Tiger Woods leads at BMW Championship

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For the first time in just under three months PGA TOUR golf returns at the storied Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. The home of Ben Hogan and the plaid jacket hosts the return to golf with a bumper field four your (television) viewing pleasure. Sure, some new protocols are in place during these pandemic times, but the ultimate goal of getting the ball in the hole as quickly as possible remains. It’s time for air high fives, waves and hat tips directly into the camera, and perhaps a little more broadcast interaction with players than we’ve seen before. RELATED: Featured Groups, tee times | First step into golf’s new normal | Power Rankings THREE PLAYERS TO PONDER THE FLYOVER They call it the “Horrible Horseshoeâ€� at Colonial and it usually hits you early in your round. The two longest par 4s on the course with the longest par 3 sandwiched right there in between them. It starts at the 483-yard par-4 third before hitting the 247-yard par-3 fourth and finishes with the 481-yard par-4 fifth. Since 2003 these three holes have played to a scoring average of +0.479 strokes over par. Last season it was +0.582 with the 5th, at +0. 273 the equal toughest hole on the course. Since 1983, the Horrible Horseshoe has played to a combined score to par total of 7,613-over par while the other 15 holes have played a combined 1,113-under par. Come through there without dropping a shot and you’ve no doubt made a move in the right direction up the leaderboard. LANDING ZONE Last season at Colonial Country Club the 441-yard 18th hole played fractionally under par but came after six straight holes of an above par average. If you need to make your play on the final hole you need to thread the needle down the treelined fairway to give yourself the best look at a green guarded by water on the left side. Laying back for accuracy wasn’t the best move a year ago as players who hit their tee ball 280-plus averaged under par but those who left it short of that mark averaged over par. Here’s a look at where tee shots landed in 2019. WEATHER CHECK From PGA TOUR meteorologist Wade Stettner: “Dry weather is forecast all week as high pressure stalls across northern Texas. Temperatures will warm back into the upper 90s from Thursday through Sunday. Humidity levels will be low this week so it will be more of a dry heat. Breezy conditions are expected on Wednesday with lighter winds forecast from Thursday through Sunday.â€� For the latest weather news from Fort Worth, Texas, check out the PGA TOUR Weather Hub. SOUND CHECK First of all, the mission was to not shank the first seven balls I hit on the range, trying to make contact with the ball, and then slowly just try to get the rust off. BY THE NUMBERS: ISLAND GREEN EDITION 1: Rank in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green for the last two winners of the Charles Schwab Challenge. (Justin Rose, Kevin Na) 2: Number of players in the field who share the cumulative scoring record on the Horrible Horseshoe (holes 3-5) at Colonial Country Club. Since complete records began in 1983 just five players are -2 in their career on the stretch including Branden Grace and Patrick Reed who line up this week. Reed has 12 rounds, Grace just four. 4: Defending champion Kevin Na has four rounds of 63 or better at the Charles Schwab Challenge, the most of any player at the event in the last 37 years. 10: Last season Colonial CC had just 10.05percent of players make birdie or better when hitting approach shots out of the rough. This marked the third lowest Birdie or Better percentage from the rough all season. 13: The number of players who haven’t recorded a bogey or worse on the Horrible Horseshoe at Colonial CC in the last 37 years. That’s just 1.7percent of 768 total players. 75: Percentage (75.43%) of greens hit in regulation from inside 125 yards last season at Colonial Country Club. This made them the second toughest to hit on TOUR from close range. SCATTERSHOTS Floyd Tribute: As part of ongoing efforts to amplify the voices and efforts underway to end racial and social injustice, the PGA TOUR has set aside an 8:46 a.m. tee time that will feature no players. The time has been set aside at both Colonial Country Club (Charles Schwab Challenge) and TPC Sawgrass (Korn Ferry Tour Challenge), as 8:46 has become a universal symbol for the racial injustice faced by the black community. There will also be a one-minute moment of silence at that time, which will begin with three horn blasts coordinated through PGA TOUR Rules Officials. Players on site will be asked to pause for reflection as a demonstration of support for the TOUR’s commitment to addressing racial and social injustices. Star studded field: The field includes each of the top-five players in the Official World Golf Ranking and also contains FedExCup leader Sungjae Im and 44-time winner Phil Mickelson. There are 101 players in the field that have won on the PGA TOUR, making the 2020 Charles Schwab Challenge the first tournament in the FedExCup era other than THE PLAYERS Championship to showcase 100 or more TOUR winners. World No. 1 Rory McIlroy, No.2 Jon Rahm and No.3 Brooks Koepka will play together over the opening two rounds. “It’s hard to say anymore who’s the best in the world after not competing for three months,â€� Rahm said. “It all depends on who’s prepared the best or who’s handled the situation the best or who even handles these new rules on the PGA TOUR the best. It’s just a ranking. It’s a continuously moving thing, and since we’ve been stopped, I don’t think those numbers matter a lot anymore. I think we only can come back and prove that we deserve that spot.â€� New Normal: This week marks the first TOUR event under the new health and safety measures put in place to continue the fight against COVID-19. Played without on-site fans and with multiple social distancing and hygiene protocols the Charles Schwab Challenge marks a chance for the new “normalâ€� to be put into practice. The TOUR’s health and safety plan has been developed over the better part of three months with input from PGA TOUR medical adviser Dr. Tom Hospel, an expert in infectious diseases from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the Federal Coronavirus Task Force, as well as other specialists and laboratory directors and in consultation with the other professional sports leagues. Testing protocols – including a mobile laboratory in partnership with Sanford Health – will ensure the TOUR will not take valuable resources from the communities in which it plays. While most are on the outside hoping for a look in via broadcasts later in the week, a select few are inside the grounds. Here is a firsthand account of how things went down in the lead up to the tournament. Honoring Frontline Workers: Despite a three-month break, the TOUR, its tournaments and players have not stopped making an impact including significant COVID-19 relief ($36 million) and funds for other meaningful organizations. That work continues this week as the Charles Schwab Challenge has created a charitable platform, “Rise to the Challengeâ€�, to engage golf fans at home while also raising money for COVID-19 relief and DFW charities through autographed memorabilia and one-of-a-kind experiences. Additionally, the tournament will feature names of local frontline workers alongside the players’ names. The 148 players in the Charles Schwab Challenge field will represent 148 different frontline workers from across North Texas who have been working tirelessly since the pandemic began – often at the risk of their own personal health and safety – to meet the needs of those most directly impacted in the Fort Worth area. Palmer pace setter: Colonial member Ryan Palmer has been given the honor of hitting the first shot on the PGA TOUR in nearly three months. The veteran four-time TOUR winner was chuffed when asked to be the official restart of the season after the COVID-19 break. There was a time when Byron Nelson had the same honor on an annual basis in the Charles Schwab Challenge. Colonial Country Club aka “Hogan’s Alleyâ€� dates back to 1946 and holds the distinction of being the longest-run event on the PGA TOUR to be contested on the same course.

