How to watch the Masters Tournament, Round 4: Leaderboard, tee times, TV times

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Each day at U.S. Open, PGATOUR.COM’s staff writers will dive into the big issues and questions everyone is discussing. Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas each admitted they hadn’t known the USGA changed the playoff format, from an 18-hole Monday playoff to a two-hole Sunday one. What else surprised you from the press conferences so far? Sean Martin, Senior Editor: I appreciated Jason Day’s boldness and honesty. “I think if I want to be the best player in the world, I’ll be the best player in the world,â€� is a quote that really stuck out to me from Tuesday. He definitely seemed inspired. Ben Everill, Staff Writer: Hearing Jason Day talk about Tiger Woods’ “MC Hammer pantsâ€� from 2004 at Shinnecock and then Bubba Watson’s messy burrito habits was something I was not expecting in the lead-up to this tournament. Jonathan Wall, Equipment Insider: Probably D.J. admitting he hit mid irons and even a couple long irons into some of the holes at Shinnecock. And here I thought he carried driver and a bunch of wedges.  Cameron Morfit, Staff Writer: Given the way the ’04 U.S. Open ended, I’m surprised that the only complaining has been about the traffic. But it’s early. Shinnecock’s greens are like upside-down cereal bowls, and once balls start landing in the wrong places and funneling 50 yards away, it’s on. Who is the one player almost no one is talking about who is nonetheless on your radar?  Martin: I don’t think enough people are talking about Tommy Fleetwood. He finished fourth in last year’s U.S. Open and remains very much one of the world’s best players. I think he’ll like Shinnecock Hills’ linksy characteristics. Everill: Lucas Herbert. The 23-year-old Australian dominated the Portland Sectionals and is a highly touted youngster out of Australia. Won’t be overawed and could easily replicate Cameron Smith’s U.S. Open debut from 2015 (T4). Wall: Tommy Fleetwood. He’s finished outside the top 25 three times in 10 TOUR starts this season. And did I mention he was fourth last season at the U.S. Open? He has the game to contend at Shinnecock. Literally no one is talking about him. Morfit: He got injured, so Brooks Koepka fell out of the conversation. Now he’s back. He’s posted 63s in two of his last three starts and said in his presser, “I feel like I always play well at U.S. Opens. I play very conservative, middle of the greens a lot of times, and I feel like major championships are kind of where I shine.â€� I’d be shocked if the defending champ doesn’t finish in the top 10. Dustin Johnson looked strong in winning the FedEx St. Jude Classic by six, but is Shinnecock a course that favors touch around the greens more than power off the tee?  Martin: I think the short game is going to be very important this week. Between the wind and the sloping greens, those chipping areas around the putting surfaces are going to get plenty of work. The last three U.S. Opens here were won by stellar short games. Raymond Floyd was one of the best chippers in the game. Corey Pavin hit less than half the greens when he won here. Retief Goosen hit only six greens in the final round. Everill: It is clearly a mixture of both but there must also be a premium on accuracy. At the end of the day the guy who gets up and down from trouble and makes the clutch par putts will hoist the trophy. Wall: I think you need to have an all-around game to contend. It’s important to find the fairway, but you can’t continually lay back and have mid and long irons into the greens. Even the best short game in the world won’t keep you from making a couple bogeys with that game plan. Morfit: I don’t think a bomber wins, especially as dry as it is this week. Shinnecock is a second-shot course (Goosen was a specialist with the irons), and being crafty and economical around those crazy green complexes counts for a lot, too. Phil Mickelson is making his 27th U.S. Open start, and says he loves the setup. He’s tried just about everything. How would you prepare if you were him?  Martin: I think take it easy and rely on your past work here. He’s played here twice and done well. And energy management is key for Mickelson at this stage in his career, as we saw at THE PLAYERS Championship. Everill: By renting a bigger yacht than Tiger’s and parking it right next door. Phil needs to be Phil – that is relaxed and trying to be funny. Forget all this career slam pressure. Just go out and play. Wall: What he’s doing right now: Resting. Phil played last week in Memphis and needed a recharge. Playing the course in advance of this week meant he didn’t need to grind out practice rounds. Work on the short game and conserve energy for what should be a 72-hole grind at Shinnecock.   Morfit: Golf Channel’s Tim Rosaforte has him practicing and playing off-site at nearby Friar’s Head with, among others, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. I hope they’re taking a cart, because he should do as little as possible to preserve his legs and (admittedly) sporadic ability to drill down and focus. It’s a long week.

