Tag: Taylor Moore

‘Rusty’ (lol) Scottie Scheffler fires bogey-free opening round at Texas Children’s Houston Open

Scheffler just continues to improve.

HOUSTON — Coming into the week at Memorial Park Golf Course, Scottie Scheffler said he was rusty.

Sure, rust is a bit different when you’re the No. 1 player in the world against an average Joe on the local muni. But this week, the local muni is hosting the best players in the world at the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open. And Scheffler, coming off consecutive victories at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, certainly didn’t show any rust Thursday.

He opened with a bogey-free 5-under 65 and trails Taylor Moore by one shot after the morning wave in Houston. If there were any signs of rust, Scheffler missed 11 of 18 greens, including his first three, but he gained nearly 2.5 strokes putting on the day.

“Yeah, I would say some key up-and-downs,” Scheffler said. “I made a nice putt there at the first to kind of get the round going and made some really nice up and downs after that.”

This season, 43 percent of Scheffler’s rounds have been 66 or better (12).

Scheffler held the lead for most of the back nine during his opening round. That was until Moore, who was defending his title last week at the Valspar Championship, made a birdie on the par-5 16th to sign for 6-under 64.

Starting on the back nine, Scheffler birdied Nos. 13 and 17 to turn in 2-under 33. Then on the back, consecutive circles on Nos. 2 and 3 propelled him into a share for the lead. Then he drained another putt on the fifth to take the solo lead for a bit.

If Scheffler were to win this week, he would be the first player to win three straight PGA Tour starts since Dustin Johnson in 2017. He would be the first to capture three consecutive stroke-play events since Rory McIlroy in 2014.

“I had a solid round,” Scheffler added. “Kept the card clean. Bogey free is always nice, especially around a golf course like this. It’s nice to be able to keep the card clean, like I said.”

2024 Texas Children's Houston Open
Taylor Moore (USA) looks at the 18th green during the first round of the Texas Children’s Houston Open golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports

For Moore, he began his round Thursday with a bogey, but a chip-in eagle on the par-5 third hole sparked his game. He turned in 31 and added birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 coming home to take the clubhouse lead after the morning wave.

As good as Scheffler was on the tricky greens at Memorial Park, Moore was better, gaining nearly three shots and more than 2.5 in Strokes Gained: Around the Greens.

“Hit a lot of greens,” Moore said. “After the first hole, just tried to see how many greens I could hit. Got off to a little bit of a jump start there on 3, chipped in for eagle on 3 and birdied 4. Yeah, just got into the round.”

Moore said he perhaps felt a bit more relaxed this week than he did as defending champion last week but added he doesn’t get too caught up in the pressure of a single event.

Joe Highsmith matched Scheffler with a 5-under 65 on Thursday. The PGA Tour rookie has missed the cut in four of his seven starts this season but did finish T-6 at the Puerto Rico Open.

“I putted really well. I’ll be curious to see what the stats show, but it just was very solid kind of all around,” Highsmith said. “I only made maybe one or two mistakes out there. It felt great, like everything was just right on. I was hitting it where I was looking, I feel like I was in a good frame of mind all day.”

Beau Hossler, Aaron Rai and Adam Svensson each shot 4-under 66 Thursday morning and shared fourth behind Moore and Scheffler.

Playing with the world No. 1, last week’s victor Peter Malnati shot 2-under 68 while Will Zalatoris struggled in his 4-over effort.

5 sleeper picks for the 2023 BMW Championship

Keep an eye on these 5 players this weekend.

The FedEx Cup Playoffs roll on this week in Illinois at Olympia Fields’ North Course for the BMW Championship.

After lifting another piece of hardware in Memphis, Lucas Glover owns the No. 4 spot in the points standings, trailing only Rory McIlroy (No. 3), Scottie Scheffler (No. 2) and Jon Rahm (No. 1).

Although Patrick Cantlay is technically the defending champion of this event, Rahm is the last player to win at OFCC for the BMW, taking down LIV Golf’s Dustin Johnson in a playoff back in 2020.

On the odds sheet, there’s clear separation between the top four players — McIlroy (+650), Scheffler (+700), Rahm (+900) and Cantlay (+1000) —and the rest of the field, but that doesn’t mean someone can’t shock the world.

Here are five sleeper picks for the BMW Championship.

