Expert Picks: Wells Fargo Championship

JACKSON, Miss.  – The transition to pro golf can be a tough one, even for a player whose physical talents drew comparisons to Tiger Woods. Sub-par scores almost always spell success in college golf. They can lead to missed cuts at the highest level. Players who felt unbeatable competing against their peers can lose confidence when they start losing to men who are old enough to be their father. Norman Xiong learned that after turning pro this summer. When he arrived at this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship, where he’s playing on a sponsor exemption, he’d missed all six of his cuts as a pro. “When I turned pro, it was a little bit overwhelming, I guess,� Xiong said. “I think I’ve done a really good job of learning and getting used to it.� He didn’t just make his first cut this week. He was atop the leaderboard after shooting 67 on Friday. He sits at 9-under 135 after two rounds at the Country Club of Jackson. Xiong, 19, is leading a PGA TOUR event while his high-school classmates are early in their sophomore years of college. If he can win, he’d be a day older than Jordan Spieth was when he claimed the 2013 John Deere Classic. Spieth was the youngest PGA TOUR winner since Ralph Guldahl in 1931. A newfound strength – his short game – has carried Xiong over two rounds played in cold, windy conditions at this century-old layout. Like many of his peers, Xiong plays aggressively off the tee, opting for driver despite the Country Club of Jackson’s penal Bermuda rough. It’s paid off on the par-5s, which he has played in 6 under par, including an eagle on Friday’s second hole. The 55-footer he holed from the fringe on that hole was one of three hole-outs for Xiong on Friday. He also saved par all seven times he missed a green in the second round. Xiong has hit 11 greens in each of the first two rounds but has saved par on all but one occasion. He leads the field in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green. He chipped in on No. 16 and holed another putt from the fringe on the sixth hole. Xiong also holed a 56-foot birdie putt Thursday. Xiong said his short game used to be a weakness, but it has improved since employing coach Josh Gregory after turning pro. Bermudagrass poses unique challenges, especially to those who grew up outside the Southeast. Gregory has helped Xiong, who grew up in Southern California before attending the University of Oregon, change his clubhead path on chip shots. Xiong’s club was closed and traveling to the left through impact. Now he feels like he’s drawing his chip shots. A strong short game is a helpful addition to an impressive repertoire of physical skills. “At 19 years old, I think Tiger is the only guy I would defer to as being better than Norman. I haven’t seen much better than him at that age. He’s really that good,� Oregon head coach Casey Martin said in a GolfChannel.com profile earlier this year. Martin was teammates with Woods at Stanford. Xiong turned pro this year as college golf’s consensus player of the year. He won both the Jack Nicklaus and Fred Haskins awards, which are given to the top player in college golf. He won six times in his sophomore season, including four of his final six starts. Xiong already is ahead of the curve. He came to Oregon a semester early, halfway through his senior year of high school, and immediately entered the Ducks’ lineup. He was the national freshman of the year in just half a season. He entered the lineup immediately and won in his third start. Amateur accomplishments can help secure big endorsement deals and sponsor exemptions, but they are meaningless once the tee is in the ground. The score is all that matters. Xiong saw that this summer. He shot under par in his first four stroke-play starts on the PGA TOUR. He received nothing for his efforts, missing the cut all four times. He also missed the cut in the Barracuda Championship, which uses a Stableford format, and the European Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links. “It was very frustrating,� he said. “I felt as though my whole game was really solid.� Xiong recently saw success a month ago at the first stage of Web.com Tour Q-School, shooting 16 under par to share medalist honors. He is scheduled to play the second stage next week in California but can change his site if he qualifies for next week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Of course, a win means he can scrap the whole Q-School quest. He’s halfway there.

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The wealthy Saudi-backed LIV Golf league embodied its “Golf, but louder” slogan in its first season. But can a league that embraced 54 holes, team golf and shotgun starts sustain? What about its players?