Click here to read the full article…

ORLANDO, Fla. - Rickie Fowler and Viktor Hovland have been sharing the same longitude and latitude this week, each competing at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. However, as recent journeys go, they have been on different trains bound for different places. Hovland, 23, is the red-hot wunderkind not far removed from Oklahoma State. He is riding one of those sizzling golf tears where nearly every bounce seems to go right, and he finds himself in contention once again as the API moves into the weekend at Bay Hill Club and Lodge. (At 7-under 137, Hovland trails leader Corey Conners by two shots.) Hovland has been a rocket ship in the Official World Golf Ranking. He was ranked 100th just more than a year ago, and now he is 13th. He smiles a lot, and for good reason. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Day's tee shot gets stuck in tree, takes one-shot penalty Certainly Fowler, now 32 and a five-time winner on the PGA TOUR, can relate to Hovland's success. Fowler is one of a long line of Cowboys standouts paving a path to the PGA TOUR for Oklahoma State players such as Hovland and Matthew Wolff. Fowler has been struggling. Searching. Tinkering. He and swing coach John Tillery have been making changes. Fowler knows exactly where he wants to be - contending in majors (four top-5 finishes in 2014), making U.S. cup teams, winning big titles (such as THE PLAYERS Championship six years ago) … because he has been there. He is working as doggedly at home as he ever has, long hours, sacrificing, waiting and hoping to see results. And still waiting. Hovland and Fowler were in the same group along with Aussie Jason Day the last two days at Arnie's Place. Hovland made seven birdies and shot 4-under 68. Hovland is riding a stretch of six top-6 or better finishes in his last seven starts. Fowler needed a chip-in for birdie at his final hole on Thursday just to shoot 76. Friday's goal to sneak back inside the cutline never was going to be easy. But he'd do what Arnold Palmer would do. His head was down Friday, and he got after it. When Fowler rinsed a tee shot at the dogleg par-4 third hole (his 12th) on Friday, he ballooned to 5 over for the tournament. He appeared destined for another disheartening week in a frustrating stretch of them. Coming in, Fowler had missed three cuts in his last six starts. But he is a fighter, and birdies coming home at Nos. 4 (28 feet), 5 (42 feet) and 6 (2 feet) at least gave him a chance. Fowler, who sports shirts and hats and shoes honoring Palmer when he plays here, had missed the cut only once in nine starts at the API; he made 118 feet of putts in a round of 70. At 2-over 146, he headed to lunch not knowing if he'd be working this weekend. He longed for two more rounds at Bay Hill to find some traction, some momentum. Something positive. "Things are definitely moving the right way," said Fowler, once No. 4 in the world, now ranked 65th. "Just had a couple swings that cost me. But I’m happy with it. It’s getting closer and closer, so we'll see if we get a tee time tomorrow. If we do, we’ll go play like hell this weekend. If not, we’ll go get ready for our tee time next Thursday (at THE PLAYERS)." Peter Malnati had a chance to knock out all the players at plus-2 late Friday, but made double-bogey at 18 and missed the cut himself. Fowler was in on the number. A needed break. More than a year removed from his last top 10 (2020 American Express), Fowler doesn't hide the fact that golf these days is more work than fun. He made five consecutive West Coast starts, something he hadn't done since he was a rookie. When he is home, he stays dedicated to his craft. The days he takes off are only to give his 5 foot 9, 150-pound body a rest. "It’s definitely been a grind," Fowler said. "I think more so it’s just a mental challenge, because playing and competing against the best players in the world for a decent amount of time now, and being up there at one point in the top 10 for quite some time, and being one of the top guys in the world, it’s just hard. You know what you’re capable of, and where you should be - or what you expect out of yourself. "So that’s been more of the struggle, not beating myself up too much, and kind of taking a step back, let everything happen, be patient. But, yeah, it’s been frustrating at times, been a grind. But we’re still grinding it out." Funny how life works sometimes. As he was grinding just to make a cut, Fowler didn't need to look very far to see the level of play to which he wants to return. Hovland isn't "walking" around Bay Hill this week; he is floating across the grounds at Arnie's Place, his game honed and sharp. Sure, he could hit a few more fairways (8 of 14 Friday), but most everything is working. It doesn't matter if you are 23 or 32; Hovland and Fowler know that golf is cyclical, and hot golf can be fleeting. So when you have it going, you make the most of it. Good golf exists on razor-thin margins. Fowler was greenside in a bunker in two shots at the par-5 12th and walked away with bogey; Hovland came up short on the par- 3 seventh and holed his bunker shot from 10 yards. Birdie. "Yeah, it’s been very fun," Hovland said. "Obviously playing very good and I don’t feel like I have that many holes in my game anymore, which is cool, because I missed plenty of greens out there today (seven) and I still shot 68, even made a bunker shot and got some really cool up-and-downs. Walking from the fairway over to the rough wherever I was hitting from, after missing the green, I would have been anxious the whole way … But now it’s like, ‘All right, I’ll be all right. Even if I make a bogey here I can birdie the next.' So it’s just a very relaxed kind of attitude. It’s a lot easier when you’re playing well. You just kind of let it all happen." Therein lies the difference. One guy is just kind of letting it happen right now. The other is trying to make something happen. Fowler has viewed it from both sides. At Bay Hill on Friday, you needed to watch only one grouping to see the contrast. Rickie Fowler is working hard, and said he is starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. No, he isn't there yet. That's the magical journey of golf.

