Seconds? Scheffler mulls ’23 Masters menu redux

Hannah Green took a 3-shot lead into the weekend in the Palos Verdes Championship, rebounding from consecutive bogeys Thursday in gusting wind to birdie the two late par 5s in a 5-under 66.

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Rob Bolton lists five against-the-grain fantasy selections for this week’s event at Muirfield Village GC. Jamie Lovemark … The old man on this page at 29 years of age, he recently hit the century mark in career PGA TOUR starts as a professional. Injuries led to years of mediocrity before he connected with consistently strong form last season. It carried over into 2016-17, but he went without a top 20 for four months until a T18 at the AT&T Byron Nelson two weeks ago. While he projects to remain a regular at this level, if he’s going to break through for victory, it would be logical for it to occur at a big-hitter’s ballpark like Muirfield Village. Now, as Jack Nicklaus likes it, the test grows more challenging closer to every hole, so Lovemark must tighten the screws on approach to pay off his power. The last three times he’s ranked inside the top 25 in a field in greens in regulation, he’s recorded a top 20 in the tournament. Harold Varner III … Back for redemption, or is it revenge? In his debut here last year, he sat T16 and just four strokes back of the tri-leaders entering the final round. Then closed with a field-high 79 to finish T57. Fast forward and you can’t rule out that 2016-17 has been a sophomore slump. The 26-year-old slots just 131st in the FedExCup standings with only one top 20 among 11 cuts made. As a rookie, he recorded four top 10s, three of which by the time he arrived at Muirfield Village. It’s a track on which he should feel comfortable given his proclivity to wield driver as often as he can. In addition to some pop, he’s inside the top third on TOUR in greens in regulation. Patrick Cantlay … Since easing his way back into competition in February, he’s picked his spots and he’s picked them well. This is why he demands attention everywhere, including in his first visit to Muirfield Village. The 25-year-old holdover rookie hasn’t missed a cut in his six starts and sits comfortably at 50th in the FedExCup standings with a runner-up finish at Copperhead and a T3 at Harbour Town. He last competed at TPC Sawgrass where he placed T22 despite a 77 in the finale. If he had enough rounds to officially qualify, he’d rank 37th in greens hit, seventh in strokes gained: putting, 23rd in birdie-or-better percentage and 11th in adjusted scoring. Patrick Rodgers … The Indiana native’s second spin with a PGA TOUR card hasn’t been as impressive as he’d have wanted, but he’s done well with a few opportunities he’s manufactured. Just 5-for-17 on the season, but all of his paydays are top 30s. Top 10s at Seaside and Torrey Pines are why he’s 110th in the FedExCup standings. But this has been his M.O. as he’s averaged one top 10 for every five-and-a-half cuts made in 69 starts as a pro. He made noise in his debut at Muirfield Village in 2015, sitting T5 at the midpoint before backing up for a T40. Easing the absence of consistency (read: confidence?) on and around greens this season, he’s a lofty 43rd in greens in regulation. Equipped with advantageous power off the tee this week, the 24-year-old is likely licking his chops for another opportunity to prove that he’s the total package. Ollie Schniederjans … If you covered his name and face and flashed his rookie season in front of a knowledgeable golf fan for a guess, it’s unlikely that he or she would consider the PGA TOUR rookie. He’s 13-for-18 with four top 10s and ranks 44th in the FedExCup standings. Just 23 years of age, well, at least for another two weeks – his birthday is June 15 – the Georgia Tech product has feasted in the analytics that portend success at Muirfield Village where he’s making his debut. He’s currently T20 in proximity to the hole, 25th in strokes gained: approach-the-green, 31st in strokes gained: tee-to-green and T14 in par-5 scoring. Put everything together and he’s 32nd in adjusted scoring.

