Temperature checks, virus tests part of PGA return: reports

ORLANDO – First alternate Johnson Wagner wasn’t sure what the day held for him as he drove to Bay Hill Club & Lodge in the dark Thursday morning. He was in his car when the phone rang. PGA TOUR Rules Official Brad Fabel told him Davis Love III had withdrawn with a sore neck, and Wagner would get his spot if he could make a 7:20 tee time. He not only made it, he shot a 1-under 71. “I was just going to come in and wait on the tee,� said Wagner, 38, a three-time TOUR winner who has limited status this season. “My plan was to be on the range warming up at 6:30, before the first tee time at 6:45. If someone couldn’t go I was going to be available.� Wagner was fifth alternate at the entry deadline, but he already had to be in Orlando for a PGA TOUR Policy Board meeting on Monday. By then he’d moved up some, and he ascended all the way to first alternate when Talor Gooch withdrew Wednesday morning. He would have been crazy not to stick around. Playing with Daniel Berger (77) and Chesson Hadley (71) on Thursday, he tied for low man in the group. “I haven’t played here since 2013,� said Wagner, who missed the cut at The Honda Classic but finished T2 at the Puerto Rico Open before that. “I’ve always loved this place. I finished (tied for) 4th in 2012. “I got in 21 events last year and I’ll play 20 events, at least, this year,� he added. “I should’ve won in Puerto Rico. I was tied for the lead with two to play and hit a wedge into 17 and came up short and made bogey, and didn’t birdie 18. But my confidence is high, and I’m going to tear it up when I get in this year.� Wagner said he’d twice been first alternate on a Thursday, once in 2010 and once in 2015, but didn’t get in either time. He was certainly ready this time around, with the late, great Palmer’s trademark umbrella logo pinned to his hat and embroidered on his staff bag. “If I can go out there and rip it up tomorrow,� Wagner said, “get in contention, that would be a good story: first alternate to winner.�

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SILVIS, Ill. — A lot happened while Morgan Hoffmann spent more than two years in the Costa Rican jungle, in search of his own holistic cure to the rare form of muscular dystrophy that threatened to end a once-promising career in professional golf. News of significant changes to the Rules of Golf didn’t reach him. Now back in the game, feeling good and eager to use his platform to share news of a new way back to health, Hoffmann is familiar with most of the major changes handed down by the United States Golf Association in 2019. Putting with the flagstick in the hole? Sensible enough. Legally grounding a club in a hazard? “Interesting,” he said with some skepticism. Taking a drop from knee-high? “Weird,” Hoffmann said. Until Thursday morning, however, Hoffmann was unaware that accidentally deflecting your own ball in the course of a shot no longer constitutes a one-shot penalty, per Rule 11.1. So when his hack at a ball plugged in a green side bunker at TPC Deere Run’s par-3 16th struck the lip, flew upward, then backward and bounced off the brim of his cap back into the sand, Hoffman assumed he was hitting 4 on his next shot. After nearly holing his next attempt, he was understandably happy to discover he’d tapped in to save bogey. “It makes sense that it’s not a penalty; I was happy it wasn’t,” he said after being so informed by playing partners Cameron Champ and Cam Davis. “It was an absurd lie and I was happy to get away with bogey.” Hoffman is playing in the John Deere Classic after receiving a sponsor’s exemption just two days earlier, when three-time Deere winner Steve Stricker withdrew. Replacing one of the Deere’s perennial favorites meant that Hoffmann also earned a spot in one of the featured groups on ESPN+, so every one of his shots was streamed on PGA TOUR LIVE. Hoffmann posted a 1-over opening round on Thursday and will have to rally Friday afternoon to make the cut. But he’s done that here before. In 2013, Hoffmann played his first 19 holes of the tournament in 4 over. “I played the next 17 holes in something crazy to make the cut,” he remembered. Hoffmann tied for 17th that year and shared third three years later. “Good memories to rally on this course,” he said. With a medical extension having expired at last week’s Travelers Championship and no additional PGA TOUR starts currently scheduled, Hoffmann will need a serious rally to find his way back to full TOUR status sometime soon. At worst, he’s exempt into the second stage of Q-School for having made a combined 100 cuts on the PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour. Yet, having seemingly conquered his health challenge in unorthodox fashion in the wilds of Costa Rica, Hoffmann is content to take each day as it comes. “My perspective on life has changed so much,” he said. “lt’s just beautiful to be back out here.”

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