Grant Thornton inks golf partnership trio

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are ready for a made-for-TV rematch at a time when fans are craving live action. And this time, they’ll have company. Turner Sports says quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning will join them for a two-on-two match sometime in May. Missing from the announcement were such details as when and where the match would be played, except that tournament organizers would work with government and health officials to meet safety and health standards. Turner said all donations and fundraising from “The Match: Champions for Charity” would benefit relief efforts for the COVID-19 pandemic. The event will be televised on TNT, with social and digital content leading up and during the event available through Bleacher Report and House of Highlights. “It’s on now,” Mickelson tweeted Wednesday afternoon responding to Bleacher Report. He added that he would be paired with Brady, saying: “After feeling the sting of defeat the first time around, Looks like (at)TigerWoods is bringing a ringer to The Match ((hash)PeytonManning). I’m bringing a GOAT. (at)TomBrady — Ready to hit bombs?” The first match over Thanksgiving weekend in November 2018 was supposed to be pay-per-view, except that technical difficulties allowed everyone to watch. It lacked some of wild bets both players had teased, and the trash talking was forced at times. Mickelson ended up winning the $9 million winner-take-all purse in a wedge contest under the lights when the matched ended in a tie. Live golf was last seen on television March 12, the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship as developments with the new coronavirus accelerated at such a rate that sports began shutting down. The PGA TOUR first decided not to have fans at the TPC Sawgrass, then canceled its premier event, and then began canceling or postponing all tournaments across each of its tours. Woods was not at THE PLAYERS. The defending Masters champion has not played since he finished last in his Genesis Invitational at Riviera on Feb. 16. Saying his back did not feel ready, Woods chose not to play the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship, the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and THE PLAYERS Championship. Woods and Manning have played together in pro-ams on the PGA TOUR. The Palm Beach Post has reported that Brady, who recently signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has joined fabled Seminole Golf Club in south Florida.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – Jordan Spieth was good, very good, bad and relentless. It all added up to a 6-under 64 in the opening round of the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club. The 2015 FedExCup champion and former world No. 1 went 5-under-par in a five-hole stretch on the back nine, salvaged bogeys after wide-right tee shots at the 12th and 18th holes and sits just two behind co-leaders Byeong Hun An and Sungjae Im. “It’s trending in the right direction,� Spieth said. “I think it’s still a week or two away as far as the control, full control off the tee and into the greens.� In a sense, Spieth’s opening round was a microcosm of his season. He ranked 108th in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, but second in Strokes Gained: Putting (121 feet of made putts). No putts were bigger, emotionally, than his 15-foot bogey save at the par-3 12th and 21-footer to save bogey at the par-4 18th. These came after wild tee shots that missed way right of his target, the one at the 12th coming to rest on a fluffy downslope, the one on 18 going out of bounds. “What you got to see today as a fan was heart and soul and grit,� David Duval said on the Golf Channel. “Somebody that’s fighting.� Spieth came into this week at 67th in the FedExCup, meaning he’s good for THE NORTHERN TRUST at Liberty National next week, but on the bubble for the (top-70) BMW Championship. The problem for the 11-time PGA TOUR winner has been his inability to keep big numbers off the scorecard, and that results from his inability to fully tame his long game. Simply put, he still has the big miss, he knows it, and this results in what he calls “scar tissue.� Although he has worked his way back on the greens and was sixth in Strokes Gained: Putting coming into the Wyndham, he was a distant 183rd on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, which is odd for a guy who was at the absolute pinnacle of the game four years ago. The pundits continue to debate what happened. After Spieth tied his lowest round this season, Brandel Chamblee said on Golf Channel that he could be “on the edge of oblivion.� Or, history might show, he’s on the edge of finally figuring this out. Spieth thinks the latter. When he misses, he says, he gets quick. At the 18th hole, he dropped his club after blocking his first drive into someone’s backyard so far right of the fairway, he didn’t bother looking for the ball. Part of the problem, he said, was tactical. “I should have just played that, you know, that fade off the left side of the tee instead of trying to go to that draw with a driver, trying to be the hero,� he said after making birdie with his second ball. “It’s hard to cut it enough to get into trouble if you line up left there, so that’s certainly the plan the next few days.� Meanwhile, he’s looking on the bright side, and that starts with his putting. “I went from like 200th last year to the top 10,� he said. “That’s a pretty massive turnaround, and I needed it.� Whether he can get the big miss out of his bag and tighten up his tee-to-green game remains to be seen.

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Webb Simpson birdied the final two holes of regulation to force a playoff with Tony Finau, then won the Waste Management Phoenix Open with a 10-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole Sunday.

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