Woods withdraws: Here’s how Tiger fared at the Genesis

LEXINGTON, Kent. – Kramer Hickok has been fortunate enough to become friends with Fred Couples, who is involved with some golf courses developed by one of his sponsors. When he goes to Palm Springs in the winter, the Texan often gets to play golf with the former Masters champion.  And whenever Hickok has questions, Couples is more than happy to share some words of wisdom born of nearly than four decades as a pro. With his rookie season on the PGA TOUR winding down and his playing privileges far from locked up for the 2019-20 season, Hickok acknowledges he’s been pressing. And while he hasn’t called his mentor, he knows just what Couples, the ultimate in a stress-free golfer, would tell him. “He would probably say, ‘Go watch some tape of me,’â€� Hickock said with a chuckle. “His motto and the way he handles himself on the golf course is exactly how I think everyone should handle themselves. “It’s just that calm, cool, relaxed, just enjoying everything that there is about the game of golf. It’s a game; we’re out here having fun. It is our job, but don’t let that get you carried away.â€� So, Hickok channeled his inner Couples on Thursday during the first round of the Barbasol Championship. The result was a 65, was his best score since the first round of the AT&T Byron Nelson back in May and left Hickok tied for fourth, just three strokes off the lead. The solid start is important. Kramer came to Keene Trace Golf Club this week ranked No. 155 in the FedExCup. He needs to be inside the top 125 when the Wyndham Championship is over in three weeks to keep his card, or 150th or better to maintain conditional status. This year, the Texas alum admits, has been a struggle. A winner on the Korn Ferry Tour last year and a two-time champ on the MacKenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada, Hickok simply hasn’t played the kind of golf he knows he can. Instead of focusing on birdies, he’s worried about FedExCup points and making cuts. When he missed the cut at the John Deere Classic last Friday, Hickok knew he needed an attitude adjustment. After all, just a few short years ago, he would have given anything to be playing on the PGA TOUR – and he knows there are plenty of people out there who would trade places with him right now. “You’re going to play your best golf when you are — for me at least — when I’m having fun and playing like I would when I was back home with my buddies,â€� Hickok said. “That’s the mindset that I’m trying to take going forward. Good golf takes care of itself. It takes care of all those things. “… All you’ve got to do is worry about each shot and smile and laugh a little bit, enjoy it. I mean, we’re out here playing golf for a living. It’s  been a dream of mine for so long. I kind of lost sight of that, that I’m out here living my dream, so just go have fun with it.â€� And make no mistake, Thursday was fun. Hickok started on the back nine and opened with a pair of birdies, then bounced back from his lone bogey of the day with another to make the turn in 34. Three more birdies on the front and a 23-foot eagle putt at No. 8 added up to 7-under. “It’s not like my game hasn’t been — I’ve been playing good golf, but I didn’t have the score to show for it,â€� Hickok said. “A little bit of that is, you know, … making a bogey and just maybe just not handling it very well, a little bit upset about it. “Today, (it was) just move on. Just be in the moment and have fun with it and enjoy the process. Just don’t worry about anything. Just go hit it.â€� His buddy Couples would have been proud.

