How to watch AT&T Byron Nelson, Round 3: Featured Groups, live scores, tee times, TV times

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Jim Furyk took Tuesday off, mainly just to breathe and assess what lies ahead of him. After all, what was shaping up to be a relatively quiet month for him has transformed into a golf version of full-on March Madness. Amazing what doors that quality play can wedge open. For Furyk, who began this season playing out of the No. 126-150 category (he was 141st) from the 2017-18 FedExCup standings list, a tie for ninth at the Honda Classic earned him a start near home in Ponte Vedra Beach at THE PLAYERS Championship last week, and now the dominoes are tumbling. At PLAYERS, Furyk responded with one of his best runs in years, his birdie-par-birdie finish and 5-under 67 eventually leaving him just one shot shy of Rory McIlroy’s winning score, preventing Furyk from collecting his 18th PGA TOUR triumph.  So there was no trophy, but finishing second against the strongest field in golf had its perks. Furyk rose 47 spots in the FedExCup standings, to 24th. So now he is in next week’s World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play, another tournament he thought he’d be watching this season. Good play this week at Valspar or next week at Match Play could propel him into the Masters, a tournament he has missed two of the last three seasons. So much for this schedule stretch being the quietest of the season for him. “Now, with the additions of the PLAYERS and the addition of Match Play, I’ve kind of got more events than I know what to do with,â€� Furyk said Wednesday upon his arrival at Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course, which he ranks among his five favorites on the PGA TOUR. “So it’s a great problem to have and I hope that it continues, because it would mean I could possibly get into Augusta or I could possibly get in the U.S. Open, or get in more events.” “I’m kind of on a wait-and-see-what-happens. And again, that’s my fault. It used to be if I was playing really well and I was top 10 in the world and I could kind of make my schedule at the start of the year and stick to it, and it was good. But you earn that by playing well. So I’m in this situation because I didn’t play as well as I wanted.â€�  This is the first season that Furyk has felt fully healthy since 2015, having had wrist surgery in 2016 and been slowed by a bad shoulder last season. With his wife, Tabitha, and teen-age children watching near the 18th green at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on Sunday, Furyk sank a 3-foot birdie putt and soon had tears welled in his eyes, filled with the pride that he’d hit some great shots when it counted most.  The fierce competitor burning inside Furyk still was ticked off that he hadn’t won, something the soon-to-be 49-year-old hasn’t done since 2015. But drawing inspiration from watching players such as Raymond Floyd and pal Davis Love III win after 50, he said he’ll keep his head down and continue to play hard, not getting caught up in what he needs to do to take the next step. That method worked for him at Honda, where a solid weekend opened the door to better opportunities, and he is wise to keep to the plan.  That’s why, after participating in a corporate outing on Monday, he took Tuesday to himself and didn’t make the drive to Palm Harbor until Wednesday morning. He wants to stay mentally fresh. Furyk has accomplished a great deal on TOUR – 17 victories and more than $70 million in earnings, and the Match Play will mark his 600th start – but he says there is more work to be done.  “I want to get back in the same mind frame that I was in at Pebble Beach, at L.A., at Honda, at THE PLAYERS, where I kind of felt like there was a world of opportunity for me and really wasn’t worried about the consequences,â€� Furyk said. “And if I can keep doing that, I think I can keep playing well.â€� 

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ORLANDO, Fla. – Twenty years have passed since Padraig Harrington first faced Tiger Woods on the weekend at a major, and the Irishman has kept a close watch ever since. He doesn’t think Woods is finished. Harrington believes Woods can win another major if he can just get to the final nine holes. “You’d never run Tiger off,” Harrington said, drawing from the two hours he watched Woods play in a 10-hole made-for-TV exhibition last weekend. “But I actually think he might be in a better place than I had thought.” Never mind that the 15-time major champion turns 47 at the end of the month, or that Woods has had as many — if not more — surgeries than he has won majors. Plantar fasciitis in his right foot kept Woods from playing the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas two weeks ago, and he wouldn’t be playing with his 13-year-old son in the PNC Championship this weekend if not for carts being allowed. No matter. “There’s two things that make a golfer — how talented they are and how resilient they are,” Harrington said Thursday after storms washed out the PNC Championship pro-am. “Usually you get very talented, not very resilient; or you get very resilient and not very talented. Tiger, through his whole career, has both of those, which is very unusual. “So I would never doubt.” His views were contrary to Colin Montgomerie saying earlier this week on a podcast he doesn’t think Woods can win again. “Listen, yes, he’s great,” Montgomerie said. “But Tiger doesn’t have to now just get back to the standard he was performing at then. He has to improve it. The standard is improving all the time, and there’s not one or two guys that can beat him now. There’s 22 guys that can beat him. So, it’s Tiger trying to get not back to where he