Singh leads Langer by a stroke at Senior PGA on Trump course

Cameron Tringale ... The 33-year-old - by the way, how is he only 33 with 183 cuts made in 290 PGA TOUR starts as a professional and still winless? - continues to surge from the doldrums of the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons when he missed 31 of 54 cuts. He's 7-for-9 this season with a solo third (RSM) among four top 20s, including in each of the last two weeks. He's back to doing what he's always done best. Currently 21st in GIR, 42nd in Strokes Gained: Putting and 35th in conversion percentage inside 10 feet. He's also cashed in six of his last seven trips to Pebble Beach dating back to 2012. Rafa Cabrera Bello ... No matter the international member of the PGA TOUR, managing one's life during the pandemic was multiplied by the additional layer of concern for family abroad. To state the obvious, golfers are humans, too, so it wasn't surprising that the Spaniard struggled when competition resumed last June. He played out the string with unimpressive results before resetting over the holidays. Returning in 2021 on his home circuit, he went 4th-T35-T33 from Abu Dhabi to Dubai to Saudi Arabia in the last three weeks. While the 36-year-old may travel to Pebble Beach with some fatigue, he brings that renewed confidence and the fact that he recorded top 30s in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2018 and 2019. That experience combined with superb putting come together at a good time. Brice Garnett ... Mixed results at Pebble Beach but he did finish T19 in his first of five trips in 2014. It's a theme that transcends the entirety of his career on the PGA TOUR, but it overshadows his knack to beat par regularly. Case in point, he ranks T14 with 25 red numbers this season, but his challenge remains connecting enough of them to maintain a lofty position on leaderboards. Currently 26th on TOUR in both fairways hit and Strokes Gained: Putting, as well as seventh in conversion percentage inside 10 feet, so the ingredients are there. Rob Oppenheim ... The light-hitting, 41-year-old journeyman rarely pings our radar. He needs a lot of things to go right to make noise. He relies on precision off the tee and accuracy on approach to get the job done. Every once in a while, that's exactly what happens and it's why he's a PGA TOUR member. In fact, his career-best finish in 87 TOUR starts was a T8 in the 2017 edition of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He's also cashed in all three of his other appearances. A little luck never hurts, either. He led the circuit with 22 hole-outs last season. Chase Seiffert ... As a rookie and first-timer in last year's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, he opened with a flawless 6-under 66 on the host course. He was up and down thereafter en route to a T50 (with a 75 on Pebble Beach in the finale), but this is an opportunity for redemption with that experience plugged in. Currently just inside the top 125 in the FedExCup on the shoulders of a pair of top 20s, including a T12 three weeks ago at PGA WEST. Presents nothing flashy but like a man comfortable in his own skin, his bag is balanced. NOTE: Sleeper is a relative term, so Rob uses unofficial criteria to determine who qualifies. Each of the following usually is determined to be ineligible for this weekly staple: Winners of the tournament on the current host course; winners in the same season; recent major champions; top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking; recent participants of team competitions.

Click here to read the full article…

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Steve Stricker did it the hard way. After writing the USGA for a special exemption into next week’s U.S. Open at Erin Hills, and getting denied, Stricker shot 67-65 at the sectional qualifier at Ridgeway and Germantown Country Clubs on Monday to earn a spot in the 156-player field. “It might be the easy way,� said Stricker, whose 10-under-par total put him alone at the top when a storm halted play with a handful of players still out on the course. “Easier than trying to—yeah, well. It’s nice to be able to go there and play. I’m excited. I’m happy it all worked out.� Troy Merritt, Chez Reavie, Andres Romero and Trey Mullinax finished at 8 under par or better and looked likely to also qualify. Harris English was at 9 under through 16 holes. This will mark the first time the U.S. Open has come to Wisconsin, and Stricker, who lives in Edgerton, about an hour and 15 minutes’ drive from Erin Hills, was grinding to get in. He walked the course with the USGA’s Mike Davis, original owner Bob Lang and Erin Hills chairman Jim Reinhart when a Wisconsin U.S. Open was just a seedling of an idea. Stricker is also a five-time Wisconsin State Open champion who has represented the state throughout a long and distinguished PGA TOUR career that has seen him win 12 times. Still, he went from optimism to pessimism as he wrote the USGA for an exemption, which in the past has mostly been limited to Hall of Famers, plus then-amateur sensation Aaron Baddeley. “I think he just wanted to get in on his own at this point,� said Mario Tiziani, Stricker’s brother-in-law, agent, and occasional caddie. (Tiziani was on the bag in Memphis.) “A lot of people were lobbying for it, but he just wanted to get in on his own. He’s 84th in the world—they probably could have [let him in]—but he’s happy the way it went. “It was a quick no,� Tiziani added. “And, personally, I feel like that’s what the exemption is for, a guy that’s not in the top 60 but he’s super close. Being in Wisconsin and some of the other things that matter, I think it would’ve been a good thing to do, but they have other ideas and he made it on his own.� Stricker nearly holed out for eagle at the par-4 13th hole at Germantown late Monday, and his tap-in birdie got him to 10 under par and seemingly in command. Alas, after his tee shot wound up in a hole on 14, he was denied relief and, trying to do too much with his second shot, clipped a tree and hit his ball in the hazard. He salvaged a bogey after taking a drop and a penalty stroke. “It ended up being a great bogey,� Stricker said of his heart-stopping moment on 14. “It was one of those unfortunate breaks, really, to get into that hole. In hindsight, I probably should have just laid it up short of the hazard. I should have just taken my medicine.� A tap-in birdie at the par-5 18th hole gave him a 10-under-par total, which led the qualifier as some groups waited to finish. The Memphis sectional, one of 10 across the country and 12 worldwide, featured 108 players vying for nine spots. Stricker, 50, has played in 19 U.S. Opens, with his best a fifth-place finish in 1999. He voiced his displeasure at being denied an exemption, but Monday’s performance made it a moot point. A club member brought him and Tiziani two celebratory beers as they plopped down in the clubhouse grill just before the horn blew for the weather delay. “It gained some traction,� Stricker said. “It made its way around, people started tweeting, thinking that I should’ve been given a spot. It’s a big relief to get it behind me and be able to play. It was on my mind a lot. I mean that’s why I’ve been playing all these events, trying to get my world ranking up to try to get in there and play.� Stricker normally doesn’t play as many as four straight tournaments, but last week’s Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide, where he faded with a final-round 78, was his fourth in a row. He flew privately Sunday night to Memphis, not just for the sectional qualifier but also because he was scheduled to play in this week’s FedEx St. Jude Classic, after which the top 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking will get into the field at Erin Hills. Now, though, he’s already in. And the FedEx St. Jude would be his fifth consecutive week of play, followed by next week’s U.S. Open (sixth) and the PGA TOUR Champions’ American Family Insurance Championship (seventh). So as not to play himself to exhaustion, Stricker said he may withdraw this week. “I’d hate to do that to them, and to the tournament,� Stricker said. “I’ll talk to a few people and see what the right thing to do is.� He also has one more conundrum, now that he’s a go for Erin Hills: How to distribute his allotment of tickets to friends and family. Stricker laughed at the mention of it. “That’s a nice problem to have,� he said.

