Tiger Woods struggles early, cards 75 in Round 3 of Hero World Challenge

NAPA, Calif. — Slow starts plagued Adam Scott last season, a prime reason he was winless despite solid overall numbers. After taking a brief break, the 39-year-old Australian is back and emphasizing quicker, more aggressive starts. Andrew Landry is just looking for a jump-start after missing the cuts in the first two events of the PGA TOUR this season. Scott and Landry shot 7-under 65 on Thursday to share the first-round lead at the Safeway Open. Francesco Molinari and Matthew NeSmith were a stroke back. Cameron Champ, Adam Long and Chris Baker shot 67. Playing in the morning pairings at Silverado Country Club, Scott had six birdies and an eagle to make up for an early bogey. Landry teed off 4 1/2 hours later and played bogey-free with seven birdies. “This is a nice way to start,” Scott said. “I would like to have a lead going into Sunday and see what I can produce, to be honest. I’ve been four and five back. It’s a lot to ask all the time when you’re as far behind as I kind of was.” Scott hasn’t won on the PGA TOUR since taking the Honda Classic and World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship in consecutive weeks in 2016. Since then he has been up and down the scoreboard, frequently scurrying to catch up in the latter rounds after getting off to sluggish starts. That wasn’t the case in Scott’s season debut. Despite having only played two rounds previously at the picturesque, 7,166-yard course, he had four birdies on the front nine to compensate for a bogey on No. 13. After birdying two of the first three on the back nine, Scott drained a 53-foot putt for eagle on the 566-yard, par-5 fifth. “Fun to kind of keep the momentum going and get the most out of the round,” Scott said. “If I had complaints about last season, I didn’t get the most out of my good rounds or my good weeks. Today felt like I kind of got the most out of myself.” Scott saved par after his drive went into a green-side bunker on No. 7, made another par on No. 8, then narrowly missed a birdie and three-putted for par on No. 9 to close out his day. Landry had five birdies on the front nine. The Valero Texas Open winner last year, he saved par after going into the bunker on the second hole of the back nine, then birdied Nos. 5 and 8 to get to 7 under. “I was rolling the ball so well that I just figured, hey, I can make a lot of putts right now,” Landry said. “That’s kind of what I did all day. Ball-striking wasn’t as good as I wanted but the putting was there and made up for it.” Former NFL quarterback and current CBS analyst Tony Romo opened with a 70. Romo is playing on a sponsor exemption. If he makes the cut, he will skip Sunday’s NFL broadcast in Chicago between the Bears and Minnesota Vikings. Defending tournament champion Kevin Tway, Justin Thomas and FedExCup points leader Sebastian Munoz were in the group at 71. Munoz three-putted two par 3s to offset three birdies. Phil Mickelson shot 75, making a quadruple-bogey 9 on the par-5 fifth. Jim Furyk also had a 75.

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He had to wait 80 minutes … or 3,262 days, depending on the perspective. Either way, Paul Casey is once again a winner on the PGA TOUR. Casey, playing nine groups ahead of the last twosome in Sunday’s final round of the Valspar Championship, blistered a tough Innisbrook course for a 6-under 65. The Englishman then had to wait out the finishers, all the while thinking his 10 under total would not hold up.  He signed his scorecard, signed some autographs, did a quick interview and then retreated to the locker room to watch his chasers come in. It was not a fun experience. “Awful,â€� he said, adding later. “Rubbish. Can’t stand it.â€� The biggest threats ended up being Patrick Reed and Tiger Woods. Reed came to 18 needing a birdie to win outright. Instead, his tricky putt from 45 feet turned into disaster and he suffered a bogey. Meanwhile, Woods drained a 43-foot, 8-inch putt at the 17th hole to climb within one stroke. He also faced a difficult birdie putt, this one from just inside 39 feet. Knowing Tiger’s flair for the dramatics, Casey gave it a “50-50â€� chance to go in. But it came up short. “I dodged a bullet,â€� Casey said. He was overdue for it. Prior to Sunday, Casey’s only TOUR win was the 2009 Houston Open. Since then, he’s won five times, four of those on the European Tour. He’s also battled through a variety of injuries that dropped him outside the world’s top 100. But he’s found consistency (he leads the TOUR in consecutive made cuts with 27 straight), made some noise in last year’s FedExCup Playoffs (three top-5 finishes) and finally peaked this week against the best field in Valspar history. “Probably not the most significant win of my career, but it’s certainly one of the most satisfying ones,â€� Casey said. “The quality of golf that I played. I know I made some errors on the round yesterday, I hit it in the water twice but as a whole I would say it’s one of the cleanest weeks I’ve ever had from kind of a golf course management point of view. … “Houston was obviously great fun. My eyes are much more open right now. I’ve taken a lot in. Your last win is always your best one because it’s the freshest.