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The Texas Hill Country and TPC San Antonio (AT&T Oaks) take center stage this week for the Valero Texas Open, where Kevin Chappell will defend a PGA TOUR title for the first time. The Valero is the third of five tournaments in the Lone Star State, with Texans like Jimmy Walker, Jhonattan Vegas and Sergio Garcia (a part-time resident of Austin) garnering much of the attention. A Chilean, former No. 1-ranked amateur Joaquin Niemann, will be in the news as well. The Valero marks his professional debut. Si Woo Kim, who will defend his title at THE PLAYERS Championship next month, comes in hot after a playoff loss at the RBC Heritage last week. But Garcia, who co-designed TPC San Antonio with Greg Norman, will get most of the attention. He hasn’t played the Valero since its first year at AT&T Oaks, in 2010, and is coming off a wild Masters defense that included a record 13 at the 15th hole. Players stay at the J.W. Marriott, which features such an elaborate water slide, the Valero has a reputation as one of the most family-friendly stops on TOUR. The AT&T Oaks Course is a 7,435-yard, par-72 that rewards exceptionally solid tee-to-green players, and those, like Chappell, who thrive on hard courses. PGA TOUR LIVE Thursday-Friday broadcasts will begin at 8:15 a.m. ET, and end at 6:30 p.m. The Twitter window will be from 8:15 a.m. to approximately 9:15 a.m. Thursday and Friday. We will move to Featured Holes Coverage at 3:30 p.m. Featured Holes consist of the 13th, which at 241 yards is the longest par-3 on the course, and which features a view of downtown San Antonio from the tee; and the par-4 17th, which presents players with the widest fairway on the course and at 347 yards will tempt many to try and drive the green.  Here are the Featured Groups: (Note: All times Eastern; FedExCup ranking in parentheses.) MORE: PGA TOUR LIVE | Tee times THURSDAY Pat Perez (17), Xander Schauffele (44), Kevin Chappell (52) After winning the CIMB Classic to open this season, Perez is trying to bounce back from a missed cut at the Masters in his last start. Still, he’s not far off; he was in contention at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship until a final-round 75 (T20). Reigning Rookie of the Year Schauffele is coming off a T32 at the RBC Heritage and hasn’t had a top-10 finish since the Genesis Open in February. Meanwhile, defending champion Chappell is coming off two straight missed cuts and a forgettable WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, where he didn’t make it out of his pod. TPC San Antonio, though, is his happy place. Tee time: 8:40 a.m. off 10. Jhonattan Vegas (85), Jimmy Walker (117), Adam Scott (113) Vegas got off to a nice start in 2018 with a T7 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and a T11 at the CareerBuilder Challenge, but he’s cooled off since. Last start: T38 at the Masters. Walker, meanwhile, is enjoying a bit of a bounce-back after having to write off most of 2017 as he recovered from Lyme disease. He finished T20 at the Masters, and was T28 at the Valspar Championship before that. Scott is coming off a T32 at the Masters, but at 113th in the FedExCup he’s clearly struggling. One likely culprit: He’s 194th in strokes gained: putting (-.595). Tee time: 8:50 a.m. off 10. FRIDAY Charley Hoffman (81), Zach Johnson (60), Matt Kuchar (54) Hoffman is the all-time career money leader at TPC San Antonio’s AT&T Oaks course, with a victory in 2016, T2 in 2011, and T3 in 2013. He also has four more top-15 finishes, and has made the cut eight times in eight chances. Johnson, 42, has seen glimpses of his old self in making 11 cuts in 11 starts this season, but is still chasing the form that made him a 12-time PGA TOUR winner and potentially a Hall of Famer. The ever-steady Kuchar has three top-15 finishes at the Valero; he also has two top-10s and two top-30s in his last four PGA TOUR starts.   Tee time: 8:40 a.m. off 10 Billy Horschel (110), Si Woo Kim (26), Sergio Garcia (83) A four-time TOUR winner and the 2014 FedExCup champ, Horschel is starting to heat up after his T5 finish at the RBC Heritage. He also has a solid record at the Valero: top-five finishes in 2016, ’15 and ’13. Kim, a playoff loser at the RBC, came just a roll of the ball from picking up his third TOUR win last weekend and is rounding into top form just in time for his title defense at THE PLAYERS at TPC Sawgrass next month. And Garcia should be ready to roll in San Antonio after his missed cut at the Masters left him with more time off than he’d anticipated.   Tee time: 8:50 a.m. off 10.