Brooks Koepka joins Srixon, Cleveland TOUR staff

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Rory McIlroy will have an MRI on Monday when he returns to Northern Ireland after completing THE PLAYERS Championship. McIlroy has been dealing with back pain this week while competing on THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. He is expected to make the cut after shooting 73-71 in the first two rounds. “It’s obviously not 100 percent, but it’s good enough to get myself around here for the next couple of days,” McIlroy said about his back. He said the pain is coming from the same area as the stress fracture in his ribs that sidelined him for the start of the year. “If that injury was an 8 or a 9 in terms of pain and soreness and stiffness, this is around a 4 or 5,” he said. “It might just be a flare-up of what happened previously and I just need to rest for a few days and it might be OK. Hopefully that’s what it shows in the scan next week.” The pain he’s feeling this week feels like muscular discomfort instead of pain in a bone or joint, he said. McIlroy suffered a stress fracture in his ribs while testing golf equipment during the offseason. The injury sidelined him from mid-January until March. McIlroy, who announced this week that he has signed an equipment endorsement deal with TaylorMade, said his current discomfort may have been caused by a rapid return to practice after taking time off for his wedding. “I took three weeks off and then I went back at it again on Friday and instead of maybe gradually building it up again, I hit balls for four or five hours on Friday and did the same on Saturday,” said McIlroy, who got married on April 22. “I felt a bit of stiffness on Sunday, hit a couple of drives that didn’t quite feel right. Maybe I should have just taken it a bit easier over the weekend, but I was excited to get back, excited to play again.” McIlroy, who ranks 48th in the FedExCup, has finished in the top 12 in the past four PLAYERS. This is his first start since finishing seventh at the Masters.

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PACIFIC PALISAIDES, Calif. – Tournament host Tiger Woods will have to wait at least one more year for another chance to break his win drought at Riviera Country Club after a tough third round at The Genesis Invitational. After opening the tournament with rounds of 69-73 to sit 10 shots back of Matt Kuchar’s 36-hole lead, Woods left Friday night knowing he could ill afford any mistakes on the weekend if he was to make a charge up the leaderboard. But any thoughts of a vintage charge were thwarted early as he played his first seven holes in five-over par, including a disastrous four-putt for a double bogey on the par-4 13th, his fourth hole of the morning. Woods had a birdie attempt from 18-feet, four-inches but pulled it left. He then missed from two-feet, four-inches for par and three-feet, two-inches for bogey with power lip outs before finally getting it home from three-feet for a double. Related: Leaderboard | TOUR pros: My first time with Tiger | JT admits Tiger carried him at Presidents Cup No other venue has repelled Woods like Riviera – the 82-time PGA TOUR winner is in his 13th try in this tournament with a runner up in 1999 his best return. Riviera is where his PGA TOUR career began as a 16-year-old having grown up in nearby Cypress. Amazingly, it is the second time Woods has four-putted the 13th green at Riviera having also done so in the third round in 2000. It is the only green on record in his career that he has done so twice and comes one start after four-putting during the Farmers Insurance Open on the opening hole of Torrey Pines South. Four of his now 14 career four-putts have come since June 2018. “That was a lot of shots. I hit the ball quite a few times, especially on the greens, and it was a long day,â€� Woods said post round. “I didn’t putt well today at all. I didn’t have a feel for it, I didn’t see my lines, I couldn’t feel my pace and I was just off.â€� Woods finished the round with a 5-over 76 to drop to five over for the tournament and near the back of the pack of those making the cut. When asked of the positives, the 44-year-old could only wryly say, “Well, I’m done.â€� But then added, “It’s a new day tomorrow. That’s the way golf is, put it in the past and try to learn from what I did right and wrong. Obviously there wasn’t a whole lot I did right today, and figure it out for tomorrow. “I just need to… not throw away shots with wedges in my hand, not three-putt, four-putt. All the things that, you clean all that up, next thing you know, you add that up and I’m probably, what, 7, 8, 9 under, and that’s without doing anything great, just not doing any of the dumb things.â€� Woods did not commit to play in next week’s World Golf Championship – Mexico Championship and also is not sure of his next start after tomorrow’s final round. “That’s the fun part of trying to figure this whole comeback — how much do I play, when do I play, do I listen to the body or do I fight through it?â€� he said. “There are some things I can push and some things I can’t. “I feel stiff, but I have weeks like that, especially in the cold mornings like it was the other day. Don’t quite move as well and that’s just kind of how it’s going to go.â€�

