Five things from the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba

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ORLANDO, Fla. – Gary Woodland took a long look across the large practice green at Bay Hill Club and Lodge on Tuesday, and it kind of felt like home. It should. Woodland used to live just a short drive away in Orlando’s gated Lake Nona community, and pretty much grew up as a professional around here, a regular at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. He lives down the east coast in Delray Beach now, a Kansas guy near the ocean. A good deal has changed since Woodland last was here in 2016, which was Arnold Palmer’s last year as host. Woodland became a father, for one, as he and his wife, Gabby, now look after three young children, including twin girls born in 2019. Golf-wise, Woodland, now 37, winner of the 2019 U.S. Open, just hasn’t felt like himself for a couple of years. Once ranked as highly as 12th in the Official World Ranking, he slid to No. 142 before teeing it up in last week’s Honda Classic. A lot played into that slide, including injuries that promoted poor swing habits. He reached a breaking point after missing the cut at the WM Phoenix Open three weeks ago. It was time to accept where he was, and then start doing something about it. At the rugged Honda Classic on Sunday, where danger lurks everywhere, Woodland tied for fifth. Sunday, he shot 67 in difficult conditions. It was one tournament, sure, but the way he felt on the golf course was, well, different. And that in itself was refreshing to him. “On one of the most demanding golf courses we see all year (PGA National), it was pretty stress-free for me,” Woodland said. “Even when I got into trouble, I knew what I was doing. I felt comfortable all week. Coming down the stretch on Sunday – 15, 17, those holes can jump up and get you – and I felt as good as I’ve felt in a long time. I’m talking a couple of years. That was nice.” Woodland has been one of the PGA TOUR’s premier ballstrikers for years. The mammoth drives, the 2-iron stingers, the crisp, towering irons. Solid tee to green, his successes often came down to his putting. But Woodland grew so uneasy with his long game that he said he stood in fairways in Phoenix with little idea where he his next shot might travel. “On 15 there, par 5, I had a 6-iron into the green that I pulled into a bunker,” he said. “I said, ‘Butchy (what he calls his caddie, Brennan Little), I don’t know where this thing is going.’ That’s a horrible feeling. I can’t play this way.” Woodland went home and got to work. It helps that a bad hip that had bothered him was now pain-free, and he can make the motions in his powerful swing that he needs to make. His putting has been pretty good, frankly. He has worked hard on it with Phil Kenyon, and it was solid again at Honda. Only a three-putt from 8 feet at the final hole kept him from being in the top 10 in strokes gained. He will look for more of the same at Bay Hill. A well-rounded athlete, Woodland usually walks around TOUR stops the way Clint Eastwood used to walk through Westerns. There’s a presence about him, and you wouldn’t want to see him in an alley. He acknowledges that some of his swagger is back. Honda marked the first of four consecutive Florida starts for him (he is a past champion at Valspar) as he looks to build some rhythm. Woodland’s veteran caddie, Little, likes the way things seem to be trending. “We all know this game,” Little said. “It knocks you down, and then you start to see guys playing well, so he’s on a good track getting up. Now he just needs to keep climbing. His practice rounds have been good, his swing has been good, but you have to get it done. Until you see results, it’s really hard for a guy to get confidence.” Woodland used to work with Butch Harmon, and when the legendary teacher retired in 2018, it had a big impact on him. Beyond providing thoughts on the swing, Harmon was an endless resource in building up a player’s confidence. Woodland has been working with Mark Blackburn, who teaches a handful of TOUR players including Max Homa, and he’s happy with the progress they’ve made. He has some Harmon “feels” back. But there is nothing quite like having the sage voice of Harmon in his ear. “It was hard on me. I relied on Butch, more for confidence than anything,” Woodland said. “He’s always a phone call away, I know. But there were numerous times when I’ve gone to see him, and you feel like you’re the worst golfer in the world. When you leave, you feel like you’re the best golfer in the world – no matter how you’re playing.” Woodland is thankful that he reached a tipping point and hit pause on the season. His missed cut in Phoenix (68-73) led to a long flight home and an honest assessment of where he was in his game. An elite player who was on the 2019 Presidents Cup team, he wasn’t feeling too elite. It was his sixth missed cut in eight starts this season, and there was work to do. Since, he has begun to feel things coming together. Bay Hill, where the rough is thick and lush, will be every bit of demanding as Honda was a week ago. Bring it on, he says. “I think I was denying where I had dropped in the world, denying everything that has happened,” Woodland said. “It was time to accept it, and move on, and start working my way back. “Last week was a big step for me. I was able to do stuff last week hitting a golf ball that I hadn’t done in a long time. That’s encouraging to me. There are no more Band-Aid fixes. You have to accept where you are, and start climbing back up.” Here in a town where his professional career pretty much got jump-started, Woodland is in a good place mentally, and ready to climb again.

