Leaderboard: Kevin Tway leads in Hawaii

The PGA TOUR visits the historic Houston Open this week. The Golf Club of Houston has embraced its identity as the perfect place to prepare for the year’s first major. Many players in the field have one eye on Augusta National, while others are trying to earn the final invitation to this year’s Masters. There’s also 500 FedExCup points available this week for the winner of the Houston Open. PGA TOUR LIVE brings you star-studded Featured Groups this week from the Lone Star State. Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose are all slated to be shown in the LIVE’s coverage. Click here to subscribe to PGA TOUR Live. PGA TOUR LIVE will broadcast from 8:30 a.m. Eastern until 7 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday. It can be viewed free on Twitter from 8:30 a.m. Eastern until approximately 9:30 a.m. Featured Holes coverage of the back nine’s two par-3s, Nos. 14 and 16, will begin at approximately 4 p.m. each day. Here’s a closer look at this week’s Featured Groups (Note: all times Eastern; FedExCup ranking in parentheses): THURSDAY Chris Stroud (135), Jhonattan Vegas (77), Jordan Spieth (57): The Texas ties run deep in this group. Spieth and Vegas both played for the University of Texas, while Stroud is an alumnus of Lamar. Vegas lived in Houston after moving from Venezuela and Monday qualified for the 2003 Houston Open as an 18-year-old. Spieth, of Dallas, lost a playoff at the 2015 Houston Open before winning the following week’s Masters. Stroud, 36, won his first PGA TOUR title at last year’s Barracuda Championship. The Houston resident has played a large role in the recovery from Hurricane Harvey. Tee times: 9 a.m. off No. 10 on Thursday; 1:50 p.m. off No. 1 on Friday Henrik Stenson (53), Rickie Fowler (28), Martin Kaymer (224): Three former PLAYERS champions are in this group. Fowler won the 2015 PLAYERS with a scintillating finish before beating Kevin Kisner and Sergio Garcia in a playoff. Stenson’s big wins include the 2009 PLAYERS, 2013 FedExCup and the 2016 Open Championship. Kaymer owns the 2014 PLAYERS, as well as two majors (2014 U.S. Open, 2010 PGA). Fowler was runner-up to Kaymer at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Tee times: 9:10 a.m. off No. 10 on Thursday; 2 p.m. off No. 1 on Friday FRIDAY Daniel Berger (67), Matt Kuchar (81), Steve Stricker (144): It’s an intergenerational tussle in this threesome. Berger, 24, has finished fifth in the past two Houston Opens. Kuchar, 39, was the runner-up at the 2014 Houston Open. Stricker, 51, has finished T2-1-1 in three PGA TOUR Champions starts this season. His most recent win came at last week’s Rapiscan Systems Classic. Tee times: 1:50 p.m. off No. 1 on Thursday; 9 a.m. off No. 10 on Friday Phil Mickelson (3), Justin Rose (7), Russell Henley (103): The defending champion is playing alongside two players inside the top 10 of the FedExCup standings. Mickelson, the 2011 Houston Open champion, recently won the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship. Rose also won a World Golf Championship this season, at the HSBC Champions. He’s finished in the top five in his past two stroke-play starts. Tee times: 2 p.m. off No. 1 on Thursday; 9:10 a.m. off No. 10 on Friday

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KAPALUA, Hawaii – Cameron Smith led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting en route to his win at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Clearly 2022’s new rule surrounding yardage books – and the banning of the old, in-depth greens books – didn’t impact the Australian. The winners-only event at Kapalua’s Plantation Course was the first TOUR event since the implementation of a local rule on TOUR that limits the information in players’ yardage books. From this week forward, only committee-approved yardage books can be used and players can only add handwritten notes from information they’ve seen with their naked eye or on a broadcast. Measuring instruments cannot be used to gather information for notes added to the book. That eliminates the old greens books that used technology to measure the slightest slopes on a putting surface. “I’ve never really been a big fan of the greens books,” Smith said. “I do AimPoint Express and I like to feel a lot of stuff. I like to see stuff and I like to feel stuff, so the greens books, for me, took away a lot of that. I gave them a crack a couple of times but I was never really a fan.” That seemed to be the overwhelming sentiment from the 38 players who teed it up last week. “I haven’t really consulted the green book too much in the past,” said FedExCup champ Patrick Cantlay. “Every once in a while, I used to ask my caddie to consult it. I don’t think it will make too much of a difference for me.” Last year’s Sony Open in Hawaii champion, Kevin Na, said he might’ve entered the history books if not for a reliance on the books a year ago. “I remember last year at the Sony Open I looked at it one time on 17 when I had a chance to shoot 59 and it didn’t work out too well, so that was the last time I saw it,” Na said. “My caddie used to carry one, and he would look at it here and there. But I don’t feel like it’s a huge change for me because we’ve never really looked at it a lot. So, I actually like that it’s gone. I feel like I am a pretty good green reader out there so it’s an advantage for us.” The changes were player-driven through the TOUR’s Player Advisory Council (PAC). A former chairman of that committee, Jordan Spieth, believes he also will find an edge with the new rule despite the fact he’s used the books extensively in the past. “It will be an adjustment, certainly as we get to the West Coast, and places like Riviera, but there’s three things to putting. There’s reading the putt, there’s stroking it on line and there is hitting it at the right speed,” Spieth said. “I think that two of those were skills that you don’t technically need to have with (arm-lock) putting and the greens books. At least one of them right now is back to where it will become a skill to have to read them.” While Spieth’s caddie, Michael Greller, studied AimPoint in the off-season to broaden his knowledge base, Spieth wasn’t planning to do the same anytime soon. He will rely on his natural feels. “We’ve never had the greens books at Augusta,” Spieth added, “and I seem to find myself in a really good space on the greens there, really feeling putts. My Strokes Gained at Augusta has always been really solid so I like looking at that as a reference point. “I think if anything this could potentially help me in the Strokes Gained area. I’m not saying I’m going to make as many putts as I would with them, … but relative to other people, I would say green reading would be a strength of mine and therefore I feel good about the differences.” Other players who used the books heavily in the past were hopeful it would free up their mind and allow some instinct to come in. “I’m excited for it,” said FedExCup leader Talor Gooch. “I use the green reading books, but I think it was to a detriment at times and I play my best when I think less, I calculate less, I kind of try to be reactive and so having no greens books is great for that.” Joel Dahmen added that it could be good for him to get his head out of the book. “I probably bury my head in them too much as it is,” Dahmen said. “I don’t use them at home and I putt OK, so there’s no real reason to have them out here for me. But it’s a little more work for the caddie on Tuesday and Wednesday for them to get the slopes and the grain out there.”

