Tiger Woods-designed putting courses to open in Florida

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Thursday morning was supposed to bring an early wake-up call for John Rollins here at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Just not at 5:30. It was also supposed to bring an 18-hole walk inside the ropes, but at Spyglass Hill Golf Club, not Pebble Beach Golf Links. Oh, and he was supposed to be a caddie, not a competitor. The fact that it was all turned upside-down and Rollins was hitting golf balls for the first time in more than a week and competing in a PGA TOUR tournament for the first time since last August was as improbable an occurrence as he has ever been part of. “Crazy. What a roller-coaster day,� said Rollins, who at 43 has played in just 24 PGA TOUR tournaments since losing his full exempt status following the 2014 season. But if you think that accepting the spot in the field at 5:30 a.m. – about three hours before his tee time, by the way – was an easy one, think again. Fact is, “I had to really think about it. I asked myself, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’ Hunter (Mahan) is my friend and I was here to caddie for him, so I called him. Hunter (whose tee time was 10:01)  and his wife, Kandi were more than gracious. Hunter said, ‘There’s a reason you’re here, so go and enjoy.’ � Rollins laughed, because “I had done absolutely no prep work� back home in the Dallas area, but he took Mahan’s advice. He did enjoy himself and was overall pleased with his round of 1-over 73 at Pebble Beach – two bogeys and one lone birdie, at the par-4 11th. “I didn’t play terribly. Actually, I was OK, everything considered.� He played in just nine PGA TOUR tournaments last year and has made just eight cuts in limited appearances the last three seasons. So, there’s no wonder Rollins’ name was well down the list of alternates when he came here to caddie for Mahan. “I looked, just for the heck of it at the beginning of the week,� said Rollins, “but I was outside the top 20.� What he didn’t anticipate was the sequence of events. Most of those names ahead of him, for instance, were already committed to the Web.com Tour tournament in Panama or the PGA TOUR Champions Oasis Championship in Boca Raton, Fla., or confirmed they couldn’t fly to Pebble Beach in time. When Tommy Gainey had connecting flight problems and had to withdraw, Rollins’ name was called. “I looked at my phone and saw PGA TOUR headquarters and I thought, ‘What would the PGA TOUR be calling me at 5:30 for?� To find a caddie, Rollins got in touch with Daniel Chopra who provided the phone number of Kevin Hanssen, lead instructor at the Pebble Beach Golf Academy. Hanssen worked with Rollins last fall here at Pebble Beach, so it provided to be a seamless fit. As for being thrust inside the ropes with little preparation, Rollins thought it proved one thing. “My heart is still in the game. I know that and I know the success I’ve had out here.�

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A second collegiate star has turned pro in the middle of the season, adding another name to the list of prospects who will be seeking sponsor exemptions once the PGA TOUR season resumes in January. Wake Forest senior Will Zalatoris, the 2017 ACC Player of the Year, announced Thursday that he will turn pro and forego his final semester of collegiate golf. “I wanted to give myself the best chance to have a TOUR card for 2018 and 2019,� Zalatoris told PGATOUR.COM. “I want to give myself the best opportunity to set myself up for the future, so I wanted to have these extra six months to play in a few more events and build my routine.� Zalatoris finished his Wake Forest career with a 70.44 scoring average, breaking the school record of former FedExCup champ Bill Haas. Zalatoris won four collegiate titles, as well as the 2014 U.S. Junior Amateur. His announcement came shortly after his Walker Cup teammate, Cameron Champ, made the leap to the pro ranks. Champ was in the middle of his senior season at Texas A&M. This is believed to be the first time in recent history that two collegiate players of such high profile have turned pro in the middle of the same season. “I think turning pro (in the middle of the season) will become a little bit more popular in the years to come, mainly because of the schedule,� Zalatoris said. “You get a full six months back of playing pro events. I was one of the kids who said, ‘You have four years of college and the rest of your life to play golf,’ but talking to some guys on TOUR, they mentioned how important that first year was.� Champ finished T16 at last week’s Web.com Tour Q-School to secure status for the upcoming season. Zalatoris failed to advance out of second stage, so he will have to rely on sponsor exemptions and Monday qualifiers for starts on the PGA TOUR and Web.com Tour. He has just 21 hours remaining toward his psychology degree, and is currently taking nine hours online. Being so close to completing his degree made it easier to leave school early, he said. He is planning to graduate in 2018. Zalatoris isn’t the first U.S. Junior champion from Texas to turn pro after failing to advance out of Q-School’s second stage. Jordan Spieth took that path in 2013, winning that year’s John Deere Classic and qualifying for the TOUR Championship. Spieth and Zalatoris also share a swing coach, Cameron McCormick. Turning pro early gives Zalatoris time to play both the PGA TOUR and Web.com Tour in his quest to earn a TOUR card. The Wyndham Championship, the final PGA TOUR event before the FedExCup Playoffs and Web.com Tour Finals, is the only start he has confirmed on his schedule, he said. Zalatoris is the third member of this year’s victorious U.S. Walker Cup team to turn pro, after Champ and Maverick McNealy. The U.S. defeated Great Britain & Ireland, 19-7, in September at Los Angeles Country Club. Joaquin Niemann, the world’s top-ranked amateur, also is expected to turn pro in early 2018. McNealy, who graduated from Stanford with a degree in Management Science and Engineering, made his pro debut at the Safeway Open (T52). He also has sponsor exemptions into three PGA TOUR events in California (CareerBuilder Challenge, Farmers Insurance Open and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am) and two in Texas (AT&T Byron Nelson, DEAN & DELUCA Invitational). He also has full Web.com Tour status for next year after finishing T10 at Q-School. McNealy and Niemann are the past two winners of the Mark H. McCormack Medal, given to the world’s top-ranked amateur. Spieth and Peter Uihlein are previous collegiate standouts to turn pro in December. Uihlein did so in 2011, forgoing his final semester at Oklahoma State to pursue starts on the European Tour. Uihlein, the 2010 U.S. Amateur champion, won on that circuit in 2013 and is in the midst of his first season as a PGA TOUR member after winning the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, the first event of this year’s Web.com Tour Finals. Uihlein, 28, is 40th in the current FedExCup standings. Spieth turned pro in December 2012, halfway through his sophomore season at Texas.