BMW: Odds, picks to win | Thursday tee times, how to watch

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Notable PGA Tour players to miss the cut at the 2023 John Deere Classic

The rising stars are in contention while some notable names are leaving TPC Deere Run early.

SILVIS, Ill. — As the PGA Tour season begins to wind down with the last major of the season and the FedEx Cup Playoffs on the horizon, the action is heating up at the 2023 John Deere Classic.

The Tour’s annual stop at TPC Deere Run in the Quad Cities is known for putting rising talent into the spotlight and the young stars are shining after the first 36 holes. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for a handful of PGA Tour winners and fan favorites who will be leaving the tournament before the weekend party begins.

Check out the notable PGA Tour players who missed the cut (4 under) at the 2023 John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run.

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Who will win the Rocket Mortgage Classic? Again, it’s anyone’s guess

So it’s been pretty much par for the course as he hit the halfway point of the PGA Tour’s annual stop at Detroit Golf Club.

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DETROIT — Ahhh. Now that’s better.

We can all breathe a little easier after the air quality “improved” Friday to merely “unhealthy for certain groups,” and things got back to normal in the second round of the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Like most years, we had a bunch of names most of us have never heard of near the top of the leaderboard. Some of the marquee names made a move. Some marquee names made a move in the wrong direction.

And for the fourth straight year, there won’t be a repeat champion.

So pretty much par for the course at the halfway point of the PGA Tour’s annual stop at Detroit Golf Club.

Gilbert vs. Ishbia: UWM employees crash party on Day 2 of Rocket Mortgage Classic

At the very top of the leaderboard sat two journeymen and two Taylors. Taylor Moore, a first-time winner in March at the Valspar Championship, and Canadian Taylor Pendrith held a one-shot lead at 13-under 131. Moore, who’s ranked 51st in the world, shot 67 on Friday. Pendrith, who’s ranked 127th, shot a 64.

Hot on their heels were two of the tournament’s biggest names. Rickie Fowler caught fire late in the afternoon, eagled the par-5 17th, added six more birdies and shot 65 to reach 12-under 132. Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa eagled the par-5 14th, shot 67 and was at 11-under 133.

Fowler struggled on the “bouncy” and “beat up” greens in the first round, but avoided that problem by simply hitting it close for several tap-ins Friday. Two weeks ago at the U.S. Open, he closed with a 75 and tied for fifth. Last week at the Travelers Championship, he followed a third-round 60 with a 69 in final round and tied for 13th.

On Saturday, Fowler will be in the second-to-last group, in prime position knowing what he must, and must not, do.

“I mean, the biggest thing, we can’t try and press too hard,” he said. “I definitely know we can win. … How I’ve played is some of the best if not the best I’ve felt about my game and on the course really ever.”

This is the blessing and the curse of the Rocket. Anybody — and I mean anybody — can win this thing.

Rickie Fowler walks to the second green during Round 2 of the Rocket Mortgage Classic on Friday, June 29, 2023, at the Detroit Golf Club.

Fowler, a big fan favorite here, can bounce back from his U.S. Open faceplant and win this thing. But so can a guy you’ve probably never heard of named Andrew Landry. He won two tournaments a few years ago, but now he’s the 660th-ranked player in the world and on the road back from two shoulder surgeries. He had a bogey-free round with nine birdies for a 63 that tied Nate Lashley’s 2019 tournament record. That put him at 10-under 134.

Moore’s another example of a player on his own road to redemption. He was lucky to survive a collapsed lung in 2019 and missed the cut in his past two tournaments. Last year, he finished sixth at the Rocket and now he’s regaining his confidence with everything clicking. He went out early in the morning and outplayed partner Max Homa, the world No. 9 who shot 68.

“It might be a little bit of that,” he said of his growing confidence, “but golf’s just such a finicky game.”

In a way, I’ve always looked at the Rocket as a proving ground on the PGA Tour. A place where people can find their swings and some confidence. Or where players suddenly lose their mojo and make their exit.

Defending champion Tony Finau closed with a 38 on the back nine, shot 72-71 to finish at 1-under 143. The cut was at 4-under 140. Finau is still looking for his first top 10 since he won the Mexico Open in April.

Justin Thomas, a two-time major champ who made his Rocket debut, was the tournament’s biggest disappointment. He rallied from a disastrous opening 76 with a 69 on Friday and finished at one-over 145.

