PGA Championship, Round 2: Leaderboard, tee times, TV times

Defending champion Phil Mickelson returns to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am where last year he won for a record-tying fifth time on the Monterey Peninsula. Past winners including Dustin Johnson, Brandt Snedeker, and Jordan Spieth join Mickelson in the field. This year’s pro-am field includes notable names from Hollywood, and the worlds of music and sports like Peyton and Eli Manning, Wayne Gretzky, Tony Romo and Aaron Rodgers.   RELATED: Inside The Field FIELD NOTES: At 48, Mickelson became the oldest winner in tournament history. He’ll return to defend, making his seventh TOUR start this season. He’s 167th in the FedExCup standings. … Mickelson is one of eight past champions in the field… Jason Day returns to action after finishing T16 at Torrey Pines. Day finished T4 at Pebble Beach a year ago and is looking for his first TOUR win since 2018… Paul Casey is back to defend his title this year. No, not the TOUR title – although he did finish T2 in 2019 – but he and Don Colleran, the president and chief executive officer of FedEx Express, topped the amateur field last year…  Sponsor exemptions include Sam Saunders, Justin Suh, Brandon Wu, and Kurt Kitayama, who won twice on the European Tour in a three-month stretch last year. Suh, Wu and Kitayama all have Northern California ties. Suh is from nearby San Jose, Kitayama was born in Chico and Wu is a Stanford alum. Wu made headlines at Pebble Beach in last year’s U.S. Open, where he finished T35 while still an amateur and received his diploma on the 18th green. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points COURSE: Pebble Beach Golf Links, 6,816 yards, par 72. A longtime part of the PGA TOUR schedule, the first “Clambake� was played there in 1947. Pebble Beach has been the host of six U.S. Open tournaments (including 2019, won by Gary Woodland). Spyglass Hill Golf Course (6,953/72) and Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore course (6,958/71) are also played the first three days. The tournament ends at Pebble Beach on Sunday. STORYLINES: Spieth is hoping a return to the friendly confines of Pebble Beach will help him find the winner’s circle for the first time since winning The Open Championship in 2017. Pebble Beach is where Spieth earned his first check as a pro and he won here in 2017. He’ll play the pro-am with his longtime partner, country star Jake Owen… With Day’s T4 finish in 2019, the Aussie now has five top-6 finishes at Pebble Beach, but no wins… Johnson – who has five top-three finishes in 12 starts, including wins in 2009 and 2010 – returns to action on the PGA TOUR for the first time since finishing T7 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions… Two golfers who finished in the top-10 at last year’s U.S. Open will be teeing it up next week: Chesson Hadley (T9) and Chez Reavie (T3)… Only 10 times in tournament history has a player won the pro-am title and the tournament title in the same year. The last time was in 2016 when Vaughn Taylor won (by one over Phil Mickelson) and topped the team competition with businessman Gregg Ontiveros.   72-HOLE RECORD: 265, Brandt Snedeker (2015). 18-HOLE RECORD: 60, Sung Kang at Monterey Peninsula (2nd round, 2016). Pebble Beach record: 62, Tom Kite (3rd round, 1983), David Duval (3rd round, 1997). Spyglass Hill record: 62, Phil Mickelson (1st round, 2005), Luke Donald (1st round, 2006). LAST TIME: It took an extra day, but Mickelson won for the fifth time at Pebble Beach, tied with Mark O’Meara for the most victories in the tournament’s history. Mickelson fired a 7-under 65 that ran into Monday because of darkness. He shot 4-under 32 on his back nine to beat Casey by three strokes. Casey had a three-shot lead going into Sunday but shot 71 in the final round. Scott Stallings was alone in third after a final-round 66. Kevin Streelman (who won the pro-am portion of the event in 2018 with NFL star Larry Fitzgerald) matched Mickelson’s final-round 65 – the best of the day – and finished in a three-way tie for seventh.  HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-2:45 p.m. (Golf Channel). Saturday, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (CBS). Sunday, 3 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, 10:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (Featured Groups and Featured Holes) Radio: Thursday-Saturday, 12 p.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, 1 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).