Click here to read the full article…

My Power Rankings for The Open Championship include all 156 golfers in the field, so this Fantasy Insider column is abridged. The Wild Card, Draws and Fades will return for next week’s RBC Canadian Open. Segment 4 of PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO begins at Carnoustie. When you’re thrown a bone, you take it. Just make sure to take a bite out of it, too. There are only nine tournaments to go in the Roster game – the One & Done will include all of the remaining 11 on the schedule – but navigating the final phase is tricky. The Open is the last tournament for which ShotLink is not used to measure performance, so you can get away with stowing two probable contenders for the bonus points on your bench at least until the 36-hole cut falls, but if neither is in the mix for the Claret Jug at the midpoint, consider keeping at least one benched until the conclusion of the third round, and then decide whether it’d be worth burning a start for potentially modest bonus points instead of holstering it for the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, PGA Championship or any of the four Playoffs events. Yes, this strategy would mean swallowing a zero (or two), but to pay off losing the start, your guy might need a podium finish. Otherwise, you’re losing points later for mild returns now. PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO My roster for The Open Championship (in alphabetical order): Tommy Fleetwood Rickie Fowler Dustin Johnson Rory McIlroy Alex Noren Justin Rose You’ll find my starters in Expert Picks. Others to consider for each category (in alphabetical order): Scoring: Jason Day; Zach Johnson; Brooks Koepka; Marc Leishman; Hideki Matsuyama; Phil Mickelson; Jon Rahm; Justin Thomas Driving: n/a Approach: n/a Short: n/a Returning to Competition Nate Lashley … The rookie is scheduled to compete at the Web.com Tour’s Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Heartland Chevy Dealers. He had been sidelined for a month after having knee surgery. This week’s return qualifies as a rehab start in advance of a medical extension on the PGA TOUR for 2018-19 (assuming he doesn’t play the TOUR again this season and finish inside the top 125). Currently 162nd in the FedExCup standings, he’ll be eligible for the Web.com Tour Finals on merit. Notable WDs Bernd Wiesberger, Paul Lawrie and John Daly … All withdrew from The Open Championship due to injury. Alex Cejka … Out at the Barbasol Championship. It’s his second consecutive early withdrawal and fifth on the season, but we see this coming almost every season. As evidenced by a T13 in his last start at Greenbrier, he still delivers when his 47-year-old body allows for it. Currently 89th in the FedExCup standings. Denny McCarthy … Fell to 144th in the FedExCup with a T34 at the John Deere Classic, but he’s been in that vicinity for months. If he doesn’t make the FedExCup Playoffs, he’s still a good bet to survive the Web.com Tour Finals given he’s risen to his current position after an awful first nine events of his rookie campaign. Brett Stegmaier … He was a surprising removal from the Barbasol field. He’s 190th in the FedExCup standings and has ripped off three straight cuts made. Power Rankings Recap – John Deere Classic Power Ranking  Golfer  Result 1  Zach Johnson  T16 2  Bryson DeChambeau  WD 3  Francesco Molinari  T2 4  Steve Stricker  T43 5  Kyle Stanley  MC 6  Joaquin Niemann  T23 7  Ryan Moore  T55 8  Chesson Hadley  T72 9  Austin Cook  T34 10  Scott Stallings  MC 11  Kevin Tway  T50 12  Kelly Kraft  T63 13  Brian Gay  MC 14  Joel Dahmen  T2 15  Scott Brown  T12 Wild Card  Chris Kirk  T23 Sleepers Recap – John Deere Classic Golfer  Result Wesley Bryan  MC Peter Malnati  MC Trey Mullinax MC C.T. Pan  T34 Daniel Summerhays   MC Birthdays among active golfers on the PGA TOUR July 17 … none July 18 … Brendon de Jonge (38) July 19 … none July 20 … Conrad Shindler (30) July 21 … Robert Gamez (50); Paul Casey (41) July 22 … Brendon Todd (33); David Lingmerth (31) July 23 … Craig Barlow (46); Boo Weekley (45); Kevin Tway (30); Harris English (29); Kiradech Aphibarnrat (29); Tom Lovelady (25)

Click here to read the full article…