Tee times for the first and second rounds of the 2024 Masters

SAN DIEGO — Mackenzie Hughes and Louis Oosthuizen brought the memories of Tiger Woods roaring back to life Saturday in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Just like in 2008, when Woods made eagle putts across the green on Nos. 13 and 18, it left this U.S. Open up for grabs. RELATED: Leaderboard | Inside the Field: Travelers Championship First it was Hughes, rolling in a 60-foot eagle putt from the back of the green to the front pin at No. 13 that got him into the mix. Next came Oosthuizen with an eagle putt from 50 feet to a front pin on the 18th. That led to them being tied for the lead with Russell Henley, who was hanging on for dear life at the end of a third round that set the stage for a Sunday filled with possibilities. Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau were two shots behind. McIlroy has gone seven years without a major, while DeChambeau can get the last laugh by joining Brooks Koepka with back-to-back U.S. Open titles. A U.S. Open that for two days lacked excitement came to life in a big way. Hughes, coming off four consecutive missed cuts, birdied the 18th for a 3-under 68. He was the first player to reach 5-under 208. Oosthuizen made next to nothing until he holed 80 feet worth of putts over the final three holes, a 30-foot birdie on the 16th and his big eagle at the last. “The only thing you see is … you can actually putt this in the water,” Oosthuizen said. Woods is recovering from his February car crash that badly injured his legs and is not back at Torrey Pines. In his absence were replays of the eagles he made on the 13th and 18th hole in the third round in 2008 that gave him the 54-hole lead. It took two players to do that this time, but it was equally spectacular. “I know Tiger’s was further right, but halfway there, I loved it,” Hughes said. “The charge that goes through your body when the ball goes in the hole and the crowd erupts is why we play. It gives me goosebumps now thinking about it.” And he’ll have plenty of nerves Sunday playing in the final group with Oosthuizen, who has had five runner-up finishes in the majors — two in playoffs — since winning the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews. Henley holed a bunker shot on the par-3 11th for birdie for a two-shot lead and made a great par save from the cabbage behind he 12th green. But he showed signs of cracking over the last hour, dropping shots on the 15th and having to escape with par on No. 18. Thirteen players remained under par going into the final round. Eight players were separated by three shots on a tough course that might not be as accessible as it was Saturday, when all three par 5s were set up to be reachable in two. McIlroy started the day six shots behind and did his best work to save bogey. He ran off three birdies in four holes to start the back nine, only to pull his tee shot into a ravine. He took a penalty drop instead of going into the ravine — a smart decision considering television showed a large rattlesnake in the area — and limited the damage to a bogey. A birdie on the 18th for a 67, matching the low score of the week, gave him a chance to win a major for the first time since the 2014 PGA Championship. McIlroy hasn’t had many of those opportunities lately. “This is the only tournament in the world where you fist-pump a bogey,” McIlroy said. “Only losing one there was a big deal, and getting it up-and-down out of the bunker on 16 and making that birdie on 18 just to get that shot back that I lost, really big.” DeChambeau played it big, too, going with driver just about everywhere and missing some fairways by such a wide margin that he had good lies in fan-trampled grass. It led to his first time in 67 rounds at the majors without a bogey on his card, and his 68 gave him a chance to join Koepka and Curtis Strange as the only back-to-back Open winners in the last 50 years. Koepka, meanwhile, was among those who lost a good opportunity. He shot 71 and was only five shots behind, but with 13 players ahead of him. Jon Rahm, slowed by a double bogey on No. 14 and not nearly enough birdies, had a 72 and was in the group at 2-under 211 along with Scottie Scheffler (70) and Matthew Wolff (73). Dustin Johnson shot a 68 and was among those at 1-under 212, four behind and very much in the game in this major and on this golf course. “It’s a golf course where anything can happen,” Oosthuizen said.

