Matsuyama WDs after testing positive for COVID

Already a multiple PGA TOUR winner, Ryder Cupper and U.S. Amateur champion, Viktor Hovland is undoubtedly one of the most exciting young players in the game today. When Hovland won last year’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, he became just the fifth European player since World War II to win multiple times on the PGA TOUR before the age of 24. The other four – Seve Ballesteros, Sergio Garcia, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm – have all gone on to win major championships, and three of the four reached No. 1 in the world. Hovland, who has qualified for the TOUR Championship in each of his first two seasons, has a tremendous opportunity to become Norway’s first male major champion. RELATED: Twenty First Group The former Oklahoma State star has not only flashed explosive ability, but has shown the tee-to-green consistency of a TOUR veteran in his 56 career starts on the circuit. Unwavering Elite Ball Striking Since the beginning of the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season, there are 208 players with at least 50 rounds measured by ShotLink. Hovland is one of just 17 players in that group – 8.2% of the overall collection – to average at least 1 full stroke gained tee-to-green per round. Players on the PGA TOUR gain 2 or more strokes on the field tee-to-green in about 19% of rounds played. Hovland has done this a whopping 33.8% of the time over the last 3 seasons, the 13th-highest rate of any player. But Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green incorporates short game shots, like chips and blasts from greenside bunkers. When you isolate just performance off the tee and on approach, his numbers are even more impressive. Hovland has averaged 1.22 Strokes Gained: Ball-Striking (off-the-tee plus approach) per round over the last three seasons. In that span, only three players have averaged more: Collin Morikawa (+1.39), Jon Rahm (+1.30) and Justin Thomas (+1.25). In 75% of his rounds played during that span, Hovland had a positive number in the Strokes Gained: Ball-Striking category. Only six other players can make that claim among that group (with 50 or more rounds in that span). Hovland averages 0.64 Strokes Gained: Approach per round since the beginning of the 2019-20 season, tied for seventh-most of any player. He has registered a positive strokes gained number on his approach shots in 70.6% of his rounds in that span, the fifth-highest rate on TOUR. In each of the last two PGA TOUR seasons, Hovland ranked in the top 20 in both Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and Strokes Gained: Approach. Only one other player was able to do that: Corey Conners. Improved Short Game While it still isn’t quite a strength of his game, Hovland has made notable strides in his short game since turning professional. Hovland jumped 44 spots in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green last season, from 168th to 124th. When scrambling from the rough, Hovland got up-and-down just 51.9% of the time in 2019-20. Last season, that number climbed to 61.0%, an improvement worth more than 120 spots in the standings. Hovland has also cut down on the frequency of costly performances around the green. In 2019-20, he had 12 rounds where he lost at least 1 stroke to the field around the green. That number was cut to eight last season. Birdies in Bunches Last season, Hovland skyrocketed from 40th to sixth in birdie average. Since the 2019-20 season began, Hovland has recorded six birdies-or-better in a round 43 times, tied for 10th-most of any player during that stretch. Since the start of last season, Hovland has put a circle on his card six-plus times in about 28% of his rounds played. The average PGA TOUR player does that in about 16% of his rounds. Hovland made a career-best nine birdies in the third round at El Camaleon Golf Club last year on his way to victory. This ability has been no more evident than in Hovland’s two victories, both of which came with a winning score of 20 under par. Hovland is one of just five players to have multiple PGA TOUR victories at -20 or lower since the beginning of the 2019-20 season, along with Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay, Kevin Na and Brendon Todd. With the average winning score right around 20 under at El Camaleon over the last decade, Hovland will need another prolific scoring week to become the first two-time winner of this event.

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POTOMAC, Md. — Tiger Woods ran off four straight birdies and finished the front nine with seven consecutive one-putt greens. Unlike Francesco Molinari and Abraham Ancer, he couldn’t keep it going Saturday in the Quicken Loans National. Ancer and Molinari each handled the scorching heat on the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm and shared the lead going into the final round. Ancer birdied two of his last three holes for the lowest score of his career, an 8-under 62, giving the 27-year-old Mexican his best shot at a first PGA TOUR victory. Ancer has never been in the top 10 going into the final round in 22 previous starts. Molinari also is going for his first official PGA TOUR victory, though that comes with an asterisk. He won a World Golf Championship in Shanghai in 2010, though the PGA TOUR did not recognize the HSBC Champions as an official win until a year later. They were at 13-under 197, two shots clear of Ryan Armour (68) and Zac Blair (66). Woods was six shots behind, the seventh straight tournament he has been at least five shots behind going into the final round. It sure didn’t sound that way, and for most of the round, it didn’t look that way. With his fifth birdie of the front nine, Woods was one shot out of the lead. And then he opened the back nine with a pair of birdie chances just inside 10 feet and missed the both. He never really regained his momentum, finished with another bogey and shot 68. Considering the scoring average was 69.6 in the third round, he wound up losing two shots to the lead. “It was frustrating because I played better than what my score indicates,” Woods said. “I thought that 10 under would have been a good score for me to end up at for the day, and I could have easily gotten that today on the back nine.” He didn’t, and now has more ground to make up. The nine players ahead of him have combined for just five (official) PGA TOUR victories. Molinaro has five European Tour victories, has played on two Ryder Cup teams and is No. 17 in the world. The Italian is playing at the National and plans to be at the John Deere Classic in two weeks, even though the European Tour is in the meat of its summer schedule with national opens in France, Ireland and Scotland leading up to the British Open. Molinari is currently among qualifiers for the Ryder Cup team, but his FedExCup standing is at No. 123. He’s making the most of his first trip to the TPC Potomac. Even though he missed a few short putts on the front nine, he closed with a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th and hit wedge into 5 feet for birdie at the 18th. “It’s where I want to be,” Molinari said, referring more to his position on the leaderboard than in heat approaching 100 degrees. “I would have been happy with even 11 or 12 under. The main thing today was to stay close to the leader, so I’ve done a very good job of that. Tomorrow I just need to go out and do my best, hit as many good shots as possible and see if that would be enough.” Ancer was tied for the lead after the opening round at the Memorial, which is the only other time he has been atop the leaderboard after any round on the PGA TOUR. Conditions have been changing since the opening round with so much sun, no rain and fairways that are getting faster. That was more bothersome to Ancer than the heat. “I grew up in Mexico, in the north part of Mexico where it’s very hot,” he said. “Didn’t bother me. I would rather play in this than cold weather.” The course certainly has everyone’s attention. Woods found that out the hard way with three shots from the rough that sailed some 30 yards over the green, leading to bogeys. “You have to hit it good. There’s no way around it,” Ancer said. Armour shared the 36-hole lead with Beau Hossler and Brian Gay, who both failed to break par. Hossler shot a 71 and was five shots behind, while Gay had a 72. Rickie Fowler, the only player from the top 10 in the world at the TPC Potomac, had a 69 and was eight shots behind.

