Waste Management Phoenix Open – Page 10

Jordan Spieth out in Phoenix, but not down

Spieth missed the cut at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, where his usually reliable putter let him down.

SCOTTSDALE — If progress is measured incrementally, then Friday wasn’t entirely a lost day for Jordan Spieth. Granted, he missed the halfway cut at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, but his second-round 69 at TPC Scottsdale was only the fourth time Spieth has broken 70 in 22 competitive rounds on the PGA Tour this season.

Such is the depressingly modest comfort available for a 26-year-old superstar with three major championships to his credit.

Other numbers provide added succor. At TPC Scottsdale Spieth drove the ball better than his season rank would have predicted — he stands 173rd in Strokes Gained Off the Tee — and on Friday he gained almost three strokes against his first-round performance in Strokes Gained Approach the Green, in which he ranks 199th for the season. If those are signs of improvement, they are also signs of how far he has fallen. Five years ago, when Spieth won both the Masters and U.S. Open, he was top 15 in both categories.

“I drove the ball really well, just hit my irons poorly yesterday, which set me back,” Spieth said. “And then, man, I just historically I’ve had a really hard time putting, reading these greens and it just continued this week. Felt like I put good strokes on it and then I would look up and I missed them by like a foot off line, which was very unusual for me.”

Despite his woes with the flatstick, he was determined to draw positives from a short week. “Overall I’m really happy with the progress I’ve made off the tee. I mean, that was the best I’ve driven the ball in a couple years,” he added. “So when that happens I know the rest of it’s kind of coming behind.”

Spieth has registered just one top-10 finish all season — T8 at the CJ Cup in South Korea — and only two since last May. He is now two-and-a-half years removed from his last victory at the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Four years ago he spent a total of 26 weeks as No. 1 in the world, but earlier this week dropped outside the top 50 for the first time since 2013, which will leave him ineligible for some elite PGA Tour events.

He does at least know where he will play next week: the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he has consistently performed well. His win in 2017 was evidence of the player Spieth was then, just as his showing last year illuminated his struggles now. He was tied for the lead Friday night, but a miserable weekend left him tied for 45th. And that was a familiar story for his 2019. His first-round scoring average was 9th on Tour, and no one scored better on Fridays. But few were worse at the weekend. He ranked 170th in third-round scoring and 187th on Sunday, a precipitous falloff that suggests the 11-time PGA Tour winner is more fragile the closer he gets to the business end of a tournament.

He won’t even get a chance to improve on those numbers this weekend, disappointing a group of friends he had visiting for the most raucous scene on Tour.

“I just really wanted it. I wanted to play the weekend. I had a bunch of buddies come in town. I wanted to kind of give them something to watch the next couple days,” he said. “Once I started hitting those tee balls down the fairway to start the round today, I knew I was going to give myself plenty of opportunities. So when I couldn’t do the easy part for me, which is the putting, that’s what was so frustrating. It hasn’t been like that. It’s been putting saving me and today it was kind of a little bit of the opposite.”

Through two rounds at the WMPO, he lost almost three strokes to the field on the greens.

His early departure led to the usual social media chorus: expressions of support, offers of swing counsel, and demands for change in everything from equipment to coaching to attitude. The latter is unsurprising, since Spieth has long been one of the most compelling guys on Tour from the neck up, his expressions, body language and fidgety commentary providing a floor-to-ceiling window into his febrile mind.

But as he headed for the car park in Scottsdale, Spieth wasn’t admitting to any lingering issues on the mental side of the game. “Any emotion was just kind of a want or a will. It’s not like overall frustration. I’ve got,” he insisted. “I’ve had plenty of that. I’m done with that. I’m on the rebound now.”

Publicly at least, Spieth is maintaining a positive face and hoping the numbers will soon support the optimism.

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Xinjun Zhang to play weekend in Phoenix with mind on China

Xinjun Zhang is playing the Waste Management Phoenix Open this week but he is certainly doing so with thoughts of home.

Zhang is from China, the nation hit the hardest so far by the recent coronavirus outbreak.

Zhang shot 69 in the first round at TPC Scottsdale but followed that up with a 1-over 72 on Friday. He is sitting at 1 under overall, two shots within the projected cut for the weekend.

After his round, he talked about focusing on golf while also keeping an eye on the situation back home.

PHOENIX OPEN: Scores | Tee times, TV info | Updates | Photos

“It’s something we’ve been following very closely and obviously sympathy to the families over there. It’s something that we’re hoping will pass through soon. We have belief in China as a country they can overcome this virus soon,” Zhang said through his caddie and interpreter Yuan Liu.

Xinjun Zhang and his caddie Yuan Liu. Photo by Orlando Ramirez/USA TODAY Sports

Zhang talked about feeling a bit helpless, being so far from some of his family members.

“Definitely feel a little like that,” Zhang said through Liu. “Actually, this week when we first got to Arizona, we went to three different stores to try to purchase some of the masks, medical masks, not only for ourselves but to send some back, because there’s a very, very low supply back in China right now and even here in the states, here in Phoenix, they’re all out of stock, so definitely feeling a little bit of helplessness.”