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Jordan Spieth came to Rickie Fowler’s defense on Tuesday when the discussion turned to majors won. Or in Fowler’s case, not won. Fowler, however, has won THE PLAYERS Championship, the signature victory of his four career wins on the PGA TOUR. Spieth has not won THE PLAYERS – in fact, he’s missed the cut in his last three starts after a T-4 finish in 2014 – but has three majors. From Spieth’s perspective, Fowler’s 2015 win at TPC Sawgrass is every bit as impressive as any major victory. “We look at this tournament up there in about equal value with the major championships,â€� Spieth said. “The only thing that holds it away from being a major is simply people jotting down how many majors people won. “I mean, it is one of the toughest tests in golf, with potentially the best field in golf. I think it is the best golf in all of golf. If you win here, you can win anywhere else. There is no added thing that any other tournament brings that this tournament doesn’t have. “Therefore, guys like Rickie, who kind of catches some slack for having not won a major yet, essentially he’s won what’s harder to win than a major: THE PLAYERS.â€� Informed of Spieth’s comments, Fowler could only smile. “See, so I won one?â€� he said. For the first two rounds this week, Fowler will be playing with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Those two have combined to win 19 majors. But from a PLAYERS standpoint, Fowler was won as many as Mickelson and could join Woods as a two-time winner this week. Mickelson, the 2007 winner, wouldn’t be surprised if THE PLAYERS eventually is recognized on equal terms as the majors. “It certainly is up there for me, given the strength of the field and the quality of the event,â€� he said. “I think it’s one of these events where, over time, it may very well become or be looked at as a major championship.â€� His thoughts have filtered down to younger players, including Jon Rahm, a frequent practice round partner who was coached at Arizona State by Mickelson’s brother Tim. “I’ve heard Phil say many times, he looked back at this win as the same category as the majors,â€� Rahm said, “I mean, that says it all for all of us. I think we would all look at it as a major championship.â€� Fowler, who posted his best major finish last month with a solo second at Augusta National, is proud of his PLAYERS win, when he played the final six holes of regulation in 6 under to join a playoff that included Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner. Fowler won on the fourth hole with a birdie at the 17th. It was his fifth birdie in six trips to 17 that week. “To have won this in ’15, you’d like to consider it almost like winning a major,â€� said Fowler when asked about being the best player without a major. “Obviously, it has that feel and the field that we have here, as well. We’re ready to go do it. It’s time to get myself off that list.â€� Origins of Tiger’s stinger shot Tiger Woods told the story Tuesday about how he developed his infamous stinger, the low, penetrating shot that he often leans on. It starts in his youth when he, ahem, “borrowedâ€� a beryllium copper Ping Eye2 1-iron from his dad Earl. “He couldn’t hit it anyways,â€� Woods said. “He had no speed, so he couldn’t hit it in the air. I said, I’ll take it off your hands. So I used it for a number of years. “I’m brilliant – the longer the ball stays in the air, the longer time it has to go crooked, so get that thing on the ground. So I started chipping and hitting these 1-irons, and it worked out. And then eventually, it started to basically cross over into other parts of my game. … “That 1-iron was probably the start of learning how to hit the ball down, and plus we had balata balls back then, so learning how to take spin off of it was a big thing.â€� Odds and ends Phil Mickelson posted his 43rd career victory earlier this year at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship. Afterward, he received a congratulatory note from George W. Bush – the 43rd President of the United States. “He said 43 has a great ring to it,â€� Mickelson said. “I just thought that was one of the coolest things that came from that and one of the most memorable.â€� Jon Rahm’s victory earlier this year at the CareerBuilder Challenge came on the West Coast version of the Stadium Course, at PGA West. Pete Dye was tasked to design that course after his legendary creation at TPC Sawgrass. But Rahm doesn’t know if the earlier win will help him this week. “It’s night and day,â€� he said. “First off, it’s Bermudagrass here; it’s overseed over there. So that’s the first difference. The ball reacts completely different on the green. But the design, it is somewhat similar.â€� Justin Thomas has a morning tee time on Thursday and plans to return to his hotel in time to watch the Woods-Mickelson-Fowler group that tees off at 1:52 p.m. ET. How star-packed is that group? “It’s hard to believe – and it’s absolutely not even close to any disrespect to Rickie – but Rickie being the third person in a group … I mean, that hasn’t happened in however long,â€� Thomas said. “He’s such a big name everywhere we go, Rick is. But when you’re with Tiger and Phil, it’s a totally different animal.â€�  

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