â€� Winning a TOUR event with Woods in contention was also satisfying for Casey. A week ago, Phil Mickelson won at age 47, and with the 42-year-old Woods in the mix, it seemed like he might extend the streak on Sunday. Instead, it was the 40-year-old Casey who did the trick. “I’m sure he was disappointed he didn’t get the victory,â€� Casey said. “I actually thought he was going to win today before the round started. I thought it was just teed up beautifully for him. “I said a couple times if I don’t win this thing, I actually want Tiger to win it. I’m glad it’s this way.â€�  NOTABLES Having set up a chance to force a playoff with his 43-foot putt on the 17th hole, Tiger Woods opted for 2-iron off the tee at the par-4 18th. His drive went 258 yards, leaving him with 185 yards to the pin. No player in the field had a longer approach shot on that hole Sunday. Tiger’s approach finished 39 feet from the pin, and his birdie attempt came up short. Asked why he didn’t use 3-wood off the tee, Woods explained, “I bring the right part of that fairway where it cuts in a little bit with 3-wood into play and on top of that the wind is off the left. If I’m going to squeeze it in I want to cut it. I didn’t feel comfortable with that. If anything, that 2-iron I could have hit it flatter and hotter but, hey, I’m in the fairway, I got a shot at this thing. Unfortunately, I didn’t hit it close enough.â€� You may think Patrick Reed lost his chance at a playoff when he bogeyed the final hole Sunday after his birdie putt rolled back to his feet after failing to clear the top ledge (his ensuing chip to save par came up just short). But from Reed’s perspective, the key misses were two 3-foot birdie chances on Saturday that he failed to convert. “Just too many mistakes out there,â€� Reed said. “I felt like I played solid today. I really didn’t feel like I did anything wrong on the last when I walked off with a 5.â€� Sergio Garcia’s 6-under 65 tied for the low round of the week, but he thinks it could’ve been better. “Could have been a really, really special round,â€� Garcia said. “You know, I probably wasted at least three shots on the front-9 with a 3-putt and a couple short misses for birdies.â€� The big Sunday move, though, left him solo fourth. That’s his best PGA TOUR result in his 12 starts since winning the Masters last year. Brandt Snedeker entered the third round just one shot off the lead and paired with Tiger Woods. But it was a day Sneds will quickly want to forget. His 7-over 78 – which included seven bogeys and one double — dropped him into a tie for 31st. Snedeker’s only suffered one other final round with a higher score – a 79 at the 2014 Waste Management Phoenix Open. Third-round leader Corey Conners also suffered a cruel day, a 6-over 77 that left him tied for 16th. Conners opened with a bogey and never got untracked, failing to produce a birdie the entire round after making 15 the first three days. Nevertheless, the Canadian rookie called the week a “great experienceâ€� after leading each of the first three days. “Little disappointed with the outcome today,â€� he said, “but, yeah, tried to battle hard out there and just wasn’t meant to be.â€� Jim Furyk shot a 5-under 66 to move into solo seventh. It’s his first top-10 finish since a T-6 at The RSM Classic in November of 2016. … Steve Stricker followed up his first win on PGA TOUR Champions last week with a solid T-12 after shooting a 2-under 69, his best round of the week … Branden Grace’s T-8 was his best finish on American soil since the 2016 PGA Championship at Baltusrol. QUOTABLES I’m sure I’ll find a photo somewhere with my name above his.I’m not touching a club tomorrow. I just didn’t hit it hard enough, obviously. Absolutely killed it and the ball rolled back down to where it was. Superlatives Lowest round – The 6-under 65s by winner Paul Casey and Sergio Garcia not only were the lowest of the day but tied for lowest of the week. Longest drive – Luke List’s 374-yard drive on the 10th hole. It reached the tree line and left him just 85 yards to the pin. He ended up with par on the hole. Longest putt – Fabian Gomez’ birdie putt of 56 feet, 8 inches on the fifth hole. It was the first of five birdies on his round – unfortunately he started with three bogeys to shoot 2-under 69. Hardest hole – The 442-yard par-4 18th played to a stroke average of 4.22. The tough pin placement has made it one of the most difficult closing holes on any Sunday on TOUR. Easiest hole – The 529-yard par-5 1st played to a stroke average of 4.55. It was the only hole that contender Justin Rose birdied en route to his 1-over 72. SHOT OF THE DAY CALL OF THE DAY

