Cut prediction: 3M Open

Viktor Hovland returns to defend his title at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, but in order to do it he’ll have to top a field that boasts some of the most notable names in the game – including past PGA TOUR Players of the Year Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka. FIELD NOTES: Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka – both former No.1-ranked golfers in the world – are returning to action on the PGA TOUR for the first time since THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT… Viktor Hovland defends his second TOUR title. His win at Mayakoba last year made him just the fifth European since 1945 to win multiple times on the PGA TOUR before turning 24. Seve Ballesteros, Sergio Garcia, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm also achieved the feat… Plenty of Hovland’s European Ryder Cup teammates will join Hovland in the field. On the American side, Tony Finau and Scottie Scheffler join Thomas and Koepka in the field. In all, there will be 11 Ryder Cup players and four assistant captains teeing it up… Twelve major champions are teeing it up, as well… Abraham Ancer leads the Mexican contingent at El Camaleón, looking for a win in his home country (but now with a TOUR title under his belt, having won the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in August)… Taylor Pendrith – who led in Bermuda after 36 holes – is set to tee it up in Mexico, which would mark the second week of his “honeymoon,” having brought new bride Megan with him to Bermuda, too… Thomas Detry, Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra (a star at Oklahoma State), Guido Migliozzi, and Willie Mack III are among the sponsor exemptions… Mack shot a final-round 64 to win the Advocates Professional Golf Association Tour Championship in August. He also made the cut in two PGA TOUR starts this summer, finishing T71 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and T64 at the John Deere Classic… Lopez-Chacarra is fifth in the PGA TOUR University ranking. The top five at the end of the collegiate season will earn Korn Ferry Tour status for the summer. He recently finished T45 in the Sanderson Farms Championship. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: El Camaleón Golf Course, par 71, 7,017 yards (yardage subject to change). Golfers will need to navigate three separate Mayan Rivera landscapes on this Greg Norman design – tropical jungle, oceanfront stretches, and mangroves. Scoring is a premium on the paspalum grass, as the average winning score from the past five seasons has been just a touch over 20-under 264. STORYLINES: With just two events left on the PGA TOUR schedule for 2021, it’s an important time to secure valuable FedExCup points. Cameron Tringale, Maverick McNealy, Matthew Wolff, and Brendan Steele are all currently inside the top 10 of the Comcast Business Rewards TOUR TOP 10. and looking to build up their point totals heading into the holiday break… With Carlos Ortiz and Ancer both winners on the PGA TOUR, could this be the year when a Mexican golfer breaks the drought and wins on home soil? Ortiz finished T8 while Ancer finished T12 in 2020… This event always produces Sunday drama, as just once in tournament history has the winner topped the filed by more than two shots. The last four winners have won by just one stroke… Justin Thomas is the top-ranked golfer in the world teeing it up in Mexico (7th) and shot a tournament-low 62 in 2020 en route to finishing T12. 72-HOLE RECORD: 262, Matt Kuchar (2018) 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Roland Thatcher (3rd round, 2008). LAST TIME: Viktor Hovland navigated a crowded leaderboard on a low-scoring day and ended up winning for the second time on the PGA TOUR. Hovland shot all four rounds in the 60s at El Camaleón and held off a hard-charging Aaron Wise, who finished with a 63. Hovland ended up winning by one shot over Wise after notching a birdie on the 72nd hole. The third time was the charm for Hovland, as he made his TOUR debut in Mexico in 2018 and missed the cut. He missed the cut in 2019, too. But Sunday in 2020 he was, well, the victor. Adam Long and Tom Hoge finished at 17 under and were tied for third, three shots back of Hovland. Harris English, Billy Horschel, and Lucas Glover rounded out the top five. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m.-5 p.m. (Golf Channel) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.-6 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday 12 p.m.-5 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).