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When Hideki Matsuyama became the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world in 2012, he was the first player from Asia to reach the milestone. A slice of Matsuyama’s influence on the sport since – both in his native Japan and around the globe – is evidenced in that same World Amateur Golf Ranking. This week, Taiga Semikawa is the No. 1 amateur in the men’s game – the third different WAGR No. 1 from Japan in the last three years. As the most prolific PGA TOUR winner all-time from Japan (eight wins) and the country’s first men’s major champion, Matsuyama’s impact on growing the sport’s popularity might be fully seen in the burgeoning wave of talent to follow. Matsuyama will look to successfully defend a PGA TOUR title for the second time in his career this week at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. A better approach The hallmark statistical trait of Matsuyama’s game has always been his stellar approach play. In 2021-22, Matsuyama ranked sixth on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach per round, the eighth time in his career he has finished a season ranked inside the top-10 on TOUR in that statistic. That’s tied for the most seasons ranked in the top-10 in SG: Approach since tracking began in 2004, alongside Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk. There are more than 470 players who have accumulated 125 measured rounds or more in the PGA TOUR ShotLink era, which began in 2004. Of that group, only six have averaged more Strokes Gained: Approach per round than Matsuyama (+0.74 per round). Just four players have had 500 or more rounds measured by ShotLink and averaged 0.70 Strokes Gained: Approach per round or more: Matsuyama, Furyk, Paul Casey and Justin Thomas. When Matsuyama is at his best, he’s usually brought that facet of his game up to an even higher level. Advanced data is available in six of Matsuyama’s career wins on the PGA TOUR. In five of those six victories, Matsuyama ranked fourth or better in the field that week in Strokes Gained: Approach. In all, 44.6% of Matsuyama’s Strokes Gained: Total in his wins have come from his approach play. That’s a significantly higher average than his peers – over the last 10 seasons, players who win on the PGA TOUR gain, on average, 35% of their strokes via approach shots. Though Matsuyama has been consistently good throughout his professional career with his approach play, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t found room for improvement. One area of recent improvement is his proximity to the hole from 125 to 150 yards. Matsuyama ranked 71st on TOUR in that particular proximity range just three years ago. He ranked No. 2 on TOUR in that statistic in 2020-21, and he led the TOUR in it last season. In Matsuyama’s 2021 Masters win, he ranked fourth in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach (+1.79 per round) and tied for seventh in greens in regulation. Green jacket in tow, Matsuyama will be a fixture at Augusta National for decades to come. With iron play being incredibly significant there – six of the last eight Masters winners ranked in the top-five that week in Strokes Gained: Approach – Matsuyama should find himself hitting significant shots on Masters Sunday many times in the future. Success tee-to-green While Matsuyama’s transcendent talent comes with his irons, he’s been a good driver of the ball since turning pro, too. Since 2013-14, Matsuyama has averaged 0.33 Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee per round on the PGA TOUR, 43rd-best of 331 players with 100 or more ShotLink-measured rounds in that span – that comes out to the top-13 percent. Matsuyama’s overall ball striking numbers since turning pro are, in turn, absolutely stellar. He’s ranked ninth on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking per round since 2013-14 (+1.06), his first full season. He’s fifth on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green per round (+1.32) in that same span, just ahead of Justin Thomas. Matsuyama has ranked in the top-20 on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green in each of the previous nine seasons, the longest active streak of any player. This consistently reliable ball striking has made Matsuyama one of the more bankable week-to-week performers on the PGA TOUR over the last decade. Matsuyama has never missed more than five cuts in a single PGA TOUR season. He hasn’t had back-to-back missed cuts in more than six years – the last time that happened was in the summer of 2016, at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday and U.S. Open. Since 2014-15, Matsuyama’s 49 top-10 finishes are tied for seventh-most on the PGA TOUR. Winning the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in 2021 Matsuyama’s five-stroke margin of victory at last year’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP marked the third time he has won a PGA TOUR event by five shots or more. Matsuyama started the final round with a one-shot lead, but carded two eagles and three birdies that Sunday to move away from the pack. His ball striking was, again, excellent – he led the field in greens in regulation for the tournament, hitting 81.9%, while the field averaged just over 61%. He also scrambled at a 77% clip, second-best of anyone in the field. In two previous starts at Accordia Golf Narashino CC, Matsuyama has been bested by one player (Tiger Woods in 2019) and has never shot a score higher than 68. Six players have successfully defended a title on the PGA TOUR since the beginning of last season, including Max Homa at the 2022-23 season-opening Fortinet Championship. Matsuyama and his brilliant approach play have a great opportunity to extend that list this week.

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