Tiger Woods unsure if he’ll add The Honda Classic to his schedule

FedExCup champion Justin Rose has kick started his assault on going back-to-back in the season long race with an impressive record-breaking win at Torrey Pines. Welcome to the Monday Finish where Rose stumbled, then steadied himself, on the way to cementing himself at the top of golfs elite. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. The Best Can Always Adjust Justin Rose had the weight of history on his shoulders on Sunday and very easily could have folded his lead when his start was less than stellar. The FedExCup champion is better than that though. Never mind the fact he’d only converted four of the 15 times he had the 54-hole lead on the PGA TOUR. Or the fact nine of the last 10 Farmers Insurance Open winners had come from behind on Sunday. Or the fact he played the first five holes two over (with three bogeys) to bring the chasing pack into play. Rose rallied from that point like an elite player should, playing the last 13 holes in five under. Even when Adam Scott produced a small run at him late on Rose snuffed it out with a clutch wedge shot on the 18th to preserve a two-shot win. The best players can adjust mid-round under the gun. Rose is clearly one of those. Read more on his win here. 2. Armlock works Adam Scott should persevere with his new armlock putting. After making a last-minute switch to the putting style before the tournament the former PLAYERS champion produced a rare great week on the greens. His runner up finish was his best since winning the World Golf Championships – Mexico Championship in 2016. It was just the 10th time since the beginning of 2016 Scott finished inside the top 25 of the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. He’s been inside the top six, including two wins, on eight of those ten times. With Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Kuchar, Webb Simpson and Keegan Bradley all using the method to wins in the last year Scott could very well be next. Read more on Scott’s efforts here. 3. Pick Hideki Did you see the two shots Hideki Matsuyama hit on Sunday from fairway bunkers in to par-5s? His first, from 273 yards on the ninth that finished 21-feet from the hole was incredible. His second, from only 228 yards, had to carry the famous pond in front of the 18th green before settling at 17-feet. Those were just two spectacular shots on a very solid week from the Japanese star. So here’s the bottom line after the 5-time PGA TOUR winners third place finish at Torrey Pines… if you don’t pick him to win next week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open then you’re a brave soul. Matsuyama has two wins already at TPC Scottsdale, plus a T2 and T4. The only blemish was a WD last season after a wrist injury curtailed his quest of a three-peat. 4. Gooch sets base towards TOUR card Talor Gooch had a relatively tough rookie stretch last season on the PGA TOUR, failing to get a single top 10. He finished outside the FedExCup Playoffs but did manage to scrape his way into conditional status, a place where knowing your next start can be tough. But the 27-year-old has run into some nice form the last two weeks, finishing fourth at the Desert Classic and then tied third at Torrey Pines. The first effort secured his spot at the Farmers Insurance Open and this effort gets him back out there again this week in Phoenix. At a career high 27th in the FedExCup Gooch has set a base to make his first Playoffs. He has 328 points now, already more than his 308 from last season. Last season it took 377 points to make the Playoffs. Read more about Gooch here. 5 Big Cat will be better for the run Tiger Woods had opportunity to be a real contender at Torrey Pines once again but at crucial times he couldn’t turn his crisp iron play into birdies. Woods’ bid for an eighth Farmers Insurance Open was most likely lost late in the second round when he was closing out his day on the front side of Torrey Pines North. After a double bogey at the turn set the 80-time PGA TOUR winner backwards Woods went back-to-back birdies on his 12th and 13th holes of the round to gain some momentum. In his remaining five holes, two were par-5s and two were short getable par-4s. Had he made his move through that section he could have been heading for the weekend with a serious sniff. But instead Woods only parred home and sat way off the pace. His final round 5-under 67 was the pick of the week and left him with a T20 finish and some momentum going forward towards the Genesis Open in a few weeks’ time. Read more on Tiger’s upcoming plans here. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Rose’s 21-under 267 (63-66-69-69) was the lowest score at the Farmers Insurance Open since the South Course was toughened up in the early 2000s, breaking Tiger Woods’ 19-under mark from 2008. 2. This was Rose’s 10th PGA TOUR win in his 326th start, the most by an Englishman since 1945. Three of Rose’s wins have come since the start of last season. He’s finished in the top 10 in 13 of his last 21 TOUR starts, including eight top-3 finishes and just one missed cut. 3. Rose ranked fifth on the Torrey Pines South Course in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green – outperforming the field by +1.876 strokes per round on approach shots. 4. Rose played the par-3s at Torrey Pines a combined 6 under par. Rose was one of five players to not make a bogey or worse on a par 3 for the week (of players who made cut). His 6 under par was the best in the field and his second-best par 3 performance in a single week of his PGA TOUR career. 5. Rose and Adam Scott became the sixth and seventh players to surpass $50 million in PGA TOUR career earnings. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is in its first season and adds another layer of excitement to the FedExCup Regular Season. The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will earn bonus payouts from the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. Xander Schauffele remains in top spot while reining FedExCup champion Justin Rose moves to sixth with his win at Torrey Pines.

