Mac McLendon, four-time PGA TOUR winner, dies at age 76

The stars will be out for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the scenic Monterey Peninsula. Matt Kuchar, already a two-time winner this season, leads a contingent of 10 of the top 20 players in the FedExCup as they take on Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, and Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course. Coming off a T4 at last week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open, Kuchar has played 19 of 20 rounds at or under par this season. Phil Mickelson will look for his record-tying fifth win at Pebble, Dustin Johnson is coming in hot, and 2017 champion Jordan Spieth searches for form in a tournament that has been good to him. Then there’s sponsor exemption Ho Sung Choi of Korea, a relative unknown in America but already a fan favorite for his unique “fishermanâ€� swing. PGA TOUR Live will have coverage from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the first three days, and from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. for the final round Sunday. The Twitter window will be from 11 a.m. to approximately noon each day except Sunday, when it will be 10-11 a.m. We will have a Fan Vote on Twitter to determine the second Featured Group on Friday, and provide the final results near the end of Thursday’s round. Mostly coverage will be from Pebble Beach, but with bonus coverage from the other courses. There will be no featured holes coverage. Featured Groups for Sunday won’t be known until after the 54-hole cut. Here’s a look at the Featured Groups for the first three days (current FedExCup ranking in parentheses): THURSDAY Tony Finau (17) – The first PGA TOUR player of Tongan and Samoan descent, Finau is finished in the FedExCup Top 30 three years running. Scott Piercy (22) – Already has two top-10 finishes this season, and is coming off a T20 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Round 1 tee time: 11:11 a.m. ET (8:11 a.m. local) Brandt Snedeker (23) – Two-time winner at Pebble has four of nine TOUR wins in California and was T2 at Safeway Open in the fall. Matthew Fitzpatrick (–) One of the fastest-rising young stars in Europe, the Englishman is making his first PGA TOUR start of the season. Round 1 tee time: 12:06 p.m. ET (9:06 a.m. local) Additional bonus coverage from other courses: Jordan Spieth / Dustin Johnson (Monterey Peninsula) Phil Mickelson / Patrick Reed (Monterey Peninsula) FRIDAY Hunter Mahan (103) – Six-time TOUR winner is on the comeback trail after playing his way through Web.com Tour Finals last season. Jim Furyk (122) – Only man on TOUR with two sub-60 rounds will partner with CBS football analyst and former Cowboys QB Tony Romo. Round 1 tee time: 12:17 p.m. ET (9:17 a.m. local) FAN VOTE FRIDAY CHOICES: 11:33AM/ET – Vaughn Taylor / David Duval (Off 10th Tee) 12:50PM/ET – Cameron Champ / Brice Garnett (Off 1st Tee) 12:50PM/ET – Adam Hadwin / Ben Crane (Off 10th Tee) Additional bonus coverage from other courses: Phil Mickelson / Patrick Reed (Spyglass Hill) Jerry Kelly / Ho Sung Choi (Spyglass Hill) Jordan Spieth / Dustin Johnson (Spyglass Hill) SATURDAY Jordan Spieth (182) – AT&T ambassador looking to bounce back at a place where he has six top-25 finishes in six starts, including a win in 2017. Dustin Johnson (81) – Two-time winner here in ’09 and ’10 has finished outside the top 10 just three times in 11 starts. Coming off a win in Europe. Round 1 tee time: 1:55 p.m. ET (10:55 a.m. local) Phil Mickelson (40) – Started fast at Safeway Open and Desert Classic this season. Would tie Mark O’Meara with a fifth victory at Pebble Beach. Patrick Reed (46) – Masters champ isn’t far off with T13 finishes at Farmers Insurance Open and Sony Open in Hawaii. Round 1 tee time: 12:39 p.m. ET (9:39 a.m. local)

