The top 5 aces at TPC Scottsdale’s 16th

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The scorecards of Sebastian Munoz and Tiger Woods were unusual for different reasons Thursday in the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD. That was only good news for one of them. RELATED: Full leaderboard | How Tiger inspired Phil Munoz twice holed out for eagle from a combined distance of 219 yards. He also had eight birdies. Throw in a wild tee shot for double bogey, three bogeys and only five pars and it added to an 8-under 64 and a one-shot lead. "Not a normal round," Munoz said. That especially was the case for Woods. For the first time in his 1,277 rounds on the PGA TOUR as a pro, he made bogey or worse on three par 5s in a single round. That led to a 4-over 76 — by two shots his worst score in 49 rounds at Sherwood — that left him 12 shots out of the lead. Munoz, the Colombian who played his college golf at North Texas, finished off his bizarre round by saving par from a narrow section of the front bunker with a 15-foot putt on the 18th hole. He was one shot ahead of Tyrrell Hatton, the hottest golfer this month, and Justin Thomas, who had a hot finish. Hatton won the European Tour flagship event at Wentworth, flew to Las Vegas for the CJ CUP and tied for third. Thomas shot 29 on the back nine at Sherwood. They each had a 65. Whether it was shocking to see Woods so far back on this course is a matter of perspective. He is a five-time winner at Sherwood, along with five runner-up finishes, against small fields in a holiday exhibition. He was playing only his third competitive round in the last seven weeks, and his first since missing the cut in the U.S. Open a month ago. The rust was evident, and a few bad breaks didn’t help his cause. He pushed his tee shot on the par-5 11th to the right, normally not a big deal except the ball stopped rolling in the dirt between two trees about 18 inches apart. Woods couldn’t believe it when he got to his ball and wasted no time inverting a sand wedge to hit out left-handed. That didn’t make it back to the fairway, and the rough is thicker than he ever saw it in the 12 previous times playing Sherwood in December. The course recently over-seeded with rye and the grass is thick, as it was at Shadow Creek. He laid up from there and made bogey. On the par-5 13th, he sent his tee shot again to the right, partially blocked by a tree. He tried to gouge out a mid-iron and it didn’t make it to the second section of fairway. Another vicious swing from thick grass advanced it only 130 yards to a bunker some 50 yards to the hole. The sand shot didn’t quite reach the green. His putt from 55 feet didn’t reach the hole He made double bogey. And then on the par-5 16th, a tee shot down the right side took a wild bounce to the right, and a marshal carefully going down the bank toward the creek was not a good sign. He took a penalty drop, laid up and sent wedge just over the green, forcing him to get up-and-down for bogey. The one smile came on an 85-foot putt for birdie on the 14th. Smiles were rare on this day. Munoz smiled in disbelief. His round began with a three-putt bogey from 7 feet. He followed with four birdies on the next five holes — he missed a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-5 fifth — and then he hammered a 9-iron from 168 yards that faded gently toward the hole and rolled in for an eagle. "Once you see the guy throw up the touchdown sign, it’s good," Munoz said of a volunteer behind the green. His other eagle looked like it might be a bogey. He hit 3-wood that crashed into a tree near the 16th green, and Munoz was waiting for it to splash down in the creek. Instead, it went backward into the fairway, 51 yards from the hole. "My caddie was like, ‘Be aggressive. You already took a risk on shot No. 2, so might as well just keep going.' All right, sure," he said. "So I throw it up there and find the hole. It was pretty sweet." Roughly half the 78-man field shot in the 60s on a pleasant day in the Conejo Valley. Woods wasn’t the only one who didn’t take advantage. Rory McIlroy had two double bogeys sandwiched around two birdies at the end of his round of 73. Phil Mickelson, a winner last week on the PGA TOUR Champions, needed four birdies on his last eight holes to shoot 72.

