Fowler in the hunt after Day 1 of American Express

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Tiger Woods needs reps … and the best way to get those is making the cut, which he’ll attempt to do in Friday’s second round of the Genesis Open. Woods, making his second PGA TOUR start since returning after a year’s absence following back surgery, opened with a 1-over 72 in the first round and is hoping to improve on that score in order to secure a weekend spot at Riviera. PGATOUR.COM is on the scene and will have live coverage, as well as hole-by-hole results once he tees off at 3:22 p.m. ET. MORE TIGER: Scorecard | Rd. 1 analysis | Set-up game | Riviera struggles

Click here to read the full article…

Here are nine tidbits from the third round of the THE PLAYERS Championship that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. THE PLAYERS Stadium Course TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, has been the host since 1982 and plays 7,189 yards to a Par-72.   PAIN OR GAIN These were the top-10 picked golfers in the PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO: The good news about playing for second place in an event of this magnitude is that it pays well. The check for second is worth $1.188 million, the first place check for a “normal” TOUR event.  ALONE Webb Simpson rolled in a par putt from just over 17 feet on his final hole to sign for 68 (-4) as he will take a seven-shot lead into the final round. Simpson’s last victory was in the fall of 2013, where he won the Shriners Hospitals for Children’s Open on 24-under-par. He’s 19-under after three rounds, matching Greg Norman’s 54-hole record from 1994.  With only three bogeys (one double) on the week and all three rounds in the 60’s, it’s going to take something special to knock him off Sunday as his seven-shot lead is largest in history entering the final round. RIDING SHOTGUN Danny Lee began the day in the penultimate group behind Simpson and Charl Schwartzel. Paired with Patrick Cantlay, Lee fired 70 to post 12-under and earn a spot in the final pairing.  Lee’s bogey-free round should give him confidence heading into tomorrow but he’ll be the first to remember that he hasn’t posted a top-10 paycheck since T7 at the CIMB Classic last October. In 2018, Lee hasn’t appeared in this column once as he’s MC nine times in 13 attempts. His best finish in 2018 is T51 (Valero Texas Open) and he will have some heavy hitters breathing down his neck. NO. 1  Using the Aim Point System must be growing on the OWGR No. 1 player as Dustin Johnson was second in SG: putting in Round 3. He holed almost 143 feet of putts and got up-and-down six times in eight tries. He’s looking to improve on his best finish, T12, as he’ll begin tomorrow nine shots off Simpson’s lead in third place. He’ll be looking for a big finish to hang on to his spot at No. 1 in the world. LOST IN THE SHUFFLE While the golfing world was hanging on every shot from Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth on Saturday morning, Jason Dufner, as usual, was quietly going about his business. After an uneventful 35 that didn’t cause any gamers to take notice, Dufner screamed home in a bogey-free 31 to post 66 and move up 42 spots to T4. His playing partner Johnson has closed the last two years 68 and 68. Dufner’s best Sunday in seven previous tries is 72 twice.  MOVING DAY Gamers have been waiting patiently for a monster on the weekend from Tiger Woods and they finally got their wish with his 65 in Round 3. Unfortunately he began the round 14 shots off the lead and will begin Sunday 11 off the pace. Imagine shooting 65 on Saturday and only gaining three shots!  Jordan Spieth, who also started Saturday 14 shots off the lead, matched Woods’ 65 with one more birdie (9 to 8) and one more bogey (2 to 1). Spieth only hit six fairways, but birdied the last three to see him land T8 heading into the final round. MOVING DAY: WRONG WAY Alex Noren opened 66-69 and was primed to improve on his 10th-place finish in his maiden voyage last year. As great as his bogey-free opening round was his 77 in Round 3 was the opposite. He circled one birdie against four bogeys and a double and dropped from T5 to T42. Jon Rahm shot 82 here on Saturday last year. He made one birdie and shot 77 on Saturday this year. He was six-over thru 11 holes before making his first birdie. He made the secondary cut and will have another chance to crack the TPC Sawgrass code. MDF With 80 players making the 36-hole cut, the field will be cut again for Round 4 to the top 70 and ties. Thursday’s rabble rousers Keith Mitchell (67), Lucas Glover (68) and Ollie Schniederjans (68) joined Zach Johnson in packing up a day early. Johnson still managed to run his record to 10 consecutive paydays and 13 of 14 in his career. STUDY HALL Round 3 played 71.800, up from 71.273 in Round 2. The morning wave handled the lowest scores of the day as there was barely any wind, overcast skies and soft greens. Thank you Charl Schwartzel for your AMAZING birdie on the last hole that assured Woods and Spieth would be paired on Sunday. It’s true, not all heroes wear capes! The South African played in the final group and shot 73 and ended the day T4. Johnny Miller said no player in the history of the PGA TOUR has ever blown a seven-shot lead.  The biggest comeback in this event is seven shots by Tim Clark in 2010.  

