Dustin Johnson to add TaylorMade SIM woods and rescue at Kapalua

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Notes and observations from the second round of the FedEx St. Jude Classic, where Chez Reavie fired a bogey-free 65 to get to 9 under, then watched as unheralded Colombian Sebastian Munoz (67) and Charl Schwartzel (66) tied him at the top. Stewart Cink, enjoying a career revival at age 44, shot 68 to get to 8 under, just a shot off the lead. For more coverage from TPC Southwind, click here for the Daily Wrap-up. CINK DIALS UP WAY-BACK MACHINE Stewart Cink is seeking his first victory since the 2009 Open Championship, the one in which he beat the suddenly-young-again 59-year-old Tom Watson in a playoff at Turnberry. So you might think Cink looks back on ’09 as a high-water mark in his career. The six-time TOUR winner says that isn’t so. “Going back to 2009, you know, if you really examine that year closely, I won the British but the rest of the year wasn’t all that spectacular,â€� Cink said, when asked when was the last time he felt this good about his game. “So going back to 2008 probably, the first half of ’08, and I really, really felt good about my game and I felt like I had a chance to win a lot of tournaments. “I feel like if I can just hang in there and stay within myself and not get too ahead of myself with the results, then I’ve got a chance here, too.â€� It’s been a banner year for Cink in more ways than one in 2017. Most importantly his wife Lisa’s cancer is in sustained remission, but Stewart’s game has been robust, too. After making 14 cuts in 18 starts this season, including top-10s at The RSM Classic and DEAN & DELUCA Invitational and six other top-25 finishes, he came into this week at 60th in the FedExCup. On Monday, he got through sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open at Erin Hills.   What’s more, he is right at home in Memphis, quite possibly America’s best barbecue town—a fact that is not lost on Cink, who enters his own recipes in competitions. He planned to call fellow barbecue aficionado Davis Love III and perhaps hit up his favorite spot Friday night. Life is sweet, and a victory Sunday would be even sweeter. SOUTH AFRICANS LOVING MEMPHIS Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but South African countrymen Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Charl Schwartzel—who have seven major titles between them—are loving TPC Southwind. Schwartzel leads the way (66, T1), but Goosen (68, T6) is only three off the lead. Then there’s 47-year-old Els, who has had a tough year, making just four cuts in 14 starts coming into this week, but who fired a second-round 69 to get to 3 under par, well inside the cut line here. “I’ve been putting well for a while,â€� said Schwartzel, who is first in strokes gained: putting this week after making 220 feet of putts. “Just some weeks you see the lines better than other weeks. You know, this week I can really see the breaks well, and my speed’s good.â€� At 74th in the FedExCup, Schwartzel is looking to build on a season-best third at the Masters and a sixth-place finish in his title defense at the Valspar Championship earlier this year. With the U.S. Open looming next week, he says he couldn’t pick a better time to heat up. “That’s the ultimate in our sport, is to win majors and peak for those tournaments,â€� he said. “Whichever way suits you to do that, this is what you must do.â€� MICKELSON RUN STALLS Still looking for his first victory since the 2013 Open Championship, Phil Mickelson got hot and was hovering around the lead at 7 under par, sending a jolt of excitement around the course. Then he bogeyed the fifth and sixth holes and hit his approach shot into the water to double-bogey the ninth, his last hole of the day, for a dispiriting 67 to drop to 4 under. At five off the lead, he is tied for 18th place and will need a banner weekend. “Yeah, it’s a disappointing way to finish the round,â€� said Mickelson, who hit 11 of 14 fairways Friday after hitting just five in the first round. “I made a poor swing there and made double, but I hit a lot of really good shots today and had a chance to shoot something really low, and unfortunately didn’t get the score out of it, but it was encouraging that I played really well.â€� ODDS AND ENDS Chez Reavie hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation and is first in the field this week in proximity to the hole on approach shots (23 feet, 2 inches). He has twice led through 36 holes, once at the 2008 RBC Canadian Open, which he won for his first and only TOUR victory, and agains and the 2011 John Deere Classic, where he tied for fifth. … Adam Scott shot the round of the day, a 6-under 64, to get to -5 and T11 going into the weekend. He ranks first in strokes gained: off the tee, first in driving distance (301.4 yards) and first in strokes gained: tee to green. His only weakness so far has been his usual Achilles heel, putting, where his strokes gained number is -2.589 (82nd in the field). … Those at 1 over or better made it to the weekend, although a second cut will come Saturday. Notable names to miss the 36-hole cut included Rickie Fowler (74-70), who was coming off a runner-up finish at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide and came into the week eighth on the FedExCup points list, and Byrson DeChambeau (69-73). … This is the second time Charl Schwartzel has held the 36-hole lead/co-lead in 154 TOUR starts. He was tied for first at the 2011 Dell Technologies Championship but finished T21. … Munoz, 24, would become the 14th different player under 30 to win on TOUR this season. To date, 13 different players have accounted for 16 wins. … Ben Crane, a five-time TOUR winner, came into the week 160th in the FedExCup and ready to try something completely different. Crane, the 2014 FedEx St. Jude champion, decided to celebrate like the former professional wrestler Ric Flair after every made putt. “We’re going two claps and a Ric Flair after you make a putt,â€� he said. “So you go (clap, clap) whoo!â€� CALL OF THE DAY SHOT OF THE DAY BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

