Justin Thomas committed to Honda Classic

OAKVILLE, Ontario — Matt Kuchar fought dizzy spells in the first round of the RBC Canadian Open on Thursday, four days after finishing second behind Jordan Spieth in The Open Championship. “I had a couple of spells where I got a little bit of dizzy and I feel weak,” Kuchar said. “I don’t know where it came from. I’ve had plenty of time to get over the travel. Hopefully, it’s just something that passes real quick. … I shook it off the couple times it happened.” The 39-year-old American became dizzy marking a ball and sought medical attention during the morning round at Glen Abbey. After playing the first 11 holes in 4 under, he made a double bogey on the par-4 third and bogeyed the par-4 eighth en route to a 1-under 71. Kuchar was six strokes behind leaders Kevin Chappell, Matt Every, Hudson Swafford, Brandon Hagy and Ollie Schniederjans in the round that was suspended due to darkness after afternoon play was interrupted for nearly two hours by lightning and rain. “He had been over to mark a putt after he missed it and got a little light-headed,” said playing partner Bubba Watson, a stroke back after a 66. “He just came up a little slow. I don’t know why. It’s a little warm after the rain. Had a rain jacket on. Probably just a little light-headed. And then the travel. He played over there, a lot of energy used last week. Second place is a lot of energy used over that and then flying back over here with the time change, probably just one of those things. Maybe a little dehydrated.” Defending champion Jhonattan Vegas, Vijay Singh, Jim Herman, Peter Malnati and Martin Flores matched Watson at 66. Top-ranked Dustin Johnson had a 67. He eagled the par-5 13th and had six birdies and three bogeys. “Just had a few putts lip out on the back, and then, just didn’t drive it well the back nine,” Johnson said. “But when I did drive it in the fairway, I had good holes. I’m swinging really well, especially with the irons. … Tomorrow, I just need to go out in the morning and hit a few more fairways.” Chappell had two eagles, playing alongside fellow leader Every in the afternoon. Chappell made a 12-foot putt from the fringe on the par-5 16th for his first eagle and holed a 15-footer from the fringe on the par-5 second. “Doesn’t happen too often, but I’m glad it happened today,” Chappell said. “I hit it really well. Got the ball in play on the par 5s, so I was able to attack those.” Schniederjans also had two eagles. He chipped in on 13 and made a 15-footer on 18. “I took advantage of the par 5s and just played real consistently well off the tee,” Schniederjans said. “I was in good positions all day. Just a solid round.” Mackenzie Hughes topped the 17 Canadians at 67. “If you hit it in the fairway, you can be aggressive,” Hughes said. “The few fairways I missed, I was just trying to make par and you have to be a little bit defensive. All in all it was a great day. Probably could be a bit better, but I made a couple nice par putts, too. Overall, happy with my start.”

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ORLANDO, Fla. – It has become something of a December tradition, much in the spirit of shiny wrapped presents and kids caroling on the sidewalk: Tiger Woods shows up after a long layoff in the relaxed atmosphere of the year-end PNC Championship, provides a glimpse of better-than-expected form, and ducks back behind the curtain of the home laboratory. It leaves us with many questions to ponder as we sip our holiday eggnog. The biggest curiosity is this: When will we see Tiger Woods competing again? After two days enjoyed alongside his 13-year-old son, Charlie, at PNC – Team Woods tied for eighth – Woods said he would be shutting things down to get his health in order. As he continues to rehab from an early 2021 SUV accident that could have cost him his right leg, if not his life, Woods now must get past a painful clash with plantar fasciitis in his right foot that has greatly limited his ability to walk. That could take months. Will he play in the Genesis Invitational that benefits his own foundation in mid-February? Likely too soon. Can he be ready for a small sampling of golf in March, during the Florida Swing? Maybe aim to return in time for another Masters, where last April the five-time winner of the green jacket not only showed up, but played on the weekend? “I think it’s going to be more later than sooner just by his reactions to how his leg is feeling, how his foot is feeling, and how his game is,” said John Cook, a Golf Channel analyst who has been close to Woods through the years. “We’ll have to wait and see how his body is going to be able to support the work that he’s going to need to do to get competitive. He won’t go out there until he thinks he’s competitive.” Woods’ caddie, Joe LaCava, said Woods’ physical performance at the PNC was better than he expected to see, especially considering how Woods had looked to him a month earlier. LaCava flew down to Florida to work with Woods in preparation for the Hero World