By TERRY LYONS
VALLARTA, México – PGA Tour veteran Tony Finau won his sixth PGA Tour title and fourth in his last 18 starts. He earned multiple victories in back-to-back seasons for the first time in his career.
Finau Takes Mexico Open at Vidanta
PGA Tour
Finau, Rahm Battling It Out
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By TERRY LYONS
VALLARTA, México – PGA Tour veteran Tony Finau is seeking his sixth title and fourth since finishing runner-up at the 2022 Mexico Open at Vidanta. Finau’s score of 18-under (194) set the 54-hole tournament record.
Meanwhile, World No. 1 and FedEx Cup leader Jon Rahm tied his career-low score on Tour with a bogey-free 10-under (61) to set the 18-hole tournament record.
Defending champion Rahm sits two strokes back in bid to successfully defend on Tour for the first time in seven tries.
Special temporary PGA Tour member Akshay Bhatia seeks to become the first Special Temporary Member to win on Tour since Tom Kim at the 2022 Wyndham Championship.
Brandon Wu (4th at -16) owns two runner-up results in 56 starts on the Tour, including T-2 at this event last year when he posted a final-round (63) to T-2 and at the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. With a win, Wu would become the eighth first-time winner on Tour this season.
Making his PGA Tour debut as a sponsor exemption, Raul Pereda (T17/-8) would qualify for this week’s Wells Fargo Championship with a T-10 or better.
Mexico Open | Leaderboard After 54 Holes
Tony Finau 65-64-65—194 (-19)
Jon Rahm 67-68-61—196 (-17)
Akshay Bhatia 68-65-63—196 (-17)
Brandon Wu 66-64-67—197 (-16)
Will Gordon 67-66-67—200 (-13)
Full Leaderboard (link)
Rahm Seeking to Defend in Mexico
VALLARTA, México – World No. 1 and current FedEx Cup leader Jon Rahm returns to the Mexico Open at Vidanta after winning the inaugural event in 2022. Rahm has four wins this season, including the Masters, and with a win, would become the first player to win five times in a PGA Tour season since Justin Thomas in 2016-17.
With $13,623,540 in Official Money this season, Rahm is the second player in PGA Tour history to earn $13 million or more in a single season. In 2021-22, Scottie Scheffler set the Tour record for most Official Money earned in a single season with $14,046,910.
Rahm has made six prior starts as the defending champion on Tour. He has not successfully defended a title, but led by six strokes after the third round of the 2021 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday before being forced to withdraw (COVID-19). Rahm has successfully defended one title on the DP World Tour, winning the Open de España in 2018 and 2019.
Tony Finau finished T-2 at the 2022 Mexico Open, which was his first Top-10 of that season. That runner-up result began a stretch of 15 starts for Finau that included three wins (3M Open, Rocket Mortgage Classic, Cadence Bank Houston Open) and three other top-five finishes. With his win at the Cadence Bank Houston Open, Finau is one of four players in the field that has won on Tour this season.
Mexico Open | Tournament Facts
COURSE: Vidanta Vallarta in Vallarta, México
ARCHITECT: Greg Norman (2015)
YARDS/PAR: 7,456 yards/Par 71
PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $7,700,000/$1,386,000
DEFENDING CHAMPION: Jon Rahm
FEDEx CUP Points to Winner: 500
SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedExCup @MexicoOpenGolf 🇲🇽
PGA Tour: Preview of the Zurich Classic
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NEW ORLEANS – This is the sixth year that the Zurich Classic of New Orleans will be played with the two-man team format, the concept introduced in 2017 but interrupted/canceled in 2020 during pandemic. The tournament format calls for teams of two PGA Tour pros to play Four-ball in the first and third rounds, and Foursomes in the second and final rounds.
Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay will defend their title after winning in wire-to-wire fashion in 2022.
Five of the top six players on the final leaderboard at last week’s RBC Heritage are in the this week’s field, including RBC champion Matt Fitzpatrick, who is competing with his brother, Alex. The younger Fitzpatrick is making his second career start on Tour and first since the 2022 Valspar Championship (MC). The defending champions finished third (Cantlay) and fourth (Schauffele), while the two players that tied for fifth are also making the trip to New Orleans: Hayden Buckley is paired with 2022 Valero Texas Open champion J.J. Spaun and Sahith Theegala is teaming up with 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year Justin Suh.
