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Archives for May 5, 2021

PGA Tour: Wells Fargo Champ; 1st Look

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Welcome to PGA Tour Brunch Coverage of the Wells Fargo Championship

CHARLOTTE – The Wells Fargo Championship and its substantial prize purse always draws a strong field. This year the field includes four of Top-5 players in Official World Golf Ranking: Justin Thomas (2), Jon Rahm (3), Xander Schauffele(4), and Bryson DeChambeau (5).

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Defending champion Max Homa is coming off his T-6 at last week’s Valspar Championship. Homa must note, no player has successfully defended his title at Wells Fargo.

The tournament’s 2010 and 2015 winner, Rory McIlroy, will make his first start since the Masters when he missed the cut.

A native of nearby Gastonia, North Carolina, Harold Varner III will make his sixth Wells Fargo Championship appearance. Varner III claimed his career-best T-2 at last month’s RBC Heritage at Hilton Head.

The PGA Tour announced Tuesday that 12-1 shot Brandon Todd withdrew from the tournament after a COVID+ test. He was replaced by J.J. Spaun.

The Wells Fargo Championship is the 32nd of 50 events in the 2020-21 PGA Tour season. Due to COVID-19, the Wells Fargo Championship was not contested in 2020.

Tournament Tee Times begin Thursday at 6:50am (EDT) through 2:22pm (EDT).

Weather: Thursday’s forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and 62-degrees with 9 mph winds and only a 10% chance of rain. Friday and Saturday should be mostly sunny, 58-64-degrees, with a 10% chance of rain Friday and 0% on Saturday. Long-term forecast for Sunday is for partly cloudy skies, 74-degrees and 14 mph winds.

PGATourBrunch will be posting before 6:50am (EDT) early tee times Thursday and Friday.

Next Week: AT&T Byron Nelson (McKinney, Texas)

Field Updates:

Charles Howell III (out) / Grayson Murray (in)

Davis Love III (out) / D.J. Trahan (in)

Jim Herman (out) / Sebastian Cappelen (in)

Camilo Villegas (out) / Justin Suh (in)

Brendon Todd (out) / J.J. Spaun (in)

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Red Sox Drub Tigers, 11-7

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BOSTON – Red Sox starting pitcher Nick Pivetta went 5.0 innings, allowing six hits, and only three runs, as he tossed at least 5.0 innings for the fifth time in six starts this season, to lead Boston to an 11-7 victory over the Detroit Tigers. Pivetta struck-out eight and walked only two batters and is 4-0 with a 3.23 ERA (11 ER/30.2 IP) on the young season. Pivetta leads the Sox starters in ERA, opponent AVG (.200), and strikeouts (33).

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The Boston offense returned in a big way and are 9-3 when scoring first and 15-1 when scoring four or more runs. Red Sox hitters clocked 10 homers over their last four games, after hitting only one HR in their previous five games. The outburts tonight vs. Detroit was the third time this season Boston hit four or more HRs in a game (also 4/11 at Baltimore (6) and 4/30 at Texas (4).

Shortstop Xander Bogaerts went 2-for-5, with two runs scored and a pair of RBI as he hit a two-run homer in the 2nd inning. It was his third HR in his last four games and sixth in his last 13 games.

Outfielder Hunter Renfroe went 3-for-4, with a pair of runs scored and RBI. He hit an RBI single in the 1st inning and a solo HR in the 5th inning which was his 100th career HR, and his second in his last three games. Renfroe as 12 RBI in his last 17 games…Is 6-for-12 (.500 AVG) with 2 HR and 5 RBI in his last three games.

The Sox are 9-5 in their last 14 games at Fenway Park.

Boston’s Matt Barnes converted his first career five-out save, and just his second of at least four outs (1.1 IP on 5/7/19 at BAL) as he entered in the 8th inning. Barnes is seven-for-seven in saves vs opportunities this season as he earned Manager Alex Cora’s confidence as the team’s full-time closer.