Golf fans go into meltdown after outage during PGA

The PGA TOUR returns to TPC Louisiana this week for the 2018 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. This marks the first year of team play at the event, and with the new format comes plenty of questions. Click here for the list of the teams set to compete. Here is the breakdown of this year’s team format. HOW IT WORKS TEAM FORMAT: Round 1 and 3 are Four-Ball (Best-Ball) and Rounds 2 and 4 are Foursomes (Alternate Shot). For Foursomes play, players will rotate tee shots. One player will hit the tee shots on all the odd-numbered holes, and the other will hit the tee shot on even-numbered holes. Example: Player A and Player B are partners. On the first hole, Player A tees off; Player B plays the second shot; Player A plays the third shot; and so on until the ball is holed. The total strokes taken will result in the team’s score for that hole. For Four-Ball play, the players on each team will each play his own ball throughout the entirety of the round, with the best score on each hole recorded. Example: On the first hole, both golfers on each team tee off. Player A pars the hole and Player B birdies it. The team will be credited with a birdie. FIELD: The starting field will consist of 80 teams (160 players). Each of the top available players from the PGA TOUR Priority Rankings who commits to the tournament will choose his partner, who in turn must have PGA TOUR status unless he is chosen as a tournament sponsor exemption. SCHEDULE: Thursday’s Foursomes round begins at 8 a.m. local time (9 a.m. ET), with the last tee time at 1:56 p.m local. Friday’s Four-ball round begins at 7 a.m. local (8 a.m. ET) with the last tee time at 2:02 p.m. local. Teams will go off two tees in each of the first two days. Saturday’s start time is approximately 9 a.m. local off one tee. Sunday’s start time will be determined later. MAKING THE CUT: Following the conclusion of the second round, there will be a cut to the low 35 teams and ties at the 35th position.  IN CASE OF A TIE: A hole-by-hole (sudden death) playoff will be contested with the first hole played as foursomes (alternate shot), the second hole played as four-ball (best ball) where the formats alternate every hole, thereafter, on a set rotation of holes. WITH A WIN: The Zurich Classic of New Orleans will continue to award FedExCup points and official money, and will count as an official victory for the members of the winning team. As such, both players will receive a two-year winner’s exemption and an eligibility into Invitational fields, including the Tournament of Champions and THE PLAYERS Championship. Additionally, the PGA of America will include both members of the winning team in the Tournament Winners category for the PGA Championship. PRIZES: FedExCup points and prize money will be awarded to teams making the cut based on combining every two positions from the distribution table for a standard TOUR event, with each team member receiving an equal share. For instance, the winning team will evenly split first and second place FedExCup points (500 for first and 300 for second for 800 total points, or 400 for each player). Official prize money will be distributed in the same manner.  KEY QUESTIONS Why was the format changed? The PGA TOUR Policy Board approved the change in November, 2016 as a way to introduce team competition into the regular TOUR schedule. Said Andy Pazder, Chief of Operations for the PGA TOUR: “We have seen the growth of popularity with the biennial team competitions like the Presidents Cup, Ryder Cup and World Cup and the excitement that they produce. We believe the fans will love to see this sort of competition as a regular part of our season.” Has there ever been a team competition on the PGA TOUR? Yes. The PGA TOUR has held 61 previous official team events, with two pros paired together, using various formats. The PGA TOUR has contested 13 official team tournaments with a pro paired with an amateur (the pro always earning official-win designation). The last official TOUR team event was the 1981 Walt Disney World National Team Championship, won by Vance Heafner and Mike Holland.  How is the Zurich Classic format different? The Zurich Classic will use an alternating-round Foursomes and Four-ball format for the first time. The closest the PGA TOUR has previously come to using a Foursomes format in an official event was at the 1934 Pinehurst Pro-Pro played at Pinehurst’s famed No. 2 course and won by Tommy Armour and Bobby Cruickshank. That tournament played under Scotch Foursomes rules, a setup that allows each player to hit a drive on each hole and then whichever player’s ball is in the best position, the teammate hits the next shot in alternate-shot fashion until the ball is held. The Foursomes format at TPC Louisiana will strictly be alternate shot for every shot played on the hole.

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Retief Goosen and 16-year-old son Leo shot a 14-under 58 on Saturday to take a two-shot lead in the Father Son Challenge.

