Sleeper Picks: Corales Puntacana

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DETROIT – There’s nothing like playing in front of a legend. That was the half-serious explanation from Matthew Wolff, 21, after his six straight birdies and second-round 64 put him at 11 under and in a tie for the early second-round lead at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. He figured he was just showing off for playing partner Vijay Singh, the 57-year-old World Golf Hall of Famer. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said this,” Wolff said, “but on number six, after I birdied, I said, ‘Gosh, maybe I just have a thing of playing with older guys and playing really well,’ because at 3M last year I shot 62 playing with Tom Lehman. Maybe it’s something about the old greats, me feeling like I need to impress them or something like that.” RELATED: Leaderboard | Fowler enjoys solid start at Rocket Mortgage | DeChambeau gives himself ‘B’ after monster round Wolff won the 2019 NCAA individual title, turned pro, and broke through with his first PGA TOUR win at the 3M Open almost exactly a year ago. But his rocket-like trajectory stalled with no top-10 finishes since then, and he now says it was because he tried to be too perfect. By pressing and grinding, he said, he actually went backward. “I would say just maturity, just mentally,” he said of the big difference this week. It’s funny to hear the M word – maturity – from a guy who just turned 21. Wolff was born on April 14, 1999. By that time Singh had won his first major, the 1998 PGA Championship, on the way to three overall and 34 PGA TOUR wins in total. When Wolff was 5, Singh reached world No. 1; when Wolff was 9, Singh won the FedExCup. The two are separated by 36 years, but, alas, by only seven strokes on the scorecard over the first 36 holes at sunny Detroit Golf Club. While Wolff was scorching the course and climbing the leaderboard, Singh, who sports a white goatee these days, was carding his second straight 2-under 70. At 4 under total, he is projected to make the cut. “I haven’t really heard much about him before,” Wolff said. “I never met him before this and this, the last two days were a lot of fun. He was talking to me the whole time. We talked about anything from, you know, golf to what he does just randomly and where he likes to go and travel. It was a really cool experience. “… It was cool to see how he approaches it and how he goes about his game,” he added. “I definitely learned a lot from him the last two days. I think he’s going to make the cut, so I’m not going to let up and let him catch me.”

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BURLINGTON, N.C. (AP) — J.R. Smith stepped into a hornets nest in his first college golf tournament and it had nothing to do with his high score. The 36-year-old two-time NBA champion was literally stung by hornets while completing his round Tuesday for North Carolina A&T on the second day of Elon’s Phoenix Invitational. “To get stung on the basketball court or in an arena, never happens,” said Smith, now a freshman walk-on. “That’s one of the very few things you don’t have to worry about (in basketball) – other animals. When I got stung, I was like ‘No way.’” The hornets just added to the sting of Smith’s birdie-less round of 8-over-par 79 on the Donald Ross-designed layout. Combined with his two rounds Monday, he finished at 29 over 240 – in 81st place out 84 entries. Smith said he’s determined to improve because he knows others are paying attention. He communicated with Phoenix guard Chris Paul after Monday’s two rounds and heard from ex-NBA teammates as part of a group text. “I got a lot of great feedback,” Smith said. “Chris Paul was telling me guys were talking about it in the locker room. Guys are really looking for my scores, so I got to take care of business so when I see them it ain’t going to be too much backlash.” Still, he made an impact at the event. Well after the round, playing partner Mason Whatley of Presbyterian went to have a photograph with Smith. “He has made golf cool for people,” Whatley said. When the hornets attacked, being an ambassador for the game was not Smith’s top priority. It happened on his third hole of the third round at Alamance Country Club. His tee shot went off the fairway and became embedded in pine straw. He found the ball, but his pull cart’s wheel rolled over the the nest. Smith darted away from that area, waving his arms, before needing treatment. Smith, along with playing partners Florian Blatti of George Washington and Whatley, were granted a 15-minute break as other groups played through. “I tried to turn it into a positive,” Smith said, referring to suiting up while ill in the NBA. “This might be your equivalent of a flu game.” Smith had the sixth-best score out of six players on his team. The Aggies finished 11th in the 13-team field, 57 shots off the pace set by tournament champion Elon. Smith played 16 years in the NBA, winning championships with Cleveland in 2016 and with the Los Angeles Lakers last year in the Florida pandemic bubble. The Lakers’ title-clinching win came exactly one year before his debut as an Aggies golfer. Smith said he has a round tentatively set up next week with recently retired North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams. Smith was originally set to play basketball for Williams’ Tar Heels before going jumping straight to the NBA in 2004.

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