OnScene: Curry impresses, doesn’t make the cut

As always, Tiger Woods and his health will be a thing to watch. We also go through the players to keep an eye on, the names to know and the work to be done as we draw closer to the start of the 2019 Masters.

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Current FedExCup leader Hideki Matsuyama along with the rest of the top 10 players in the world are set to tee it up at the storied Riviera Country Club for this season’s Genesis Invitational. Max Homa looks to defend his hometown title after a dramatic playoff victory over Tony Finau a year ago. FIELD NOTES: All of the world’s top-10 ranked players, including No. 1 Jon Rahm, are set to play at Riviera … Other than the winners-only Sentry Tournament of Champions, this is the first ‘Invitational’ event of the season with a limited field of just 120 players … Aaron Beverly is the 2022 recipient of the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption. Beverly was a celebrated college golfer, competes on the APGA Tour (where he won the Tour’s Fall Series Finale at Wilshire Country Club), and will be making his PGA TOUR debut … Reigning FedExCup winner Patrick Cantlay is back in action and riding some early-season momentum. Cantlay has gone fourth-ninth-T4 to start the 2022 calendar year, and contended throughout the week at the WM Phoenix Open … Some recent past Genesis Invitational winners set for a return include Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott, Bubba Watson and Max Homa – who is looking to become the first player since Phil Mickelson in 2008-09 to go back-to-back … Other sponsor’s exemptions have an international flair. Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Rickie Fowler, Min Woo Lee, Robert MacIntyre, Thomas Pieters and Jaekyeong Lee are playing. Jaekyeong Lee won the Genesis Championship in South Korea last fall. COURSE: The Riviera Country Club, par 71, 7,322 yards. This is the 59th time the George C. Thomas Jr. and William P. Bell design will host the Genesis Invitational. It has hosted three major championships in the past, was just announced as the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open venue and will also host the 2028 Olympic golf competition. The club has been long ranked as one of the best in the world. It features a compact design with primary rough of club-grabbing Kikuyu – making it a challenge for the best players in the world with every club in the bag. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 550 FedExCup points. STORYLINES: Can another California kid take the title at Riviera this week? While Max Homa topped the field last season, there’s no doubt world No. 2 Collin Morikawa would like to etch his name on the trophy … Dustin Johnson looks to break out of an early-season funk at Riviera, where he won in 2017. Johnson hasn’t notched a top-10 result on TOUR since the TOUR Championship in September … There’s still a spot to be filled for the Genesis Invitational, which comes after the Collegiate Showcase on Monday. The Collegiate Showcase is now in its eighth year. Past winners include Will Zalatoris, Scottie Scheffler (PGA TOUR Rookies of the Year, both) and Sahith Theegala, who led after 36 holes in Phoenix … This is the final event of the TOUR’s West Coast Swing before it heads to Florida next week … With Tony Finau’s playoff loss a year ago, he has now finished runner-up at the Genesis Invitational twice … The event was played without fans in 2021 but tournament organizers are set to have a full spectator experience for this season … This is the first event of the 2022 season to offer 550 FedExCup points to the winner. 72-HOLE RECORD: 264, Lanny Wadkins (1985). 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, George Archer (Round 3, 1983 at Rancho Park GC), Ted Tryba (Round 3, 1999 at Riviera CC). LAST TIME: Max Homa won for the second time on the PGA TOUR, defeating Tony Finau in a playoff. Homa overcame a tough lip-out on the 72nd hole to regroup in the playoff. He made a par on the second playoff hole, the par-3 14th, to Finau’s bogey after he couldn’t get up-and-down from the sand. That par-saver came after Homa’s tee shot on the first extra hole nestled against a tree and forced him to punch out a wedge with a miraculous recovery effort. This was Finau’s 10th runner-up finish on TOUR since his maiden TOUR victory at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open (he would, however, go on to win THE NORTHERN TRUST later in 2021). Homa’s victory was a hometown-boy-done-good story, as he first attended the annual event at Riviera when he was just a 2-year-old. Sam Burns, the 54-hole leader, finished one shot back of Homa and Finau after three bogeys in four holes on the back nine. Burns was third alone. Cameron Smith finished fourth alone, while Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland and Matthew Fitzpatrick rounded out the top five. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 4 p.m.-8 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-7 p.m. (CBS). Sunday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (CBS) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 2–8 p.m. ET. Saturday, 2–7 p.m. Sunday, 1-6:30 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) For outside of the U.S., click here for GOLFTV powered by the PGA TOUR PGA TOUR LIVE PGA TOUR Live is available exclusively on ESPN+ • Main Feed: primary tournament-coverage featuring the best action from across the course • Marquee Group: new “marquee group” showcasing every shot from each player in the group • Featured Groups: traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage of two concurrent featured groups • Featured Holes: a combination of par-3s and iconic or pivotal holes