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ORLANDO, Fla. – Fathers and sons and golf? The three have been joined together since there were sticks and small rocks and lone crooked flagsticks protruding from barren fields in Scotland, while kings still ruled. This week’s PNC Championship, which begins Saturday at Orlando’s Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, will garner extra attention as Tiger Woods, partnered once again with his 12-year-old son, Charlie, makes his return to golf following a horrific single-vehicle crash in Los Angeles in February. The 36-hole event, featuring 20 teams and played using a relaxed scramble format, will be televised by NBC to a national audience over the weekend. Many interested golf fans (and Woods’ fellow competitors) are waiting to get some inkling of where he stands in his arduous rehabilitation 10 months after his frightening accident. He counts himself a lucky man. That Woods is walking, let alone playing golf again, just days before his 46th birthday on Dec. 30 says something about his resolve, work ethic, stubbornness and steely resiliency. It also serves up a statement for the event in which he is playing and the true reason he is here. Woods said in an interview at his own Hero World Challenge two weeks ago that he is a long, long distance from competing on the PGA TOUR once more. Take away this weekend’s TV cameras and bright lights, strip the competition down to its very core, and Tiger might be as human as we ever have viewed him. As he tweeted when he committed to play on Dec. 8, he is playing as a dad. That’s all. A dad looking forward to playing the game he loves alongside his son, who seems to love it, too. Acorn, meet the tree. Charlie Woods stole the show at last year’s PNC Championship, showing off incredible skills for an 11-year-old, not to mention so many of his father’s famous mannerisms. Tiger was nervous for him, understandably, but Charlie thrived in the spotlight, showing off his dad’s laser focus, the spinning club twirls, and even his dad’s trademark fist pumps. Charlie’s 5-wood from 175 yards to 3 feet to set up an eagle-3 at the par-5 third hole in last year’s PNC made the evening highlights of every media outlet on the planet. Along with PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan and Jay’s dad, Joe Monahan, longtime IMG executive Alastair Johnston – the creator of the Father-Son event born in 1995 – joined Tiger and Charlie for a pro-am round at the PNC a year ago. Tiger was clearly different, Johnston said, so filled with joy to watch his son in the arena. Johnston has had an interesting window into the life of Tiger, not only through his management company, IMG, but as his former next-door neighbor back when Woods lived in the tony gated Isleworth enclave in Orlando. In fact, Woods was awash in accolades upon returning to Florida following his mind-blowing, 12-shot victory at the 1997 Masters, the first of his 15 major championships. He went out to retrieve his mail one day, and Johnston wanted to offer his own congratulations. You know, Johnston told Woods, you now are qualified to play in the Father-Son. “He looked at me as if I had three heads, and asked, ‘What’s that?’” Johnston said via phone on Monday. laughing. “I said, ‘Oh, you’ll see.’” Johnston, who worked side by side with Arnold Palmer for many years, made a terrific discovery during a stroll through the locker room one day during the 1995 Senior PLAYERS Championship in Detroit. There were courtesy phones set up for players to use. On one phone was Jack Nicklaus. Raymond Floyd was on a phone in a different corner. On a third phone, Dave Stockton. All three men had played that afternoon, but seemed much more interested to check in with home to see how their sons were doing in various college and junior competitions. Johnston had an idea: What if there was a tournament, a real competition, in which fathers could compete alongside their sons? And to make the tournament field elite, each father needed to be a major champion (winners of THE PLAYERS later were added). Eventually, what began as the Father-Son at Vero Beach’s Windsor Club in 1995 would evolve into something much more inclusionary, hence the name change to the PNC Championship. Today, the qualifications are to be a major winner (male or female) competing with a family member. Fuzzy Zoeller, Jerry Pate and Bernhard Langer all would compete alongside their daughters, and last year, Annika Sorenstam competed alongside her father, Tom. This week’s field includes LPGA No. 1 Nelly Korda, who is playing alongside her famous tennis-playing dad, Petr. Players have teed it up with stepsons. Bubba Watson is playing with his father-in-law. “Adding grandfathers,” Johnston explained, “allowed Arnold (Palmer) to compete, and nobody was objecting to that.” Many major champions who’d like to compete simply aren’t able because daylight limits the field to 20 teams, which makes for some tough late-year phone calls for Johnston. It’s not so much telling the famous major winner the news, but envisioning the conversation that person must then have with his relative to break the news. Johnston starts thinking about fields two and three years in advance, and said he is driven by “great narratives.” It intrigues him to see Watson, a three-time major champion, able to compete with his father-in-law. The Cinks – 2009 Open Championship winner Stewart Cink and his son, Reagan – were invited to return after they successfully paired for two PGA TOUR victories last season, with Reagan on his dad’s bag. Of course, there is no bigger, or more attention-packed, ongoing narrative than Woods hitting shots once more. A year ago, he let Charlie, who plays from forward tees, take care of many of the drives for the team, and this week, that unquestionably will be a point of strategy. “This is Dad’s ‘Take Your Kid to Work Day,’” Johnston said. “And Tiger and Charlie epitomized that. Tiger was very nervous for Charlie (last year, in Charlie’s debut). This year he’ll be relying on Charlie. “Without having done it last year, I don’t think Tiger would be playing this year. But the way Charlie handled it all … I knew that if there was a way of doing it, there was a good chance that Tiger was going to play.” So away we go. It’s a late-season “hit-and-giggle” event, as Tiger may affectionately call it, but don’t think the shots won’t count. They will and they won’t, but on a bigger scale, represent an important milestone and tiny step forward as Tiger Woods moves toward the future that remains uncertain. When Saturday dawns at the PNC, Woods will be there not as the man trying to break Sam Snead’s record for TOUR victories or a man contemplating resuming his pursuit of Jack’s major mark. Tiger Woods will be hitting shots as a dad, like many of us do on Saturdays. And there always is great importance in that.

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