EA SPORTS PGA TOUR, the exclusive home of all four men’s majors and road to the Masters launches worldwide on March 24, 2023

Here are nine tidbits from the first round of the CareerBuilder Challenge that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. Be looking for the Emergency 9 shortly after the close of play of each round of the tournament. Know Thy Enemy These were the top 10 picked golfers in the PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO. It might not be time to panic just yet with a 54-hole cut but thankfully for some of you, substitutions are allowed in this game! Remember, this week’s ONLY METRIC is scoring! With all three courses playing less than 7,200 yards and all to par 72, there should be plenty of it. Course and Weather Management The talk of the event today was how perfect the weather was and how gusty it is going to be on Friday. Thankfully in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO substitutions are part of game. With three courses in play, it’s time to avoid the hardest of the bunch, the Stadium Course. The Tournament Course and La Quinta have been by far the easier of the bunch the last two seasons with the new rotation and today wasn’t any different. At one point La Quinta Country Club was playing a staggering four shots under-par this afternoon. Only five of the top 41 today were playing the Stadium Course. If you’re at a crossroads about who to stick into your lineup, La Quinta is the tiebreaker! Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition! Well, yes gamers did! As noted above, 68 percent of the folks playing PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO this week have Jon Rahm on their roster. The Spaniard fired 62 (-10) at La Quinta and affirmed his love for desert courses that he acquired during his four years at Arizona State. The dots kept connecting as he won the DP World Championship in November in Dubai. He’s the No. 3 player in the OWGR and is performing like it!  Oasis Those of you who have been riding the Brian Harman Express have noticed that the train car is getting fuller by the week! Those who have been late to the party and have bought a ticket this week won’t be disappointed after Thursday. The man with five consecutive finishes inside the top eight opened with a breezy 65 (-7) at La Quinta to sit T9 after round one. Normal service continues. #NappyFactor The debate rages on and you’ll read more about it in Study Hall down the page! Martin Piller’s wife, Gerina, is 25 weeks along with baby No. 1. She’s walking in the gallery this week as her hubby looks for TOUR win No. 1. He co-leads the field in birdies as he circled half of his holes on the Tournament Course. Piller has won three times on the Web.com Tour with totals of 18, 26 and 28-under par. He’s not afraid to make birdies! Low Net Even though only five players of the top 41 began on the Stadium Course, I’m keeping my eye on two who ended the day inside the top 10. Take a bow, Nick Watney and Grayson Murray! They both posted 65 (-7) and get to take on La Quinta, the easiest course in the rotation, tomorrow. Posting rounds this low and being only three back should give them both an excellent foundation to add to before returning to the Stadium Course on Sunday. Past Champion Problems Two-time winners Phil Mickelson and Bill Haas aren’t helping the desert historians feel any confidence after the first round. Mickelson could only manage 70 at La Quinta after starting three-under-par through his first five holes. Haas threw up an even par 72 at the Stadium Course and checks in at T125 in a field of now 155. Remember, these are two guys who have feasted in the desert over the years. Yikes. Fish or Cut Bait? As is the case EVERY SINGLE WEEK ON TOUR, there are big names that don’t fire in the opening round. This week is a bit different as the cut is 54-holes and two of the three courses are some of the easiest on TOUR. The question is even more difficult to answer as 2014 champion Patrick Reed, 10th-most selected above, posted 74 (+2) at the Tournament Course in his season debut. His reward is playing the Stadium Course tomorrow in gusty conditions…Bubba Watson was the 11th-most selected and just missed out on the chart above. His 70 today at La Quinta will make gamers think twice tomorrow as he’ll begin T88. Study Hall Brandt Snedeker returned to TOUR action this week after battling a sternum joint injury. His comeback was derailed overseas as he WD from the Indonesian Masters with heat exhaustion. His even-par 72 on the Tournament Course leaves his T125 with a trip to the Stadium Course Friday…Brandon Hagy withdrew Wednesday night with a wrist injury and was replaced by Rick Lamb…Corey Pavin withdrew after 17 holes with a neck injury for those of you keeping an eye on PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO…No bogeys in an opening round 69 (-3) for Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood pegged all 18 greens in Abu Dhabi… Sergio Garcia and Louis Oosthuizen are tied for the lead (66) while Pat Perez (70) is T-29 at the Singapore Open. 

