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Archives for March 24, 2021

Red Sox: Countdown to Opening Day

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FORT MYERS, March 24 – Today marks the second of two Grapefruit League meetings between the Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles, following a March 4th Baltimore 6-3 win over Boston in Sarasota. The Red Sox are coming off a 7-6 win over the Atlanta Braves in yesterday’s road game. The Sox are 8-2 at jetBlue Park and 4-6-1 on the road.

Including today, the Sox have four home games and three road games remaining.

The Sox will play the Orioles 19 times in the regular season (nine home, 10 road), including the season- opening series at Fenway Park (April 1-4).

Six of Boston’s first nine games will be vs. the Orioles, as well as 10 of their first 36. In an 82-game stretch from May 11-August 12, the Sox will not face the O’s.

Boston is  5-2 over their last seven games and 9-3-1 in their last 13. Only the Royals (13-6-3), Blue Jays (13-8-1), and Yankees (13-7-2) have more wins than the Red Sox. The Sox have only seven games remaining in spring training before opening the regular season.

PGA Tour: Match Play Starts Today

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AUSTIN – PGA Tour play this week consists of two tournaments. Starting today, the best of the best compete at the World Golf Championship-Dell Technologies Championship. Tomorrow, the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship begins with a B-list of professionals playing in the Dominican Republic. Here’s a look at both tournaments:

Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship

The Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship is the first PGA Tour event to be held in the Dominican Republic and it is now in its fourth year, with Brice Garnett claiming victory in its inaugural year of 2018, Graeme McDowell in 2019 and Hudson Swafford winning in 2020. Prior to 2018, the tournament had a two-year stint on the Korn Ferry Tour schedule where the winners were Dominic Bozzelli and Nate Lashley.

The field playing Thursday through Sunday in the Dominican Republic includes each of the five players who have victories at the Corales Golf Course, including Lashley (2017) and Bozzelli, who won the tournament as a Korn Ferry Tour title in (2016).

This is the first of three tournaments (U.S. Open, Masters) to be contested twice in the 2020-21 PGA Tour season which marks first time an event has been played twice in the same season in the last 70 years.

Brandon Hagy, who made the largest jump in the FedExCup (No. 178 to No. 77; 101 spots) with his runner-up at last week’s Honda Classic, will make his second start in the event (MC/2020).

The field includes some golf luminaries.

World Golf Hall of Fame members: Retief Goosen, Davis Love III

Five major champions: Retief Goosen (2001 & 2004 U.S. Open), Padraig Harrington (2007 & 2008 The Open Championship, 2008 PGA Championship), Davis Love III (1997 PGA Championship), Graeme McDowell (2010 U.S. Open), Charl Schwartzel (2011 Masters Championship), Danny Willett (2016 Masters Tournament).

Grupo Puntacana, which owns and operates Puntacana Resort & Club, serves as the host organization while the Corales Course is the tournament venue.

THIS WEEK on the PGA TOUR: Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Champ

COURSE: Corales Golf Club, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

ARCHITECT: Tom Fazio

YARDS/PAR: 7,670 yards/Par 72

PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $3,000,000/$540,000

DEFENDING Champion: Hudson Swafford – (Leaderboard link)

PAST RESULTS: (link)

PAST CHAMPIONS of Event: (link)

FEDEx CUP Points Available/Winner Share: 2,989/500

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedEXCup #CoralesChampionship @CoralesChamp

TV COVERAGE: Thursday, March 25 and Friday, March 26: 10:00am to 1:00pm (EDT) on Golf Channel. Saturday, March 27 10:00am to 5:00pm EDT on Golf Channel. and Sunday, March 28 – 2:30pm to 5:30pm (EDT) on Golf Channel. (WGC on NBC during those times).

STREAMING: PGA Tour Live will stream WGC.

PGA TOUR RADIO COVERAGE: Will cover WGC.

TEE TIMES: (link)

WEATHER: A few isolated showers with temperatures 71-84 degrees. Winds E-to-NE at 8-15 mph. Similar forecast for Friday-to-Sunday with winds 11-22 mph. 20% chance of rain.

The World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, the only official head-to-head match play event on the PGA Tour schedule, returns to the PGA TOUR schedule after being canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19. This week, 64 of the top 69 players in the Official World Golf Ranking as of March 15 are in the field, including every player in the Top 10.

Reigning FedExCup champion and World No. 1 Dustin Johnson is seeking his seventh WGC victory. Johnson’s six WGC titles are second only to Tiger Woods (18). The 2018 WGC semifinalist Justin Thomas is making his first start on Tour since winning THE PLAYERS Championship.

There are five players who qualified but will not compete: Brooks Koepka, Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Tiger Woods, Gary Woodland.

Is Match Play a different game? Maybe so as no player has won the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and gone on to win the FedExCup in the same season (best result: Luke Donald, (No. 3) in 2011.

Back in 2019: WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play champion Kevin Kisner holed a 20-foot birdie putt to close out Matt Kuchar, 3 and 2, to capture his third PGA Tour title and first World Golf Championships victory. In the 2019-20 season, the South Carolina native made 21 starts, qualified for each of the three FedExCup Playoffs events and finished No. 23 in the FedExCup standings.

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