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PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Kramer Hickok looked at the leaderboards around Riviera Country Club and was very surprised. Surprised to see his own name near the top that is – not to see his close friend and former roommate Jordan Spieth two shots ahead of him at the Genesis Open. Spieth has been in somewhat of a slump of late so his 7-under 64 to lead the first wave of players in the opening round was a surprise to some. The former FedExCup champion hasn’t had a top-10 on the PGA TOUR since last season’s Open Championship in July and currently sits 178th on the season long points list. But Hickok – who is in the midst of his rookie PGA TOUR season and shot a 5-under 66 to be T2 in the same wave – knows Spieth better than most. They were at the University of Texas together as freshman in 2012 when the Longhorns won the national title… at Riviera no less. “Of course I’m not surprised to see him up there. Jordan’s a stud,â€� Hickok said. “Everyone gives him such a hard time because his standards are so high, and they’re just as high for himself, but he’s one of the best in the world and he can go shoot 7, 8 under at any moment.” “If the putter heats up, his driver heats up, he’ll be just fine.â€� The 11-time PGA TOUR winner had an impressive time with the putter and his short game in general, going eight of eight in scrambling and chipping in twice. But he knows his striking off the tee still remains a work in progress. “With the conditions we had, that was a great scoring round, and looking forward to the rest of the week, trying to improve on kind of the way I’m striking it,â€� Spieth said. “From San Diego to Pebble was significant progress, from Pebble to here has been significant progress just in the way I feel hitting the ball.” “Whether the scores reflect it or not, I know how I feel striking it so I know when it’s close. I’m looking to try and make progress each day in the way that feeling sustains this week because it didn’t sustain through the weekend at Pebble.” “But I know what went off and I know what to fix. It’s just kind of a little bit of trial and error right now.â€� The fixes come with the help of coach Cameron McCormick, who incidentally also works with Hickok. And it is the Australian coach who gets plenty of credit for Hickok’s opening round, the second best of his season thus far. Prior to this week Hickok’s best result was a T23 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas. He’s made just three of nine cuts in his rookie season. “It’s kind of been a struggle. We hit balls for about four hours just working on some lower body movement, something I’ve been struggling with,â€� Hickok said of a pre-tournament coaching session. “We seemed to grind it out and basically I’ve played really well with this feel before, I’ve won with it in Canada, I’ve won with that feel on the Web last year in the Finals, so it’s a feel that I know I can go out and trust under pressure and play good golf.â€� Unlike Spieth, Hickok wasn’t part of the Texas playing squad in 2012. So his memories of that famous week where Spieth took down Justin Thomas and Alabama in the final at Riviera are limited. “I remember Dylan Frittelli making a 30‑footer to win the national championship and running to jump on him. That’s about it,â€� Hickok smiles. “That’s really my experience with Riviera. I’ve only played 54 holes now around this golf course. So I got to watch a little bit of golf back then, kind of pick up on a few things, but I’m trying to learn as much as possible every day.â€� Part of that learning was a practice round with Spieth earlier this week and some advice already played dividends. Hickok was looking at the drivable par-4 10th hole with lay up in mind until Spieth talked him into driver. But Spieth wasn’t advocating over aggression. In fact he was trying to disassociate the notion of needing to get at the infamous hole. “Everyone thinks of 10 as a birdie hole because you can hit 3‑wood at the front edge, and he’s like it’s not, it plays 4.5,â€� Hickok explained. “So it plays just as hard as some par fives do this year and it’s having that sort of mentality going into the hole, it makes it a lot easier.” “I was actually planning on laying up this week, but talking to him, he kind of convinced me into hitting driver. Made par today, so I guess it worked out.â€� While it is certainly early days, this could just be the week both friends bust out of their so called “slumpsâ€�.

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