Jimmy Walker hit a nice third shot into the par-5 eighth at TPC San Antonio during the second round of the Valero Texas Open on Friday and left himself a seven-foot birdie putt.
When Golf Channel panned to Walker to show his attempt, Smylie Kaufman was hosting his ‘Happy Hour’ segment with Rory McIlroy in the guest chair. Walker took the putter back, made his stroke and was disappointed when his ball failed to fall right at the cup, leaving him a three-foot par putt behind the hole.
But then he did something Kaufman and McIlroy weren’t expecting.
After taking a step towards his ball, Walker snapped the putter head right off the shaft.
“We’ve all been there,” McIlroy said.
“I must say, of things I expected to happen just then, I don’t think I expected the club to snap in half,” Kaufman responded.
“I didn’t think Jimmy was that strong,” McIlroy joked.
NAPA, Calif. — After Peter Malnati wrapped up shooting 66 at Silverado Resort’s North Course on Moving Day to rocket into contention at the Fortinet Championship, he summed up the new FedEx Cup Fall, a series of seven events where jobs for the 2024 season are on the line, as “fun and exciting, unless you’re one of the ones trying to keep your job and then it’s a strain.”
PGA Tour veteran Jimmy Walker won this event when it was played at CordeValle a decade ago for his first Tour title. On Saturday, the 44-year-old Walker shot 69, which had him projected to improve from No. 124 to No. 118, but Walker was none too happy that he’s still battling to finish in the top 125 for the better part of the next three months.
“They changed the rules. It’s been 125 forever. Then it’s like, no, it’s 50, or is it 70? It’s definitely not 125. It’s total bulls–t, that’s what I think of it,” Walker said. “I’ve been working for 11 months to finish 124 and it’s like, nope, keep playing. So, I’m going to give it all I’ve got. That’s all I can do.”
A year ago, Walker shut down his season after the Valero Texas Open, his hometown event, and at age 43 the former PGA Championship winner contemplated calling it a career. But then enough players jumped ship to LIV that Walker climbed to No. 50 in career earning on the Tour, which gave him access to a one-time exemption for the 2022-23 season.
Walker has played 25 events this season and ranked No. 124 after the Wyndham Championship last month, which traditionally served as the final event of the FedEx Cup regular season. This year, only the top 70 earned a playoff berth and locked up their cards for next season.
“I can’t tell you how many people texted me saying congrats on making the 125. I’m like, ‘No man, it’s different.’ I had to explain. They’ve done such a bad job communicating what is happening, partly because I don’t think they knew what was happening, honestly,” Walker said. “It’s been one way forever. LIV and the Saudis happen and a lot of things change and everybody freaks out and we sign an agreement that stops litigation. I don’t know what’s going on. They’re talking about a big payout for the players that have stayed. All of it is blowing my mind. The Tour is doing everything they can to take care of themselves and not for the players. I’m just out here grinding, giving it all I’ve got. I’ve given them 20-some-odd years out here, you know.”
Walker expressed disappointment that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan wasn’t at the Fortinet Championship to answer questions from players at the first event of the re-imagined fall schedule. Jason Dufner, another player who was able to take advantage of the top 50 career earnings one-time exemption, entered the fall at No. 172, and called the fall an opportunity.
“We’re all adjusting to it a little bit. It’s nice to have the opportunity to play and try to, you know, sneak back into that 125 category,” Dufner said. “I don’t want to say I lucked into, but I was able to use a career money exemption for this year, and on top of that I got last fall and this fall, so it’s kind of a bonus type of deal for me so I’m trying to take as much advantage of it as I can to continue to be out here in some capacity.”
Walker realizes he’s lucky, too, to have had a second chance to play last season, but he doesn’t like the way the LIV threat has been used to change the landscape so drastically.
