Hoffman shoots 65, leads by 1-stroke in Canada

JACKSON, Miss. — Sebastián Muñoz of Colombia made a 15-foot birdie on the 17th hole and saved par at the end Saturday afternoon for a 9-under 63, giving him a one-shot lead in the Sanderson Farms Championship as he tries to give South America back-to-back winners on the PGA TOUR. Muñoz had four birdies in the opening five holes at the Country Club of Jackson, and kept near the lead the rest of the way with Carlos Ortiz of Mexico until his final birdie. Muñoz was at 16-under 200, one shot ahead of Ortiz, who had a 65. Byeong Hun An, who started the third round with a two-shot lead, shot 70 and was two shots behind. Joaquin Niemann became the first player from Chile to win on the PGA TOUR last week at the Greenbrier. Muñoz will try to become the first Colombian since Camilo Villegas to win.

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THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The scorecards of Sebastian Munoz and Tiger Woods were unusual for different reasons Thursday in the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD. That was only good news for one of them. RELATED: Full leaderboard | How Tiger inspired Phil Munoz twice holed out for eagle from a combined distance of 219 yards. He also had eight birdies. Throw in a wild tee shot for double bogey, three bogeys and only five pars and it added to an 8-under 64 and a one-shot lead. "Not a normal round," Munoz said. That especially was the case for Woods. For the first time in his 1,277 rounds on the PGA TOUR as a pro, he made bogey or worse on three par 5s in a single round. That led to a 4-over 76 — by two shots his worst score in 49 rounds at Sherwood — that left him 12 shots out of the lead. Munoz, the Colombian who played his college golf at North Texas, finished off his bizarre round by saving par from a narrow section of the front bunker with a 15-foot putt on the 18th hole. He was one shot ahead of Tyrrell Hatton, the hottest golfer this month, and Justin Thomas, who had a hot finish. Hatton won the European Tour flagship event at Wentworth, flew to Las Vegas for the CJ CUP and tied for third. Thomas shot 29 on the back nine at Sherwood. They each had a 65. Whether it was shocking to see Woods so far back on this course is a matter of perspective. He is a five-time winner at Sherwood, along with five runner-up finishes, against small fields in a holiday exhibition. He was playing only his third competitive round in the last seven weeks, and his first since missing the cut in the U.S. Open a month ago. The rust was evident, and a few bad breaks didn’t help his cause. He pushed his tee shot on the par-5 11th to the right, normally not a big deal except the ball stopped rolling in the dirt between two trees about 18 inches apart. Woods couldn’t believe it when he got to his ball and wasted no time inverting a sand wedge to hit out left-handed. That didn’t make it back to the fairway, and the rough is thicker than he ever saw it in the 12 previous times playing Sherwood in December. The course recently over-seeded with rye and the grass is thick, as it was at Shadow Creek. He laid up from there and made bogey. On the par-5 13th, he sent his tee shot again to the right, partially blocked by a tree. He tried to gouge out a mid-iron and it didn’t make it to the second section of fairway. Another vicious swing from thick grass advanced it only 130 yards to a bunker some 50 yards to the hole. The sand shot didn’t quite reach the green. His putt from 55 feet didn’t reach the hole He made double bogey. And then on the par-5 16th, a tee shot down the right side took a wild bounce to the right, and a marshal carefully going down the bank toward the creek was not a good sign. He took a penalty drop, laid up and sent wedge just over the green, forcing him to get up-and-down for bogey. The one smile came on an 85-foot putt for birdie on the 14th. Smiles were rare on this day. Munoz smiled in disbelief. His round began with a three-putt bogey from 7 feet. He followed with four birdies on the next five holes — he missed a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-5 fifth — and then he hammered a 9-iron from 168 yards that faded gently toward the hole and rolled in for an eagle. "Once you see the guy throw up the touchdown sign, it’s good," Munoz said of a volunteer behind the green. His other eagle looked like it might be a bogey. He hit 3-wood that crashed into a tree near the 16th green, and Munoz was waiting for it to splash down in the creek. Instead, it went backward into the fairway, 51 yards from the hole. "My caddie was like, ‘Be aggressive. You already took a risk on shot No. 2, so might as well just keep going.' All right, sure," he said. "So I throw it up there and find the hole. It was pretty sweet." Roughly half the 78-man field shot in the 60s on a pleasant day in the Conejo Valley. Woods wasn’t the only one who didn’t take advantage. Rory McIlroy had two double bogeys sandwiched around two birdies at the end of his round of 73. Phil Mickelson, a winner last week on the PGA TOUR Champions, needed four birdies on his last eight holes to shoot 72.

