Tough return for Tiger Woods at Muirfield Village

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Jon Rahm is young enough at 26 that the FedExCup has been a big part of the PGA TOUR as long as he has been chasing his dreams, and winning the trophy would mean a lot to him. RELATED: Full leaderboard | FedExCup update: Keith Mitchell makes move after brilliant birdie run But for now, Rahm can only worry about the tournament at hand, and while he has produced a mixture of great shots and great saves to reach 12-under 130, he still has his hands full. “Believe it or not, hit my fair share of bad shots today,” Rahm said. “Much like yesterday, I was able to save a couple of good ones. … Coming into the weekend, I’m definitely going to have to clean a couple of those mistakes up.” Finau had a 64 with a bogey on the final hole as he tries to secure another spot among the 30 who make it to the season-ending Tour Championship, along with boosting his bid to play his way onto another Ryder Cup team. Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele tied his personal best on the PGA Tour and the course record at Liberty National with a 62 and was in the group at 10-under 132 along with Justin Thomas (69) and Keith Mitchell (64). Thomas, who shared the 18-hole lead with Rahm, couldn’t figure out which way the ball was going in making four bogeys in eight holes, only to play his last five holes in 5 under — that included an eagle at the par-5 eighth — to stay in the mix. Mitchell did his work at the start of his round by running off six straight birdies, a streak that ended on the 18th hole as he made the turn. He took two shots to get out of a longer bunker and made double bogey on No. 7, only to close with two birdies. More is at stake for Mitchell, who is No. 101 in the FedExCup and needs a high finish to be among the top 70 who advance to next week at the BMW Championship. Jordan Spieth got back in the game with a consecutive eagles — he holed out from the fairway on the par-4 fifth and holed a chip from the edge of the water on the par-5 sixth — and tied the course record himself at 62. That left him four behind, along with Brooks Koepka (64). Spieth started the day worried about making the cut, especially after a bogey on the opening hole. He ended it in a tie for 10th, and figures he led the field in luck with those eagles. “When things starting well, you go on a run, right? You get momentum and the ball finds the cup and when it’s not going well it bounces the wrong way,” he said. “I feel like I’m on the right side of some momentum right now and I just have to keep it going.” For others, their season is over. Adam Scott, who missed a 4-foot putt in a playoff that would have won the Wyndham Championship last week, followed an opening 67 with a 75 to miss the cut by one shot. He was among 28 players outside the top 70 in the FedExCup who missed the cut. For Rahm though he knows that the FedExCup is a trophy he’d like to have by the end of the season. “It’s a trophy that a very select group of people are going to be able to put their name on,” he said. “It’s one of those, kind of like in majors and great events like THE PLAYERS, to where … you have to show up and play good.” For now, Rahm can only do so much, focus on the event at hand and the world’s No. 1 player is doing it well.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – PGA TOUR officials are confident they’re prepared for what is shaping up as a potentially tricky stretch of weather at THE PLAYERS Championship. On the eve of the opening round at TPC Sawgrass the extended forecast calls for a high likelihood of thunderstorms over the opening three days. Perhaps more ominously, there could be four different wind directions throughout the tournament. As an ominous precursor, the Stadium Course was evacuated early Wednesday afternoon as storms approached the area. Saturday could prove especially challenging with 20-30 mph sustained winds, and even heavier gusts, expected out of the west/northwest. Thursday brings an 80% chance of storms and winds of 10-18 mph out of the west/southwest. The forecast for Friday sits at 90% chance of storms with an east/southeast wind of 6-12 mph. “Rain and thunderstorms are likely both Thursday and Friday as a frontal boundary drops into northern Florida and stalls,” TOUR meteorologist Wade Stettner said in his forecast Wednesday. “This front is forecast to bring periods of rain with embedded thunderstorms over the two-day period.” Temperatures are also expected to drop significantly on Sunday with a high of just 54 degrees. The wind will switch to a 12-22 mph challenge out of the north/northeast in what, weather depending, would be the final round. “By Saturday morning a strong cold front is forecast to arrive and bring additional thunderstorms,” Stettner’s forecast continued. “This front should clear Ponte Vedra Beach by noon Saturday with dry conditions for the remainder of the weekend. Gusty winds will develop behind the front on Saturday with peak gusts over 30mph at times. Much colder temperatures are forecast this weekend.” In anticipation of the high weekend winds, and the potential for weather delays over the opening two days, officials will pay especially close attention to green speeds and pin locations during the set-up process. With the natural drainage on and around the greens only a few pin locations would be severely affected by rain, but high winds could render some spots unusable. For example, it’s unlikely there would be a hole close to the water at the par-4 fourth and island 17th holes. “We will once again meet this afternoon with the agronomy staff with the latest information at our disposal and obviously adjust our plans accordingly,” Chief Referee Gary Young said. “We are confident we will be as prepared as possible for what lies ahead. We are meticulous in every aspect but it is certainly fair to say Saturday’s winds are a point of focus for us, particularly as we could be finishing up Friday’s round on Saturday, so that affects Friday’s set up as well. “We need to keep in mind we could have a good amount of Friday’s round playing in that Saturday wind,” Young continued, “and they are opposite winds, so we need to find something that works well for both and that’s a challenge.” While in perfect weather officials would prepare and maintain firm and fast greens, the current forecast calls for a gradual decrease from top speed – as the tournament begins Thursday – to as much as an inch or an inch and a half slower speeds by Saturday. That would presumably eliminate the possibility of balls oscillating and even rolling away on the putting surfaces. Officials will take care to make it a gradual change rather than a big overnight shift so players don’t have to make significant adjustments. “Thankfully we’ve got time to make adjustments because we know what’s coming, so that helps in the planning,” Young said. “We have our target speeds for the high winds and we just need to get to that as slowly as possible.” Defending champion Justin Thomas was hoping for the best but also preparing himself for the worst. “I’ve heard horror stories from Tiger and Freddy and some guys about having to hit 5- or 6-iron into 17 on those cold north wind days, and I haven’t experienced that,” Thomas said. “When you get wind and cold temperatures like that, it’s just a different animal, and it’s really just a survival-type thing. “It’s not like I’m going into this week preparing any differently… I don’t get too wrapped up in the draw or what’s the weather going to be like Friday or what’s the wind going to be, because at the end of the day, weather people are wrong all the time.” Adam Scott, the 2004 champion, has experienced tough weather at TPC Sawgrass before. THE PLAYERS the year prior to his victory here, and the tournament the year after it, were played in tricky weather. “It’s a long time ago, but I was around for Davis Love’s win in 2003 when it was horrible, and Fred Funk’s win in 2005, that wasn’t good weather either,” Scott said ahead of his 20th PLAYERS start. “I think we played almost 36 holes on Monday that year because of all the weather delays. When this sort of weather happens the guy who really has his game in shape comes to the top. He can make those adjustments on the fly when he stands on the tee and it is a different wind than the day before, but you just easily pick the shot you need to compensate. Those in control of their swings will be the ones to watch.”

