Updates on Tiger Woods from Thursday at the Masters

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Max Homa has put a little more practice into his longer putts, and it’s paid off at the Valspar Championship. Homa holed five putts from outside 25 feet in the first two rounds this week. That matches the mark for the most putts made from outside 25 feet in the first two rounds of an event in the ShotLink era (since 2003). Homa made 202 feet, 3 inches of putts Thursday, making him just the second player in the ShotLink era to hole more than 200 feet of putts in a single round at Innisbrook. Homa, who shot 66-68, was tied for the lead after Friday’s morning wave. The winner of this season’s Genesis Invitational started the week ranked 18th in the FedExCup With a win, he’d join Bryson DeChambeau and Stewart Cink as the only multiple winners this season. RELATED: Full leaderboard He has made five of the eight putts he’s faced from outside 25 feet this week. That’s a make percentage of 62.5%. The TOUR has made 5.4% of such putts this season. “I typically putt it quite well, at least start it on my lines. I haven’t made very much most of the season, really, or most of my career outside of like 10, 12 feet,” Homa said Friday. “My inside 6 feet stats are really good, so you would think I would make more from longer. So we have just been putting a little more attention to that, so maybe that’s kind of where the boost has come in. Speed’s been really good, we’re seeing the lines, I feel like Joe (Greiner, his caddie) has been reading them really well and if you start the ball on line they got to go in eventually.” Homa gained more than 5.6 strokes on the greens in the first two rounds at Innisbrook. It’s the second-most strokes he’s gained on the greens in the opening two rounds of a tournament. The only time he gained more? At the 2019 Wells Fargo Championship, which he won. His 3-wood has been nearly as impressive this week. On Monday, he made the first albatross of his career. He almost added another one Friday. Homa hit his 261-yard second shot on the par-5 14th to 5 feet to set up an easy eagle. Though his impressive shot didn’t match his feat from earlier in the week, it was still an exceptional strike. According to ShotLink, Homa has never hit a second shot of more than 250 yards on a par-5 closer to the hole. The TOUR’s measuring system has captured 531 such shots in Homa’s career. He’s hit the green with 39 of them (7.3%) and this was just the third time he hit one inside 10 feet (0.6%). Homa was the first player since 2018 to eagle the Copperhead Course’s 14th with a putt inside 5 feet. He hit a 3-wood into the hole, the same club he used to hole his second shot on the 11th hole of Greystone Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama, the home course of his instructor, Mark Blackburn. “I’ve always hit my 3-wood quite well. It’s typically one of my favorite clubs,” he said Friday. “I know every caddie that’s ever worked for me has said it’s their favorite club, which means it probably should be my favorite club.” Homa couldn’t see his second shot on 14 but he got a thumbs up from the group ahead, so he figured he must have hit the green. He didn’t think it would be that close, however. Homa gained 1.3 strokes on the field with that stroke alone. Now he is contending at Innisbrook after missing the cut in all three of his previous appearances here. “I think I’m just better at golf now,” he said. It’s showing.

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Sources: DJ to play U.S. Open after son’s birth

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CROMWELL, Conn. – Sahith Theegala is still a rookie. He’s still figuring out how to optimize his performance, manage travel. He’s learning the courses as fast as he can. Not for nothing has he played 83 rounds this season, most on the PGA TOUR. No better teacher than experience. And yet he’s realistic. He knows he can’t expect to always be in contention like he was at the WM Phoenix Open in February, when a bad bounce on 17 led to a hard-luck T3 finish. “Yeah, it’s been an interesting situation,” he said after carding a 6-under 64 in the third round of the Travelers Championship, leaving him 14 under and three behind leader Xander Schauffele (67). “Because obviously now I have the confidence in my own game, but I totally – I’m not fooling myself and I’m not going to have this opportunity to win that often yet. “I’m making great progression to hopefully put myself in more positions like this,” he continued, “but I know I’m not a Rory or Xander quite yet.” Or a Patrick Cantlay, the FedExCup champion who shot 63, the low round of the day, and is in second, just a shot behind his Zurich Classic of New Orleans teammate Schauffele. They won that tournament in April and have also paired up in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. “Yeah, if only it was a combined score again this week we would be doing well,” said Cantlay, who made no bogeys Saturday. “It’s always nice to be out with him, if he’s on my team or if he’s not. I’m going to go out there tomorrow and try as hard as I can and let the chips fall where they may.” Schauffele was fractionally off in the third round and made his first bogey of the tournament after losing his tee shot into the water right of the fairway at the par-5 13th hole. “I’ve got to make more birdies tomorrow,” he said before heading to the driving range. Kevin Kisner (66) is just four back and hoping to draw on his knack for rising to the occasion, which has served him so well at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play (2019 champion). “I just always have been able to have the ability to really sharpen my focus when the pressure goes up,” said Kisner, a four-time TOUR winner, including the 2021 Wyndham Championship. Theegala, 24, is still too young to know exactly what his tendencies are. He was in tears after the WM Phoenix Open, where his tee shot at the drivable 17 hole took a hard kick left and trickled into the water, leading to a bogey. He stayed in the fight to the end and wound up just a shot out of the Scottie Scheffler/Cantlay playoff, making plenty of new fans. Since then, he’s been mostly under the radar. After Phoenix, he missed the cut in two of his next three starts. He made cuts but didn’t qualify for the first three majors. Davis Riley and Cameron Young became the co-favorites for Rookie of the Year. Still, Theegala keeps plugging along. “I’ve just stayed patient the whole year and try to stick to that mantra of getting a little bit better, no matter what that is,” he said after a third round that included a 6-foot eagle putt on 13 and was marred only by a bogey at the last. “Even if the scores don’t reflect it, just feeling better about myself and moving forward. But, yeah, I’ve plead a lot of good golf since then too.” His best golf since Phoenix, he added, came at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, where on a firm, tough Muirfield Village he tied for fifth. He was never going to win but liked that his game held up in what he called major-like conditions. He likes that he’s made 19 cuts in 24 starts this season, showing that he can get it around even when he doesn’t have his best. Now the Pepperdine product will get another chance to raise a PGA TOUR trophy. He’ll play the final round with the veteran Kisner, and Schauffele and Cantlay may be very tough to catch. This time, Theegala’s parents won’t be following him shot for shot, but his brother, Sahan, and cousin, Pavin, will be. Sahan goes to Seton Hall, and they drove from New Jersey on Friday. “I’m definitely going to be nervous,” Theegala said. “Definitely going to be excited. It’s so nice having prior experience kind of being near the top. So I know exactly what to expect. And every single week I’m out here I feel like I’m getting more and more comfortable. “I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.”

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