LPGA Shanghai event canceled due to COVID

The PGA TOUR enters the second week of its holiday hiatus, but you won’t find any in the stacked field at this week’s Hero World Challenge easing off the throttle. After the pandemic canceled the 2020 edition of the annual stop at Albany in The Bahamas, an intimate gathering reconvenes with the same no-cut, stroke-play competition over 72 holes, purse of $3.5 million and full-field distribution of Official World Golf Ranking points. And, oh yeah, Tiger Woods remains the host. The only change pertains to the permanent increase in the size of the field. For details on that, how Albany played in 2019 and other nuggets, scroll past the projection for all 20 participants. For the first time in its 21-year history, a record 20 golfers will be chasing victory and its $1-million prize. Accommodations were ratified to add the winners of the most recent edition of THE PLAYERS Championship and a third sponsor exemption inside the top 50 of the OWGR on Sept. 6. They join winners of all majors since the previous edition of the Hero World Challenge, the other two sponsor exemptions and the defending champion. To fill the field, the OWGR on Sept. 6 was used in order of position. Albany is in its sixth consecutive edition as the host. It’s a par 72 with five par 3s and five par 5s. In its first five spins, it surrendered a scoring average south of 70 just once. That occurred in 2017 when the field of 18 landed at 70.333 and despite Rickie Fowler’s course-record 61 to seal a four-stroke victory. In 2019, the scoring average was 69.792. Henrik Stenson prevailed by at 18-under 270. He was the only golfer that week to sign for four rounds in the 60s. With sand, water and wind helping to defend scoring, course management and a plan of attack on the par 5s is the way to go on Albany, which stretches to 7,309 yards. Stenson played the par 5s in 4.60 with one eagle, eight birdies and nine pars against two bogeys. Considering only par breakers across the rest of the course’s 52 holes over four rounds, he circled another eagle (at the par-4 14th hole in the opening round) and 11 birdies. Therefore, he converted 42.86% of his 21 par breakers on 27.78 percent of the holes played. Moderate winds at worst are forecast, so the talented field will have its way with Albany once again. There’s a threat of passing showers on Saturday, but the bermudagrass greens should touch 12 feet on the Stimpmeter for which they’re prepped. What rough there is stands just an inch and a half. NOTE: PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf will resume with the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Jan. 6-9.

Click here to read the full article…

NORTON, Mass. – Tiger Woods was about to pull the trigger on his opening tee shot at the Dell Technologies Championship when he backed off and broke into a smile. But the trademark grin would soon leave the 79-time PGA TOUR winners face. Onlookers assumed Woods was indecisive on what to use and had made an 11th hour strategy change – one they second guessed his choice when he hooked his ball well left and into a hazard. In fact decades of staring at the back of golf clubs had paid off just in time. Woods had grabbed what he thought was a 3-wood out of his bag but in fact was about to let fly with a 5-wood on the par-4 10th at TPC Boston, his opening hole. It wasn’t poor eyesight from the now 42-year-old, in fact his veteran caddie Joe LaCava had to take the blame. “That was pretty funny, actually, because I thought it was a 3-wood out. Joey had put the wrong head cover on from the range,â€� Woods revealed. “I had a 5-wood out, which I put down there, and I can’t hit it that far in the wind, I need a 3-wood. I went back to 3-wood, that’s why it looked like I switched, because I realized I had the wrong club in my hand.â€� Woods had sensed something a little different in his practice swings but it wasn’t until his head was over the ball he figured something wasn’t quite right. In the end he might have been better off sticking with what he had given the result. Woods would open with bogey and battle his way to a 1-over 72 to be five adrift of the early morning leaders. Through seven holes of his round he was languishing at 3-over and could have easily put his tournament under extreme threat. Instead he ground out some birdies to allow some hope for a better final three rounds and a move forward in the FedExCup. “I hung in there. And 18, 1, 2, 4, there’s some birdieable holes there, I thought if you could play those holes 4-under par, I’d turn this whole round around,â€� Woods said. “I made a few birdies there, which was nice. Couldn’t quite keep the momentum going throughout the front side, my back nine, and I felt if I felt momentum going, I could have finished under par today.â€� Woods sits 25th in the FedExCup, certain to advance to next week’s BMW Championship (top 70) but is certainly not locked into the TOUR Championship at East Lake in a few week’s time. If he is to hold on to a spot in the top 30 he will need to turn his fortunes around. “When I did miss it, I missed it in bad spots, didn’t have very good angles. But overall, no one is going low out there today,â€� Woods said somewhat optimistically. “It’s tricky with the wind blowing the way it is right now. Hopefully tomorrow I can miss in correct spots and make a few more birdies than I did today.â€� Despite an average day of ball-striking Woods took confidence from his new putter – which came after he ranked near last in the field for Strokes Gained: Putting at THE NORTHERN TRUST last week. Having used a mallet style putter for the last few months, Woods switched back to the Anser-style he won with for the majority of his career. Extensive work with TaylorMade had yielded a putter similar to the one he won 13 of his14 major championships. “I liked it,â€� Woods said of the TaylorMade TP Black Copper Juno he used just 26 times. “I putted beautifully today, I really did. I hit a lot of good putts, and just have to give myself more looks out of them. I didn’t hit the ball close enough today. “I felt good with it. We had to adjust the loft on it just a touch the other day. And I found that my feels came back, that releases something I’m very familiar with. And it felt good. “Trying to get a putter that looked exactly like my old putter, but it had the grooves in it to roll the ball better… And we finally got one.â€� 

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…