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Three months, give or take a day or two. That’s how long this week’s Palmetto Championship at Congaree had taken to go from idea to reality. The open date on the PGA TOUR became available on March 9 when the RBC Canadian Open announced that it would not be played for the second straight year due to COVID-19 restrictions. RELATED: Congaree Global Golf Initiative helps pave way from high school to next level The disclosure set off a burst of activity that essentially began with a meeting in South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster’s office. Among those attending was Ty Votaw, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of the PGA TOUR; Duane Parrish, director of the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism; and Bruce Davidson, co-director of golf at Congaree Golf Club. As excited as he was about the prospect of partnering with the TOUR to get more exposure for travel and tourism in his state, Parrish admits to some trepidation. “One of my questions in the meeting was can we pull off a golf tournament 90 days?” Parrish recalls. “And the answer was, yes. They said they’d done it a couple of times in 2020 when they had the move tournaments because of COVID. “And so, they gave me a lot of faith and confidence they could.” Within weeks, and with the support of the state legislature, South Carolina, which boasts more than 350 golf courses, had committed $6 million in sports marketing funds to the tournament. The Palmetto Championship at Congaree is the third TOUR event to be held in the state in the past three months, joining the RBC Heritage in April and the PGA Championship in May. Congaree owner Dan Friedkin was also on board. He had a unique golf course to showcase – a Tom Fazio design, which just opened in the fall of 2017 and has quickly climbed Golf Digest’s rankings, clocking in at No. 39 among the 2021-22 list of America’s 100 Greatest. And Congaree is second only to the Ocean Course at Kiawah in the best-in-the-state list. More importantly, perhaps, is the story of philanthropy the club has to tell with its Congaree Global Golf Initiative. The club’s roughly 200 members, who are referred to as ambassadors, are committed to identifying and mentoring deserving, underserved teenagers who want to play college golf in a three-year program that takes the rising juniors from high school to university. With the golf course and funding secured, it was time to make the Palmetto Championship at Congaree happen. The event was announced April 2, which was about the time Meghan Costello, who works for the TOUR’s Championship Management division, learned she would be the tournament director for an event that would begin on June 7. Not that the condensed timeline worried her. Earlier this year, Costello served in the same capacity for the World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at the Concession – another one-time event that moved from Mexico City to Bradenton, Florida, due to logistical challenges presented by COVID in February. “Well, I’ll be honest,” she says when asked about her newest assignment. “We had just come off of running the WGC at Concession and we had about 42 days to plan that event. “So, I thought, wow — we have lots of time at about 85 days to get this one done.” Costello made her first site visit to Congaree the week after the Masters. The property, while somewhat remote — located roughly 35-45 minutes or so from Bluffton and Beaufort in South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia, – is expansive and offered many options for positioning things like the TV compound and parking as well as routing spectators. The biggest challenge, Costello says, was finding enough volunteers to work as marshals and with the ShotLink scoring system. The RBC Heritage team helped by sending out email blasts to their volunteers to see if they’d be interested in working at Congaree. Turns out more than 750 volunteers have committed, many of whom live in the Sun City retirement community in Bluffton. Spectators will be allowed – and world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, who grew up in South Carolina, will undoubtedly be among their favorites. Perhaps fittingly for a walking-only course, there are no bleachers, which made set-up easier, but the state and Congaree will have hospitality tents around the 18th green. When the tournament is over, Parrish, who is on the board of the RBC Heritage, expects the economic benefit to the state to be more than $50 million. He says roughly 25% of the SCPRT marketing is centered around golf of some sort – particularly in the Lowcountry and on the Grand Strand of Myrtle Beach. That marketing, though, is normally focused east of the Mississippi River. The Palmetto Championship at Congaree provides national exposure with 32 commercial spots over the four days of the event, 16 each on Golf Channel and CBS. Parrish acknowledges that seeing his state host three TOUR events in three months – along with this week’s BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by SYNNEX Corporation on the Korn Ferry Tour – probably won’t happen again in his lifetime. “Some may see South Carolina, what we have, for the first time,” says Parrish, who noted that rounds played in the state are up more than 20% over the last year. “So that’s a really big benefit for us.” Granted, the general public can’t call Congaree and get a tee time at the course that in 2018 was named Golf Digest’s “Best New Private Club.” But the telecast will offer a glimpse behind the scenes at a course that is fast developing a reputation as one of the country’s best. Davidson, who is from Scotland, compares Congaree to a heathland course like Sunningdale or Walton Heath in the United Kingdom. Think a hybrid of a links and parkland layout, with native grasses and pines and 130 acres of sandy waste areas to navigate. “It’s a Sandy subsoil, but not necessarily as undulating as linksland tends to be because it’s beside the sea,” he says. “It plays firm and fast. It’s fiery and Tom did an outstanding job. Every golf hole is different. Every golf hole is memorable. “And other than a couple of forced carries you can play golf on the ground here, which is unusual in this country.” Friedkin wanted Fazio to build a course that would have an opportunity like this to challenge the world’s best. In fact, a bid was made to host the 2026 Presidents Cup and while Medinah actually got the nod, the groundwork with the TOUR had been laid. The philanthropic mission of the club and its ambassadors meshes well with that of the TOUR, which has raised more than $3 billion for charity. Beyond the CGGI, the club, which is located South Carolina’s poorest county, is a big supporter of the local food bank and worked with the Boys & Girls Clubs to set up the Congaree Career Launch Program where high school students can learn about financial literacy and career development to prepare for the future. Congaree also built a driving range and practice area at Ridgeland-Hardeeville High School where more than 250 students now hone their skills. And the Congaree Foundation has purchased and helped refresh Sergeant Jasper Golf Club, nine-hole facility that is open to the public and where three local high school teams can play for free. With an uber-exclusive course to introduce to the world on television and a remarkable charitable story to tell, the partnership with the TOUR and the state of South Carolina was a win-win for Congaree. Now that Johnson, Brooks Koepka, et al, have arrived, the final piece of the puzzle has been played. “When those first fans come through the gate on Thursday, it’s going to be something special,” Davidson says.

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