masters, a win at the Irish Open and a trip to a friend’s wedding, Rahm decided to cut his Wednesday practice session short. That meant he would go into the front side of TPC Southwind, the last nine of his opening round having started on No. 10, blind on Thursday. “I didn’t do anything Monday or Tuesday, I just rested and stretched at the hotel, in the room,â€� Rahm said. “And then yesterday I came with the plan of playing 18 holes. I putted and warmed up, and after four holes… I was dead. I couldn’t swing properly. I was really tired, so I just decided to just finish the round of nine holes, eat and just putt a little bit and go. “I tried to put a little emphasis on being rested and it paid off today. Obviously I have three more days to go and hopefully the battery lasts, but that was the main deal for me.â€� Thankfully, caddie Adam Hayes has seen the track quite a few times with previous clients. When Hayes gave Rahm the target, the 24-year-old listened and executed. The Spanish star was lights-out with his putter, gaining over five strokes on the 63-man field on the greens. His +5.203 Strokes Gained: Putting mark is the best of his PGA TOUR career. He needed just 23 putts and missed just once from inside 25 feet. Between 15 and 25 feet, Rahm was 5-of-5. “My last 10 holes, I made a lot of putts. I hit really good putts and I read the greens properly, but I think the main key out of all that, it was my positioning,â€� he explained. “I know I tend to be an aggressive player, but I tried to think about it today and I left myself pretty much on every single putt, besides 18, I was almost in the fall line every time. “The putts on one, two, seven and eight, those birdie putts that I made, not any of them were aimed outside the edge right or left. So that’s what made it so comforting because I knew, especially with the greens being this pure, if I started the ball on line I was going to have a chance.â€�

