Masters updates: Round 3 at Augusta National

Q: You have been wearing apparel from Levelwear for the last couple of years on the PGA TOUR. How did you get connected with the brand? A: I got connected with Levelwear in early 2017. I was without an apparel partner at the time. The very first day I wore their stuff in a tournament I went out and shot a 59. Needless to say, we got off on the right foot. Q: How does Levelwear fit your personal style on the course? A: Without sacrificing comfort, Levelwear provides me with understated style that truly represents what I look for in performance golf apparel. I love the fit and cut of both their tops and bottoms, and can’t say enough about the endless variety of colors offered in their shirts. Q: How does the technology built into Levelwear’s apparel help you to perform your best on the course? A: Golf is a sport where comfort is one of the keys to performance and ultimately, success. I can’t speak intelligently to the details of the technology behind Levelwear’s apparel, but I do know that their product feels great and provides me with unparalleled comfort. Q: Being a Canadian, how important is it for you to be affiliated with a Canadian sportswear brand like Levelwear? A: When evaluating new partnerships, I always look at synergies between myself and a given company. Connecting the dots as to why the partnership makes sense.  Being a proud Canadian is part of my identity, part of my personal brand so to speak. So the opportunity to team up with a Canadian company like Levelwear gives the partnership an authentic feel, and I think makes the endorsement far more credible. But most importantly, I find that aligning with Canadian brands just feels right. Q: What are your favorite pieces in Levelwear’s collection? A: Without question, my favourite piece in the Levelwear collection is a shirt called The Sway. It’s a lightweight heathered yarn die fabric with moisture wicking properties, and it comes in a wide variety of colours. Q: What style tips do you have for amateur golfers? A: Replace your khakis with grey pants. Don’t sacrifice comfort, and less is more, so try to keep it simple.

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HUMBLE, Texas — Rickie Fowler doesn’t need a win in Texas to book his place in the Masters field. But that doesn’t make this week is any less important for the four-time TOUR winner, who arrived in search of positive vibes in the final tune-up before the year’s first major championship. After one round, Fowler believes his game is trending in the right direction after he opened with 66 on Thursday to move into contention. “Had a couple short ones that we could have got, but all in all, good solid day,” Fowler said. “I like where we’re heading into the next few days and going into the weekend.” Fowler began his round with three birdies in the first seven holes and added two more after the turn before suffering his first bogey on the par-4 6th — his 15th hole of the day — when his fairway bunker shot hit the bank and rolled into the water. Fowler managed to get up-and-down for bogey to limit the damage and then reeled off back-to-back birdies to close out his round on a high note. “Being in contention and getting yourself in position to win and kind of get the blood flowing, it makes it a lot easier to start things up,” Fowler said of playing well in Houston the week before the Masters. The putter was the difference for Fowler, who made 168 feet, 11 inches worth of putts — 51 feet, 7 inches more than his previous-best figure in the category this season — and only recorded one birdie putt shorter than 10 feet. Ranked 127th this season in strokes gained: putting, Fowler admitted the club has cooled since last season when he finished second in the statistical category. That wasn’t the case on Thursday. “Nice to have the putter coming around because it was something that was great last year,” he said. “I feel like it’s always been one of my strongest parts when it gets going, and I’ve had a couple cold months, so heating back up.” OBSERVATIONS Hoping to book his place in the Masters field, Steve Stricker opened with 67 and sits just two shots back of the lead after Round 1. While his wins came on the PGA TOUR Champions, it could be debated that no one in the field is playing at a higher level than Stricker, who won last week in Mississippi for his second straight victory on the 50-and-older circuit. Phil Mickelson has come agonizingly close to shooting 59. For nine holes on Thursday, it appeared the 43-time TOUR winner was well on his way to potentially getting another shot. Six birdies on the front saw Mickelson go out in 30, but the round hit a snag on the par-3 14th when he failed to advance his ball out of the greenside bunker, leading to a double bogey. Mickelson still shot 68. A two-hour rain delay to begin the first round ensured a return to the course on Friday for 33 players in the field. The Golf Club of Houston received 2.30 inches of rain. Round 1 will resume at 7:20 a.m. (local time) with Round 2 expected to begin as scheduled. Making his first start in Houston, Kevin Tway managed to log just one practice round before his pro-am was canceled on Wednesday due to inclement weather. A lack of course knowledge wasn’t an issue for Tway, who shot a bogey-free 65 to grab a share of the clubhouse lead with Lucas Glover. “I was kind of going at it a little less prepared than usual, but sometimes that’s good and today it was,” said Tway. Receptive greens and preferred lies in closely-mown areas turned the day into a birdie-fest for many in the field, with 39 players shooting 68 or better. Normally the first round is an opportunity to get into position for the weekend, but with low scores up for grabs, some felt the need to be even more aggressive than normal. “I was going right at it trying to hole a couple, especially with the wedges. You’ve got to try and make birdie with those conditions,” said Tway. One week after he came close to advancing out of the group stage at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, Julian Suri was Monday qualifying for the Houston Open. The 72nd-ranked player in the world shot 64 to make the field and then opened with 66 in just his fourth TOUR start this season. NOTABLES Jordan Spieth – The 2015 FedExCup champion opened with 68, his lowest first-round score at the Houston Open. Spieth waited until the end of the round to produce some fireworks, rolling in three consecutive birdies from inside 8 feet to move into contention. Henrik Stenson – The 2013 FedExCup champion never got the putter going but still managed to shoot 4-under 68. The Swede only missed two greens in regulation. Justin Rose – Rose hasn’t skipped a beat this season with four top 10s in his first five starts. His run of good form continued with an opening-round 68 that could have been even better if not for a bogey on the last. Six of his last 10 rounds have been sub-70. Tony Finau – Making his fourth appearance at the Houston Open, Finau hit 15 greens in regulation but needed 31 putts to get around the course in 2-under 70. Russell Henley – The defending champion made four birdies in his first six holes but only made one the rest of the way. He’s now opened with a sub-70 round three of the last four years. Matt Kuchar – Kuchar made his move on the back nine with four birdies in a five-hole stretch, beginning on the 12th, to shoot 68. He’s attempting to make the cut for the fifth time in 10 starts at the Houston Open. QUOTABLES I enjoyed the texts early on for extra sleep. Sleep’s always good for me. SUPERLATIVES Low round: Lucas Glover and Kevin Tway opened with 65s to grab a share of the clubhouse lead. The score was the lowest of the year for both players. Sam Ryder (8 under) and Beau Hossler (7 under) were still on the course when play was called due to darkness. Longest drive: 381 yards – Chesson Hadley padded his driving stats for the season with a poke that caught the cart path on the par-4 17th and wound up 86 yards from the hole. Hadley took advantage of his good fortune by making birdie. Longest putt: 53 feet, one inch – Matt Jones drained the lengthy birdie putt on the par-3 9th hole. Easiest hole: Par-5, No. 8 (4.450) with 68 birdies, 52 pars and 5 bogeys. Hardest hole: Par-4, No. 18 (4.147) with 14 birdies, 85 pars, 28 bogeys, 1 double bogey and 1 other. SHOT OF THE DAY