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Most fans who go to a PGA TOUR event like this week’s BMW Championship have a favorite player to watch. Maybe even get an autograph, too. Frank Yocum is no different. He’s hoping to see major champions like Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas, among others, play Wilmington Country Club in the second event of the FedExCup Playoffs. But he won’t just be watching the laser-like approach shots or the delicate chips the pros hit. “I want to almost take notes on how their caddies go about everything,” Yocum explains. “How they take reads on the greens, how they give advice, whether it be the club or how they factor in the wind. “And I want to also learn how quickly they get to know a course, because coming in most of them don’t know Wilmington.” Yocum does, though. For the past five years he has worked as a caddie at Wilmington CC, which is making its FedExCup and PGA TOUR debut this week. He estimates he’s got about 600 rounds looping there under his belt. That course knowledge should make him a valuable resource on Wednesday when he walks inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth and his caddie Michael Greller during the BMW Championship pro-am. Yocum is one of the 1,100 current Evans Scholars chosen by the Western Golf Association, which is the beneficiary of the tournament. The scholarships, which are valued at $125,000, are awarded to hard-working young caddies with financial need and cover full tuition and housing for four years. The program, which was founded in 1930, has 11,815 alumni. “It was a life-changing moment,” Yocum says of opening the letter with the good news. The WGA’s Caddie Academy also stands to benefit from the PGA TOUR’s Charity Challenge, a season-long fantasy competition to help distribute the $100 million the TOUR has earmarked for charities supporting diversity, equity and inclusion over the next 10 years. The tournament leading the competition, the Korn Ferry Tour’s NV5 Invitational presented by Old National Bank, supports the Academy, as does the BMW Championship, and a win would be worth $100,000. Yocum, who attends Penn State and is studying accounting, grew up in a bustling household. He is a quadruplet with two sisters, Claire and Judy, who are identical, and a brother, Jake, who is fraternal. The girls are attending Penn State, as well, majoring in speech pathology and supply chain management, respectively, while Jake is enrolled at Temple to study business management. “It’s crazy sometimes, but it’s also really great growing up with four people going through the same thing at the same time,” Yocum says. “You always have someone that you can relate with and make that connection. And you always have someone you can count on. “It’s been great having two sisters and a brother. It’s kind of the perfect mix.” The four were born 31 weeks prematurely and the medical bills were high. Their mother Claire had to go to Arizona to see a specialist, and the babies spent a month in the hospital after they were born. The family was able to return home to Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania, just across the Delaware border, shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2011. “Imagine getting four kids through all of the security right after 9/11,” Yocum says. “… And then growing up, we had so many different people in and out of the house, just trying to help take care of us because it’s a real hassle.” Putting four kids through college at the same time was another financial challenge That’s why the Platt Evans Scholarship was such a bonus for Yocum, who applied for the grant at the urging of members at Wilmington CC, who also provided letters of recommendation. He had to write an essay and the finalists were then interviewed by WGA representatives. When the letter came, Yocum’s parents, Frank and Claire, held onto it for several days. The big reveal happened on day when Yocum got home after officiating a basketball game and found some friends, his siblings and his grandparents gathered there. “I walked in the house, had some normal conversations and then they put the package in front of me,” Yocum recalls. “And without knowing whether I got it or not, they just said, all right, let’s see. “Luckily, I had received the Evans Scholarship and everyone kind of gave me hugs and went crazy.” Yocum, who played baseball and basketball in high school and calls himself a “striving” golfer, is one of about 100 caddies at Wilmington registered on its app. He has several regular bags and is usually booked at least a week in advance. Caddying has allowed Yocum to bolster his communication skills. He’s learned to be comfortable and confident talking with older members, as well as people with diverse backgrounds and interests. He’s learned the importance of commitment to the job – caddying on hot days or rainy ones when he might rather do something else. “Another thing is adaptation because all golfers are not the same and you have to figure out what that golfer wants,” he says. “And I think that can go into life because not every person’s the same. So, you have to figure out how you’re going to please a specific person and more specifically into business, how you’re trying to please the client. “That’s the adaptation part of it that you have to learn. I think learning these skills early has helped me so much and will help me in the professional world as well.” Yocum caddied for John Carney, the governor of Delaware, at the BMW Championship media day. It was a miserable and rainy day in June but Carney, Yocum and company forged on. “We were one of the only groups that played the complete 18 holes non-stop,” Yocum says. “We played right through the heavy downpour and made our way in. So, I think that was probably the worst weather-wise I’ve been out there.” Yocum also remembers the way he felt when he saw Wilmington CC on Aug. 8, 2020 after a tornado roared through the property. More than 300 trees were uprooted, some falling on greens, and every bunker on the North and South courses was destroyed. “It was so detrimental, but everyone did a great job rallying back and getting the course in it,” Yocum says. “It was a complete mess. I didn’t think that it could ever rebound from it, but in a short time they got it back into great shape.” And Yocum’s best day on a golf course? Well, there are too many to single out. In addition to the governor, he has caddied for club champions at Wilmington, including Buddy Marucci, a two-time Walker Cup captain and the winner 2008 U.S. Senior Amateur. “I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of different, great things with caddying,” Yocum says. “So, I can’t say that there’s one best day because there’s been so many great days.” Something tells us Wednesday with Speith and Greller will make that list, too.

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Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal shot 8-under 62 on Sunday to win the ISPS Handa Championship for his seventh European tour title — and first on home soil.

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