“I’m back because of LIV and then it was like we’ve got to change everything. We have to pump more money into the PIP to keep our guys, make all these elevated events. I’m not going to get to play Pebble Beach next year, a field that’s always had 180 players and I’m a past champion. I said to Jay, what if San Antonio was an elevated event? You’re going to tell me I live there, I’ve done I don’t know how many pressers for you guys and everything you’ve asked me to do and I can’t play my hometown event? It’s really bass-ackwards right now.”
Another veteran Ryan Palmer said he will play as many fall events as necessary until he’s locked up his playing privileges for next year. Walker said he’ll do the same, noting “it’s not a strategy, it’s my job, my card.”
Malnati can relate. He entered the Fortinet Championship at No. 116 and had missed three straight cuts. But Malnati, who serves as a player director on the Tour Policy Board, disagrees with Walker’s claim that the Tour’s moved the goalposts on him.
“Of course people are going to say that, but we’re making changes. Things have to change. Whether they are better or not, you can argue that but this is the way it is,” Malnati said. “I never once thought I should have my card locked up. We all knew going into the season it was going to be (No.) 125 after Sea Island (RSM Classic) and not Wyndham. The cool thing is, yes, I’m playing to earn my Tour card for next season but I get six opportunities to qualify for Maui. I see it as opportunity.”
Heading to the weekend at the sixth designated event of the year, the leaderboard is packed with the best players in the world.
And then there’s Jimmy Walker. Yeah, the guy whose last win came at the 2016 PGA Championship at Baltusrol. The guy who nearly stopped playing professional golf carded matching 65s to open at the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and he leads by three at Harbour Town Golf Links heading to the weekend.
However, World No. 2 Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Justin Rose are tied for second, three shots back. Tommy Fleetwood and Patrick Cantlay are at 8 under. Defending champion Jordan Spieth is at 7 under, and Masters champion Jon Rahm tied the round of the day Friday to move back into contention.
If the leaderboard is any indication, the weekend should be spectacular. Here’s some takeaways from Friday’s second round at the RBC Heritage.
It was expected the world’s best would rise to the top.
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — With 17 of the top 20 players in the Official World Golf Ranking competing in the 2023 RBC Heritage, it was expected that the cream would rise to the top of the leaderboard.
That was the case on Friday after the early morning wave at Harbour Town Golf Links as World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler shot up the leaderboard, with Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott all in the mix. But there were a couple unexpected players who made their presence felt with excellent rounds.
Jimmy Walker, who entered the week at No. 406 in the world, shot his second straight 6-under 65 and went to the club house with a three-stroke lead at 12 under, three shots ahead of Scottie Scheffler and Justin Rose. The 44-year-old Texan was on the top of the golf world when he won the 2016 PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club, one of his six wins on Tour.
But he was diagnosed with Lyme disease just before the 2017 Masters and has been struggling to regain his form, battling it ever since. The former Baylor star made seven birdies Friday, including a chip in from 51 feet at the 184-yard, par-3 seventh.
“I was pretty much done.”
Last year, Jimmy Walker stepped away from the game due to health concerns.
After taking a one-time top 50 earnings exemption to return this season, Walker is making the most of his opportunity and leads @RBC_Heritage. pic.twitter.com/Ebmn5yfXt3
“Yesterday, I got it going, and I was like, okay, wow. Now we need to pedal down, keep it going, and the same today,” Walker said. “It was take advantage, keep your head in the game, keep stroking it good, just keep doing all the things that I felt like I’ve been kind of working on, some old feels, old thoughts, and just stay on them and be really diligent about it because it’s so easy to just check out. It has been for me, especially after being sick.”
Walker was taking a break from the game in April of 2022, and then in September the opportunity arose to take a top 50 all-time money winners exemption when the Tour suspended players who joined LIV Golf, and they were knocked off that list — allowing Walker to rise nine spots in the rankings to No. 50.
He has missed the cut in eight of 12 appearances this season, but has three top-25 finishes in the cuts he’s made.
“It was a pretty easy decision honestly. I was 50, and if I didn’t play, I’d never get it again. I just wouldn’t. So when it happened, it was kind of like, wow, this is incredible,” Walker said. “I immediately shifted gears and talked to my family and said, this is it. This is what we’re going to do.”
