Updates: Tiger Woods at U.S. Open, Round 1

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Charles Howell III (69, 5 under) said he knew he was in the minority, but, “I’m a May guy.â€� Justin Thomas (70, also 5 under) declared himself a May guy even before the tournament began. They tied for 35th. Rory McIlroy is a March guy. Jim Furyk, too. They were 1-2, respectively, at THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass, which returned to March for the first time since 2006. Did they play well because they’re March guys, or are they March guys because they played well? Maybe both. Or maybe, as McIlroy kept saying all week, attitude was everything. “I’m very thankful to the PGA TOUR for putting it back to March,â€� said McIlroy (70, 16 under). To butcher an old saying, whether you thought you were a March guy or not a March guy at this PLAYERS, you were right. Because Furyk (67, 15 under), too, decided the date helped him.      “A long, wide-open golf course is going to be difficult for me to compete on,â€� Furyk said. “Not that I can’t, but my opportunities and my percentage goes way down. But you put a golf course like this where it’s really important to hit fairways — I’m sure I was in the top five in fairways hit this week. It’s about position.â€� (Furyk was indeed T3 in fairways, 44-of-56, for the week.) But it wasn’t just the top two finishers who suggested THE PLAYERS still plays no favorites.   Dustin Johnson (69, T5), who plays like McIlroy, had his first top 10 here. Brian Harman (70, T8), who plays a precision game more of the style of Furyk, matched his career best (2015). “It definitely — 80 degrees on Friday and really cold today, definitely more variables,â€� said 2018 PLAYERS champion Webb Simpson (68, T16). “The golf course played firm, but the rain came in and softened it out a little bit. It’s definitely more of a guessing game in March.â€� For some who had struggled in May, there was no guessing about the move to March. The date change allowed them to clear the cache, as it were. You could clearly hear Johnson’s enthusiasm even after he won the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship last month. RELATED: Rory’s winner’s bag | Tiger leaves PLAYERS optimistic | Furyk shines with runner-up finish |  “I can’t wait,â€� he said of the new PLAYERS. His T5 was his best result in 11 starts here.    Why was McIlroy thankful for the new date? It starts with something Justin Rose (68, 12 under, T8) mentioned early in the week: The look of the newly overseeded course, specifically the two distinct greens, darker in the rough, lighter in the fairway. The course fit his eye better. “The fairways and the rough are defined,â€� McIlroy said. “Where back in May, the fairway and the rough were the same color, so you didn’t have definition in terms of where you were hitting your tee shots, and I definitely drove it better this week on this golf course because of that.â€� The other benefit, he added, also came down to grass. “You get into this Bermuda in May, it takes a lot of skill out of it,â€� McIlroy said. “It’s sort of hit-and-hope and you have to be lucky and you’re guessing half the time, where the way the overseed is around the greens now, you can actually showcase some of your skills and you can play shots pretty certain knowing what it’s going to do, how it’s going to react.â€� Case in point: After his 347-yard tee shot wound up in the rough fractionally right of the 16th fairway, McIlroy lofted his second shot 174 yards to the green, his ball settling 19 feet left of the pin to set up an easy two-putt birdie. The winning margin, as it turned out. McIlroy won despite being 60th in Strokes Gained: Putting (-1.506) in the final round, by far his worst performance on the greens all week (32 putts). He was 45th in SG: Putting for the week (+.663), meaning he helped himself only marginally on the greens. He led the field, though, in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, and was second in SG: Off-the-Tee. And he tied for fourth in driving distance (295.8 yards per pop). He maximized his strengths. Conversely, Furyk excelled by playing his usual precision game. He usually left himself on the short grass off the tee, and by playing from the fairway he helped further bolster his precision iron play as he finished 10th in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green (+4.788). And using his relatively new arm-lock grip, he ranked 15th in SG: Putting (+4.201). “I made my fair share of 15-footers this week,â€� he said. THE PLAYERS in March helped long hitters and short hitters, but it also hurt long hitters and short hitters if they weren’t on their games. It simply demanded total commitment to and execution of one’s strengths, just as it always has. And the X-factor, as always, was attitude.