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Billy Horschel got a rare break at Bay Hill on a day that punished so many others, leading to a birdie on the 18th hole Saturday for a 1-under 71 that gave him a share of the lead with Talor Gooch in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. Horschel was buried in deep rough behind the 18th green and facing a fast chip down the hill. His foot was on a sprinkler head and he received a free drop. From the collar, he was able to use putter and his 30-foot putt trickled into the cup. “To make that putt on 18, to shoot 1 under on a really tough day is really satisfying,” he said. It was a happy moment, and those were hard to find in a third round where Viktor Hovland lost a four-shot lead at the turn, Matt Jones heaved his putter into the water and Rory McIlroy lost momentum with a tee shot out-of-bounds. Scottie Scheffler managed to make a charge. After missing three straight par putts from 6 feet or closer to cap off his front nine, Scheffler made three birdies and a 20-foot eagle for a 31 on the back for a 68, matching the low score of the day. He started the day eight shots behind. He ended it two shots out of the lead. The final group was making the turn when Scheffler finished and he was asked if his round put him back into the tournament. “I didn’t really feel out of it at the beginning of the day,” Scheffler said. He and everyone else had an idea of what to expect on a course that is a strong test in any condition. Add gusts of about 15 mph and greens so baked by the sun there was barely any grass, and this was all the best players in golf could handle. Gooch, the Oklahoman who won his first PGA TOUR title in the final event of last year, was up to the task. He rolled in a 35-foot birdie putt on the tough 15th, followed with a 15-foot birdie on the next hole and was in the lead until a tee shot into ankle-deep rough on the final hole kept him from reaching the green. Gooch and Horschel were at 7-under 209. Hovland suffered as much as anyone. He three-putted from 10 feet on the par-3 second hole, only to recover by holing a bunker shot for eagle on the par-5 sixth with his ball on a slight downslope in the sand and not much green between his ball and the hole. The back nine turned into a slow bleed, twice taking three putts for bogey and missing the fairway on two other holes. He shot 40 on the back nine for a 75. Still, he was only one shot behind. Former U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland overcame three bogeys for a round of 70 and was three shots behind, followed by the group of Chris Kirk (68), Graeme McDowell (69) and McIlroy, whose 76 could have been worse. “I feel like I’ve never had as many 6-footers for bogeys as I’ve had today,” he said. McIlroy, the 18-hole leader, ran off back-to-back birdies early on the back nine and was making up ground until he lost a tee shot to the right on the 15th hole that bounced into a backyard. That led to double bogey, and he bogeyed the last two holes to fall back. “It’s so tough out there. It’s so tricky. It’s just on knife’s edge,” McIlroy said. “You’re literally talking like feet — 2 feet here, 2 feet there from 200 yards can make a huge difference in where the ball ends up.” He was among eight players separated by four shots going into the final round, and with conditions expected to be the same, Bay Hill should be primed for a shootout among survivors. Jones, meanwhile, hit a brilliant approach on the 11th hole to 8 feet only to have the putt slide off line. He reached the cup about the time the golf ball trickled there, tapped in with one hand and then heaved his putter into the lake. Max Homa made an ace on the par-3 14th hole with a pitching wedge from 163 yards, meaning a $200,000 donation by presenting sponsor Mastercard to the Arnold & Winning Palmer Foundation. A year ago on Saturday at Bay Hill, Homa was playing with Jazz Janewattananond when the Thai made a hole-in-one on the 14th hole.

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