What’s in the bag: Anthony Kim, 2010 Houston Open

AUSTIN, Texas – Atmosphere (www.atmosphere.tv), the worldwide leader in streaming TV entertainment for businesses, today announced a content agreement with the PGA TOUR to bring both highlights and dedicated golf programming to the Atmosphere platform and its audience of 60 million monthly viewers. “Atmosphere has built an innovative platform with significant reach along with an active, engaged audience,” said Norb Gambuzza, PGA TOUR Senior Vice President of Media and Gaming. “We’re extremely excited to work with Atmosphere to deliver a dedicated PGA TOUR channel onto its platform with a goal of engaging more fans.” Launching today, the channel features a mix of tournament coverage highlights, tournament recaps and footage from the PGA TOUR’s most iconic moments. Additionally, the PGA TOUR’s highlights will be played on Atmosphere Sports, the platform’s popular sports news channel. The partnership is the latest in Atmosphere’s continued growth into sports throughout 2022, starting with the launch of Atmosphere Sports in March and continuing in September with RealMadrid TV, a channel dedicated to one of Europe’s most popular football teams and which features live matches. “With golf being one of the most watched sports in the world, we’re immensely proud to be partnering with the PGA TOUR to provide businesses with a viewing experience tailored to their spaces,” says Blake Sabatinelli, Chief Operating Officer at Atmosphere. “The addition of golf to our platform has been one of the biggest requests of our fans, but also one of the hardest to obtain, so to have the world’s most competitive golf tour on Atmosphere shows just how far we’ve come in 2022, and how much further we can grow in 2023.” Atmosphere is available in over 45,000 venues worldwide across restaurants & bars, gyms and health clubs, medical waiting rooms and more. Optimized for viewing in public spaces, Atmosphere’s engaging content encompasses viral video compilations, news and sports coverage, lifestyle, extreme sports, art, and ambient nature, designed to complement every business environment. Atmosphere’s self-service ad portal also provides streaming customers with the ability to run promotions to its captive customers within the content for free. For more information, visit the Atmosphere website. Follow Atmosphere on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

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RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico — PGA TOUR rookie Viktor Hovland shot a 6-under 66 on Friday at windy Coco Beach for a share of the Puerto Rico Open lead. Related: Leaderboard | Brotherhood of the slump: How TOUR pros found their way back The 22-year-old Norwegian eagled the par-5 second and rebounded from a late bogey on a par 5 with a birdie to join first-round leader Kyle Stanley, Josh Teater and Emiliano Grillo at 10-under 134. “I feel like the wind is blowing out of the same direction here every day, so I think we’ll see the course playing very similar to the first couple days,” Hovland said. “I’m sure the pins are going to be a little more tucked in the corners the next two days, so it will be interesting to see how it plays.”: Hovland dropped a stroke on the par-5 15th, then got back to 10 under with a birdie on the par-4 17th. The former Oklahoma State player won the 2018 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach, then became the first player since Matt Kuchar in 1998 to sweep low amateur honors at The Masters and U.S. Open. “It’s been pretty windy, which I’m kind of used to in Oklahoma,” Hovland said. “I’ve just been playing good the last couple weeks. Not as good as I would have liked, but I’m definitely trending in the right direction, so it will be fun to play the weekend.” Stanley followed an opening 64 with a 70. “You don’t get really too many straight down or straight in, it’s just a ton of crosswinds,” Stanley said. “That can be kind of tough to control your ball in those conditions. My miss right now is a little bit of a right ball, so I’m loving the right-to-left wind holes and I need to get a little more comfortable on some of the left-to- right ones.” Grillo birdied the final two holes in a 68. “A little bit up and down with the tee shots, but it’s been good so far,” Grillo said. “I kept the ball in front of me. I was able to convert pretty much every single time that I had a chance.” Teater also shot 68. “I think a lot of times I get in this wind and I try to fight it, just kind of maybe get my ball position too far back,” Teater said. “I kind of made an adjustment to put it up a little bit and kind of let it help me instead of try to fight it. And on top of that, I think I’m rolling the ball well.” Sam Ryder was a stroke back after a 65. David Lingmerth (65), Ben Martin (66), Rhein Gibson (70) and Martin Laird (69) were 8 under. Defending champion Martin Trainer missed the cut with rounds of 74 and 73. Tom Lewis also failed to advance. He shot 73-76.

