Monday qualifiers: Rocket Mortgage Classic

LIST WINS AT TORREY PINES FOR FIRST TOUR EVENT Luke List waited nearly two hours after completing his final-round 66 at the Farmers Insurance Open to learn whether his 15-under total at Torrey Pines would be enough for a playoff. The wait was miniscule compared to a decade of waiting for his first PGA TOUR victory. The Vanderbilt alum earned his first PGA TOUR card via the 2012 Korn Ferry Tour, and he made 205 TOUR starts prior to this week’s annual stop in San Diego – recording four top-threes and 22 top-10s, but without raising a trophy. That all changed on a picturesque Saturday evening in San Diego, as List entered a playoff with rising star Will Zalatoris after the latter’s 8-foot birdie try on the 72nd hole broke 2 inches left of the cup. List dialed a wedge to kick-in range on the first playoff hole, the par-5 18th at Torrey Pines (South), and after Zalatoris’ 15-foot birdie effort failed to drop, the 37-year-old was set to greet his wife and two children greenside with the emotional words, “Daddy won the trophy.” With the victory, List accrues 500 FedExCup points and moves to No. 4 in the season-long standings, forever armed with the knowledge that his best is enough to earn the distinction of “PGA TOUR winner.” BOUND FOR PEBBLE BEACH A short trip up the California coast for the PGA TOUR takes a top field to the Monterey Peninsula for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Reigning FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay leads the notables and is right at home at the iconic course, having finished T3-T11 in his last two starts. Daniel Berger returns to defend, joined by 2017 winner Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, 2015 winner Brandt Snedeker and Jason Day. Day could become only the fifth non-American to ever win at Pebble Beach, and form is in his favor after a T3 finish at Torrey Pines. A three-course rotation returns after using only two layouts in 2021. Players will take on Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course and Monterey Peninsula Country Club before the closing round at Pebble Beach on Sunday. Celebs return for the fun as well with Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, two-time World Series winner Mookie Betts, country musicians Jake Owen and Darius Rucker, soccer superstar Mia Hamm and, of course, Bill Murray all set to tee it up. VIDEO OF THE WEEK MIC CHECK “She told me for a long time, ‘Daddy, I want a trophy,’ and I got her a trophy.” – Luke List holding his young daughter Ryann after winning the Farmers Insurance Open BY THE NUMBERS 1 – First-ever APGA Tour Farmers Insurance Invitational concluded on Sunday. It was broadcast on Golf Channel with Damon Hack as the lead analyst. Farmers announced last week a five-year extension with the APGA Tour and sponsorships with Kamaiu Johnson and Willie Mack III. 45.625 – Will Zalatoris has started the new year playing with a driver shaft length of 45.625 inches, resulting in added distance off the tee. The change has paid dividends already with a T6 finish at PGA West and a runner-up at Torrey Pines. 179 – Brandon Harkins won his first Korn Ferry Tour event at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club. It was his 179th start in a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event. COMCAST BUSINESS TOUR TOP 10