Click here to read the full article…

Will Zalatoris was too young to know that the elderly man dispensing advice was a former U.S. Open champion. The man watched Zalatoris, then 6 years old, hit shots and showed him how to grip the club. Even at that young age, Zalatoris’ talent and passion for the game were evident. “He told my parents, ‘This kid loves it. Your job is to stay out of the way,’” the man said. The advice came from Ken Venturi, winner of the 1964 U.S. Open and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. This scene took place at the California Golf Club in San Francisco, where Venturi was a lifetime member and Zalatoris hit his first shots. Only when Zalatoris was old enough to enter the men’s grill, where Venturi’s U.S. Open trophy was displayed, did he realize the significance of the interaction. On Saturday afternoons, Zalatoris played a five-hole loop at the course affectionately called the Cal Club. A stop at Orange Julius for a milkshake was always part of the drive home. “It gave me the golf bug at a young age,” Zalatoris said. “I’ve been wanting to do this my entire life and now that I’m doing it, it’s pretty cool.” This week, he arrives at his hometown event, the AT&T Byron Nelson, as the 30th-ranked player in the world. He’s weeks removed from a runner-up finish in his Masters debut – his second top-10 in a major this season – and in line to have his first PGA TOUR card later this year. His rapid progression from a player who started 2019 without status on any tour to a major contender has been one of the year’s best stories and has earned the 24-year-old recognition as one of the game’s rising stars. “He made it look easy,” said Justin Rose, who played with Zalatoris in Saturday’s final group at the Masters. “I like his game. I like the power that he has. He’s unfazed and he seems to have a good perspective on everything right now.” The fact that he parlayed sponsor exemptions and Monday qualifiers into status first onto the Korn Ferry Tour and soon the PGA TOUR makes it easy to assume that Zalatoris arose out of anonymity. That’s hardly the case. His iron play seems to be an innate gift that has impressed since he was young. There’s a photo on the Internet of Zalatoris when he was about 5 years old. He’s just made impact with a ball and already displaying good fundamentals. His weight is shifted to his left side but his head is still behind the ball. His left wrist is flat and the face is square. The Zalatoris family moved to Dallas a few years later, a move that exposed him to influences that would prepare him for this moment. His first swing coach, David Price, had connections to two World Golf Hall of Famers; he was college roommates with Tom Kite and took lessons from Harvey Penick. Zalatoris quickly befriended other promising players whom you may have heard of, Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler, as well as the sons of another Hall of Famer, Lanny Wadkins. And another member at Bent Tree, Scott Fawcett, has become one of the game’s top course-management consultants; he shared his early theories with Zalatoris, carried his bag in several of his amateur victories and had a long-lasting impact on how Zalatoris manages a course. And, of course, there’s the former Cowboys quarterback who is his frequent playing partner. Price kept those early lessons with Zalatoris simple, not so much to emulate Penick, his former coach, but because Zalatoris didn’t need much instruction. He did teach Zalatoris to practice with a purpose, something he saw his old roommate, one of golf’s pre-eminent grinders, do. “His swing and his hand-eye coordination were so good that I didn’t have to do a lot of things to his swing,” Price said about Zalatoris. Price had a drill where he would call out a shot shape – “low draw,” “high fade,” etc. – after Zalatoris started his swing. Zalatoris had to make the necessary adjustments mid-swing to produce the requested shot. “At 12 years old, this little bugger could do it,” Price said. That was the same age when Zalatoris shot a round that showed he was special. He played the final 12 holes of his U.S. Junior Amateur qualifier in 9 under par to shoot 65 and qualify for the championship. Only a handful of players have qualified for that tournament at a younger age. That was in 2009, the year Spieth, who’s three years older than Zalatoris, won the first of his two U.S. Juniors. The pair used to car-pool to tournaments and Zalatoris still talks about the time Spieth set the course record at Bent Tree at 14 years old. After making a 25-footer for par on the first hole, he shot a front-nine 29 and signed for 63. “We owe Jordan quite a bit for raising that bar for us at an early age,” Zalatoris said. Spieth and Tiger Woods are the only players to win the U.S. Junior multiple times. Zalatoris shares a bit of history in that tournament with another legend. His five appearances are the most ever. It’s a record he shares with several players, including Jack Nicklaus. While Spieth was known for holing out from all over the place, Zalatoris played a different game. His ball-striking was strong enough to make him an elite junior, but his putting struggles scared off some coaches. Wake Forest’s Jerry Haas kept pursuing him, though. The high praise from Wadkins, a Wake Forest alum, helped. Haas, who had putting struggles of his own during his pro career, knew Zalatoris’ ball-striking, and his attitude, were too good to turn away from. “My uncle, (former Masters champion) Bob Goalby, always said if you have a kid with a good grip and good fundamentals, he’ll get better,” Haas said. “Will was always very gracious when I showed up. He