What’s inside the released LIV Golf rules, regulations and player contracts

RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico – Bryson Nimmer made a flashy PGA TOUR debut Thursday, and it wasn’t just because of his bright pink pants. Nimmer, a senior at Clemson University, made his first start in a professional tournament Thursday and fired a 3-under-par 69. He bogeyed his final hole of the day but otherwise had a solid debut, he said. “I think I just stayed really patient,â€� said Nimmer. “I hit the ball well, but I missed a few opportunities early and I just didn’t really get mad at myself. I just kind of kept plugging, and I hit some good shots on the back (nine). Obviously didn’t end the way I wanted it to, but it was still really fun.â€� Nimmer just wrapped up a collegiate event in Puerto Rico on Tuesday where he was the co-medalist. He went straight from that tournament to the Coco Beach Golf Club for a practice round and played with former PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year Jonathan Byrd, who is the brother of Jordan Byrd – Nimmer’s assistant coach at Clemson. “He hits it so good. He still hits it amazing,â€� said Nimmer of Byrd. “He taught me a few things… showed me where some pins would be. He’s been really helpful.â€� Nimmer’s co-medalist honor this week was just another in a laundry list of accomplishments as he looks to close out his collegiate career with a bang. Nimmer began taking golf seriously as a young teenager but baseball was his first love. His father Tony never pressured Nimmer to get into golf despite the fact the elder Nimmer led Clemson’s golf team in the 1980’s. Nimmer admittedly struggled when he first picked up golf but a desire to get better fueled him to switch to golf full-time. “When I started out I wasn’t very good and it kind of made me mad. It made me want to get better,â€� said Nimmer. It didn’t take Nimmer very long to improve, and he said he didn’t feel overwhelmed making his PGA TOUR debut Thursday. He works with a sports psychologist at Clemson, and said that work came in handy.  “We just talk about trying to treat every tournament the same,â€� said Nimmer. “So that’s kind of the mindset I took, I did the same routine, the same everything, ate at the same time. I just tried to kind of make it as minimal as possible.â€� It should come as no surprise that Nimmer said his plan once school is finished is to turn professional. He said he looks at TOUR winners Jason Day – who he met earlier this year – and Kyle Stanley – a fellow Clemson Tiger – as guys whose games he tries to emulate. The pants he wore Thursday, however, were all his own. “I had these pants sitting in my closet and I’ve never really worn them,â€� said Nimmer with a smile. “So I was like, ‘What better day than the first day?’â€�

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OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. - One of the toughest tests of the year made it clear that par would be a great score at Olympia Fields. Leave it to Hideki Matsuyama to make a 65-foot birdie putt on his final hole Thursday to lead the BMW Championship. Matsuyama, the Japanese player who has gone three years since his last victory, birdied two of his last three holes for a 3-under 67, one of only three rounds under par on a course that was long, tough, firm, fast and nothing like the last two weeks. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Tyler Duncan, just outside the top 30 as he tries to earn his first trip to the TOUR Championship, made an 8-foot par putt on his last hole for a 68. Mackenzie Hughes, one of only four players who reached 3 under at any point in his round, was another shot behind. “I’m not sure really what I had going today, but that last putt, the long putt that went in, very happy with that one,” Matsuyama said. “So we’ll remember that one.” Dustin Johnson, who won THE NORTHERN TRUST last week at 30-under par, opened with a 71 and felt like it was a good day’s work. He was told that even three straight rounds of 60 would not be enough to reach 30 under at Olympia Fields. “Yeah, but I would win,” he said. By a landslide, no doubt. Tiger Woods needs to finish around fourth to have any hope of returning to East Lake next week in Atlanta to chase the $15 million bonus for the FedExCup winner. He was hovering around even par a few shots out of the lead. He finished with three straight bogeys for a 73 and was running hotter than the weather. A three-time U.S. Open champion, Woods knows all about control and patience and key pars putts. And then he let a reasonable round get away from him. “The course was fine. The course is in perfect shape. Not the way I wanted to finish,” Woods said in brief comments. The average score was 72.8, and only four of the 18 holes played under par. That included both par 5s. This is what the U.S. Open could have used in 2003, instead of rain-softened conditions. It was hot in the morning, baking out a dry course. The rough is 5 inches in spots. The greens were hard, making it tough to get the ball close and nearly impossible to get shots to stop on the green from out of the rough. “I think when golf courses become like this and pars are a premium, I think I’m almost more comfortable at times because you don’t feel like you’ll ever get left behind when you’re running off a few pars in a row,” Hughes said. “Like last week, if you got off to a slow start and you were even par through six holes you felt like you were getting run over.” Rory McIlroy was among 10 players who finished at 70 and felt the day was a success. He hasn’t registered a top 10 since golf returned from the coronavirus shutdown in June, and he conceded to being lethargic without fan energy. “I said last week if you need someone to shoot between like even par and 2 under, I’m your man,” McIlroy said. “So I’m loving these conditions. It’s sort of weird. The way my game feels at the minute, it’s just as easy for me to shoot even par here as it was last week in Boston, for whatever reason that is. “But this is proper golf,” he said. “You’ve really got to think about stuff. … It’s nice to play a round of golf like that again.” Also in that group at even par was Carlos Ortiz of Mexico, notable because he was the latest player to be grouped with Woods for the first time. He raved about how Woods controls the flight of his irons. He missed out on the massive crowd because there are no spectators, only carts carrying the broadcast crew. “It’s probably the least amount of people he’s played in front of,” Ortiz said, “and the most for me.”

