Phil goes low, opens with 60

THE OVERVIEW By Cameron Morfit, PGATOUR.COM Pat Perez is an overnight success story, 20 years in the making. That explanation makes as much sense as anything else when you delve into why Perez, 41, is just hitting his stride at an age when others start eyeing PGA TOUR Champions eligibility. “I’m such a different person than I was 17 years ago, even like five years ago,â€� Perez said after winning the CIMB Classic in Malaysia on Oct. 15, his second TOUR win in less than a year. “I’m learning how to play the game and learning how to play my own game and stay within myself and that kind of stuff. “I’m a late bloomer.â€� Perez seemed like a can’t-miss kid when he beat Tiger Woods by eight shots in winning the 1993 Junior World Championship at Torrey Pines. But something always got in the way, and today Perez would call that something immaturity. But the tipping point came when he underwent shoulder surgery in March of 2016. He lost his equipment contract, and when he got healthy and received a sponsor’s exemption into the no-cut CIMB Classic nearly eight months later, he was determined to prove the doubters wrong and make the most of his second chance. He did. Perez knocked the rust off at TPC Kuala Lumpur to start his 2017 season; finished T7 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas; and won the OHL Classic at Mayakoba. The rest is history.     Newly eligible for all four majors, the World Golf Championships and the TOUR Championship, Perez did have one unchecked box on his to-do list last season: He failed to make the U.S. Presidents Cup team. Oh, well. There’s no sense in peaking too early. Now that he’s in full bloom, he should have plenty of other opportunities. BY THE NUMBERS How Pat Perez ranked in Strokes Gained statistics during his last full season on the PGA TOUR. FEDEXCUP Current 2017-18 position: 2nd Playoff appearances: 10 TOUR Championship appearances: 1 Best result: 15th (2017) INSIGHTS FROM THE INSIDERS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Pat Perez in 2018. TOUR INSIDER by Ben Everill How can you not love the renaissance that is Pat Perez? Seemingly left for dead by fans and sponsors once a shoulder injury derailed him 18 months ago, Perez has pulled himself off the canvas with two wins inside a 12-month period. The OHL Classic win last fall kick-started it all but the CIMB Classic win this fall might have been even more impressive. Perez refuses to ride into the sunset quietly. He’s primed to teach the youngsters a few more lessons yet. FANTASY INSIDER by Rob Bolton As much as he’s rewritten expectations not to dismiss a 41-year-old post-shoulder surgery, he’s reminded us that some molds are unique. How apropos. The three-time PGA TOUR winner who happily beats to his own drum aligns exceptionally well with the counterculture that exists in fantasy sports. You want him on your team and you need him on your team. Best of all, he’s shown no signs of slowing down. EQUIPMENT INSIDER by Jonathan Wall Perez added the company’s 0341X 3-wood the week he won the CIMB Classic, as he liked the penetrating ball flight it produced during testing. Only member of PXG’s staff playing the company’s game-improvement 0311XF model (3-4), in addition to 0311 mid and short irons (5-PW). Prefers the bounce and offset the XF model provides.  STYLE INSIDER by Greg Monteforte Perez marches to his own beat. This is reflected in his unique style. His William Murray Golf threads, Jordan kicks, flat brim lids, and long, flowing hair help him to stand out from the crowd. You do you, Pat.