Fitzpatrick Takes RBC in Playoff
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By TERRY LYONS
HILTON HEAD – Reigning U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick defeated defending champion Jordan Spieth in a multi-hole playoff to win the RBC Heritage at Harbor Town.
The playoff between Fitzpatrick and Spieth was the first on Tour featuring multiple players that had previously won a major championship since the 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions (Justin Thomas* def. Patrick Reed* and Xander Schauffele). Spieth became the first defending champion to lose in a playoff since Schauffele at that same tournament.
Spieth now has 18 runner-up finishes on Tour since the start of the 2013 season, four more than any other player in that span.
Fitzpatrick is the third player from England to win on Tour this season, tying the most in a single season on record (1983-present).
RBC Heritage | Final Leaderboard
P-1 Matt Fitzpatrick 66 70 63 68 267 (-17) 1-0
P-2 Jordan Spieth 68 67 66 66 267 (-17) 5-4
3 Patrick Cantlay 69 65 66 68 268 (-16)
4 Xander Schauffele 67 66 70 66 269 (-15)
T-5 Sahith Theegala 70 68 67 65 270 (-14)
T-5 Hayden Buckley 69 68 66 67 270 (-14)
PGA Tour: Final Round at RBC
By TERRY LYONS
HILTON HEAD – As the final round begins today, 15 players, including four major championship winners, are within four strokes of the lead. The 2022 U.S. Open champion – Matt Fitzpatrick – holds the 54-hole lead/co-lead on Tour for the third time while seeking his second win on the circuit.
The RBC’s 2022 runner-up Patrick Cantlay is seeking to become the first player to win a tournament one year after losing it in a playoff since 2008 while defending champion Jordan Spieth trails by two in bid to successfully defend on the Tour for the first time in 12 attempts.
Six-time PGA Tour winner and 36-hole leader Jimmy Walker sits three back in search of his first pro title since the 2016 PGA Championship.
Mark Hubbard, Tommy Fleetwood and Hayden Buckley are players among the Top 15 on the leaderboard without a PGA Tour victory.
Currently T-4 in his RBC tournament debut, World No. 2 Scottie Schefflerwould move into the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking with a victory this week regardless of where current No. 1 Jon Rahm finishes today.
RBC Heritage Leaderboard After 54 Holes
Matt Fitzpatrick 66-70-63—199 (-14)
Patrick Cantlay 69-65-66—200 (-13)
Jordan Spieth 68-67-66—201 (-12)
Five players 202 (-11)
PGA Tour Heads to Harbor Town
By TERRY LYONS
HILTON HEAD – The RBC Heritage tees-it-up this morning and features a strong field including seven of the Top 10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking and 38 of the Top 50). As the Tour turns towards the warmer weather months, 28 of the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings and 19 of the 20 players that have won on Tour this season are playing the old school Harbor Town golf course.
World No. 2 and reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year Scottie Scheffler is making his tournament debut. Scheffler has eight Top-10s in 11 starts this season, including four as the defending champion in a nine-week stretch. Scheffler successfully defended his title during the first opportunity (WM Phoenix Open), then finished T-4 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and fourth at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. He concluded his fourth title defense attempt with a T-10 at last week’s Masters Tournament.
World No. 4 Patrick Cantlay has only finished outside the Top 10 once in five starts at the RBC Heritage (T-3/2017, T-7/2018, T-3/2019, MC/2021, P-2/2022). Cantlay, the 2021 FedEx Cup Champion, fell to 2015 FedEx Cup Champion Jordan Spieth on the first extra hole (No. 18) of the 2022 RBC Heritage, marking the first playoff in the FedExCup era (est. 2007) between two FedExCup champs. The last player to win a tournament a season after losing it in a playoff was Ryuji Imada at the 2008 AT&T Classic (Zach Johnson def. Imada in 2007).
Preview | The RBC
COURSE: Harbor Town Golf Links, Hilton Head, South Carolina
ARCHITECT: Pete Dye
YARDS/PAR: 7,213 yards/Par 71
PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $20,000,000/$3,600,000
DEFENDING CHAMPION: Jordan Spieth
PAST RESULTS: (link)
PAST CHAMPIONS: (link)
FEDEx CUP Points to Winner: 500
SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedExCup @RBC_Heritage #PLAIDNATION
TL’s Sunday Sports Notebook | April 9
By TERRY LYONS
Can you imagine plotting and planning, scheming and teaming-up with some buddies to score tickets and attend The Masters at Augusta National only to have it rain? Worse that rain, it’s raw, damp and unpleasant … a.k.a “inclement weather,” which has suspended play in the mid-afternoon or both Friday and Saturday’s rounds.