Zhang said he has reached out to family with more frequency the last several days.

“Definitely contacting family a lot, almost daily and really just telling them how important it is to stay indoors when you can, stay home when you can. If you do have to go out, have protective masks. And just have belief in China as a country to overcome this as soon as possible.”

Zhang, 32, is married with two children and has been on the PGA Tour since 2018. He has two Korn Ferry Tour wins as well as two PGA Tour China victories.

He finished T-55 last week at the Farmers Insurance Open. Before that he had missed three straight cuts.

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Billy Horschel talks Waste Management second round, game improvements

Billy Horschel talks about his second round at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and how his golf game has improved over the years.

Wyndham Clark goes from Phoenix Open spectator to second-round leader

Wyndham Clark went from watching at TPC Scottsdale a year ago on Friday to leading the tournament at 12-under 130.

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SCOTTSDALE – A year ago, Wyndham Clark was the third alternate at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. When he didn’t get into the field, he did what any twentysomething in the Valley of the Sun with the week off would do. On Friday, he came out to the tournament as a spectator and took in the sights of TPC Scottsdale’s infamous par-3 16th hole.

“I had to come see for myself at least once in my life,” he said.

Fast forward a year later and Clark, 26, spent his Friday not just as a contestant in the 132-man WMPO field, but atop the leaderboard after the early wave finished. Clark posted a 2-under 69 for a 36-hole total of 12-under 130.

Clark torched TPC Scottsdale on Thursday in 10-under 61, and had more than 220 congratulatory texts on his phone after his career-best round on the PGA Tour. On the podcast The Erik Anders Lang Show, Clark recounted that he had shot 60 “multiple times,” including during a member-guest tournament the first time he ever drank on the golf course. He missed a 12-footer for 59.

“He’s a power guy with an incredible short game so he can really go low,” said Boyd Summerhays, who has been Clark’s swing coach for the past 15 months.

Indeed, Clark ranked fifth in driving distance (312 yards) and eight in Strokes Gained: Putting (+.640) in 2018-19, which is a deadly combination. So far this season poor putting has plagued him. After three consecutive missed cuts, Clark switched to a PXG Gunboat Gen2 mallet putter and poured in 10 birdies.

During the second round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Clark struggled to follow up his brilliance of the day before. He made a sloppy bogey at the par-5 third hole and was 1 over for the day through his first 12 holes.

“It was kind of a rough start,” Clark said. “I was all over the place, didn’t feel great with my swing.”

When he missed a 9-foot birdie at the 10th hole, he couldn’t contain his frustration.

“I was like, ‘My putter is cold,’ and my caddie, John, reminded me, ‘You’ve only missed two putts inside 10 feet all week,’ ” Clark recounted.

Clark chewed up the final six holes for the second day in a row. He reached the par-5 13th in two and made birdie and closed with circles on the card at the final two holes, including a 13-foot putt at 18 to claim a one-stroke lead over Billy Horschel. Clark has yet to make a bogey on the inward nine.

When asked what he needed to do this weekend to hoist his first trophy on Sunday at a PGA Tour event, Clark said, “My game’s there. I just got to tune it up and tomorrow I just got to go out there and feel free and play good.”

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Wyndham Clark switches putter, shoots 61 to lead in Phoenix by 2

Wyndham Clark scrapped his trusty blade putter in favor of a mallet and rolled to an opening-round 10-under 61 at TPC Scottsdale.

SCOTTSDALE – A putter changed sparked the best round of Wyndham Clark’s fledgling PGA Tour career as he fired a bogey-free 10-under 61 to grab a two-stroke lead after the opening round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Clark, 26, ranked as one of the best putters on the PGA Tour last season – No. 8 in Strokes Gained: Putting – but this season his putter has been less friend than foe (No. 107 SGP). So, after missing his last three cuts and spending most of his life using a blade putter, he opted to shake it up with a PXG Gunboat Gen2 mallet model and needed just 23 putts (+4.227 SGP) in coming just one shot shy of the TPC Scottsdale tournament record.

“I just gave myself a lot of looks and the putter was hot,” Clark said.

Starting on the back nine, Clark rolled in a 21-foot birdie putt at 12 to get the party started and continued the birdie barrage on the two pars 5 – Nos. 13 and 15 – before sticking it to 8 feet at 16 and draining an 11 footer at 17 to card 30 on his opening nine.

MORE: Scores | Tee times, TV info | Updates | Photos

Clark kept the pedal down with birdies on the first three holes on his second nine to get to 8 under for the day. He said he wasn’t even aware how he was doing until he looked at a leaderboard.

“I saw Billy Horschel was (8 under) too, and I said, ‘Man, he’s going to rain on my parade.’ So, kind of to myself I said, ‘All right, let’s go get past him,’ ” Clark said.

At the 191-yard par-3 seventh, Clark was trying to hit safely to 20 feet and pulled it. Pulled it tight into birdie range.