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Since TPC Sawgrass, the first Tournament Players Club, opened in 1980, the PGA TOUR’s TPC Network of private and destination golf clubs has maintained a reputation for developing and operating outstanding PGA TOUR golf properties across the country (www.tpc.com). With TPC Sawgrass, Home of THE PLAYERS Championship, as the flagship, each subsequent TPC Network club has been created with spectator golf in mind. Many TPCs are currently the host courses for PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada, and Web.com Tour events. In fact, TPC Network clubs have hosted more than 400 professional golf tournaments. The PGA TOUR continues to distinguish itself as a leader in delivering memorable experiences for TOUR players, members, guests and tournament fans through its TPC Network of clubs. Through the world of golf, the PGA TOUR and the TPC Network drives positive impact at unprecedented levels to support and improve local communities. Together, $1.6 million has been raised for military men and women and their families through charitable events held at TPCs as part of the TOUR’s Birdies for the Brave military outreach initiative. The TOUR also helped to make a difference in communities nationwide for non-profit organizations through the Adopt-A-Charity program conducted at TPCs. Every club in the TPC Network embraces the PGA TOUR’s mission of making an impact in the communities in which we play and have clubs. These include:  Birdies for the Brave A joint effort by PGA TOUR, Inc., PGA TOUR Charities, Inc., and the TPC Network, Birdies for the Brave is a national military outreach initiative dedicated to honoring and showing appreciation to the courageous men and women of our United States Armed Forces and their families. Birdies for the Brave was created in 2004 by PGA TOUR player Phil Mickelson and his wife, Amy, in collaboration with Glenn Cohen, to raise funds for combat-wounded veterans. Thanks to their vision and the passionate support of PGA TOUR players, tournament fans, volunteers, TPC club members and corporate sponsors, Birdies for the Brave has grown exponentially across the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions and Web.com Tour. Today, the program encompasses a broad spectrum of military outreach and appreciation activities conducted during PGA TOUR tournaments, as well as a series of fundraising events hosted at the TOUR’s TPC clubs and partner courses across the nation – an effort that has raised much-needed funds for military homefront charities that are supported by PGA TOUR players, which provide direct services for military members, veterans, and their families ranging from financial aid and rehabilitation programs to housing, counseling and educational scholarships and career development and recruitment. To learn more about the many ways the PGA TOUR supports the U.S. military and their families, please visit www.birdiesforthebrave.org or www.facebook.com/birdiesforthebrave. Make-A-Wish As part of the PGA TOUR’s national relationship with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, TPCs help create unique VIP experiences for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families during PGA TOUR tournaments. Make-A-Wish families are treated to inside-the-ropes opportunities such as meet and greets with TOUR players, behind-the-scenes tours of clubhouses and tournament-operations facilities. In some cases, the opportunity also arises for someone to play a round of golf with or hit balls on the practice facility with a TOUR player. Adopt-A-Charity The PGA TOUR’s Adopt-A-Charity program is a grass-roots vehicle for local fundraising. Under the program, each TPC club becomes aligned with a local non-profit organization and conducts an annual charity golf tournament for its benefit. Since the program’s inception, TPCs have helped local charities raise more than $3.3 million for programs ranging from children’s hospitals and educational programs to food banks and health-related causes. The First Tee The First Tee (www.thefirsttee.org) is a national, youth-development organization that uses golf to teach character development through its Nine Core Values. As part of the PGA TOUR’s national partnership with The First Tee, TPCs regularly support local chapters of The First Tee by hosting fundraising events, donating auction items and, where possible, serving as a venue for local programs. The practice facility at TPC River Highlands (Cromwell, Conn.), for example, serves as home to The First Tee of Connecticut, while the club features a dedicated First Tee nine-hole course adjacent to the practice facility. Please follow the TPC Network on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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