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Compared to the other three courses being used in the FedExCup Playoffs this year – Ridgewood Country Club, Aronimink Golf Club and East Lake Golf Club – TPC Boston, which will host this week’s Dell Technologies Championship, is a veritable fresh-out-of-the-package entry.   Consider that when TPC Boston first opened in the summer of 2002, Ridgewood and Aronimink had already celebrated centennials and East Lake was prepping for its. But as a new kid on the block, TPC Boston has fit in nicely, having hosted a PGA TOUR tournament annually since 2003 and joining East Lake GC as the only club to be involved in the FedExCup Playoffs every summer since they were introduced in 2007.   There is a common thread, despite the age differences, because as with Ridgewood (host of last week’s NORTHERN TRUST) and Aronimink (next week’s BMW Championship), TPC Boston owes its cool, New England rustic look to the talents of Gil Hanse and his colleague Jim Wagner. They came along after the 2006 tournament to give TPC Boston a new persona, one that has been widely praised by competitors.   Here are five things to know about TPC Boston before the Dell Technologies Championship gets underway Friday: 1. About that name: Don’t think you’re going to walk away from TPC Boston and be able to roam through Faneuil Hall or meander into the famous North End. You’re not actually in Boston when you’re at TPC Boston; instead, you’re in the town of Norton, which is approximately 38.2 miles south of Fenway Park (or Pahk, as the locals call it). Heck, you’re closer to Providence (20 miles south).   At first, it was going to be called TPC Boston at Great Woods, a nod to the summer music venue – Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts – that is less than a mile up the street, just over the town line into Mansfield. But it was quickly amended to TPC Boston, for the better. (And the amphitheater is now the Xfinity Center.)   For such a small town of approximately 20,000 residents (Norton didn’t have a traffic light until 1997), it’s a happening place thanks to the Dell Technologies Championship and all those concerts next door. If there’s a lasting memory of the debut of the PGA TOUR tournament here in 2003, it might be the image of Jesper Parnevik running into the locker room to get out of his neon golf attire and into something way more colorful – his costume to attend the KISS concert next door. Fenway Park is 38 miles from TPC Boston, which is closer to Providence, Rhode Island. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) 2. Red is the color: And not because we’re in Red Sox country, either. No, we’ve had 15 consecutive years of a PGA TOUR stop at TPC Boston and by now, the lads know this: You’ve got to step on the gas and keep it there from start to finish.   The average winning score has been 266.5 – or 17.5 strokes under par. To get there, you best muster at least one really low round at the par-71 TPC Boston layout as only one of the previous 15 winners has failed to record a 65 or lower. That was Rickie Fowler in 2015, and he could afford it that year as he went 67-67-67-68. He is one of eight winners there to shoot all four days in the 60s, with Vijay Singh having done it twice.   The flip side of going low is not going high, so keep this in mind: Only three times at TPC Boston has a winner recorded an over-par round – 72s by Tiger Woods (2006) and Steve Stricker (2009) and 73 by Chris Kirk (2014). 