Click here to read the full article…

The Cal Bears had done fine, under the circumstances. Missing two players, one of them at Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada Q School and the other tending to a family obligation, the Bears finished fourth at a tournament at rival Stanford last March. The prevailing drift: Fourth wasn’t bad, all things considered. Collin Morikawa wasn’t having it. “He called me out on it,� recalls Cal men’s golf coach Walter Chun. “It was one-on-one, very respectful. He taught me a lot about being a coach. He’s so driven; it’s part of what made him the player he was, and what makes him the player he is.� To wit, Morikawa could have been content, upon getting his Business Administration degree at Cal last spring, to aim only for a spot in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. Instead, he finished T2 at the 3M Open in just his fourth PGA TOUR start as a professional, earning Special Temporary Member status, and won the Barracuda Championship three weeks later, qualifying for the Sentry Tournament of Champions (T7 last week) and earning a two-year exemption on TOUR. Morikawa, who joined Cameron Champ, Adam Long and Matthew Wolff as players to win last season in their ninth career start or earlier, will be among the players to watch at this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii. His paternal grandparents were born in Maui, and he spent so much time in Hawaii growing up, on family visits and for other special occasions, he says he feels right at home. His control game might be a better fit for cozy Waialae Country Club than Sentry’s brawny Kapalua, and it speaks to his lofty reputation that no one would be shocked if he wins. That goes for this week, and most any other week, too. “There are no holes in his game – at all,� says Maverick McNealy, a rival when he was at Stanford, a teammate when they played in the Palmer and Walker Cups, and now a pal with whom Morikawa plays when home in Las Vegas. “He’s very nice, respectful, humble. But I think that humility comes from confidence.� How good is Morikawa? At the fall’s Safeway Open (T10), he shot a second-round 64 in which he made seven birdies from inside 10 feet. Had he played enough rounds to qualify for statistical rankings last season, he’d have led the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and also been in the top 10 in Driving Accuracy, Greens in Regulation, and Strokes Gained: Approach the Green. Says college coach Chun: “I think he’ll win at Torrey Pines or Riviera to start the year. He’s a West Coast kid, he knows poa annua greens, and he’ll be motivated to win. When he wants to accomplish something, he tends to do it.� Only occasionally do you remember that he’s only 22, and graduated just over six months ago. Asked why he was looking at his phone after round three of the Safeway, Morikawa replied, “I’m just looking for what my next pairing will be. It’s still exciting for me.� It might be the only time Morikawa has looked or sounded like a newbie. The head of a caddie J.J. Jakovac won two individual national championships for Division II Chico State. He turned pro, didn’t get through Q School, burned out, and took a job with Ryan Moore. They lasted 7-1/2 years, parting at the PGA Championship last May. Jakovac went home to Napa, California, where he bonded with his 1-year-old son, Bo, as his wife returned to work. He was in no hurry to get back on TOUR. Talents like Morikawa, though, come along all too infrequently. A three-time first-team All-American, he almost won a Korn Ferry Tour event as an amateur, losing a playoff at the 2016 Air Capital Classic. And by May he was ready to go pro. Figuring he was already too late to get the bag, Jakovac, 37, asked an agent friend to help him reach out to Morikawa’s nascent team. “I got very lucky,� Jakovac says. They met at the U.S. Open sectional qualifier in Columbus, Ohio. Morikawa advanced (he later finished T35 at Pebble Beach), and their partnership was born. “The best thing about him is his head,� Jakovac says. “I know the courses, but he thinks like a caddie out there, which is cool. He doesn’t play too conservative; he plays smart. He’s very methodical about the way he plots it around. “I was saying this to someone,� he adds, “and they said, ‘So he’s like a 10-year veteran.’ I said, ‘He’s better than most of those guys.’ In the mental aspect.� Morikawa was asked about this at Kapalua last week. How did he explain his early success, plus that of Wolff, Joaquin Niemann and others? “It’s just a lot of self-belief,� he said. “We believe that we can do it no matter where we are.� To make a food analogy – Morikawa calls out great meals on social media and carries wedges stamped with SOURDOUGH TOAST, BACON, HASH BROWNS and EGGS BENEDICT – if most new pros are a bunch of promising ingredients, then Morikawa comes hot out of the oven with everything baked in. “He was destined to do this,� says Steve Desimone, Cal’s longtime men’s golf coach, who helped recruit Morikawa before leaving the job for health reasons. Desimone, who was at Berkeley for more than 37 years, calls Morikawa “mature beyond his years� and, tellingly, “the easiest kid I ever coached.� Which begs the question: How did he get so golf-smart? How is it that his golf IQ recalls another product of the Southern California golf scene, Tiger Woods? To answer that, you have to talk to Rick Sessinghaus. An unusual path Morikawa’s younger brother, Garrett, 16, is into soccer, not golf. Their parents, Blaine and Debbie, weren’t accomplished players, either. “It’s kind of my own thing,� Morikawa says of golf. “My first lessons were at this mini junior camp at Scholl Canyon in Glendale, the city over from where I grew up. I was 5.