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DALLAS – Jordan Spieth had just stepped outside the locker room early Sunday evening when he ran into Geoff Ogilvy. The two immediately started chatting about Trinity Forest, the course completing its first week as a PGA TOUR venue. They were practically giddy. That’s no surprise. Spieth is a charter member at Trinity Forest; Ogilvy had sought the job as course designer. Although neither player was close to challenging rookie Aaron Wise for the title Sunday, they are unabashed proponents of the links-style layout designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore. Now the question becomes: Can they get everybody else on board? According to Spieth, many of the players in last week’s 156-man field already have been convinced. “I was talking to all the players. I asked a lot of guys,â€� he said. “I didn’t hear one bad thing said. “A lot of guys said, ‘It’s grown on me day to day, I really enjoyed it as a change of pace, I had a lot of fun playing this golf course.’ Those were lines guys were using this week and shouldn’t be reported any differently. It was an overwhelmingly positive outlook from the players that played.â€� Spieth evidently didn’t run into veteran Matt Kuchar, who entered the week having made 30 consecutive cuts but saw that streak snapped when he shot 1 under to miss the cut by three shots. Afterward, he told the Golf Channel that “I’m mostly disappointed with myself that I probably let my dislike of the golf course affect my performance.â€� Crenshaw was unperturbed when asked about Kuchar’s comments. “That’s his opinion. He’s definitely entitled to it,â€� he said. “I think the world of Matt. He’s a great player. “When you play professional golf on so many golf courses, you’re always going to have your likes and dislikes. That’s fine. This is a different course. I’ve always said this is sort of a distant cousin to links golf. That’s what it set out to be. But no, he’s very well entitled to his opinion. I don’t think any less of Matt.â€� Whether Kuchar returns to Trinity Forest next year remains to be seen. Even if he doesn’t, the goal will be enticing some of the TOUR’s other top players to add the tournament to their playing schedule. Word-of-mouth will be key in that regard. Ogilvy certainly will do his part. “I’m sure not everybody’s as excited as I am about this,â€� Ogilvy said. “But most guys are pretty positive, I think. Most guys are going to leave here and, I’d say worst case, 90 percent of guys are going to say at least you’ve got to go try it because it’s pretty cool. “Some guys are going to be like, aah. But you’re going to get that anywhere, right? If you don’t piss a few off, you probably haven’t done a very good job. If everybody’s happy, then it’s a bit vanilla and there’s nothing to it. “I think [Trinity Forest] is great. I don’t know how it goes from a marketing perspective, that side of things. But from a golf-playing perspective, it’s the most I’ve enjoyed a golf tournament in a really long time.â€� It was word-of-mouth that probably caused a few players to stay away from this year’s event. A caddie tournament held a year ago at Trinity Forest provided an early look at the course. Perhaps too early. “It wasn’t playing the way it’s intended to play,â€� Spieth noted. “It was too new, wasn’t ready yet and got some really bad reviews.â€� But in the year since that event was held, Trinity Forest made some big strides. Another year of maturation should, theoretically, only improve it for 2019. Crenshaw, however, said he doesn’t think it will play that much different than this year. “If anything, it’ll be a little keener, meaning slightly faster,â€� he said. “It’s all predicated by the breeze. The breeze and wind is sort of an unseen hazard on the golf course.â€� It was that lack of wind – for three of the four days at least — that turned Trinity Forest into a birdie-fest. Wise won at 23 under, eclipsing the tournament record of 20 under by Sam Snead in 1957 at Glen Lakes Country Club. Marc Leishman opened with a 10-under 61; Branden Grace closed with a 9-under 62. On Saturday with the wind blowing in dry conditions, the stroke average on the par-71 layout was 70.733. On Sunday, after a four-hour rain delay and no wind, the stroke average was 2-1/2 strokes lower at 68.253. Cumulatively, the average for the week was 69.414. “It got off to a quiet start this week,â€� Crenshaw said. “The wind didn’t blow so much this week. We built this golf course with the wind in mind.â€� Added Spieth: “Springtime in Texas, this is very rare to have three days with no wind. This course typically plays like [Saturday] and whatever the average score was, that’s what you’re looking at normally three out of four days here. So, I think these will be record scores for a number of years here and it will be somewhere around 12- to 16-under if we get typical Texas spring in the future — which I think makes you think more around this golf course. It brings in more trouble. You can’t fire at flag sticks. Got to play wind and different ball flights. That’s the one thing is when there’s no wind because there’s no trees, you can’t make the golf course that difficult or else it’s unplayable with wind. “So, it will get better and better I think for sure.â€� How different the field will be next year may very well be predicated on the revamped TOUR schedule. The tournament is set for May 6-12 in 2019, which puts it the week before the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black. Players who traditionally enter a major by playing the week before will likely be in Dallas. Those who don’t will not. The course – and whatever perception a player holds of it — may be less of a factor. But for those on the fence … “I really enjoyed it,â€� said Keith Mitchell after his career-low 63 left him tied for third. “There’s a lot of different types or different styles of players that are at the top of the leaderboard. That shows a lot about the golf course. It doesn’t favor any one person. I think it’s a great test. It’s a great strategy for us.â€� Added Grace, who celebrated his 30th birthday Sunday: “It feels like a breath of fresh air coming to something different. Really is nice. I really enjoyed the golf course. I enjoyed how it played.â€� Given that Grace is South African, his comments did not surprise Crenshaw. “I knew the Europeans and Australians and South Africans would love it because they’ve seen this type of golf course,â€� Crenshaw said. “They had great comments for us, which we love. “It played beautifully. It played like we envisioned it. Very excited. Anytime the pros play a venue for the first time, they’re trying to learn everything about it. There’s a lot to learn here because there’s a lot of different bounces. In other words, they were taking a cram session the whole week. “We hope the players who play this week will tell the other players, hey, you need to check this place out.â€�

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — A long day in the small window of daylight that comes with a Masters Tournament in November didn’t settle anything except that Dustin Johnson is playing like a top player and Justin Thomas has finally figured out Augusta National. RELATED: Leaderboard | Johnson, Thomas take share of lead | McIlroy bounces back They were among four players atop the leaderboard Friday when the second round was halted by darkness, a product of the most unusual Masters ever trying to catch up from a three-hour weather delay at the start. Among those still on the course was Tiger Woods, stuck in neutral on a day when the greens picked up a little more speed and the autumn leaves shook slightly with some wind. Bryson DeChambeau was struggling to make the cut after a lost ball that led to a triple bogey. Abraham Ancer, one of 26 newcomers to the Masters, ran off six birdies in his round of 5-under 67 that allowed him to join Johnson (70) and Thomas (69) as part of the clubhouse lead at 9-under 135. Also tied was Cameron Smith of Australia, who played his last four holes with an eagle and three straight birdies for a 68. Another Masters rookie, Sungjae Im (70), was in the group another shot behind that included Patrick Cantlay (66), who contended for the green jacket last year. "You have to really throw all the past knowledge out the window this week, as weird as it is," Thomas said. "A lot of the history and things that you know about the golf course, it can sometimes hurt you this week because of what you’re used to. But at the end of the day, it is a lot softer and a lot more scorable." He served up one example from Friday morning when he was among 44 players who had to finish his opening round. Thomas was well left of the 15th green in two with the pin to the right, leaving a pitch that typically is nearly impossible to hit close. He hit a hard, low pitch that hit the brakes at the hole and spun gently to tap-in range for birdie. "I had to trust that I just had to gas it and hit it pretty hard and it was going to spin," Thomas said. "Balls are making pitch marks with chip shots and pitch shots." Johnson was among three players to finish one shot behind Woods at the last Masters, and he appeared to be hitting his stride with four birdies on the back nine to cap off a 65 in the morning. That gave him a share of the 18-hole lead with Dylan Frittelli and Paul Casey. Johnson quickly became the first player this week to reach 10 under with three birdies around Amen Corner. But then he had some mud on his ball — that’s not unusual this week — that sent his ball to an impossible shelf on the 14th green, leading to a three-putt bogey. Next, his 3-iron caught a small gust on the par-5 15th, and that was enough to hit the front of the green and roll back into the water. That led to bogey. Momentum gone? Johnson shrugged. But he followed with 11 straight pars — shots in the bunker cost him good birdie chances on the par 5s on the front nine — until stuffing his last approach to 6 feet for birdie on No. 9. After a wet start, the forecast was shaping up for a nice weekend, and there was a buzz at Augusta National on Friday. It wasn’t from the crowd — no patrons were allowed this year — but from the motors of the sub-air system. "I think it can firm up a little bit, but it’s going to be tough for it to get firm," Johnson said. "I think it’s going to be soft enough to where you're going to have to attack the golf course and play aggressive and keep swinging like I am. I like where I'm at. I like my position." Of those still on the course, Hideki Matsuyama was at 8 under with three holes to play, while Jon Rahm birdied the par-3 12th hole to reach 8 under when play was suspended. Woods left the course on Thursday with only three players ahead of him. He was tied for 10th when the first round ended, and he was tied for 22nd when he left Friday night with two birdies on the par 5s and bogeys on the third and seventh, the latter from a tee shot close enough to the Georgia pines that his only shot was to hit a runner into the front bunker. DeChambeau, the betting favorite coming into the week because of his enormous bulk and power off the tee, took a big swing on No. 3 and never found the ball. With the altitude on his shots, it could have buried under the soft turf. Either way, he went back to the tee and drove in about the same spot, made a mess of his flop shot and took a triple bogey. He followed with two more bogeys but was in good position for a birdie to get back to even par for the tournament. The cut is top 50 and ties, and among those who will be sticking around are young and old — 23-year-old U.S. Amateur runner-up John Augenstein and 63-year-old Bernhard Langer. The two-time Masters champion shot 68 in the morning on a long, soft course. He followed with a 73 and will be the oldest player to make the cut at Augusta National. "It actually makes me feel older when I play with these young guys and I see how far they hit it and how short I hit it," Langer said. "I like this golf course. I think I know how to get around it, even though I hit very long clubs. But it's certainly not easy." It was plenty hard for Rory McIlroy, who opened with a 75 and was in danger of the weekend off until he rallied with a 66 to at least get back in the mix in his pursuit of the final leg of the career Grand Slam.

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