Playing well at the right time is always the key winning in golf. But so is the right attitude and it’s a secret Morikawa might have a unlocked better than anyone so far this week in Detroit. The player with an ever-present smile kept his promise to sign autographs following a quick break after his first round and he’s embraced the city, having dinner downtown taking in the Morgan Wallen concert at Ford Field.

“Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “Look, golf is meant to be enjoyable. We’re out here to have a good time. It’s frustrating at times as well, but so far this week has been amazing. The people out here, the fans have been great, we saw a lot of people out here today. So it’s been a nice ride.

“This is when work really starts. Make the weekend, you’re in contention and we just want to post two really low numbers this weekend.”

That’s certainly the key for Morikawa and Fowler. But it could also be the key for half of the remaining field.

Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.

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5 Things: Taylor Moore, Taylor Pendrith share lead at Rocket Mortgage Classic

Rickie, Collin and Ludvig are lurking heading into the weekend at Detroit Golf Club.

DETROIT – Taylor Moore is striking a pose this week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

The 29-year-old Arkansas grad backed up his opening-round 64 with a 67 at Detroit Golf Club on Friday to share the 36-hole lead with Taylor Pendrith.

Moore, who claimed his first PGA Tour win at the Valspar Championship in March, had missed three straight cuts and shot in the 70s in 11 of his last 13 rounds.

“I think in the past I might have hit panic a little bit with how my game’s been, scores that I posted, tried to really reinvent some stuff and try to make a quick fix,” Moore said. “But my golf swing’s good, mentality’s good, just going to keep playing golf and I feel like I would eventually play myself out of some of the scores I was shooting. Thus far I’ve done that.”

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Indeed, he has thanks to a hot putter. Moore ranks first in Strokes Gained: Putting (+7.602), and already holed more than 226 feet of putts. But his focus has been on holding his finish on his swing, and so far it’s done the trick.

“That’s kind of just always been something for me as a junior golfer all the way through my golf career, that’s kind of brought me back just to hitting better shots and more quality shots and just kind of staying there until the ball’s finished,” he said. “That’s something I’ve tried to bring back this week.”

Here are four more things to know about the second round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

789th-ranked Peter Kuest is tied for lead at Rocket Mortgage Classic

From going fishing to the top of the leaderboard at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

DETROIT – From going fishing to top of the leaderboard at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Peter Kuest, a 25-year-old BYU grad with limited status on the Korn Ferry Tour, shot 8-under 64 at Detroit Golf Club to sit atop the leaderboard after the first round with Taylor Moore, who notched his first PGA Tour title earlier this year.

Kuest was the medalist at Monday’s Qualifier, earning one of the final four spots into the 156-man field. Ranked 789th in the world, Kuest is making his fourth Tour start of the season. He received a sponsor’s exemption into the AT&T Byron Nelson and finished T-14 in May.

On Thursday, he rang the birdie bell six times on the front nine and made just one bogey in posting 64 as he attempts to become the first Monday qualifier to win on the Tour since Corey Conners at the 2021 Valero Texas Open.

Kuest, who grew up in Fresno, California, ranked first in driving distance, averaging 318.6 yards per poke and hit 12 fairways and 15 greens. Asked what he would have been doing had he not made it through qualifying, he said, “Probably fishing back in Utah.”

Here are four more things to know from the first round in the Motor City.

Tommy Fleetwood leads, Joe LaCava tries to convert Patrick Cantlay to a NY sports fan and Rory celebrates his birthday among takeaways from Round 1 at the Wells Fargo Championship

Catch up on Thursday’s action here.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Tommy Fleetwood took his lickings the first two times he played tournaments at Quail Hollow Club. But on a sun-drenched Thursday, Fleetwood finally figured this parkland beauty out, finishing birdie-birdie to shoot a bogey-free 6-under 65 and claim the first-round lead at the Wells Fargo Championship.

“You have days like today,” Fleetwood said. “There are plenty of players that shoot great rounds around here. It’s such a beautiful golf course and it’s a pleasure to play, it really, really is, but you just have to play well and that’s all there is to it. I enjoy the challenge, I loved playing today and having a score going and playing like that. I’m looking forward to whatever the week holds. It’s a great course to come and play, but it can just beat you up at times and today was my turn.”

Fleetwood hinted at the tough times, which included a T-61 at the 2017 PGA Championship and a missed cut at this event in 2018. The Englishman started to figure out Quail Hollow’s intricacies in 2021, finishing T-14.

“You can make it as daunting or as simple as you want to make it,” Fleetwood explained.