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On the PGA TOUR, the average approach shot from 200 to 225 yards out in the fairway finishes 42 feet from the pin. With Jon Rahm applying pressure and the FedExCup on the line, Patrick Cantlay hit his approach at 18 on Sunday at East Lake – from 218 yards away – to a cozy 11 feet, 4 inches. Those statistics help contextualize how good Cantlay’s approach was in the biggest moment so far in his PGA TOUR career. In a season loaded with big moments, there is no shortage of remarkable numbers to help accent the sport we all love. These are the 10 statistics that best defined the 2020-2021 PGA TOUR season. 1. Bryson DeChambeau breaks own season driving distance record (323.7 yards) In 2020, with a rebuilt frame and power-focused approach, Bryson DeChambeau set the PGA TOUR single-season driving distance average record, at 322.0 yards. In 2021, he shattered his own mark, averaging 323.7 yards off the tee – and more importantly – won multiple big tournaments along the way. Because it happened nearly a calendar year ago, it’s easy to forget that DeChambeau’s triumph at Winged Foot was part of the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season. That Sunday at the 2020 U.S. Open, DeChambeau shot the only round under par in the field, the first time a champion had done that since Jack Fleck in 1955. His 7.90 Strokes Gained: Total was the most in the final round by a U.S. Open winner since Johnny Miller’s Sunday 63 at Oakmont in 1973 (+10.77 Strokes Gained). The most poignant image from DeChambeau’s win at Bay Hill in March remains his mammoth drive at the par 5 sixth, carrying the water and whipping the crowd into a frenzy. But Bryson was razor-sharp through the bag that week, especially in the final round. The field scoring average in the final round at Bay Hill was 75.49, the highest in a final round there since 1980. DeChambeau’s 71 tied the low round of the day and lifted him to a 1-shot victory. 2. Dustin Johnson records lowest score to par in Masters history (-20) No single week embodied the oddities of sport during the pandemic like the 2020 Masters. An annual symbol of springtime renewal, a patron-less Augusta National staged a Masters Tournament while Thanksgiving décor adorned grocery stores stocked with frozen turkeys. It was bizarrely emblematic of a year where time both stood still and progressed at warp speed, where home, work and school were all the same place. Fittingly, it was the most unflappable player of his generation who brushed all of this aside and became Golf Terminator in a career-defining performance. Dustin Johnson won by 5 strokes, the largest margin of victory at Augusta National since Tiger Woods won by 12 in 1997. He hit 60 greens in regulation for the week, the most by any player in a single Masters Tournament since Tiger Woods in 2001 – the week he completed the ‘Tiger Slam.’ His 4 bogeys for the week are the fewest ever by a Masters champion. Johnson had +13.82 Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee + Approach for the Tournament, the most of any player by five full strokes. Cameron Champ ranked second, at +8.81. 3. Sungjae Im makes most birdies-or-better (513) in a single PGA TOUR season In a season of 50 tournaments, spanning 360 days, the prolific achievements of Sungjae Im can help sum up the sheer size of 2020-21 on the PGA TOUR. Im, who played 17 more rounds this PGA TOUR season than anyone else, finished with 513 birdies-or-better, the most in a single season on the PGA TOUR since at least 1980. The previous mark was held by Steve Flesch, who made 509 in the 2000 campaign. Im had a good season – he reached the TOUR Championship and had 5 top-10 finishes – but his birdie-making rate wasn’t close to the best on TOUR. Im ranked 29th in par-breaker percentage (23.36%), well behind TOUR leader Bryson DeChambeau (26.32%). Yet, because Im played 42 more rounds (756 more holes) than DeChambeau, he was the man to play his way into the record books. Using a baseball analogy, think of it as Im setting the single-season hits record while DeChambeau led the league in batting average. 4. Justin Thomas ties lowest closing 36-hole score ever at TPC Sawgrass (-12) Friday evening at THE PLAYERS Championship, Justin Thomas was a tournament afterthought. Eight shots behind Lee Westwood, Thomas would need a truly remarkable performance to get into contention on the weekend and possibly win against the toughest field in all of golf. That’s exactly what he did. Thomas was 12-under on the weekend, tying the lowest closing 36-hole score in the history of THE PLAYERS (Fred Couples and Rocco Mediate each shot -12 on the weekend in 1996). His ball-striking numbers were through the roof: Thomas gained 11.2 strokes tee-to-green over the last 36 holes, the most by any player in a single weekend since tracking began in 2004. His 17 greens in regulation in the final round were the most by any player in the final round of a Players Championship win since Hal Sutton in 2000. With the win, Thomas joined Tiger Woods as the only players with a PLAYERS, major championship and double-digit PGA TOUR victories before age 28. 