Walker said he has the experience and knows what it takes to win, but his illness has taken its toll.
“I haven’t put two really good rounds together back to back out here … since getting sick, mentally and physically feel different damn near every day, and that’s been the hardest part,” Walker said. “The things that I work on one day, I can’t feel it the next day. Some days I’ll get two days out of it. So that’s been the hardest part.
“I’ve never felt like I’ve ever been afraid to go win a golf tournament. I’ve won golf tournaments in all sorts of fashions, big events played on the biggest stages. So there’s nothing I haven’t done. Nothing this weekend is any different than anything I’ve ever done honestly. Just go do it again because it’s fun if you win.”
Mark Hubbard shot a solid 66 to move to 8-under par and in a tie for third after the morning wave. The 33-year old San Jose State graduate has never won a PGA Tour event. He entered the week at No. 132 in the world and is looking to improve on his best RBC Heritage finish of a tie for 33rd last year.
Hubbard’s only slip on the scorecard came at the 16th, a hole that calls for a draw with the driver — a shot that doesn’t fit his eye. But he responded with his sixth birdie of the day on No. 18, draining a nine footer to end his round.
He withdrew from the pro-am Wednesday with a 24-hour bug, but after sleeping it off got off to a great start with birdies at Nos. 1, 2 and 4.
“I think that’s a scoreable part of the course, and it’s very calm this morning, really all day,” Hubbard said. “The greens were a little softer, then they started to firm up a little in the afternoon. I think you’ve got to just kind of get off to that start out here with two of the three par-5s in the first six holes. I felt good.”
Fleetwood is making his fourth appearance at Harbour Town, and the 32-year old Englishman was on top of his game as he made eight birdies, with a pair of bogeys on the back nine (his front nine Friday). His iron game was spot on as he hit 14 of 18 greens and made 112 feet of putts, with the longest being a 37-foot bomb for birdie at No. 18.
“My consistency is sort of all right, but I’m not at the top of the leaderboards, and that’s where I want to get to,” said Fleetwood, who is No. 25 in the World Golf Ranking.
He said Harbour Town suits his game, and he loves competing in tournaments the week after a major.
“It’s not somewhere where you can overpower. I think you have to be very patient. I think you have to be a good iron player,” he said. “There’s definitely aspects of the golf course that I like and I enjoy playing. I’d love the wind to be up a bit more over the weekend and have that challenge to play with.
“I actually enjoy playing the week after majors. I feel like they’re the ultimate in every aspect of your game and the challenges that the game can present you. I think the majors are the ultimate, and I quite like coming the week after. That way you’ve prepared so hard for those, and you feel like you’ve done everything you can. So you sort of come here with the mindset of everything’s done and you just go out and play. I don’t know whether it’s the timing of what this event is or whether it’s the course, but I seem pretty happy with both.”
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Those with a few more wrinkles and gray hairs had their way at TPC San Antonio’s Oaks Course on Thursday.
SAN ANTONIO — Matt Kuchar sauntered up the 18th fairway, his ninth hole of the day since he started on the back during the opening round of the Valero Texas Open, knowing his gameplan was to layup with his second shot on the 591-yard par 5.
For the 44-year-old veteran, the TPC San Antonio Oaks Course offers a few opportunities to get aggressive, but Kuchar knows where and when to take his chances. Meanwhile, his two playing partners — young bucks Matt Wallace and Nico Echavarria — boomed drives and eagerly hustled up to see if they could reach the creek-protected green in two. Wallace waffled, originally waiting while the group on the green putted out, but then switched to an iron and played it safe. Coming off his first Tour victory at the Corales Puntacana Championship, Wallace eventually made par.
Kuchar calmly hit his second shot to 70 yards, stuck a wedge to four feet and tapped in for the group’s only birdie.
Chalk one up to experience.
