PGA Tour golf best bets: The Players Championship

The Dallas area’s longtime PGA TOUR stop enters a new era with its move to Trinity Forest Golf Club, as Jordan Spieth hopes a change of venue might produce his first victory in his hometown event. Sergio Garcia, a two-time Nelson champion and now Texas resident, also returns to test the treeless new layout along with Marc Leishman and Matt Kuchar. Billy Horschel is defending champion, coming three weeks after teaming with Scott Piercy to win in New Orleans. FIELD NOTES: Hideki Matsuyama tees it up for the first time at the Byron Nelson, marking just his second start in Texas other than the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. He also played Colonial in 2014. … In all, Trinity Forest welcomes five of the top 25 in the world rankings to its coming-out party. … Chilean teen Joaquin Niemann is set for his third professional start. The last time he teed it up in Texas, he was sixth at the Valero Texas Open. … Maverick McNealy, also a former world No. 1 amateur, takes his first sponsor exemption since the West Coast Swing. He’s coming off a third-place finish at the Web.com Tour’s United Leasing & Finance Championship. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points. STORYLINES: The curiosity factor is high for Trinity Forest, once a landfill in Dallas’ southwest quadrant that was renovated by the renowned Ben Crenshaw/Bill Coore design tandem. It’s a dramatic change from its former home at TPC Four Seasons, with native grasses and push-up greens as dominant features. … Spieth, winless since last year’s Open Championship despite four top-3 finishes, again seeks his first Nelson win. His best finish remains a share of 16th as a 16-year-old in 2010; he missed the cut last year. … Garcia sets out again to join Sam Snead and Tom Watson as the only three-time winners of the event. … Horschel’s victory made it 12 of the final 18 winners at TPC Four Seasons to shoot all four rounds in the 60s. What will Trinity Forest bring? … The top 60 in the world rankings after Sunday’s conclusion receive automatic berths into next month’s U.S. Open. Charles Howell III is among those trying to break into the club at No. 61. COURSE: Trinity Forest Golf Club, 7,380 yards, par 71. Built over 160 acres of sand-capped landfill in Dallas’ southwest quadrant, Trinity Forest begins the tournament’s new chapter after leaving the northern suburbs. The name’s something of a misnomer, as there’s not a tree on the layout – resembling more of a windswept rolling meadow that gives off a links feel. Most striking is a double green serving Nos. 3 and 11, one of the largest in North America at roughly 35,000 square feet. Opened in 2016, Trinity Forest also is home to the SMU golf teams. 72-HOLE RECORD: 259, Steven Bowditch (2015 at TPC Four Seasons). Note: Rory Sabbatini’s 19-under-par 261 in 2009 is the lowest against par; Bowditch was 18-under after heavy rain turned TPC Four Seasons into a par-69 layout for the final three rounds. 18-HOLE RECORD: 60, Arron Oberholser (2nd round, 2006 at Cottonwood Valley GC), Keegan Bradley (1st round, 2013 at TPC Four Seasons). LAST YEAR: Horschel dispatched Jason Day in a playoff to end a 2 ½-year winless drought, secured when Day stunningly missed a 4-foot par putt on the first extra hole. Horschel, Day and James Hahn battled down the back nine at TPC Four Seasons, with Hahn briefly taking the lead until dropping back with three consecutive bogeys. Horschel’s 59-foot birdie at No. 14 brought him even with Day, only to see the Aussie chip in at No. 15 to regain the lead. Horschel pulled even again with a birdie at No. 16, and they parred out until Horschel birdied the playoff hole. Horschel’s fourth PGA TOUR victory might have been his most unexpected, having missed four straight cuts before arriving. It also was his most emotional, with news a day later that wife Brittany had just celebrated one year of sobriety after seeking help for alcoholism. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 4-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. (featured groups), 4-7 p.m. (featured holes). Saturday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. (featured groups). RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 1-7 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).

