Howell posts another 64, leads RSM by 3 shots

ATLANTA — Patrick Cantlay met his goal in the first round of the TOUR Championship on Thursday, and it had nothing to do with the score on his card or the size of his lead. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Patrick Reed says he felt his life was in danger with double pneumonia As the top seed in the FedExCup, he started with a two-shot lead over Tony Finau before even hitting a shot. He finished the warm, breezy day at East Lake at 3-under 67 with a two-shot lead over Jon Rahm. This was all about playing another tournament round. “I think being in the spot that I’m in, it would be easy to get ahead of yourself and easy to maybe stray from your game plan because you feel like you’re ahead,” Cantlay said. “And that’s just not helpful, so I’m not going to do that.” Only four players had a better score, so it was a good day regardless of the format that allows player to start at various points under par depending on their FedExCup position. Rahm began by chipping in for birdie, kept the round from getting away from him with a few key saves — one for bogey, one for par — at the turn, and ran off four birdies over his last seven holes for a 65. Cantlay, who started at 10-under par, moved to 13 under. Five shots behind was Bryson DeChambeau and Harris English, and only one of them managed to pick up a little ground on Cantlay while delivering one of the more exciting moments. That would be English, who was headed in the wrong direction when he stepped to the tee at the par-3 15th over water, the second-toughest hole at East Lake, smashed a 5-iron from 224 yards and watched it drop for a hole-in-one, the first one since the TOUR Championship first came to East Lake in 1998. He followed with two more birdies for a 66, one better than Cantlay on the day, a little closer than when English started. DeChambeau birdied his last three holes to salvage a 69. He started three shots behind and now is five shots behind. Finau, meanwhile, had a 72 and went from two shots behind to seven back. This is the third year of the format, and Cantlay doesn’t know how the lower half feels. He was the No. 2 seed in 2019 when it started. That first time didn’t go well. He had one of his worst weeks of the year, which cost him nearly $2 million with how far he fell. Justin Thomas was the Nos. 1 and 3 seeds the previous two times. Now he’s at No. 6, meaning he started six shots out of the lead. That was a new experience. He noticed he already was in 10th place by the time he teed off, based on some early scoring, and found that to be a bit jarring. Worse yet was being 1 over on the front nine. Starting out six shots behind in the first place, his hopes could have ended early. But he shot 31 on the back nine, five birdies and one impressive par save on the 14th, and pieced together a 67. He’s still six back. It could have been worse. “When you start behind like that, unfortunately, you just don’t have the luxury of shooting a 1 over or 2 over the first round,” Thomas said. “And I salvaged a good round out there and feel like I can easily go out there and shoot 6 or 7 under one of these next three days. And hopefully I do.” Rahm started four back and, like Cantlay, chose not to pay attention to anything but the next shot, even as the good start looked as though it could get away from him. He took bogey from the left rough on No. 7, had to get up-and-down from behind the eighth green for bogey and saved par from a bunker on the par-3 ninth. That was as important as some of his birdies. Now he’s two behind Cantlay with 54 holes left, and now matter how odd it might seem at the start, now it feels like a regular tournament. “It’s very easy to get caught up on how far back you start. I don’t think I really once thought about it out there. I was just trying to post a score,” Rahm said. “My job is to hit the best shot I can each time and that’s all can I control.”

