Here’s a look at some of the bigger names who were sent packing early.
LAS VEGAS — As part of the FedEx Cup Fall, players either fighting to maintain their PGA Tour cards or looking for entrance into the first two Signature events had plenty to play for at the Shriners Children’s Open at TPC Summerlin.
But not everyone will be around for the weekend.
Windy conditions on Thursday morning put some players in a tough spot to make the cut this week and others simply didn’t play well enough to move on.
Although a few players saved their best for when they needed it: Brandt Snedeker, James Hahn and Scott Piercy all made birdie on their final hole of the day to eke out a place on the right side of a cutline that landed at 3 under.
Here’s a look at some of the bigger names who were sent packing early.
Andrew Putnam and J.B. Holmes are heading home early.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Andrew Putnam and J.B. Holmes both withdrew from the Wells Fargo Championship on Thursday citing back injuries.
Putnam, 34, played 15 holes at Quail Hollow Club in the first round before calling it a day. He made a double bogey at 18 and four consecutive bogeys starting at the third hole, dropping to 7 over before deciding he was in too much pain.
Putnam was ranked 33rd in the FedEx Cup standings heading into this week. He has made 15 cuts in 20 starts this season, including a T-2 at the Zozo Championship and a T-4 at the Sony Open in Hawaii.
Holmes, 41, withdrew from the tournament three minutes before his first round tee time. He was replaced in the field by Austin Cook.
Holmes won at Quail Hollow in 2014. But he missed nearly all of the 2021-22 Tour season due to surgery, making just one start at the 2021 Fortinet Championship. Holmes returned at the Farmers Insurance Open in February and has made just two cuts in eights starts. According to his agent Terry Reilly, Holmes’s injury wasn’t related to his previous back trouble and he didn’t want to waste one of his remaining starts on his major medical extension if he wasn’t feeling 100 percent.
Holmes’s tales of woe is long as he’s endured the following injuries during his career: brain surgery, ankle surgery from a rollerblading accident, tennis elbow, vertigo and more recently back issues.
As for the rest of the field, it’s one of the weakest we’ve seen in a bit. Three of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking are set to tee off Thursday.
Here are five bets you need to consider for the 2023 Mexico Open.
You may not know the names, but the battle on Sunday is set to bring the drama.
With 18 holes to play at Waialae Country Club, the Sony Open title is up for grabs.
The finish in Hawaii is set to come down to the wire with 15 players at or within five shots of the lead including many looking for their first career win or first in several years.
Hayden Buckley created some separation late in his round when he stuck his 222-yard approach to a few feet and converted the eagle to finish the day at 15 under, two shots ahead of the pack. The 2023 Sony would be Buckley’s first win on the PGA Tour.
If you missed the third-round action, no worries, we have you covered. Here’s everything you missed from Saturday on Oahu.
“This is why I play. I want chances to win golf tournaments.” — Patrick Rodgers
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The fact that Patrick Rodgers still is seeking his first PGA Tour victory after 225 career starts is one of golf’s great mysteries. But that could change on Sunday at the RSM Classic as Rodgers made four straight birdies on the back nine Saturday to shoot 6-under 64 and shares the 54-hole lead with Ben Martin. It’s Rodgers’s first 54-hole lead since the 2017 John Deere Classic.
“This is why I play. I want chances to win golf tournaments,” he said. “That was one of the big things my coach (Jeff Smith) and I talked about during the offseason – to get my nose in there a little more often and this is a really fun opportunity.”
Big things were expected of Rodgers, 30, a member of the ballyhooed “Class of 2011” that includes major winners Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. Rodgers equaled the record of Tiger Woods with 11 victories during his college career at Stanford, but the closest he’s come to lifting a trophy on the Tour is losing in a playoff here to Charles Howell III at the 2018 RSM Classic. That week, Rodgers shot 61-62 at Sea Island’s Seaside Course, the lowest 36-hole weekend score in Tour history. (Three times in all he’s been a runner-up on Tour.)
RSM Classic co-leader Patrick Rodgers has six rounds of 65 or better this season (including two this week), the most of any player on TOUR.