3. The cream rises: The thing about consistently low numbers is that consistently great players seem to generate them. So, while it plays host to low scores, TPC Boston is also where marquee names visit the winner’s circle.   What’s not to like about a place where in 15 years a name from the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking has won 10 times and on the inaugural tournament at TPC Boston in 2003, the 18th-ranked player won; kid by the name of Adam Scott.   TPC Boston was where Singh won in 2004 to move up from No. 2, knocking Woods from the top spot. Impressive stuff, for it came at a time when Woods was Woods. In 2006, Woods solidified his No. 1 rank when he won at TPC Boston; ditto McIlroy in 2012, and on five other occasions, the winner here has been ranked second, third, fourth or fifth.   No surprise, then, that since 2007, the winner at TPC Boston has proceeded to win the FedExCup four times – Singh in 2008, Henrik Stenson in 2013, McIlroy in 2016 and Justin Thomas last year. On average, the par-5 second hole at TPC Boston is eagled 9.2 times per event. (Photo by TPC Boston) 4. Fireworks: In 2009, the threesome of John Senden, Angel Cabrera and Scott Verplank played the par-5 second in nine strokes. Total. They went albatross, eagle, birdie, respectively, and fans soaked in the roars of a rare 2-3-4 performance.   But it’s not like they haven’t had plenty of other dramatic stuff to cheer, because at TPC Boston, eagles are very much a part of the show. Two of the par 5s – the second and 18th – are easily reachable in two and have yielded lots of 3s. On average, the 18th is eagled 15.1 times per tournament, the second 9.2.   The seventh is a tougher par-5, with just 29 eagles in 15 years.   But you don’t need a seat at the par-5s to watch eagles land at TPC Boston; a quality view is at the fourth, where Hanse turned a mundane par-4 into an intriguing short hole that can be driven. Since the FedExCup Playoffs began in 2007, the hole has been eagled 75 times, or 6.8 times per tournament.   Thomas made eagle there as part of his final-round 66 to win last year’s Dell Technologies Championship. 5. Just down the road: One of the neat things about walking into TPC Boston during the FedExCup Playoffs, at least for a good cross-section of the players, is the chance to be reminded how far they’ve come in a short time.   Twenty miles in seven years?   You could crunch it that way, perhaps, since from TPC Boston it’s not much more than a 25- or 30-minute ride to Wannamoisett CC in Rumford, Rhode Island. Many in the golf community embrace Wannamoisett as a Donald Ross classic and its membership for the way it embraces the annual Northeast Amateur. Seven years ago, 54 young golfers made the cut at the Northeast Amateur and 13 of them now are PGA TOUR players. Further, nine of them – including the 2011 Northeast Amateur winner Peter Uihlein – will be teeing it up in the Dell Technologies Championship.   Other notables: Patrick Rodgers finished fourth that year, Emiliano Grillo was joint fifth, while Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth were well down the list.   Likely the pressures of the Playoffs will consume them this week and keep them focused on what might be. But on those rides on I-95 toward their hotel, they just might spy a sign for Rumford and be reminded of what once was.

