Tough day at Pebble Beach for Woods, Mickelson

HONOLULU — Russell Henley made a series of key putts late in his round Saturday and salvaged a 3-under 67 that gave him a two-shot lead over Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama in the Sony Open in Hawaii. RELATED: Full leaderboard | The clubs Keita Nakajima is using at the Sony Open in Hawaii Matsuyama made up plenty of ground with a 63, taking only 25 putts even if he had no idea how some of them went in. He caught up with Henley briefly by closing with a 15-foot birdie putt. Henley regained the lead with a 12-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole. He kept it by avoiding a long three-putt on the 16th, making a comebacker from 8 feet. He made a 15-footer on the 17th to create a cushion. Starting out with a three-shot lead and posting a 67 was not the worst of days for Henley, even if he would have expected more in another day of limited wind. He was a 18-under 192 and will be paired with Matsuyama, as popular in Honolulu as any stop on the PGA TOUR outside Japan. Matsuyama will be going for his second win his season — he won the ZOZO Championship outside Tokyo last fall — and the eighth of his career, which would tie him with K.J. Choi of South Korea for most wins by an Asian-born player. This is hardly a two-man race at Waialae, a course with a history of players coming out of the pack with something in the low 60s, and such a score is certainly possible in these conditions. Seamus Power of Ireland birdied his last two holes for a 65, leaving him four shots behind, along with Matt Kuchar (67) and Adam Svensson of Canada (65) and Haotong Li of China, who was in the mix until a tough finish. Li was one shot behind with four holes to play. But then Henley birdied the 15th, and Li made a mess of the 16th hole, which bends to the left round houses and out toward the Pacific, the big “W” of palm trees behind the green. Li went way left off the tee. He went way right with his shot, some 20 yards beyond the 17th tee. He hacked out short and chipped long and took two putts for a double bogey. That left him four shots behind, but he didn’t lose his sense of humor. With his tee shot on a decent line off the tee at the par-3 17th, Li said loud enough for the gallery to hear, “Hole-in-one, please.” No such luck. He missed a birdie putt from just inside 15 feet, finishing with a long two-putt birdie and still had hope. Lucas Glover (64) and Kevin Kisner (65) were five shots behind. So much depends on Henley, who dropped two shots and made enough birdies to keep his distance as he goes for his second win at the Sony Open. He won at Waialae in the first tournament of his rookie season in 2013. “Russell seems to be the guy when he gets out in front and is playing well and confident, he seems to rise to the occasion,” Kisner said. “I think he’s going to be a tough competitor to try to beat.” Matsuyama looked up to the task, especially late in his round. He knocked in a 40-foot birdie putt on the 13th, and then holed a 15-footer for par on the next hole. He laid well back off the 15th tee with a 4-iron, a smart move because he was in the right side of the fairway with a large tree blocking his way to the pin on the right of the green. He had an 8-iron and enough room to sent it over the tree to 15 feet for another birdie. “Putting was a strong point today. Even my missed putts found the hole,” Matsuyama said through an interpreter. “I was lucky today.”

