Tiger Woods hoping to get creative at Carnoustie

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Steve Stricker is having too much fun at the Waste Management Phoenix Open to stress over a messy finish Friday. RELATED: Leaderboard | Return of fans helping return of Koepka Trying to become the oldest winner in PGA TOUR history, the 53-year-old U.S. Ryder Cup captain shot a 5-under 66 to get within a stroke of leader Xander Schauffele entering the weekend at TPC Scottsdale. Stricker scrambled for par on the eighth, but couldn’t overcome another poor approach on No. 9 in a closing bogey. “Just hit an awful iron into the green on No. 9,” Stricker said. “But overall a good day.” Stricker, who will be 54 on Feb. 23, won the last of his 12 PGA TOUR titles in 2012 at Kapalua. Sam Snead is the oldest winner at 52 years, 10 months, 8 days in the 1965 Greater Greensboro event. Seven players have won in their 50s, the last Davis Love III at 51 in the 2015 Wyndham Championship. “I know it’s a long shot,” Stricker said. “I’ve got to play my very best, just like anybody else does out here. But you know, I’ve been there. I’ve won a few times out on this TOUR and I know what it takes, although it’s been a while. It would be fun to see how I handle it if I do get that opportunity.” The five-time PGA TOUR Champions winner, with wife, Nicki, working as his caddie, birdied four of his first eight holes with hardly anyone watching in the chilly morning conditions. The attendance is capped at about 5,000 a day, a fraction of the usual turnout but the most for a TOUR event since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s always tough to get going around here in the morning and we started on the back nine with some pretty good holes and some water holes that can come up and get you,” Stricker said. Schauffele, coming off a second-place tie last week at Torrey Pines, played the back nine in 6-under 30 in the afternoon for a 64. He birdied Nos. 12-14, made a 21-footer for eagle on the par-5 15th, and hit a wedge to 4 1/2 feet to set up a final birdie on the par-4 18th. “It was a bit slow at first,” Schauffele said. “Kind of saw everyone’s name flying up the leaderboard.” He was at 12-under 130. Keegan Bradley was tied for second after a 65. He made 10 birdies in a 14-hole stretch from his 12th hole Thursday to the seventh Friday — all on the front nine. “All it was was having some putts go in,” Bradley said. Scottie Scheffler (65), Sam Burns (68) and Kyoung-Hoon Lee (66) were 10 under. Scheffler hit to a foot for birdie in the morning on the 16th. “There was literally nobody there, so I couldn’t tell if it had a chance or not,” Scheffler said. He followed with a 40-foot eagle putt on 17, but gave back the strokes with a four-putt double bogey on the par-4 fifth. Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka were 8 under. Spieth is trying regain the form that carried him to 11 PGA TOUR victories — three of them majors — in his first five seasons on the TOUR. Winless since The Open Championship in 2017, he shot his second straight 67, highlighted by an eagle on the par-5 third. “It felt like a 6- or 7-under day, and this is one of the first times I’ve almost been disappointed shooting 4 under in a round in long time, and that’s a good sign,” he said. “(Yesterday) I shot 4 under, but I got away with murder.” Justin Thomas was 7 under after a 65. He opened with a double bogey on the par-4 10th after making a late triple bogey Thursday on 17. “Hit a perfect tee shot down 10 and had a pitching wedge in and made about as easy and bad of a 6 as you possibly could,” Thomas said. He had five birdies in a six-hole stretch from No. 14 to No. 1, bogeyed the par-5 third, and then birdied four of the last five. “I stayed patient and understood that you can make a boatload of birdies,” he said.

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Defending champion Rose Zhang tumbled out of the U.S. Women’s Amateur in the first-round of match play Wednesday, with qualifying medalist Rachel Kuehn one of seven of the top eight seeds to fall.

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A month after undergoing an arthroscopic procedure on his left knee, Tiger Woods has been cleared to start full practice. During an interview with Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan earlier this week, Woods said he “got the clearance last week to start full practiceâ€� and “played nine holes the other day.â€� RELATED: Tiger chases Snead’s 82 PGA TOUR wins Woods underwent the latest procedure on his knee last month, the fifth knee surgery of his career. Dr. Vern Cooley, who performed the surgery, said at the time he expected Woods to make a full recovery. Woods said the knee is “soreâ€� after his recent practice round but looks forward to getting back into playing shape. “Now I can start lifting and getting my muscle back and getting my weight up and doing all that stuff again,â€� Woods said in the interview. Woods’ next start on the PGA TOUR is expected to be The ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in Chiba, Japan, Oct. 24-27. He’s also the U.S. captain for The Presidents Cup in December and has not ruled out the possibility of being a playing captain. Woods will make his four captain’s picks in early November after the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions. Although his back has been the focus of concern for much of the last six-plus years, this marks the fifth time that Woods, 43, has had his left knee operated on.  Woods’ first left-knee operation was to remove a benign tumor in 1994. The second and third were arthroscopic procedures in 2002 and in April of 2008. He was told of two stress fractures in his tibia in May of 2008, won the U.S. Open in June, and eight days later had a fourth surgery, on his ACL. He missed the remainder of the 2008 season. For a player who missed significant time from 2014-17, when he had successful back-fusion surgery, Woods has been relatively healthy the last two seasons.     At the 2018 TOUR Championship at East Lake, he notched his long-awaited 80th victory, the exclamation point on a terrific comeback season for a player whose career once seemed to be over. His 2019 season was highlighted by his Masters win, his 15th major title. With 81 PGA TOUR wins, he’s now one behind Sam Snead’s record. That was mostly it, though, for his 2018-19 season as Woods admitted to being worn out by the heroic victory at Augusta National. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black and was T21 at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, despite having won on both courses. He missed the cut at The Open Championship and withdrew from THE NORTHERN TRUST with a mild oblique strain. Although he won the 1999 and 2006 PGA Championships at Medinah, Woods never contended there, either, with a T37 at the BMW Championship. At 42nd in the FedExCup, his season was over.

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