Teenage Brooks Koepka fell in love at Royal St. George’s

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PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – One of the wildest pars Phil Mickelson ever made didn’t even count. Neither did one of the worst lies Jordan Spieth ever had. Fifty minutes into the start of the Genesis Open, with only 30 players having teed off, the opening round was scrapped because of increasing rain that soaked Riviera and poor visibility that made it unusually tough on the earliest of starters. Everyone started over after what amounted to a seven-hour delay, and Spieth made the most of his second chance. He chipped in twice for birdie, made birdie on all three par 5s and was at 5 under par through 12 holes. He was tied for the lead with Sung Kang, who was through 14 holes. Tiger Woods never made it to the course. He was to play in the afternoon and faces a long day of as many holes as he can get in Friday in what now becomes a long, disjointed week trying to catch up. “Certainly got some good breaks,” Spieth said. None was bigger than the decision to restart the round. Spieth hit his tee shot on the short par-4 10th to the left, normally a good place to be except that his ball hit the cart path, hit it again, bounded across the forward tee at No. 11 and disappeared into shin-high grass so deep he could barely see his ball. If he could have played from there, par would have been a challenge. And then the horn blew to suspend play because of wet conditions, and a few hours later, the PGA TOUR thought it was best to scrap the round. It was the first time in more than five years on the PGA TOUR that a round started over. The was great news to Spieth, who hit his tee shot left of the green near a tree, pitched to 15 feet and walked away with par “Given I went cart path to cart path to junk on the first start today … went from kind of being unfortunate to just fortunate,” he said. He was playing alongside Mickelson, who hit his first tee shot on No. 10 into a bunker, a bad spot in any weather. Mickelson apparently could see just fine, so while Spieth and Xander Schauffele marked their balls, Mickelson chose to finish the hole. He went over the green into a back bunker, the ball slightly plugged in wet sand. Unable to control the spin, he blasted out to the green and watched it roll into a front bunker. With his fourth shot, the ball appeared to be going fast enough to return to the back bunker, instead the hole got in the way. It disappeared for a par, and Mickelson walked back to his caddie with a smile and said, “How about we go in now?” When he returned, Mickelson hit a beautiful flop shot from long and left of the green to 18 feet, and his birdie attempt turned away at the cup. He tapped in for another par, this one far less entertaining. “Same score,” Mickelson said as he walked off the green. “Whatever.” Spieth reached the edge of the green on the par-5 11th and took two putts for birdie. From right of the green at No. 12, the toughest hole at Riviera, he hit a lofted chip that rolled dead into the cup for another birdie. Spieth picked up two more birdies on the par-5 11th and par-5 first hole, and then when he came up short of the green at No. 2, another cheer rang out on the hill as he chipped in again. Kang chipped in for eagle on the 11th hole and kept it in play on the tough par 4s. Jimmy Walker (10 holes) and Patrick Rodgers (13 holes) were at 4 under. Mickelson, coming off a birdie Monday in his victory at Pebble Beach, had yet to make a birdie and was 1 over through 12 holes. Rain was one problem. The PGA TOUR was equally concerned about visibility. The starting time at Riviera was at 6:40 a.m. because it has a 144-man field and limited daylight this time of the year. But with thick clouds that brought the rain, it made the sky even darker and players had trouble even seeing their shots. “We don’t do that very often,” said Mark Russell, the TOUR’s Vice President of Rules and Competition. “But if I had it do over again, we would have delayed the starting times.” Scores last were reset in 2013 at the Dell Technologies Championship outside Boston after an hour of play because of heavy rain, and the same year at Kapalua because of wind so strong that balls wouldn’t stay on the greens.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. – News and notes from Tuesday at the Masters. We’ll update this file throughout the day, so check back often. SOUND SLEEP FOR REED A year ago on a Saturday, Patrick Reed slept like a baby. He had just shot three rounds in the 60s at Augusta National, held a three-shot lead going into Sunday, and was on the verge of his first major. So yeah, nothing much to dwell on, right? “I thought I wasn’t going to sleep very well,â€� Reed recalled. “I’ve heard from the past from other champions and other golfers that have always told me that whenever you have an opportunity to sleep on a lead going into Sunday at a major, you’re going to have a rough night. … “Honestly, I was completely surprised. I slept so well.â€� Reed shot 71 in that final round to win by a stroke. He’d like nothing more than to hold onto the Green Jacket for another year. While his results are not encouraging – no top-10s in his last nine PGA TOUR starts – he likes where his game is right now. Plus, he knows what it takes to succeed at Augusta National. “Even if you have a perfect game plan, and you know what you’re trying to do around the golf course, you still always are wondering, OK, well is this the right game plan or am I doing the right things, since you haven’t won here. But now, actually having the win, I know what I need to do in order to compete and have a chance on Sunday. “Knowing that I have to get the jacket back at the end of the week, it makes me more hungry and more motivated to keep the jacket.â€� – Mike McAllister ONCE A CADDIE, NOW A CONTENDER  The first time Francesco Molinari walked Augusta National in a competitive environment was in 2006. He was the caddie for his brother Edoardo, who qualified for the Masters by virtue of his U.S. Amateur win the previous year. “I carried the clubs and prayed that he was going to hit good shots,â€� Francesco recalled. “… It was great to be here. It wasn’t fun trying to pick club for him. It’s a tough course to caddie around.â€� It took four more years before Francesco, the younger of the two Molinari brothers, qualified to play the Masters. He’s made seven previous starts but has never made much noise on the weekend. Of course, he’s never arrived at Augusta National with the kind of credentials he currently owns, as the reigning Open Championship winner and Europe’s leading point producer at the Ryder Cup. With a PGA TOUR win this season (the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard), and a solid effort in his most recent start (semifinalist at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play), Molinari enters with a raised level of confidence. “Clearly, I’m in a much different position to where I was coming in the last few years,â€� he said. “… I can’t deny that. I feel good about my game. … Confidence comes with success, and I’ve had a lot of success in the last few months. I think that the important thing is that I don’t have to let my guard down.â€� – Mike McAllister KOEPKA HAPPY TO BE BACK AT AUGUSTA Brooks Koepka didn’t own a major title the last time he played Augusta National. He finished T11 at the Masters two years ago, but missed last year’s tournament because of the wrist injury that hampered him in early 2018. How has he changed in the two years since his last Masters appearance? “I’ve never been a major champion when I played here,â€� Koepka said. “Completely different player probably. Understand how to handle pressure a lot better. Understand this golf course a lot better.â€� Koepka was still in a soft cast at this time year. It was painful just to get shampoo out of the bottle, he said. He watched last year’s Masters on television, then went on to win two of 2018’s final three majors. “I think that was something I needed, to really kind of find my love for the game again, something that was important to me, to sit down and watch, I think, and really realize how much I do miss this game, assess kind of where I was at,â€� Koepka said. He’s happy to be back at Augusta National, but he also isn’t 100 percent. It has nothing to do with the wrist. That is fully healed. The famously fit golfer has refrained from lifting weights since THE PLAYERS Championship while dealing with fatigue. A recent diet may have been one reason he’s been feeling sluggish. Koepka limited himself to 1,800 calories per day in an attempt to lose weight. “You look at somebody like Michael Phelps or somebody like that eating 6,000 or 7,000 calories by lunch time,â€� Koepka said. “But I wanted to do it and try to lose some weight, and maybe went about it a little too aggressively for just a long period of time and the intensity of what I was doing.â€� Koepka has finished MC-T56-T56 in his last three starts. He still ranks 11th in the FedExCup after winning THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES in October and finishing runner-up in The Honda Classic last month.

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