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We thought we knew how it would go. We had no idea. If there was a theme to the 2021-22 season, it was surprise. Scottie Scheffler hadn’t won, but then he captured the WM Phoenix Open in a playoff, opening the floodgates. Scheffler was the first player to win twice on the season, the first to win three times, and the first (and only) to win four. It all happened in a torrid six-week stretch in the spring. Will Zalatoris also got in the win column, capturing the FedEx St. Jude Championship. He was suddenly FedExCup No. 1 and the favorite to win it all when the dust settled at the TOUR Championship, but he hurt his back and didn’t play again. Defending FedExCup champ Patrick Cantlay captured the BMW Championship and could’ve taken the top seed to the TOUR Championship had Xander Schauffele not missed a putt on 18. Scheffler slid back into FedExCup No. 1; Cantlay suddenly started fighting his putter at East Lake; and neither ended up winning. That honor, of course, went to Rory McIlroy, who came into the TOUR Championship with a six-shot Starting Strokes deficit, opened triple-bogey, bogey in the first round, and came all the way back to win it all. Of course he did. Here are the superlatives from a very surprising season: Shot of the Year Matt Fitzpatrick, bunker shot on 18 at The Country Club, U.S. Open With a one-shot lead at the U.S. Open, Matt Fitzpatrick watched his tee shot drift left and find the fairway bunker on 18. Going for the green was risky, as it meant clearing a grassy knob; Jon Rahm had tried it the day before and made double bogey. But Fitzpatrick, who all year had struggled from fairway bunkers, knew he needed to make par to force playing partner Will Zalatoris to make birdie. He chose a 9-iron and, without deliberation, caught the ball perfectly flush. It cleared the lip of the bunker and soared into the cool, darkening sky, and when it landed on the green, he had hit what Zalatoris called one of the best shots in U.S. Open history. “It’s one of the best shots I’ve ever hit, there’s no doubt about it,” Fitzpatrick said. Best approximation of the Cal-Stanford Big Game Cal product Max Homa edged Stanford’s Maverick McNealy at the Fortinet Championship in nearby Napa, California. Best title defense Viktor Hovland at the World Wide Technology Championship; Rory McIlroy at the RBC Canadian Open (picking up where he left off in 2019); Patrick Cantlay at the BMW Championship Best (sort of) title defense Fitzpatrick won the U.S. Open at The Country Club, where he’d also won the 2013 U.S. Amateur with his little brother Alex as his caddie. Bravest shot Jordan Spieth from cliff’s edge, 8th hole, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Spieth’s tee shot nearly tumbled over the 65-foot cliff that juts into the par-4 8th hole at iconic Pebble Beach. Then Spieth nearly did. Michael Greller, his caddie, voted to take a drop, but after some deliberation Spieth addressed the ball and took a lash before scurrying backward, away from danger. The shot missed left, but he got up and down. “Michael hated it,” Spieth said. “He tried to talk me out of it three times. I don’t blame him, looking back. I’m just glad I made the par to make it worth it, because I don’t think I would have made par with a drop, but if I made bogey, it would have really not been worth it.” Most dynamic duo Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and are expected to figure prominently in the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club next week. Dynamic duo II Scottie Scheffler and Ted Scott joined forces at The RSM Classic last fall and hit it off in a way few player-caddie combos ever have. Starting with a playoff victory at the WM Phoenix Open, Scheffler won four times, including the Masters Tournament, in a span of six starts to become world and FedExCup No. 1. Best comeback Justin Thomas was seven back but won the PGA Championship. Sam Burns was also seven back but won the Charles Schwab Challenge. Rory McIlroy dug himself a 10-shot hole at the TOUR Championship, what with the Starting Strokes format (he began six behind Scottie Scheffler) and his triple-bogey, bogey start. To win after all that? Impressive. Best comeback, II Tom Kim quadruple-bogeyed the first hole and won the Wyndham Championship by five shots; Xander Schauffele shot the highest opening round by a winner, 72, at the Genesis Scottish Open. His 11-shot comeback over the next 54 holes was unmatched. Best performance in the soup Max Homa won his second Well Fargo Championship in sub-optimal weather (four days of cold rain) at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. Best, last stand by a 40-something Chez Reavie became the only player in his 40s to win on TOUR for the entire season at the Barracuda Championship. Most appropriate champion Hideki Matsuyama, ZOZO Championship Matsuyama became the greatest-ever player from Japan when he won the Masters Tournament last year, and thrilled his home country again when he won the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, Japan’s only tournament on the PGA TOUR, by five. It was his seventh TOUR title, second TOUR win in Asia, and first since the 2016 WGC-HSBC Champions. He led the field in Greens in Regulation (81.94%) and co-led in eagles (2) and par-3 scoring average (2.75), and later won the Sony Open in Hawaii on the way to making the TOUR Championship for the 9th straight time, the longest active streak on TOUR. Best of the Midwest Tony Finau went from winless on the season to earning a spot on the U.S. Presidents Cup Team with back-to-back wins at the 3M Open, Rocket Mortgage Classic. Wildest ace Adam Hadwin, No. 16, Rd. 2, Memorial Tournament presented by Workday When the ball dropped for his first hole-in-one on the PGA TOUR, the normally stoic Hadwin threw his club skyward, pumped his arms, and began slapping hands of his playing partners and fans alike. His wife Jessica tweeted that she’d never seen him so excited. “I think I kind of blacked out for a second when it went in,” said Hadwin, who used a 7-iron for the shot, which spanned 194 yards and came in from left to right. Best flirtation with 59 Sebastian Muñoz became the first player to shoot two rounds of 60 in a single season at The RSM Classic and AT&T Byron Nelson, both in the first round. Best use of a captain’s pick Scottie Scheffler went 2-0-1 and beat Jon Rahm in the Ryder Cup. The result also foreshadowed perhaps the biggest story of 2022: The Rise of Scottie.

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