� He got the basics from a married couple who taught juniors, but he always noticed the other instructor there, a man on the other end of the driving range. Sessinghaus. He taught better players, and soon enough, Morikawa was tabbed as one of them. “He had some good fundamentals coming to me,� says Sessinghaus, who has a doctorate in sports psychology and is the mental performance coach for UCLA’s golf team. “I work heavily on the mental side and course management and strategy. “With Collin, at an early age, we were doing a lot of our lessons on the course.� What was the percentage shot? Where was the best miss? How could he play to his strengths? More than mechanics, these problem-solving sessions became the focus. “There’s a lot of great swings out there but not many golfers,� Sessinghaus says. “He learned to play at a high level. Collin’s been wired that way; I’ve tried to cultivate it, raise his golf I.Q. by putting him in different situations. “He’s going to look at a golf course and create a strategy based on his capabilities. He’s not going to overpower it but can plot his way around based on his strengths.� From age 8 through high school, Morikawa met with Sessinghaus weekly. (When he went to Berkeley, they sometimes worked over the phone.) Morikawa’s swing was so fundamentally solid, they put even greater emphasis on the mental side. The on-course problem-solving wasn’t just a series of theoretical exercises; as much as he could, Sessinghaus tried to create the stress of actual competition. “I believe development has to be done on the golf course to learn how to compete, to deal with pressure, to learn how to think,� he says. “The competitions at the end of a lesson were, ‘Hey, you have one ball and one ball only, let’s see what you do.’ “It was a bunker shot,� he adds, “closest to the pin, a wedge off a downslope, a par 3. A lot of it was trash talk. You’d win and say, ‘OK, I got you.’ It was about the contest itself. That was a constant for us, competition. I probably won more at the start and then when he was 16 or 17, it turned quickly.� A prized recruit, Morikawa nevertheless got to Cal only to find out his short game was lacking. He worked on it until it was TOUR-quality. He became the No. 1-ranked amateur, turned pro, and won in Reno in just his eighth start, closing with three straight birdies to beat Troy Merritt in the modified Stableford format. Surprising? Not really. Sessinghaus has never seen Morikawa look out of sorts in the heat of battle. Well, almost never. When the new TOUR winner was tabbed to throw out the first pitch for his beloved L.A. Dodgers last Labor Day, he was edgy. His mom, dad, brother, girlfriend (Katherine) and manager waited patiently as he walked out to the mound. That caddie Jakovac, a devout San Francisco Giants fan, was probably going to give him the needle if he made a lousy throw probably didn’t help, either. “That was the first time I’ve seen Collin nervous,� Sessinghaus says with a laugh. “It was kind of fun to see that vulnerable side of him; this was totally outside his comfort zone. In warm-ups he was doing fine, but when the pitch came, he threw it into the dirt a little bit. We had fun with that.� For now, he’ll stick to the golf course, where Cal’s Desimone says he’s never seen Morikawa pick a wrong club, and never seen a player with better distance control. Where will he pick up win No. 2? With Morikawa’s mindset, it could be anywhere. “I think a lot of people aren’t embracing competing to be great and to win,� says Sessinghaus. “We’ve watered it down to, Let’s just try our best. I get that, but Collin has always believed he could win. Talking with J.J., his game sets up for 90% of the courses he’s going to play because he hits it so well. “There may be a couple bomb-and-gauge courses where there’s no consequences for a miss,� he adds, “and at those ones he might not have as good a shot, but other than that, he’s going to have a shot to win every time.�

Click here to read the full article…

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Statistics have an ever-expanding role on the PGA TOUR, but the Masters is one week when artistry and elegance are emphasized over analytics. The flora and fauna of this former nursery provide an unmatched beauty, while the slick putting surfaces and severe slopes of Alister Mackenzie’s design require players to exhibit a delicate touch. RELATED: Tee times | How to Watch | Expert Picks | Power Rankings | Pros talk hole-by-hole | Tiger’s equipment “I think one of the great things about this course is it forces you to be creative,â€� Rory McIlroy said in his pre-tournament press conference. “The massive, tall pines, the contrast between green grass and the white bunkers, the yellow flagsticks, there’s so many things to look at and be aware of. It paints a picture for you.â€� That doesn’t mean that the numbers should be ignored, though. So, on the eve of the Masters, here are five interesting statistics to consider. 