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Canadian Corey Conners has overcome an early double bogey and a six-man playoff to Monday qualify for the third time this season. Conners rebounded from his double on the second hole to shoot a 4-under 68 and enter a 6-for-1 playoff against Sebastian Vazquez, Steve Allan, Chase Hanna, Braden Thornberry and former U.S. Amateur champion Nick Flanagan. Paul Barjon, Roland Thatcher and Zach Fischer all booked their place in the field at TPC San Antonio with 7-under 65s. Conners remains the best finisher amongst Monday qualifiers this season after his T3 at the Sony Open. Chip McDaniel, who Monday qualified into last weeks Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, earned another star with a T5 last week. Here’s a closer look at the players who advanced out of Monday’s qualifier at The Club at Sonterra’s North Course, including one man making his first ever TOUR start. PAUL BARJON (65) Age: 26 Hometown: Dumbea, New Caledonia Residence: Fort Worth, Texas PGA TOUR starts: None Cuts made: N/A Best PGA TOUR finish: On debut. Notes: Born in the French territory of New Caledonia – a Pacific Ocean Island halfway between Australia and Fiji – Barjon will be making his PGA TOUR debut. Finished 39th on the money list on the MacKenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada with one top 10 from 12 starts in 2018. Made just four of 21 cuts on 2017 Web.com Tour after being a winner on the MacKenzie Tour in the 2016 Freedom 55 Financial Championship. Ranked 1476th in the world ROLAND THATCHER (65) Age: 41 Hometown: Hampton, Virginia Alma mater:  Auburn University PGA TOUR starts: 152 Cuts made: 62 Best PGA TOUR finish: 2nd – 2010 Children’s Miracle Disney Championship; T2 – 2009 Buick Open. Notes: Heading back to the PGA TOUR for the first time since 2012, Thatcher has been plying his trade predominantly on the Web.com Tour since. A two-time runner up he has over $3.6million in career earnings on the PGA TOUR. Ranked 1137th in the world. ZACH FISCHER (65) Age: 32 Hometown: Texarkana, Texas Alma mater:  University of Texas – Arlington PGA TOUR starts: 4 Cuts made: 1 Best PGA TOUR finish: T68, 2013 AT&T Bryon Nelson Notes: Had four starts on the PGA TOUR in 2013 including the U.S. Open. Played Web.com Tour with limited success from 2014-17 with just six top-10s from 89 starts. COREY CONNERS (68) Age: 27 Hometown: Listowel, Ontario, Canada PGA TOUR starts: 50 Cuts made: 25 Best PGA TOUR finish: 2nd, 2018-19 Sanderson Farms Championship. Notes: Canadian is already 66th in the FedExCup this season after a runner up at Sanderson Farms and a T3 at the Sony Open where he Monday qualified. Has missed five of his last six cuts but was T41 at THE PLAYERS Championship. Former U.S. Amateur runner up. Finished 130th in the FedExCup last season. Ranked 196th in the world. LAST WEEK’S QUALIFIERS (Corales Puntacana) T5. Chip McDaniel, 72-67-71-63 MC. Mike Ballo Jr., 73-75 MC. Jacob Eggers, 76-73 MC. Zach Zabach, 79-73   THIS SEASON’S QUALIFIERS Qualifiers: 51 Made cut: 17 Top-25: 4 Top-10s: 3 (Aaron Baddeley, T4 at Safeway Open; Corey Conners, T3 at Sony Open; Chip McDaniel, T5 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship) Best finish: Corey Conners, T3 at Sony Open in Hawaii Most times qualified: Corey Conners (3), Aaron Baddeley (2), David Pastore (2)

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA – The PGA TOUR announced that PGA TOUR AR, an augmented reality (AR) app that rolled out in 2018, will add a “360° Tee Box presented by AT&T� experience on holes No. 1 and 18 on Pebble Beach Golf Links at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The experience will bring live AR and 360° tournament coverage to life for fans in the United States on their Apple device. The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am will also showcase live featured hole AR coverage on the PGA TOUR AR app from holes 1, 7 and 18 at Pebble Beach Golf Links. The AR experience will begin in conjunction with the opening round of the tournament on Thursday, February 7. The PGA TOUR AR app is available for free, exclusively in the App Store. After selecting the 360° Tee Box within the app, fans will be directed to scan the floor and tap to start the experience. Once they tap to start, an AR green with the Pebble Beach flag will appear and direct fans to walk toward the green. Once fans walk onto the virtual green, the 360° video from either the 1st or 18th tee box will appear, and they can move their phones around to view the video. The experience will go live one hour before the first tee time Thursday-Sunday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. “The AT&T 360° Tee Box in the PGA TOUR AR app offers fans a unique and exclusive view of Pebble Beach Golf Links,� said Devon Fox, PGA TOUR Director, Digital Platform Innovation. “Fans will be able to see holes No. 1 and 18 in an entirely new way, getting them closer to the action than ever before. Collaborating with AT&T to bring fans this exclusive experience represents a new way for the TOUR to add value for sponsors and partners in the future.� PGA TOUR AR allows fans to interact with 3D featured holes and live 3D shot trails on any flat surface right in front of them. On featured holes throughout the season, fans will be able to select their favorite player on the golf course, compare shot trails from each round and compare the shots of different players. The 360° Tee Box presented by AT&T experience will only be available for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am from February 7-10. The PGA TOUR AR app is available on iPhone 7 and above and iOS 11.3 and above and on iPad Pro. The “360° Tee Box presented by AT&T� experience will only be visible to users on the iPhone/iOS versions listed above. The 360° Tee Box experience was developed jointly by the PGA TOUR, AT&T, The Marketing Arm and Trigger Global. The development of the PGA TOUR AR app in collaboration with POSSIBLE Mobile, part of the creative agency POSSIBLE, was aided by existing data gathered by ShotLink powered by CDW, the TOUR’s longstanding state-of-the-art scoring system. ShotLink through CDW technology captures and reports real-time vital information on every shot, by every player, during tournament competition. Every shot is translated into thousands of statistics, changing the way fans watch – and now interact with – the PGA TOUR, bringing them closer to the action. ShotLink and CDW’s vision is to turn data into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into entertainment. The upgraded PGA TOUR AR app was built using the latest versions of ARKit and Unity to provide fans with faster, more accurate surface detection and the ability to choose where they want to place the models.

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