was but to get to a standard he’s never been at before and I don’t think that’s possible. “I can’t see that happening. I’d love it to happen because it’s great for the game. I would love him to win. But I just can’t see it happening.” Woods has played all of 172 holes this year in tournaments — 162 while walking. He tied for 48th in the Masters, withdrew after the third round of the PGA Championship on a cold day at Southern Hills and he missed the cut at St. Andrews. He was in a cart for the team match last Saturday with Rory McIlroy as his partner. Woods said in the Bahamas that “I don’t have much left in this leg,” referring to the right leg that was shattered in a February 2021 car crash in Los Angeles. Harrington and Woods first squared off in the third round of the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black in 2002 — Woods won his second straight major — and they have been friends since then, with Woods having respect for the Irishman’s work ethic. Harrington used to say his goal was to see where he stood through 63 holes, and then show what he has on the final nine. He won three majors in 2007 and 2008. What inspired him from watching 10 holes in the match last week was the speed Woods showed in his swing, which he thought was enough power to keep up with today’s generation and to at least get him to the back nine. “The little bit of extra speed will help him because in the first 63 holes … you know, who would want to be coming down the stretch against Tiger?” Harrington said. “You know he’s capable of doing anything at that stage. I think he’s in a better position to get himself into that last nine holes.” It only takes 27 holes to get to the last nine at the PNC Championship, which Woods is playing for the third time. Woods and Charlie, now 13, finished one shot behind John Daly and his son a year ago. The competition can be serious at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando, though this is mostly about time spent among fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. With Woods involved, everything always feels bigger, however much time he has left. “I would say we are never really going to know how much is in there because he just continues to do more than we thought he would ever be able to do,” Stewart Cink said. “He continues to defy really all conceivability.”

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Welcome to the Monday Finish where Marc Leishman became the second straight Australian to go wire-to-wire at Conway Farms, taking out the BMW Championship in record fashion in the penultimate event of a sensational FedExCup Playoffs. While Leishman took control from day one, the tournament still produced plenty of great side stories as the top 70 players in the FedExCup battled it out to be part of the 30 headed to East Lake and the TOUR Championship. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. The real abilities of Marc Leishman are finally being fully appreciated. Despite being a clear talent and more importantly one of the greatest humans on the planet, the man affectionately known simply as “Leishâ€� has not been in the mainstream consciousness of the majority of golf fans nearly enough. This despite being PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year in 2009. Despite winning the Travelers Championship in 2012. Despite almost winning the Masters in 2013. Despite being inside the top 6 of three of the last four Open Championships including a playoff loss at St Andrews in 2015. Despite winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard earlier this season. Despite all of this, the affable Aussie just doesn’t command the appreciation of the masses and throughout the tournament was referred to as underrated with commentators spending time explaining his resume. To be fair, Leishman is in the midst of his best season and previously may not have shown enough consistency in his game to get the real plaudits. This season, however, he has 15 top-25 results from 24 starts, his previous best was just nine in 2014. But his wire-to-wire win at Conway Farms showed everyone plenty. It came off the back of losing a two-shot lead on the back nine at the Dell Technologies Championship. The sort of loss that breaks some players. But not Leishman. He didn’t back down after an opening 62. He didn’t back down when countryman and former World No. 1 Jason Day joined him in Saturday’s final pairing. He didn’t back down when American favorite Rickie Fowler joined him in Sunday’s last pairing or when former U.S. Open winner Justin Rose pulled within two shots on the back nine Sunday. Instead, he pulled away and won by five. That’s some next level stuff. 2. Some of you may have raised an eyebrow at the comment above singing the praises of Leishman away from the course. You may think it is a little over the top. Perhaps I am biased. But let me try to enlighten you. Most know Leishman’s wife Audrey almost lost her life to toxic shock syndrome and sepsis in early 2015. She was given just a 5 percent chance of survival and Marc faced the real possibility of becoming a single dad to toddler sons Harvey and Ollie. He was a pillar of strength during this time and thankfully she pulled through and now they also share a newborn daughter Eva. But it’s not just this narrative that make him a “good blokeâ€� as those in his homeland would say. Leishman has always been one to consider others ahead of himself. And he’s never once changed from being a knockabout guy, no matter how much money or fame has come his way. It’s often been said Leishman could become the world’s best player and not change a single bit. He would still share a drink with the locals in both his adopted Virginia Beach home and his cherished Warrnambool back in Australia. Childhood friend Matty Kelly has been his caddie forever and the pair often hang out, with their young families, away from the course. Leishman treats everyone he meets like they’re the most important person is his space at the time. He flies coach to save money, so the rest can go into his Begin Again Foundation. He sent beer and pizza to the NBC cameraman who expertly dodged his last hole shank a few weeks ago because “If that ball hits him, it goes back in the hazard. He saved me a lot of money.