The Masters is the jewel of professional golf’s Major tournaments, outclassing the PGA Championship, The Open and The U.S. Open. It is to golf what Wimbledon is to tennis or what the Boston Marathon is to long distance racing. It is the best.
With that tag, it is a very tough ticket.
That’s the way current Augusta National head honcho Fred Ridley and his predecessors – all good olde boys from the South – in Clifford Roberts (1931-76), Bill Lane (1977-80), Hord Hardin (1980-1991) – it was under Hardin’s era when the first black member of Augusta was approved – Jack Stephens (1991-98). Hootie Johnson (1998-2006) and Billy Payne(2006)-2017) – all wanted it.
The Masters evolved and improved with age. It awkwardly navigated the prejudicial ways of the past regarding African-American members and membership for women, as it wasn’t until Billy Payne’s watch when the first female members were introduced.
Despite it’s flaws, and its old-school policies all fighting modern technology and 24/7 sports coverage, the Masters remains pure and has proven-out the “less is more” theory of sports broadcasting.
Nowadays, there’s streaming coverage of the Amen Corner and Featured Groups, but the TV right are only in the pocket of CBS Sports. They’ll be on at 8:30am this morning and 2:00pm this afternoon to cover a rain-soaked tournament and hopefully tuck it in before “60 Minutes” starts at 7:00pm in the east.
Thankfully, unlike college basketball, CBS sports anchor Jim Nantz will stay on with his coverage of The Masters.
HERE NOW, THE NOTES: The Masters – as stated above – is truly one of the “Bucket List” events for any sports fan. What are the others? Here’s a list facing this reporter and a list of Bucket List items already checked-off.
BUCKET LIST EVENTS to COME (Hopefully):
- The Masters
- Winter Olympic Games
- Super Bowl
- Pebble Beach golf
- Kentucky Derby
- French Open and Australian Open
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FIVE BUCKET LIST EVENTS CHECKED OFF:
- Summer Olympic Games (Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens)
- NCAA Final Four
- World Series and Stanley Cup Final
- U.S. Open (golf and tennis)
- NHL Winter Classic
(Note: The BIG EAST Tournament in New York and the ACC Tournament (1990 in Charlotte) are high on the list, as was a UCLA vs USC game at The Rose Bowl). There are far too many NBA events to list, but I might place the 1992 NBA All-Star Game in Orlando with Earvin Magic Johnson’s return to play as No. 1 and the 2004 NBA China Games in Shanghai and Beijing with Yao Ming as No. 2).
LIV vs PGA TOUR: The playing of the 2023 Masters re-united the best golfers in the world as members of the upstart LIV Golf tour were permitted to compete alongside their former colleagues on the PGA Tour. “It’s good to be back,” said Phil Mickelson on his return as he’s currently T-8 with 71-69 in the books and EVEN par.
Off the course, LIV and the PGA Tour will still do battle in the court of law, as this past Friday, Judge Beth Labson Freeman of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California vacated a Jan. 11, 2024, trial date and pushed back the start of the trial at least four months, citing reasons of the need for more time for discovery stemming from the coffers of the Saudi Public Investment Fund which has bankrolled LIV golf to absurd lengths of signing bonuses and payoffs for 54-hole tournaments.
The disputes involve eleven LIV Golf players who filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour on Aug. 3, 2022, accusing the tour of using its monopoly powers to squash competition.
On Sept. 29, the PGA Tour filed a countersuit against LIV Golf, accusing it of interfering with its contracts with players. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan suspended more than 30 players for competing in LIV Golf tournaments without conflicting-event releases.
Meanwhile with LIV golfer Brooks Koepka at the top of the Masters leaderboard, it bodes well for the rival tour and its competitive business model.
The 2023 Masters Tournament Preview
By TERRY LYONS
AUGUSTA – The 2023 Masters Tournament is the first major championship of the 2023 pro golf season and second event that offers 600 FedEx Cup points to the winner. In 2022, Scottie Scheffler earned his first career major championship title and fourth win of the 2021-22 season with a three-stroke victory over Rory McIlroy. Scheffler went on to win the Jack Nicklaus Award as PGA TOUR Player of the Year while McIlroy captured his third career FedEx Cup title. They enter this year’s Masters as the two highest-ranked players in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Scheffler has two wins this season, including THE PLAYERS Championship.