On Thursday, after a lengthy fog delay and through whipping Texas winds and occasional rain, those with a few more wrinkles and gray hairs had their way at a course designed by Greg Norman with some input from Sergio Garcia.
It’s certainly not surprising that Kuchar would post a solid number — the nine-time PGA Tour winner has finished in the top 25 on seven of 10 starts here, including a runner-up showing last year behind J.J. Spaun in what marked Kuchar’s 500th start.
On Thursday, he started with a bogey but got rolling from there, finishing the front at 33 and posted a 68 at day’s end.
Matt Kuchar plays a shot on the 18th hole during the first round of the Valero Texas Open golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Raymond Carlin III-USA TODAY Sports
Others over the age of 40 joined the party as well. Jimmy Walker, a 44-year-old who won this event in 2015, had a hot stretch and was firmly in contention after the opening day.
And at the ripe age of 51, Padraig Harrington made a late push to get atop the leaderboard, sitting even with Kuchar at 4 under after the earliest players got through the day.
For Kuchar, a win in San Antonio would earn him a precious invite to Augusta National, where he’s posted four top-8 finishes in 12 appearances. Kuchar had his string of Masters appearances snapped in 2022 and would love the opportunity to return to the first major.
But he insisted he’s not focusing on that, and even scoffed at a question about a potential appearance at Augusta.
“You’ve gotten way ahead of yourself,” Kuchar said. “That’s too far ahead for me to worry about.”
Still, there’s no denying he’s in a place where he feels comfortable. Kuchar finished fourth at this course in 2014, then seventh in 2019, and tied for second last year.
“It’s a tough golf course, but I do like it. I think there’s a big effort to just find fairways out here. I’ve always thought I could find fairways, even though today I had a couple waywards,” Kuchar said. “For the most part you’ve really got to hit every shot is tested here. If you start playing some indifferent golf, this course can really jump up and bite you. I was lucky to get away with a couple loose ones today, but for the most part games on some pretty good form and I enjoy this golf course a lot.”
Harrington has only played two events on the PGA Tour this season but is fresh off a T-5 at the new Galleri Classic on the Champions circuit. Recently announced as a 2024 World Golf Hall of Fame inductee, he played both the front and back in 34 and looked in command throughout.
Thursday marked the first time he’d been inside the top three after the first round since the 2015 Honda Classic, a tournament where he claimed the title.
“Tough conditions, which generally suit me. And I kept my head down, I never saw the leaderboard until I finished. I didn’t know I was leading and
that’s what you’ve got to do on a tough day,” Harrington said. “You’ve got to hit sensible shots and sometimes the sensible shot isn’t trying to hit the middle of the fairway, it’s squeezing it up one side of it. Even if it goes in the rough, it’s fine. Got to really have your thinking hat on and I did a good job mentally today.”
Wallace also looked impressive after winning his first title, playing in a featured group with Kuchar and Nico Echavarria. The Englishman finished the day in a logjam at 3 under with Chez Reavie, Garrick Higgo and Nick Taylor. Two years ago, Wallace finished third at TPC San Antonio in his debut, but he missed the cut last year. He attributes confidence to getting him back into a good position.
“This golf course, it tends to lead to the person who’s playing well,” Wallace said. “You can’t really mask it around here, especially off the tee. I made a couple bogeys out there from just hitting my tee shots offline, so if you can hit your tee shots well, you’ll have a lot of chances and I managed to give myself a bunch of those.”
The first two rounds of the 2022 Sanderson Farms Championship at The Country Club of Jackson are complete. It’s the second event of the PGA Tour’s 2022-23 season. Scores were lower during the second round, as numerous players climbed up the leaderboard to put themselves in position ahead of moving day.
Thomas Detry fired his second consecutive round of 5-under 67, and he leads at 10-under 134. Mackenzie Hughes caught fire Friday, shooting 8-under 64, and he’s one back of Detry. Sepp Straka is tied with Hughes after his round of 6-under 66.
The cut was 2-under 142. There are 78 players moving on to the weekend.