What has kept the 30-year-old Rodgers from living up to the high expectations placed upon him? Poor iron play has been the biggest culprit. Until improving to 94th in the rankings, he’d never finished better than 117th on Tour in Strokes Gained: Approach.
“He extends early, left hip goes up early, spine angle goes back and he doesn’t trap his irons,” Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee said. “He flat out is going to have to learn to hit his irons better to have the sort of success that was anticipated for him.”
This season, Rodgers has made seven straight cuts and finished T-3 at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship three weeks ago. After rounds of 69 at the Plantation Course on Thursday and a tidy 65 at Seaside on Friday, Rodgers got hot on the back nine on Saturday, going on a birdie binge that began at 13 and continued through the 16th hole.
“I’m hoping it plays difficult tomorrow because I feel like that plays to my advantage but I’m looking forward to the fight,” Rodgers said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Patrick Rodgers is making his 199th start since joining the PGA TOUR at the start of the 2015-16 season, the most of any player without a win in that span.
Harry Higgs shot 63 to vault into a share of the 36-hole lead with Cole Hammer and Andrew Putnam at 12 under in the RSM Classic.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — After shooting 7-under 63 on Friday, Harry Higgs was asked whether he has been putting pretty well of late. He smiled and corrected the writer. “No, I’ve been putting really good,” Higgs said.
Indeed, he has. Higgs gained more than three strokes to the field on the greens at Sea Island Resort’s Seaside Course on Friday, the second best performance in the field and it propelled him into a share of the 36-hole lead with Cole Hammer and Andrew Putnam at 12-under 130 in the RSM Classic.
“It’s usually pretty good,” Higgs said of his putting. “I feel like I have very good touch, and I feel like I read the greens really well, so that should be pretty easy. The only poor putt I hit today was kind of the first one that I had that was slow and I just kind of laughed.”
His ballstriking has been equally as impressive. Higgs has hit 33 of 36 greens in regulation through two rounds.
“The way that I’m putting, I just have to get it somewhere on the green and it’s probably going to come close to going in the hole,” he said.
Higgs struggled last season and is playing out of the Nos. 126-150 category this season. His confidence lagged and it took a hard look in the mirror to realize he’s been his own worst enemy.
“It’s miserable, it sucks, but it’s part of what we have to do,” he said of battling to keep playing privileges each season. “You have to deal with it. It’s OK to be fearful, it’s OK to feel the pressure. It’s just kind of how you react to it, right? Whether you kind of want to run and hide in the corner. Like I wouldn’t say I necessarily ran and hid in the corner, but I was very down on myself.”
Higgs spoke recently about how instead of spiraling down, he’s trying to spiral up and not be so hard on himself. His attitude on the course has improved, and he’s shown some signs of finding life in his game. His Friday 63 marked his fourth bogey-free round of 65 or less already this season.
“I’m going to at some point get out of this rut, which I felt like I was really close to doing in Bermuda and then played a poor day Friday. You know, a couple weeks ago in Mexico it felt like I was at least – the tires were spinning the other way, I was going to get out of it,” he said. “Come here and sure, I could do a lot of things better than I did this week so far, but I think I’m tied for first place, so you can take it easy, man. Like it’s OK to hit a few poor shots and smile a little bit and joke.”
Bradley, who hadn’t visited the winner’s circle since the 2018 BMW Championship, notched his fifth PGA Tour title.
It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t without its shaky moments, but Keegan Bradley did just enough to take the lead and held on to notch his fifth career PGA Tour title at the Zozo Championship.
The 36-year-old former PGA Championship winner shot 2-under 68 on Sunday at Narashino Country Club in Chiba, Japan, to edge Rickie Fowler and Andrew Putnam by one stroke.
Bradley, who began the day a stroke behind Fowler, moved to top of the leaderboard by canning a downhill 40-foot birdie putt at the par-3 fifth and marking another circle on the card at the par-5 sixth.
He stretched the lead to two two when he drained a 25-foot birdie putt at 11 and pumped his right fist. He looked in control until he made a sloppy bogey at the par-5 14th. Though he saved par at 15 with a 10-foot putt and clenched his fist, Bradley clearly was leaking oil and one hole later he coughed up the solo lead with his second bogey in his last three holes. Putnam (68) was tied for the lead at 14 under until he made bogey at 17 and Bradley made birdie to regain a two-stroke lead. He signed for a 72-hole total of 15-under 265.