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Byeong Hun An has set a target of qualifying for the FedExCup Playoffs finale, the TOUR Championship, in August and hopes to light up the International Team’s chat group along the way as he seeks his first PGA TOUR victory. The 28-year-old Korean rising star tees up at The American Express in California for the first time this week where he hopes to maintain his strong start to the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season. During the fall, he posted three top-10s and a T14 at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions and is currently 20th on the FedExCup points list. As a late inclusion in the Presidents Cup last month in Australia, An played all five sessions and delivered two points in the International Team’s narrow 16-14 loss to the United States “Hopefully I can keep the momentum going from the Asian swing,� said An, who finished T6 at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES in Korea and T8 at the inaugural ZOZO Championship in Japan. Since playing full time on the PGA TOUR in 2017, An has flirted with qualifying for the TOUR Championship, which is exclusive to the top 30 from the FedExCup points list. His best FedExCup finish to date was 42nd in 2017 while he was 53rd last season. A former U.S. Amateur winner, An is hopeful a revised playing schedule will propel him to a first visit to East Lake in August. Over the last few years, he competed in the Middle East on the European Tour to begin a new year, but he will play the West Coast over the next three weeks, including the Farmers Insurance Open and Waste Management Phoenix Open. “It’s nice to have a good start (in fall) compared to the last two years where I didn’t play that many,� he explained. “I’m starting earlier in the West Coast as well and I hope to have a quick start and eventually get into the TOUR Championship … that’s my main goal this year.� An took notice when Rory McIlroy talked about how tweaking his tournament schedule enabled the Irishman to lift the FedExCup for a second time last season. With An’s wife Jamie due to give birth to their first child next month, the Korean made the easy call to swap his travel plans. “In the past, I would only start in Phoenix after the Middle East and I’ll be like in 100th place on the points list and it’s hard to chase the guys,� said An. “That’s why I added this week and the next two. I want to get my FedExCup ranking as high up as possible early on. I’ve been close (to the TOUR Championship) and I feel I need to play more and it seems to be working out.� He is also fired up after watching Australia’s Cameron Smith secure a first individual PGA TOUR title at the Sony Open in Hawaii on Sunday and now dreams of emulating his International Team member. An said the International Team’s Whatsapp group chat has been buzzing recently as Adam Scott won the week after the Presidents Cup, Louis Oosthuizen came close at the South African Open (finishing second to his former International Team partner Branden Grace) and Joaquin Niemann contended at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. “It was incredible to see Cam win. Hopefully I can break through and win one day. Our group chat has been going crazy of late. Hopefully this week someone else can step up, hopefully me or Sungjae (Im) or someone else. It shows the Presidents Cup has helped us. The group chat is still running and it’s great,� An said. Although the International Team came close to toppling the U.S. Team after leading into the final day’s Singles session, An believes the experience of playing for Captain Ernie Els earned him memories to last a lifetime. “It was good because I got a late call from Ernie,� An said. “I wasn’t expecting to play in all five matches which were incredible. I did lose a couple, won one and tied two matches which was fun. It was something I never experienced before and Ernie did a great job. Everyone trusted him and stuck to the game plan. No one had any say on who we wanted to play with and we just had faith in Ernie to pick the pairings. We got the points on Thursday, Friday and Saturday but lost in the end. On paper, the U.S. is a really good team and we were disappointed.� “We just didn’t play well enough in the Singles to beat them. But we showed we could play better in Foursomes and Four-Ball than previously. That’s a great takeaway from the week and it showed Ernie had the right formula. I enjoyed it as it had so much passion as we were playing as a team and not playing for ourselves. When Adam or Sungjae made a putt, I was probably happier than they were! I played for Ernie and I played for the International Team, which was a difference and I guess that was why I showed the passion on the course. “Of course I want to get back into the team … that’s another goal in two years’ time.�

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