Click here to read the full article…

Contentment, and one of the game’s greatest coaches, helped Maverick McNealy join his peers on the PGA TOUR after two trying seasons. McNealy turned pro in 2017 after compiling one of the most impressive amateur resumes of the decade. He reached No. 1 in the world amateur ranking and represented the United States on two Walker Cup teams. He won both the Hogan and Haskins awards and shares Stanford’s school wins record with Tiger Woods and Patrick Rodgers. McNealy is still just 23 years old. Even in today’s youth-obsessed game, that’s considered ahead of the curve. This was a unique season on the PGA TOUR, though. Two of his teammates from the 2017 Walker Cup – Cameron Champ and Collin Morikawa – won tournaments. Matthew Wolff did, as well, just weeks after winning the NCAA Championship. McNealy admits that it was tough to not make comparisons and wonder why he didn’t have the same quick success. He knew others certainly were. “I found two gray hairs,� McNealy, who turns 24 in November, joked recently. That wasn’t a remark on his age, however. Struggles with his driver led to a stressful first season on the Korn Ferry Tour. McNealy saw progress after taking his first lesson from Butch Harmon earlier this year. There were changes to McNealy’s mental game, as well. He’s accepted the difference between contentment and complacency. He used to fear the former would lead to the latter. McNealy is playing his third event as a PGA TOUR member at this week’s Safeway Open, not far from his hometown and alma mater. We’ll let him describe his journey to the PGA TOUR in his own words (Note: conversation condensed for space and clarity). PGATOUR.COM: You struggled towards the end of your first season. How bad did it get? Maverick McNealy: “Last year, at the end of the season, I was in a really bad place. I had a really hard time with my ball-striking. I was really stuck underneath and had this really bad right block. It became mental. “There was a week there where I came home to Vegas and I lost two dozen golf balls in a week. I just couldn’t hit a fairway. When it got to Columbus (for the opening event of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals), I told my caddie, ‘I don’t know if I can play. I don’t know if I should keep going.’ He told me, ‘Just get your butt on an airplane.’ It was a heroic effort to make the cut in Columbus. I missed the rest of the cuts in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, but that was kind of the turning point.� PGATOUR.COM: What did you learn from those struggles? McNealy: “I learned that, to be successful in this game, there are going to be highs and lows. You have to be able to get through the lows and there has to be a purpose for the struggle. “There are plenty of bad reasons to play professional golf, and I needed a really good one. I came to two reasons why. One, I think golf tests you in a lot of ways and makes you become a lot better. Golf amplifies all these emotions you feel, so you have to be better. This process of struggling and having to do things better ended up being why I love playing professional golf because it makes you have to improve. I love the negative side of it more now. “The second reason was I like to make a difference and make an impact and do good, and that’s also a driving reason for why I’m playing golf. I started Birdies for Education this year because, in high school, I did my volunteer hours with Curriki. It’s a non-profit for K-12 educational materials, trying to lower the cost of education and make high-quality education available to everybody. We ended up raising $385,000 for Curriki this year.� PGATOUR.COM: Was it difficult to not compare yourself to some of the young players who had quick success on the PGA TOUR in 2019? McNealy: “Definitely. The thing that helped me process all that was being OK with where I am. It’s not complacency. It’s completely different. I have to be content with where I am. That does not affect my drive to improve and get to the next level in any way.  “Exceptionalism is an impossible standard to hold yourself to. It’s something to strive for, but by definition it’s an exception. Nowadays we are so obsessed with everything that is an anomaly. With social media and news and everything, we hear about the farthest ends of the bell curve. That’s the hardest thing to compare yourself to. I just said, ‘I am where my feet are. I am where I am, I’m happy with where I am, and I’m going to try as hard as I possibly can to get better and improve.’