Live leaderboard: Round 2 of WGC-Mexico

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Just as they became accustomed to the gusty trade winds off the Plantation Course the contenders at the Sentry Tournament of Champions face a new battle on Sunday. Heavy winds and gusts out of the east / northeast have tested the 33-man field for three rounds but Sunday’s final round forecast calls for a switch in direction and power. Sunday sees the winds expected to switch and come from the north / northwest – an entirely different proposition. While they are expected to drop from the gusts of around 20 miles per hour to around 10 miles per hour the change of strategy is one players must adjust to quickly. The drop in speed is something leader Gary Woodland is looking forward to. He is three clear of Rory McIlroy and four ahead of Marc Leishman. “It just allows you to be more aggressive. I’m very confident with where my game is, in the past it might have affected me a little bit, but I feel very good changing,â€� Woodland said. “I think it suits me, when it’s not blowing it suits me as much as it does when it is, so I’m excited about it.â€� For McIlroy it obviously means a change in game plan, but one he is confident he and his caddy have prepared for despite the fact this is his first trip to Kapalua. “A couple of adjustments to be made. It’s a little different, especially when it’s one you haven’t played in before,â€� McIlroy said. “To not have had that practice and try to go into a final round when you’re trying to win a golf tournament, it’s a little challenging, but it’s going to be the same for everyone. “Harry and I need to do a good job tomorrow of just hitting it to the right spots on the fairways. There’s going to be a lot of holes where I’m not hitting the same club off the tee as I was the previous few days and it’s just about picking your spots to hit at and trusting that this is what you need to do and just trying to be a little more thoughtful about where you’re placing the golf ball. That’s going to be key tomorrow.â€� Leishman grew up in the Australian town of Warrnambool which often gets high coastal winds that can switch on a dime. “I need to get off to a good start. It depends how the other boys start as well as to how aggressive I get,â€� Leishman said. “But it’s going to be very different. I think it’s a different direction, the wind, which we haven’t played this course in, in those conditions very often. “And so it’s sort of hard to tell what the scores are going to do, but, yeah, either way I’m going to have to play really good golf.â€� MUST-READS Woodland leads with heavy heart McIlroy looks for final group atonement CALL OF THE DAY

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Justin Thomas found the right time for a near-perfect performance to put a rough start to the year behind him, rallying from three shots behind with bold play to close with a 4-under 68 and win THE PLAYERS Championship on Sunday. RELATED: Leaderboard | Winner’s Bag: Justin Thomas, THE PLAYERS Championship Thomas becomes only the fourth player to win a major, THE PLAYERS Championship, the FedExCup and a World Golf Championships, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. He called it as good as he has ever played tee-to-green, and he needed it to outlast Lee Westwood, a hard-luck runner-up for the second straight week. Westwood birdied the final hole for a 72 to finish one shot behind. Thomas went birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie around the turn, and put away Westwood for good with a pair of lag putts from 50 feet — one for birdie on the par-5 16th to take the lead, another on the island-green 17th for a par. Thomas still had one more shot before he was in the clear. He took on the water framing the left side of the 18th fairway, the ball moving right-to-left and bouncing straight off the crown of the first cut, safely in the fairway. His approach landed on the fringe — the first green he missed all day — leaving a simple two-putt for par and the 14th victory of his PGA TOUR career. “I fought so hard today,” Thomas said. “It’s probably one of the best rounds of my life tee-to-green. I’ve seen some crazy stuff happen on TV in the past, and I’m glad to be on this side of it.” All the crazy stuff came early. Bryson DeChambeau, coming off a win last week at Bay Hill, topped an iron off the tee on the par-4 fourth hole that went only about 140 yards until it plunked into the water. From 237 yards on a forward tee to a green protected by water, he hit a slice with a 5-iron some 40 yards right of the green. “Dude! I don’t know what happened!” he said to his caddie. “I’ve never done that before.” DeChambeau made double bogey and was scratching the rest of the way to stay in the game. He still had a chance with an eagle on the 16th hole to get within two, but when Thomas made par on the 17th, his chances were about over. DeChambeau shot 71 and tied for third with Brian Harman, who had a 69 and played the final 12 holes without a bogey. The 47-year-old Westwood hit his tee shot into the water on the fourth hole and had to make an 8-footer to save bogey. He hit his approach out of the pine straw that clipped two branches and found water on the par-5 second hole to make bogey. He was never far away from the lead, and Westwood regained a share of the lead with an 8-foot birdie putt on the 14th. His chances began to slip away with his second shot into the par-5 16th. It hit a big oak and dropped into the sand, and his third shot found a bunker in front of the green. Instead of matching birdies with Thomas, who was in the group ahead, Westwood had to scramble for par to stay one behind. And on the 17th, his long birdie attempt rolled 7 feet by the hole. He faced another crucial par putt, and he finally missed. Thomas was outside the cut line after nine holes on Friday. He followed that with a 64 on Saturday to get in the mix, and he finished off in style to pick up $2.7 million with a win against the strongest and deepest field in golf. It wrapped up a year in which the PGA TOUR shut down after one round of THE PLAYERS a year ago. Thomas was among those serving on the Player Advisory Council that was a part in getting golf back from the COVID-19 pandemic. He looked at the gold trophy with Commissioner Jay Monahan to soak in how far golf had come in a year.

