Sergio Garcia rallies for win at Sanderson Farms Championship

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HONOLULU — Abraham Ancer can’t remember playing better with so little to show for it. His hope is the payoff is not far away. RELATED: Players rally to Australian bushfire relief cause | Players to Watch in 2020: Abraham Ancer | The First Look  Ancer arrived for the Sony Open in Hawaii with his confidence still brimming from a solid debut in the Presidents Cup last month in Australia. He was among seven rookies on the International team. That didn’t keep Adam Scott from saying on the eve of the matches he would be shocked if the 28-year-old Mexican wasn’t “a big point winner for us.� Ancer delivered by going unbeaten in four teams matches. And when the pressure was even greater — singles against Tiger Woods, with social media driving a plot that Ancer wanted a piece of him — Ancer held his own until Woods outlasted him in 16 holes to start a U.S. comeback. “A lot of good stuff came out of the Presidents Cup,� Ancer said. “Just playing a lot of golf under a lot of pressure. I like to put myself in those situations. I become a better player when I put myself in those situations, and moving forward, I feel like I will be a little calmer in situations where I would be normally stressed out.� He felt like every shot mattered, not just for him but for the team. Now he’s back on his own, playing against a 144-man field at windy Waialae Country Club, not nearly as many fans watching from along the ropes or in front of the TV. He is among 15 of the top 50 in the world ranking, led by Justin Thomas, who won the Sentry Tournament of Champions last week at Kapalua and has won three of his last six starts on the PGA TOUR. Ancer is still looking for his first PGA TOUR victory. He won late in 2018 at the Australian Open, which earned him a spot in the Open Championship. He did well enough last year, particularly his runner-up finish to Patrick Reed at THE NORTHERN TRUST, to make it the TOUR Championship and earn a spot in the Masters for the first time. “It just shows me what I need to get better at, how you feel under pressure,� Ancer said of his 3-1-1 mark at Royal Melbourne. “I can take that and look back when I’m in a situation like that, maybe playing in the last round for a chance to win. I’ll draw back and remember how I felt that day.� A great week for him ended awkwardly because of his match against Woods. Ancer was asked a month before the Presidents Cup who he wanted to play, and he mentioned Woods, the greatest of his generation and an idol for most players on both teams in Melbourne. It was portrayed as poking Tiger, with his quote posted on social media accounts as a reminder. Woods played well, and the match turned on the 14th hole when Woods made an 8-foot par putt and Ancer missed his par from about 6 feet. Woods went 2 up and closed him out with a birdie on the 16th. “Abe wanted it. He got it,� Woods said during the winner’s press conference. Ancer didn’t want the loss or the narrative to ruin an otherwise good week. “I tried not to let it get to me,� Ancer said. “That was actually a month before in Mayakoba when I got asked this question. I was like, ’Well out of the 12 guys who would I like to play on a big stage in a big event like that? Yeah, obviously I would like to play my hero growing up, Tiger Woods. It would be an incredible experience.� And it was, on and off the course. “I didn’t only learn from the golf course and from golf, I learned a lot about the media and how it can get twisted,� he said. “Definitely got twisted, just the context how I said things. And maybe Tiger didn’t know the way I said it. He just kind of took it from what he was reading or what he heard, which is fine. “Maybe it was a little bit of a downer because people didn’t know I said it,� Ancer said. “Some guy reached out to me and said, ‘You were really, really cocky.’ I was like, ‘What?’ I was thrown off by some of the comments.� Ancer faces a big year, his first playing in all four majors, and he virtually is a lock to represent Mexico in the Olympics. For now, golf is back to the individual sport it normally is. Six of his teammates from the Presidents Cup are at the Sony Open in Hawaii, including Marc Leishman, with whom Ancer won a match and halved another. Matt Kuchar is the defending champion. Thomas will try to sweep the Hawaii swing for the second time in three years.