Click here to read the full article…

In 1980, Argentina’s Roberto De Vicenzo won the first U.S. Senior Open, winning the title by defeating amateur William Campbell by a shot. That same year, in Cordoba, Argentina, 26-year-old amateur golfer Eduardo Romero, turned pro, embarking on his own professional golf career delayed for two years due to his service in the Argentina military. De Vicenzo was one of Romero’s idols, Romero a protégé of the Argentine legend. Twenty-eight years after De Vicenzo’s U.S. Senior Open heroics, Romero would hoist the same trophy De Vicenzo once held. At the 2008 U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, “El Gato”—The Cat, so nicknamed for the way he stealthily stalked his opponents on the golf course, overcame a four-bogeys-in-four-holes streak on the back nine of the final round and still coasted to a four-shot victory over Fred Funk. When he finally made a par at the 15th hole to end the bogey streak, he pumped his fist as if he had won the tournament. It turned out he essentially had. The victory was an exclamation point that Romero was good enough to beat anybody at any time and anywhere, regardless of his age. He had done it during his career in Latin America and then on the European Tour, and that win, coupled with his initial PGA TOUR Champions title at the JELD-WEN Tradition, merely served as extensions to what he had done in his career prior to turning 50. Romero had been inactive as a competitor for some time as he battled illness, and he died February 13 in Argentina at age 67 after complications from cancer. Doctors sent Romero home from the hospital on February 5 after they told him his disease was terminal. Romero’s passing was confirmed by the Municipality of Villa Allende in Argentina on Sunday evening. The son of a club pro, Romero won and won often in his home country, taking home 44 Argentine Tour titles, including the 1989 Argentine Open. His 44 career titles are second only to De Vicenzo among Argentine professionals. He was victorious in five other Argentina-based tournaments and also prevailed in tournaments in Chile and Mexico. Romero’s eight European Tour wins came during a 13-year span where he beat such luminaries as Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros, Colin Montgomerie and Jose Maria Olazabal. He won 67 total tournament titles prior to turning 50, and it only took Romero eight starts to pick up that first PGA TOUR Champions title, at the JELD-WEN Tradition. “I realized at the age of nine that my life was going to revolve around golf. In my house my father was a golf professional, and several relatives were dedicated to this sport. I was never good at studying or at football,” said Romero in 2014. “I never thought I would make a living from golf. I didn’t think about how much I was going to win in a tournament. I just played because I loved golf. I loved to hit the ball, and I always went out to enjoy what I did.” Romero held PGA TOUR membership for two seasons, originally earning his playing privileges by tying for 12th at the 1985 PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament. In 1986, Romero played in 30 TOUR tournaments, and played in 15 more in 1995 after finishing second to Woody Austin at the 1994 Qualifying Tournament. Despite only enjoying two seasons as a TOUR member, he added 51 additional PGA TOUR starts, his best chance at winning coming in 1990 in Colorado, at The International. In the Modified Stableford System scoring event at Castle Pines Golf Club, Romero tied for second, with Steve Pate and Peter Senior, three points behind winner Davis Love III. His performance in Colorado was a harbinger of things to come in the Centennial State. Prior to his victory in Colorado Springs, Romero, won the JELD-WEN Tradition, in the summer of 2006 outside Portland, Oregon. Romero finished regulation tied with Lonnie Nielsen then rolled in a two-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole for the first of his five PGA TOUR Champions titles. That win was also his first triumph in the United States and his first major championship. The U.S. Senior Open would be his second. The majority of Romero’s PGA TOUR Champions action came between 2007 and 2012. He played 102 of his 125 total tournaments in that span. “For that six-year period right after he turned 50, Eduardo’s talent was on full display. A generation after Roberto De Vicenzo played and starred on PGA TOUR Champions, Eduardo followed in his mentor’s footsteps, always proud of his heritage and showing what a great player he was in his own right,” said Miller Brady, PGA TOUR Champions President. “Beyond what he did on the golf course, though, was Eduardo’s humanity. He was a consummate professional, one of the kindest, most-generous players our Tour has seen. We send our condolences to Eduardo’s family, his wife, Adriana, and his daughter, Dolly. We will greatly miss him.” Even with all his globetrotting, Argentina was never far from Romero’s mind, where he always maintained a home regardless of where he was playing. He represented his country 13 times in the World Cup, exceeded only by De Vicenzo’s 15 appearances. His most-memorable performance came when Buenos Aires Golf Club hosted the 2000 World Cup, with Romero teaming with Angel Cabrera, thrilling the local fans as they contended all week, battling the U.S. team of David Duval and Tiger Woods. The Americans eventually prevailed by three strokes, Argentina finishing second. Said Romero after retiring from competition, “I think I’m satisfied with my career. If I had any debt, it was not winning a major in my time. I was close at the British Open, but at the end of the day everything happens for a reason. I did what I could, and I’m happy with what I achieved.”

