Winner’s Bag: Jon Rahm, BMW Championship

The final round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans takes place Sunday. Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen lead by one over the teams of Cameron Smith/Marc Leishman and Cameron Champ/Tony Finau. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action, including Featured Groups for PGA TOUR LIVE. Leaderboard Full tee times HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (Golf Channel), Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (CBS) PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Groups); Friday, 9:15 a.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Groups); Saturday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. (Featured Groups), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Holes); Sunday, 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. (Featured Groups), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Holes) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 1 p.m.-6:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio). TOURCast: Get shot-by-shot info in real time with shot tracks and video with TOURCast. TOUR Pulse: Get the PGA TOUR app to utilize TOUR Pulse, which provides users the ability to experience a mix of content, such as video highlights, written hole summaries and stat graphics on every player after every hole they complete. FEATURED GROUPS Tyrrell Hatton/Danny Willett & David Hearn/Zack Sucher (tee times) Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay & Michael Kim/Brandon Hagy (tee times) MUST READS Ghim, Suh bounce back to get in contention McDowell holes brilliant ace Smith entrusts mullet cut to Leishman How the format works Champ, Finau react to Chauvin verdict More on the line than long drives for Champ, Finau CALL OF THE DAY

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AUSTIN, Texas – Bryson DeChambeau battled to a tie with Richard Bland in his long-awaited return from injury, before confirming he may compete in another long drive competition a week after the upcoming Masters. RELATED: Bracket, Scoring | Match recaps from Wednesday | Five matches to watch Thursday at WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play DeChambeau and Bland couldn’t be separated after 18 holes at the World Golf Championships – Dell Technologies Match Play, the first time the big-hitting American has played on the PGA TOUR since missing the cut in January’s Farmers Insurance Open. The eight-time winner was recovering from a fractured hamate bone in his left hand and a torn labrum in his left hip. The 28-year-old could have been staring down a loss against the veteran Englishman but was the beneficiary of a mid-round rule change from TOUR officials that helped preserve his position in the match. DeChambeau was granted free relief from a sprinkler head on the drivable par-4 13th hole at Austin Country Club, despite the fact Belgium’s Thomas Pieters was denied it in the same circumstances earlier in the day. The issue reared up thanks to some unfortunate wind gusts during course set up that saw the red hazard line paint find its way onto the edge of the sprinkler head, effectively making an area that should be outside a penalty area, inside it. When Pieters found himself resting on top of the sprinkler but up against red painted grass in his match against Tom Hoge, he was denied permission to move his ball. While technically a correct call by the official, it was not how the course was intended to play. As a result the incident prompted the rules committee to deliberate quickly and a decision was made to amend the hazard line. But before they could change the paint, DeChambeau’s match reached the 13th hole and he chipped his second shot into the same place. After discussion with officials DeChambeau was afforded relief, tied the hole, and officials repainted as they left the green. “Two wrongs don’t make a right. To make the correction before Bryson’s match got there was important,” Chief Referee Gary Young explained. “There was nothing we could do to fix the Thomas Pieters situation. It was over with. But just to get it right was important. The decision had already been made prior to his ball getting there. We had discussed it. We were in the process of getting the paint to the location, and the call came from the official.” Had this been a stroke play event the change would not have been able to have been made but as DeChambeau’s ruling had no effect on Pieters’ match, or any others on the course, the adjustment could be made. Pieters lost the 13th hole to Hoge to reduce his lead to two holes and was visibly upset with the decision. Thankfully, despite losing the 14th as well, he was able to rally and close out a 2-up win. “One of the rules officials come up and he clarified it to me that Thomas didn’t get relief but they changed it because it just wasn’t right and apparently, they can do that in match play,” DeChambeau said post-match. “So, I felt really bad for him, but lucky break for me.” DeChambeau gave himself a pass mark in his return despite being far from his best. He missed his title defense at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and THE PLAYERS Championship during his hiatus and only began practicing five days prior. “I was very cautious, there were a lot of drives out there that felt really bad because it’s not going places I want it to go. (That’s) just because I’m not confident with how my wrists are moving through it,” DeChambeau said. “That will get ironed out over time, a little bit of nerves, calming that down, and playing golf again. I started touching a club last Friday and six weeks off is not an easy task to come back and play against the best in the world. “(The injuries) are fine… as of right now it’s holding up well and I pray it holds up the whole way.” If his body does hold up through this tournament, next week’s Valero Texas Open, and then the Masters, DeChambeau floated a return to the Professional Long Drivers Association’s next event at Hobe Sound in Florida on April 14-16. DeChambeau made it through to the final eight in the World Championships in Mesquite, Nevada last year and hopes to continue his quest for even more power, speed and distance. “If I’m progressing positively and not overdoing it every day and having these micro progressions and I get to Augusta where I am close to 200mph ball speed again, there is a possibility if nothing gives out, and its structurally stable, that I’ll do that,” DeChambeau said about the Florida competition. “I want to do it, I love it, it’s one of my favorite things to do to help grow the sport a bit. I know this (PGA TOUR) is where my home is, but at the end of the day I want to expand out and try and give people a little bit of a show too.” First up is Thursday’s match against Lee Westwood in Group 9 play, a match he can’t afford to lose if he is to stay alive in the title race.