5. Phil Mickelson becomes oldest major champion in golf history (age 50) In May, a new generation of golf fans got familiar with the name Julius Boros – the man who previously held the title of ‘oldest player to win a major.’ Boros was 48 when he won the 1968 PGA Championship at Pecan Valley. Less than a month shy of his 51st birthday, Phil Mickelson took that title with a timeless victory at Kiawah Island. Mickelson was spectacular from a ball striking perspective, leading the tournament in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. He gained more than 2 full strokes per round with his approach play, and tied for the best par 5 scoring average in the field. Mickelson truly captured lightning in a bottle that week: it was his only top-10 finish of the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season. 6. Playoffs: Longest and Largest The quantity of playoffs on the PGA TOUR this season – 14 – is not particularly historic. Ten years ago, the 2011 season yielded 18 playoffs, most ever in a single season. In 2015, we nearly eclipsed that total, with 17 playoffs. The size and length of the playoffs we did see, though, were another story. At the Wyndham Championship, six players were tied through 72 holes, tying the largest sudden-death playoff in PGA TOUR history (done twice previously). At the Travelers Championship, Harris English and Kramer Hickok needed 8 extra holes to decide a winner. Only one sudden-death playoff, the 1949 Motor City Open, has ever lasted longer in PGA TOUR history. In that instance, Cary Middlecoff and Lloyd Mangrum were declared co-winners by after 11 holes due to darkness. Three other playoffs this season went at least 5 holes: the Rocket Mortgage Classic, Barbasol Championship and BMW Championship. It made for a summer full of sunset-backed drama and Sunday evening flight itinerary changes. 7. Collin Morikawa wins 2nd major in 8th career start Collin Morikawa’s brilliant performance at Royal St George’s was worthy of inclusion in this series of notes on its own. He didn’t miss many greens in regulation (he hit 75% for the week), but when he did, he scrambled efficiently (78%, T-3rd in the field). Morikawa needed less than 28 putts per round for the week, tied for fewest of anyone. There are only three instances since 2000 where a player shot a bogey-free final round of 66 or lower to win a major championship. Rory McIlroy has one of them (2012 PGA at Kiawah Island) – Morikawa has the other two, at the 2020 PGA Championship and 2021 Open. It’s the pace at which Morikawa claimed his first two major wins, though, that puts him in an unprecedented place in men’s golf history. Morikawa has won two major championships in just eight career starts, the fewest of any player since the Masters was first held in 1934. Only two players in the last century won their 2nd professional major in fewer starts: Walter Hagen (6th start, 1919 U.S. Open) and Gene Sarazen (4th start, 1922 PGA). 8. Fourteen consecutive PGA TOUR winners trailed entering the final round Closing out a PGA TOUR victory is difficult any given week. Over the last 15 seasons, players with the 54-hole lead or co-lead have gone on to win the tournament just 34.6% of the time. Players with a 1-shot lead have a win percentage just over 30%. Even a lead as big as 4 strokes isn’t completely safe – more than 22% of those tournaments end up won by a someone trailing through 54 holes. For 14 consecutive PGA TOUR events this summer, closing with the 54-hole lead was impossible. From the Charles Schwab Challenge (won by Jason Kokrak, who entered the final round 1 shot back) through THE NORTHERN TRUST (won by Tony Finau, who entered the day 2 off the lead) not a single PGA TOUR event was won by a player who held the 54-hole lead or co-lead. The run of 14 consecutive comeback wins on the TOUR was the longest such streak in at least the last 30 seasons. The leaders didn’t always simply fall flat on those particular Sundays (or Mondays). Usually, they were just caught by a particularly hot chaser. Excluding the Memorial (Jon Rahm was the 54-hole leader before his WD) and the Barracuda Championship (modified Stableford Scoring), there were 19 players during that run who held the 54-hole lead or co-lead. Their scoring average in those final rounds was 71.4. Those who won in that stretch had a final round scoring average of 66.7. 