Click here to read the full article…

Ambition and enthusiasm are resourceful commodities by themselves. But when accompanied by a firm embrace of technology and a commitment to meeting the high standards of your fan base, a meteor is your mode of transportation. And it’s likely to land you in a stratosphere never imagined – like being able to deliver to your fans every shot by every player in THE PLAYERS Championship. Yes, all of ‘em. Somewhere north of 31,000 combined by 144 players over four days over THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. Digest those numbers and the mere concept of Every Shot Live for a minute. Then you can appreciate the sense of anticipation that is swelling within Scott Gutterman, Senior Vice President of Digital Operations for the PGA TOUR. SUBSCRIBE TO EVERY SHOT LIVE “It’s one of the most exciting undertakings in technology that we’ve ever done at the PGA TOUR,� he said. “THE PLAYERS has traditionally been where we have introduced new technology to golf. We look forward to showcasing what we believe is the future of golf coverage.� He could add that it’s daunting, overwhelming, and complicated, too, but Gutterman knows passionate fans aren’t so much interested in all the logistics. Nope. They’re only thrilled that Every Shot Live is the ultimate supply that answers the demand. “This is the thing that fans have asked the most about since I joined the TOUR 15 years ago. When can we see every shot?� Gutterman said. Well, if you’re a subscriber to PGA TOUR LIVE on NBC Sports Gold, the answer is: Tune in bright and early to start Thursday’s first round on March 12 and you can live-stream to your heart’s content at PGATOUR.COM/EveryShotLive. And stay right there till dusk for the final round on March 15, because you’ll still be in position to live-stream every shot from every player who makes the cut. This seriously ambitious PGA TOUR undertaking involves impressive numbers: • 120 total cameras on the course between NBC, PGA TOUR LIVE, and Every Shot Live. • Of those, 93 will be used for Every Shot Live. • The project required adding 36 cameras to what was already planned to be on-site at the tournament. • All 18 tee boxes will have unmanned cameras. • All 18 greens will have manned cameras. • At least one wireless camera will be at every fairway. • The estimate for live coverage to chronicle every shot of the 2020 PLAYERS Championship is astounding – 747 hours, roughly 432 on Thursday and Friday, 315 for Saturday and Sunday. When you factor in the contributions made by Trackman and TopTracer that are hugely popular with PGA TOUR fans – not to mention the ability to view “speed rounds,� whereby subscribers can see a whirlwind of shots by their favorite players – it’s no wonder Gutterman laughed when he says Every Shot Live is not a project “for the weak of heart.� Nor would it be a project that could even be comprehended by an unnamed cameraman whose hiccup moment from nearly 60 years ago pretty much sums up the sort of different galaxies golf on TV has traveled. The cameraman filming a match between Byron Nelson and Gene Littler on “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf� in 1962 never was identified, which is a shame given the comical shape he provided to golf folklore. But the late Fred Raphael, who was an innovator in TV sports (and gets much credit for giving birth to the idea of legends playing competitive golf, which morphed into the PGA TOUR Champions), never tired of telling the story with sheer delight. As on-site producer, Raphael watched Nelson deliver a fairway-splitting drive at a tough, par-4 first hole at Pine Valley, then turned his attention to the next player on the tee, Littler. Only thing is, there was a disruption. “The cameraman,� Raphael recalled, “climbed down from the tower� and waved for Littler to stand back. “Ask (Nelson) to hit it again, we missed it.� Oh, how Raphael used to laugh when he told the story. And, oh, how that cameraman might think he had been beamed onto Mars if told that PGA TOUR Entertainment folks were going to not only film the very first tee shot and the very last putt, but also every other shot in between. Welcome to a project that personifies the technological explosion with sports television. “The evolution of this technology is incredible,� Gutterman said. “When I got (to the PGA TOUR) in 2005, we started doing the live-stream at 17 (the iconic island green at TPC Sawgrass). But it was very hard to watch. We just didn’t have enough bandwidth.� Just 15 years later, as improbable as it sounds, Gutterman and his colleagues tested the Every Shot Live process earlier this season at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and his anticipation is palpable. His isn’t the only view that can measure the eons by which televised golf has improved from where it once was. Tommy Roy, the highly regarded producer of NBC’s golf telecasts since 1993, remembers when he first assumed command, TV viewers would get maybe three hours of coverage, an hour on Saturday and two on Sunday. “But on Saturday we’d come on after baseball and if the game went into extra innings, there’d be maybe a half-hour of golf,� Roy said. “Now, viewers have several hours available to them each of the four days of competition. “Back in 1993, I think we had maybe three trucks in the TV compound. Now, we have dozens.� All of this, said Roy, is keeping up with demands, “because the appetite of sports viewers has grown exponentially.� He gives great credit to the PGA TOUR’S ambition and is thrilled to be part of the execution. But if there’s one component to televised golf that hasn’t changed, it is this: It’s arguably the most difficult challenge for TV producers, more demanding than football, basketball, baseball and the other team games played in fixed locales. “In golf, we have 18 stadiums to cover,� said Greg Hopfe, vice-president and executive producer at PGA TOUR Entertainment. “It’s intimidating.� Oh, “and the 18 stadiums are spread out over 150-plus acres,� said Gutterman, “with maybe 75 players all over the course.� That massive playing area once required networks to put down miles and miles of cable, all of which had to be connected to cameras. Such an assignment is pretty much why coverage years ago would be limited to maybe the last six or seven holes. “It would take us five days to set that up,� Roy said. But with the introduction of fiber optic cables, well, you’ve got the proverbial “game-changer,� in Roy’s opinion. It’s the reason 18-hole coverage is the norm and why coverage is miles beyond what it used to be. Throw in two other major technological advances – super-slow motion “that allows you to actually see what happens at impact,� and TopTracer, which allows viewers “to see how the best players work the ball left-to-right or right-to-left� – and Roy applauds the PGA TOUR for answering their fans’ call for more. More shots by more players for more hours. Few could have envisioned the initiative stretching all the way to offering live coverage of all the shots by all the players. Yet Every Shot Live is just days away from being a reality for subscribers. “The PGA TOUR is the most content-rich sport on the planet and we have been focused on expanding the amount of content we bring to our fans from our competitions,� said Rick Anderson, the PGA TOUR’s Chief Media Operator, who shares a vision with Gutterman and the entire leadership team at the PGA TOUR. That is, execute this week’s Every Shot Live endeavor at THE PLAYERS, study the results, learn from the experience, and see if, and when, it can become part of the week-to-week landscape. “Our vision is to bring every shot in every PGA TOUR golf tournament live and on-demand to our fans, and this is the first step to making that happen,� said Anderson. There was a time when the lack of technology left golf fans totally detached from the game via television. Heck, the first golf tournament wasn’t shown on TV till 1947, eight years after MLB had made its television debut – and even then, it was shown only to local viewers in St. Louis. When golf did have its first national broadcast of a tournament, it was in 1953 and a whole hour of the World Championship of Golf was shown from Tam O’Shanter in Chicago. The Ryder Cup wasn’t shown live for the first time until 1983, 56 years after it had started, and all you saw was the final four singles matches for the last four holes. The entire 18 holes of the Masters coverage didn’t debut till 2002. Along the way, viewers absorbed the hiccups – like the do-over demanded of Nelson at the “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf� and perhaps more infamously, Gene Sarazen’s gaffe at the 1955 U.S. Open. The Squire, working TV coverage for NBC – which was delivering the tournament for the second year, even if only for one hour – gleefully praised Ben Hogan for this closing 70 that had him in the clubhouse at 287, at the time five shots better than his nearest threats, Tommy Bolt and Sam Snead. “Congratulations on your victory,� Sarazen said to Hogan. To viewers, Sarazen then added it was Hogan’s fifth U.S. Open win. The great Sarazen needed a “do-over,� as they say in golf. Better still, what he really needed was a little technology, something that would have shown two late birdies made by an unheralded golfer named Jack Fleck, who pulled even with Hogan, then shockingly won the playoff the next day. In other words, he needed Every Shot Live. Alas, while The Squire played his golf in the Golden Age of American Sports, his TV work came decades before the introduction of meteoric technology.

Click here to read the full article…