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Steve Stricker did it the hard way. After writing the USGA for a special exemption into next week’s U.S. Open at Erin Hills, and getting denied, Stricker shot 67-65 at the sectional qualifier at Ridgeway and Germantown Country Clubs on Monday to earn a spot in the 156-player field. “It might be the easy way,� said Stricker, whose 10-under-par total put him alone at the top when a storm halted play with a handful of players still out on the course. “Easier than trying to—yeah, well. It’s nice to be able to go there and play. I’m excited. I’m happy it all worked out.� Troy Merritt, Chez Reavie, Andres Romero and Trey Mullinax finished at 8 under par or better and looked likely to also qualify. Harris English was at 9 under through 16 holes. This will mark the first time the U.S. Open has come to Wisconsin, and Stricker, who lives in Edgerton, about an hour and 15 minutes’ drive from Erin Hills, was grinding to get in. He walked the course with the USGA’s Mike Davis, original owner Bob Lang and Erin Hills chairman Jim Reinhart when a Wisconsin U.S. Open was just a seedling of an idea. Stricker is also a five-time Wisconsin State Open champion who has represented the state throughout a long and distinguished PGA TOUR career that has seen him win 12 times. Still, he went from optimism to pessimism as he wrote the USGA for an exemption, which in the past has mostly been limited to Hall of Famers, plus then-amateur sensation Aaron Baddeley. “I think he just wanted to get in on his own at this point,� said Mario Tiziani, Stricker’s brother-in-law, agent, and occasional caddie. (Tiziani was on the bag in Memphis.) “A lot of people were lobbying for it, but he just wanted to get in on his own. He’s 84th in the world—they probably could have [let him in]—but he’s happy the way it went. “It was a quick no,� Tiziani added. “And, personally, I feel like that’s what the exemption is for, a guy that’s not in the top 60 but he’s super close. Being in Wisconsin and some of the other things that matter, I think it would’ve been a good thing to do, but they have other ideas and he made it on his own.� Stricker nearly holed out for eagle at the par-4 13th hole at Germantown late Monday, and his tap-in birdie got him to 10 under par and seemingly in command. Alas, after his tee shot wound up in a hole on 14, he was denied relief and, trying to do too much with his second shot, clipped a tree and hit his ball in the hazard. He salvaged a bogey after taking a drop and a penalty stroke. “It ended up being a great bogey,� Stricker said of his heart-stopping moment on 14. “It was one of those unfortunate breaks, really, to get into that hole. In hindsight, I probably should have just laid it up short of the hazard. I should have just taken my medicine.� A tap-in birdie at the par-5 18th hole gave him a 10-under-par total, which led the qualifier as some groups waited to finish. The Memphis sectional, one of 10 across the country and 12 worldwide, featured 108 players vying for nine spots. Stricker, 50, has played in 19 U.S. Opens, with his best a fifth-place finish in 1999. He voiced his displeasure at being denied an exemption, but Monday’s performance made it a moot point. A club member brought him and Tiziani two celebratory beers as they plopped down in the clubhouse grill just before the horn blew for the weather delay. “It gained some traction,� Stricker said. “It made its way around, people started tweeting, thinking that I should’ve been given a spot. It’s a big relief to get it behind me and be able to play. It was on my mind a lot. I mean that’s why I’ve been playing all these events, trying to get my world ranking up to try to get in there and play.� Stricker normally doesn’t play as many as four straight tournaments, but last week’s Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide, where he faded with a final-round 78, was his fourth in a row. He flew privately Sunday night to Memphis, not just for the sectional qualifier but also because he was scheduled to play in this week’s FedEx St. Jude Classic, after which the top 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking will get into the field at Erin Hills. Now, though, he’s already in. And the FedEx St. Jude would be his fifth consecutive week of play, followed by next week’s U.S. Open (sixth) and the PGA TOUR Champions’ American Family Insurance Championship (seventh). So as not to play himself to exhaustion, Stricker said he may withdraw this week. “I’d hate to do that to them, and to the tournament,� Stricker said. “I’ll talk to a few people and see what the right thing to do is.� He also has one more conundrum, now that he’s a go for Erin Hills: How to distribute his allotment of tickets to friends and family. Stricker laughed at the mention of it. “That’s a nice problem to have,� he said.

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