Bradley, who struggled for a time when the belly putter that he used to great effect was banned by the USGA, entered the week at No. 44 in the world, but he hadn’t visited the winner’s circle since the 2018 BMW Championship, a total of 1,498 days. That was actually a longer wait without hoisting a trophy than Fowler, who was seeking his first win since the 2019 WM Phoenix Open. It wasn’t to be for Fowler, who never looked comfortable with his ball striking in the final round and closed in even-par 70.
Rickie Fowler is 18 holes away from ending a victory drought on the PGA Tour that stretches to the 2019 WM Phoenix Open.
The Zozo Championship has been played in Japan only twice but so far has developed a reputation for storybook finishes. There was Tiger Woods winning his 82nd (and most recent) PGA Tour title to tie Sam Snead on the all-time career win list. Then last year, Hideki Matsuyama claimed the title in his homeland to the delight of a golf-mad country. Could we be in store for another popular winner on Sunday?
That would be the case if Rickie Fowler were to claim his first Tour victory since 2019. Fowler, who has dropped to No. 160 in the world during his slump, is a fan favorite wherever he plays but with his Japanese roots, he’d be the next best thing to Matsuyama or one of the 15 other Japanese golfers in the field clutching the trophy on Sunday.
Here’s what you missed if you didn’t stay up over night to watch the third round at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Chiba Prefecture.
If you didn’t burn the midnight oil and watch the second round of the Zozo Championship, you missed some spectacular golf.
If you didn’t burn the midnight oil and watch the second round of the Zozo Championship, you missed some spectacular golf.
The temperature warmed up, the wind died and the rain stopped in Chiba, Japan, and it left Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club rather defenseless. Add in preferred lies being in effect and it was no surprise that several players in the 78-man field took turns torching the course. That included a 59 watch, a new course record and Rickie Fowler showing life in his game. Let’s drill down a little deeper on some of the highlights from the land of the rising sun.
Analyzing the 2019 QBE Shootout and which teams of golfers are the best options for the event. Who will win at Tiburon Golf Club?
Twelve two-man teams will compete in the QBE Shootout at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla., this weekend. The 54-hole event runs three days, from Friday through Sunday.
The first round is played under scramble rules, whereby both members of each team will play every shot with the better ball being taken each time. Round 2 consists of greensomes, where both players tee off on each hole and the alternate shot is played from the spot of the better ball.
The final round is played under standard four-ball rules with each golfer playing the hole on their own and the best score being taken.
The 7,288-yard venue plays as a par 72. The teams compete for a $3.5 million purse, but it is not an official money event and no FedExCup points are awarded.
QBE Shootout – Odds, picks and best bets
Matthew Wolff. (Photo Credit: Rob Kinnan – USA TODAY Sports)
The two combine for just 42 years of age, making them younger than several of the individual golfers in this event. Hovland is expected to be a top contender for PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, while Wolff came up just short of the award last year.
Hovland, 22, placed solo fourth at last season’s Wyndham Championship for the best result of his young career. He’s ranked 96th by the Official World Golf Ranking, while Wolff, who got his first career win at the 3M Open last summer, is 117th in the world. Their odds are lower as fan favorites, but the youngsters have the length and putting, and the motivation for the early-career win in an uninspired field.
Charles Howell III-Bubba Watson (+800)
Watson, ranked 44th by the OWGR, is coming off a last-place finish at last week’s Hero World Challenge. Howell, ranked 54th in the world, missed the cut at the RSM Classic as his last event. The two combined for four victories in 2018.
Howell finished tied for third here last year with partner Luke List. Watson was sixth with Harold Varner III.
Charley Hoffman-Kevin Kisner (+1200)
Hoffman also finished T-3 a year ago (with partner Gary Woodland), while Kisner finished last with playing partner Cameron Champ. Kisner tied for seventh at last week’s Hero World Challenge exhibition. The two have plenty of length off the tee, and Kisner, who’s the defending match-play champion, can get hot and carry the team with his putter.
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