Rahm: ‘I don’t want to see a golf club’

PGA TOUR pros Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Bubba Watson are among the athletes participating in Peloton’s inaugural All-Star Ride on Saturday. The ride – featuring 16 athletes (eight male and eight female) from across the sports landscape who are each current Peloton members — will air on ESPN at noon ET Saturday and consist of two 20-minute classes, with Peloton instructor Alex Toussaint leading the men’s division and Robin Arzon teaching the women’s division. The rider with the highest output number (the combination of a rider’s cadence and resistance) in each of the two rides will be declared the winner for his or her respective division. If the participating pro athletes collectively reach an output of 3,000, Peloton will donate one million meals to the Food Bank for New York City. The Peloton All-Star Ride will be available for Peloton members on-demand on the Peloton Bike or App after the show airs, allowing them to ride alongside the pros on the interactive leaderboard. The celebrity lineup-up includes stars from the worlds of professional golf, tennis, swimming, track and field, NFL, NBA, women’s college basketball, collegiate gymnastics and fastpitch softball. Among the riders are a total of 25 Olympic medals, a Grand Slam Winner, NCAA Champions, a two-time Masters winner and a two-time Super Bowl Champion. Riders representing the men’s and women’s divisions are as follows: Men’s Division • Rory McIlroy: Current No. 1 golfer in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) and reigning PGA TOUR Player of the Year and FedExCup champion • Justin Thomas: 12-time PGA TOUR winner and current No. 4 ranked golfer in the world (OWGR) • Bubba Watson: 12-time PGA TOUR event winner, two-time Masters champion (2012, ’14) • Mike Golic Jr.: ESPN analyst and former Notre Dame Football standout • Matt Grevers: Six-time Olympic medalist, American swimmer • Gordon Hayward: NBA All-Star currently with the Boston Celtics • Booger McFarland: ESPN analysts and two-time NFL Super Bowl Champion • Kyle Rudolph: Two-time Pro Bowl tight-end for the Minnesota Vikings Women’s Division • Morgan Pressel: Professional golfer on the LPGA Tour and was the youngest player ever to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open (2001) • Victoria Azarenka: Professional tennis player with 20 WTA wins and two Grand Slam singles titles (Australian Open 2012, ’13) • Allyson Felix: An American track and field sprinter who is tied for the most decorated female Olympian in track and field history with nine medals and is the most decorated athlete, male or female, in World Athletics Championships history with 18 career medals • Monica Puig: Professional tennis player and the reigning Olympic gold medalist • Colleen Quigley: Professional American middle-distance runner and 2016 Olympian, 2015 NCAA Champion in Steeplechase • Kyla Ross: A gymnast who won team gold in the 2012 Summer Olympics as a member of the “Fierce Five,â€� also the first gymnast to become an Olympic, World and NCAA Champion • Michele Smith: ESPN analyst and former international and Women’s National Team fastpitch softball player who won gold at the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics • Dawn Staley: Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame basketball player and coach, current head coach of the South Carolina women’s basketball team that took home the 2017 NCAA National Championship

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Xander Schauffele was born in La Jolla, California, but the newly minted Rookie of the Year is a melting pot of cultures that reaches far beyond Southern California Surfer. Taiwan. Japan. France. Germany. “I have a very international background, but I haven’t had the opportunity to travel a whole lot,â€� Schauffele said from Malaysia this week, where he will start his sophomore season at the 78-player, no-cut CIMB Classic at TPC Kuala Lumpur. “My dad’s half French, half German. My mom’s Taiwanese, grew up in Japan. It’s cool that golf has kind of allowed me to start here in Malaysia, then Korea, then China. “I’m just excited to start the year off kind of on a different foot instead of in the States.â€� The CIMB marks the first stop on the PGA TOUR’s three-week Asian swing, which will continue next week with the inaugural playing of THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES, South Korea, and finally the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in Shanghai. With two new international events, the TOUR’s 49-tournament FedExCup schedule includes nine tournaments in eight countries outside the United States. The schedule is increasingly reflecting the global makeup of the players themselves, guys like Schauffele or Belgium’s Thomas Pieters, who is also in the CIMB field and played golf for the University of Illinois. Davis Love III, 53, remembers when he was a rookie on TOUR and it was a big deal to make the odd flight to Japan for the Dunlap Phoenix or the Chunichi Crowns.  “They just seemed so far away,â€� Love said from the CIMB, “and now it’s just part of our TOUR.â€� It’s almost 10,000 miles from St. Simons, Island, Georgia to Malaysia, and Love mentioned the long hop more than once, as if he still couldn’t quite fathom that he’d come that far. Justin Thomas has nevertheless made Kuala Lumpur his home away from home, and the two-time defending CIMB champion is looking for a strong start to this, his “encoreâ€� season. Jordan Spieth won five tournaments and the FedExCup in 2015, then had to figure out a way to follow that up in 2016. Now it’s Thomas’ turn. Three weeks ago, he won the FedExCup, then the Presidents Cup and Player of the Year, his just desserts after a five-win season. Now what? “The Presidents Cup was unbelievable, very enjoyable, a great experience, a lot of fun,â€� Thomas said from Malaysia. “And then last week was just kind of really trying to get some rest. This is, I think, my eighth event in 10 weeks, so I’m getting a little bit tired.â€� The steamy heat won’t help. It never does. “When you’re out on the golf course, you’re always drinking, eating,â€� said Anirban Lahiri, who won the 2015 Malaysian Open at the course when it was still Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club. “It’s not just the liquids, electrolytes, but you also need a lot of food. You burn through your energy really quickly here. This is one of those cheat weeks where you can pretty much eat anything you want because you can be sure that by 2 o’clock it’s all gone.â€� Schauffele admits he’s not used to the heat, or more specifically the humidity. Other than that, though, he’s not bothered to be so far from home. In fact, he’s so excited he’s already been asking for suggestions on what local delicacies to eat, and making up menus in his head. “I’m kind of a foodie when it comes to that stuff,â€� he said, “so I’m excited.â€� Pieters counts himself a fan of the local cuisine. “I really like Kuala Lumpur,â€� he said. “The food is great, people are so nice. Traffic’s bad, but the escort helps a lot.â€� Love said it’s incumbent upon the players to embrace the changes, just as he always has since he played his first full season on TOUR in 1986. He’s of the persimmon generation, and now he’s flying 10,000 miles to play a rubber plantation-turned-golf course where monkeys patrol the lush foliage. Two tournaments in Asia became three. One tournament in Mexico became two. The Dominican Republic’s Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, after a two-year run on the Web.com Tour, will be elevated to a TOUR event and debut March 19-25. The changes are so great, Love said, he’s even changing the way he talks about golf. “It really isn’t the U.S. tour,â€� he said. “It’s the PGA TOUR.â€�

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