Click here to read the full article…

Showing unprecedented resilience, Kevin Kisner becomes the first player to lose his opening match but go on to win the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. More resilience: Affable 39-year-old Graeme McDowell wins for the first time since 2015 at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Kisner defeated Matt Kuchar 3 and 2 to pick up his third PGA TOUR title, and McDowell edged Chris Stroud and Mackenzie Hughes by one for his fourth. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. The WGC-Dell Technolgies Match Play is golf’s least predictable tournament. Even if you had Kisner winning it all, perhaps basing your prediction on his runner-up finish the year before, you had to admit the tournament was filled with more shockers than usual. In the knock-out phase alone, Kisner, the 48th seed, dispatched No. 36 (Haotong Li), No. 19 (Louis Oosthuizen), No. 7 (Francesco Molinari) and No. 23 (Matt Kuchar). Not a big believer in seeds? Fine. At this point perhaps you shouldn’t be. But consider this: Only 1.1 percent of brackets had Lucas Bjerregaard of Denmark getting out of the group stage, and he then made the semifinals, knocking off Tiger Woods in the process. 2. You needed a little luck, as always. Another weird thing about the WGC-Dell Technologies Math Play: Kisner got out of his group both in spite of and because he beat Ian Poulter. Wait. What? Europe’s renowned match play threat Poulter beat Kisner, 2-up, on day one, but when they both wound up with 2-1-0 records in group play, they went to a sudden-death playoff, which Kisner won with a birdie on the third extra hole to advance to the round of 16. “I don’t think I played my best all week, really,â€� Kisner said. But he played well enough, and in the right moments. Also, he admitted, he got some much-appreciated help.  “I feel like I just did what I needed to do,â€� he said after beating Kuchar, 3 and 2. “I know Matt didn’t play well today. Him making only two birdies the entire day is unlike him, and he gave more bogeys than I’ve ever seen. I thought it would be a big par and birdie-fest out there.â€� 3. Presidents Cup implications were everywhere. Kisner went 2-0-2 at the 2017 Presidents Cup at Liberty National, missed the Ryder Cup in France last year, and is greatly looking forward to wearing the red, white and blue for the U.S. at the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne later this year. At this point you’d be crazy to bet against him making the team. (He moved from 30th to 15th in the U.S. Presidents Cup standings.) “That’s the most fun I’ve probably ever had playing golf was playing team golf,â€� Kisner said of his Presidents Cup turn at Liberty National two years ago, when the Americans won in a rout. “I played team sports growing up and missed the camaraderie of team golf and being a part of it, especially the way we won. It was so much fun. And having it in New York is also huge. “I’d love to get a try on foreign soil and see if we couldn’t be the bad guys.â€� 4. Kuchar is still enjoying a career revival. Although he admitted to making more mistakes than usual in the championship match, runner-up Kuchar still enjoyed a good run and moves back into the top spot in the FedExCup. It was the nine-time TOUR winner’s 11th runner-up finish. Kuchar, 40, was trying to become the oldest champion in WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play history. 5. McDowell’s hard work finally paid off. McDowell won seemingly everything in 2010, but had struggled through a long career lull. “He’s not walked away from a golf tournament in the last 12 months like he’s got anything out of it,â€� said his caddie, Ken Comboy. “It’s been a frustrating time for him.â€� Not anymore. “This is a huge relief, this win,â€� said McDowell, who soared from FedExCup 119th all the way to 42nd, with 419 points. It took 377 points to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs in 2018. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Kisner was the third straight American winner of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play (Bubba Watson 2018, Dustin Johnson 2017), the longest streak since Americans won five in a row from 2001-2005. Kisner also became the first American to win on TOUR since fellow Georgia Bulldog Keith Mitchell (whom he beat in Austin) at The Honda Classic, March 3. 2. By defeating Italy’s Francesco Molinari, 1-up, in the semifinals, Kisner became the fifth player to advance to the championship match in back-to-back years, joining Tiger Woods (2003, ’04), Geoff Ogilvy (2006, ’07), Paul Casey (2009, ’10) and Hunter Mahan (2012, ’13). 3. Matt Kuchar, who beat Hunter Mahan in the WGC-Dell Technologies championship match in 2013, was trying to become the first player to win three times this season and the first since Steve Stricker in 2009 to record three or more victories in a season after turning 40. 4. Lucas Bjerregaard, who lost the consolation match to Francesco Molinari 4 and 2, was bidding to become the first Dane to win a WGC event. Bjerregaard also was trying to become the fourth player to pick up his first TOUR win at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, after Darren Clarke (2000), Kevin Sutherland (2002) and Ian Poulter (2010). 5. McDowell’s win at Puntacana was the fourth time in as many weeks that a European has won on TOUR, after Paul Casey at the Valspar Championship, Rory McIlroy at THE PLAYERS Championship, and Molinari at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. 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. There was another change at the top after the WGC-Dell Technologies Championship, with Matt Kuchar, a two-time winner this season, moving back into pole position on the strength of his runner-up finish to Kevin Kisner. The last man standing, Kisner, meanwhile, vaulted from 73rd all the way to 13th and is knocking on the door to get into the coveted Top 10.

Click here to read the full article…

Kang wins KPMG Champ. for 1st LPGA title

Click here to read the full article…