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HOUSTON – When the decisive 6-foot par putt fell Sunday at the Houston Open, Lanto Griffin raised both arms in celebration while a look of rapturous disbelief crossed his face. Then he started sobbing, the long, unique and heartbreaking journey to becoming a PGA TOUR winner fueling his emotions. Some 1,200 miles away in Roanoke, Virginia, Steve Prater was jumping for joy, his head nearly reaching the ceiling. It had been the same reaction the day before when Griffin holed a bunker shot for a much-needed birdie. “I’ve jumped so much this week that I’ve got a headache,â€� Prater said. Prater is the Director of Instruction at Roanoke Country Club, but several years ago he worked at Blacksburg Country Club. That’s where he met Griffin, who back then was a boy with self-described “hippiesâ€� for parents — including his dad, Michael, who managed a health food store and knew a little about baseball and soccer, but not as much about golf. Related: Leaderboard | What’s in Griffin’s bag? | Griffin turns consistency into victory So they went to a junior clinic, where Michael met Steve to discuss young Lanto’s interest in golf. Prater soon took over the teaching. And then when Michael died of a brain tumor, Prater became much more to the 12-year-old Lanto. Friend, confidant, a father figure. The connection was golf but really, it became about life. “I remember when Lanto’s dad died,â€� Prater said. “I knew he was sick but it was still kind of a shock to me. Lanto was in the bag room when I saw him. … He was sad, crying. We hugged for a while. Ever since, we’ve had a bond.â€� Griffin was asked Sunday about his dad. “I bet he’d be pretty proud,â€� he responded while trying to hold off the tears. “He got me started. He got me a set – I don’t know if I’ll be able to tell this story – but for Christmas in 1996, he got me a 5-iron, 7-iron, 9-iron, putter, 3-wood and he got me into golf. “And then Steve Prater, he took it from there.â€� Losing a parent at any time is difficult is harsh, but for a teenager, it can be devastating. That same horrible day that Michael Griffin died, Prater told Lanto that he had secured him an honorary membership to Blacksburg. And as Lanto threw himself into golf, Prater was there to teach and support. When Virginia Commonwealth University came looking for golfers, Prater pointed to Lanto. They signed him to a scholarship. And as Lanto turned pro, Prater helped navigate him through the ups and downs – especially the struggles that left Griffin nearly penniless and caused him to question his career choice. In 2014, Griffin had $176 in his bank account. In the spring of 2017, he told his agent he was quitting the sport. But then he started seeing a sports psychologist, and turned things around, winning in Nashville on the Korn Ferry Tour. That led to membership on the PGA TOUR in 2018, but Griffin could not keep his card. He was too aggressive, firing at pins he had no business seeking. He lost his card but gained perspective. Back on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019, he won again and earned a second shot at the TOUR. And now he’s a TOUR winner, breaking a tie with playing partner Mark Hubbard and Scott Harrington with a 33-foot birdie putt at the 16th hole – his caddie Chris Nash said Griffin called it before his stroke — and then parring the two hardest holes on the course to finish it off. The journey from the poor house to the penthouse was difficult to comprehend. He won’t have to worry about his TOUR card for a few years. He’s headed to Maui in January, and his Season of Championships schedule next year will be pretty full. He’s now No. 1 in FedExCup points, so the Playoffs are a given now. Griffin, in fact, has already achieved several of his goals for this season; he keeps the list on his phone and was happy to share Sunday. Among them: Playing in a final group on Sunday, keeping his card, top-70 FedExCup, qualify for THE PLAYERS Championship and other invitationals, and producing a Sunday scoring average within a 1/2 stroke of his normal scoring average. His No. 1 goal, though, was simply to win. “It’s incredible,â€� he said. Also on his phone, the text count was growing, reaching upwards of 500. Everybody who knew his journey wanted to congratulate him. No doubt one of those texts was from Prater, who had sent a text the night before the final round as Griffin prepared to sleep on a one-shot lead. It read: Are we having fun yet? On Sunday, Lanto Griffin had plenty of fun. But he also had plenty of people to thank. His mother, who had made Team Lanto T-shirts. His girlfriend, Maya, an attorney in Charlotte, North Carolina, who had flown in this weekend to walk outside the ropes. Stuart Swanson, who had provided so much support and used to drive him to junior events. So many others – “20 or 30 people that if they didn’t open their checkbooks to me in amateur golf, junior golf, mini-tours two years ago, I couldn’t have kept playing,â€� Griffin said. And of course, Steve Prater, the man with the headache. “I wouldn’t be here without him,â€� Griffin said. “He opened every door in golf that I ever had, teaching me for free, giving me a membership. He’s had my back the entire journey.â€� Said Prater: “It’s been a great relationship. He’s such a special person. At the time, when you’re doing those things, you don’t realize how beneficial they can be. Only later in life, you understand that those things were really important for him.â€� Prior to this season, perhaps around the time he was making out his list of goals, Lanto Griffin decided to put Prater on his payroll as part of Team Lanto. Until now, he had never been in financial position to do that. “He deserved every penny that I’m going to pay him,â€� Griffin said. “I can’t wait to write that check to him.â€�

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