9. Patrick Cantlay sets Strokes Gained: Putting record at BMW Championship (+14.58) Before taking on Bryson DeChambeau in an epic 6-hole playoff, Patrick Cantlay wrapped up the most impressive putting performance of the ShotLink era at Caves Valley. Cantlay wound up with +14.58 Strokes Gained: Putting for the week, the most by any player in a single tournament since detailed tracking began in 2004. Perhaps even more remarkable is that he set the record despite having negative Strokes Gained: Putting the 3rd round. Cantlay made 21 putts longer than 10 feet, the most ever in a single tournament tracked by ShotLink. No other player that week made more than 16 putts of 10 feet or more. Cantlay finished the season with 15 straight rounds in the 60s, the most to finish a PGA TOUR season since Charles Howell III ended the 2002 campaign with 16 in a row. 10. Jon Rahm has 15 top-10 finishes, 6 more than any other player No player in the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season was more consistently great than Jon Rahm. His victory at the U.S. Open came during a summer flurry that featured almost exclusively high finishes. Since May, Rahm has only 1 result outside the top-10: his withdrawal from the Memorial Tournament when he led by 6 shots after 54 holes. In his last 28 rounds worldwide, Rahm has made birdie-or-better on 30% of his holes played, and shot in the 70s just 6 times. Rahm finished the season leading the PGA TOUR in scoring average, Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, total driving and Strokes Gained: Total. Rahm is just the fourth player since 1980 to have 15 or more top-10 finishes in a season with 22 starts or fewer. The others to do it are Tiger Woods (twice, 1999 and 2000), Tom Watson (1980) and Dustin Johnson (2015-16).

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HOUSTON – Defending champion Carlos Ortiz, fresh off a runner-up finish last week in his native Mexico, has withdrawn from the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open. Ortiz earned his first PGA TOUR victory last year in Houston, making birdie on the final hole to beat Dustin Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama by two shots. Ortiz has been struggling with a shoulder injury, however, that also forced him to withdraw after two rounds of last month’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. “Unfortunately, I’ve been battling a left shoulder injury since Japan and after meeting with my doctors this morning, it was recommended that I take the rest of the season off to recover,” Ortiz said. “This is incredibly disappointing to me as I was looking forward to defending my first PGA TOUR title in Texas, my second home. I’m honored to be a champion of this event and I look forward to returning next year.” His runner-up finish at last week’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba was his best showing since the win. He shot four rounds of 67 or better at Mayakoba to finish alone in second, four shots behind winner Viktor Hovland. Mayakoba is one of the shorter courses on the PGA TOUR, and that allowed Ortiz to stay in contention despite dealing with the injury. “A little sore, it’s still bothering a little bit. Keep grinding,” he said. “(Mayakoba) is a good golf course to kind of bunt it around, that’s what I did today and it worked out perfect.” The renovated Memorial Park, which is in its second year hosting the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open, is nearly 400 yards longer than last week’s venue, though. Playing more than 7,400 yards, it was the second-longest par-70 used on the PGA TOUR last season. Only Winged Foot Golf Club, the venue for the 2020 U.S. Open, was longer. Memorial Park also was the eighth-toughest course used on TOUR last season, in relation to par. Ortiz handled the unique Tom Doak design better than anyone. An injury will keep him from defending that title, however.

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