Challenge, but things were so bad with Woods’ ailing foot they made the decision to stop working. Woods had the luxury of playing out of a cart for two days at PNC, which he won’t have when he returns to the PGA TOUR. It was a huge factor in him being able to play. As far as Woods’ golf, LaCava liked what he saw in many of the shots Woods was striking at PNC. Woods showed plenty of speed in his swing, and his short game, for a man who hadn’t competed since July’s Open Championship, was “tidy.” “I think he drove it well, and pretty consistent,” LaCava said. “Enough distance. A few past JT (Thomas), but that’s not what we’re looking for. It’s just about hitting it solid. More important to me, it’s about hitting the shot that he’s trying to hit. Sit up there and hit a high cut, and that’s what he’s hitting. … if he’s hitting the shot that he’s trying to hit, I’m good with that.” Examples? There was the 558-yard fifth hole at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on Sunday, where Woods roasted a drive well past Thomas, then went at the green with an 8-iron, leaving his ball 15 feet below the hole. (“Only an 8-iron,” LaCava said, “but a beautiful shot, because he had to hit it hard and draw it.”) There were some crisp little wedge shots, like the ones he hit Sunday into 13, where his ball nearly danced into the hole, and 15 (a full wedge) and 16. There was the 4-iron he ripped into the par-5 14th on Saturday, and the beautiful, towering 3-iron into the par-5 18th to finish off that round. A day later, Padraig Harrington, who still thinks Woods has at least one more major win in him, still was raving about the shot. “An impressive strike,” said Harrington, who believes Woods is swinging the club the best he has in five years. He noted Woods’ ball speed of 159 mph on the iron strike. “There’s not many people who can do that in the world of golf.” At PNC, Woods said his plantar fasciitis has been “frustrating,” because he felt he was making some decent progress with his game after playing only nine official rounds in 2022 (in three majors, making the cut in two). He has been sleeping with his right foot in a boot, which sometimes rubs and cuts into his healthier leg. “The plantar fasciitis is no fun,” Woods said, “and now I get to truly recover and heal and progress forward on this because there’s so many good things that I’ve been able to do physically, be able to hit the golf ball and practice and do everything in a standstill … but I haven’t been able to get from Point A to Point B (walking). We’re obviously going to work on this.” Mark O’Meara, the Hall of Famer who took Woods under his wing when Woods turned pro and moved to Orlando as a TOUR rookie in 1996, said he was “blown away” that Woods showed up to the Masters last April, “let alone make the cut.” Playing Augusta was a huge bonus for Woods, whose biggest 2022 goal was to make it to The Open at St. Andrews in July. O’Meara was there, too, seated next to Woods at the exclusive dinner for past Open champions. “I know how much he wants it,” said O’Meara, who now lives in Las Vegas and doesn’t see much of Woods. He did receive a big hug when he and Woods saw each other on the practice grounds last week. “Anytime you want Tiger Woods to do something, just tell him he can’t do it. That’s usually when he does do it.” O’Meara admires Woods’ toughness with all that he has been through, but he did recall a funny story from Augusta years back. He and Woods were playing by themselves in a Tuesday practice round at Augusta National. Going up the fifth hole, Woods told O’Meara he had some news he hadn’t shared: he had a slight tear in his left Achilles tendon. O’Meara had to laugh. “I’m like, ‘Really? Tiger, I’m not a doctor, but I really believe if you had a slight tear in that Achilles tendon, you would not be walking up this fairway right now,’” O’Meara said. “And I’m not a betting man, and I didn’t bet that week, but I told him, ‘Because you said that to me, I’m going to bet that you’re going to win this week.’ “And you know what? He won the Masters that week. That’s just him.” Woods said 2022 was challenging in so many ways, yet also called it “one of the most rewarding years I’ve had in a while.” Up next for him is his 47th birthday on Dec. 30. Can he get back to the TOUR in 2023? Can he get to the majors to chase No. 16? LaCava said once the plantar fasciitis subsides, he could see Woods playing “five or six tournaments.” Right now, Woods would take that. And if, and when, he does return, one thing is certain. “He’s a guy that you can never doubt, or count out, or any of that stuff,” Matt Kuchar said. “I think I’ve been on the side of doubting or counting him out a couple of times, and was proven wrong multiple times already. “It’s so hard to say (what Woods will do). I know that there is nobody who works harder in trying to come back, and rehab. If there’s a chance – and you know there is a chance – then he is going to find it and try to do it. I think we will count on him being at majors until he’s not.”

