How to watch Wyndham Championship, Round 3: Featured Groups, live scores, tee times, TV times

Another week another stamp on the passport as the PGA TOUR shifts from the pink sands of Bermuda to the jungles and beaches of the Riviera Maya and Playa del Carmen Mexico. A field of 132 will tee it at El Camaleon Golf Course at Mayakoba for the 15th consecutive year. Greg Norman’s resort course opened for business in 2006 and stretches barely 7,000 yards (7,017) to a par 71. Navigating the lush jungles, avoiding the many canals running through the property and keeping the ball out of the wind are keys to success this week. Sea Isle Paspalum greens and rough will cover the property but neither cut will provide much headache. The greens will run around 11 feet and the rough won’t reach two inches. Remember, resort golf means plenty of room to LAND it and multiple chances to score. Errant shots, because of the room to move, can and will be penalized with canals, sandy waste areas and 36 bunkers. Oh, and you’re not finding any crooked ones in the mangroves either. There’s a reason veteran guys cash most of the checks here. Pumping the breaks and shot-making trumps brash bombing. The two lowest tournament totals are from Matt Kuchar (-22) and Pat Perez (-21) who are neither chickens of spring or guys who kill it. Viktor Hovland became the first 20-something to win last December since Harris English in 2013. As with most shootouts, nobody has defended the title and the event has not produced multiple winners. Speaking of 2013, that’s when the event moved to fall and became a primary event. This year the purse is $7.2 million with the winner taking $1.296 and 500 FedExCup points plus a trip to the Masters, Sentry Tournament of Champions and all of the perks of victory on TOUR. Recent Event Winners Stats Recent Winners Last year – Viktor Hovland (-20, 264) First winner to birdie the 72nd hole. … Closed with 7 Birdies and 1 Bogey for 65 to win by a shot. … Played the weekend 63-65 but trailed by 2 shots after 54 holes. … Sat 7 back after 36 holes. … Led the field with 25 birdies including 16 on his final 36 holes. … Led the field GIR. … Played the previous two editions and MC both times. … Rolled in on 17 straight made cuts. … Won on Paspalum in Puerto Rico earlier in the season. … Picks up his second TOUR win at age 23 in 35th start. Notables in the field this week: Aaron Wise (2nd) closed with 63 and was T9 GIR. … Tom Hoge (T3) began Sunday one shot back in the final group and closed with 69. … Adam Long (T3) has never finished off the podium in his two starts over the last two years. … Billy Horschel (T5) stormed home 65-64. … Tony Finau (T8) made an ace on Saturday and was T4 Putting. … Emiliano Grillo (T8) led by four after 36 holes and by one after 54 holes but shot 72 on Sunday, the only round above par in the top 10 for the week. … Carlos Ortiz (T8) was the best Mexican finisher for the second year running. … Brendon Todd (T8) set the mark for the best result of a defending champion. … Abraham Ancer (T12) made one bogey and one double on the week. … Justin Thomas (T12) posted the low round of the week with 62 in Round 3. … First round leader Russell Knox (T23) set the pace with 65. … Cut was 1-under. … Top 31 players were 10-under or better. … 23 bogey-free rounds. … Scoring average was 69.767. … First time event was held in December. … Preferred lies in closely mown areas in Round 4. 2019 – Brendon Todd (20-under, 264) 54 hole leader by one closed with 68 to win also by one. … Third consecutive winner in the top 10 (T3) GIR. … Third consecutive winner to lead or co-lead in birdies. … Fourth consecutive winner to lead or co-lead in Par-4 scoring. … Sat two back after 36 holes. … Opened with 63 to trail by a shot. … 63 was T2 round of the week. … Previous results here were MC-MC-T49. … Won for the second time on TOUR in 7 days. … First multiple winner in the fall portion of the schedule since it was formed. … Picks up third career victory in his 178th start at age 34. Notables in the field this week: Adam Long (T2) played the final 36 holes bogey free in his first appearance. … Carlos Ortiz (T2) won the previous week in Houston. … Joel Dahmen (T6) closed 66-65 and led the field in Putting. … Abraham Ancer (T8) made only one bogey and one double for the week (again!). … Billy Horschel (T8) was T9 GIR. … 2016 champ Pat Perez (T8) secured another top 10 paycheck. … First round leader Danny Lee (T26) opened with 62 and didn’t break 70 the rest of the week. … Defending champ Matt Kuchar (T14) raced up the leaderboard with 62, co-low round of the week, on Sunday. … Cut was 1-under. … Top 22 players were 10-under or better. … 27 bogey free rounds. … Scoring average 70.032. … Preferred lies used all four rounds. 