No. 2: Jordan Spieth

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Cameron Champ knows the lessons learned from failure bring more than those from success. But it took him some time to realize it. Fair enough, too – failure in golf had never really been part of the Champ narrative as he blazed his trail through junior and amateur golf and hit the professional scene with similar gusto. But it is the lessons learned the last 12 months – where Champ had his first real sense of on-course adversity – that have given the now 24-year-old extreme confidence heading into 2020. Related: Power Rankings | Tee times | Storylines, course preview for Kapalua A year ago, Champ came to the Plantation Course at Kapalua for his first Sentry Tournament of Champions as the next big thing in golf. In the 12 months prior, he had won in his debut Korn Ferry Tour season to help earn his way to the PGA TOUR and then took out the Sanderson Farms Championship in just his second TOUR start as a full member (his ninth overall) during the fall. Champ had added two further top-10s in his following three starts, so when he came to Maui, it was almost like it had all been too easy. The hype surrounding him had been fulfilled. This kid was not just a big bomber… he was the real deal who can use brute force to overpower and finesse to outthink the competition. A year ago, he would finish a respectable T11 in his Kapalua debut and show no signs of what was about to come. A crash. In his next 20 starts to round out his rookie year, Champ missed the cut 11 times, WD’d in another, and failed to finish inside the top 20 anywhere. And a lot of it happened in the spotlight, given his earlier achievements. There was a back injury for a period, but the problems stemmed from much more than that. Champ was bringing excess baggage to the course. With early success comes almost impossible expectations. Not just from external sources, but from within as well. “Last year was a really good learning lesson for me with the way I played and what I struggled with,â€� Champ admits. “I took things way too seriously – I added pressure and frustration – and I really wasn’t being myself. With winning early… you get expectations. I ended up in the featured groups… basically being thrown in with the wolves when you are a little pup. “But I am glad it happened that way – I was blessed now that I look back on it. It was a good experience that I can use going forward. Going from winning to rock bottom basically – I think it’s like gaining three or four years’ experience in a year.â€� Sometimes it takes something much bigger than golf to put things back in perspective. And this was certainly true for Champ. His grandfather Mack taught him the game and put him on this path. His lessons about dealing with adversity, having faced racial prejudice throughout his life, had also been littered throughout. But in taking the game so seriously and getting bogged down in negativity, Champ was forgetting some of Mack’s, and his father Jeff’s, wisdom. As Mack fell ill with cancer, Champ was letting his emotions get the better of him. But as things became more dire, he was jolted back into reality. “Rory (McIlroy) even said it after one of the better statistical years in the history of golf. He says golf is sperate from your personal life and you have to separate it – but I was dragging it into both,â€� Champ says. By the time the Safeway Open was coming up – which was to be Champ’s second start of this new season – Mack was moved to hospice care and the young star wasn’t even going to play. He toyed with just staying with Mack in Sacramento instead. At the last moment ,he decided to head over and play knowing it was what his grandfather wanted. He won. “Obviously that changed a lot of things for me,â€� Champ said of the emotional second win that booked his ticket back to Kapalua and sees him sitting ninth in the FedExCup. “It was literally a last minute thing Wednesday night. Hadn’t hit a ball in three days and I just showed up to the tee and played. I took a lot from that and the whole year and now I am building off what I learned.â€� Those lessons are what gives him the confidence to not expect a repeat slump this time around. Frustration, he hopes, will be very minimal. While his goals are still lofty, he has tempered his expectations and knows patience in this game is key. He is also finding ways to manage his game when it is not fully firing – evidenced, he says, by results at the Houston Open (T23) and the Mayakoba Golf Classic (T33) following his win. Off the course he is compartmentalizing better. The death of Mack a few months back still stings – and always will – but the pain isn’t infiltrating his golf. And there is happiness also as Champ got engaged over this holiday break. “I have a clearer understanding now. For me it has always been a mental thing. When I am mentally clear I play extremely well. So it is really just trying to figure out how to get there more often,â€� Champ says. “I felt all the emotions last year… I hope to stick to one this year.â€�

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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – For his final eight holes Thursday at The Honda Classic, defending champion Justin Thomas had just 13 working clubs in his bag. The non-useable 14th club was a 9-iron he damaged while hitting a tree with his second shot at the par-4 10th. Under Rule 4.1 that went into effect at the start of the year, he could not replace it. Despite being shorthanded, Thomas managed to shoot a 2-under 68 that left him four shots off the lead held by Jhonattan Vegas. It also left him shaking his head about another new golf rule that he doesn’t understand. “You can just add that one to the list of rules that don’t make any sense,� Thomas said. It all started after an errant tee shot at the 10th left him in the right rough behind a tree, 183 yards from the pin. As he considered his next shot, he thought there was a chance the 9-iron might not stay intact. “I thought the way the club was going to hit the tree, it was just going to break,� said Thomas, who lives in nearby Jupiter. “… But it didn’t break. It kind of hit near the hosel and just kind of sent a little shock up my arm.� Thomas said it was enough of a shock to force him to ice his wrist overnight, although he doesn’t expect it to impact him the remainder of the week. The bigger issue at that moment was being unable to use the club, which had hit the tree with enough force to rake away some bark. Under the previous rules, Thomas could have replaced it with another club if the damaged club had been considered “unfit for play.� But with the revised rules, the “unfit to play� distinction was eliminated, with the USGA explaining that it required “a technical judgment that few players have the depth of understanding to make, and even referees can find it challenging to make such judgments quickly and consistently on the course.� Thomas said, “If you bend break or bend the club in play, I don’t see where the harm is in replacing it. Obviously, you can’t break a club in anger and replace it, but if you hit a shot and you hit a tree and it breaks or bends like that, if you have a spare – I don’t understand.� Among the reasons for the rules change, according to the USGA: Although there will be times when a damaged club is unusable and cannot be readily repaired on the course (such as when a driver head comes off), the practical ability to get a replacement club is seldom present other than at some elite levels of golf. This potential downside from a player’s perspective is outweighed by the ability to use or repair any damaged club, as well as by the significant simplification that results. This change will be consistent with the overall philosophy that a player normally should play the entire round with only the clubs that he or she started with or added during the round to get to the 14-club limit. Had he been able to replace it, Thomas said he had a spare 9-iron at his house in Jupiter, and someone theoretically could have retrieved it. But without that option, he was left with the damaged club, one he did not want to use because he was unsure of the loft. He said the club looked a bit flatter. “It’s definitely not a 9-iron.� On the very next hole, the par-4 11th, Thomas had an approach shot from the fairway, 159 yards to the pin over water. “A perfect 9-iron,� he said. Instead, he hit a wedge as hard as possible – and finished inside 15 feet for an easy two-putt par. His approach shot at the 12th was 153 yards, another possible 9-iron. Again, he opted for wedge. “It was a little easier on 12 because I didn’t have water in front of the greens,� he said. Thomas suffered a double-bogey at the par-3 15th and a bogey at the 16th but didn’t blame the lack of a 9-iron for either of those stumbles. Two birdies to finish his round left him in a better mood about the club issue. “Now that I think about it,� he said, “it doesn’t really make a big difference.�

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SAN ANTONIO — Valero Texas Open co-leader Matt Wallace tried a new idea this week when practicing to play a greenside bunker shot. He swung the club cross-handed. RELATED: Full leaderboard "I've been working with my coach on trying to keep my right shoulder down, a little bit flatter, keeping the right elbow in," Wallace said. "Helps my low point. I sometimes get a little bit steep and on top. Cross-handed helps me fold my right arm and keeps my shoulder down." Wallace said his ball flight has been higher as a result. (He grips it conventionally for the shot, naturally.) "I think my bunker play's been really good this week," he said. It's better than most. Wallace is four of seven in sand saves, good for a tie for 21st in the field of 78.

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