� PGATOUR.COM: Was last year stressful? McNealy: “One hundred percent. Through my senior year of college and the first year-and-a-half as a pro, I didn’t deal with expectations, self-imposed or external, very well. I was living in the world of have-to instead of want-to.� PGATOUR.COM: When did that change? McNealy: “It was the middle of this year. My whole life, I’ve felt pressure to be exceptional. I’ve had so many amazing opportunities and such great advantages that I have to do something with them. If I’m in school, I have to get As. If I’m in the business world, I have to be a world-beater. If I’m in golf, I have to do something special. I said to myself, ‘I’m 23 years old and in my second season on the Korn Ferry Tour and in the worst case I’ll be in my third season next year. That’s pretty good.’� PGATOUR.COM: You’re very introspective. What are some ways you analyze your game? McNealy: “I write down the details of every shot I hit in my pin sheet. I can go back to any pin sheet – which I save and scan and have them all stored – and I’ll be able to remember every shot I’ve hit at every golf course. “And I write down an overview of how the day went. How my warm-up was, how I was feeling, how the round went, what I did well, what I struggled with, any feels I was thinking of, anything that helped me play a certain shot, anything about the golf course that I found noteworthy and what I worked on after the round. I have that all logged for every tournament. I like to answer the question, ‘Why?’� PGATOUR.COM: Your girlfriend, LPGA player Danielle Kang, helped you get connected with Butch Harmon. How did that come about? McNealy: “Danielle told me, ‘By the way, Butch mentioned that if you ever wanted to come in and see him, he’d take a look.’ I said, ‘Oh, really? He would?’ I went and saw him and three golf balls in he said he knew what I was doing. “Honored and humbled are two very overused words, but honestly I am that I get to work with him. It’s an incredible opportunity to learn from one of, if not the greatest, golf minds of the last 50 years. It’s pretty cool. I’m just going to try to learn as much as I can from him and be a sponge and work really, really hard.  PGATOUR.COM: What did Butch recognize in your swing? McNealy: “Butch makes everything really, really simple. He helped me to de-clutter. I was stuck between feels. I had a different feel every day. Basically, I was backing up. The upper-body was moving back and the club was moving forward. That brought in a two-way miss. I’d miss it left because I was afraid of blocking it right. “He said three things: On the backswing, load right. Go left on the downswing, and stand a bit taller with the driver. Three days in, I said, ‘Wow, this is the first time I’ve worked on the same thing for three days and it’s gotten better all three days and it’s felt better every single day.�

Click here to read the full article…

ATLANTA – Rory McIlroy was safely on the 18th green Sunday afternoon before the galleries began to fill the fairway at East Lake. A year ago, in an unbridled and impromptu act of celebration, the crowds had swarmed Tiger Woods on his way to an emotional victory at the TOUR Championship. This time, it was more restrained. A bit more refined. A bit more orderly. This time, the crowds weren’t celebrating the comeback of a legend, but the continuing greatness of a superstar in his prime. This time, it was much more enjoyable for McIlroy, who may have been the only person to leave East Lake a year ago without wearing a smile. He played with Tiger that day but became an afterthought, shooting a 4-over 74 and failing to, in his words, “take the fight to Tiger.â€� This time, paired with the world’s top-ranked player in Brooks Koepka, McIlroy brought the fight. Starting the final round one stroke behind, McIlroy kept delivering one haymaker after haymaker, pounding drives in the fairway, making clutch putts, keeping the pressure on. Eventually, it was Koepka who flinched with three consecutive bogeys on the back nine. And this time, it was McIlroy and his caddie, Harry Diamond, who could enjoy the moment on 18 instead of desperately trying to avoid the Tiger frenzy. “It’s not quite as scary a walk as it was last year,â€� McIlroy told his good friend as they walked up the fairway. Related: Final leaderboard | What’s in Rory’s bag? McIlroy, ending his day with two birdies, posted a 2-under 68 to win by four shots over Xander Schauffele, and five over Koepka and Justin Thomas. As a result, McIlroy claimed the second FedExCup of his career, joining Tiger as the only two-time winners. Also as a result, McIlroy posted the lowest score of the week, regardless of the new Starting Strokes