As for what makes Quail such a tricky old bird? “The scorable holes can actually still kick you,” he said.

Fleetwood, 32, reeled off six straight pars to start the round before jumping into red figures with an eight-foot eagle at No. 7. He tacked on a short birdie at eight and added three more circles to the card on the back nine, including playing Quail Hollow’s vaunted Green Mile – Nos. 16-18 – in 2 under. After driving into the right fairway at 18, he hit his self-proclaimed shot of the day, sticking his approach from 181 yards to seven feet.

“You never know when you’re one swing away from making a birdie,” he said. “There’s good shots out there and you have to always be looking for them and you always have to feel like you can hit one of those. Whether you do or not is a different story, but believing you can is the first part.”

Fleetwood leads by one over five golfers, including Xander Schauffele, who recorded his lowest score in 13 career rounds at Quail Hollow and K.H. Lee, who carded a 66 in the first round for the third straight year.

Here are four more takeaways from the first round of the Wells Fargo Championship.

Wells Fargo: Photos | Best merchandise

Former Hogs golfer earns entry into Masters with first PGA Tour win

Former Arkansas golfer Taylor Moore will play for golf’s most prestigious jacket next month after winning Valspar.

Taylor Moore’s lung collapsed four years ago, just over a year after he left the Arkansas golf team.

Now, he’s a millionaire headed to the Masters.

Moore, 29, won his first PGA Tour event Sunday, shooting a 10-under par, one stroke better than Adam Schenk to capture the Valspar Championship. He birdied his final 10 holes, but had to wait on Schenk to finish.

Schenk hit his tee shot into the trees then left himself a 41-foot putt for par. He had to have that score on that hole to force a playoff with Moore. The ball hit the lip of the cup and rolled out, providing Moore with his first win.

Moore is in just his second full season at the PGA level, earning his tour card after finishing fourth on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2021. At Arkansas, Moore was named a 2016 All-American. He also won the Saguaro Amateur in 2014.

Moore’s cut of the purse for the Valspar Championship was almost $1.5 million. The win also earned him automatic qualification into the Masters Tournament, which will take place April 6-9.

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Winner’s Bag: Taylor Moore, 2023 Valspar Championship

Check out the clubs that got the job done at the Copperhead Course.

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A complete list of the golf equipment Taylor Moore used to win the PGA Tour’s 2023 Valspar Championship:

DRIVER: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees), with Mitsubishi Tensei Pro 1K Blue 60 TX shaft

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Taylor Moore’s driver” link=”https://globalgolf.pxf.io/DK0Z7y”]

FAIRWAY WOODS: Ping G430 Max (15 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus Blue TR 7X shaft, (21 degrees), with Mitsubishi Tensei AV Raw White 85 X shaft

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Taylor Moore’s fairway wood” link=”https://globalgolf.pxf.io/9gGj0e”]

IRONS: Ping i230 (4), S55 (5-PW), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue3 X100 shafts

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Taylor Moore’s irons” link=”https://globalgolf.pxf.io/rQ4qYG”]

WEDGES: Ping Glide Forged Pro (50, 54, 60), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Taylor Moore’s wedges” link=”https://globalgolf.pxf.io/jrXGYn”]

PUTTER: Ping PLD Oslo 4 prototype

BALL: Titleist Pro V1

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Taylor Moore’s golf ball” link=”https://globalgolf.pxf.io/Pyjv76″]

GRIP: Golf Pride MCC

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Four years after suffering a collapsed lung, Taylor Moore wins first PGA Tour title at the Valspar Championship

Moore was 64-for-64 inside 7 feet: “I don’t think I’ve ever done anything close to that..that was pretty sick to see.”

In the spring of 2019, Taylor Moore was headed to the airport to fly to yet another golf tournament when he had a choice to make at a traffic light. He turned right and detoured to an urgent-care facility, where he learned his right lung was 50 percent collapsed, potentially saving his life. Four years after his dream of winning on the PGA Tour was temporarily halted, Moore made four birdies in his final 10 holes to earn his first Tour title at the Valspar Championship.

“I think if I would have taken a left (to the airport), I might not be here in front of you guys tonight,” Moore said during his winner’s press conference. “So, I mean, that was God’s will just to tell me to take a right and go to the hospital and check out what was going on.”

