PGA Championship winner Phil Mickelson will not be around for the weekend at The Open after missing the cut at Royal St. George’s.
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Justin Rose began his professional golf career by missing 21 consecutive cuts on the PGA European Tour. Now he’s the top player in the game.
LA QUINTA, Calif. — Maverick McNealy and course management coach Scott Fawcett have a system in place where the recent Stanford University graduate grades his thought process and pre-routine over the course of a round using either a one or zero. If McNealy is consistent and focused, with no distractions before or after the shot, he gives himself a one. A zero is given when he misses the mark. The system sounds simple, but it’s a way to keep McNealy engaged over the course of a round. On Friday, McNealy logged his best score on the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West. “I gave myself one zero, and that was on 6th hole where I should’ve stepped off from a wedge [shot],” McNealy said. “I know these rounds are really important and I really want to play well, but I’m just really trying to make a one.” It shouldn’t come as a surprise that McNealy’s near-spotless course management score coincided with a second straight sub-70 round at the CareerBuilder Challenge. McNealy’s 68 has him within six shots of the lead at 10 under and, more importantly, another step closer to making his second TOUR cut since turning professional last October at the Safeway Open. With playing privileges locked up for the first 12 Web.com Tour events of the season — via a T-10 at the final stage of Web.com Tour Qualifying — McNealy has set his sights on making the most of his three remaining sponsor’s exemptions on the PGA TOUR at the CareerBuilder Challenge, Farmers Insurance Open and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. (He’ll also try to Monday qualify for the Waste Management Phoenix Open.) In a perfect world, McNealy would earn enough FedExCup points to bypass playing the Web.com Tour altogether. It’s something he admitted is in the back of his mind this week. But instead of dwelling on the what-ifs, McNealy is using it as motivation to stay committed to each shot. “I know it’s really important,” McNealy said of the next three tournaments, “but then again, knowing that gives that much more focus on each individual shot to make every single one of them count.” McNealy looked comfortable on the Nicklaus Tournament Course, opening with four birdies in his first seven holes while playing alongside 18-year-old phenom Charlie Reiter, who also earned a sponsor’s exemption into the tournament. The last nine holes produced a few mistakes, including a tee shot on the par-3 8th that found the water hazard, but McNealy kept the mistakes to a minimum, getting up-and-down from the drop area to save bogey. McNealy noted his comfort level with the course came from playing a college tournament on Nicklaus during his time at Stanford. He went on to win the event and used nine birdies during the final round to close with an 8-under 64 for medalist honors. “Really good comfort level out here,” said McNealy. “It’s playing pretty similar to how it did during the tournament in college. Honestly, I’d say we saw two-thirds of today’s pin positions during that tournament, so it was good prep.” McNealy attributed his strong play this week to a rigorous practice regiment he put in place during the offseason that saw him put on 5-6 pounds of lean muscle through a daily routine consisting of 36 holes and a trip to the gym. “I told [my caddie Travis McAlister] the next time I saw him, I was going to have better balance and rhythm with my swing, which came about from that strength,” McNealy said. “I told him I was going to work really hard and have a better short game and wedge play.” McNealy also worked on various aspects of his game — iron trajectory and pace putting — and said he was already seeing it pay dividends on the course. “It all started to click during the final stage of Q School and I’ve started to see everything pay off,” McNealy said. “I’m really happy it’s carried through this week.”