Here’s a look at a few notable names who missed the cut at the Sanderson Farms Championship:
Ever wonder which professional golfers cheer for which college football teams?
College football season is officially here!
The long wait is over. The next 19 weeks will feature some sort of college football on your television and it will be glorious.
Our friends at USA Today undertake one of the most important facets of college football – the Coaches Poll. Every week coaches across the country take time to vote among their peers as to who is the best in the country.
Ever wonder where some of the best golfers in the world spent their collegiate years? Or maybe you want to know if you’ll ever run into your favorite Saturday superhero at your alma mater’s university course. Look below to find out!
PGA Tour pros regret their errors as Harrington signed an incorrect scorecard while Walker missed his tee time.
PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Scott Harrington was disqualified from the Valspar Championship after the second round for signing an incorrect scorecard.
The DQ was a mere formality as Harrington, 40, had shot 1-over 72, which combined with his opening-round 4-over 75, would have been several shots too many in order to stick around and play on the week. Still, it continues to be confounding why signing an incorrect scorecard (Rule 6-6d) is still treated as if it’s the early 20th century when in today’s day and age every shot is measured by ShotLink and most likely recorded. It’s almost equally hard to explain why players continue to make scoring mistakes.
Jimmy Walker nearly joined Harrington as a DQ. He was penalized two strokes for being late to his 7:39 am tee time in Group 44 on Friday (Rule 5.3A).
Walker, whose last victory on the PGA Tour is the 2016 PGA Championship, was on the range when a rules official notified him that he had one minute to get to the first tee. He arrived too late.
Had Walker arrived more than five minutes late, he would have been disqualified. Walker had to add two strokes to his score on the par-5 first hole, turning a 5 into a double-bogey 7. He rallied with five birdies in his final 13 holes to sign for 2-under 69 and made the cut on the number at 1-under 141 at Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course.
On social media, he posted: “Pro tip….don’t be late for your tee time. Thirty years in tourney golf and that’s a first…”
Nobody has ever won the Par 3 Contest and the Masters in the same week. That will remain true for at least another year due to COVID-19.
Masters patrons have long called it a curse, but few have experienced it.
This marks the 60th anniversary of the inaugural Par 3 Contest. Nobody has ever won Wednesday’s event and the Masters Tournament in the same week. And that will remain true for at least another year, with the pandemic prompting the Par 3’s cancellation in 2020.
Raymond Floyd came closest in 1990, when the 47-year-old was in line to become the oldest Masters champion. Floyd recorded his only Par 3 victory and seemed on course to snap the curse Sunday afternoon.
Following a birdie on No. 12, Floyd was four strokes clear of Nick Faldo with six holes to play. More importantly, two of those holes were par 5s. When Floyd lapped the field in 1976, he shot a then-record 14-under par on Augusta National’s par 5s and, with Nos. 13 and 15 looming, he was 10-under on par 5s in 1990.
However, an errant drive on No. 13 forced Floyd to lay up and settle for par. Playing a group ahead, Faldo went for the green in two shots and birdied. Another off-target tee shot by Floyd on No. 15 led to the same result as the 13th. Faldo cleared the water and made birdie. Floyd’s two pars opened the door for Faldo, who stole the tournament on the second playoff hole.
Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly wrote of Floyd, “There is a useful lesson in all this. Forget the par-3 tournament. Win the par-5 tournament.”
Three years later, the par-5 tournament was again an afterthought. Chip Beck, a University of Georgia graduate, won the warm-up act and was three strokes behind Bernhard Langer entering Sunday’s 15th hole. Following a center-cut drive, Beck laid up, and Langer coasted to his second Masters crown. Beck’s decision cemented his second-place finish, joining Floyd as the only Wednesday winners and Sunday runner-ups.
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Walker races to record
“A curse?” said Padraig Harrington, the contest’s only three-time champion. “That’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Harrington’s had the most opportunities to snap the curse, ridiculous as it may be, but no hand was hotter entering a Masters Tournament Thursday than Jimmy Walker in 2016. That year, the Texan became the first Par 3 participant to shoot in the teens, carding an 8-under-par 19.