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ORLANDO, Fla. – His spot into the field at this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by Mastercard is owed to his win here in 1996. That would be 1996 BT, he was told. Paul Goydos – 53 and still in possession of more all-world dry-humor than the next 25 guys combined – nodded his head and knew what the reporter meant. “Before Tiger,� he said. Yes, 22 Aprils ago, Woods was an amateur and not in the field at Bay Hill, so Goydos was left to deal with mere mortals. He prevailed, too, shooting 275 to edge Jeff Maggert by a shot. It was the first of his two PGA TOUR victories, but it was seven months later when Goydos started to sense that the PGA TOUR he had joined just three years earlier was changing. Woods had won his first tournament, the Las Vegas Invitational, where Goydos had finished joint eighth, but then at the event at Disneyworld, “I played behind him three days and I had never seen anything like it.� Woods won that one, too, then he won the Masters and three other tournaments in 1997 and, well, it was wild. “The crowds, the enthusiasm, the scene,� said Goydos. Now playing regularly on the PGA TOUR Champions, where he has won five times, Goydos still pays attention to the entire landscape and knows that Woods, 42, is seemingly rejuvenated and his healthiest since 2013. There have been young players who’ve talked about how great it is to have a healthy Woods in their presence that they always wished that they could have played against an in-primetime Woods. Goydos chuckles. “Be careful what you wish for,� he said. That’s because, “if he stays healthy, I don’t think these guys have a clue as to what’s coming.� If a ninth Woods victory at Bay Hill is coming, it will have to be from well off the 36-hole lead, because he struggled to an outward 38 and only heated up moderately. With birdies on the inward par 5s – Nos. 12 and 16 – Woods shot level-par 72 to get halfway home in 4-under, seven behind Henrik Stenson (64-69) and Bryson DeChambeau (67-66). He’s just inside the top 20, so there’s a healthy list of players he’ll need to pass, something that will require a lot more birdies than he’s made in two days (eight). Still, despite the lack of noise from his game, there was plenty of commotion from his followers as again, Woods owned the show. It’s a landscape Goydos knows very well. “He moves the needle like Muhammad Ali.� Goydos offered his perspective shortly after a second-round 74 left him at level-par 144, a whopping 11 off the lead, but inside the cut. A small victory for the former champion, who discovered the other day that one part of Woods’ repertoire doesn’t seem to have missed a step. The needle. “He’s sharp, very, very quick,� said Goydos, “and he isn’t afraid to give it.� As he walked across the putting green at Bay Hill, Goydos said Woods noticed him and they made small talk. Quick-witted, Goydos said he loved being out on the PGA TOUR “because where I hit it, there aren’t any divots,� but as he walked away he heard a voice call out. “Hey, Paul,� said Woods, “how many head covers you have these days?� It’s all part of the Woods’ aura, Goydos said, and he suggested that it’s slowly returning after a hiatus of a few years. “It’s his putting green, his driving range, his show,� said Goydos, and if players are starting to talk about how difficult it is to play alongside Woods, that part of the battle is returning to the icon’s side. “Wait till players get a piece of that deal,� said Goydos. “Tiger is used to it.� So quiet for so much of his Friday, Woods provided a little bit of the show-time sizzle that Goydos talked about. The birdies at 12 and 16 were ho-hum, because they ranked as the two easiest holes. But the par-save at the 14th, when his ball was buried beneath the lip of a greenside bunker? Vintage Woods, thanks to a 22-foot putt. The laser iron over the flagstick at the 209-yard, par-3 17th? Solid stuff, even if he did miss the 25-footer? But best of all was the one-two punch at the demanding 18th – a stinger driver that went 323 yards and a splendid approach that took the slope at the back of the green and trickled to 14 feet. Classy stuff when you consider the field average for proximity on the 18th was 42 feet. On this day, Woods’ birdie putt grazed the right edge, but he’s in contention. On a weekend. Again. Goydos lived, kids. “I mean, the guy’s never gotten up before noon on the weekend.�

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