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BRADENTON, Fla. — Collin Morikawa shook off an early mistake and played a steady hand on a golf course known for calamity, closing with a 3-under 69 for a three-shot victory in the World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession. RELATED: Leaderboard | Winner’s Bag: Collin Morikawa Morikawa picked up a few short-game tips from major champions — Mark O’Meara on his putting, Concession member Paul Azinger on the chipping — and he says it carried him to another big win. And there was a tribute to Tiger Woods, his golf idol growing up. “We don’t say `Thank you’ enough,” Morikawa said, referring to how much Woods has raised the profile and prize money in golf. He also mentioned his grandfather dying a month ago and began to get emotional. Morikawa won by three over Brooks Koepka (70), Viktor Hovland (67) and Billy Horschel (70). He finished at 18-under 270 and became the 24th player to win a major and a World Golf Championships title since this series began in 1999. He joined Woods as the only players to win both before turning 25. There were red numbers on the board and on the golf course, with several players wearing red shirts and black pants — the Sunday colors of Woods — as a show of support as Woods recovers from leg injuries from his car crash in Los Angeles last Tuesday. “Red and black, we know that’s what Tiger does on Sundays, so just to join in and just let Tiger know we’re supporting him in the best way we can,” Tony Finau said. “We’re still playing and we miss him out here, but it was cool just to be a part of that.” Morikawa didn’t have the colors, but he had the game. So many times on Sunday, Woods had the lead and forced everyone to catch him. Outside of a chunked chip on the second hole that made him scramble for bogey, Morikawa didn’t miss a fairway the rest of the way and was rarely out of position. Horschel caught Morikawa after three holes and tried to stay with him. Koepka had the last good chance to catch him until he three-putted for par from 35 feet on the par-5 17th hole. Hovland, who finished his second round with a quadruple bogey, might have had the best chance of all. Hovland someone managed to punch out of the wire grass and onto the green to make birdie on the par-5 13th, his seventh birdie of the round that pulled him with one shot. His hopes effectively ended on the next hole. Just as Morikawa was pouring in an 8-foot birdie putt on the short par-4 12th hole, Hovland ran his 40-foot birdie putt some 15 feet past the hole on the par-3 14th, and missed the par putt. Morikawa’s lead was back to three shots, and he never flinched the rest of the day. Scottie Scheffler also was in the mix with six birdies in 12 holes. He followed a bogey from the bunker on the 14th with another birdie to stay close, only to hit his tee shot into the water on the 16th hole to make double bogey. Scheffler still shot a 68 and finished alone in fifth. Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed, both dressed in red and black, never got anything going. McIlroy closed with a 71 to tie for sixth, while Reed shot a 72 and to finish another spot back. “I think just for everyone to show their appreciation for what he means to us out here,” McIlroy said of the tribute. “If there was no Tiger Woods, I just the think the TOUR and the game of golf in general would be in a worse place. He’s meant a lot to us, he still does mean a lot to us and I think that was just a little way to show that.” Reed won this WGC last year in Mexico City. It was moved for this year to Concession because of COVID-19 circumstances.

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SILVAS, Ill. – Steven Bowditch was a teenager when he landed a one-off chance to caddie for John Senden at the Jack Newton Classic in Coolum, Australia. It was a formative experience, so when Bowditch learned he’d gotten into this week’s John Deere Classic, he paid it forward. After opening up the job on Twitter, and getting more applicants than he anticipated, Bowditch hired 16-year-old Elias Francque, a kid from the suburbs of Chicago whose uncles work for John Deere and whose grandparents run a farm near TPC Deere Run. “It was something I’ve always wanted to do,� said Bowditch, “and I had a late entry, I got called Monday afternoon. I was struggling to find a caddie, and I thought about it, thought this was probably a good opportunity to make a kid smile for the week, and that’s all it was.� That may have been all it was, but fans have had fun following the late-developing arranged marriage. Bowditch, who won the 2015 AT&T Byron Nelson, lit up Twitter with his job posting: Replied Francque: I visit my grandparents farm nearby. Ive played the course and loved it. Two of my uncles work for John Deere. I’m a caddy at my local country club and on the golf team. I turn 17 on Friday and helping you make the cut would be a great birthday present! I love Australia With that, he was hired. In a sense, this goes back to Ian Baker-Finch, who hired a teenage Senden to be his caddie. Senden paid it forward when he hired Bowditch years later, and now Bowditch, 35, has kept it going. He is perhaps just being realistic when he gives himself little chance to make the cut; he is 0-for-5 this season, and coming off a brutal year in which he made just two cuts in 27 chances.  Still, the job seekers poured in on Twitter. Some of the 150-plus responders were jokesters, a few zinged him for his promised payment of gloves and balls, but most were serious. “I didn’t think it would get the response it did,� Bowditch said. “It was neat.� He played 18 holes with his new man Tuesday, and gave Francque the day off Wednesday, as the Aussie golfer did not play and instead hunkered down at the end of the driving range.  “He’s a good caddie,� Bowditch said. “He does it in the summertime.� It’s tempting to conclude Francque has his work cut out for him, and easy to be pessimistic, but fortunes change. Bryson DeChambeau missed eight straight cuts last season before breaking out with his first PGA TOUR win at the Deere. And before the streaky Bowditch won the AT&T Byron Nelson, he endured a run of seven missed cuts in eight starts in 2015.   What if he doesn’t just make the cut at the Deere. What if he wins? What kind of cinema-ready Cinderella story would it be for Bowditch, and for Francque?  “I hope so,� Bowditch said. “I hope so for him, too.�

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