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It had been an awful day, so far as Bob Goalby was concerned, so he took it out on the doors, the walls, the medicine cabinet. Anything that wouldn’t hit back was a target. “I was angry, so I was slamming everything,� said Goalby, whose first-round 75 at the 1958 Bing Crosby National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach left him well off the lead. There was a lot of golf to be played, but he was a 29-year-old PGA TOUR rookie – and a rather precocious one, at that. “I never paid attention to Doug (Ford), who I was rooming with. He had played earlier, and he just sat there watching me make an ass of myself. Finally, he looked at me and said, ‘Who do you think you are that you don’t think you can shoot 75?’ � Then 35, Ford was a PGA TOUR veteran who had already won the 1955 PGA Championship and 1957 Masters, but these were the days when money was tight, and roommates a necessity. “We went out to eat that night and finally I said, ‘Doug, what did you shoot?’ He said, ’77,’ and so I felt even worse. Here I was, acting like a jerk having shot 75. But that’s the way Doug was. He was always there for the guys who needed a little help.� The story personified Ford, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame who died Monday evening at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He was 95 and to former “touring professionals� of the 1960s, Ford will always be remembered for the roles he played in forming the PGA TOUR as we know it and later the PGA TOUR Champions. “We cherish the rich history of our PGA TOUR, of which Doug Ford was an integral part,� said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan in a statement. “In an era when giants of the game were building the PGA TOUR, Doug achieved remarkable success and never lost his unmatched love of the game. All of us owe a debt of gratitude to this great player.� Added former PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem: “Doug Ford was a gifted athlete who chose golf as his sport. It was my privilege to be in attendance and spend considerable time with him in 2011 when the World Golf Hall of Fame inducted him. His PGA Championship and Masters wins are a testament to the kind of player and competitor he was. Doug was a great champion and today we celebrate his life.� A winner of 19 PGA TOUR tournaments, “Doug was under-appreciated, perhaps, but not by those of us who played against him,� said Goalby. Ford won his PGA TOUR tournaments in a 12-year period (1952-63) when fame was difficult to come by. “But it didn’t matter,� said Goalby, “because Doug just loved to play. I think he played more golf than anyone. He’d leave a tournament on Sunday night, go home and play in a pro-am, then get to the next tournament to start practicing by Tuesday. I mean, he was always playing golf.� To Goalby’s point, from 1950 to 1963, Ford played in 429 tournaments, an average of nearly 31 per season. When in 2011 Ford was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, Goalby enthusiastically accepted the offer to introduce him. “He was a great competitor, one of the toughest I ever played with,� Goalby said at the ceremony. “Sam (Snead) would call him Otis. I said, ‘What are you calling him Otis for?’ and Sam said, ‘because he’s like the Otis elevator, he’s up and down at every green.’ � If Snead’s assessment was true, Ford said it was owed to the way he spent much of his childhood in Manhattan where he acknowledged that he got his education in pool halls and ran with wannabe mobsters. “You had to be street smart,� he told Golf Digest’s Guy Yocum in 2007. “In that neighborhood, to survive you had to have guts.� Born Douglas Michael Fortunato on August 6, 1922, in West Hartford, Connecticut, Ford grew up in Manhattan where his father, Mike, a golf professional, operated a nearby indoor driving range. Mike and his three brothers – Frank, Jack and Joe, all of them golfers – finally changed the family name, reasoning that most jobs in golf were going to Scottish and British immigrants. “Ford� sounded better than “Fortunato.� They weren’t alone, either; Gene Sarazen had been born “Saraceni.� So different, these days. For proof, consider that Ford – who considered a professional baseball career before choosing golf – was like a lot of young men of the World War II era and put military service first. After a stint with the Coast Guard Air Division, Ford returned to playing competitive golf, but didn’t decide to turn pro until 1949, when he was 26. Why the delay? Ford said it was because he made a better living by playing money games. “In fact, he told me that (former USGA Executive Director) Joe Dey walked up to him at a tournament and said, ‘We know you play for money, so you can’t enter as an amateur,’ � said grandson Scott Ford, a teaching professional on Long Island. “My grandfather told me that’s pretty much the day he decided he was a professional golfer.