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Sean O'Hair has barely played on the PGA TOUR the last two seasons but he's looking to take full advantage of his good play at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship heading into the weekend. After back-to-back rounds of 5-under-par 67, O'Hair was only the second golfer into double-digits under par after the morning wave Friday. The four-time TOUR winner is looking to return to the winner's circle for the first time since the 2011 RBC Canadian Open - more than nine years ago. O'Hair tore his left oblique nearly 18 months ago and is still recovering after surgery. He teed it up at just two PGA TOUR events last season - the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Honda Classic, finishing T50 and missing the cut, respectively. He's on a Major Medical Extension this season. He missed the cut at the Safeway Open to start the season. However, O'Hair's 10-under total has him in good position going into the weekend in the Dominican Republic. "I was pretty proud of the bogey-free today," said O'Hair. "I’ve been playing solid. Today I left a few out there, but I’ll take the bogey-free round, for sure." O'Hair said he had quite a bit of scar tissue built up near his oblique from the car accident he was involved in in 2008 which needed to be removed along with having his oblique repaired. He admitted that while he's basically been off the TOUR for a year-and-a-half, he's trying to get into a routine again. But, there's been a bit of a turning point this week. "My body’s still not quite there as far as just the workload that you do just from traveling and hitting balls and walking and practicing. It’s kind of hard to practice that at home. But, you know, as far as health-wise, I feel great and it’s nice to be out here, for sure," he said. O'Hair said he didn't want to get ahead of himself in terms of qualifying for the FedExCup Playoffs later this season, but he's got a laser-like focus on these next 16 events so then he can keep his PGA TOUR card. However, he said one thing is for sure: his love of the game hasn't waned. "I think I got a little bit lazy and took too much for granted right before I got injured. I think I was more counting the days to retirement and I think you get that taken away from you, the ability to play golf, and you figure out that you love the game still and you still want to compete," said O'Hair. "It was a really hard recovery for me and I didn’t know if I was going to make it back or not, so it took a lot of hard work to get to this point and it feels good." O'Hair wasn't the only golfer on a Major Medical Exemption to play well through two rounds at Corales. Graham DeLaet fired an 8-under-par 64 on Friday, his lowest such round in relation to par on the PGA TOUR since a 9-under-par 63 effort at the Barbasol Championship in 2016. DeLaet was on the shelf for most of the last two seasons due to a back injury and bounced back Friday after an opening-round 78. Jamie Lovemark, meanwhile, is also on a Major Medical after suffering a shoulder injury that sidelined him for the balance of the last two seasons. He sits at 6-under through two rounds at Corales. "I've been feeling good," Lovemark said Friday. "I came back last year and had no confidence I wasn't very sure of myself. I had no speed. I'm getting my speed back and getting my confidence back." Lovemark finished T56 at the Safeway Open as he looks to have a solid run in his return. He tore the labrum in his shoulder (It was "popping in, popping out," he said). He didn't have to have surgery but has been through a lot of rehab which he calls "tedious and annoying," but helpful. "I was off for six months. It was a nice break but it was too long," he said. "There's pressure to perform but you lose sight of that usually and you just play the round in front of you. At home you think about it but I've got 15 events, almost a full season, and I'm starting to play better."

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