Justin Thomas makes fantastic closing par save to stay in French Open contention

VIRGINIA WATER, England (AP) — Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Shane Lowry were picked by European captain Padraig Harrington on Sunday to fill out the team for the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. Harrington had previously indicated Garcia and Poulter, who have a combined 15 appearances in the Ryder Cup, were in line to be selected. Lowry got the nod ahead of Justin Rose and will be one of three rookies in the team, along with Bernd Wiesberger and Viktor Hovland. Wiesberger, Lee Westwood, Matt Fitzpatrick and Tyrrell Hatton secured the final automatic qualifying places for Europe following the BMW PGA Championship on Sunday. They joined Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Hovland and Paul Casey in the team for the Sept. 24-26 event, when the Europeans will be defending the cup they won outside Paris in 2018. They have a huge advantage in terms of experience — Westwood (10) and Garcia (9) make up half of the 38 Ryder Cup appearances in the European team — though the Americans have nine of the current top 11 in the world rankings. The 41-year-old Garcia will be looking to add to his record haul of 25 1/2 points at Ryder Cups. “He’s a leader. He loves match play. He’s a great ball-striker and is well suited to the golf course,” Harrington said. “But it’s what he does for the team, he really leads out that team.” Poulter, who has earned the nickname “The Postman” because of his Ryder Cup exploits, has been given a captain’s pick for the second straight time. He is unbeaten in singles matches in his six appearances, delivering points for his team. “I don’t think this should have been too much of a doubt,” Harrington said of Poulter’s selection, calling the Englishman a “talisman.” “He brings an unbelievable passion to the team room, he brings incredible passion to his matches. He lifts his playing partners, he lifts his team.” Rose pressed his case for a pick by shooting a final-round 65 at Wentworth on Sunday in finishing in a tie for sixth, having needed a win to qualify automatically. “I played match play against the golf course, just to get into the spirit of match play,” Rose said pointedly. But Harrington was persuaded to go with Lowry, the 2019 Open champion, because of the Irishman’s consistency over a longer period of the qualifying period. “More relieved than anything else,” Lowry said. “But I’m over the moon, really excited.”

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Despite having a reputation as a tinkerer, Dustin Johnson said he doesn’t change equipment all that much, stating in his pre-PGA Championship press conference, “I really don’t like to change clubs ever, but when one’s not working … I have to find something else.” This is, in a couple of senses, true. The centerpieces of his golf bag have been cemented for years (P730 DJ Proto irons, for example) and when he does make a change he often rapidly reverses course. Johnson is often spotted with multiple flatsticks on the putting green early in tournament weeks, but in recent years, he’s almost always stuck with his TaylorMade Spider Limited Itsy Bitsy once competition began. In fact, after putting a TaylorMade TP Bandon 1 Prototype in play two tournaments ago, he has returned to the Spider this week. At the other end of the bag, Johnson has bounced between TaylorMade SIM2 and SIM heads this season but he has always showed up to the first tee with a Fujikura Speeder 661 Evolution 2.0 Tour X Flex shaft in his driver (with one exception, the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January). In fact, the reigning FedExCup champion has played the Speeder 661 for the better part of five years — all the way back to the days of the TaylorMade M1. So it was big news in the equipment world, and shafts in particular, when Johnson was spotted with an LA Golf Prototype in a SIM2 Max head ahead of the competition at Kiawah Island. If LA Golf sounds familiar, that is because it’s the company that makes the shafts for all 14 of Bryson DeChambeau’s clubs, including his putter. Of course, given Johnson’s propensity for pre-tournament testing, it remained to be seen whether he’d put the combo in play at the PGA Championship. But when Johnson stepped inside the ropes shortly after 2 p.m. for his first-round tee time Thursday, he uncorked a 295-yard drive with the aforementioned TaylorMade SIM2 Max head with an LA Golf Proto shaft. Johnson shot 76 in the first round but gained +0.8 strokes off the tee. The shaft was back in the bag for the second round but that will be the only action it sees this week. Johnson will likely miss the cut after shooting 74 on Friday. He gained another +0.9 strokes off the tee in the second round but struggled with his iron play. According to TaylorMade’s Keith Sbarbaro, Global Vice President, Tour Operations & Sports Marketing at TaylorMade, the shaft is “a stiffer tip version with a lower balance point to help promote more of a fade,” which is DJ’s preferred ball flight. Adding further intrigue to the story, similar to the prototyping process DeChambeau and LA Golf have engaged in for the development of his wood, iron, and putter shafts, Johnson and LA Golf have been collaborating on the shaft design. Reed Dickens, LA Golf’s CEO had this to say about Johnson’s prototype: “We custom designed a low torque shaft for Dustin for lower trajectory and have been iterating with him for a few months. We’re excited that the No. 1 player in golf trusts LA Golf enough to put our product in play for the first time at a major championship.” After appearing almost unbeatable last fall – he tore through the FedExCup Playoffs before winning the Masters – Johnson has struggled in the spring and may be searching for answers. He is 26th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee after ranking in the top five of that statistic from 2014-19. Johnson entered this week gaining 0.44 strokes off the tee per round, which would be his worst performance in that statistic since 2013. He hasn’t had a top-10 on TOUR since The Genesis Invitational in February. He has just one top-25 in six starts since and withdrew from last week’s AT&T Byron Nelson with knee pain. Whether Johnson makes a return to his beloved Speeder remains to be seen, but for now, one of the longest-tenured shafts in pro golf has been bumped from its position.

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Six players enter Round 2 tied for the lead at THE PLAYERS Championship, including Dustin Johnson and former THE PLAYERS champion Matt Kuchar. Here’s everything you need to know as the second round gets underway. Round 2 leaderboard Round 2 tee times HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN (ALL TIMES ET) PGA TOUR LIVE: 7:30 a.m. – 7 p.m. TELEVISION: 1 p.m. – 7 p.m. (GC, DirecTV) RADIO: 12 p.m. – 7 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio) FACEBOOK WATCH: 9 a.m. – 7 p.m. TWITTER 360: Live stream (Thursday-Sunday) XUMO: Featured Holes, 9 a.m. – 7 p.m. XUMO delivers over-the-top (OTT) video-on-demand (VOD) and live digital channels direct to consumers through smart TV, mobile, and other streaming device integrations. The TOUR’s channel on XUMO will feature highlights/recaps, player interviews, tournament previews, and live Featured Holes coverage from PGA TOUR LIVE. The channel is now available on LG’s Channel Plus service, exclusively powered by XUMO on channel “IP-750,â€� and across the XUMO distribution network, including: Hisense, Sharp, VIZIO, and Panasonic smart TVs and other connected devices. NOTABLE GROUPINGS 8:27 a.m.: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler 1:52 p.m.: Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth MUST-READS Kuchar bounces back 12 months later Tiger, Phil battle through Round 1 Roundtable: Thursday observations Seven eagles were made on No. 12      

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