� It wasn’t until his third PGA TOUR season, 1952, that Ford broke through for a win, one that came in a most unusual way. At the Jacksonville Open, Ford defeated Snead in a playoff – without hitting a shot. Instead, Snead forfeited. Seems Snead had hit it out-of-bounds in Round 2, only a generous official told him that because players hadn’t known that the white stakes had been moved, he didn’t have to take the penalty. Reportedly, some competitors were upset, so Snead, after finishing tied with Ford, refused to take part in the playoff. “I want to be fair about it. I don’t want anyone to think I took advantage of the ruling,� said Snead. With that, Ford accepted the $2,000 first-place prize and was off on a career that saw him win at least once each season from 1952 to 1963, save for 1956. Most memorable, of course, were his major championships, the first of which came by a 4 and 3 decision over Cary Middlecoff in the 36-hole, match-play final of the 1955 PGA Championship at Meadowbrook CC in Northville, Michigan. Renowned as a fast player, Ford later talked about his strategy against the notoriously slow Middlecoff. “The secret to my winning was a chair. I had my son (Doug Ford Jr.) carry a chair for me to sit in when it was Doc’s turn to play,� said Ford. “That chair saved my legs. You couldn’t rush Doc. But I didn’t care. I just sat in that chair.� Doug Ford Jr. was 10 at the time and vividly remembers the day. “I walked every hole, but it was my mother’s idea to carry one of those little folding chairs for the second round,� said the oldest of Doug and Marilyn’s three children. “It was a good strategy. It helped.� Two years later, Ford’s win at the Masters came with an exclamation point: He holed a bunker shot from a buried lie to birdie 18. “That was the greatest shot I ever played,� said Ford, whose closing 6-under 66 for 5-under 283 was three clear of Snead, the 54-hole leader. CQ, 283 is correct. If you use our PGA TOUR media guide for reference, 282 is wrong. “I remember feeling real bad for Sam,� Ford said years later. “I thought it was kind of sad that he started with a three-shot lead, shot 72, and got beat.� But Ford always opined that “Sam was the greatest player I ever saw,� and the two of them played countless times, usually for money. “When you beat him, you got paid off in the locker room,� Ford once laughed. “But if he beat you, he wanted to get paid on the green.� Ford made his debut in the Masters in 1952 and won it five years later. He last entered as a competitor in 2001 when he was 78. The club that year revised its policy and told past winners they couldn’t played beyond the age of 65. There were plenty of controversy, but Ford took it in stride. “It wasn’t a big deal to me, I was finished anyway,� Ford told Yocum. But in a fashion that was vintage Ford, he added, that there was a lesson to be learned. “Think twice before you put the words ‘lifetime exemption’ next to something.� Said Goalby: “He was a straight-shooter. Yeah, he could be kind of curt, but he was always good to guys who needed help.� “I think his fellow players respected him,� said Ford’s son Mike, “because they always elected him to their boards. He was low-key, never seeking out praise.� As a former Masters champ, Ford made the pilgrimage every April through 2017 for the Champions Dinner. His death leaves Jack Burke Jr. (1956) as the oldest living member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Ford had three-win seasons in 1953, ’55 and ’57; was second on the money list twice; and Player of the Year in ’55. He played on four Ryder Cup teams, compiling a 4-4-1 record in 1955, ‘57, ‘59, and ‘61, and he was also inducted into the Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame and National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame. Ford is also a member of the Metropolitan Section Hall of Fame, a testament to his long association with that heralded chapter of the PGA of America. He won the Met Open once and the Met Section PGA four times and had associations with four different clubs in the area – Putnam CC, Tam O’Shanter, Vernon Hills and Spook Rock GC, where he and his son, Doug Jr., had stints as head professional. But to Goalby and other players of that era, Ford will always be fondly remembered for how he helped shape what is the PGA TOUR and the PGA TOUR Champions. “He was a tower of strength when (The Tournament Players Division) split from the PGA of America. We owe Doug thanks for that,� Goalby said at Ford’s Hall of Fame induction. Years after leaving the PGA TOUR, Ford got a charge out of his win over Snead in the 1981 Merrill Lynch/Golf Digest Commemorative Pro-Am at Newport CC. He was instrumental in the formation of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, playing in the debut in 1978 and annually through 2013. He teamed with Jerry Barber (1987) and Art Wall (1996) for Liberty victories. His wife, Marilyn, with whom he traveled the PGA TOUR circuit with their three children – Doug Jr., Mike, and Pam – died in 1988. Both Doug Jr. and Mike played in some PGA TOUR tournaments after graduating from Wake Forest and Rollins College, respectively. They are both PGA of America professionals – Doug Jr. still teaches at Deer Creek Golf Club in Deerfield Beach, Fla.; Mike owns Jack O’Lantern Resort in New Hampshire which features an 18-hole golf course. But to show that golf continues to run deep with the Fords, Mike said he’s about to finish a deal to purchase Silver Creek Plantation in Morganton, N.C., where his brother Doug will be the director of golf. Doug Ford is also survived by his daughter, Pam, an Assistant State Attorney in West Palm Beach, Fla., seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. “He had a great life,� said Mike. “You can’t ask for anything more than that.�

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