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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Byeong Hun An shot a 5-under 65 on Friday in the Wyndham Championship to take a one-stroke lead into the weekend. An was at 13-under 127 halfway through the PGA TOUR’s final event before the FedExCup Playoffs. Brice Garnett was a stroke back after a 64, and six players — including 2011 Wyndham winner Webb Simpson and first-round co-leader Sungjae Im — were at 9 under. Adam Svensson also was in that group after shooting the best round of the day — a 61 — and threatening to become the first player on TOUR this year to break 60. An, who shared the first-round lead with Im at 8 under, made his move up the leaderboard with three straight birdies late in his round. Finishing on the back nine, the 27-year-old South Korean who’s winless on TOUR had birdies on Nos. 3-5 and closed his second consecutive bogey-free round with four straight pars. “I came close last couple years and, you know, maybe this week might do it,” An said about that long-awaited first victory. “But still have two more days and there are a lot of players behind me. … Just do what I’ve been doing the last couple days and just hit a lot of fairways and greens and make some putts. If someone plays better than me, then he deserves to win it, but as long as I keep these bogey-free rounds going.” For a while, the story of the day was whether Svensson would become the 11th player in PGA TOUR history to break 60 — and the first since Brandt Snedeker opened this tournament last year by shooting a 59 on his way to a victory. Svensson birdied seven holes on the front nine and added two more on Nos. 12-13 to move to 9 under for the day. “I was kind of like, all right, I’m 9 under par (after No. 13) and there’s still four or five holes and a par 5,” Svensson said. “I was actually pretty calm. I thought I would be a little more nervous than I was.” His best chance to go even lower came on No. 15 but he missed a 7-foot birdie putt. Still, the 25-year-old Canadian who is winless on TOUR, had his second 61 this year. He also had one in the first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii. He started at No. 171 on the FedExCup points list but put himself in position to crack the top 125 and earn a spot in the field at the Playoff opener, THE NORTHERN TRUST, next week in New Jersey. That chase for playoff berths is a key subplot every year at Sedgefield, home of the bubble players’ last chance to make the postseason field and earn their TOUR cards for 2020, if they don’t already have them. Everyone from No. 103 to No. 137 is here, and in the Wyndham’s dozen years as the final pre-Playoff event, an average of 2.7 players have played their way into the postseason. Garnett, who at No. 121 is the very definition of a bubble player, put himself in good shape by opening the tournament with consecutive 64s, closing the second one with birdies on three of his final five holes. The pack of seven players two strokes back included two others on the Playoff bubble: Patton Kizzire, a two-time winner last year who is at No. 129 on the points list, shot a 64 that included consecutive eagles on Nos. 5 and 6. And Josh Teater, at No. 165, kept himself in contention with a 65 highlighted by five birdies — and a bogey — in a seven-hole stretch. The other storyline is the top players’ pursuit of spots in the top 10 and the Wyndham Rewards bonus money that accompanies those finishes. Nine players started this tournament with a shot at some of that cash, and at the midpoint, two of them — Simpson and Paul Casey — are in position to claim it. “I’ve got a really good plan for this golf course, a really good strategy, and … as long as we don’t get too much crazy weather coming in, going to try to execute that plan as I did the last two days,” Casey said. “Hopefully, get the speed of the putts a little bit better and make a few more birdies, and then try and figure out what everybody else is doing and attack on the last nine if I need to and try and win this thing.”

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