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LAS VEGAS - Francesco Molinari is hoping his first round on the PGA TOUR in nearly seven months goes a little smoother than his first interview. RELATED: Featured Groups for Las Vegas | DeChambeau turns doubters into believers Molinari will make his long awaited return to golf at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas this week, his first hit out since THE PLAYERS Championship was cancelled after one round in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The three-time TOUR winner is the last of the major players around the world to return to competitive golf and when he fronted the TOUR's virtual interview room the Italian caught a proverbial frog in his throat right from the opening question. Thankfully it was nothing a quick drink of water and reset couldn't fix. While the 37-year-old's concern for the global health crisis was a factor in his absence, the main reason the Italian has been off the golf grid so long is a cross Atlantic move from London to Los Angeles. Molinari and his wife and two children have made a permanent shift and the former Open Champion insisted he be a dedicated part of the monumental move. "Obviously feels great after such a long layoff to be back. I didn’t think at THE PLAYERS that it will be so long to get back. I’m just very happy to be here," he said. "I just decided to take some time off to work out a few things with the family. Obviously we moved over here to California during this time, so, yeah, it’s been different. Not something I thought I would do in my career, but in a way it was nice to take a break and stay away for a bit. I definitely feel refreshed and looking forward to being back playing golf." The Molinari's first moved to San Francisco in July and were in fact in the city during the PGA Championship but Molinari declined to play as they continued to try to lockdown a new residence. While Collin Morikawa was making history, Molinari and his kids were at the zoo. Since then they've found a place to call home in Southern California. "It’s worth a shot. I want to try and achieve as many things as possible in let’s say the second part of my career," Molinari said of the motivations for the move which will allow him to play more on the PGA TOUR while still being close to his loved ones. "My wife is supportive of that, and obviously she’s probably the one I guess in the toughest spot because she’s even further away from her family and friends. I’m going to try to make the most of it obviously, and hopefully we can settle in California and be there for a long time." At the end of the 2018 FedExCup season Molinari sat fifth in the world rankings and went on to become the first European to produce a 5-0 record in a Ryder Cup as Europe beat the U.S. in Paris. He'd claimed the Quicken Loans National as well as the Claret Jug at Carnoustie that summer. In 2019 Molinari took out the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by Mastercard and was third at the World Golf Championships - Dell Technologies Match Play sending him to the Masters as one of the hot favorites. For three and a half days he played like it before a mistake on Sunday paved the way for a Tiger Woods win and the end of the golden run Molinari had been on. A double bogey on the par-3 12th on Sunday stripped him of a two-shot lead and he ended up tied fifth. Not a single top-10 has followed and when the break was enforced he had dropped to 28th in the world. Now he's fallen to 73rd thanks to the lengthy layoff but returns to a course in TPC Summerlin where he finished T4 in the 2016-17 season. He expects to get closer to his peak performance by January 2021. "My expectations for this week, to be honest, are quite low. I haven’t played that much golf really in the last few months, so we’ll see what happens here," Molinari said cautiously. "I’ve been playing probably as little golf as ever in my life ... Mentally I’m definitely in a very different spot than I was in February or March. I wasn’t in a great place with my game back then and I was low in confidence … but it was probably in a way a good time for me to take a step away from the game. "I’m more motivated now than I was back then before the break. I'm nowhere near where I want to be long-term physically and technically and mentally, but there is time. There is no rush. It’s going to be a long process. It’s going to be kind of a grind to get back. I know it’s not going to be that easy. But I’m ready for the challenge.”

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