‘Golf is hard’: Clark draws crowd at LPGA pro-am

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Rarely has a tie for 11th place provided such riveting theater. Showing flashes of the man who won THE PLAYERS Championship in 2001 and 2013, Tiger Woods made six birdies in his first 13 holes to get within four shots of front-runner Webb Simpson at TPC Sawgrass on Sunday. Alas, Woods went 3-over the rest of the way for a final-round 69 (T11) that he said was another giant leap forward in his continuing comeback. “I hit it so good,â€� Woods said. “It was nice. I had control of it from tee to green; I made some putts; I felt good on basically every facet of the game, and it’s weird; not to really mishit a shot today and only shoot 3-under par is just weird, because I played much better than that.â€� Woods went out in 32 and got to 14-under with his birdie at the 12th hole. He was in second, breathing down the neck of the leader Simpson. Could it be? In retrospect, there were several problems with this comeback scenario. Woods was too far back to start the day (11 shots), he was playing with Jordan Spieth (74, T41) and not Simpson, and he would have needed to make zero mistakes the entire day. That didn’t happen. Still, he was hugely encouraged after scores of 72-71-65-69. “It was just a matter of time,â€� Woods said, “and this weekend was it.â€� In retrospect, Woods would have needed to go 4-under for his last six holes to tie Simpson (73). Instead, Woods went the other way, dropping three strokes coming in. He spun his approach shot off the front of the 14th green and bogeyed the hole, which has vexed him for years. After a par at 15, he failed to birdie the par-5 16th hole, one of the easiest on the course. Woods finished with a double-bogey 5 at the 17th, where he misjudged the wind and hit his tee shot short in the water, and made par at the last. He hit 11 of 14 fairways for the second straight day, was 12 for 18 in greens in regulation, and took 27 putts. He ended the week T19 in strokes gained: putting, and was 14th in strokes gained: around-the-green. “He looks like the old Tiger,â€� said Tom Lehman, who was on hand for this PLAYERS and who played against Woods when the 79-time PGA TOUR winner was in his prime. Woods had finished second at the Valspar Championship earlier this season, but still considered his T11 performance at TPC Sawgrass a massive step in the right direction. “There’s no way I would have predicted I would be at this point the beginning of the year,â€� he said. “The way I was just coming back and just trying to get a feel for it and then hopefully have a schedule. Didn’t know. But now I feel like I’ve got my playing feels and I’m playing tournament golf and I’ve got it — I’m not that far off from winning golf tournaments.â€� As for where he goes from here, Woods said he’s aiming to try to qualify for the next World Golf Championships tournament, the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone South, Aug. 2-5. “This summer is — there are some big events to be played,â€� he said, “and one of my goals is to get into Akron, one last time, before we leave there. I’ve won there eight times and I would like to get there with one more chance. But I got to do some work between now and then, hopefully put together one good event.â€�

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SAN ANTONIO — Last year, a change in iron shafts propelled Andrew Landry to his first PGA TOUR win at the Valero Texas Open. Landry switched to Nippon’s Pro Modus3 Tour 105X model late Wednesday in his Ping iBlade irons in search of more height and spin and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. Could history repeat itself? Rickie Fowler sure hopes so. Fowler installed True Temper’s Dynamic Gold S-400 shafts into his set of Cobra irons Thursday and was pleased with the early results. Fowler took advantage of good scoring conditions in the morning at TPC San Antonio AT&T Oaks Course and fired a 4-under 68 in the opening round of the Valero Texas Open. Related: Si Woo Kim opens with 66 | Insider: Bowditch upbeat in back recovery | Landry’s fearless attitude “What I’ve been playing has been working,” he said of True Temper C-Taper S+ shafts, “but just looking for that little bit better.” Fowler said he had been thinking about making the change in hopes of gaining a little more spin on his mid irons. The S-400 shaft is the same model he already uses in his wedges. On Tuesday, Fowler had Cobra’s Ben Schomin build 7-irons with eight different shafts for testing. It’s unusual for players to make equipment switches the week before a major, but Fowler downplayed the timing ahead of the Masters. “There’s no way to get an idea of what it’s going to do unless you put it in play,” he said. “You’ve got to take that risk to find out and I’m happy with how it performed so far.” Fowler, who trailed Si Woo Kim by two strokes, was proudest of a wedge he hit at No. 11, his second hole of the day, which set up a short birdie putt. “It was just a nice little hold-off high-cut wedge into the back right pin there. Really hit it exactly how I wanted to,” he said. “It doesn’t happen that often that you hit a perfect shot, how you draw it up landing in the right spot and finishing where you want it. So to have that happen on the second hole of the day definitely gave me confidence moving forward.” Fowler also highlighted his 9-iron from the rough at the ninth that flew with his preferred trajectory and hit the green and stopped. Fowler is making his first appearance at the Valero Texas Open and said the golf course provided a fair test for his iron play. “There’s some great approach shots in here,” Fowler said. “You’ve got to be pretty spot on with your numbers and how your bringing the ball in, the height, whether you’re skipping it back or trying to stop it pretty quickly. It’s a fun test. I wouldn’t mind seeing a little breeze around here, just add a little more ball-striking on top of that, even though it is already a ball-striking golf course.” 

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GULLANE, Scotland — Robert Rock was already heading to Carnoustie next week to work at The Open Championship in a coaching capacity. He might now have to take his clubs. Rock, ranked No. 244, set the record for the lowest 36-hole total since the Scottish Open was launched by the European Tour in 1972, adding a 7-under 63 in the second round Friday to his 64 on Day 1. So far, he has made 13 birdies and not dropped a shot. Not only did it give the English golfer a two-shot lead on 13-under 127 at Gullane, it also gave him a great chance of earning one of the final qualification spots for the British Open just up the east coast of Scotland. “It’s everything for me,” Rock said. On a day when players shot low scores because of a lack of wind, the course record was broken twice — by Connor Syme of Scotland (62) and then Hideto Tanihara of Japan (61). The layout has only been played once before, at the Scottish Open in 2015. Tyrrell Hatton (64) and unheralded Swede Jens Dantorp (65) were the closest challengers to Rock. Eddie Pepperell (63) and Rickie Fowler (66), the winner at Gullane three years ago, were a shot further back. One of golf’s more nattily dressed players, Rock is most famous for overcoming Tiger Woods in a last-group, final-round shootout at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in 2012. That remains the second and most recent professional win for a player who never wears a golf hat and seemingly never has a hair out of place. Nowadays, the 41-year-old Rock — a former club pro — has started coaching again. Among his part-time pupils are Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn and up-and-coming English player Matt Wallace, whose two wins this year have secured a place at the Open for the first time. “My job is to be there with him (Wallace) and help him prepare. I was looking forward to that anyway,” Rock said, before adding with a smile: “But I’d love to play there, of course.” To do that, he has to be one of the leading three players to finish in the top 10 and ties who are not otherwise exempt for Carnoustie. And that’s far from guaranteed with Gullane as defenseless as it has been this week. Hatton, likely to be in Europe’s Ryder Cup team against the United States in Paris in September, opened with a 65 and has only made one bogey this week. Dantorp, who is playing in his second full year on the tour and has only one top-10 finish, went down No. 18 needing a birdie to tie the lead. He made a bogey, his first of the week. Tanihara was 9 under par for his round after 15 holes and required two more birdies to become the first player in European Tour history to shoot a 59. He could only par his way home, but that still meant Syme’s 62 from the morning was the course record for about eight hours. Defending champion Rafa Cabrera Bello missed the cut, which came at 4 under, after a 67 left him on 1 under. Also sidelined at the weekend will be Phil Mickelson (69, for 1 under overall) and Hideki Matsuyama (70, for 2 under overall).

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