Click here to read the full article…

SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda - Saturday afternoon, Kramer Hickok did something for the first time in his six-year professional career. He used a compass to check the wind — on the greens. Bermuda Championship host venue Port Royal GC is situated adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, with several holes fully exposed to the wind. The third round featured sustained gusts of 15-20 mph, up to 25 mph. Hickok knew the conditions would influence the break of putts, and he wanted maximum information. "I'm asking (caddie) Billy to get the compass out and see what the wind's doing on this putt, because you have to factor that in so much, just because the wind's blowing so hard," said Hickok, who stands tied for second at 9-under into the final round of the Bermuda Championship, one back of leader Doc Redman. "Literally you've got a putt that's half a cup out left, and the wind's off the right, it will blow it left. It's different, it's fun, and you've got to embrace it." Those who embrace this week's conditions at par-71 Port Royal GC are best positioned to thrive on the seaside venue, which measures just 6,828 yards but has played to a cumulative over-par total this week (71.374). Between the second and third rounds, the wind direction flipped nearly 180 degrees, causing the most exposed holes to play in drastically different fashion. The 443-yard, par-4 11th played downwind on Friday, and Hickok nearly drove the green, his ball settling 35 yards shy of the hole - with a back hole location. Saturday, that was not the case. "I was five yards, 10 yards off the front edge yesterday, and today I bombed the drive and had 8-iron and left it 20 yards short," Hickok said. "So my 8-iron today ended up in the same spot that my driver was yesterday. It was wild. "(Today), it was 135 yards, and I thought I hit a 165-yard shot with an 8-iron, and it came up 20 yards short, and that's just because of elevation. It's already playing 12 (yards) downwind, so the wind's just going to hit it that much more. It's just hard to give yourself a 6-iron or 7-iron from 135 yards." "Yesterday to that back pin, I probably had 75 yards," added Redman, who arrived in Bermuda on the strength of two third-place finishes in his past five starts. "And then today, I had maybe 135 (yards), and I hit 7-iron. Quite a bit different." Windy conditions are to be expected in Bermuda. Players know upon arrival that they'll need to execute a variety of shots in order to keep pace, and that the nature of the challenge could differ by the day, or even the hour. "We're not playing in a dome," said Ryan Armour, one back into Sunday in chase of his second PGA TOUR title. "We're on an island in the Atlantic. This isn't Palm Springs. You've got to hit some golf shots. It's fun." With blind tee shots, narrow fairways and sharp doglegs, Port Royal facilitates players hitting from similar positions in the fairways, generally neutralizing distance off the tee. Consequently, a variety of playing styles are represented on the leaderboard through 54 holes. "Especially with this wind, being in the fairway is really nice," noted Redman, 22, who ranked No. 95 on TOUR in driving distance last season. "You can control your ball flight better, and your distance. On some holes, (distance) definitely helps, but for me, I just want to be in the fairway." "You can't really overpower this place," added Armour, 44, who ranked No. 182 in driving distance last season. "It's kind of nice knowing that everybody's going to be hitting from the same spot." It makes for an eclectic leaderboard - of the top-seven into the final round, four players are in their 20s (Redman, Hickok, Wyndham Clark, Ollie Schniederjans), and three are in their 40s (Armour, Brian Gay and Matt Jones). Similar conditions are expected Sunday, and creativity should remain at a premium on the Atlantic. With 500 FedExCup Points awarded to the winner - along with a two-year TOUR exemption, and entry into a cornucopia of top-tier events - the contenders plan to embrace the challenge. "It's such a feel game right now, the way the course is playing, which is a lot of fun," Hickok said. "You don't get that a lot on this TOUR. You've got to open up the imagination and just hit different shots. It's fun."

Click here to read the full article…