Golf-Mickelson replaces damaged club moments before final round at PGA

ALBANY, Bahamas – There’s one thing we can be certain of when it comes to Tiger Woods’ return to competitive golf – the hype is insane. Having opened as a 100-1 shot to win next year’s Masters Woods dropped to 50-1 before competitive play this week at the Hero World Challenge, and was 25-1 after Round 1. Now the 79-time PGA TOUR winner has firmed to 15-1 after his second round 4-under 68 left him tied fifth and five shots off the lead just seven months after a fourth back surgery. All this from just two rounds of golf in an 18-man exhibition event on a relatively wide-open course. Honestly, discussion around the globe between golf fans is going a little something like this. I’ve combined the multiple arguments I heard on course and on social media into one fictional, but ultimately real, conversation. (Handles are fictional) @TigerWoodsFan79 – Oh my God!! Did you see Tiger today! He shot 31 on the front nine. He’s so back. He’s going to win three majors next year and the FedExCup! @GolfIsHard – Settle down buddy. It’s just one round. He shot 1-over on the back nine as well. He’s playing at an easy course against just 17 other players. @TigerWoodsFan79 – He shot 69 yesterday, 68 today and these 17 guys are some of the best in the world! He’s ahead of the FedExCup champion Justin Thomas among others. Plus, it’s really windy at Albany. @GolfIsHard – It hasn’t been THAT windy so far. And come on, those other guys have had really long seasons. Heck, they’ve started the new season. They’re tired. @TigerWoodsFan79 – Tired? Give me a break. They’ve had time off. And three of the guys above Tiger have been playing lately. Justin Rose has played all over the globe, Tommy Fleetwood also and Jordan Spieth just flew back from the Australian Open! They have momentum. Tiger has to deal with rust! @GolfIsHard – He’s rusty all right. He hasn’t won anything since 2013. @TigerWoodsFan79 – Well Tiger says he can win this week. I saw one media guy asked him if he could win and he said, “What do you think?â€� and he had that Tiger grin. @GolfIsHard – What’s he going to say? No? And I also saw he said this when asked about silly dummies like you who are claiming he’s already going to sweep the majors next year despite having a fused back. “I guess they’ve got to come up with some kind of story. I just wanted to go out there and just play, compete. I didn’t know what to expect because I hadn’t played, I hadn’t competed, I haven’t had a fused back before in my life.â€� In other words, he’s telling you to settle down. @TigerWoodsFan79 – I saw that comment also. And you’ve conveniently cut it off when he starts talking positively again. “These are all new things. As you can see that even with the fused back, I still have some speed out there and these are all things I’ve had to learn and will continue to learn. This is a new body that I’m getting used to.â€� @GolfIsHard – Yeah he might have some speed and power out there, I’ll give you that. But he still has hit only 16/26 fairways this week… and at Albany the fairways are 400 yards wide. @TigerWoodsFan79 – Now you’re being unfair. He barely missed most of those. And he was punished for it. Took an unplayable yesterday and had to lay up out of a footprint today. His driving has been awesome. @GolfIsHard – Well what about the chipping? He chunked a few of those yesterday. There are still some demons in there for sure. He can’t compete in a full field event on TOUR and get away with that. @TigerWoodsFan79 – His chipping was awesome today! He even chipped one from on the green, through the collar and almost holed it. Not one bad chip at all in Round 2. It was just rust on Thursday, plus it’s into the grain like he said and that’s hard for everyone. You stubbed three of those last weekend! @GolfIsHard – He had hammer hands on some of those putts today. He’s lucky he made some of the comebackers. And these greens are slow compared to some on TOUR. And Augusta… forget about it. @TigerWoodsFan79 – 11 putts on the front nine Friday. Only one 3-putt in two days. You’re starting to clutch at straws here. Tiger said the speed changed with the set up anyway: “I think it was successful because I went out there and shot 31 on the front nine. I built upon what I did yesterday, I cleaned it up. Only thing I really struggled with today was speed of the greens. Henrik and I were talking about it all day is that they seemed to be like a foot faster. I really did struggle getting the speed and I blew most of them well past the hole and made a few coming back. I also missed my share, too.â€� @GolfIsHard – Look. Let’s just see how he goes over the weekend and how he recovers. Four back surgeries are a lot. A fused back is intense. And we have to see him in a full field event, at a tough track like Torrey Pines with the rough. Remember he made a lot of birdies in the Bahamas last year… and once he got to Torrey it all went pear shaped. @TigerWoodsFan79 – No way! I’m all in this weekend. Tiger says he’s in it. The leaderboard proves he’s in it. Does this sound like a guy who is just going through the motions? “I felt like today I could have easily gotten to double digits under par. That would have put me probably one or two back, but I think I’m still in it. We’ve got two more days and I think it’s supposed to blow a little harder tomorrow. If that’s the case, I think a good solid round should get me up in there.â€� @GolfIsHard – I can see I’m not talking you off this ledge… And I guess you’re not alone. Even the leader Charley Hoffman wants Tiger to win! Crazy! The Hoff said this… for real! “To be completely honest with you, I said at the beginning of the week I hope he wins. It’s great for the game of golf.â€� @TigerWoodsFan79 – You see! Get on the Tiger train! Just imagine if he did win… @GolfIsHard – Okay… that would be pretty awesome… It would be his sixth Hero World Challenge win… but you wouldn’t be changing your handle again just yet as it’s unofficial. @TigerWoodsFan79 – I’ll take it! And Sam Snead’s 82 TOUR victory record is falling for sure. I know it. Heck, even Jack’s 18 majors is in the crosshairs again. @GolfIsHard – *Palm Hitting Face* *Shakes Head* Woods returns to action on Saturday at 12:53 p.m. ET and is paired with defending champion Hideki Matsuyama. Check out PGATOUR.COM and all PGA TOUR social channels for the action.

