CHIA QUALIFIES FOR CIMB CLASSIC

Patrick Rodgers … Ever since the Stanford product first broke onto the scene with Special Temporary Membership in 2014-15, he’s been a regular at the tournament nearest his Cardinal stomping grounds. It’s been a mixed bag at Silverado, but the prize was a T6 in his second appearance in what was his first with official membership in the fall of 2015. Coincidentally, he’s coming off a mixed bag of a third full season on the PGA TOUR that concluded with a DNP in the FedExCup Playoffs because he attended a wedding in Scotland. The Safeway is his first action since a T24 at the Wyndham Championship. Completed last season at ninth in strokes gained: putting and eighth in conversion percentage inside 10 feet. Kevin Tway … If he can roll what he put on display in the second half of 2017-18 into the fall, we’ll be talking about a special start en route to what might be a breakout season. The 30-year-old recorded three top 10s and another trio of top 25s in his last 10 starts before the FedExCup Playoffs in which he survived the first two cuts to finish 24-for-31 and T17 in par-5 scoring. He’s also made the cut in both prior trips to Silverado where his muscle off the tee has paid dividends. Harold Varner III … Back for redemption after plummeting 48 spots to T59 with a closing 81 a year ago, but he walked off a T15 in 2016 with a 65. His aggressive tee-to-green tendency slots him inside the top third on TOUR in distance of all drives, greens in regulation and par-5 scoring. A terrific July triggered a third straight trip to the FedExCup Playoffs and he’s arrived at Silverado with a modest consecutive cuts made streak of six. Sungjae Im … Nearly three full years younger than fellow South Korean native Si Woo Kim, the 20-year-old Im has elevated expectations to an absurd level given his youth. Currently 97th in the Official World Golf Ranking, he’s immediately ahead of Ted Potter, Jr., who won at Pebble Beach earlier this year, and fellow Web.com Tour graduate Cameron Davis, who recorded two third-place finishes in the Finals and prevailed at the 2017 Australian Open. Im authored his own phenomenal script with two wins and three seconds on the Web.com Tour in 2018. So wide was his margin in earnings (finishing at $156,832 over runner-up Kramer Hickok), he sat out the Web.com Tour Championship. Prior to that, he may have set a precedent for a Web.com Tour player by qualifying for the PGA Championship via the OWGR before gaining entry into any non-major. Indeed, this week’s Safeway will mark his PGA TOUR debut in a non-major. He sacrifices distance off the tee for accuracy, but still finished T5 in par-5 scoring on the Web. Tyler McCumber … You think Francesco Molinari has been on fire over the last few months? If McCumber keeps it up, people are going to be referring to 10-time PGA TOUR winner, Mark McCumber, as Tyler’s dad instead of the reverse. The 27-year-old won three times on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada this summer and paced the circuit in both scoring and earnings. Since 2013 when the PGA TOUR took management control, notable season leaders of the Order of Merit have included Mackenzie Hughes (2013), Joel Dahmen (2014), J.J. Spaun (2015) and 2018-19 PGA TOUR rookie Kramer Hickok (2017). With his first two titles, McCumber also became the first Mackenzie Tour player in history to win consecutive tournaments. And it’s not like it came out of nowhere. He’s also a three-time winner on the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica.

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LOS ANGELES – Tiger Woods admitted the uncertainty of timing around a potential return to the PGA TOUR has the 82-time TOUR winner just as frustrated, if not more so, than his legion of fans. Woods joined the broadcast booth with CBS Sports analysts Jim Nantz and Sir Nick Faldo during Saturday’s third round of The Genesis Invitational where he acts as tournament host with his TGR Foundation, and said he’s no closer to knowing when he may play again. Woods is recovering from a serious car accident in the days after last year’s tournament at Riviera Country Club where he shattered the bones in his right leg and ankle. He provided optimism for his fans last December by partnering with son Charlie to be runner up at the two-day PNC Championship but stressed riding in carts during that event was a long way from a full TOUR return. “You will see me on the PGA TOUR, I just don’t know when and trust me I’d love to tell you that I’ll be playing next week,” Woods said on the broadcast. “But I don’t know when, which is frustrating in that sense, because I’ve been down this road before with my back when I didn’t know when I was going to come back.” Woods was a spectator for the 2021 Genesis Invitational also as he was recovering from a fifth back surgery. “It’s hard because it’s hard to not have goals out there,” Woods continued. “Like I want to play this event so I can set myself up for that mentally and physically and emotionally… (but) I don’t have any of those dates in my head. I don’t know yet.” As he had revealed earlier in the week, Woods said just getting through walking 72 holes would still be too hard at this stage. His injuries remain a cause for concern and he all but ruled out a return for the Masters in April leaving speculation around July’s Open Championship at St. Andrews as a new target. “I have not been running any marathons lately, none of that. I haven’t done any backflips or anything like that, no,” Woods said. “I don’t know. I can hit balls. The hardest part is actually walking, and so, that’s going to take some time. I’m going to have to put in the time and effort at home and do all the beach walks and walk golf courses because it is very easy at Medalist to just hop in the cart and whip around and play a quick 18 or 36, but it’s a little different deal than being out here with these guys and walking up and down the hills. “(It’s) just the ankle mobility and over time the ankle swells, the foot swells, leg swells and that’s just (going to take) time.” The next big milestone for Woods is his Hall of Fame induction next month. The 82-time winner admitted to some butterflies ahead of the occasion and the speech he will give. “It’s going to be nerve-wracking. A lot of reflecting coming up,” he said.

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