Walker broke the previous mark of 20 shot by Art Wall Jr. (1965) and Gay Brewer (1973). More impressively, Wall and Brewer accomplished their feat prior to the course being altered in 1987.
The original Par 3 course was built in 1958 when Augusta National co-founder Clifford Roberts enlisted Savannah’s George Cobb as its principal architect. Cobb’s design called for the playing of the nine holes over DeSoto Springs Pond. Three decades later, the club turned to Tom Fazio to add two holes (Nos. 8 and 9) over Ike’s Pond, and Cobb’s opening two holes transitioned to spectator seating. Prior to Walker, the course record for the remodeled trek was 21.
Walker started hot in the 2016 contest, placing his opening tee shot to 4.9 inches and earned a prize for closest to the pin. On No. 2, Walker made a hole-in-one. More crystal. With his wife, Erin, and two sons caddying, Walker never teed up a shot.
“I just dropped it and hit,” he said.
Walker added birdies on Nos. 3 and 4, but his most memorable putt came on No. 5. After missing a birdie attempt, Walker left his ball on the green, when suddenly his son, McLain, darted to pick it up. Walker intercepted his son, calling it, “The only time all day I got serious.”
Walker capped the round with a 35-foot birdie on No. 8 to seal the lowest round in Par 3 history.
“It may never be tied. It may never be broken,” Walker said. “I was out of my mind those nine holes.”
Walker placed 29th in the 2016 Masters, as the curse lived on.
“I don’t believe in curses,” Walker said. “It just hasn’t happened yet.”
Prize with a purpose
After the 1960 competition, The Augusta Chronicle praised winner Sam Snead, boasting the headline, “Slammer’s 23 wins 9-hole par 3 event.” A silver service was awarded to Snead, as, like today, prizes were given for holes-in-one and shots closest to the pin.
A year later, Deane Beman won on Augusta’s short course, making him the first of three amateurs to win the event. Labron Harris Jr. (1964) and Jay Haas (1976) also prevailed as nonprofessionals.
“After I won, (PGA Tour Commissioner) Joe Dey mentioned to Cliff Roberts that there may be a problem because the sterling silver tea set was extremely valuable,” Beman said. “Joe Dey said it could affect my amateur status because it was not a trophy of symbolic value.”
After speaking with Dey, Roberts told Beman to leave behind the prize and that it would be mailed to him. A month later Beman received the gift, which had an engraving to honor his accomplishment.
“Mr. Roberts called and said, ‘Deane, it’s of symbolic value now!’” said Beman, laughing at the memory.
Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player during the par-3 contest at the 2013 Masters.
Everyone’s in on it
More than anything, though, the event has shifted from a competition to family affair. Donning white caddie jumpsuits, children of all ages have become the staple. Many attempt putts. Some high-five patrons along the ropes. Others have foot races down the hill of the No. 1 tee box.
There have been 100 holes-in-one, but arguably the most iconic came from a caddie. In 2018, GT Nicklaus, one of Jack Nicklaus’s 22 grandchildren, left his mark on Augusta National. Entering the 2018 Par 3 Contest, the 15-year-old had never carded a hole-in-one. He had also never caddied for his granddad at the Masters.
From the No. 9 tee box, GT sailed Jack’s 47-degree wedge over Ike’s Pond and found the bottom of the cup. The elder Nicklaus called GT’s shot, “My favorite Masters memory.”
“If I ever feel like I’m having a bad day, I take myself back to No. 9 tee box and remind myself of that moment,” GT said. “It was something that I’ll never forget. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.”
In 2018, Paul Casey let his 4-year-old son Lex caddie for the first time. Casey said his son hadn’t been bitten by the golf bug yet, admitting, “He prefers making pyramids with golf balls.”
“What I love most is there isn’t a stigma behind what the kids do out there,” Casey said. “The members get that. The tournament committee gets that.”
