Shubhankar Sharma, Matt Wallace share lead at Indian Open

As the calendar flips to a new year, and a new decade, PGA TOUR players such as Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Joaquín Niemann set goals to strive for in 2020. From charitable impact to multiple wins, check out what they hope to accomplish this year both on and off the course. RELATED: Players to Watch in 2020  Rickie Fowler • Multiple wins • Win a major • Make the Olympics • Start an event with our foundation • Help bring Challenge (Jarrod Lyle’s charity) to the USA to keep Jarrod Lyle’s name alive • Enjoy my free time Dustin Johnson • Return my wedge game (150 and in) to a higher standard • Improve putting inside 10 feet • Go fishing with my kids more Lanto Griffin • Buy Mom and brother a piece of land with a gardening pad • Help Mom start her own tincture business • Make it to East Lake • Enjoy the moments I’ve created Collin Morikawa • Keep improving across the board • Set new goals after achieving others • Make the Olympics • Make the Ryder Cup team Joaquín Niemann • Eat more avocados • Be more positive on short game and putting • Buy a house • Get stronger abs Sebastián Muñoz • Focus more on fitness • Learn how to meditate • Travel more without my golf bag

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TRUCKEE, Calif. – Had Alex Noren stayed in Scotland, he would’ve competed at The 150th Open at St. Andrews. But he was itching to play golf this week, his schedule including an upcoming three-week competitive hiatus as a training period into the FedExCup Playoffs. He was on the grounds at the Old Course and played nine holes early Tuesday morning as first alternate. It wasn’t easy being at St. Andrews knowing his spot in the field was not guaranteed. It wasn’t an easy decision to leave, either. But it had been five days since anyone had withdrawn from The Open, and there wasn’t a clear indication that anybody else would. Noren felt good about his game, believing his form was strong enough to contend this week on any setup. He took the proverbial bird in hand, withdrew from The Open alternate list and flew to California for the Barracuda Championship. Justin Rose withdrew from The Open on Thursday morning with a back injury. He would have been replaced by Noren if the Swede had stayed on-site; he was replaced instead by Rikuya Hoshino. Erik van Rooyen withdrew later in the day and was replaced by Aaron Rai. Noren admits there were conflicting emotions when he learned this news Thursday, and he was slow to start the Barracuda Championship – standing at net 0 points through 14 holes of the opening round at Tahoe Mountain Club (Old Greenwood). He made two birdies on his final four holes, though, to gain a spark, and a 12-point performance Friday (six birdies, no bogeys) moved him into a tie for 11th through 36 holes in the TOUR’s only Modified Stableford scoring event. Noren, 40, made his decision and lived with it. He has recorded five top-25s in 10 career Open appearances and has played in 32 majors overall. He competed at the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews, as well. He intends on playing in several more majors. Not to say the experience hasn’t been a bit bittersweet. “It was a weird week,” reflected Noren after Friday’s second round in Truckee. “I was going to get into (The Open) and then it was just confusing (Thursday), weird emotions, because I couldn’t stand being there, and it was too good of an event, and I knew this was a good event, too. I just wanted to play somewhere, make sure I could play somewhere. “I booked a flight Tuesday morning. It took so long because I was first reserve from Thursday even to Wednesday, so nothing happened for over a — just like a week. I didn’t think anybody would withdraw. They actually did, and sad for them, but also I wanted to play this. I wanted to get some more points. I’ve got three weeks of training after this before the (FedExCup) Playoffs, and I wanted to play this week, and maybe that mindset made me have a little less patience that I needed this time. “Golf is a long career, and I’ve played a lot of (Open Championships), and I’ll get to play it again.” After finishing T30 at the Genesis Scottish Open, Noren arrived at St. Andrews on Monday night before his early-morning Tuesday practice nine. Still first alternate at that point, he decided to traverse eight time zones backward to the Sierra Nevada region – “going west like this is not that bad,” remarked Noren. “It’s worse going back east.” He arrived in Sacramento late Tuesday night, near midnight, and had trouble procuring his rental car and golf clubs. He got squared away at 10 a.m. Wednesday, worked with the TOUR to change his pro-am tee time to an afternoon slot, and made the 112-mile drive to Old Greenwood. Noren hails from Sweden but lives in south Florida now, practicing at The Bear’s Club. This combined with previous course knowledge – he finished T9 at the 2020 Barracuda Championship – made for a less daunting learning curve as he transitioned from links golf. “It helps living in America now,” Noren said. “You get these conditions pretty much every week. It’s not that tough going from surfaces. It’s probably easier going to faster greens like this than the other way around. “You need a day, preferably two or three, but a day is fine. If you go straight and don’t get a practice round, don’t get to practice putting at all, it’s pretty tough, but one day is fine.” Thursday was “a weird day,” admitted Noren. Through 14 holes, he was a few points off the cut-line pace, “just knowing that I could be at St. Andrews and then I’ve got to play some good golf here just to make the cut.” He relishes the Modified Stableford format, though, knowing it’s doable to jump up the leaderboard quickly. He rallied to move within striking distance of 36-hole leader Chez Reavie (28 points) and the 10-time DP World Tour winner is fully energized to chase his first TOUR title this weekend. Noren currently ranks No. 75 on the FedExCup, his TOUR season highlighted by a T5 at The Honda Classic. He’s motivated to improve that position before his pre-Playoffs training period, in an enjoyable setting. And he’ll be particularly motivated to make eagles. “I love this course,” Noren said. “It’s an interesting format. You can have a good chance for eagle on 12, and it’s just fun. You can make an eagle, or eagle-birdie in a row you’re 7 points. It’s like sometimes in golf when just nothing happens and then you need something like that. It’s a cool format, and I think you need a couple of eagles to make it happen, you know.”