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Jordan Spieth gets his 2018-19 season underway in Las Vegas, while Rickie Fowler returns to TPC Summerlin after a two-year hiatus as the PGA TOUR reconvenes on U.S. shores for a three-event push to its fall finish. Bryson DeChambeau, third in last year’s final FedExCup tally, and THE PLAYERS Championship titleholder Webb Simpson also highlight arguably the best field to hit Vegas in recent years, as Patrick Cantlay embarks on his first career title defense. FIELD NOTES: The lineup features nine entrants who competed in last month’s TOUR Championship at East Lake. … Tony Finau, who finished 6th in the FedExCup last season, makes it five members of the U.S. Ryder Cup roster set to compete at TPC Summerlin. Captain and 2010 FedExCup champion Jim Furyk  also will tee it up, his first start since a share of fourth at the Wyndham Championship in August. … Davis Love III, who won the 1993 edition, is joined by two fellow Hall of Famers in Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. … J.J. Spaun tees it up for the fifth time in as many weeks to start the season, the only man remaining who has yet to take a week off. … Freddie Jacobson, who sat out all of last season after hand surgery, tees it up on TOUR for the first time since the 2017 AT&T Byron Nelson. The 2011 Travelers Championship winner made three starts in Europe this fall, making one cut. … Kenny Perry, 58, makes his first TOUR start of the season and just his third since 2015. He’s playing on a one-time exemption afforded the top 50 in career earnings. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points. STORYLINES: Spieth makes his first fall start since October 2015, getting an early jump after falling just below the cut line to qualify for East Lake. That left him with 24 starts last year, one shy of the minimum for players who didn’t add a new venue to their schedule. … DeChambeau and Fowler also make their first starts of the new season, with DeChambeau coming off two wins in last seaso’s FedExCup Playoffs. … Las Vegas has been prime territory for first-time winners, with Cantlay becoming the third in the past four editions and 11th in the past 16. … Former champions Ryan Moore (2012) and Kevin Na (2011) are among more than a half-dozen entrants with Las Vegas ties seeking to bring the trophy back to local hands. … Cantlay has a chance to join Furyk (1998-99) as just the second man to claim back-to-back titles in Las Vegas. … A total of 22 Shriners Hospital patients – one from each campus across the country – will serve as standard bearers during the final two days. COURSE: TPC Summerlin, 7,255 yards, par 71. Built on land in Las Vegas’ western reaches once owned by Howard Hughes, the Bobby Weed/Fuzzy Zoeller project opened in 1991 and begins its second decade as the sole locale for the TOUR’s annual visit. The layout winds through arroyos and canyons, building to four closing holes that make golfers weigh risk/reward – the drivable par-4 15th, the par-5 16th, the water-lined par-3 17th and a strong par-4 No. 18. Originally part of a three-course tournament rotation, a 2008 restructuring brought all rounds to a single site. 72-HOLE RECORD: 260, Ryan Moore (2012), Webb Simpson (2013). 18-HOLE RECORD: 59, Chip Beck (3rd round, 1991 at Sunrise GC). TPC Summerlin record: 60, J.J. Henry (1st round, 2013), Rod Pampling (1st round, 2016). LAST YEAR: Cantlay produced magic from behind a tree to make par on the second playoff hole, bringing a long-sought win to a career once derailed by injury and heartbreak. Cantlay, Whee Kim and Alex Cejka all bogeyed the first extra hole after surviving a windblown final round, and Cantlay appeared in jeopardy after his tee shot on the second replay at No.18 wound up in tree trouble. The former UCLA star, though, managed to thread a 4-iron under one tree and around another, his ball coming to rest at the back of the green. Cantlay nearly holed his putt from the fringe, too, brushing home the winner after Cejka missed his par save. Victory was especially poignant for Cantlay, pegged for early stardom as an amateur before a stress fracture in his back kept him off the course for more than two years. During that time he also lost his best friend and caddie, Chris Roth, in a hit-and-run accident as the two were crossing a busy intersection in Newport Beach, Calif. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Saturday, 4:30-7:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Sunday, 3:30-6:30 p.m. (GC). PGA TOUR LIVE: None. RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 2-7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 3-7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 2-6:30 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).

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