â€� He’s a throwback, saying after his win that he’s not a “gym ratâ€� and “hasn’t been for a run on 10 years.â€� Instead he mows the putting green at his house everyday so he can go to his “nothing boxâ€� in his head. He can remain the same guy he’s always been. A legend. 3. We say it a lot but once again we have definitive proof that EVERY SHOT MATTERS on the PGA TOUR. One solitary FedExCup point. Well actually it was technically .72 of a point. That’s all that stood between Louis Oosthuizen and the TOUR Championship. Yep, the 2010 Open Champion winner was left to rue flu like symptoms in the opening rounds at the BMW Championship that had him near the back of the pack. Despite a wonderful 66-67 weekend as his health improved the South African ultimately finished just behind Jason Dufner in the season-long points race. Last year it was Rickie Fowler missing out by fractions. It is just further proof that you can never take a shot for granted on the PGA TOUR. 4. Still on the FedExCup scenarios we finally know the all-important top 5 in the standings heading to East Lake. The gentlemen who have their destiny in their own hands are Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Marc Leishman and Jon Rahm. If any of them win the TOUR Championship, they also win the FedExCup. You certainly cannot argue the validity of the top 3 getting this luxury. Spieth has won three times this season and been 2-2-T7 in the opening three Playoff events. Thomas has five wins on the season, including a Playoff event. Johnson has four wins on the season including a Playoff event. They clearly deserve a good shot at the FedExCup. Leishman is this season’s hot hand man. An earlier win in the year set things up. A third and a win in the Playoffs earned his shot. And then there is Rahm, in his first full season (not a rookie) he’s been awesome. A winner early in the campaign and then T3-T4-T5 during the Playoffs… that’s impressive. The “unluckyâ€� guy is Hideki Matsuyama. After entering the Playoffs as No. 1 thanks to three wins and three runner up results in a stellar season the Japanese star went CUT-T23-T47 in the Playoffs. He will be the 7th seed at East Lake. 5. If you’re picking an early favorite to win it all next week, it has to be top-seeded Jordan Spieth. Already a FedExCup and TOUR Championship winner in 2015 Spieth is looking to join Tiger Woods as a two-time FedExCup champion in just the 11th season of the competition’s existence. After going so close to winning in the opening two weeks Spieth once again finished inside the top-10 at the BMW Championship but you have the feeling he cleverly went into energy conserve mode once Leishman pulled out of reach. This is not to suggest he didn’t give his all, just to say he was mindful of expending more mental energy than necessary. Spieth is one of those ultimate competitors and while he is great mates with the likes of Thomas and co – come Thursday in Atlanta you can expect the game face. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Marc Leishman’s winning score of 261 topped the previous BMW Championship record of 262 set by Tiger Woods (2007) and Jason Day (2015). His five-shot winning margin was the third biggest of the season behind seven-stroke victories by Hideki Matsuyama (World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions) and Justin Thomas (Sony Open in Hawaii). He is the 13th player to go wire-to-wire in the BMW Championship, and the second consecutive Australian to do it at Conway Farms (Jason Day 2015). 2. Leishman’s 15-under performance on the par 4s (best in field) was 11 strokes better than the field average (-4). Leishman tied Jason Day (THE NORTHERN TRUST 2015) with the best par 4 performance by a winner in FedExCup Playoffs history. He made a career-high 29 birdies and his opening 62 equaled his career low on the PGA TOUR. 3. Leishman’s short game was his strength. He ranked 2nd in strokes gained: around-the-green, outperforming the BMW field by 1.505 strokes per round. He was 4th in strokes gained: putting gaining 1.120 per round. 4. Justin Rose collected his 12th career runner-up finish on the PGA TOUR and third this season (Sony Open in Hawaii, Masters Tournament). He played 53 holes without a bogey until slipping up on the par-3 17th Sunday, just his third bogey this week (No. 4 and 17 during Round 1). Rose is one of 13 players to have qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs every season since their 2007 introduction. 5. Tony Finau, Sergio Garcia, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay all played their way into the FedExCup top 30 at Conway Farms, matching the record for the Playoffs’ penultimate event. Louis Oosthuizen, Brendan Steele and two former FedExCup champions in Henrik Stenson and Bill Haas were the players to fall out. TOP THREE VIDEOS 1. Jason Day might not have replicated his 2015 victorious trip around Conway Farms but he certainly enjoyed the 17th hole with this ace. The Aussie won a new BMW but donated it back to the Evans Scholars. 2. There’s more than one way to hit it close. Just ask Brooks Koepka. Bank! 3. What do you bring Jordan Spieth for a gift?

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