How to watch the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship on ESPN+

FedExCup pacesetter Justin Thomas will tee it up for the first time as the new world No. 1 at the Memorial Tournament, doing so under Jack Nicklaus’ watchful eye as his annual gathering at Muirfield Village again attracts one of the year’s strongest fields. Dustin Johnson, who Thomas nudged aside atop the rankings, and hometown favorite Jason Day, also are part of a Memorial lineup boasting eight of the top 10 in the current world rankings. Tiger Woods, a five time Memorial champion, also returns to Jack’s Place for the first time since 2015. FIELD NOTES Thomas and Day also help give Muirfield Village 12 of the top 15 in the FedExCup standings, not to mention all four of the TOUR’s multiple winners this season. Bubba Watson and Patton Kizzire are the other two-time winners. Rory McIlroy, Branden Grace and Ernie Els are among eight players coming to Muirfield Village following this week’s BMW PGA Championship in England. Kenny Perry, a three-time champion, returns for his first PGA TOUR start since the 2015 Memorial. Sam Burns, winner of the Nicklaus Award a year ago as the top golfer in NCAA Division I, makes his ninth start vs. PGA TOUR competition. He’s twice posted top-12 finishes in 2018, along with a win on the Web.com Tour. Also part of this year’s youth showcase: Former world No. 1 amateur Joaquin Niemann and reigning U.S. Amateur champion Doc Redman. FEDEXCUP Winner receives 500 points. STORYLINES Thomas, fourth last year at Muirfield Village, seeks to continue to build on a season that has brought two wins, a playoff loss and five other top-15 finishes. Woods tries to build on the momentum of a share of 11th at THE PLAYERS Championship. For all his success at Muirfield Village, he hasn’t finished in the top 60 since his 2012 win. Day takes aim again at a first win in his adopted hometown, near where wife, Ellie, grew up. Even a top-10 would be his first at Muirfield Village, besting last year’s T15. Six of the Memorial’s past 14 champions have been international players. Before that, just three of the first 27 came from outside the United States. Hale Irwin, winner of three U.S. Opens and a record 45 PGA TOUR Champions titles, is this year’s Memorial honoree. Wednesday’s ceremony also will recognize journalist Larry Dorman, most noted for his work in the New York Times and Miami Herald. COURSE Muirfield Village Golf Club, 7,392 yards, par 72. Essentially a gift from Jack Nicklaus to his hometown of Columbus, the venue serves as a stage to both honor golf’s history and showcase its current talent. The Memorial’s home since its 1974 opening, Muirfield Village also has stepped up for other top events, making history as the only locale to host all three of U.S. pro golf’s team match-play showcases – Ryder Cup (1987), Solheim Cup (1998) and Presidents Cup (2013). The U.S. Amateur also paid a visit in 1992. Constant fine-tuning by Nicklaus and his design team keeps Muirfield Village perpetually among America’s top 20 courses and the world’s top 50. 72-HOLE RECORD 268, Tom Lehman (1994) 18-HOLE RECORD 61, John Huston (2nd round, 1996) LAST YEAR A rollercoaster weekend ended on a high for Dufner, who punctuated a rally from four shots back on the final day with a 33-foot par save that sealed a three-shot win. Dufner’s fifth PGA TOUR victory was anything but typical, building a five-shot lead through 36 holes and seeing it disappear five holes into his third round. A Saturday 77 left him four shots off the pace, only to rebound with a closing 68 that endured two storm delays. The second came right after he and Rickie Fowler teed off at No. 18, with Dufner in thick rough near a fairway bunker while nursing a two-shot advantage. He only advanced his ball 75 yards from the wet rough, but found the middle of the green with his third before his clinching putt. Fowler (70) and Anirban Lahiri (65) shared second – for Fowler, it was his 10th career runner-up finish. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 2:30-6:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 12:30-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS). Sunday, noon-2:15 p.m. (GC), 2:30-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. (featured groups), 3-6:30 p.m. (featured holes). Saturday-Sunday, 8:15 a.m.-6 p.m. (featured holes). RADIO: Thursday-Friday, noon-6:30 p.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).