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McKINNEY, Texas — Sam Burns still has the lead going into the final round of the AT&T Byron Nelson despite more magic on the 18th green from local favorite Jordan Spieth. Now it’s a race to beat the weather in Texas in the final round with a good number of the players headed to the PGA Championship in South Carolina. RELATED: Tee times adjusted for final round Burns shot a 3-under 69 for a one-stroke lead over K.H. Lee, who had a 67. Spieth, Matt Kuchar and Charl Schwartzel each shot 66 and were three strokes back along with Alex Noren, who shot 70. The players will switch from twosomes back to threesomes going off the first and 10th tees soon after daybreak Sunday with heavy rain in the forecast. Without delays, the tournament will finish about four hours earlier than normal. Spieth rolled in another eagle at the par-5 18th, this time a shorter, bending putt from the fringe behind the hole. This time it just trimmed his deficit after Spieth’s 55-footer up a hill that splits the green gave him a share of the first-round lead. The roar was the same, though, from the biggest gallery on the new course of his hometown event, the TCP Craig Ranch in McKinney, about 30 miles north of Dallas. It’s the third venue in the past four Nelsons. “Once it got on the green, it looked good,” Spieth said. “Started the putter raise and I wasn’t positive it was going in because the angle it was coming in at. I wanted to do the no look to the crowd, but, I mean, it was a really cool moment.” Seamus Power holed out on a 35-foot bunker shot on the par-4 15th for a 67 and was tied with 2017 U.S. Amateur winner Doc Redman at 16 under. Redman shot 69. Scott Stallings and Harris English shot matching 63s after making the cut on the number at 6 under, a record low for the Nelson on a course that hosted two Korn Ferry Tour Championships. Burns, trying to become first player since Camilo Villegas in 2008 to get his first two PGA TOUR victories in consecutive events, had his first bogey of the tournament on No. 1 and another on the sixth hole. He missed an eagle by inches on 18. Lee birdied four of his last seven holes and the South Korean briefly shared the lead with Burns before the Louisiana native tapped in for birdie on the final hole. Spieth’s eagle was a boost after back-to-back bogeys stalled the momentum of six birdies over a nine-hole stretch for the three-time major winner who will be looking for the career grand slam next week. Kuchar birdied five of the last seven holes on the front nine, and the 2011 Masters champion Schwartzel answered a bogey at 16 with consecutive birdies. Stallings birdied six consecutive holes a day after shooting 71 in the second round, when allergy medication affected him badly enough for his caddy to ask, “You think we could break 80 today?” Seeking his first win since 2014, Stallings made the turn at 2 under in the second round. The 36-year-old Tennessean had four straight birdies, made the cut on the number and has played 27 holes in 13 under. “You’re way behind, you’re trying to give yourself as many birdie putts as you can,” said Stallings, who has just three top-three finishes in seven years since winning at Torrey Pines. “I didn’t know that I made six in a row.” Sung Kang, the defending champion from 2019 before last year’s COVID-19 cancellation and the subsequent move to TPC Craig Ranch after two years at the treeless links course Trinity Forest in Dallas, shot 72 to remain at 8 under. Jon Rahm, the highest-ranked player in field at No. 3, is 11 under after a 68. Fifth-ranked Bryson DeChambeau, who played at nearby SMU, stayed at 7 under with a 72.

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