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The Charles Schwab Challenge, the first event in the restart of the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season, will welcome a stellar field. The tournament has announced that the top five players in the Official World Golf Ranking are scheduled to appear at Colonial – the first time that’s happened at the Fort Worth, Texas, event since 1986. RELATED: Season restart looks to be race to FedExCup Playoffs | Ultimate catch-up guide to 2019-20 season No. 1 Rory McIlroy, the reigning FedExCup champ, and No. 4 Justin Thomas are playing at Colonial for the first time in their TOUR careers. No. 2 Jon Rahm is making his fourth start and No. 3 Brooks Koepka is making his second. No. 5 Dustin Johnson is making his third Colonial start, but his first since 2014. Thomas and McIlroy are among the top nine players in the FedExCup standings — led by Sungjae Im — who have committed to play. Of the top 20 in the standings, 17 will be at Colonial, including defending champ Kevin Na, who is 11th. “Our field is deep,â€� Charles Schwab Challenge tournament director Michael Tothe told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “It’s really come together nicely.â€� The tournament was originally slated for May 21-24 but was moved to June 11-14 after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a raft of schedule changes for the PGA TOUR. The Charles Schwab Challenge will be the first full TOUR event to be staged since the season went on hiatus after the pandemic took hold during THE PLAYERS Championship in March, forcing its cancellation after the first round. It will be played without onsite access for fans and under strict health and safety protocols. “Golf fans are hungry to watch some golf,â€� tournament chairman Rob Hood told the local media. “I think the whole world will be watching Fort Worth, Texas.â€� Of the world’s top 20 ranked players, 15 are scheduled to play at Colonial, including reigning Open Championship winner Shane Lowry, making just his second start on American soil this season. The Irishman has been in Florida during the pandemic and will play mostly in the U.S. for the next few months. “I think this is a good opportunity for golf to be one of the first sports to get back on TV and maybe people are so starved and deprived of live sport that it might get a few more people into the game,” Lowry told Irish reporters. Na, who shot a 62 in the second round last year, looks forward to defending his title. Justin Rose, the 2018 winner, also is scheduled, as are local draws Jordan Spieth (the 2016 winner) and Colonial member Ryan Palmer. “It’s basically going back to work for me and what I love to do,â€� Na told CBS. “I miss it. I miss the competition.â€� Players who are returning to Colonial after lengthy absences include Bubba Watson (making his first start since 2008) and Jason Day (making his first start since 2011). Big-hitting Matthew Wolff is making his Charles Schwab Challenge debut on a tight course that generally favors shot-making. Also in the field is two-time champion Phil Mickelson, who will be making his 16th start in the event but just his second since 2010. Mickelson played in last week’s The Match: Champions for Charity, where he and partner Tom Brady lost to Tiger Woods-Peyton Manning. “This is the best shape that I’ve been in,” Mickelson said recently on The Dan Patrick Show. “I feel like I’ve had a really good last few months to get my game back and be sharp. I’m excited to go play.” Mickelson won Colonial’s plaid jacket in 2000 and 2008. His 2008 victory famously included a clutch approach to the green from the left trees on the 72nd hole before he buried a birdie putt for the title while a fan cannonballed into the lake behind him in celebration. Speaking on his Callaway Golf Podcast, the now soon-to-be 50-year-old had obvious enthusiasm for golf’s return and hoped the sport would get further prominence in the wider community that continues to navigate its way through unchartered waters due to the pandemic. “The thing that I’m excited about seeing the PGA TOUR return is what this could do for the game of golf,â€� Mickelson said. “Because right now the courses where I’m playing in San Diego and Arizona, they’re packed because people are wanting to get outside, they want to do sports, (and) they want to hang with their friends. And the only place to do it safely is on the golf course. “I have a feeling that the summer rounds are going to skyrocket, hopefully we’ll get a lot of new golfers or people who only play once or twice a year playing a few times a week maybe, or a month. “We are going to see a lot more people walking. I’ve noticed that our clubs, without carts, everybody is walking, enjoying the time … this could be a thing that helps the game of golf because it offers something during this pandemic that other sports don’t which is a safe environment to be with your friends, and be interactive and have some competition and some comradery.â€�

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