Moore, 29, erased a two-stroke overnight deficit by shooting 4-under 67 on Sunday at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course at Palm Harbor, Florida. Moore finished with a 72-hole total of 10-under 274, a stroke better than Adam Schenk, who bogeyed 18, and two better than Jordan Spieth, who bogeyed two of the last three holes, and Tommy Fleetwood.

“Really solid player that’s been knocking on the door,” Spieth said of Moore, a fellow Dallas resident.

And yet Moore hadn’t recorded a top-10 finish on the PGA Tour this season. Entering the week ranked No. 103 in the world, he joined the trophy hunt by canning an 18-foot birdie putt at nine and stuck his approach shot inside 5 feet at the 12th to climb a stroke closer. For the week, he was 64-for-64 inside 7 feet.

“I don’t think I’ve ever done anything close to that,” Moore said. “Just a testament to the work I’ve put in with my coach and my team and that was pretty sick to see.”

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Moore made back-to-back birdies – a 6-footer at 15 and a 27-footer at 16 – to tie Schenk for the lead at 10 under. He said he didn’t see a scoreboard until he reached the 17th green, then parred in by making a 6-foot putt at the last for 67, the second-lowest score among the field of 72 on a windy day, and had to sweat out waiting at the practice tee to see if anyone could match his total and force extra holes.

For much of the day it seemed as if Schenk, 31, playing in his 10th straight tournament as he attempted to grab as many FedEx Cup points as he could before the birth of his first child, would be the one lifting a trophy for the first time. Wife Kourtney, who is eight months pregnant, flew in on Sunday morning and walked the entire round in his gallery.

She witnessed her hubby, the 54-hole leader, chip in for birdie at the first and build a two-stroke lead before stumbling with bogeys at Nos. 6 and 8. But he bounced back with birdies at Nos. 7 and 9, where he drained a 23-foot birdie putt. That was his longest putt of the tournament to that point but that figure didn’t last long. Schenk sank a 71-foot birdie at the 12th, the longest made putt of his career, to claim the lead at 10 under and lifted his right arm to the sky.

He strung together five straight pars and shared the lead standing on the tee of the 72nd hole. Then he hooked his drive near a tree at 18 and had to play his next shot left-handed. Ramming his 41-foot par putt to remain tied with Moore and force a playoff, Schenk watched as it tracked for the hole, hitting the flagstick but had too much pace and wouldn’t go down.

“It stinks,” Schenk said, despite signing for 70 and recording the best finish of his career. “I hit a really bad drive on the last hole. I toed it. Wish I could have lightly hit somebody and stayed where I had a chance to get to the green, but it did not, and I didn’t deserve it.”

Spieth, 29, won this tournament in 2015 and was seeking his 14th Tour title. He canned a 10-foot birdie putt at 14 to join the party at 10 under. All tournament, Spieth worked wonders from the sand, getting up and down 12 of 14 times overall, including at the difficult par-3 15th.

“It was the boring round I was looking for,” said Spieth, who stayed bogey-free for the day to that point.

But he fanned his 3-wood off the tee at the dogleg par-4 16th into the water guarding the right side of the hole and had to scramble to save bogey. He responded by hitting his tee shot at the par-3 17th the closest to the hole of anyone in the final round, but failed to convert a 7-foot birdie putt and couldn’t get a 48-foot birdie putt to drop at the last. He missed the par comebacker and closed in 70 to slip into a tie for third with Fleetwood.

The 32-year-old Englishman has six DP World Tour victories and ranked as high as No. 9 in the world in 2019, but he still hasn’t won on the PGA Tour. He had a share of the lead until he made a bogey at the par-5 14th hole. He closed in 70. Despite remaining winless, Fleetwood’s career earnings on the PGA Tour alone surpassed $15 million.

Two-time defending champion Sam Burns fell short of a three-peat but made a valiant effort with a final-round 67 to finish sixth.

Once asked to name the most interesting fact about him that golf fans should know, Moore, the son of a Juco-college baseball coach, said, “Well, grew up a baseball guy, so I was a pretty high-level baseball player until I was about 15 years old and actually had a scholarship from Arkansas for baseball before golf and ended up deciding to play this.

“Kind of fell in love with golf as I got older and just being in control of a little bit of everything instead of relying on teammates and umpires and things. I was either going to win by myself or lose.”

On Sunday, Moore, whose personal motto is “own what you do,” did just that and painted a masterpiece at the Valspar Championship to become a champion on the PGA Tour.

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