In 12 previous appearances, Casey has never won the Par 3 Contest. He has never earned a closest to the pin honor. He’s never recorded a hole-in-one. But there is one thing Casey believes in: curses.
“It doesn’t stop me from playing in it, but will it stop me from winning it? I don’t know,” Casey said. “If I ever get that final putt on nine I might have to think twice.”
Casey paused briefly to collect his thoughts.
“No, I’d make it. You want to be the one that breaks the curse.”
Charley Hoffman has had at least a share of the lead after the first round on the PGA Tour six times in his career and No. 7 looks likely.
It’s not surprising that Charley Hoffman grabbed a share of the lead in the Sanderson Farms Championship.
It was Thursday, after all.
Hoffman has had at least a share of the lead after the first round six times in his career and No. 7 looks likely after he shot an 8-under-par 64 at the Country Club of Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi. He shared the lead with 2015 PGA Championship winner Jimmy Walker among the early finishers.
Michael Gligic shot 65 while four players were at 66, including 2011 PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley.
“Because I play better than everybody on Thursday,” Hoffman joked when asked about his first-round success. “No, I mean, I think I come in with a good game plan. I think on Sunday I may in the past have not tried to execute the same game plan depending on where I am in the lead. That may be why I haven’t played as well as I’ve wanted to on Sundays. But on Thursday the game plan I set up early in the week and I follow through with it, and it usually pans out pretty well.”
Hoffman has four PGA Tour titles, his most recent coming in the 2016 Valero Texas Open. None of the four, however, came after he took at least a share of the lead in the first round. His best finish after grabbing at least a share of the first-round lead was a tie for seventh in the 2013 Travelers Championship.
In hopes of turning his Thursday triumphs into a Sunday trophy, Hoffman will follow his game plan – hit fairways and greens – and rely on his new found length.
Spurred by his birth certificate – he’s 43 – and the enormous length of reigning U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, Hoffman has worked to get longer. In the first round, he hit nine of 14 fairways in regulation and was ranked fifth in driving distance at 303.7 yards. He also hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation.
Hoffman has been working with Greg Rose of the Titleist Performance Center in San Diego to lengthen his swing, thus lengthen his drives.
“I’ve never struggled with yardage until the last like couple years,” Hoffman said. “That was never something I really explored before, so I started exploring how to do it. (Rose) trained a bunch of long drive guys, and it’s something that I’ve trained to do, be a little more efficient, swing longer. The reality is in this day and age it’s more important to be long than straight, so that’s something I’m trying to do.
“I’ve gotten in better shape throughout the years, but I wouldn’t say I’ve trained to hit it longer. I’m learning to be more efficient and hit it longer.
“It’s just the game is changing.”
But Hoffman won’t try and keep up with the big hitters all the time.
“As an older guy I’ve got to pay attention when I’m swinging it hard,” he said. “As I’ve said to people, my speed, I can get it up there pretty high. I don’t hit it on every shot. If there’s a par-5 where I need to get home in two I’m going to swing hard and hopefully hit the fairway. The other holes, like 18, I’m going to try to put it in the fairway and probably not swing quite as hard.”
Caddies walk up the ninth fairway during the first round of the 2020 Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi. Photo: Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press
Walker made the softest shots he hit count. After missing birdie putts from five feet on his first two holes, Walker made a slight adjustment in his stance and started making a bunch of putts. His 64 was his lowest round by five shots since golf returned in June following a 13-week break due to COVID-19.
“I haven’t been playing very well, but I feel good, and it just hasn’t really clicked yet,” Walker said. “I had a really good nine holes last week at home, and I was like, this is starting to feel pretty good, and seeing some putts go in. I had one good round at the U.S. Open.
“But last week at home was good. I’ve had some tendonitis in my elbow, shoulder has been hurting, so it’s been tough. I didn’t do much last week at home. I just rested quite a bit and I was with my buddies, but it actually felt pretty good day.”
