Hard to take a positive from Tiger’s rough round

Few PGA TOUR players are more passionate about golf-course architecture than Zac Blair. He’s back on TOUR this season after spending a year on the Korn Ferry Tour, which means he can re-visit several of his favorite layouts. Waialae Country Club, which hosts this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii, is high on that list. Waialae was built by Seth Raynor nearly a century ago during an era known as the Golden Age of architecture. Blair’s affinity for the course is shown in his performances in Honolulu. He finished T6 in his Sony debut five years ago, then followed with a career-best third in 2016. This week will be his first Sony start in three years. After failing to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs in 2017 and 2018, he had to return to the Korn Ferry Tour last year. He won the second-to-last event of the Regular Season to regain his TOUR card and is off to a good start this season. He finished T4 at the Safeway Open and T14 at the Mayakoba Golf Classic to sit 51st in the FedExCup standings.  Blair recently spoke to PGATOUR.COM about Waialae, losing (and regaining) his TOUR card and the status of The Buck Club, the course he dreams of bringing to his native Utah. PGATOUR.COM: What’s your best memory from Waialae? Zac Blair: Probably that 3-wood I hit on 18 (in 2016). That was something you never forget, hitting that good of a shot in that situation. … I figured if I made eagle, I would have a chance to win. I hit it exactly how I wanted to. I needed to hit a really good one. I hit it perfect and it came off with that perfect ball flight. I knew if it got the hop, it could be really good. (Note: Blair, who had 275 yards remaining for his second shot to the par-5 18th, missed his 15-foot eagle putt and finished one shot out of a playoff won by Fabian Gomez.) PGATOUR.COM: What do you love about playing there? Zac Blair: It’s a cool spot. Any of those par-70s where you get that Bermudagrass, where there’s a real premium on hitting it in the fairway, it’s obviously really nice. I’ve played it a few times where it’s been really firm and I can get it out as far as those longer hitters because they may be hitting hybrid off the tee. The course is fun. It’s a cool way to start the year. I’m excited to get back and see what Tom Doak has done with the restoration. Most of the big changes have taken place the last two or three years since I last played there. PGATOUR.COM: What do you like about Raynor courses? Zac Blair: I just find them enjoyable. I really enjoy some of those template holes and green complexes in general. I feel like they offer a large selection of pin positions. You can make the course play a lot different day-to-day. A hole can play completely different just by moving the hole 10-12 steps. PGATOUR.COM: Do you feel like you gained anything from having to go back to the Korn Ferry Tour? Zac Blair: For sure. Not that I took it for granted, but you realize how good you have it on the big tour. From the courses we play, the food we eat to how they take care of you. It’s nice to get back for a lot of those reasons, and obviously you play for a lot more money, which is never a bad thing. PGATOUR.COM: Is your game any different than the last time you were on TOUR? Zac Blair: I don’t think so. I’m still short. I just have to make the putts. I just went back to a lot of stuff I did growing up or stuff I did right when I got out on TOUR. When I first got on TOUR, I just went out and felt it out. Then I was trying so hard to make my putting stroke more fundamentally sound or trying to change it because you would hear people say, ‘You’ll have to change your putting if you want to be more consistent.’ But I was always one of the best putters I knew, so it was silly to change it to make it look better. I went back to putting the way I putt. That’s the biggest difference. PGATOUR.COM: Was there a time when you worried about getting back on TOUR? Zac Blair: The year after I finished 126th (in the FedExCup), I still had a lot of opportunities. I got in like 20 events, so I got in enough where if I’d played well I could get back in that top 125. I may have gotten a little ‘woe is me’ that year, like, ‘I can’t believe I finished 126th.’ Last year, I told myself that if I just dedicated myself to grinding it out and not complaining about being on the Korn Ferry Tour, not having a ‘woe is me’ attitude, I could play solid and get my card. I just did a good job of staying focused and realizing that sometimes you have to go through situations like that to get back to where you want to be, or where you know you’re going to be. But there are always those times where you have bad weeks and you don’t know. PGATOUR.COM: What’s the status of The Buck Club? Zac Blair: I think it’s in a good spot. We’re still looking for some money to build the course but I think we’re pretty OK with where we’re at right now, with being a golf club without a course. We’re hoping to get it built in the near future, but we’re not in any rush to go do something drastic without the proper means to make it something that will last and be here for a long time. I wanted it to be this private club in Utah for my friends and golf junkies around the world, and it’s kind of turned into something bigger than that without trying. We do a lot of stuff for junior golf, raising money for things like that with the tournaments that we host. It’s been really cool to see all the people support it from all over the world. It’s crazy how much support we’ve gotten.

