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PGA Tour: Fleetwood Leads Wells Fargo

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CHARLOTTE – Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood carded a 6-under 65 and holds a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Wells Fargo Championship. Fleetwood holds the 18-hole lead/co-lead for the third time on Tour and second time this season (The PLAYERS Championship).

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World No. 5 Xander Schauffele cards a 5-under 66, his lowest score in 13 rounds at the Wells Fargo Championship

K.H. Lee carded a first-round (66) at the Wells Fargo Championship for the third consecutive year (won the AT&T Byron Nelson Classic the following week in 2021 and 2022).

Three-time Wells Fargo Champion Rory McIlroy recorded a 3-under (68) on his 34th birthday and stands T-6.

Defending champion and two-time Wells Fargo Championship winner Max Homa opens with a 1-under 70 and stands T36

Wells Fargo Championship | After 18 holes

Tommy Fleetwood 65 (-6)

Kevin Streelman 66 (-5)

K.H. Lee 66 (-5)

Taylor Moore 66 (-5)

Xander Schauffele 66 (-5)

Ryan Palmer 66 (-5)

Full Leaderboard: (link)

Tour Turns to “The Green Mile”

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CHARLOTTE – The Wells Fargo Championship is the 29th event of the 2022-23 PGA TOUR Season and seventh designated event, featuring six of the Top 10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking (33 of top 50), 25 of the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings and 19 of the 23 players that have won on TOUR this season.

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Prize money is a lofty $20m with the winner getting $3.6 million from the bank’s coffers.

Two-time Wells Fargo Championship winner Max Homa (2019 at Quail Hollow Club, 2022 at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm) is one of four players with multiple titles this season (Fortinet Championship, Farmers Insurance Open) and is seeking to successfully defend a title for the second time this season (Fortinet Championship).

No player has ever successfully defended a title at the Wells Fargo Championship.

Five players successfully defended a title during the 2021-22 season, the most since 2007 (5), and Homa is one of three that have done so this season (Rory McIlroy/The CJ CUP in South Carolina, Scottie Scheffler/WM Phoenix Open).

Three-time Wells Fargo Championship winner Rory McIlroy, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking, will be making his 12th start at the event. The Wells Fargo Championship is one of six TOUR events at which McIlroy has collected multiple victories and the first that he won three or more times.

Quail Hollow Club’s 16th, 17th and 18th holes make up the most difficult three-hole finish on Tour, known as the Green Mile. Among non-major courses that have been played in at least five seasons since 2003, “The Green Mile” ranks as the toughest finishing three holes (+0.904 on average).

Max Homa is one of 18 players in the field that competed in the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club. Those items included:

  • International Team: Corey Conners (Canada), Cam Davis (Australia), Sungjae Im (South Korea), Si Woo Kim (South Korea), Tom Kim (South Korea), K.H. Lee (South Korea), Taylor Pendrith (Canada), Adam Scott (Australia)
  • United States: Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau, Max Homa, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Cameron Young

Wells Fargo | Tournament Facts

COURSE: Quail Hollow, Charlotte, North Carolina

YARDS/PAR: 7,538 yards/Par 71

ARCHITECT: George Cobb

PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $20,000,000/$3,600,000

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Max Homa

FEDEx CUP Points to Winner: 500

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedExCup @WellsFargoGolf

Finau Takes Mexico Open at Vidanta

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The Finau Family

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.

World No. 1 and FedEx Cup leader Jon Rahm posted his ninth career runner-up finish and, in doing so, set the new record for most official money earned in a single PGA Tour season.

Last year’s 2022 Mexico Open at Vidanta runner-up Brandon Wu finished solo third marking fact all three who finished inside the top three at the 2022 Mexico Open at Vidanta did so again this year.

Mexico Open | Final Leaderboard

Tony Finau 65-64-65-66—260 (-24)

Jon Rahm 67-68-61-67—263 (-21)

Brandon Wu 66-64-67-68—265 (-19)

Akshay Bhatia 68-65-63-70—266 (-18)

Full Leaderboard (link)

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

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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.

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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.

Zurich Classic | Tournament Facts

COURSE: TPC Louisiana, Avondale, LA

ARCHITECT: Pete Dye

YARDS/PAR: 7,425 yards/Par 72

PRIZE Money: $8,600,000

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS: Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay

PAST RESULTS: (link)

FEDEx CUP Points to Winners: 400 to each player

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedExCup @Zurich_Classic

NOLA: Remember local time is Central time, one hour behind Eastern Daylight time.

 

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

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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

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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

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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):

  1. The Masters
  2. Winter Olympic Games
  3. Super Bowl
  4. Pebble Beach golf
  5. Kentucky Derby
  6. French Open and Australian Open

FIVE BUCKET LIST EVENTS CHECKED OFF:

  1. Summer Olympic Games (Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens)
  2. NCAA Final Four
  3. World Series and Stanley Cup Final
  4. U.S. Open (golf and tennis)
  5. 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.