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KAWAGOE, Japan (AP) — Rikuya Hoshino did not have the first tee to himself Thursday for the start of Olympic golf. RELATED: Leaderboard, tee times | How the format works | How to watch The grandstand behind him, normally empty like at so many other venues at the spectator-less Games, was filled with volunteers in their Tokyo2020 shirts wanting to see the 25-year-old from Japan with the honor of hitting the first shot in the pandemic-delayed Olympics. The other two players with him in the first group, Sepp Straka of Austria and Thomas Pieters of Belgium, took it from there. Straka picked a good day to be dialed in with his irons in soft and still conditions. He made four birdies in his last six holes for an 8-under 63 to tie an Olympic record — not all that historical considering golf returned only in 2016 — for a one-shot lead over Jazz Janewattananond of Thailand. Pieters, who finished one spot out of a bronze medal in Rio de Janeiro five years ago, was sick Wednesday and saw the front nine at Kasumigaseki Country Club only during practice rounds. He shot 30 on the back nine for a 65. “I kind of didn’t expect this today,” Pieters said. “I felt horrible this morning even when I woke up, so maybe it’s just because I wasn’t thinking about bad shots or places not to hit it. My caddie told me, ‘Hit it there,’ and I did. I kept it simple.” Carlos Ortiz of Mexico also had a 65 in ideal scoring conditions on a course so pristine it didn’t have a divot when players first began arriving because it was closed for two months. The volunteers had emptied the stands after Hoshino’s drive to go to work — most of them stationed to help look for errant shots — when the biggest attraction in Japan arrived. Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama still had reason to believe everyone was watching. “If I say there’s no pressure I’ll be lying,” Matsuyama said after opening with a 69, not the best start in a round with such low scoring that only 13 players in the 60-man tournament were over par. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to embrace the pressure that’s upon me and just try to put together a nice tournament here.” Matsuyama had the biggest crowd, such as it was, with some 80 people tagging along, most of them Japanese media. He was 4 under through eight holes, only to make bogey from two poor tee shots and then didn’t have another birdie. The struggle was more coronavirus-related than any external expectations. Matsuyama has played one round of competition the last five weeks after a positive COVID-19 test. One of his biggest concerns was rust and conditioning. “Probably towards the end a little bit, the mental side and focus kind of faded away from me,” he said. “So that’s something that I need to put together for the rest of the week.” Straka, who had missed the cut in six of his last seven events, wasn’t the only surprise. Juvic Pagunsan of the Philippines was among those at 66. Pagunsan earned a small measure of fame when he won the Mizuno Open in Japan by carrying his own bag with 11 clubs, three fewer than allowed. Caddies were only allowed to follow players in carts because of COVID-19 restrictions, and Pagunsan found that to be a hassle, so he lightened his bag and walked it himself. The victory earned him a spot in The Open Championship, and then he withdrew so he could concentrate on the Olympics. He picked up three birdies on the back nine after rain further softened the golf course. Patrick Reed and Xander Schauffele each were at 68, and that was quite a feat for Reed. He was a last-minute replacement when Bryson DeChambeau had a positive COVID-19 test, and because of his testing requirements, Reed didn’t arrived at the course until Wednesday afternoon. That left enough time to ride in a cart to look at the last four holes. “Adrenaline got me going early on today, but really the body hung in there a lot better than I expected,” Reed said. “The swing actually held in there all day. A couple of mistakes out there, not really knowing spots to hit. But besides that, it wasn’t too bad.” His biggest issue was a delay of just over two hours from thunderstorms. They hit right about the time most new arrivals from his American time zone are wanting to take a nap. “I was feeling it during that rain delay,” he said. The Open Championship winner Collin Morikawa and Rory McIlroy each had a 69, which was only good for a tie for 20th on such a low scoring day. Justin Thomas wouldn’t have minded that. His Olympic debuted featured 18 pars and more missed birdie chances than he cares to remember. “I would love to have some kind of old useless club that I could break over my knee right now,” Thomas said.

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