The First Look: AT&T Byron Nelson

HOUSTON – Memorial Park underwent its most recent renovation with a tournament in mind. The course’s radical transformation, overseen by one of the top names in modern course architecture, was intended to end an absence from the PGA TOUR that had lasted more than half a century. RELATED: Leaderboard | Scottie Scheffler gets mad, sets course record in Houston | Adam Schenk incurs penalty after mistakenly touching ball A dramatic finishing stretch was one of the features Tom Doak built on the new-and-improved Memorial Park, which is in its second year hosting the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open, and Doak’s design delivered late Saturday afternoon. Birdie opportunities are rare on the par-70 course that measures more than 7,400 yards. Firm greens surrounded by dramatic swales make players hesitant to fire at flags. And even when an opportunity does arise, it doesn’t come without plenty of risk. That’s especially true on the course’s 16th and 17th holes. Doak studied under Pete Dye, and he borrowed the World Golf Hall of Famer’s trademark closing trio of holes when he built Memorial Park. That includes a reachable par-5 16th surrounded by water and a demanding closing hole. The penultimate hole veers slightly from Dye’s philosophy, as Doak built a drivable par-4 with a peninsula green. Dye usually built a trademark par-3 – sometimes with an island green – for his penultimate hole. It led to a leaderboard that seemed constantly in flux during the final moments of Saturday’s third round. When it was all over, Scottie Scheffler emerged as your 54-hole leader. Scheffler is at 7-under 203. Five players – Jhonattan Vegas, Matthew Wolff, Kramer Hickok, Martin Trainer and Kevin Tway – are a stroke behind, and three more players are just two back. “It’s a placer where you can score,” Scheffler said. “It’s just difficult to.” Scheffler, who parred the final three after birdies at Nos. 14 and 15, was the rare player who was unscathed by the final three holes. Tway birdied 16 before a bogey-bogey finish dropped him from the lead. He bogeyed 17 after driving past the green, then watching his chip roll across the putting surface and into the water. After reaching the 16th green in two with a 6-iron from 230 yards, Wolff couldn’t hit the next green with a sand wedge. He thought he was playing safe when he teed off with a pitching wedge on the short par-4, but still made double-bogey after his approach went into the water. “At the end of the day, I thought I would be holding the lead,” Wolff said, “especially with a sand wedge in on 17.” Vegas, who said the 16th has always made him uncomfortable, hit his second shot into the water for the second straight day, but rebounded with a 15-foot birdie putt on the next hole. Scheffler is seeking his first PGA TOUR win, the only thing the 25-year-old hasn’t accomplished during the impressive start to his pro career. He was the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year and was the PGA TOUR’s Rookie of the Year last year. He’s advanced to the TOUR Championship in each of his first two seasons and made his Ryder Cup debut this year, beating World No. 1 Jon Rahm in Singles. He set Memorial Park’s course record Friday, shooting 8-under 62. It was his fourth round of 62 or lower since the start of the 2020 season, the most on TOUR in that span. That includes a 59 in last year’s FedExCup Playoffs. In a testament to the high variance that Memorial Park seems to create, he is 1 over par on his other 36 holes this week. “I always prefer the harder courses because I feel like I can take it deep on them still and get myself back in the tournament, which I did this week,” said Scheffler, who was 3 over after his first three holes of the week and shot 72 in the opening round. “This golf course is pretty challenging, but it’s not a golf course where if you’re playing great golf, you can’t take advantage of it.” Sunday could be a low-scoring day. In Memorial Park’s debut last year, a variety of tees and hole locations were used to create the easiest day of the week. Three players shot the then-course record of 63 in the final round. It’s likely this Sunday will provide a similar scenario. A victory, especially in his home state, would be meaningful for Scheffler, but he’s not the only one with a lot to play for Sunday. Wolff may be the hottest player on TOUR, arriving at Memorial Park after a runner-up and fifth-place finish. His resurgence comes after this year’s well-publicized mental health break. He’s once again showing the potential he displayed earlier in his career when he won just weeks after turning pro, was runner-up in last year’s U.S. Open and rose as high as 12th in the world ranking. Vegas first moved to Houston from Venezuela when he was 17 years old. He arrived without his family, and with just his clubs and a bag of clothes. He knew just 10 words of English. He qualified for the Houston Open the next year, and remembers being awestruck as he walked past legends like Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson. He calls it one of the most important weeks of his career. Trainer has endured a difficult stretch since his surprise win at the 2019 Puerto Rico Open, having made just six of 54 cuts in the last three seasons. It’s been three years since Tway won his lone PGA TOUR title. Hickok is seeking his first win. Winning at Memorial Park won’t be easy, but it should be exciting.