2018 – Matt Kuchar (22-under, 262) Set tournament scoring record and won by a shot. … Led or co-led after every round. … Established 36 hole record on 14-under. … Added the 54 hole record on 20-under. … Opened with 64 to share the first round lead. … Co-led the field with 26 birdies. …T18 or better in four of five starts here including last season. … Won for the 8th time in start No. 428 at age 40. … Entered the week off T57 at Shriners. Notables in the field this week: Danny Lee (T2) circled 25 birdies and would have won or forced a playoff in every other edition of this event on 21-under. … JJ Spaun (T3) matched Kuchar with 26 birdies. … Richy Werenski (T3) only squared four bogeys. … Brice Garnett (5th) was T6 Putting. … Pat Perez (T6) led the field in Overall Putting. … Scott Piercy (T8) missed tying the course record by a shot with 62 on Sunday. … Harold Varner III (T6) opened and closed with 65. … Adam Hadwin (T10) circled two eagles. … Anirban Lahiri (T10) circled 21 birdies and an eagle. … Aaron Wise (T10) led the field in Putting. … Defending champ Patton Kizzire (T55) sat 11-under after two rounds but didn’t break on the weekend. … Co-first round leader Kramer Hickok (T29) stumbled with 74 on Saturday. … Cut was 4-under, tying the event record. … Top 40 players were 10-under or better. … 34 bogey free rounds. … Scoring average 69.247. … Absolutely perfect weather. Key stat leaders Top golfers in each statistic on the 2020-2021 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week. Horses for Courses: World Wide Technologies Championship at Mayakoba

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Scottie Scheffler’s pursuit of a second major championship is off to a strong start. The Masters champion recently shot 64 in a practice round at Tulsa’s Southern Hills Country Club, which will host next week’s PGA Championship. It’s a course where Scheffler has been victorious before, having won the 2015 Big 12 Conference Championship at the historic Perry Maxwell design that has undergone a dramatic renovation by Gil Hanse. Scheffler, who holds a sizable lead in the FedExCup after winning four of his last six individual starts, made the trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma, with his Zurich Classic of New Orleans partner, Ryan Palmer, to get a sneak peek at the new-look layout. Scheffler shot an “easy” 64 in last Thursday’s practice round, according to Southern Hills assistant pro Cameron Chhim, who caddied for Scheffler. “He played one ball the entire time, no practice putts, and made it look easy,” Chhim told Golf Oklahoma. “He’s No. 1 in the world and it was pretty easy to see why. It would be hard to say that he’s not going to win (the PGA) or at least be in contention. He hits it far enough and he has just incredible distance control with his irons. Ryan (Palmer) shot 2 or 3 under and looked like he was standing still based on how Scottie was playing.” Chhim said Scheffler’s round included six back-nine birdies. Scheffler, who is trying to become the first player since fellow Dallas resident Jordan Spieth (2015) to win the year’s first two majors, has said Southern Hills is one of his favorite courses, and it’s easy to see why. “His proximity on most was 6 to 8 feet,” Chhim added about the somewhat waterlogged round. “The greens weren’t slow, but they were wet. His speed control was good and just took the break out of a lot of them. He looked like he was converting them easily.” Chhim said Scheffler shot 1 under on the front nine before a rain delay. Then he ran off birdies on Nos. 10-13, 15 and 17. Scheffler is playing the AT&T Byron Nelson this week in his hometown of Dallas. The tournament was the site of Scheffler’s PGA TOUR debut eight years ago, as he made a hole-in-one and finished T22 while still in high school.