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Ping’s 2021 putter line features both traditional and new putter models designed to offer multiple options for each stroke type. With its emphasis on fitting, Ping has taken great care with the line to optimize each model with different blends of materials and technology best suited to each head shape. Ping’s VP of engineering Paul Wood told us that upwards of 70 percent of golfers favor inserts/softer feel, so the company was determined to offer a full range of insert-style putters to complement the solid-faced Heppler line. The objective in developing the insert for the 2021 line was to create a successor to the Sigma 2 line that offered a similar soft feel with some performance-enhancing technology and new models. Ping’s engineers are continuing to use a dual-durometer insert that feels softer on shorter putts and firmer on longer strokes. Wood indicated the shallow, uniform groove technology (previously known in-house as the Bubba Watson Groove due to his early involvement) came straight from feedback from tour professionals by focusing on optimizing player perception more than anything to do with the physics. In addition to the dual-durometer insert, Wood said the other key to the 2021 line is every putter uses multiple metals that have been selected based on the head shape. ”Each putter in the line has a combination of heavier and lighter materials positioned to maximize stability and keep a low center of mass,” Wood said. For example, the blade putters use steel with tungsten around the perimeter for greater stability. However, that formula would be too heavy in the larger mallet putters, such as the Harwood, which has an aluminum body with tungsten inserts. Finally, in terms of technology across the line as a whole, Wood told us there are four main ways players line up the ball: the top rail, a long central alignment, ball framing lines, and an alignment feature that directly meets the ball. Across the whole line, there is something for everyone and each model focuses on one or two of these primary alignment styles for ease of alignment. Speaking on the 2021 line, John K. Solheim, Ping president said “We’ve engineered a lot of score-lowering technology into the 2021 putter line through extensive research and tour player feedback. All of the models are developed with higher MOI through strategic use of various materials, including tungsten, steel and aluminum, to provide the forgiveness and accuracy golfers expect from a Ping putter. The dual-durometer insert features uniform, shallow grooves to give golfers a soft, responsive feel for more consistent distance control with the precise touch they need to hole more putts.” Ping 2021 putters: The models The Anser, Anser 2, and Anser 4 combine a stainless-steel head with tungsten heel and toe weights to elevate the timeless designs to the highest MOI in company history. While in the Kushin 4, DS 72, and Tyne 4, a steel weight is positioned in the heel, and tungsten is used to the toe to optimize the center of gravity locations for each model. The Fetch and Oslo H merge together a cast 304 stainless steel body with an aluminum sole plate to position mass around the perimeter of the heads for highly forgiving mallet-style designs. For the new CA 70 head, a stainless steel sole weight is used to lower the center of gravity of the putter, which features a body mostly constructed of aluminum. The largest of the new designs, the Harwood offers the highest MOI in the line thanks to its 6061 aluminum body and 93 grams worth of tungsten weights positioned in the four corners of the head. Specs, availability, prices The new 2021 Ping putter line will be available in a total of 11 different models including one in an armlock configuration and come in both right and left-handed. The putters are each fitted with one of three original Ping-designed grips intended to maximize the putter performance based on stroke fit. The PP58 – A mid (87g) standard-sized pistol shape made of rubber and designed to help square the face at impact is the standard grip on the Anser, Anser 4, Kushin 4, CA 70, DS 72, Tyne 4, and Tyne C. The PP60 – Another (86g) midsize option, pistol design with a rubber under-listing with larger flat surfaces for increased face awareness. A new rubber outer layer features a unique texture to enhance a golfer’s sense of touch. It comes standard on the Anser 2, Fetch, Oslo H and Harwood. The PP58-S – A pistol-shaped midsized grip featuring a straight taper and predominantly flat surface to aid in clubface awareness. All of the 2021 Ping putters are priced at $270, except for the Harwood and Harwood armlock, which are priced at $380. Click here to purchase.

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