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LAS VEGAS - They might not be competing on their native soil, but Sungjae Im and the strong South Korean contingent at THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK are as determined as ever to claim the trophy. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the tournament to move to Las Vegas for a year after three successful stagings of THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES on South Korea's Jeju Island. South Korea is scheduled to resume hosting THE CJ CUP next year. Though not being held in its host country, this year's CJ CUP still features a strong group of South Korean players gathered at one of the United States' most exclusive clubs, Shadow Creek. Sungjae Im leads the 11 men from South Korea in the 78-man field. Danny Lee, who plays under the New Zealand flag, and Kevin Na, who identifies as American, were born in South Korea, as well. The impact of the South Korean players on the PGA TOUR continues to grow after former PLAYERS champion K.J. Choi blazed the trail. "K.J. (Choi) always used to say that he used to feel somewhat lonely after tournaments because he would have no fellow Koreans to eat with or talk with," said two-time PGA TOUR winner Si Woo Kim, who also won at TPC Sawgrass. "But this week for me it’s really special because there’s not only Korean players who currently play on the PGA TOUR, but also players who are invited from Korea, so we’re kind of able to gather and eat and talk and hopefully we all can work together and have good results. Im's age (22) is lower than his Official World Golf Ranking (23), a testament to the impressive trajectory of his career. He was the Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year in 2018 and the PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year the following season. He picked up his first PGA TOUR win earlier this year, at The Honda Classic. "If I were to win (the CJ CUP) as my second victory, (and) at a sponsor event, I think my happiness would be twofold," Im said. "I hope that I can do my best this week and produce the best result that I can." He's back in the top 30 of the FedExCup standings early in this season after three top-30 results, including a T13 at last week's Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Like Im, Kim arrives at Shadow Creek after a strong finish at the Shriners. Kim finished eighth last week. "In Korea, (the CJ CUP) felt like a home competition but this year is a special opportunity and it’s really cool to see a Korean tournament being played in America," Kim said. Byeong Hun An also is a star on the world stage. Like Im and Kim, he's played in an International Presidents Cup team and while he's still searching for a first TOUR win (he has four top-3 finishes in the last three seasons) he has broken through on the European Tour. Rounding out the PGA TOUR regulars are Sung Kang, who was a winner at the AT&T Byron Nelson in 2019, and K.H. Lee, who has made the FedExCup Playoffs in his first two seasons. Six more Korean players are in the field this week off of their performance on the Korean and Asian tours. Tournament organizers have brought a Korean feel to Las Vegas, as well. Bibigo's Korean barbeque and dumplings are among the options in player dining. Even the Americans are getting in on the Korean theme. Defending champion Justin Thomas made sure to get some Korean barbecue for his lunch on Monday and he wasn't alone. Thomas has been a staunch supporter of what is usually the Asian Swing of the TOUR. "The game of golf is growing so much across the world and it’s so big in Korea and all of Asia," Thomas said. "And that is what’s unfortunate about not being there this week. We always get a huge following out there and it’s really cool to see." Here is a closer look at the other Korean players in the field for the CJ CUP: • Jeongwoo Ham: He has a Korean Tour win to his name (2019 SK telecom OPEN) and was T67 at the 2019 CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES in his lone PGA TOUR start. • Hanbyeol Kim: He won back-to-back starts at the 2020 Hedges KPGA Open and the 2020 Shinhan Donghae Open on the Korean Tour. He currently leads the Order of Merit. • Seonghyun Kim: He became the first Monday qualifier to win on the Korean PGA Tour, capturing the 2020 Korean PGA Championship. • Jaekyeong Lee: He won the 2019 Busan Open en route to securing the Rookie of the Year award on the Korean PGA Tour. • Tae Hee Lee: The 36-year-old has five previous PGA TOUR starts. His best finish is a T55 at the 2018 CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES. • Joohyung (Tom) Kim: The teenager is a star in the making. He won the 2019 Panasonic Open India as a 17-year-old to become the second-youngest professional to win on the Asian Tour. Also has a Korean Tour win and has played three TOUR events in recent months. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship, was T67 at the season opening Safeway Open and T33 at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship.

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The Monday qualifiers for this week’s PGA TOUR event include an Air Force veteran and an alumnus of nearby UNLV. Tom Whitney, a 2010 graduate of the Air Force Academy, shot 63 on Monday at Boulder Creek Golf Club to earn medalist honors. He finished one shot ahead of Ryan Hogue. Andres Gonzales and Jim Knous fired 65 to grab the final two spots in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, which begins Thursday at TPC Summerlin. Whitney, 28, served as an Air Force officer from 2010-14 and is now pursuing a professional golf career. He finished 89th on this year’s Web.com Tour money list, posting one top-10 in 15 starts. He is making his PGA TOUR debut. This week’s qualifiers undoubtedly will be inspired by the performance of Scott Strohmeyer at last week’s Sanderson Farms Championship. Strohmeyer, who was making his PGA TOUR debut, finished T4 after advancing through both the Thursday and Monday qualifiers. Strohmeyer’s top-10 finish earned him a start this week at TPC Summerlin. He also earned 68 non-member FedExCup points; last season it took 365 points to finish 125th in the FedExCup standings and 82 points to qualify for the Web.com Tour Finals. Last season, none of the 95 players who Monday qualified for an event finished in the top 10. Strohmeyer’s finish is believed to be the best by a qualifier since Jason Allred finished T3 at the 2014 Genesis Open. Allred was the odd man out in Monday’s qualifier, losing a 3-for-2 playoff with Knous and Gonzales, who played at UNLV. Gonzales, 34, finished 158th in last season’s FedExCup, posting just two top-25s in 24 starts. One of those top-25s came after he Monday qualified for the Shell Houston Open (T23); it was one of just four top-25 finishes by a Monday qualifier last season. Gonzales, a two-time winner on the Web.com Tour, failed to regain his card at the recent Web.com Tour Finals, missing the cut in three of four events. He graduated from UNLV in 2006 with a degree in journalism. Knous, 27, will be making his second PGA TOUR start. He also Monday qualified for last season’s Waste Management Phoenix Open, where he missed the cut by two shots (70-73). Knous, who graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 2012 with a degree in civil engineering, finished 94th on the 2017 Web.com Tour money list. Hogue made his only other PGA TOUR appearance at the 2003 Waste Management Phoenix Open (MC). He also played two Web.com Tour events in 1999, missing the cut in both. Sanderson Farms Championship qualifiers T4. Scott Strohmeyer, 72-67-68-71 T53. David Skinns, 70-73-74-71 T68. Grady Brame Jr., 72-67-75-77 MC. Nyasha Mauchaza, 72-73 2017-18 Monday qualifiers Qualifiers: 8 Made cut: 3 Top-10s: 1 Top-25s: 1 Average qualifying score: 66.6 Average tournament score*: 72.2  

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