Featured holes: Tour Championship final round

The Masters expanded its reach to elite amateurs on Thursday when it offered a special invitation to NCAA champion Gordon Sargent, the first time in more than 20 years an amateur received such an invitation. Augusta National also awarded a special invitation to Kazuki Higa, who won four times on the Japan Golf Tour and captured the money list last year. “The Masters Tournament prioritizes opportunities to elevate both amateur and professional golf around the world,” Chairman Fred Ridley said. “Whether on the international stage or at the elite amateur level, each player has showcased their talent in the past year. We look forward to hosting them at Augusta National in April.” Sargent is the No. 3 player in the world amateur ranking and among the growing list of young American college stars. As a freshman at Vanderbilt, he won the NCAA individual title last year with a birdie on the first hole in a four-man playoff over Eugenio Chacarra, Parker Coody and Ryan Burnett. He also was chosen for the Palmer Cup, matches between college players from the U.S. and Europe. The Masters has a history of looking after elite amateurs, once inviting the Walker Cup team until the late 1980s. It currently invites the U.S. Amateur champion and runner-up, the British Amateur champion, the U.S. Mid-Amateur champion and winners of the Asia-Pacific and Latin American amateur events it helped create. The last amateur to earn a special invitation was Aaron Baddeley of Australia in 2000, who was 18 when he beat a field that included Greg Norman and Colin Montgomerie to win the Australian Open. The invitations bring the current field to 80 players. The only way to qualify now before the April 6-9 tournament is to win a PGA TOUR event that offers full FedExCup points or be in the top 50 in the world ranking a week before the Masters. Higa’s invitation was expected. The Masters has a history of inviting international players who have had sterling seasons without having regular access to the PGA TOUR. The last special invitation went to Shigo Imahira of Japan in 2019. Higa is No. 68 in the world and his four wins on the Japan Golf Tour include the Dunlop Phoenix in November, one of the strongest fields of the year in Japan.

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MELBOURNE, Australia – Joseph Naffah smiled when he revealed he used to beat Jhonattan Vegas regularly when they were growing up together in Venezuela. Vegas – his ISPS Melbourne World Cup of Golf teammate – would only say they had “healthy competitionâ€�. But while Vegas forged an incredible professional career with three PGA TOUR wins his friend Naffah was living a nightmare. After getting a scholarship at St. Marys University in San Antonio, Naffah succumbed to a back injury in his freshman year. The diagnosis was spondylolisthesis which is when a vertebra slips forward onto the bone below it – something doctors said was genetic. “Golf kind of aggravated it, all the swinging and hip movements, so that kind of accelerated the process of injury,â€� Naffah explained. It was an issue that could have been fixed with a Tiger Woods style fusion surgery and some time out of the game. But Naffah would make a decision that would dramatically affect his life. “I avoided surgery for like two years … all I needed was like a single fusion … but I had no idea what it was all about. I wish I just would have done it immediately, but I didn’t. “Then I started getting creative with some injections and that’s what pretty much messed me up. I got infected over the initial injury and lost two of the disks, part of the bone and everything.â€� In the end he needed three fusions. “They put a cage through the front and they put six screws in my back above it. They pretty much flipped me in the surgery room. It’s intense,â€� he explained. “I was very unlucky, and that kind of killed my golfing career. At that point, golfing was out of the question and I just wanted to get healthy to be able to create a family. God gave me that, I created a family, three beautiful children, and I feel pleased.â€� But a few years ago Naffah started to get the itch again. He was watching Vegas go on to great things and wondered if he could give it another go. “Following this path with him, he reinspired me to play again,â€� Naffah said. “I got back in shape over the last five years, hit the gym really hard and got fit again. He told me, just give it a shot, play again, take it one step at a time, because he knew it was my passion to play at the highest level. So here I am, you know? 12 years later.â€� And Vegas was similarly inspired. He watched closely as Naffah began on the mini tours once more. He kept an eye on the 12 starts he made on the PGA TOUR – Latino America over the last few years. And he provided a carrot. “They told him that you’re lucky if you walk again and forget about playing golf and obviously he took it as a challenge to kind of get back at it,â€� a stirred Vegas said. “When the opportunity came, obviously I wanted to inspire him to play harder, so I told him, if you have some good events that you make a cut or play solid, I’ll definitely take you for the World Cup. “He had to prove himself. For me it’s also a little bit of a challenge too because there was a little bit of controversy, I can’t deny, from a lot of the players from the country. It’s a challenge for us to play hard and play well and show the world and our country that we can do it.â€� And do it they did in the opening round Fourball. The pair combined for a best ball score of 7-under 65 at Metropolitan Golf Club to be just three shots off the lead. And Naffah was the man to provide the first two birdies early in the round.   “I think we combined really well today, even though I left him hanging there in the middle,â€� Naffah said. “But I started a little hot and I think that helped a little bit, kind of turned on the machine and got it going. “We were walking down the fairway, I didn’t feel that nervous for some reason. I probably expected to be more nervous. But I felt a good internal peace.â€� And with that his golfing dream has been realized, although already there is a new dream … providing Venezuela with its first World Cup title. “Vamos Venezuela!,â€� the pair screamed in unison.

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Round 3 of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship takes place Saturday from Port Royal GC. Ben Crane tops a crowded leaderboard to take a one-shot lead into the weekend. Here’s everything you need to follow the action. Leaderboard Tee times HOW TO FOLLOW: Television: Thursday-Sunday, 1:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 11 a.m.–4:30 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday, 12 p.m.-4:30 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) MUST READS Ben Crane shoots 62 to lead by one at Butterfield Bermuda Championship Forgotten clubs and a missed flight, Adam Schenk’s bizarre start in Bermuda TOUR winner Aaron Baddeley contending in Bermuda after Monday qualifying Nick Jones honoring father’s legacy at Butterfield Bermuda Championship Inside John Daly’s wild golf bag and recent gear changes Five Things to Know: Port Royal GC

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