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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Argentina’s Martin Contini never had played in a PGA TOUR event before this week’s Honda Classic at PGA National. What better way to introduce himself to thousands of fans than to climb into the middle of the bleachers next to the 18th green at the Champion Course after hitting his second shot up there? Contini sat down, said hello, even waved to an NBC camera, the well-served fans loving every moment. He did so with a smile on his face, and why not? Having survived a longshot Monday qualifier – 130 players, four spots – just to get here, the 27-year-old is playing on house money. He shot 2-under 68 on Saturday, and finds himself tied for seventh heading into Sunday. Contini is one of a handful of dreamers and new faces who have made the most of a great opportunity this week at The Honda Classic, a $8 million PGA TOUR stop in its 50th year. Three of the four players who made it through qualifying at West Palm’s Banyon Cay are still playing, including left-hander Rick Lamb, who survived a 16-for-1 spot playoff early Tuesday morning. Lamb is 31, a pro for nearly a decade, and has played a season on the PGA TOUR, so he is not as caught up in the bright lights as some others. He has Korn Ferry Tour membership as a past champion (2016 LECOM Health Challenge, where he also was a Monday qualifier), but he is not expecting to get any starts from that. So he’ll chase the PGA TOUR and try to get into events via the Monday route. It may be easier hitting all the numbers in Saturday’s PowerBall. Lamb, who shot 70 and is in the middle of the pack (T-35) at 2-over 212, had to summon some heroics not once, but twice this week. First came the 16-for-1 playoff at Banyon Cay that spilled into Tuesday. The playoff began on a reachable par 5, and Lamb knew somebody was going to do something special. He wanted to make sure it was him. He hit driver and 4-iron to 40 feet and rolled in the eagle putt. Nobody matched it. On Friday, Lamb stood in the ninth fairway (his 36th hole) at PGA National’s Champion on the wrong side of the cut line. He needed birdie, hit an approach to 10 feet, and ran in the putt to finish at 2-over 142 and earn a weekend time. In golf, there is nothing given. “Pretty much every other professional athlete has a guaranteed contract, they know what they’re making (salary-wise),” Lamb said Saturday. “They just go out and try to perform their best. For us, there’s another layer of pressure that, if you don’t make the cut, you’re not making any money that week.” Andrew Kozan is a young local professional playing the Korn Ferry Tour who grew up playing PGA National (he was a member from age 7 to 15), attending The Honda with his parents each year. He, too, had planned to participate in Monday qualifying, but a phone call on Sunday night from tournament co-chair Gary Nicklaus would alter those plans. Kozan was given the tournament’s final sponsor exemption. Shortly after sun broke Saturday morning, Kozan, 23, stood on the 18th fairway, the only player on the golf course. Facing 258 yards into the green at the par-5 18th hole, he was given the option not to finish his second round in darkness Friday evening, so chose to return first thing Saturday morning. (The other two players in the group, who were missing the cut, decided to finish and depart). Kozan made a safe par to complete his second-round 75, making the cut on the number, then went off alone as the first player out in the third round, shooting 68. There would be only 13 scores all day in the 60s. He had his feet up before lunch, which is one effective way to climb the leaderboard at Honda. The Champion Course took its pound of flesh on Saturday, the field averaging more than two shots over par. The Bear Trap alone (holes 15-17) accounted for 13 double bogeys and five “others.” By day’s end, Kozan was inside the top 20, and with a good round on Sunday, he can collect his largest paycheck as a professional. (Previously, it was the $30,000 he earned at Korn Ferry Q-School. How long has Kozan pictured himself inside the ropes, playing the Honda? “Every day since I was probably 7,” he said. “Honda’s in what, February, March? They started putting the stands up in December. You always want to go out and play as close to the event as you can, putt with the stands up, just to feel like you’re playing the event. I mean … it’s a dream come true this week.” Same for Contini. He likely has the best shot from the Dreamer Division to potentially make something big happen on Sunday. “The cut was great, but I didn’t want it to stop there, so I’m going to try to reach the top 5 tomorrow,” he said. Such a finish (any top 10) would get Contini into the PGA TOUR’s Puerto Rico Open next week. Walking along with him on Saturday he had his brother and his uncle, who hopped on a plane once Contini surprised them with a phone call telling them he had earned his way into the event. Contini treated his relatives to a wild finish at 18. He drove it into the left rough, 250 yards from the flagstick. With water short and right, he tried to get his second shot somewhere in or around the left greenside bunker. But the ball jumped on him, flying midway into the stands like a home run ball the Florida Marlins would envy. He went into the stands to fetch it, his ball resting under a spectator’s feet in the middle of the crowd. What to do? He took a seat next to the fan. It was pure fun up there. “I should go find him and give him the ball,” Contini said after he had signed his scorecard. “I’m going to do that.” So much at stake in the final round. At Honda, it will be about more than the man who will leave with the trophy on Sunday. Contini was asked what a high finish would mean to him. After all, with the Korn Ferry Tour on a three-week hiatus, he expected to be off this week, and getting some rest. He smiled. “It would mean the world,” he said.

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