Don’t confuse Erin Hills with Chambers Bay

PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic — Ben Martin birdied six of the last eight holes for a 6-under 66 and the first-round lead Thursday in the PGA TOUR’s windy Corales Puntacana Championship. RELATED: LLeaderboard | WGC-Match Play Day 2 Match Recaps After opening his morning round with a bogey and making the turn in even par, Martin began the run with birdies on the par-3 11th and par-5 12th and added four straight on the par-5 14th, par-4 15th and 16th and par-3 17th. “On the back nine you want to take advantage of the par 5s and 15 because finishing on 16, 17, 18 is usually going to be into the wind and you really need to be in control of your golf ball,” Martin said. “So, if you can make a few birdies coming in and just kind of hold on and make a few pars, you feel like it’s a win.” The 34-year-old Martin has made only one other PGA TOUR start of this year, missing the cut this month in Puerto Rico with rounds of 78 and 70. He won the 2014 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open for his lone PGA TOUR title. Adam Schenk was a stroke back after a bogey-free round at Corales Golf Course. Winless on the PGA TOUR, he has missed seven cuts in his last nine starts. Graeme McDowell, the 2019 winner, was two strokes behind after a bogey-free 68. “All in all, really happy with that start,” McDowell said. “Felt comfortable on the golf course. My fifth time here, I’m starting to feel reasonably comfortable down here in the strong wind. Felt good on the greens, everything felt pretty solid, so look forward to getting back at it in the morning.” Hayden Buckley also was at 68 with Vaughn Taylor and Kiradech Aphibarnrat. “The winds are very interesting,” Buckley said. “I think there’s a lot of holes where it really helps you on, a lot of holes where you kind of just have to suck it up and make a par.” David Lingmerth was in the group at 69. “Extremely windy day out there,” Lingmerth said. “We were joking around a little bit. Obviously, the course is not similar at all, but it was almost like a British Open-type way of playing today. Just a lot of flighted shots and had to be a little creative.” Defending champion Joel Dahmen opened with a 71. Nicolai Hojgaard of Denmark, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 77 in the world, had a double bogey on No. 17 in a 73. His twin brother, Rasmus, also shot 73. With the tournament being played opposite the WGC- Dell Technologies Match Play event in Austin, Texas, the winner will be exempt into the PGA Championship.

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The PGA TOUR makes its final Texas stop of the season, visiting historic Colonial Country Club for the Charles Schwab Challenge. FedExCup leader – and native Texan – Scottie Scheffler headlines the field that features five of the world’s top 10. FIELD NOTES: After a missed cut at the PGA Championship, Scheffler, who has won four times this season, is back in action… Bryson DeChambeau is listed in the field. He tried to give it a go at the PGA Championship but withdrew on the eve of the tournament because his hand wasn’t fully recovered from surgery in April… Collin Morikawa will tee it up in Fort Worth. He finished T14 a year ago and lost to Daniel Berger in a playoff in 2020… Jason Kokrak returns to defend his title from 2021. Kokrak, a three-time TOUR winner, won twice last year, and both titles came in Texas with former Longhorns finishing runner-up. He beat Jordan Spieth at Colonial and Scottie Scheffler was runner-up (along with Kevin Tway) to Kokrak at the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open… This year’s Champions Choice selections are Stephan Jaeger and Min Woo Lee… Sponsor exemptions include Erik Compton, John Pak and the past two U.S. Amateur champions, James Piot and Tyler Strafaci. Pak won last year’s Hogan Award, which is awarded at Colonial, as the top player in college and amateur golf. He also finished atop last year’s PGA TOUR University Velocity Global Ranking. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: Colonial Country Club, par 70, 7,209 yards. The PGA TOUR heads to the Perry Maxwell and John Bredemus design in Fort Worth, Texas, for the 77th time. It’s the longest-running non-major on TOUR to be contested on the same course. Many of the TOUR’s best who teed it up at the PGA Championship will be treated to a double dose of Maxwell, as the Oklahoma designer was the chief behind Southern Hills Country Club as well. Shot-making and accuracy will be the keys to success once again at Colonial. The course hosted the U.S. Open in 1941, the U.S. Women’s Open in 1991, and the second edition of THE PLAYERS. Like Southern Hills, Colonial is another Maxwell design that is set to undergo a Gil Hanse renovation. It was scheduled for this year but due to supply chain issues, the process will begin after the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge. STORYLINES: Jordan Spieth is hoping he’ll continue his fine play around Colonial. Spieth, who moved to eighth in the FedExCup after his win at the RBC Heritage and his runner-up at the AT&T Byron Nelson, has three runners-up in Fort Worth plus a victory in 2016… Only one golfer has ever defended his title in Fort Worth. Ben Hogan did it twice, one reason that Colonial came to be known as Hogan’s Alley… Scottie Scheffler leads the FedExCup by nearly twice as many points as Sam Burns (who is also teeing it up at the Charles Schwab Challenge) but comes to Fort Worth after his first missed cut since last October… K.H. Lee is looking for his own Texas two-step. Lee successfully defended the AT&T Byron Nelson the week prior to the PGA, winning by one over Spieth… Viktor Hovland is the other world top-10 player in the field alongside Scheffler, Morikawa, Spieth, and Justin Thomas… The winner of the Charles Schwab Challenge will once again get a restored sports car (Kevin Na got a 1973 Dodge Challenger in 2019 while Jason Kokrak got a 1946 Schwab Power Wagon). This year’s winner will get a 1979 Pontiac Firebird, which tournament organizers have nicknamed the “Schwab Firebird.” 72-HOLE RECORD: 259, Zach Johnson (2010). 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Keith Clearwater (2nd round, 1993), Lee Janzen (4th round, 1993), Greg Kraft (3rd round, 1999), Kenny Perry (3rd round, 2003), Justin Leonard (4th round, 2003), Chad Campbell (3rd round, 2004), Kevin Na (4th round, 2018). LAST TIME: Jason Kokrak’s even-par 70 in the final round of last year’s Charles Schwab Challenge was enough, as Jordan Spieth struggled to a 3-over 73 and finished two shots back of Kokrak. It was Kokrak’s second career TOUR title. Spieth, the clear rooting favorite of the partisan Texas crowds, was still in the mix after making the turn on Sunday, but two late bogeys – including one on the 72nd hole after he hit his approach into the water – derailed his chances. Kokrak made five bogeys Sunday but offset each of them with five birdies. For Spieth, it was his third runner-up finish at Colonial. Charley Hoffman’s 5-under 65 was tied for the low round of the day Sunday, and that helped him move into a tie for third alongside Patton Kizzire, Sebastian Munoz, and Ian Poulter. That foursome finished at 10 under, four shots back of Kokrak’s winning score. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 4 p.m.-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 2 p.m.-5:30 p.m. (Golf Channel), 5:30 p.m.-7 p.m. (CBS). Sunday, 1 p.m.-2 p.m. (Golf Channel), 2 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (CBS). Radio: Thursday-Friday, 1 p.m.–7 p.m. ET. Saturday, 2 p.m.-7 p.m. Sunday, 1 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) For outside of the U.S., click here for GOLFTV powered by the PGA TOUR PGA TOUR LIVE PGA TOUR Live is available exclusively on ESPN+ • Main Feed: primary tournament-coverage featuring the best action from across the course • Marquee Group: new “marquee group” showcasing every shot from each player in the group • Featured Groups: traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage of two concurrent featured groups • Featured Holes: a combination of par-3s and iconic or pivotal holes

