Rickie Fowler announces birth of first child

A second collegiate star has turned pro in the middle of the season, adding another name to the list of prospects who will be seeking sponsor exemptions once the PGA TOUR season resumes in January. Wake Forest senior Will Zalatoris, the 2017 ACC Player of the Year, announced Thursday that he will turn pro and forego his final semester of collegiate golf. “I wanted to give myself the best chance to have a TOUR card for 2018 and 2019,� Zalatoris told PGATOUR.COM. “I want to give myself the best opportunity to set myself up for the future, so I wanted to have these extra six months to play in a few more events and build my routine.� Zalatoris finished his Wake Forest career with a 70.44 scoring average, breaking the school record of former FedExCup champ Bill Haas. Zalatoris won four collegiate titles, as well as the 2014 U.S. Junior Amateur. His announcement came shortly after his Walker Cup teammate, Cameron Champ, made the leap to the pro ranks. Champ was in the middle of his senior season at Texas A&M. This is believed to be the first time in recent history that two collegiate players of such high profile have turned pro in the middle of the same season. “I think turning pro (in the middle of the season) will become a little bit more popular in the years to come, mainly because of the schedule,� Zalatoris said. “You get a full six months back of playing pro events. I was one of the kids who said, ‘You have four years of college and the rest of your life to play golf,’ but talking to some guys on TOUR, they mentioned how important that first year was.� Champ finished T16 at last week’s Web.com Tour Q-School to secure status for the upcoming season. Zalatoris failed to advance out of second stage, so he will have to rely on sponsor exemptions and Monday qualifiers for starts on the PGA TOUR and Web.com Tour. He has just 21 hours remaining toward his psychology degree, and is currently taking nine hours online. Being so close to completing his degree made it easier to leave school early, he said. He is planning to graduate in 2018. Zalatoris isn’t the first U.S. Junior champion from Texas to turn pro after failing to advance out of Q-School’s second stage. Jordan Spieth took that path in 2013, winning that year’s John Deere Classic and qualifying for the TOUR Championship. Spieth and Zalatoris also share a swing coach, Cameron McCormick. Turning pro early gives Zalatoris time to play both the PGA TOUR and Web.com Tour in his quest to earn a TOUR card. The Wyndham Championship, the final PGA TOUR event before the FedExCup Playoffs and Web.com Tour Finals, is the only start he has confirmed on his schedule, he said. Zalatoris is the third member of this year’s victorious U.S. Walker Cup team to turn pro, after Champ and Maverick McNealy. The U.S. defeated Great Britain & Ireland, 19-7, in September at Los Angeles Country Club. Joaquin Niemann, the world’s top-ranked amateur, also is expected to turn pro in early 2018. McNealy, who graduated from Stanford with a degree in Management Science and Engineering, made his pro debut at the Safeway Open (T52). He also has sponsor exemptions into three PGA TOUR events in California (CareerBuilder Challenge, Farmers Insurance Open and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am) and two in Texas (AT&T Byron Nelson, DEAN & DELUCA Invitational). He also has full Web.com Tour status for next year after finishing T10 at Q-School. McNealy and Niemann are the past two winners of the Mark H. McCormack Medal, given to the world’s top-ranked amateur. Spieth and Peter Uihlein are previous collegiate standouts to turn pro in December. Uihlein did so in 2011, forgoing his final semester at Oklahoma State to pursue starts on the European Tour. Uihlein, the 2010 U.S. Amateur champion, won on that circuit in 2013 and is in the midst of his first season as a PGA TOUR member after winning the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, the first event of this year’s Web.com Tour Finals. Uihlein, 28, is 40th in the current FedExCup standings. Spieth turned pro in December 2012, halfway through his sophomore season at Texas.

