How to watch The Presidents Cup

Twenty-five high school graduates have been selected to the First Tee College Scholarship Program. This is the largest class to date and a significant milestone as the youth development organization celebrates 25 years of helping young people build their strength of character through golf. The Scholars Class of 2022 includes aspiring physicians, computer scientists and lawyers, all of whom will be attending stand-out colleges and universities, including Harvard University, New York University and Columbia University. Selected from a national pool of First Tee teens, the diverse group of Scholars – 15 young women and 10 young men – are from both urban and rural communities across the United States. Nine of the Scholars will play on their college’s golf team; several are heading into STEM, business, and medical fields; and many already have impressive plans for careers that will support underrepresented and underserved populations. “I offer congratulations and a warm welcome to our Class of 2022 First Tee Scholars,” said Greg McLaughlin, CEO of First Tee. “With the support of our donors, we’re able to provide this ongoing support as they matriculate through college and prepare for future careers. These outstanding young leaders have bright futures ahead, and we believe the skills and values developed through First Tee will empower them throughout their collegiate journey and beyond.” First Tee College Scholarship Program extends its impact to alumni by providing support throughout their post-graduate careers. Each of the Scholars is paired with a dedicated, trained adult mentor who will help encourage and guide them throughout their college experience, including virtual and in-person meetups. The program also provides professional development workshops held in-person throughout the year, and up to $5,000 per year toward tuition. The program, which re-launched in 2020, is an evolution from the First Tee Scholars Program established in 2003. The program began after participant Steven Outlaw gave a moving speech in 2001 at the age of 16 and was provided an impromptu scholarship from a generous donor. Two years later, Outlaw graduated high school and was part of the inaugural First Tee Scholars Class. Since 2003, First Tee headquarters and its chapter network have awarded more than $15 million in college scholarships to alumni. Applications for the Class of 2022 were received from participants across the First Tee network. Following an online application process, finalists were selected by a committee for one-on-one interviews. In addition to academic performance, applicants were considered based on financial need, chapter involvement, volunteerism, and other criteria. First Tee College Scholarship Program is made possible by donors and corporate partners who stand behind the program and First Tee’s mission, including 3M, A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation, The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Astros Golf Foundation, Brendan and Shay Cavanagh, Charles Schwab, Chevron Corporation, David and Geri Epstein Private Foundation, Delores Barr Weaver Legacy Fund, Edward and Lisa Vaughan, Jon Clay, Nelson and Michele Carbonell Family Foundation, Paul and Ruth Flowers, Peter A. Bonanni Scholarship Fund, PURE Insurance, Timothy W. Finchem Scholarship Fund, TruGreen, USSGA Memorial Fund, and Zotec Foundation. First Tee College Scholarship Class of 2022: Average GPA: 4.1 on a 4.0 scale Average SAT score: 1,470 out of 1,600 Average ACT score: 31 out of 36 Breonna Boyd, First Tee — Tennessee University of Michigan; Major: Business Administration Breonna plans to start a nonprofit that will provide natural hair care products to African American girls who need them. Nicholas Canales, First Tee — Greater Houston University of Nebraska; Major: Political Science and History Nicholas is a first-generation college student and will play on the men’s golf team. Antonio DelCastillo, First Tee — Orange County University of Alabama; Major: Pre-Med Pursuing a career as either a neuro-orthopedic surgeon or anesthesiologist. Srishti Dhurandhar, First Tee — Metropolitan New York New York University; Major: Electrical and Computer Engineering Srishti will play on the women’s golf team under the leadership of her former First Tee coach and NYU head coach, Katie Rudolph. Vivian D’Orazi, First Tee — Metropolitan New York York College of Pennsylvania; Major: Marketing; Minor: Hospitality Management Vivian will play on the women’s golf team and aspires to work in the golf industry post-graduation. Dylan Ebs, First Tee — Greater Austin George Washington University; Major: Journalism Dylan plans to pursue his goal of becoming a political reporter in Washington, D.C. Esther Etherington, First Tee — Indiana Franklin College; Major: Elementary Education Esther will play on the women’s golf team and plans to later receive a Master’s degree in Special Education. Maleyna Gregorio, First Tee — Coachella Valley University of California Riverside; Major: Business Maleyna will play on the women’s golf team and aspires to work in the golf industry. Raiyan