Farmers Insurance Open, Round 2: Leaderboard, tee times, TV schedule

Former PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year Sungjae Im will return to defend his maiden TOUR title at The Honda Classic, where he'll be competing against a field that boasts 18 major champions. FIELD NOTES: Joaquin Niemann is the highest-ranked golfer in the FedExCup standings in the field at The Honda Classic. Niemann, part of the International Presidents Cup team in 2019, is looking for his second TOUR win... Some of the most-recent winners at PGA National looking to grab more glory who are returning for 2021 include Keith Mitchell (2019), Rickie Fowler (2017), and Adam Scott (2016)... Padraig Harrington, a two-time Honda Classic winner, is back at PGA National this season on a Sponsor Exemption. Harrington's two wins came a decade apart (2005, 2015)... Martin Kaymer is also playing on a Sponsor Exemption. This will be Kaymer's first non-major start on the PGA TOUR since the Barracuda Championship in August 2020... Other notable names in the field thanks to a Sponsor Exemption include Chase Koepka (brother to Brooks) and Kamaiu Johnson, who is playing his third TOUR event this season after his inspiring story caught the eyes of so many in the golf world... Phil Mickelson will be playing his second week in a row on PGA TOUR after THE PLAYERS Championship. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points COURSE: PGA National (Champion), 7,125 yards, par 70. Jack Nicklaus re-worked the tricky Tom and George Fazio layout in 1990 and 2014 and it has been long ranked as one of the hardest the TOUR plays every year. The Bear Trap (No's 15-17) is a water-soaked stretch that makes for high drama as players look to close out their rounds. PGA National's Champion Course has hosted The Honda Classic every season since 2007 and rewards accuracy over everything else. STORYLINES: Daniel Berger, who won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February, calls the West Palm Beach area home and is looking to lean into those Floridian vibes for more success this week. He finished T4 a year ago and is the highest-ranked golfer in the OWGR in the field... Given how many TOUR pros live in West Palm, the Monday Qualifier (with four spots available) is always one of the most highly-contested of the year... While Americans won The Honda Classic for three years in a row from 2017-2019, 10 of the last 16 Honda Classic winners have been from outside the United States... There has only been one back-to-back winner in Honda Classic history (Jack Nicklaus, 1977-78)... Can Lee Westwood continue his excellent play of late? The 47-year-old was in the final group Sunday at Bay Hill, held the 36-hole lead at THE PLAYERS, and is returning to The Honda Classic after a T4 result in 2020. 72-HOLE RECORD: 264, Justin Leonard (2003 at Mirasol). PGA National record: 267, Camilo Villegas (2010). 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Brian Harman (2nd round, 2012). LAST TIME: PGA National showed its teeth in 2020 with Sungjae Im's 6-under winning total the second highest since the long-time PGA TOUR stop moved to PGA National in 2007. Im, the TOUR's Rookie of the Year the season prior, fired a 4-under 66 Sunday (tied for the round of the day) to win by one over Mackenzie Hughes. Hughes matched Im's final-round 66, but despite three birdies on the back nine Sunday, he was undone by a bogey on the par-4 16th. Im kicked off Sunday with four birdies in his first five holes and finished just as strong, with birdies on two of his final holes. He became the seventh South Korean to win on TOUR. Tommy Fleetwood finished third, while Daniel Berger, Lee Westwood, Brendan Steele, and fellow South Korean Byeong Hun An finished T4. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. (Golf Channel/PGA Tour Live Freeview). Thursday-Friday, 2 p.m.-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel). Saturday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (NBC). Sunday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel). Sunday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (NBC) PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 7:15 a.m.-3 p.m. (Featured Groups), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Holes) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).

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LOS ANGELES - Sponsor invite Tae Hoon Kim has spectacularly won his third Genesis vehicle in just over four months with a silky hole-in-one in the opening round of The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club. Kim made an ace on the par-3 16th hole at Riviera from 168 yards with a 7-iron which earned him a 2021 Genesis G80. The Korean is in the field after winning the 2020 Genesis Championship on the Korean Tour last October - a result that yielded a Genesis GV80 and a spot to make his PGA TOUR debut. The 35-year-old, four-time Korean Tour winner also picked up a Genesis GV70 for leading the order of merit on the Korean Tour in 2020 making it three vehicles in just over four months. Incredibly, it wasn't even the first eagle of his round. Starting on the 10th hole Kim birdied from 10-feet before holing out a greenside bunker shot on the par-5 11th for an eagle - sending him to 3 under through just two holes. The ace came after a bogey at the 14th but when he dropped in another birdie at the par-5 1st as he made the turn, Kim sat in second place on the leaderboard. Unfortunately he was unable to maintain the run and dropped four shots in his next three holes but remains 1 under with two holes to play, good enough to be tied for 33rd place.