The PGA TOUR is once again giving fans the opportunity to immerse themselves in the coverage of one of its premiere tournaments. Three holes of this week’s Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide will be broadcast in virtual and augmented reality. PGA TOUR fans can watch coverage of Muirfield Village’s par-4 14th and par-3 16th holes in virtual reality. The iconic par-3 12th will be available to watch in augmented reality on the PGA TOUR’s new AR app, PGA TOUR AR. The virtual reality coverage of Nos. 14 and 16 will be available on five different platforms: • The PGA TOUR’s Twitter account, @PGATOUR • Periscope broadcast via @PGATOUR • The PGA TOUR mobile app • Google Daydream via PGA TOUR VR Live app • Samsung Gear VR via PGA TOUR VR Live app This will be the third time this year that fans can experience this groundbreaking way to watch the action. Two of the TOUR’s most famous par-3s, the 16th hole at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and 17th at THE PLAYERS Championship, also were broadcast in virtual reality, as was TPC Sawgrass’ drivable par-4 12th hole. The Memorial Tournament will be the third time the TOUR’s virtual reality content also can be watched using a cardboard headset, allowing even more fans to enjoy this cutting-edge technology. The VR broadcast also can be watched on Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR or Google Daydream. While the competition will be broadcast with 180 degrees of viewing angles, the TOUR also will show brand elements in the full 360 degrees. This week’s brand elements will come from Nationwide, the Memorial’s presenting sponsor. The VR content will be captured by three different cameras on each of the aforementioned holes, broadcasting the action from the tee, the fairway and the green. The audio and picture-in-picture broadcast will come from PGA TOUR LIVE, giving fans a totally different angle on the competition. The PGA TOUR’s AR hole coverage debuted at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. The launch of the PGA TOUR AR app marked the first time live sports data was integrated into ARKit, Apple’s exclusive AR platform. It allows users of the PGA TOUR AR app to see physical characteristics of the golf course that were previously unseen on the broadcast. Augmented reality will allow fans to get a view that was once available only to fans on site. The TOUR is planning to add more holes from other tournaments throughout the year, but it has confirmed that East Lake Golf Club’s par-5 finishing hole will be showcased in AR at the TOUR Championship. The PGA TOUR LIVE broadcast of the Memorial Tournament, as well as the virtual and augmented reality features, will allow fans to engage with the broadcast from Muirfield Village in exciting new ways. It’s just like being there. HOW TO WATCH – VIRTUAL REALITY  Step-by-step on the PGA TOUR mobile App 1. Download the PGA TOUR app from the App Store or the Google Play Store. 2. Open the app and follow the prompts for camera/location/etc. 3. Click the hamburger menu in the top right. 4. Select either Leaderboard (if live) or Video (if not live). 5. If Leaderboard is selected, a red banner will appear with a VR icon on the right. Tap on the VR icon, then tap a video to watch. Choose Cardboard or Panoramic. If Cardboard, load phone into Cardboard device and use the Gaze Controls by focusing the cursor/dot on the desired menu object. If Panoramic, pan phone or swipe left/right to see content. 6. If Video is selected, a VR tab will appear at the top of the screen. Click Live VR (if live – notated by red color) or click On Demand VR (notated by blue color). Tap on a video to watch. If Cardboard, load phone into Cardboard device and use the Gaze Controls by focusing the cursor/dot on the desired menu object. If Panoramic, pan phone or swipe left/right to see content. HOW TO GET THE APP – AUGMENTED REALITY Step-by-step on how to download the PGA TOUR App 1. Open the App Store on your iPhone or iPad by tapping on the App Store icon 2. Type “PGA TOUR AR” into the search bar and tap on the blue “Search” button in the keyboard. 3. When the PGA TOUR AR app appears in the search results, tap on the “GET” button 4. Once the app has finished downloading, tap the app icon to launch the app 5. When the app opens, a series of screens and dialog boxes will appear. When the dialog boxes pop up, tap “OK” to allow the PGA TOUR AR app to access your camera and location HOW TO USE THE APP – AUGMENTED REALITY 1. After allowing the PGA TOUR AR app to access your camera and location, a screen that explains how to interact with the hole models will appear. Tap on the blue “CONTINUE” button at the bottom of the screen. 2. Find a flat, horizontal surface to view the hole models in the app. 3. When the blue box appears, tap the screen to lock the blue box in place on the horizontal surface. The hole models will appear in the area marked by the blue box. To choose a new area for the hole models, tap the white circular arrow in the top right corner to restart the surface detection process. 4. A hole model selection slider menu will appear. To view the available holes, swipe your finger left or right. When you find a hole model you want to view, tap the white arrow on the hole model. 5. Once the hole model has finished downloading, it will appear in full color. Tap the hole to place it on the horizontal surface. 6. When the hole model loads, tap the arrow on the “SELECTED PLAYERS” navigation on the bottom left side of the screen. Tap the name of the players you want to view. Their shot trails will appear on the hole model. To turn off a player’s shot trails, tap on the player in the “SELECTED PLAYERS” area of the screen. The model will default to Round 1 but another round may be selected by tapping on the round number. 7. To view a different hole model, simply tap on “Hole Selector” in the top left corner of the screen and choose a new hole model to view. Some holes have unique changes in elevation and the hole models allow you to see them more clearly. 8. If an app rating dialog box pops up, feel free to give it 5 stars.