format. He started the week at 5 under, finished at 18 under, meaning he was 13 under without the advantage. That’s one stroke better than his winning total in 2016. See, it all worked out. Oh, and he won the $15 million bonus, which is $5 million more than he won three years ago when he bested Ryan Moore and Kevin Kisner in a playoff to win his first FedExCup title. McIlroy has said the money is secondary to him. “Didn’t think about it once,â€� he said of golf’s biggest prize. He just wanted the title, wanted to overtake Schauffele as Strokes Gained leader, and wanted to climb to second in the world behind Koepka. Done, done and done. “Really cool to put my name on this trophy for a second time,â€� McIlroy said. “Any time you can do something that only Tiger has done, you’re doing something right.â€� Last year’s final round at East Lake obviously stung. So did the final round of the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational a month ago. McIlroy led by one over Koepka entering Sunday, but shot a 71 to Koepka’s 65, fueling the opinion that Koepka had his number. Instead, it only fueled McIlroy. After finishing up their third rounds Sunday morning after play was suspended the day before due to a lightning strike that injured six fans, McIlroy found himself one shot behind Koepka and in the final twosome. “Once I saw I was in the final group with Brooks, it just took me back to Memphis a few weeks ago,â€� McIlroy said. “I felt like I learned a few lessons that day. … I wanted to right some of the wrongs that I made that Sunday in Memphis.â€� And what did McIlroy learn? “Sometimes I try to treat Sundays the same as a Thursday or Friday, and they’re not. I go into them maybe a little too relaxed. … Brooks went out there in Memphis and shot 65 and just basically dominated the tournament, dominated me. And I realized if I want to become the dominant player in the world again, I need to be more like that. “I guess that’s the ultimate compliment I can give Brooks is today I wanted to be a little bit more like him.â€� Sunday was the eighth round McIlroy and Koepka have been paired in the last five weeks on TOUR. McIlroy has shot the lower round four times and they’ve tied once. “His game is in great form right now,â€� Koepka said. “It’s really impressive to watch. Like I’ve said multiple times, he’s the most fun to watch when he’s playing well. He hits it so good, he putts it really well, and when he’s on, man, he’s tough to beat.â€� Koepka wasn’t at his best in the final round, missing fairways (5 of 14) and short putts (two inside 5 feet). Still … “I don’t think I was going to beat Rory today, even if I had it,â€� Koepka admitted. This week, voting among the PGA TOUR pros will begin for this year’s Player of the Year. The two candidates with arguably the best credentials are Koepka (last year’s winner) and McIlroy. Koepka has three wins, including a major and a World Golf Championships event, and has top-4 finishes in every major. McIlroy won THE PLAYERS Championship, the RBC Canadian Open, and the FedExCup. In his 19 starts, he has 14 top-10 finishes this season, most on TOUR, and he led the TOUR in Strokes Gained. Going into the TOUR Championship, McIlroy was asked what a win would mean for his Player of the Year chances. He reeled off his accomplishments while wondering if the award should honor a few great weeks or an entire year. “I feel like I’ve been very consistent,â€� he said. Then he caught himself. “It’s like I’m sitting up here trying to make an argument for myself to win. But if that were the case and I wasn’t to win, I would understand why Brooks would.â€� Said Justin Thomas, the 2017 Player of the Year winner: “I think it just depends on how everybody views the voting. Consistently, Rory has outplayed Brooks by a mile in how he’s done the entire year. It’s unbelievable how he’s played. “But the most important thing is wins and playing great in the big events, and nobody has done that better than Brooks.â€� Consider it another showdown between Koepka and McIlroy. We’ve seen it in Memphis, in the FedExCup Playoffs, and we saw it Sunday at East Lake. It’s a back-and-forth we’ll likely see for the next decade. “He most likely will win the Player of the Year, but he didn’t win the FedExCup,â€� McIlroy said. “I know it’s going to sting him for a bit … I definitely expect more Sundays like that between the both of us in the future.â€� On this Sunday at East Lake, it was McIlroy’s walk to enjoy. This time, the fans chanted his name. This time, he got to enjoy the moment. It’s a wonderful way to finish a season.

Click here to read the full article…