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MAMARONECK, N.Y. (AP) — Mike Davis spent the last decade running the USGA, where he set up golf courses to provide an extreme test for elite players and searched for solutions to increasing distance. Now he wants to build golf courses, a lifelong passion. Davis announced Tuesday he will retire as CEO at the end of 2021, ending a 32-year career with the USGA that began with him overseeing ticket sales and transportation. He became the seventh executive director in 2011 and the USGA’s first CEO after an organizational shakeup in 2016. Davis, whose love of golf course architecture dates to when he was a junior golfer and would doodle holes on a piece of paper, said he will join Tom Fazio II in a new golf architecture firm called Fazio & Davis Golf Design. “One of the wonderful things these 32 years afforded me was I’ve gone out of my way to see most of the world’s great courses,” Davis said. “I’ve played them, studied them, read about them, taken pictures of them. I’ve read all the architecture books. I get as giddy with some architects as I do being around Jack, Arnold, Byron Nelson and Mickey Wright.” The announcement comes two days after Bryson DeChambeau crushed the notion that accuracy is tantamount to U.S. Open success. DeChambeau said he would hit driver as often as he could, even if it went into Winged Foot’s notorious rough, and he won by six shots by becoming the only player at par or better all four rounds of a U.S. Open at Winged Foot. The retirement, however, was in the works for several years. Davis had planned to announce it in September when the 2020 USGA championship season was over, so a successor could be found. Instead, the coronavirus pandemic forced the U.S. Open to be postponed from June until last week, with the U.S. Women’s Open in Houston still to come in December. Davis said he told his wife when he was appointed executive director in 2011 that he would do the job for 10 years. He told the USGA board more than three years ago that he would work through 2021 so he could try his hand at building courses. “I knew I would regret it if I didn’t try,” he said. His one regret was not seeing through the conclusion of the “Distance Insights Project.” A summary in February suggested it was time to stop increases in distance at all levels, highlighting an average gain of 25 yards over the last 30 years for elite players. The feedback process and next step have been delayed by the pandemic. “I think something is going to happen,” Davis said. “When is it going to be done? How is it going to be done? How will we introduce it? It’s a multiyear process. I’d have to stay many years to see this thing through. I’m just happy that for the first in over 100 years, we’re finally doing something. I pushed at it with the R&A, I pushed it with our own group. “I will look back saying that is one thing I am very proud of, because I just know it’s in the best interest in the game.” His last U.S. Open will be at Torrey Pines next summer. Meanwhile, Davis stays on to guide the USGA through the COVID-19 pandemic, setting up what amounts to a satellite office and a new testing center in Pinehurst, North Carolina, advancing the distance project and working with his successor. USGA President Stu Francis said a search would begin immediately, with hopes of having the next CEO hired by the U.S. Open next summer. Davis first took over setting up U.S. Open courses at Winged Foot in 2006, and he introduced the concept of graduated rough that grew longer the farther away from the fairway. That was from his first U.S. Open experience at Baltusrol in 1980, which he attended with his father. Davis recalls thinking it was unfair that someone who missed the fairway by a little was punished more than someone who missed by a lot. He has been criticized for some setup decisions, most recently at Shinnecock Hills, though that was to be expected. His predecessor, Tom Meeks, predicted in 2009 that Davis would make a mistake at some point. “It doesn’t happen by design. It happens because it’s the U.S. Open,” Meeks said. There was so much more to the job, especially as CEO. Davis was part of the most significant overhaul of the Rules of Golf that took effect in 2019, and he signed off on a decision to ban the anchored stroke used for long putters a few years earlier. He also was executive director when the USGA signed a 12-year broadcast deal with Fox worth about $1 billion, a deal that NBC took over again earlier this year. Part of Davis already is looking ahead. He doesn’t want to design golf courses on paper. He wants to build them, and he said he would spend time on the construction crews of architects Bill Coore and Gil Hanse to learn that end of it. “I can’t wait to get my hands dirty,” Davis said, chuckling like someone who has been wanting to do this for a long time.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The International Team may be the visitors at this week’s Presidents Cup, but the Charlotte community has made Trevor Immelman’s team feel at home. As a show of appreciation for that hospitality, the International Team has made a special donation to two Charlotte-area organizations. Immelman, his 12 players and four captain’s assistants are donating to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s K9 unit and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Dream Center, a Christ-centered non-profit that meets the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of those affected by poverty, addiction and homelessness. “Our team has had such an amazing experience, not just this week but when we came here for our team trip a few weeks ago,” Immelman said. “We’ve met so many great people who have shown us amazing hospitality, so as a team we just wanted to find a way to give back and support the community that has taken us in and treated us so well over the last month or so.” The Charlotte Mecklenburg Dream Center was established in 2014 by Jim Noble, founder of the Noble Food and Pursuits Company. Immelman said he has been impressed with the tales of transformation at the Dream Center. “Jim Noble has told me some incredible stories, some touching stories about how they have impacted people in this community, supported them through times of struggle, whether mentally, emotionally, physically or spiritually,” Immelman said. “They do some amazing work. This is just a small way to say thanks to the people of the Charlotte area.” The International Team’s donation to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department will be used to purchase safety equipment and training for the K9 unit’s human and canine officers. “They’ve done an incredible job not only for our team, but for all the fans who have been visiting, keeping us safe and making sure everything runs smoothly,” Immelman said about the CMPD. “Something our team has thoroughly enjoyed is the K9 unit and so we want to donate to them. I have two dogs at home. Many of our players have dogs, and it’s something that we were really excited about when we found out that this was a way we could help support them after all they’ve done for us.” Said Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department Chief Johnny Jennings, “This donation will keep our four-legged officers equipped with the best technology and equipment as they work side-by-side with their human partners to serve this great community. I want to thank the International Team for its generous donation. The City of Charlotte and the CMPD have been blessed by the long-standing partnership with the PGA TOUR.” Noble also expressed his gratitude for the International Team’s donation. “Words cannot explain the gratitude we have for Trevor and the International Team for your heart for those in need in our community and greater Charlotte whose lives will be impacted with the love of God you are sharing through your generosity,” he said. Even after the International Team leaves Charlotte on Sunday, its impact will be felt for years to come.

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