Three players have successfully defended a title at the Masters Tournament: Jack Nicklaus (1966), Nick Faldo (1990) and Tiger Woods (2002). Scheffler is 1-for-3 in title defenses on Tour this season, with a victory at the WM Phoenix Open and Top-5 finishes at the Arnold Palmer Invitational (T4) and WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play (4th).
The only player to win THE PLAYERS and the Masters in the same year is Tiger Woods in 2001. Woods is also the last player to successfully defend multiple titles in the same season, doing so four times in 2007.
The Masters 2023 | Special Discount | Best offer of the PGA Tour Season
Preview | The Masters
COURSE: Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Georgia
ARCHITECT: Dr. Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones Jr.; Perry Maxwell in 1937
YARDS/PAR: 7,475 yards/Par 72
2023 PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: At least $15,000,000/$2,700,000
DEFENDING CHAMPION: Scottie Scheffler
PAST RESULTS: (link)
PAST CHAMPIONS: (link)
FEDEx CUP Points to Winner: 600
SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedExCup @The Masters
TV COVERAGE: Special coverage of the Par Three Tournament today from 12:00 Noon (ET) on The Masters site. ESPN will provide tournament preview coverage 3:00pm to 5:00pm (ET).
Tournament Info and How to Watch/Stream The Masters: (NBC Boston)
How to Watch Par 3: In case of changes, visit: (Masters.com)
The Basics:
Tournament site: The Masters
The Masters – Tee Times start Thursday at 8:00am (ET) and go to 2:00pm (ET).
Weather: Thursday’s forecast is for cloudy skies. Temperatures range from 67-to-84 degrees with a 17% chance of rain. Winds at 8mph. Weekend forecast is calling for rain with a 64% chance of rain on Friday, a 96% chance on Saturday and 79% chance on Sunday.
Notes:
Three-time FedEx Cup Champion Rory McIlroy will try to become the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam with a win, joining Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen. McIlroy was the only player to finish in the Top 10 at all four Majors in 2022 (2nd/Masters, 8th/PGA Championship, T-5/U.S. Open, 3rd/The Open).
2015 Masters winner Jordan Spieth holds the lowest scoring average of any player in tournament history (min. 25 rounds) at an average of 70.71 (Others: Second-lowest: Tiger Woods, 71.05). Spieth also holds the tournament records for low opening 36-hole score (130, 2015) and low opening 54-hole score (200, 2015; tied with Dustin Johnson, 2020). Spieth has three top-10s on the season, highlighted by a T3 at the Valspar Championship.
Six players have six or more PGA TOUR wins in the last five seasons, including Patrick Cantlay (seven wins in that span) and Max Homa (six) are the only two among the group that have not won a Major championship in their careers. At No. 4 (Cantlay) and No. 5 (Homa) in the Official World Golf Ranking, they are also the two highest-ranked players in the world without a win in a major. Cantlay has made six starts at the Masters and earned low-amateur honors in 2012 (T47) while Homa is making his fourth appearance after making the cut for the first time in 2022 (T48).
Although they went to great lengths to avoid controversy during Masters Week, the LIV Golf tour and the PGA Tour managed to make some waves when Augusta National decided against inviting former multi-time Majors winner and Masters runner-up Greg Norman to the tournament. Norman is currently serving as Commissioner of LIV Golf. (link)
The PLAYERS to Scottie Scheffler
By TERRY LYONS
PONTE VEDRA BEACH – Reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year Scottie Scheffler won The PLAYERS Championship, earning his sixth career PGA Tour title overall and second of the season. All six of Scheffler’s victories have come in his last 27 starts.
Scheffler returned to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking with the victory as he became the ninth player to win The PLAYERS and the Masters Tournament and only the third to hold both titles at the same time, joining Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Tyrrell Hatton (2nd) birdied the final five holes and tied the back-nine scoring record at TPC Sawgrass (29).
Tom Hoge (T-3) became the first player to record a (78) or higher in the first round of a PGA Tour event and finish in the Top Five since Jose Maria Olazabal at the 2007 PLAYERS Championship.
The PLAYERS | Final Leaderboard
Scottie Scheffler 68-69-65-69—271 (-17)
Tyrrell Hatton 72-71-68-65—276 (-12)
Viktor Hovland 69-71-70-68—278 (-10)
Tom Hoge 78-68-62-70—278 (-10)
Hideki Matsuyama 74-70-67-68—279 (-9)