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SYDNEY, Australia – You could argue that Smylie Kaufman has been figuratively down under for a while. Now, he’s literally there as the search for his game continues halfway around the world. Kaufman has popped up in the Australian Open in Sydney this week and will play the Indonesian Masters in Jakarta on Dec. 12-15 before returning to Australia for the Australian PGA Championship on Dec. 19-22. The now 28-year-old won the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in just his fifth PGA TOUR start back in the 2015-16 season and then shot further into stardom in the months that followed. In his first Masters start in 2016, he sat just a shot off the lead through 54-holes and was part of a viral spring break trip with fellow young studs Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas. But as the rest of that group continued a climb into the stratospheres with FedExCup, THE PLAYERS Championship and major championship victories, Kaufman started a freefall. Since being tied fourth at the Sanderson Farms Championship in October 2017, Kaufman has missed the cut in 25 of 27 PGA TOUR starts with a WD in another. He had the same troubles in a handful of Korn Ferry Tour starts and even pegged it up on a mini tour a few months ago. The reason for the demise is a mix between a right wrist and left elbow injury and some shattered confidence that was initially exaggerated by a steady stream of social media criticism. Like other players who have gone through rough patches, Kaufman says it is the unknown that plagues him. His iron play particularly had gone awry and sent his trust levels into cavernous territory. Sound familiar? FedExCup leader Brendon Todd has just come out the other side of a similar dark place, winning twice already this season after years of heartache. His recent success gives Kaufman heart. “Guys out here… they have something they can rely on. That’s where the struggle comes, when a player feels they don’t have something they can trust or rely on and they don’t know what the ball is going to do and how it is going to react,â€� Kaufman said. This is not easy golf out here and I think people don’t always understand how hard the game can be if you don’t know exactly what your ball is going to do. “It’s just a guessing game when it comes down to it.â€� Amidst all the gloom, there have been a few glimmers of hope in recent times. Kaufman has learned how to deal with those who take shots at him from behind a keyboard and is looking at positives rather than negatives. And he feels his ball-striking is not as loose as it had been, putting him on a path back to belief. His last round on the PGA TOUR was a 4-under 67 in the second round of the Bermuda Championship and while he still missed the cut after an opening 76, it was his lowest round on either the PGA TOUR or the Korn Ferry Tour in 531 days. He had been +136 in 35 rounds since shooting 67 in the second round of the 2018 AT&T Byron Nelson. And so, with only past champion status to call on in America, a trip across the Pacific was arranged. Kaufman wants tournament reps while he finds himself in a more positive mindset. Sadly, he opened with a 4-over 75 at The Australian Golf Club – a theme he has been fighting for so long now. A missed flight from the U.S. left him arriving on Tuesday and suffering some severe jetlag, but he refused to blame his fatigue on his score. “It has been mainly Thursdays for me. Just the buildup and the pressure has made Thursdays feel like Sundays,â€� Kaufman said after his first competitive round down under. “It’s hard for me to just go out there and be comfortable and ready to go. So I think that’s huge for me these next three weeks. I get three Thursdays and Fridays to try to feel more and more comfortable. The more tournament golf the better.â€� Kaufman had politely declined media requests over the last few months as he focused on finding his game, but in Australia he seems to have turned a corner in confidence. His trademark smile returned at times, fueled by the generous support afforded to him by the galleries. While he has scaled back his social media presence from the early days, Kaufman has noticed a shift in the landscape of late. There are less haters and more and more supporters and votes of confidence. More and more golf fans are now appreciative of the dedication and sacrifice Kaufman is making to turn things around. “The fans here were great. That was fun. There were some key marquee groups behind so we played with some big crowds and that was a nice change for me from home where I haven’t really been playing in front of anybody much lately,â€� Kaufman adds. “I was actually surprised to see how many people seem to know who I am so it was kind of nice to have fans here who enjoy following me and watching and hopefully I can give them a little more of a show tomorrow. “I have always believed your talent doesn’t go anywhere. I don’t feel that far off, that’s the thing. I really don’t.â€� Kaufman says he is a visual learner and when he is able to clear his mind golf becomes easy. But clearing the nagging thoughts has proven difficult at times. “When you play so bad for so long… you’re always trying to figure out a Rubik cube,â€� he says. “I was in a funk there… When you go through a tough stretch, you’re more in analytical mode and you’re using a different part of your brain. Now I’m basically working on strong visuals. I can do it on the range. I can do it on the putting green. I just have to take it to the course.â€�

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NASSAU, Bahamas – Justin Thomas has been sporting sunglasses at the Hero World Challenge this week, but he’s not taking a page from Phil Mickelson. As it turns out, Thomas underwent LASIK surgery a week and a half ago, and he’s trying to protect his eyes in the bright sunshine at Albany Golf Club. “Yeah, I’ve been wanting to do it for a while,” Thomas said after shooting a 5-under 67 in the first round at the Hero, where he trails co-leaders Abraham Ancer, Daniel Berger and Rory McIlroy by one. “It finally just worked out with the schedule to get it done. “That’s why I keep walking around with the sunglasses,” he continued. “I don’t wear those too often, just trying to protect the eyes.” (He normally wears contact lenses.) “Yeah, it was nice to get that done a week and a half ago and try to put it to the test here this week.” If Thursday was a test, he earned a decent grade. He birdied the 14th, 15th and 16th holes to take the outright lead at 7 under before a hiccup at the last, where he made double bogey to slip into a tie for second with playing partner Brooks Koepka and Webb Simpson. Thomas is coming off a third-place finish at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, Mexico, and is 32nd in the FedExCup and sixth in the Official World Golf Ranking. He finished fourth in the FedExCup last season, with seven top-10 finishes, including a win at THE PLAYERS Championship, despite finishing outside the top 100 in Strokes Gained: Putting. As for his bloodshot eyes Thursday, Thomas said they didn’t hurt. “They look terrible,” he said, “but they feel fine. They’re just a little dry.”

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