Rose remains atop bunched Masters leaderboard

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No need to gamble to become a millionaire in Las Vegas. Just beat a field of 132 players at this week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, which offers 500 FedExCup points and a $1.26 million first prize to the winner. Better hope that Lady Luck – or in this case, the golf gods – are on your side. THE FLYOVER The 444-yard par-4 18th ends a terrific four-hole closing stretch at TPC Summerlin. Playing to a stroke average of 4.118 last year, the 18th is a challenging hole, with water guarding the left side of the green. A year ago, Patrick Cantlay won the Shriners despite suffering a double bogey (third round) and bogey (final round) at the 18th on the weekend. LANDING ZONE Since 2010, the hardest hole each year at TPC Summerlin has been the 492-yard par-4 third, which was once a par 5. A year ago, the hole played to a stroke average of 4.324, which made it the 14th toughest par 4 among the 551 that were played during the season. A double fairway to a slightly uphill green into a prevailing wind can play havoc with approach shots. Here’s a look at where all tee shots landed last year. WEATHER CHECK From PGA TOUR meteorologist Brad Nelson: “Mostly sunny skies with some high clouds can be expected for the first round on Thursday with warmer temperatures topping out in the upper 70s. Winds turn from northwest to northeast and increase to 8-14 mph. Mostly sunny skies can then be expected the rest of the week with some more high clouds on Sunday. Temperatures warm back to above normal with highs in the upper 70s to near 80F. After a day of light winds on Friday, north-northeast winds pick up to 10-15 mph with gusts to 20 mph on Saturday. Winds then turn southeast and become light for the final round on Sunday.� For the latest weather news from Las Vegas, check out PGATOUR.COM’s Weather Hub. SOUND CHECK The worst performance that I ever had in college golf.They all followed me. BY THE NUMBERS  66.93 – Scrambling percentage for the 2017-18 season for Webb Simpson, who led the PGA TOUR in that category. 67.75 – Rickie Fowler’s scoring average at TPC Summerlin, the lowest of any player since 2009. 23 – Career Shriners starts by Davis Love III, who is making his 24th start this week. Love won by a tournament-record eight strokes in 1993. 1991 – Year in which Chip Beck shot 59 in the third round. It was the second of the 10 sub-60 rounds in TOUR history. SCATTERSHOTS Tony Finau is coming off a playoff loss to Xander Schauffele at last week’s World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in China. He’ll seek to become the first time since Jordan Spieth in 2015 to win a tournament the week after losing a playoff. That year, Spieth lost a playoff at the Houston Open prior to winning the Masters. Speaking of last week … Cameron Champ comes off his first TOUR win in his ninth start (and just his second as a TOUR member). “Still kind of sinking in a little bit, kind of everything that I just did,� said Champ, who had eight drives of 340 yards or longer in winning the Sanderson Farms Championship. In his 35 previous tournament debuts, Jordan Spieth has won once (the 2017 Travelers Championship) and finished second five other times. A number of players in this week’s field have ties to Las Vegas, including residents Ryan Moore, Kevin Na, Charley Hoffman and Aaron Wise, who was named this week as the PGA TOUR’s Rookie of the Year. Another player with Vegas connection is Shintaro Ban, a first-team All-American for UNLV in 2018 who won four tournaments in his senior season.

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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Tiger Woods can count on being at the Ryder Cup, at least as a vice captain. U.S. captain Jim Furyk appointed Woods and Steve Stricker as vice captains on Tuesday. Furyk previously selected two-time captain Davis Love III to assist him. Woods has said he would like to both play in the Ryder Cup and assist Furyk if such an opportunity arose. Woods is playing the Honda Classic, his third PGA TOUR event since returning from a fourth back surgery. He also was a vice captain at Hazeltine in 2016, when the Americans beat Europe for the first time in eight years. Stricker will be a vice captain in the third straight Ryder Cup, and this follows his captaincy at the Presidents Cup last fall. The Ryder Cup matches are the last week of September outside Paris.

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