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TORONTO, Ont. – Growing up in Kentucky, the opportunities were likely limited for Justin Thomas to feel what it’s like to skate onto ice to the unmistakable bang of smacked hockey boards. Saturday at the RBC Canadian Open that electricity was turned up loud, and as Thomas entered The Rink (the par-3 16th) after rolling in a 1-foot, 2-inch putt for eagle on the previous hole he was serenaded by the Canadian crowd like he was one of their own. “I don’t know why it’s happening, but I’m very appreciative of the fan support here in Toronto. I said to… Rory (McIlroy) and Corey (Conners) that it felt like a major a bit out there,” said Thomas. “I knew, obviously, very passionate sports fans up in this part of the world and then having two years away from this tournament, I knew they were going to be ready to go this year.” Thomas shot a bogey-free 63 Saturday and St. George’s Golf and Country Club and is just two shots back of the 54-hole lead held by Tony Finau and Rory McIlroy. Sam Burns, ranked second in the FedExCup standings, is amongst those tied with Thomas at 9 under. Thomas, Finau, and McIlroy will be in the final group together on Sunday. Golfers will go off split tees and in threesomes with anticipated weather in the Greater Toronto Area. With this much firepower at the top of the leaderboard heading into Sunday’s finale in Toronto, the return of the RBC Canadian Open is very much delivering. “I mean, without sounding cheesy, it makes me pretty happy inside seeing this,” said Thomas of the top-heavy leaderboard heading into Sunday in Toronto. “There’s no other place I would want to be playing and it’s just, obviously with a tournament like this and the history that it has and how long it’s been played, had a lot of great past champions and venues and drama. “And it looks like it has a potential tomorrow to produce a little bit more of that and create some more history.” Thomas’ 63 – clipped by Finau’s 62 as one of the low rounds of the week – was “easy,” he said. The winner of the 2022 PGA Championship had as complete a day as you could ask for, sitting inside the top-10 in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, Tee to Green, and Putting. “I didn’t do anything great. I just didn’t do anything bad,” said Thomas. “But I took advantage of some of the opportunities when I had them there in, kind of the middle of the course, and just stayed patient and waited for my run.” Finau, who has won twice on the PGA TOUR, finished poorly on Friday – bogeying two of his final three holes – and that lit a fire in his belly to come out with a solid Saturday round. He birdied his first hole of the day, went out in 5-under 29, and added a birdie on his final hole of the day to put a bow on a 62. This was his lowest round on the PGA TOUR since a matching 62 in the second round of The American Express in January 2020. “I knew I was playing well, but at any given moment on this golf course you can make a number. So, there’s no reason to get ahead of myself, I just tried to stay in the moment as much as I could and put together a nice round all the way to the end,” said Finau. “And any time you’re at the top of the leaderboard and have a chance to win on a Sunday on the PGA TOUR it’s exciting.” McIlroy, meanwhile, is trying to go back-to-back for the first time in his TOUR career. No one on the PGA TOUR has repeated as champion at two different venues since Jim Furyk at the RBC Canadian Open in 2006 and 2007. He was quick to heap praise on the Canadian fans, who after two years of cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were thrilled with the buzz of a Saturday afternoon in the country’s biggest city. “The atmosphere out there today was, I mean I can’t remember the last time I played in an atmosphere like that,” said McIlroy. “It was really special.” There’s another carrot the likes of McIlroy, Finau, Thomas, and Burns don’t need to worry about Sunday – a spot in The Open Championship. The Canadian Open is part of the Open Championship Series and is offering two spots to golfers who are not otherwise exempt and who finish inside the top eight come Sunday. Wyndham Clark and Alex Smalley (tied for third), and Austin Cook and Jim Knous (tied for seventh) are in the mix for a spot to compete for the Claret Jug. There’s also the race for low Canadian still to be settled. Nick Taylor, who sits tied for 15th through three rounds at St. George’s, is a shot ahead of Corey Conners. Neither Taylor – who was as high as tied for second through the early part of Saturday – or Conners, the top-ranked Canadian in the FedExCup, has ever won the Rivermede Cup. “The ovation on the first tee, walking off a lot of greens on to the tees, it’s something that I don’t get every week, so it’s nice to feel that buzz,” said Taylor. “I think everyone’s really excited to have the event back.” The excitement was high, and the Canadian Open is certainly living up to the hype.

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