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The holiday season is now complete, and the 2021 portion of the PGA TOUR season is set to begin in its traditional tropical locale. The Sentry Tournament of Champions will kick off the new year once again, but with a unique field. Because of the reduced number of events in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all qualifiers for last year's TOUR Championship also are eligible to tee it up in Maui. Dustin Johnson, the reigning FedExCup champion, highlights the field in his first appearance since winning the Masters. FIELD NOTES: Johnson, a two-time winner of the Sentry Tournament of Champions, looks to keep his momentum going in the new year. Johnson ended 2020 by finishing no worse than T6 in his final seven events, including three wins and three runners-up. ... Sergio Garcia returns to the Sentry Tournament of Champions after his first TOUR victory since the 2017 Masters. Garcia, an 11-time TOUR winner, won the Sentry Tournament of Champions in 2002 but hasn't teed it up at Kapalua since 2006... Justin Thomas looks to defend his Tournament of Champions title after winning in a three-man playoff a year ago... Twenty-eight golfers qualified for the 2021 event via their TOUR victories last season. An additional 17 golfers earned a spot in Hawaii via their appearance at the TOUR Championship... One of those golfers who earned a spot via the TOUR Championship was Xander Schauffele, winner of the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions. Schauffele fell just short in his title defense last year, losing in that playoff that also included former Sentry winner Patrick Reed... There are five first-timers playing in the Sentry Tournament of Champions this year... Forty-two of the 45 eligible golfers are making the trip to the Tournament of Champions, with just Rory McIlroy, Tyrrell Hatton, and Jim Herman not teeing it up. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points COURSE: Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort, 7,596 yards, par 73 (yardage subject to change). Opened in 1991, the Plantation Course at Kapalua has long been ranked as the top course in Hawaii. It was the first Ben Crenshaw/Bill Coore design to open. The duo has now, of course, gone on to become one of golf's most sought-after design teams, and the pair did an expansive renovation in 2019. The course features dramatic ocean views, wide fairways, and big-time elevation changes. STORYLINES: The last four winners of the Sentry Tournament of Champions went on to finish in the top five of the FedExCup standings at season's end, proving that a hot start at the beginning of the calendar year is paramount to season-end success. Justin Thomas finished second in the FedExCup standings in 2017. Dustin Johnson finished fourth in 2018 after winning in Kapalua. Xander Schauffele finished second in 2019, while Justin Thomas finished second again in 2020... No golfer since Geoff Ogilvy (2009-10) has won the Sentry Tournament of Champions in back-to-back years, although Schauffele came close in 2020... Thomas is looking to build off the momentum from his year-end victory alongside his father Mike at the PNC Championship in mid-December... Golfers who did not find the winner's circle in 2019-20 but are in the field include Rookie of the Year Scottie Scheffler, the highest finisher in last season's FedExCup (fifth) without a win... Eight of the top 10 golfers in the world will be in the field. 72-HOLE RECORD: 261, Ernie Els (2003) 18-HOLE RECORD: 62, K.J. Choi (3rd round, 2003), Graeme McDowell (4th round, 2011), Jason Day (4th round, 2015), Chris Kirk (4th round, 2015), Xander Schauffele (4th round, 2019). LAST TIME: On the hunt for his second straight Sentry victory, Xander Schauffele eventually fell just short in a playoff to Justin Thomas, who won for the second time at Kapalua. Thomas had a one-shot lead going into the 72nd hole but made a bogey on the par five to drop into a three-way tie. Patrick Reed, who zipped up the leaderboard in the final round thanks to a sizzling 7-under 66 (the round of the day) made it through two holes of the playoff with Thomas but eventually lost to the former FedExCup champion, who birdied the par-5 18th on the third extra hole to Reed's par. Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler, and Joaquin Niemann rounded out the top five. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 6 p.m.-10 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 6 p.m.-8 p.m. (Golf Channel). Sunday, 6 p.m.-10 p.m. (Golf Channel).

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