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AUGUSTA, Ga. – News and notes from Tuesday at the Masters. We’ll update this file throughout the day, so check back often. SOUND SLEEP FOR REED A year ago on a Saturday, Patrick Reed slept like a baby. He had just shot three rounds in the 60s at Augusta National, held a three-shot lead going into Sunday, and was on the verge of his first major. So yeah, nothing much to dwell on, right? “I thought I wasn’t going to sleep very well,â€� Reed recalled. “I’ve heard from the past from other champions and other golfers that have always told me that whenever you have an opportunity to sleep on a lead going into Sunday at a major, you’re going to have a rough night. … “Honestly, I was completely surprised. I slept so well.â€� Reed shot 71 in that final round to win by a stroke. He’d like nothing more than to hold onto the Green Jacket for another year. While his results are not encouraging – no top-10s in his last nine PGA TOUR starts – he likes where his game is right now. Plus, he knows what it takes to succeed at Augusta National. “Even if you have a perfect game plan, and you know what you’re trying to do around the golf course, you still always are wondering, OK, well is this the right game plan or am I doing the right things, since you haven’t won here. But now, actually having the win, I know what I need to do in order to compete and have a chance on Sunday. “Knowing that I have to get the jacket back at the end of the week, it makes me more hungry and more motivated to keep the jacket.â€� – Mike McAllister ONCE A CADDIE, NOW A CONTENDER  The first time Francesco Molinari walked Augusta National in a competitive environment was in 2006. He was the caddie for his brother Edoardo, who qualified for the Masters by virtue of his U.S. Amateur win the previous year. “I carried the clubs and prayed that he was going to hit good shots,â€� Francesco recalled. “… It was great to be here. It wasn’t fun trying to pick club for him. It’s a tough course to caddie around.â€� It took four more years before Francesco, the younger of the two Molinari brothers, qualified to play the Masters. He’s made seven previous starts but has never made much noise on the weekend. Of course, he’s never arrived at Augusta National with the kind of credentials he currently owns, as the reigning Open Championship winner and Europe’s leading point producer at the Ryder Cup. With a PGA TOUR win this season (the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard), and a solid effort in his most recent start (semifinalist at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play), Molinari enters with a raised level of confidence. “Clearly, I’m in a much different position to where I was coming in the last few years,â€� he said. “… I can’t deny that. I feel good about my game. … Confidence comes with success, and I’ve had a lot of success in the last few months. I think that the important thing is that I don’t have to let my guard down.â€� – Mike McAllister KOEPKA HAPPY TO BE BACK AT AUGUSTA Brooks Koepka didn’t own a major title the last time he played Augusta National. He finished T11 at the Masters two years ago, but missed last year’s tournament because of the wrist injury that hampered him in early 2018. How has he changed in the two years since his last Masters appearance? “I’ve never been a major champion when I played here,â€� Koepka said. “Completely different player probably. Understand how to handle pressure a lot better. Understand this golf course a lot better.â€� Koepka was still in a soft cast at this time year. It was painful just to get shampoo out of the bottle, he said. He watched last year’s Masters on television, then went on to win two of 2018’s final three majors. “I think that was something I needed, to really kind of find my love for the game again, something that was important to me, to sit down and watch, I think, and really realize how much I do miss this game, assess kind of where I was at,â€� Koepka said. He’s happy to be back at Augusta National, but he also isn’t 100 percent. It has nothing to do with the wrist. That is fully healed. The famously fit golfer has refrained from lifting weights since THE PLAYERS Championship while dealing with fatigue. A recent diet may have been one reason he’s been feeling sluggish. Koepka limited himself to 1,800 calories per day in an attempt to lose weight. “You look at somebody like Michael Phelps or somebody like that eating 6,000 or 7,000 calories by lunch time,â€� Koepka said. “But I wanted to do it and try to lose some weight, and maybe went about it a little too aggressively for just a long period of time and the intensity of what I was doing.â€� Koepka has finished MC-T56-T56 in his last three starts. He still ranks 11th in the FedExCup after winning THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES in October and finishing runner-up in The Honda Classic last month.

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Five PGA TOUR-sanctioned events will award spots in next year’s 150th Open at St. Andrews, the R&A announced Wednesday. The Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, John Deere Classic, RBC Canadian Open, Genesis Scottish Open and Barbasol Championship are all part of the 2022 Open Qualifying Series schedule. The Arnold Palmer Invitational, John Deere Classic and Genesis Scottish Open will each offer three qualifying places. Two berths in The Open will be available at the RBC Canadian Open, which will be played for the first time since 2019, and the Barbasol Championship will offer the final spot into the field at St. Andrews. The Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard will be played March 3-6 at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida. The RBC Canadian Open is scheduled for June 9-12 at Toronto’s St. George’s Golf & Country Club. The Deere will be played June 30-July 3, two weeks prior to The Open, at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois. The Barbasol Championship and Genesis Scottish Open will be played concurrently in the week before the year’s final major. Both events are co-sanctioned by the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour, meaning they will count toward both tours’ season-long points races, the FedExCup and Race to Dubai. The Barbasol Championship will be played at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, while The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, will host the Genesis Scottish Open. The DP World Tour’s Irish Open and Dutch Open will both award three spots into The Open. The 2022 Open Qualifying Series is comprised of 16 events in 11 countries. Three players have already booked their places through the Joburg Open, the first event in the Series, which was played in South Africa last month. The SMBC Singapore Open will be the next chance for golfers to qualify for the milestone championship at the Home of Golf when it is played at Sentosa from Jan. 20-23. A minimum of 46 places in The Open are available through the Series, which provides golfers with opportunities to qualify at events around the world on the PGA TOUR, DP World Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, Asian Tour, Korean Tour, Japan Golf Tour and Sunshine Tour. For the first time, the New Zealand Open on the PGA Tour of Australasia will feature as part of the Series when it is played at Millbrook in Queenstown from March 31-April 3. Three qualifying places will be offered at New Zealand’s national championship. Four places will be on offer at the Mizuno Open in Japan and two places at the KOLON Korea Open. Regional Qualifying events will take place at venues throughout Great Britain and Ireland on June 20. A minimum of 12 places will then be available at Final Qualifying events taking place at Fairmont St. Andrews, Hollinwell, Prince’s and St. Annes Old Links on June 28. The R&A has also published the list of exemptions that will be used to confirm the field for The 150th Open at St Andrews. Please visit TheOpen.com for more information.

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