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OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. - Tiger Woods’ 2019-20 PGA TOUR season came to an end Sunday at Olympia Fields as he finished with a 1-over 71, falling well short of the top three finish he needed to advance to the TOUR Championship. The two-time FedExCup champion will not have a chance for a third next week at East Lake, instead he will take two weeks off before kickstarting his 2020-21 campaign at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. "I didn’t play as well as I wanted to the first couple days. Today was nice. I hit the ball really well and made only a couple putts, but today was more indicative of how I want to play in a couple weeks," Woods said. "This golf course was basically a U.S. Open, with the rough being as high as it is and fairways a little bit narrow. Look at the scores, and I don’t think that we’ve seen scores like this in a non-major in a very long time. This was a great ramp-up for me for the U.S. Open. I wish I was playing next week, but I’ve got a couple weeks off." Needing to go super low on a tough course on Sunday, Woods raised an eyebrow or two with two birdies in his first four holes but he couldn't make enough of the mid-range chances he presented himself to create a miracle. A bogey right before the turn was countered with a birdie at the 11th but that was his last of the season. A bogey at the 15th was followed with a double bogey at the 17th. "It’s me missing the ball in the wrong spots. When I missed in the correct spots I was able to advance in the correct spots, make putts, but if I missed them in bad spots, this golf course will certainly punish you," he added. Measuring Woods performance for the season depends on if you're a glass half full or half empty type of person. Starting back last October in Japan Woods claimed his 82nd PGA TOUR win at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, joining Sam Snead at the top of the all-time win list. "Well, it's a big number," Woods said of his 82nd victory at the time. "It's about consistency and doing it for a long period of time ... I'm very fortunate to have had the career I've had so far." Woods was referencing tough times from 2014 through 2017 where it looked increasingly likely he might not play again such were his back issues. But in April of 2017, he saw Dr. Richard Guyer of the Center for Disc Replacement at the Texas Back Institute, where spinal fusion surgery gave Woods a new lease on life. "Probably the low point was not knowing if I'd ever be able to live pain-free again," he said after winning the TOUR Championship in 2018. "Am I going to be able to sit, stand, walk, lay down without feeling the pain that I was in? I just didn't want to live that way. This is how the rest of my life is going to be?" He would famously win the 2019 Masters before his win in Japan. Woods followed the ZOZO win up with a fourth place in his Hero World Challenge (an unofficial TOUR event) before leading the U.S. Team as a playing captain to a stirring come from behind victory in the Presidents Cup. Woods took his team to Royal Melbourne in December and overcame a 10-8 deficit heading to singles to win 16-14. He was 3-0 personally that week.

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