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At first, Addison Seban made the candles for fun. Or maybe, as a present to give to a friend. When she wanted to be fitted for a new set of golf clubs, though, she turned her hobby into a business. “It was real expensive and my mom was like, no, you’re going to have to earn your money to buy the golf clubs – they’re just not going to give them to you,” Addison recalls. “And so, we thought of ideas that would make the money and that I know I enjoyed doing.” So far, she’s made enough selling candles – the pumpkin spice, peppermint and cedar-scented ones do especially well with the holidays approaching – to pay for a set of irons. She’s now saving up for her woods and hybrids. Each candle, which sells for $5 or $10, depending on the size, has a card attached explaining that Addison, who is a member of First Tee-Golden Isles, is trying to make money to further her golf career. The high school freshman has sold more than 100 candles so far. “I would hope people would like them because I try hard on them,” Addison says. So far, the candles have been sold by word-of-mouth, many to her mother’s friends. But Addison plans to sell them at a crafts fair this month in Brunswick, Georgia, and a web page is also in the works. “But right now, it’s mainly just by, I was asking local people around here or us just being sitting at a restaurant and having the candles with us,” she says. “Someone will be asking how much they are and most of the time they’ll buy.” Each candle sold is an investment in a once-shy youngster who has turned into a confident teenager, one with enough poise to be selected to help tell the story of the RSM Birdies Fore Love program during the Golf Channel broadcast of this week’s RSM Classic. Addison will also be on-site at Sea Island on Wednesday where she’ll get a behind-the-scenes tour of the event that is hosted by Davis Love III. She’ll also spend time with PGA TOUR pro Kyle Westmoreland, who is an RSM Ambassador. Tammy Palmer, who is the executive director of First Tee-Golden Isles, has seen Addison’s transformation first-hand. It’s not just the golfer she’s become, it’s how the teen has matured and been empowered by the organization’s core values. “I guess the one word, if I were to have one word for Addison, it’s joy,” she says. “Like, every time I see Addison and I talk to Addison, she’s always got a very bright smile on her face, and she’s just a beautiful young girl, and she’s got a bright future ahead of her. … “She has developed so much confidence over the last few years and she has really developed into a wonderful young woman. And she has started being a part of a couple of organizations at her school where she’s on the leadership board. … And the amazing thing about that is, is it’s a new school for her. … And so, she’s jumped right in with both feet and. And she’s just going to do amazing.” Addison has been a member of First Tee-Golden Isle, which is a beneficiary of the RSM Birdies Fore Love program since her grandfather Rich Seban signed her up for a summer camp at the age of 7. He lives in a golf course community, and she liked tagging along with him. “It was just a way for me to get out there and hang out with him,” Addison says. She played soccer, volleyball and basketball, too, but by the time she was 10, Addison began taking golf more seriously. She and her grandfather play together weekly, but while she’s come close, she has not beaten him yet, “sadly,” she says. A ninth grader at Frederica Academy on Saint Simon’s Island, Addison is drawn to the challenge of the game, as well as the friendships she’s made. She’ll be playing golf for the Knights this year, and she was pleased to find out there is another girl on the team who plays “serious” golf. “I think my favorite part about golf is just being out there and playing it and just enjoying seeing how well I’m doing for the day or how bad and how I can improve with it,” Addison says. Now that she’s older and a veteran, of sorts, at First Tee-Golden Isle, Addison volunteers three or four times a week. She started out working with the youngest kids and now focuses on the 7-9 age group, teaching them the core values and the game, as well as respecting the golf course. Palmer says the donation from the RSM Birdies Fore Love program has allowed First Tee-Golden Isle to expand into three additional counties and provide life and leadership opportunities to more kids like Addison. “We’ve been able to add a lot more specialty programs like PGA Junior League and LPGA Girls Golf and our school program, where we have our curriculum and our equipment inside 25 middle and elementary high schools,” she says. “And so, we’ve been able to expand that and create a much further reach than we did before.” The First Tee lessons Addison teaches to the youngsters are ones she knows well. The core values – particularly honesty and perseverance — are an integral part of her daily life. “It’s taught me a lot about leadership,” Addison says of the First Tee tenets. “I’m a part of my school’s leadership teams that they have, and I think it’s helped a lot with that and just also building confidence with that to being able to say I’m going do this and actually doing it and just not saying it and not doing it.” Addison’s ultimate goal is to earn a college scholarship to play golf. While she has already played in some tournaments, particularly on the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour, she hopes to be a more regular participant in 2023, competing in at least one a month. Looks like it’s time to sell some more candles.

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