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HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – This is a week to celebrate consistency because the PGA TOUR has set up its stage at the RBC Heritage on a most-beloved golf course. RELATED: Leaderboard | Five Things to Know: Harbour Town Harbour Town Golf Links “is in my top five,” said Tom Watson, and Hale Irwin gushed about “that look, that feel, that mystique.” Said Nick Faldo, “it’s got the right charm, the right ambiance,” and when Nick Price came here, he added, “I used every club in the bag because it demands strategy.” Those Hall of Famers have given way to a new generation of elite players, but the sentiments strike a consistent chord. Many of those on the first page of the leaderboard may be playing well because they feel they’ve already won just by being here. “I love the island here, such a great event,” said Graeme McDowell, who won here in 2013 and hasn’t missed it since. No surprise, he shot an opening-round 66 this time around, after which he said, “A phenomenal golf course where people are just happy to see you.” He’s three off the lead (Cameron Young, 63), and so is Shane Lowry, another most personable Irishman and the winner of the 2019 Open Championship, won on Irish turf, no less, at Royal Portrush. At 35, Lowry has stepped out of the shadows of his great friends and fellow major winners, Rory McIlroy and McDowell, and established himself as a global star. Ranked 30th in the Official World Golf Ranking, he might be playing as nicely as anyone not named Scottie Scheffler. “Yeah, it’s pretty good,” said Lowry, who can be excused for missing a short birdie putt on his 18th hole, the par-4 ninth, in Thursday’s first round, for his performance – five birdies and 13 pars for a 66 – was part of a long run of good form. “I felt I was (just) looking out the window at the Honda,” he said. “And I’ve played pretty good since that.” He speaks the truth. Second to Sepp Straka at The Honda Classic, Lowry continued solid play at THE PLAYERS Championship (T-13), Valspar Championship (T-12), and Masters (T-3). He has broken par in 11 of his 16 rounds, and just once in seven stroke-play tournaments worldwide in 2022 has he finished outside the top 20. That finish, in his so-called off-week, was a T-24. On a breezy Thursday morning when the Calibogue Sound offered its usual sultry backdrop, the challenge to Harbour Town was as it always has been – figure out how to shape the ball around the trees and don’t get too lofty with your trajectory. Veterans know that, and sometimes rookies catch on quickly, too. “You can’t get around here without thinking, that’s for sure,” said Young, who teed off in in the first pairing off the first hole and went bogey-free in his pace-setting 63. “It can get pretty windy out there, so you have to really pick your spots where you think you can be a little aggressive and places where you just can’t.” Rookie Young had it going early this season with a second at The Genesis Invitational amid a stretch of five straight tournaments in which he never finished worse than T-26. Then came a missed cut at THE PLAYERS Championship, a lackluster World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play – he failed to make it out of group play – and another MC at the Masters. In other words, Young came into this week seeking consistency. McDowell, Lowry, and others RBC Heritage veterans would tell the kid from Scarborough, N.Y., via Wake Forest, that he’s come to the right spot. Harbour Town Golf Links is saturated is consistency, from the way the residents embrace the tournament to the style of play the course demands. “The way the course is set up, I like keeping the ball under the trees,” said Lowry. “I think it kind of suits that. You kind of flight it around here and that’s what I do well, keeping it down out of the wind.” And the 2019 Champion Golfer of the Year has another attribute that serves him well at Harbour Town. “There are a lot of talents I would like for myself,” McDowell said. “Rory’s driving, Tiger’s mind. (But) Shane’s chipping is right up there for me. Shane, to me, is one of the best chippers of the ball that I’ve seen.” That is a valuable tool anywhere, but particularly at Harbour Town, where you might feel like you’re playing 18 postage stamps. The small greens are partly why this Pete Dye design generates such a passionate following. Lowry’s steady form continued as he hit 11 of 14 fairways and 14 greens, so his chipping prowess wasn’t tested much in his bogey-free effort. Maybe it’s become ho-hum stuff, but for Lowry, it’s all about keeping himself in the mix as he chases his first win since that Open Championship. “I just need to be patient and need to keep going,” he said. “Hopefully, I get the breaks on some Sunday when I need it and I can win another tournament soon. That’s kind of what’s just spurring me on is just trying to win. It’s so hard to win out here.” Consistency is also elusive, even at Harbour Town, which continues to do its part – timeless, unchanging and charming as ever.

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