Leaderboard: Phil in front at Desert Classic

SAN ANTONIO – Six-time PGA TOUR winner Jimmy Walker, honored Monday with induction into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame, said he was taking the Lone Star State’s highest golfing honor with his full-time work with new teacher Matt Killen as confidence he can return to golf’s highest levels. “This is a nice honor to be recognized by your home state for golf, along with being recognized by my school Baylor University for their athletic hall of fame, but I have really done it all in my career,� Walker said at the afternoon inductions ceremonies at the A.W. Tillinghast 1916 designed Brackenridge Park, Texas’ first public golf course. “I’ve got my card, I’ve lost my card, I’ve won at every level, I’ve played the Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, made big putts, won big events. I was ranked as high at 9th in the world and at age 40, I still want to do it again.� Walker, who has battled Lyme Disease, along with his wife Erin, ever since he won the 2016 PGA Championship, said he feels as healthy as he has since before the PGA win and his illness. He has played two PGA TOUR events this fall in the 2019-20 season but will take time off until resuming play at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January. “Golf beat me up pretty good last year and the end of 2018, so I’m taking it easy now, working with Matt, resting and getting healthy,� he said. Walker comes off a season in which he failed to produce a top-10 finish for the first time since 2008 and had just three top-25 finishes, also his lowest since 2008. He failed to make the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time since 2009. “Everything happens for a reason; I really believe that,� Walker said. “I got sick right after I won the PGA Championship, but that gave me a five-year exemption. If I hadn’t done that, I might be out of a job right now.� He started working with Killen, who has worked with Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas and J.B. Holmes, full-time after the British Open at Royal Portrush and said he is excited with the results. “I ask a lot of questions and he had a lot of good answers,� Walker said. “He is working on my club transition, my short game and putting and a lot of good stuff. “Will this Hall of Fame honor bring my game back? Not by itself, but some low numbers and seeing the ball go in the hole will and that’s where I headed. “I know I can get back because I’ve done it before. I’ve been on a real strict diet and I’ve lost 10-20 pounds and I’m added it back with muscle.� Walker is the 40th Texas PGA TOUR player to be inducted into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame, located at Brackenridge Park. and the 11th PGA Championship winner. Walker was a member of the Presidents Cup in 2015 and said he plans to watch the competition on television in December, with the event being held in Melbourne, Australia. He attended Rickie Fowler’s wedding recently and was reunited with many of his previous Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup teammates, further fueling his competitive desire to regain a spot on the U.S. national teams. “I’ve played in two Ryder Cup teams and one Presidents Cup and I love the team game,� Walker said. “I’ve played some really good golf in the past and that’s what I know I can do again. I’m taking is easy for now, but that’s a huge goal of mine.�

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Rory McIlroy has been in this position many times. For Ryan Fox, it’s a new experience. Two golfers with very different profiles are vying to finish atop the DP World Tour’s season-long points standings entering this week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship on the Earth Course in Dubai. McIlroy — who recently won a record-setting third FedExCup and sits atop the world ranking — leads the Race to Dubai standings as he bids to be the DP World Tour’s leading player for the fourth time in his career (2012, ’14 and ’15). McIlroy could be the first player to end a year as the FedExCup champion, DP World Tour champion and No. 1 player in the world ranking. Fox is only narrowly behind McIlroy in second place — the points difference is just 128.1 — after the best year of his career that has seen him win two events, the Ras al Khaimah Classic and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, and be runner-up four times. Last month, the New Zealander reached a career-high ranking of No. 23. “Rory is the best player in the world,” Fox said Wednesday. “He’s obviously the favorite but to be in this position is great and I’ve got nothing to lose this week. “Won’t do anything different from what I’ve been doing all year. Just go out and try to beat the golf course and see what happens in that sense. That’s served me pretty well and hopefully I can do the same thing this week.” McIlroy has won the FedExCup and DP World Tour Ranking three times each, but never in the same year. “The way I’ve played throughout the year, I’ve been so consistent, especially the last six or seven months post-Augusta,” said McIlroy. “I feel like my game is in good shape. I would be slightly disappointed if I walked away from here knowing I didn’t play as well as I can, and I know if I do play like that, I’ll give myself a good chance.” Five other players — Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Shane Lowry and Adrian Meronk — also have a chance of pass McIlroy in the Race to Dubai standings but would need both players to have poor finishes this week. Fitzpatrick, the U.S. Open champion, is in third place and has the best chance of the outsiders. A third win at the DP World Tour Championship would see him jump to first place provided neither McIlroy or Fox finish the event in second, while a second-place finish would also require McIlroy to finish lower than seventh. Fitzpatrick feels he has the ideal game to follow up his previous victories at the Earth Course in 2016 and ’20. “I remember when I first came here in 2015, everyone said they didn’t think that it would necessarily suit me because it is a big golf course,” Fitzpatrick said. “But there are things that you have to do well here. Putting is No. 1. That’s the biggest influencer of playing well here, and driving is No. 2. And they are both my strengths. Over the years, particularly as I’ve got longer as well now, that’s obviously been a big bonus and the greens are just so pure here as well.” As for Fleetwood, Hovland, Lowry and Meronk, they all need to win and hope McIlroy and Fox aren’t too close behind them on the leaderboard. Fleetwood, who recently moved to the Middle East with his family, is coming off winning the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa last week, his first victory in three years, and opening the Tommy Fleetwood Academy at Jumeirah Golf Estates this week. “Dubai is where normal life is for us at this time,” Fleetwood said.

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Brady and Rodgers are facing off in a charity golf tournament with Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, and the trash talk is starting early.

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