always sent me a thank-you email when I came to watch.” Haas looked prescient during the summer of 2014, right before Zalatoris arrived at college. He won the U.S. Junior, Texas Amateur and Trans-Mississippi Amateur and made it to the Round of 16 at the U.S. Amateur, vaulting into the top 10 of the world amateur rankings. Changing his course management helped Zalatoris capitalize on his physical skills. Fawcett, who played on the Korn Ferry Tour after hitting it big in the Texas energy market, caddied for Zalatoris several times that summer. Fawcett used his finance and economics degrees from Texas A&M and the nascent Strokes Gained data to bring analytics to golf, helping players optimize their strategy. Zalatoris said he felt like he picked up a quarter-century of experience in Fawcett’s first four rounds on the bag. Zalatoris still prides himself on being able to pick his spots. “It’s just trying to give myself as many looks as possible,” Zalatoris said recently. “People will see me knock something tight, like on 17 (at Augusta National). I heard some comments of, ‘Wow, he’s firing at everything and it’s like, ‘I’m aiming 13 feet left of that flag and I pushed it 13 feet and it ends up being perfect. “I don’t really tend to overdo things. I don’t need to hit the big, high fluttery 3-wood in there and try to knock it tight and make (eagle). I just tend to give myself a bunch of really good looks and make sure to put myself on the greens as fast as possible. And when the putter gets hot, the putter gets hot.” Zalatoris has benefitted from the latest and greatest in data and the wisdom of a World Golf Hall of Famer like Wadkins. It’s the best of both worlds. While contending at the Masters, Zalatoris cited advice from Wadkins on how to handle the wind on the tiny, par-3 12th. “There’s little things he may not even remember telling me,” Zalatoris said. Wadkins, winner of the 1977 PGA and 1979 PLAYERS, was known for his strong iron play in his day and sees some of his game in Zalatoris. “I’ve seen him hit very few shots that he was trying to hit too hard,” Wadkins said. “He isn’t afraid to hit the shot that’s called for. You can’t force it because the mistake on TOUR is always long. We played from the front edge to the front of the green “Something my generation did well is manage the golf course. We played more. This generation, they practice. That’s why it takes some of these kids awhile to figure it out. If I hit balls when I was a kid, I had to pick them up. Who wants to do that?” Zalatoris’ swing coach, Troy Denton, said Will “loves to play at a level very few people do.” Tony Romo, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, is a common playing partner, as is Davis Riley, a two-time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour this season. It’s a trait that served Will well when he turned pro because mini-tour events and Monday qualifiers were part of his journey to the PGA TOUR. Zalatoris turned pro after playing in the 2017 Walker Cup alongside Collin Morikawa, Cameron Champ, Scheffler and several other TOUR players. He played a handful of events on sponsor exemptions before failing to advance out of Q-School in the fall of 2018. There was no panic when he met with the coaches with whom he’d recently started working, Denton and Josh Gregory, to discuss his next steps. “He already had a plan that he was willing to do whatever it took,” Gregory recalled. That included starts on the small All-Pro Tour, a far cry from the courses he saw during top-notch collegiate competition or his handful of TOUR starts. Fortunately, he played well enough in a handful of Korn Ferry Tour starts to have status by July 2019. The following year, he had a record-tying 11 consecutive top-20s on the Korn Ferry Tour after the season resumed from the coronavirus hiatus. That streak showed how his game had matured. “I’ve played at that high level in different ways,” he said last year. “Some weeks where my ball-striking hasn’t been that great, I’ve saved it with the putter and other weeks I’ve driven it perfectly and given myself a lot of opportunities.” His success on the Korn Ferry Tour earned him a start in last year’s U.S. Open. He made a hole-in-one in the first round and hit the flagstick on another par-3. He tied for sixth at Winged Foot with Dustin Johnson, who was coming off a torrid run through the FedExCup Playoffs. Three holes into the tournament, Zalatoris told his coaches that it felt like any other event. “He just believes,” Gregory said. Denton, who was roommates with Ryan Moore at UNLV, is a swing coach who also introduced Zalatoris to the arm-lock putter. Gregory works on the short game and, as a “performance coach,” develops the training plans that optimize Zalatoris’ practice. He often texts his student, “Just get better today.” Said Zalatoris, “The task is always the same, no matter what tour or what event I’m playing in.” Zalatoris’ discipline has helped him during the downturns in his career, like when he struggled with his putting or after his miss at Q-School left him without a tour to play on. The objective remains the same regardless of the situation. Gregory has a favorite story to illustrate that characteristic. It came at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play after Jason Kokrak birdied the final two holes to beat Zalatoris, 1 up. Zalatoris headed straight to the putting green to do the same drills he does every day. He didn’t need a moment to let his anger dissipate. “His simple response is, ‘It happened. I got beat. Let’s do the things that make me better,’” Gregory said. “The moment didn’t affect him.”

Click here to read the full article…