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – South Africa’s Branden Grace wasn’t sure what to expect in his first start at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, but he couldn’t have expected this. In one of the wildest scoring lines on the PGA TOUR so far this season, Grace’s topsy-turvy second round on Friday included two eagles, including a hole-in-one at the 194-yard, par-3 seventh hole; a double bogey at 11; and five birdies for a 7-under 64. That put him in the lead at 11 under after the morning wave. “I just felt like the putter was on a roll today,â€� he said. The winner of the 2016 RBC Heritage, Grace, 30, was dialed in Friday, hitting 11 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens. He needed just 25 putts and was helped especially at the par-3 seventh hole, where he needed zero putts. It was the third ace of his career, his first outside of China. His caddie had to talk him out of a 7-iron and into an 8-iron. “The guys behind the hole actually started jumping up before the ball actually went in,â€� Grace said with a laugh. “When people start jumping, you know it’s there, or thereabouts.â€� The eight-time European Tour winner also enjoyed a highlight at the course’s more famous par-3 hole, the 155-yard 16th. After making par there in the first round, Grace rolled in a birdie putt from just over 14 1/2 feet Friday, setting off a sonic boom amongst the stadium full of crazies. Asked about the hole, he shook his head and smiled. “I think obviously being part of three Presidents Cups helps,â€� he said, “because there is nothing like the 16th, yeah, I must say. There’s no event that gets close. Even the majors—obviously, there’s a big hype, but people are a little bit more on the safe side, if I can call it that, with how much noise they make and how crazy they get. “But I think it’s been awesome,â€� he added. “… I thought it can’t be that bad today. This morning, when I was warming up, 7 o’clock when those gates opened, the guys were running and running to that 16th, screaming and going crazy already. I mean you knew it was going to be a loud one today. And obviously making a birdie there was pretty awesome and everybody going nuts.â€�

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - Phil Mickelson was in no kind of form. In eight TOUR starts this season, his best result is a T44 at the Safeway Open, and he recently fell out of the world top 100 for the first time since 1993. He's gone from being in contention to being in commercials. And yet while many of today's stars shot themselves out of it early, there was the indominable Mickelson hitting 11 of 14 fairways en route to a stress-free, 1-under 71 in the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship. He beat Rory McIlroy by eight, Tony Finau by seven, Rickie Fowler by six. Under the radar? Yes, Mickelson was that. Over the hill? Nope. "I haven’t played well in a long time," said Mickelson, who was the low man in his group (Finau and Charles Howell III, 73). "And although I’ve felt like it’s close, I haven’t been scoring. To finally shoot a decent number, that feels good, and I’ll try to build off of that." Mickelson was six behind early first-round leader Sergio Garcia, who eagled the par-5 ninth and 16th holes, but miles ahead of expectations, at least where most golf fans were concerned. Yes, he won this tournament in 2007, but since then has often said he could hardly believe it. Pete Dye's masterpiece can be rough on wayward drivers of the ball, which was one reason why Mickelson had missed six of his last seven cuts here. You can't hit a recovery shot from the bottom of a lake. At 50, he has looked ever closer to going full tilt on PGA TOUR Champions. It was on Champions that Mickelson won the Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National last August, and the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in October. Going for an unprecedented three wins in three starts on the 50-and-over circuit, he finished T20 at the recent Cologuard Classic. The game just hasn't been there this year. Odd, then, that it would return at the Stadium Course, which was at its diabolical best Thursday. The pin placements? "Smelly," said Lee Westwood (69). The wind? Swirling. Paul Casey quadruple-bogeyed 17. McIlroy made his own quad on 18. Mickelson knows more about quads than your average orthopedist, but the Hall of Famer stayed dry, avoided trouble, and made over 85 feet of putts. "Little things," he said of what's been holding him back. "Short game hasn’t been as sharp, haven’t putted as well. My iron play hasn’t been quite as good. But it hasn’t felt far off, but I just haven’t like put it together. So my whole thing is to just try to shoot a number, just try to score and not really worry about the technical side right now." On the subject of dropping out of the top 100, he said it was a "cool run" but otherwise hadn't given it any thought. He hasn't had time; he's been grinding. Mickelson will be in the field at The Honda Classic next week, but isn't qualified for the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship the week after that. He said he's likely to play in the Valero Texas Open, and then it's on to the Masters Tournament. "I haven’t played well lately, and I just want to play well," he said. "It just feels good to play good golf, and there’s nothing physically inhibiting me from playing good golf. I’ve been mentally making the game harder than it is. I just need to fix that, just think a little bit better." So far, so good at TPC Sawgrass.

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