Johnson, First Tee — Savannah Georgia Institute of Technology; Major: Astrophysics Raiyan will pursue her goal to become an astrophysicist and ultimately an astronaut. Lea Han, First Tee — Greater Sacramento Harvard University; Major: History Lea plans to become either an immigration or civil rights lawyer and pursue her passion for social justice. Zara Karim, First Tee — Greater Washington, D.C. George Washington University; Major: Computer Science Graduating with 4.5 GPA, Zara aspires to become a computer scientist or software engineer. Nelia Leong, First Tee — Upstate South Carolina University of Florida; Major: Public Health Nelia will be pursuing the pre-dentistry track with plans to use her degree to have her own pediatric dentistry practice. Myles Manor, First Tee — Greater Washington, D.C. North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University; Major: Chemistry Myles has a desire to bring interest and awareness to STEM careers in his community. Abigale Morris, First Tee — Phoenix Biola University; Major: Cinematography Abigale will play on the women’s golf team. She aspires to own a film company that provides film and media for nonprofits. Hannah Newell, First Tee — Greater Houston LeTourneau University; Major: Chemical Engineering Hannah will play on the women’s golf team while working toward her goal of building a career in chemical engineering. Sabrina Poole, First Tee — Greater Seattle St. Martin’s University; Major: Psychology Sabrina will play on the women’s golf team. Her future aspirations include helping high school and college student-athletes with mental and psychological struggles or crises as a clinical psychologist. Nancy Rivera, First Tee — Silicon Valley Middleburg College Vermont; Major: Pre-Med Nancy wants to be the voice for Latinx families who have had limited representation in the medical field. She plans on becoming an OB-GYN. Ahmad Raoul, First Tee — Greater Chicago Winston-Salem State University; Major: Computer Science While playing on the men’s golf team and majoring in computer science, Ahmad plans to leverage his STEM knowledge to further his passion for golf and improve his golf performance. Daniel Sears, First Tee — Massachusetts Franciscan University of Steubenville; Major: Philosophy and Finance Daniel plans on a career in either real estate or law. Connor Shooks, First Tee — Benton Harbor Loyola University Chicago; Major: Sports Management Connor aspires to either be an athletic trainer or physical therapist. Kenneth Treece, First Tee — Pine Mountain University of Alabama; Major: Aerospace Engineering and Political Science Obtaining a 35 out of 36 on the ACT, Kenneth has plans to become a public defense attorney. Alexa Vela, First Tee — Greater Houston Rice University; Major: Psychology and Pre-Law Alexa aspires to become a lawyer to grant the underrepresented the opportunity to recognize their constitutional rights and the powers granted to them by their government. Jaylon Wilson, First Tee — Metro Atlanta North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University; Major: Finance With plans to become a financial advisor, Jaylon aspires to serve the African American community through providing financial literacy, specifically to athletes and musicians. Iris Xue, First Tee — Greater Washington, D.C. Columbia University; Major: Computer Science and Engineering Iris hopes to one day build artificial intelligence models that tackle healthcare challenges, such as disease modeling and disease prevention. Jacob Zakaria, First Tee — Central Coast University of California Berkeley; Major: Biology Inspired by his father’s family being raised in a war-struck refugee camp in Lebanon without access to healthcare, Jacob plans on becoming a medical doctor.

Click here to read the full article…

OAKVILLE, Ont. – Keegan Bradley had a local connection this week at the RBC Canadian Open, and it paid off in spades as he made a nice move on the FedExCup standings. Bradley, whose caddie this week was Scott Vail of Oshawa, Ont. (a Canadian who was on the bag for Brandt Snedeker for his win in 2013 and his FedExCup victory in 2012) fired an 8-under-par 64 Sunday. It was the round of the day and moved him into solo fourth, his second-best result of the season. More importantly, he moved to 44th in the FedExCup standings. He’s moving ever closer to earning a spot at the TOUR Championship, something he said he’s got his eye on. “That’s the goal for me the last couple years, getting to East Lake and kind of secure my chance at playing in all four majors,â€� he said. “That’s a big goal of mine.â€� Bradley, whose best FedExCup finish was 18th in 2013, hasn’t won on TOUR since 2012. He realized he was in contention at the RBC Canadian Open on the par-5 16th tee, after a rain delay that lasted nearly two hours at Glen Abbey. He said if he went birdie-eagle he would have had a chance (he eventually fell four shots short), but knew he still had a great opportunity. “No. 17 was playing really, really difficult, or was, when I came out. When I made birdie there, I was just… it was game on. It really was,â€� he said. It was an up-and-down week for Bradley score-wise. He shot a 9-under-par 63 on Friday – tied for round-of-the-week – but was 10 shots worse on Saturday. He was nine shots better Sunday, going 63-73-64 over his last three rounds. He said Saturday’s round was “weird.â€� “I didn’t play all that bad, but I didn’t score very well,â€� he said. “But I hung in there, made a couple birdies coming in, which got me a chance to shoot low and made me hang in there today.â€� The key, Bradley said, was his putting. He said the RBC Canadian Open was his best tournament on the greens since he switched away from the belly putter. “It’s a big step forward for me, and it’s so fun to be able to play with a chance to win,â€� said Bradley. “It’s just something that I love, and it was fun this week.â€�

Click here to read the full article…

According to one estimate, some 500 million tweets fly through the Twittersphere daily. And those are just the ones sent by Phil Mickelson. OK, that’s not technically true, but sometimes it seems that way. Since jumping into social media with both feet on Aug. 22, 2018, Mickelson — who this week takes on a new role as host of The American Express tournament in Palm Desert, California — has been a high-volume, high-quality, must-follow in the world of golf and beyond. “I didn’t realize how powerful a tool it was,â€� Mickelson tells the PGA TOUR. He does now. How did Mickelson, who didn’t even have a Twitter account 18 months ago, become such a player amongst golf’s social media set? To borrow a phrase from the man himself, it’s a recent development. ’I’ve got this Twitter thing down’ Mickelson will turn 50 this summer, which means when he first joined the PGA TOUR, “socialâ€� meant you happened to get paired with Lee Trevino. When that began to change, he played on, leaving social media to younger players and veterans such as Stewart Cink, Ian Poulter and Bubba Watson, early adopters all. It didn’t last. When along came Mickelson’s big-money, winner-take-all match against Tiger Woods in November 2018, the popular lefthander, a 44-time TOUR winner, wanted a way to promote it. His inaugural tweet, a GIF of him winking while at the Presidents Cup, featured the copy, “I got this @Twitter thing down.â€� Well, yes and no. He had to get up to speed on a new platform, and a language spoken more fluently by his kids and players like Thomas and Rickie Fowler. No worries; Mickelson backed up his bravado. He was funny, zany and daring. He was also prolific. If his match with Tiger inspired the leap into social media, then Mickelson’s earlier Mizzen+Main commercial, a goofy spot for performance menswear in which he danced and did the worm, informed his style. The video went viral, not only opening his eyes to the power of social media but establishing his brand of self-effacing humor. This led to half-serious, half-mocking posts about his calves and thumbs. If you were following him on Twitter or Instagram recently, you would have seen him working out in the gym, skiing down a mountain, and taking a selfie with his coaches and caddie. The copy read, in part: “I am ready to work hard and play some great golf again.â€� #hitbombs #attackpins Says Henrik Stenson, who posts only intermittently, “It takes a lot of effort to be that active. Whether that’s because he thinks it’s a lot of fun or to raise his profile and gain more followers and give more value to his sponsors, I’m not sure.â€� The answer to the “whyâ€� question is multi-pronged, but in general Mickelson says he wants to provide a forum for stories that have gone untold, and for players whose personalities don’t always come across when they’re between the ropes. He also just wants to have fun because, well, he’s Mickelson. He ticks all those boxes with “Phireside with Phil,â€� talk-show style interviews with TOUR pros (Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, a shirtless Zach Johnson) and others (comedian Larry David). The setting: anywhere. The subject matter: anything. His one rule: Stories can’t denigrate anyone except, maybe, the person telling them. “I think everybody that watches those feels they’re getting the insight onto what’s going on on TOUR, and some funny little things that have happened,â€� Mickelson says. Some cringe-worthy things, too. Zach Johnson absent his shirt doesn’t even rate as cringe-worthy compared to a few other Mickelson moments, but it does beg for an explanation. “Well, if you know Zach, when we play in the team events, he walks around shirtless all the time,â€� Mickelson says. “So it’s just him, it’s just who he is. And I think it came to him, ‘Look, I’ll be on your show if I can be shirtless.’â€� The response has been unmistakable; people are watching, even if it’s through their fingers. Stenson, who beat Mickelson in an instant-classic duel at the 2016 Open Championship at Troon, has not been on yet but hasn’t ruled it out. “He asked me, but we were soaked in rain gear after one of the practice rounds at the British Open, so it never happened,â€� Stenson says. “Yeah, I’ll join him at the Phireside at some point when the timing is right.