Click here to read the full article…

Bryson DeChambeau opened his 2018-19 season pretty much how he finished the last one, firing a final-round 66 to reach 21 under and secure his fifth PGA TOUR victory and fourth since June at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where DeChambeau held off a hard-charging Patrick Cantlay (65) by one to recall his form in the FedExCup Playoffs last fall. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Everything changed in a matter of minutes. Some tournaments are hard to encapsulate with any sort of turning point. Not this one. Playing behind Cantlay, DeChambeau had just lost the lead when he rolled in an eagle putt of 57 feet, 7 inches from just behind the green at the par-5 16th hole. Meanwhile, Cantlay was up ahead making bogey from the greenside bunker at the par-3 17th. Just like that, DeChambeau had gone from one behind to two ahead and in the driver’s seat. Two more pars to close it out and he was left to talk about his reaction to the eagle, capped off with a Tiger-like fist pump. “Yeah, when I hit it it’s like, all right, it’s pretty solid speed off the start,â€� DeChambeau said. “Then I saw it about halfway down there and I was like, ‘Ooh, that might be a little fast.’ For whatever reason the slope gradually declined and went to about like a 2 percent slope and the ball started just rolling perfectly to the right just like I had envisioned. “Just held straight that last little bit and was able to trickle in,â€� he added. “I haven’t given a reaction like that in a while. That was pretty cool.â€� 2. Cantlay ran out of holes. Vying to become the first to successfully defend his title in Vegas since Jim Furyk (’99), Cantlay was just 1 under for his first 27 holes, but 19 under for his final 45. “I really got off to a slow start Friday, or Thursday and Friday, and that was too much to overcome,â€� he said. “Played really well this weekend and I’m proud of that.â€� He did well to birdie the par-5 16th after yanking his tee shot left, and closed with a clutch birdie on 18. A poor bunker shot at the par-3 17th, his ball barely escaping the sand, led to a bogey. “It was just a poor shot at the wrong time,â€� Cantlay said. 3. Sam Ryder is knocking on the door. Ryder’s pants, which showed a lot of ankle, got a lot of commentary on the telecast, but it was his play that spoke loudest. His final-round 62 was another suggestion that a win is coming. “I knew it was going to have to be silly low if I was going to have a chance,â€� Ryder said. “I just wanted to have a good day and take it hole by hole, shot by shot, play well, and that’s kind of what I did. Just made maybe the best ball-striking round of my life.â€� As good as it was, it could have been even better had he not found the water in front of the green at the par-5 16th hole, where he had to scramble for a par. “Wish I could have had the one back on 16,â€� he said. “I mean, I want to go laser that after the day’s over. I said, ‘Be right,’ and I thought — I mean, I thought that was perfect. I could not have hit it better. Came up a little short. “All in all, happy with it. Few too many 5s on the scorecard, but good day.â€� 4. Rickie Fowler is in form heading to Mexico. Fowler’s 63 (T4) was his best final round in an official TOUR event, although he closed with a 61 to win the unofficial Hero World Challenge a year ago. Now he heads to the Mayakoba Golf Classic, where he was runner-up last year. “It seemed to get better and better,â€� said Fowler, who worked with his Vegas-based swing coach, Butch Harmon, last week. “I think we continued to shake some rust off every day. Putter felt a lot better today. I’m looking forward to (Mayakoba).â€� Fowler’s 63 marked the fourth time he’s shot 63 or better on TOUR, with his career low still the 62 he shot in the second round of the 2011 Waste Management Phoenix Open. 5. Jordan Spieth saw both good and bad. A T55 finish was nothing to write home about for 2015 FedExCup champion Spieth, who was making his first fall start in the U.S. But that’s not to say there weren’t some highlights. First among them was perhaps his chipping and putting as he opened with a 5-under 66, then chased that with a second-round 68. Alas, struggled on the weekend, signing for 71-72 to fall way back. What happened? He was using a new driver and 3-wood, which he said didn’t work out. “I’m going to go back to my old stuff (at Mayakoba) next week,â€� he said. He added that he had suffered some lousy breaks (plugged lies, balls in divots), and lost his swing on the weekend. All of that notwithstanding, it’s still early in the new season as Spieth tries to bounce back from a winless 2017-18, when he finished 31st in the FedExCup. And he said he would take some poignant memories away from the Shriners. “The hospitality and really the way that the kids from the hospital we really incorporated into the week was fantastic,â€� Spieth said. “I thought it was incredible to have standard-bearers from the hospital and the way that they were able to incorporate it on the range and then throughout the practice rounds, the pro-ams, really makes it a special week for sure.â€� FIVE INSIGHTS 1. DeChambeau was a monster on the back nine, going 16 under compared to just 5 under on the front. He was one of three players (Bud Cauley, Richy Werenski) to go bogey-free on the back nine the entire week. He hit 34 of 36 greens in regulation on the back nine over the weekend, when he was +4.81 in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green. 2. More dialed-in from tee to green than in any of his previous four wins, DeChambeau was sixth in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and third in SG: Approach-the-Green. He led the field in SG: Tee-to-Green (+13.550), was fourth in fairways hit (44/56), T4 in greens in regulation (60/72), and took 115 total putts. Which of those stats stood out? “I drove it incredible,â€� DeChambeau said. 3. Abraham Ancer (66, T4) notched his second top-5 finish in three starts this season (T5 CIMB Classic) and now heads to his native Mexico for the Mayakoba Golf Classic (T9 last year). 4. There were five bogey-free rounds Sunday: Ryder (62), Fowler (63), Brandon Harkins (64), Joaquin Niemann (66), and Alex Prugh (69). Ryder’s 62 marked his career low and second top-four finish in his last three starts, and his third-place finish moved into 10th in the FedExCup. 5. Newly minted 2017-18 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year Aaron Wise led the field with 27 birdies, one more than Cantlay, whose nine on Sunday tied his career best for one round. WYNDHAM REWARDS The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will benefit from the Wyndham Rewards program. Xander Schauffele maintains the top spot while Bryson DeChambeau jumps to fifth after winning the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Runner-up Patrick Cantlay moved from 26th to sixth, while third-place Sam Ryder jumped from 31st to 10th.

Click here to read the full article…