How to Watch: Presidents Cup, Saturday

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The PGA TOUR announced Monday that Erik van Rooyen has accepted Special Temporary Membership for the remainder of the 2019-20 PGA TOUR Season. A native of South Africa, van Rooyen is now eligible for unlimited sponsor exemptions for the remainder of the season as he attempts to earn his PGA TOUR card for the 2020-21 season. At No. 44 in the Official World Golf Ranking, van Rooyen has made 10 starts on the PGA TOUR in 2019-20, highlighted by a career-best T3 at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship in February. Van Rooyen, who has played six of the eight weeks since the PGA TOUR returned, entered last week’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational needing 29 non-member FedExCup points to secure Special Temporary Membership and finished T20, good for 46 points. To earn full status on the PGA TOUR for the 2020-21 season, van Rooyen must earn as many or more points through the non-member FedExCup points list as No. 125 in the 2019-20 season FedExCup standings. Van Rooyen currently has 305 points, and for reference, that would fall between Nos. 105 and 106 in the current FedExCup standings. No. 125 (Chase Seiffert) currently has 254 points. Van Rooyen spoke at the recent 3M Open about his desire to become a PGA TOUR member. “I think it’s been a goal since I was a kid, reason being you see the best players in the world playing out here,” he said. “It’s not so much a goal being a full-time PGA TOUR player as it is a goal of wanting to compete against the best in the world. However, the best in the world play here. So that’s why I want to get my PGA TOUR card. “We also live here now. My wife’s from Minneapolis, from here, so we live in the U.S., we want to raise our family here, so I think long term it just makes sense. But again, I see myself as one of the best players in the world and I want to compete on that level and that means I’ll play here. It’s definitely a goal of mine. It’s been on my mind throughout these last few months, but it will take care of itself. I know that I’m a good enough player, so if I put the scores up, it’s going to happen.” Van Rooyen is in the field at this week’s PGA Championship following a T8 at the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage State Park Black Course, his best showing in four major appearances. The 30-year-old has three worldwide victories, most recently winning the 2019 Scandinavian Invitation on the European Tour. Van Rooyen played collegiately at the University of Minnesota before turning professional in 2013. In May, the Korn Ferry Tour announced modifications to the 2020 schedule and a fall calendar of events that would be part of a one-time, combined 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour season. The adjustments resulted in the loss of a graduating class via the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020, and pushed the next available Qualifying Tournament to 2021. In turn, non-members paths to the PGA TOUR for the 2020-21 season are through the non-member FedExCup points list or a victory on TOUR. Special Temporary Members are not eligible for the FedExCup Playoffs, but Special Temporary Members or non-members who subsequently become regular PGA TOUR members by winning an official event during the season will be counted on the FedExCup points list, along with any FedExCup points earned as a non-member (excluding those won at World Golf Championships events as a non-member) and thus be eligible for the FedExCup Playoffs.

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PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – On the eve of The Open, the discourse was dominated by the tournament’s greater significance. The Open’s return to Royal Portrush was a significant step for a country that suffered through decades of sectarian violence. But golf became the focal point once Darren Clarke hit the first tee shot a little after 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, and Royal Portrush is playing the starring role. Related: 5 Things to Know about Royal Portrush | O.B. could be a factor at The Open “The course is special,â€� Eddie Pepperell said after shooting 70. “This is hopefully going to build into, progress to a historic Open. I’m confident it will be.â€� Rory McIlroy’s Open chances may have ended on his first hole. Graeme McDowell’s sterling round was spoiled by a lost ball on his last hole, and Clarke faded after a fairy-tale start, but the locals will still get to see one of their own shine this weekend. Harry Colt’s design did exactly what a golf course should. It was fair in doling out rewards and punishments. The doglegs require players to commit to a distance and line off the tee. Webb Simpson said he hit drivers and hybrids off the tee Thursday, and everything in between. He is 156th on the PGA TOUR in driving distance, but used his longest club just five times Thursday. First-round leader J.B. Holmes, on the other hand, is one of the TOUR’s longest players. Royal Portrush allows a variety of players to succeed. There’s a myriad of ways to play the course, but the penalties are high for a miscue. Royal Portrush may have the fewest bunkers of any course on The Open rota, but the rough is thick after recent rains and lost balls are a possibility whenever a shot strays from the fairway. “They’ve done such a great job setting this course up, where you have fairway, first cut and then about 7 or 8 yards of light rough,â€� Simpson said. “So a shot that’s not that bad is still okay. And then a really bad shot is super penal, which I think is the perfect way to set it up, because a bad drive, you’re going to have a pitch out. “It’s one of the few courses that every player who’s played it that I’ve talked to this year, they all loved it. Usually you’ll have both sides. But everybody loved it.â€� This is a much different test than the crispy Carnoustie that players faced last year. The lush conditions, combined with Royal Portrush’s elevated greens, mean players must take an aerial route on many holes. The slopes around the putting surfaces repel wayward strikes. Players lauded Royal Portrush for being tough, but fair. “He really will only penalize you if it’s a poor golf shot,â€� Paul Casey said about Colt. “Nothing is random with what he did. That’s the best way to put it. You can see a lot of randomness in links, a lot of why on earth is that there?â€� Casey said he puts Portrush, which is hosting The Open for the first time since 1951, in his “top coupleâ€� among courses in the Open rota. “This has everything,â€� Casey said. “This is an unbelievable golf course.â€� Ireland’s Shane Lowry is the only player within a shot of Holmes, but the crowd at 68 is as large as the one that’s gathered each night this week outside Portrush’s Harbour Bar. Among those contenders are links aficionados Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Tommy Fleetwood, and the game’s dominant force in majors, Brooks Koepka. As proof that the course rewards good play, last week’s winner, Dylan Frittelli, continued his fine form with a first-round 68. But Royal Portrush shouldn’t be accused of impunity. It punished plenty, and it was impartial to the names on the caddie bib. McIlroy shot 79. Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Marc Leishman were just one shot better. Phil Mickelson shot 76. Among the players who shot 74 were Gary Woodland, Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele and defending champion Francesco Molinari. The field’s scoring average on the par-71 track was approximately 73 strokes. “You couldn’t rely on getting (shots) back,â€� Scott said after making just one birdie Thursday. “There wasn’t birdie opportunities out there unless you hit a really great shot.â€� Throw in some trademark Open weather and Thursday offered a thorough examination. “We had a true Irish day today,â€� said Jordan Spieth, who shot 70. “It was all the seasons in one day, which is kind of cool to play The Open in that situation on such a beautiful track.â€� The claret jug isn’t handed out until Sunday, but Royal Portrush won on Thursday.

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