Emergency 9: A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, Round 3

While Justin Rose chased the lowest round in TOUR history and Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas dueled down the stretch of a prestigious national championship, PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan appeared on CBS’ Sunday broadcast of the RBC Canadian Open to answer questions about the recent suspensions of a group of players and to reiterate his optimism about the future of the PGA TOUR. Commissioner Monahan addressed the first event of the LIV Golf Invitational Series, which was played earlier this week, but the difference between that “exhibition,” as Monahan called it, and what was occurring in the final round of the RBC Canadian Open provided the perfect contrast to illustrate the strength of the PGA TOUR. “Why do they need us so badly?” Commissioner Monahan asked, referring to players who wanted to compete in the Saudi-backed series and still have an option to play some events on the PGA TOUR. “Those players have chosen to play in a series of exhibition matches against the same players over and over again. You look at that versus what we see here today, and that’s why they need us so badly. You have true, pure competition with the best players in the world here at the RBC Canadian Open with millions of fans watching. “And in this game, it’s pure and true competition that creates the profile of the world’s greatest players and that’s why they need us. That’s what we do. But we aren’t going to allow players to free ride off our loyal members, the best players in the world.” Monahan said questions about how the major championships and Official World Golf Ranking would treat the new series would need to be answered by those respective organizations and that his focus is on the TOUR’s membership and the full TOUR schedule. The makeup of the TOUR’s membership – which features young, talented, established players from across the globe – is one reason the Commissioner said he is bullish on his organization’s future. The top 20 players in the world ranking represent nine different countries on four continents. The FedExCup is shaping up to be a race between two 25-year-olds experiencing breakout seasons, Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns, with stars like THE PLAYERS champion Cameron Smith and former FedExCup champions Patrick Cantlay, Thomas and McIlroy in the mix. “Life is all about meaning and purpose and we are an organization with meaning and purpose,” Commissioner Monahan said. “The best players in the world make wonderful things happen on this platform day in and day out, week in and week out.” The LIV Golf Invitational Series features players with guaranteed contracts playing in 54-hole, no cut events, trading large paychecks for compelling competition. The funding of that circuit has drawn criticism, including from a group of 9/11 survivors and families who lost loved ones in the tragedy. While the Commissioner did not directly address those criticisms, he did ask, “Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA TOUR?” Being aligned with the TOUR means being aligned with an organization that will undergo unprecedented growth in the next decade and continue to make an impact in each community it visits, he emphasized. “This organization is going to continue to evolve … and we are going to continue to advocate for and grow this game in the right way and continue to make meaningful contributions as an organization,” Commissioner Monahan said. “I couldn’t be more excited about the future, the future we all have together.”

Click here to read the full article…

Tiger Woods closed with a 2-over 74 to finish tied for 39th on Tuesday at the JP McManus Pro-Am, a star-studded event won by Xander Schauffele.

Click here to read the full article…

AVONDALE, La. — Billy Horschel and Scott Piercy won the Zurich Classic Sunday, closing with a bogey-free 5-under 67 in alternate-shot play. Horschel became a two-time winner at TPC Louisiana. He captured his maiden PGA TOUR triumph at the 2013 Zurich Classic when it was a traditional every-man-for-himself event. Horschel and Piercy surged into the lead with birdies on the 10th and 11th holes. They followed that with seven pars to hold off Jason Dufner and Pat Perez by a stroke. Dufner had a 14-foot putt for the tie on 18 but came up short. This was the second year of the Zurich’s switch to a two-player team format. The victory was Horschel’s fifth and Piercy’s fourth. They each earned $1.04 million and 400 FedExCup points. The result did not count toward the world ranking. A year ago, the Zurich format called for best-ball play in the second and final rounds, with alternate-shot on the first and third. But organizers decided this year to switch that around so that the final round would have the alternate-shot format, with one player hitting the tee shots on even-numbered holes and the other on odd numbers. That set the stage for substantial moves up or down the leaderboard; players had no choice but the play the lies their teammates left them on the previous shot. Horschel and Piercy began the day three shots back, but immediately surged into contention with birdies on the first two holes. Piercy’s 146-yard approach set up Horschel’s 5-foot birdie putt on the opening hole. On the par-5 second hole, Piercy chipped to 4 feet to set up another birdie putt for Horschel. Horschel returned the favor on the par-5 seventh with a chip to 3 feet and did even better on the 10th, dropping a 148-yard approach shot a foot from the hole. Horschel’s 88-foot wedge out of a green-side bunker stopped less than 2 feet from the hole on the par-5 11th to set up his team’s final birdie — and that was just enough. Heading into the final round, Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown, the 2017 runners-up in a playoff, topped a crowded leaderboard that featured 13 teams within four shots of the lead. By the time the top five teams had all reached the back nine, they were all within two shots of one another. This time, Kisner and Brown faded on the back nine, with three bogeys and one double-bogey on 16 after going into the water. Their final-round 77 dropped them all the way back to a tie for 15th at 15 under. The team of Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel finished third at 20 under. Tied for fourth at 19 under were the teams of Tommy Fleetwood and Chris Paisley, and Brice Garnett and Chesson Hadley. Garnett and Hadley began the day two shots off the lead and vaulted to the top of the leader board with four birdies on the front nine, but they bogeyed the par-4 13th when they struggled with a massive fairway bunker on the Pete Dye-designed course, and also bogeys the par-3 14th and par-3 17th.

Click here to read the full article…