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From a world golf championship to a World Golf Championship. For many, the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational will feel like it’s on the other side of the planet. Because it is. TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, is 14 hours behind Kasumigaseki County Club, host of last week’s Olympic Men’s Golf Competition where 19 golfers in this week’s field played for gold. Now they’re part of an exclusive field of 66 vying for 550 FedExCup points, a three-year PGA TOUR membership exemption and other perks. Scroll past the extended ranking of projected contenders for what TPC Southwind has in store in its third edition as host, the preferred strategy to prevail and more. RELATED: How the field qualified | The First Look POWER RANKINGS: WGC-FEDEX ST. JUDE INVITATIONAL Hideki Matsuyama, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay, Joaquin Niemann and Tony Finau will be among the notable reviewed in the Fantasy Insider. Just like last week’s Olympics, every golfer at the WGC-St. Jude is guaranteed 72 holes to give it everything he has. Unlike the Games, this week’s tournament is an official competition for PGA TOUR members and non-members alike. The WGC-St. Jude presents largely as a gathering of winners of tournaments with a strength-of-field rating of at least 115 as determined by the Official World Golf Ranking, as well as champions of designated events on the Japan Golf Tour, Asian Tour, Australasian Tour and Sunshine Tour. The top 50 of the latest two versions of the OWGR have filled the field. Jon Rahm (rest) and Christiaan Bezuidenhout (non-member maxed at 12 starts) are the only qualifiers who are not competing. Last year’s field of 78 was specially constructed because of playing time missed due to the pandemic. It included golfers outside the top 50 in the OWGR to fill the field, a one-time exception. After surrendering a scoring average of 69.504 in its debut as host in 2019, TPC Southwind stood taller last year, yielding 69.554, but that’s still easier than it played as host of the FedEx St. Jude Classic in the 30 years prior. As long as the strength of the field that generates the lower scoring assembles, futures averages should follow suit on the stock par 70, Mother Nature pending as always. On cue, textbook summertime conditions are on tap in the backyard of the title sponsor’s headquarters. In fact, it’ll be even more cooperative than how locals might define textbook because rain is not expected all week. Daytime highs will push and exceed a seasonable 90 degrees and wind might ripple a few of the international flags on the property by the weekend, but trousers should be spared. TPC Southwind tips at 7,233 yards. That’s 44 yards shorter than last year, entirely due to par-3 13th not playing longer than 195 yards this time. Champion bermudagrass greens could stretch to 12-and-a-half feet on the Stimpmeter, but putting isn’t the priority to consider contending. Putting surfaces average only 4,300 square feet. While the course is not unfamiliar to most – indicating that putting should matter more than when greens are foreign – the premium is on hitting greens in regulation, landing on them with precision and scrambling. Consider that en route to a three-stroke title last year, Justin Thomas finished T7 in greens hit, second in proximity, first in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and sixth in scrambling, but he ranked 55th in Strokes Gained: Putting, giving away almost two strokes on the greens during the tournament. Of the 11 who recorded a top 10 in the event, four recorded negative SG: Putting totals, two of whom were worse than JT. Primary rough, also bermuda, is trimmed to two-and-a-half inches. This elevates the possibility for a shorter hitter to surprise, but the greater benefit will be to longer hitters for whom the pressure is relieved to take shorter irons from tighter lies. That’s always the case, but the smaller greens serve as a more formidable of a defense against the wayward off the tee. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings (WGC-St. Jude) TUESDAY*: Power Rankings (Barracuda), Sleepers (WGC-St. Jude), Fantasy Insider SUNDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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