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Viktor Hovland is looking to win the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba for a third consecutive year, while PGA TOUR Player of the Year Scottie Scheffler and two-time major winner Collin Morikawa also are teeing it up in Mexico. FIELD NOTES: Looking for a third straight Mayakoba victory, Viktor Hovland returns to El Camaleon. This marks his third start of the season after a T5 at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP and T21 at THE CJ CUP in South Carolina. Steve Stricker is the last person to win the same tournament three consecutive years, after claiming the John Deere Classic from 2009-11… Collin Morikawa, the ninth-ranked player in the world, is making his tournament debut…PGA TOUR Player of the Year Scottie Scheffler, who finished fourth last year, is set to return… Other notables include a pair of former FedExCup champs in Billy Horschel and Justin Rose, plus Tony Finau, who’s making his season debut after winning twice last season… Among the sponsor exemptions are a handful of Mexican players like Jose de Jesus Rodriguez and Sebastian Vazquez, as well as DP World Tour winner Adri Arnaus of Spain and the University of Texas’ Travis Vick, who’s sixth in the PGA TOUR University Ranking presented by Velocity Global. Fan favorite Harry Higgs also is in on a sponsor exemption…Seven former champions in total will return to Mexico to tee it up… Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo and Augusto Nunez also will be part of the Latin American representation. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: El Camaleón Golf Course at Mayakoba, par 71, 7,034 yards. There are three separate Mayan Rivera landscapes golfers traverse at Mayakoba: stretches on the oceanfront, tropical jungle, and mangroves. Birdies come in bunches at Mayakoba, with the winning score averaging at 20 under since 2013. Despite winning in back-to-back years, Viktor Hovland won in two different ways. He was T45 in putts per round in 2021 but was T10 in that same statistic in 2022. He was first in greens hit in 2021, however. Hitting the large resort-style greens in the right spot and staying out of the penalty areas that line many fairways has proven to be the key to success over the last two years. STORYLINES: Can Viktor Hovland join some of the game’s biggest names in the history books? Tiger Woods is the most prolific of three-peaters on the PGA TOUR (winning four separate events three times in a row, plus two events four times in a row) but there hasn’t been a three-peat since Stricker at the John Deere from 2009-11. Hovland thrives in tropical climes, having also won the Puerto Rico Open and last year’s Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas… While Rory McIlroy supplanted Scheffler atop the world ranking after winning THE CJ CUP in South Carolina, there’s a chance Scheffler could regain the top spot in the world with a win in Mexico… There are just two events after Mayakoba left on the fall portion of the season. This is an important week for those looking for valuable FedExCup points before the holiday break. Taylor Montgomery, in the field in Mexico, is the highest-ranked Korn Ferry Tour grad from this season in the early-season FedExCup rankings thanks to finishing in the top 15 in all four of his starts. 72-HOLE RECORD: 261, Viktor Hovland (2021) 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Roland Thatcher (3rd round, 2008). LAST TIME: After an impressive third-round 62, Viktor Hovland cruised to the finish line in the final round and successfully defended his World Wide Technology Championship title. Hovland shot a 4-under 67 Sunday to win by four shots. He set the pace on the final day at El Camaleon with three birdies on the front nine and no one was able to make a back-nine charge to catch the Norwegian. It was the first title defense in Mexico since the tournament began in 2007. Justin Thomas finished third while Scottie Scheffler finished fourth. Scheffler put in an impressive effort Sunday to try to chase down Hovland – he was 5 under through his first nine holes and 7 under through 13 – but made an unfortunate double bogey on the par-4 16th to end his chances. HOW TO FOLLOW: Television: Thursday-Saturday, 3 p.m. – 6 p.m. ET. Sunday, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. (Golf Channel) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.-6 p.m. ET. Saturday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, 12 p.m.-5 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).