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Separating Factor One way of measuring a player’s ability to assemble rounds that separate him or her from the competition is to look at the percentage of the time he gains a large amount of strokes against the field in one specific discipline. For example, players gain a full stroke or more over the field with their approach shots about 27% of the time overall. Collin Morikawa, however, does that 55% of the time. Morikawa is the PGA TOUR leader in Strokes Gained: Approach over the last two seasons, at 1.13 per round. Zalatoris has flashed the ability to separate himself from the field via his approach play over the last two seasons. He gains more than one stroke with his approach play in 41.7% of his rounds since the beginning of last season, the fifth-highest rate on TOUR in that span. Zalatoris has gained three or more strokes on the field with his approach play in 9.2% of his rounds – that is more than three times the TOUR average (3.0%) over the last 2 seasons. Long Iron Advantage The best players in the world are able to make marginal gains over the field in myriad ways. One of the key places where Zalatoris makes those gains is on long approach shots, where he is consistently better than the competition. Over the last two seasons, Zalatoris is ranked 11th on the PGA TOUR in average proximity on approach shots outside 200 yards. Will’s average of 46 feet, 7 inches from that range may not seem overwhelming on the surface, but consider this: that’s more than 6 feet better than the PGA TOUR average. From 175-200 yards away, he’s more than 2 feet better than the TOUR average over the last two seasons. Breaking it down to shots from 200-225 yards out, he’s 4 feet, 5 inches better than the average. These add up over the course of a tournament, especially at a place like Bay Hill Club & Lodge, a venue that has yielded more approaches from outside 200 yards than any other PGA TOUR venue over the last 5 seasons. Due for a Breakthrough? The PGA TOUR has seen a wave of first-time winners early in 2022. Four of the last five winners on TOUR have been first-timers, the first time we have seen that happen since the fall of 2017. This is the first calendar year in which there were four first-time winners before March 1st since all the way back in 2002. It’s not unprecedented for a first-time winner to emerge from the traditionally strong fields at Bay Hill, as both Matt Every (2014) and Tyrrell Hatton (2020) have claimed their maiden PGA TOUR titles at this tournament in recent years. With underlying metrics that predict big-time success, that breakthrough win could come this week for Zalatoris. Last April, casual sports fans were introduced in grand fashion to wiry Will Zalatoris. Zalatoris had all phases of his game clicking in his Masters debut: he ranked fourth in the field that week in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, second in greens in regulation (73.6%) and fifth in Strokes Gained: Putting. His solo runner-up finish was the best by a player in his Masters debut since Dan Pohl in 1982. But golf fans in the know had been attuned to Zalatoris’ ascent for some time. In each of his first five Korn Ferry Tour starts after the pandemic hiatus, Zalatoris finished T6 or better. In the extended 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour season, Zalatoris ranked first in scoring average, ball striking and the all-around ranking. A T6 at the U.S. Open in the fall of 2020 further cemented Zalatoris’ status as a name on the rise. Zalatoris played his way off the Korn Ferry Tour months earlier than anticipated and propelled himself to the Arnold Palmer Award, given to the TOUR’s top rookie, in 2021. Just how good has Zalatoris been in his young pro career, and why has he exceled? Twenty First Group dove into the numbers. Elite Ball Striker There are 177 players with 50 or more rounds measured by PGA TOUR ShotLink since the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot began. Among that group, Zalatoris has generated some of the most impressive and consistent tee-to-green statistics. He ranks fourth in Strokes Gained: Approach, trailing only Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Paul Casey. He’s fifth in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, narrowly behind reigning FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay in that statistic. He’s sixth in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking in that span, a statistic that isolates performance off the tee and on approach shots. When narrowing the focus to just this season, the numbers are even more impressive. Zalatoris leads the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green (1.93) and Strokes Gained: Approach (1.22) per round. He’s currently ninth in greens in regulation (74.6%) and has more than doubled his amount of Strokes Gained: Around the Green per round so far this season compared to last. Improvement on the greens could elevate Zalatoris into superstardom: so far this season, he’s making below the TOUR average on putts from 4-8 feet, inside 10 feet and from 10-15 feet.

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