â€� Given the popularity of the Phireside concept, and the fact that Mickelson has 715,000 followers on Twitter alone – picking up north of 100,000 on day one – Gary Woodland sums it up nicely when he says of Lefty’s social media game, “I would say it’s pretty strong for a guy coming out of nowhere.â€� Legendary Tweet-storms The most popular athletes on Instagram are soccer players, and they start at 200 million followers (Cristiano Ronaldo). But Mickelson holds his own in the golf space with 716,000, between Ian Poulter (423,000) and Bubba Watson (791,000). If nothing else, Mickelson has proven that golf Twitter and golf Instagram are not just the domain of the young. World Golf Hall of Famer Gary Player calls Mickelson a great follow. So does PGA TOUR Champions player Brad Faxon. “He’s hysterical,â€� Faxon says. “Almost like you want to shut your eyes and not watch some of the stuff he does. Childlike enthusiasm. Talk about no inhibitions. I admire it. Hope he plays great this year but really hope he gets me on his phireside chat.â€� Adds Player, “Phil gets it right. His personality shines through. He is engaging, funny and authentic.â€� No doubt, Mickelson has cultivated a loyal following. Whom does he follow back? On Twitter, his tastes run toward fellow TOUR pros and LPGA stars, but also the NFL (Tom Brady, J.J. Watt, Antonio Gates of the L.A. Chargers). He follows golf media (NBC’s Dan Hicks, David Feherty, Peter Jacobsen) and even some of the parody accounts that have taken an interest in him. Few of these accounts, though, are as active, and as goofy, as Mickelson’s. When he didn’t make the season-ending TOUR Championship last August, he spent the night before the first round firing off 180 tweets over roughly four hours. Census takers are still trying to find just one person he didn’t tweet to. “I just want you to know that my life would be complete if you won a U.S. Open,â€� someone tweeted. “Mine too,â€� Mickelson responded. And so on. One of the better exchanges: Barstool Sports tweeted a photo of him swimming, with, “Since When Does Phil Mickelson Have The Body of a Greek God?â€� Replied Mickelson, who has radically altered his diet, “It’s a recent development.â€� Absent much to post about in the way of good results last season, other than his AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am victory, and in between Phiresides, his newfound obliques and legendary calves have been a popular fallback in his postings. The best of these may have come last September, when Brady was battling a calf injury and declared limited for a New England Patriots practice. Mickelson jumped all over it. “I’m on standby for a flight to Boston,â€� he tweeted. “Let’s not let inadequate calves hold us back.â€� Replied Brady: “The Phil Mickelson Method … for jacked calves? Sign me up.â€� Younger players are among those who have watched with an air of bemusement. “He’s kind of fallen in love with it,â€� Fowler says. “People love the tips and things like that, the Phireside stuff. Not sure how I feel about the name; it’s kind of a little corny. But he’s having fun with it, and I think people are getting to see his character and his playfulness. It’s definitely entertaining.â€� Adds Thomas, a friend who lost a playoff to Mickelson at the 2018 World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship, “He’s not faking anything. He’s just being himself. People are like, ‘It’s not him,’ but I’m like, ‘Trust me, it’s him. It’s Phil.’ He’s not acting any differently. People are just seeing the side that we see every week.â€� The Phuture of Phireside Now that he’s a year and a half into it, Mickelson the social media maven has learned a few things, and has a good idea where he wants to go next. “It’s really struck me what a unique opportunity this is to engage and develop a much closer, more emotional relationship with the fans,â€� he says. “And so I want to continue to do that but really from my angle as opposed to a younger guy. “Me being somebody that’s almost 50 now,â€� he continues, “I want to use it as a way of telling the stories that have already happened that people haven’t heard about as opposed to posting what’s going on in the here and now.â€� He plans on having some caddies on the Phireside, “because they have some unique stories,â€� he says. But, he adds, he’s leery of his brother. Tim Mickelson once told this reporter a story about playing poker with Phil on a houseboat; Phil stacked the deck when Tim went to the bathroom and never told him. Perhaps wisely, Phil seems to have opted not to open himself up to further such yarns. Asked if he would go on the show, Fowler says, “I would have to figure out what we’d talk about.â€� Mickelson’s second interview with Thomas, recorded in the locker room at the BMW Championship last fall, hasn’t aired yet. “He just asked if you want to do a story,â€� Thomas says of how it all came to be. “And I brought a couple up and he was like, ‘Yeah, it sounds good.’â€� Could he see himself doing so much social media at 50? Thomas shakes his head. “I don’t think enough people will care what I’ll think at that age,â€� he says with a laugh. “But Phil will always be relevant.â€�

Click here to read the full article…