PGA Tour board OKs major changes to eligibility

Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson. Who else is coming? Can players who go to LIV Golf still compete in major championships? We sift through the answers we have and the ones we don’t.

Click here to read the full article…

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Daniel Berger shot a 4-under 66 to erase a three-shot deficit and win the FedEx St. Jude Classic for a second straight year. The 24-year-old is the fourth back-to-back winner at St. Jude and the first since David Toms did it in 2003 and ’04. Berger played a bogey-free round on Sunday, avoiding trouble on a fast, firm course at TPC Southwind. His 17-foot birdie putt on No. 15 put him ahead for good and he finished at 10-under 270. Now he’ll take quite a bit of momentum into next week’s U.S. Open. South African Charl Schwartzel shot a 66 and South Korean Whee Kim shot a 67 to finish in second, one shot behind Berger. Amateur Braden Thornberry and Billy Horschel were among five players two shots back. Stewart Cink, Ben Crane and Rafa Cabrera Bello started Sunday with a one-shot lead on a crowded leaderboard that included 12 players within three shots of the lead. Things became even more jumbled once the final round began. At one point, there were nine players tied for the lead at 8-under before Berger finally emerged from the pile. Phil Mickelson briefly had a share of the lead during the final round, but a triple bogey on No. 12 — which included a shot into the water — knocked him out of contention. He still shot a 68 and finished at 7-under, three shots behind the leaders. Thornberry shot a 65 and became the first amateur to finish in the top 10 at the St. Jude Classic since 1965. Thornberry, a sophomore at Mississippi who is from nearby Olive Branch, Mississippi, recently won the NCAA individual championship with for the school’s first golf title.

Click here to read the full article…

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL – Rory McIlroy is returning to The Honda Classic, the tournament announced Thursday. McIlroy, who’s in the midst of a three-month break as he recovers from a lingering rib injury, has added the PGA TOUR’s stop in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, to his developing schedule for the upcoming year. The Honda Classic, which will be held Feb. 22-25 at PGA National’s Champion Course, is scheduled to be his fifth start of 2018. McIlroy, the 2016 FedExCup champion, will return from his layoff with two European Tour events in the Middle East next month. He’ll begin his PGA TOUR season with three consecutive starts: the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Feb. 8-11, Genesis Open on Feb. 15-18 and The Honda Classic on Feb. 22-25. McIlroy, who’s making his debut at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, is scheduled to play alongside his father, Gerry. After an off week, McIlroy will make his debut in the Valspar Championship on March 8-11 and then play the following week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. McIlroy struggled with a rib injury throughout last year. He finished 58th in last season’s FedExCup standings and went winless worldwide for the first time since 2008. He hasn’t played since October. “I definitely think the injury was the biggest thing that affected my season,â€� McIlroy recently told the No Laying Up podcast. “If someone was to say, ‘Why didn’t things go the way you wanted them to this year?’ I would say because of the injury. “You swing away from pain, so I started to get the club way on the inside on the downswing and my path was so far from in-and-out because anything going left at impact was putting pressure on that rib and on that joint and it would hurt. “I played for four months without hitting a shot left-to-right and you can’t do that.â€� McIlroy won The Honda Classic in 2012 to reach No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time and was runner-up at the event two years later, losing in a four-man playoff won by Russell Henley. He has missed the cut in his past two appearances at PGA National, though, and withdrew mid-round from the 2013 tournament, citing a painful wisdom tooth. He missed last year’s event because of his rib injury. Despite his injury struggles in 2017, McIlroy is optimistic about the upcoming year. “These three months (off) could give me the foundation to have the next 10 years be even better than the 10 years I’ve just had,â€� McIlroy said. “That turns a great career into one of the greatest careers.”

Click here to read the full article…