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Justin Parsons was a teenager living in Northern Ireland when he took a test offered in the book, "Eight Traits of a Champion Golfer." This questionnaire promised to recommend a career based on Parsons' strengths and passions. Parsons, like many young men, had aspirations of playing professional golf. The examination recommended a different path. "It said, ‘You really enjoy the idea of movement and how movement works, and you would be a much better coach than you ever would be a player," Parsons recalled recently. "I remember thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, this is kind of dampening my aspirations.' But at the same time, I've always enjoyed people, trying to figure out how people tick and how to get the best out of them." He's done that this year, helping several PGA TOUR players either reach new heights or find success after several tough seasons. He's had a quick impact since arriving at the Sea Island Resort, host of this week's The RSM Classic, last year. His current stable of students includes Gary Woodland, Louis Oosthuizen and Will Gordon, as well as Sea Island residents Harris English, Michael Thompson and Brian Harman. This year, English qualified for the TOUR Championship for the first time since 2015. Thompson won for the first time since 2013. Gordon, a year after turning pro out of Vanderbilt, earned his first PGA TOUR card. Harman finished 37th in the FedExCup last season, his best finish in three years. Oosthuizen finished third in the U.S. Open. "It's about making them a little bit better and not detracting anything from them," Parsons said. Or, as his mentor, Butch Harmon, told him, "Your first responsibility is to make sure you don't screw them up." That is sobering advice that Parsons takes seriously. "You're dealing with their livelihood," he said. His students have had fruitful seasons, especially English and Thompson. English, who won twice on TOUR before turning 25, fell to 149th in the FedExCup last year. He rose to 12th in 2020 and started this new season with a fourth-place finish in the U.S. Open. He's skyrocketed in the world ranking, rising more than 300 spots since last September. He's now ranked 36th in the world, just two spots off his career high. Parsons gave English a clear path out of the doldrums. "He just kind of brought me back from getting lost in this whirlwind of different swings and different mechanics and swing positions," English said. "He simplified it so much that I can know what I'm doing. (Golf) is actually a game now. I'm not worried about how my swing looks." Thompson won his first PGA TOUR title at the 2013 Honda Classic, but spent the next five years outside the top 100 in the FedExCup. That includes four straight seasons, from 2015-18, outside the top 140. Parsons also helped Thompson - who was once the No. 1 amateur in the world - get back on track by going back to what made him successful. "He's helped me to kind of rediscover the old feels that I had back in college, where the shot shape that I always liked to play was a low fade," Thompson said. "He's given me just so much confidence to believe that the unique move that I do through the ball is good enough to be world-class," Thompson said. Parsons arrived at Sea Island after serving as the Director of Instruction at the Butch Harmon School of Golf in Dubai. It was there that he became well-versed in the latest technology available in golf instruction. Sea Island is a sleepy coastal retreat, but the resort's Golf Performance Center also is a high-tech environment that features all the latest tools. Parsons prides himself on knowing when it's appropriate to include them in a lesson. He said instruction is now in the "sweet spot" when it comes to technology. Teachers have become well-versed in the latest high-tech tools, but also know when to leave them on the sidelines. "Technology is vital to help diagnose things and as a tool to re-check things," Parsons said. "If (players) need the technical, I want to give it to them, but if they don't need it, I'd rather they focus on getting the ball in the hole and winning golf tournaments."

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IRVINE, Scotland — It started with a shout of “FORE LEFT!” and ended with a putt from about 7 feet that didn’t come close to finding the cup. Rory McIlroy is making an earlier-than-planned journey south to Royal Birkdale for next week’s Open Championship after missing the cut by two strokes at the Scottish Open following a 1-under 71 in his second round Friday. He was 10 shots off the lead after two days that exposed the current frailties in his wedge play and putting. It was the world No. 4’s third missed cut in his last four events — he also failed to make the weekend at the U.S. Open and last week’s Irish Open — and the latest low point in an injury-affected 2017 for the four-time major winner. “I’m just waiting for something,” McIlroy said. “Waiting for something, some sort of spark. Just something to go right, and the last couple of weeks haven’t been like that. Just got to keep plugging away and hopefully it turns around next week. “I would have loved to have played more rounds going into not just the Open but the rest of the year. But I’m sort of trying to learn as I go along.” With little wind protecting Dundonald Links, McIlroy encountered benign conditions in his bid to make up for an opening-round 74 in the Open Championship warmup but still came up short. The Northern Irishman pulled his tee shot on No. 1 into a gorse bush, only to get a free drop — because the ball was ruled to have been embedded — and get up and down from a greenside bunker. He tapped in for birdie on Nos. 3 and 5, both par 5s, and got into red figures for the first time this week with a close-range birdie at No. 7. However, he needed two shots to get out of a greenside bunker on No. 13, eventually making double-bogey there for the second straight day, and went down the par-5 18th knowing he needed at least a birdie. McIlroy pulled his approach from 220 yards into the light rough, chipped to 7 feet, but his birdie putt back didn’t break and missed by some distance. “It was a terrible putt,” said McIlroy, who has been working hard on his putting. Of his seven birdies this week, five of them came on par fives. McIlroy said he would be heading to Birkdale early to get in some practice rounds on one of the hardest courses on the Open rotation. “I’d be much more worried if I went out there and shot a couple of 76s and I’m nowhere near trying to make the cut or whatever,” McIlroy said. “The difference between shooting 1-under par and 4- or 5-under par isn’t that much of a difference. “I feel like I’m more than capable of going down there and shooting a couple of even pars or shooting something in the 60s and getting myself into contention.” Padraig Harrington (68), Callum Shinkwin (68) and Alexander Knappe (65) shared the lead, with Ian Poulter and Andrew Dodt a shot back after 69s. Rickie Fowler, playing in McIlroy’s group, shot 70 and was two strokes off the lead. Other players to miss the cut, which was at 1 under, were defending champion Alex Noren, Americans Patrick Reed and Jason Dufner, and former No. 1 Martin Kaymer.

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Matt Kuchar again expressed regret for the way he handled payment of a fill-in caddie at the Mayakoba Classic in November, a controversy that has enveloped him for the past several days.

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