1. Augusta National is known as a course that can produce large swings in scoring, especially on Sunday. The par-5s offer eagle opportunities while penalizing missteps. The sloping greens have swales that can funnel well-played shots toward hole locations while leaving difficult putts and chips for those on the wrong side of the ridges. To get a better look at where Masters champions distance themselves from the field, I looked at the Strokes Gained in the last 10 years by the players who have led the Masters after 72 holes (winners and playoff participants. That’s a total of 15 players and 60 rounds. The leaders were two holes – Nos. 3 and 14 — that are often overshadowed by some of their more famous brethren. “I wouldn’t have guessed 3 and 14, but it makes a lot of sense because those holes can be a tap-in 3 or a quick 5 or 6 if you hit it in the wrong spot,â€� said one longtime TOUR caddie. The third hole is the shortest par-4 on the course. One player, Tommy Fleetwood, even drove it last year. But large fairway bunkers protect the left side of the fairway and the left side of the green is protected by a deep swale. Many players use nothing more than a long-iron off the tee and have a wedge into the green, but the penalties can be severe if they don’t execute either shot. No. 14 is often overlooked because it sits between the second nine’s two famous par-5s. The 14th also is the only hole on the course without a bunker. There are multiple hole locations where players can use slopes to funnel their ball toward the hole, though. Players are left with a difficult putt or chip if they’re on the wrong side of the swale, though. As expected, the players who led the Masters after 72 holes did most of their damage on the second nine. Their play on those famous holes accounted for 55% of their Strokes Gained on the field. 2. Justin Rose is a popular pre-tournament pick, and for good reason. He’s finished second in two of the past four Masters. His worst finish in the last five Masters is T14. Rose’s strong iron play is one reason for his success. Good approach play is important at Augusta National, where trying to two-putt from certain portions of the putting surface is nearly impossible. Rose has finished second in greens hit in each of the past four Masters. He’s hit 213 of 288 greens hit in that span (75.7%). That’s 15 more than the second-best player on that list, Jordan Spieth. The field has hit 61% of greens during that span, which would equate to 176 greens hit over the last four years. That’s nearly 40 fewer than Rose. 3.  Rory McIlroy has played in 10 Masters. There’s been a stark contrast between the two halves of his Masters career. He didn’t have a top-10 in his first five starts at Augusta National, though he did hold the 54-hole lead in 2011. He was 8 over par in his first five Masters. He’s 23 under in the past five Masters and has finished in the top 10 all five times. The biggest difference has been his performance on Augusta National’s famed second nine. In his first five Masters, McIlroy gained a cumulative 0.4 strokes on the field. Of course, that includes his 43 on the second nine in 2011, when he lost 7.4 shots to the field. Even without that performance, his performance on the second nine in his first five Masters pales in comparison to his play there over the past five years. He’s gained 31.8 strokes on the second nine in the last five Masters. That’s accounted for 65% of his Strokes Gained over the previous five Masters. He’s 19 under par on the second nine in that span, compared to 4 under on the front. 4. The Official World Golf Ranking debuted right before the 1986 Masters. Jack Nicklaus was ranked 33rd in the world when he completed his historic victory at age 46. The average world ranking of Masters champions has been 15.3. Tony Finau, who finished 10th in his Masters debut last year after dislocating his ankle during the Par-3 Contest, is 15th in this week’s world ranking. The last three Masters champions have all ranked outside the top 10 in the world ranking. There have never been four consecutive Masters champions from outside the top 10. That may not be a good omen for Tiger Woods, who’s ranked 12th. That’s actually a higher position than when he arrived at Augusta National for the 1997 Masters. Despite winning three times in his first nine PGA TOUR starts as a pro, Woods was ranked 13th heading into his first Masters as a professional reason. 5. Francesco Molinari arrives at Augusta National after winning last month’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and a third-place finish at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. He needed just 73 holes to win his first five matches at Austin Country Club. He’s one of the hottest players in the game. Molinari picked up his first major at last year’s Open Championship, then finished sixth at the PGA Championship. Molinari’s career year was spurred by improvement in two areas that are important at Augusta National, driving distance and putting. Molinari shot a career-best 286 at last year’s Masters en route to a T20 finish, just one off his highest finish at Augusta National. Molinari, long known as a short and straight hitter, gained about 20 yards last season. Molinari used Augusta National’s eighth hole to illustrate how his distance gain has paid off. Long hitters can carry the hazard to reach the green in two. Molinari had to aim away from the bunker, then lay up. “A couple days it was warm and a little down-breeze. I carried the bunker and I was able to hit 5-wood or 4-iron into the green,â€� he said. Molinari’s Strokes Gained: Putting has improved by more than a stroke last year. He was losing nearly a half-stroke per round on the greens last year. Now he’s picking up a little more than a half-stroke. He’s jumped from 182nd to 23rd in that statistic. Molinari’s improvement (+1.05 strokes per round) in that statistic is the largest this season. A former Masters champion, Adam Scott, has the second-largest jump (+0.97).

Click here to read the full article…