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• COURSE: Sedgefield Country Club (Ross), 7,127 yards, par 70. The 1925 Donald Ross design was one of two courses used for the Greater Greensboro Open’s 1938 debut and now stands as the lone Ross layout to serve as a regular PGA TOUR stop. Sedgefield later became an alternating site, before a 1961-76 run as host that included Sam Snead’s 1965 triumph that was the last of his record 82 TOUR victories. Sedgefield also holds a place in college sports history as the site where the Atlantic Coast Conference was founded in 1953. Following a 2007 restoration to its original specifications, the Greensboro event returned to its roots after a 31-year hiatus. • FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points. • CHARITY: The Wyndham Worldwide Charitable Foundation, which supports enrichment of the lives of children around the world via education, wellness and conservation. Other beneficiaries include The First Tee of the Triad, the Crosby Scholars Community Partnership and the Piedmont Triad Partnership. • FIELD WATCH: Davis Love III, whose victory two years ago at age 51 made him the third-oldest winner in PGA TOUR history, and 2015 Open Championship winner Henrik Stenson top the marquee for the final event before the FedExCup playoffs. … Though the roster features just five of the current FedExCup top 30, all but 15 from Nos. 90-190 are entered. … Back woes will keep reigning champion Si Woo Kim from defending his title. The 22-year-old Korean withdrew after his opening round at the PGA Championship. … Kevin Kisner is the only entrant among the current top 10 in FedExCup points; Stenson is highest in the world rankings at No.8. … Haotong Li, third at last month’s Open Championship after a closing 63, tees it up on a sponsor invitation. So will Dru Love, the fifth time he joins his dad in the same PGA TOUR field. • 72-HOLE RECORD: 259, Carl Pettersson (2008), Si Woo Kim (2016). • 18-HOLE RECORD: 60, Si Woo Kim (2nd round, 2016). • LAST YEAR: Kim claimed his first PGA TOUR victory in record fashion, parlaying a second-round 60 into a five-shot romp. The Korean pro’s 10-under-par 60 established a new Greensboro record, just missing a 50-foot birdie putt at the finish that would have given him a historic 59. Kim took a four-shot lead into the final day, and a 14-foot birdie on the 72nd hole closed out a 67 allowed him to match Pettersson’s tournament record. At age 21, Kim also became the youngest TOUR winner of 2015-16, and second-youngest in Greensboro history behind 20-year-old Seve Ballesteros’ victory in 1978. The victory came just five weeks after Kim lost a playoff to Aaron Baddeley at the Barbasol Championship in Alabama. Luke Donald’s closing 67 was enough to finish second, one shot ahead of Hideki Matsuyama and Brandt Snedeker. • STORYLINES: It’s the final chance for players to crack the FedExCup playoffs lineup by moving into the top 125 on the points list. A year ago, Shawn Stefani and Kyle Stanley were the only men to make the move. … Daniel Summerhays (124th), Geoff Ogilvy (125th) and Cameron Tringale (126th) are the players currently on the bubble. … Farther back, former major champions Graeme McDowell (131st), Retief Goosen (161st) and Padraig Harrington (199th) are entered, along with Hall of Famer Ernie Els (213th). … Only three men have come to Greensboro at 140th or lower in the FedExCup standings and left with a playoff berth. • SHORT CHIPS: In the 10 years since the FedExCup playoffs debuted, an average of 2.6 players have booked a late playoff spot in Greensboro. Three editions have seen five punch their tickets, including two years ago. On the flip side, no one did it in 2013. … Kim was the sixth winner in the past nine editions to close out a 54-hole lead, though immediate predecessors Love III (2015) and Camilo Villegas (2014) did it in come-from-behind fashion. … Though winning scores have differed, four of the past five editions have seen the runner-up post 16-under 264. • TELEVISION: Thursday, 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Friday, 2-4 p.m. (GC). Saturday-Sunday, 3-6 p.m. (CBS). • PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. (featured groups), 3-6 p.m. (featured holes). • RADIO: Thursday-Friday, noon-6 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).

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