“I hit it to 3 feet,” Clark said. “It’s one of those rounds where everything’s going right.”

One hole later, he finessed a 9-iron from 170 yards to within 11 feet of the back-right hole location and rammed in his 10^th birdie of the round. Horschel was the only player in the 132-man field to putt better statistically than Clark. Horschel made nearly 196 feet of putts, a career best, including two putts of more than 40 feet en route to posting 8-under 63.

“I’m a really good putter and then when I’m starting to roll putts from 25-plus feet in, it’s an added bonus and that’s what I did well today,” Horschel said.

Due to darkness, Seung-Yul Noh did not complete his round. He will return at 8 a.m. Friday to finish his last hole. Defending champion Rickie Fowler bogeyed five of his first nine holes en route to a 3-over 74, while World No. 3 Jon Rahm, who can reach World No. 1 for the first time in his career with a victory, opened with 67.

About the only complaint Clark could have with his new mallet putter was leaving the 26-foot birdie putt to tie the course record short. Otherwise the putter switch is off to a magical start. Or was it something else he changed with his putter?

“We tried something new,” Clark’s caddie, John Ellis, said. “No putter head cover. Maybe we’ll have to stick with that.”

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Waste Management Phoenix Open: Round 2 tee times, TV information

Here’s everything you need to know for the PGA Tour’s stop in Arizona at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

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The PGA Tour stop is Arizona this week for the 2020 Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Among those who are there were three who paid tribute to Kobe Bryant.

But for those pro golfers who dislike the vibe in Phoenix and particularly the 16th hole, they vote with their feet and stay home.

Friday’s featured groups are: Justin Thomas, Hideki Matsuyama and Jon Rahm; Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau and defending champ Rickie Fowler; Xander Schauffele, Cameron Smith and Gary Woodland; Andrew Landry, Jordan Spieth and Bubba Watson.

MORE: Scores | Updates | Photos

From tee times to television/streaming information, here’s what you need to know for the second round action in Phoenix.

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Second-round tee times

1st Tee

(All tee times Eastern)

Tee time	Players
9:20 a.m.	Aaron Baddeley, Danny Lee, Harry Higgs
9:30 a.m.	Chesson Hadley, Bud Cauley, Kyoung-Hoon Lee
9:40 a.m.	Peter Malnati, Scottie Scheffler, Scott Harrington
9:50 a.m.	Tyler Duncan, Keegan Bradley, Zach Johnson
10 a.m.	J.T. Poston, Austin Cook, Kevin Chappell
10:10 a.m.	Billy Horschel, Ted Potter, Jr., Daniel Berger
10:20 a.m.	Kevin Tway, Andrew Putnam, Rory Sabbatini
10:30 a.m.	Kevin Na, Sebastián Muñoz, Xinjun Zhang
10:40 a.m.	Emiliano Grillo, Cameron Tringale, Patrick Rodgers
10:50 a.m.	Sam Ryder, Mark Hubbard, Wyndham Clark
11 a.m.	Viktor Hovland, Marty Jertson, Patrick Flavin
1:35 p.m.	Brian Harman, Russell Henley, Harold Varner III
1:45 p.m.	Nick Taylor, Bo Van Pelt, Kiradech Aphibarnrat
1:55 p.m.	Charley Hoffman, Branden Grace, J.J. Spaun
2:05 p.m.	Cameron Smith, Gary Woodland, Xander Schauffele
2:15 p.m.	Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Hideki Matsuyama
2:25 p.m.	Max Homa, Keith Mitchell, Brice Garnett
2:35 p.m.	C.T. Pan, Jimmy Walker, K.J. Choi
2:45 p.m.	Troy Merritt, Brendan Steele, Ryan Moore
2:55 p.m.	Vaughn Taylor, Luke List, Denny McCarthy
3:05 p.m.	Harris English, Byeong Hun An, Talor Gooch
3:15 p.m.	Joel Dahmen, Sepp Straka, Doc Redman

10th Tee

Tee time	Players
9:20 a.m.	Brian Gay, Jason Kokrak, Sam Burns
9:30 a.m.	Chris Stroud, Matt Every, Brandon Hagy
9:40 a.m.	Charl Schwartzel, Kevin Streelman, Beau Hossler
9:50 a.m.	Andrew Landry, Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth
10 a.m.	Rickie Fowler, Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau
10:10 a.m.	Matthew Wolff, Chez Reavie, Brandt Snedeker
10:20 a.m.	Dylan Frittelli, Ryan Palmer, Adam Long
10:30 a.m.	Lanto Griffin, Si Woo Kim, Hudson Swafford
10:40 a.m.	Brian Stuard, Carlos Ortiz, Roger Sloan
10:50 a.m.	James Hahn, Martin Laird, Trey Mullinax
11 a.m.	Seung-Yul Noh, Adam Schenk, Sebastian Cappelen
1:35 p.m.	Matt Jones, Sean O’Hair, Tom Hoge
1:45 p.m.	Adam Hadwin, Jamie Lovemark, Colt Knost
1:55 p.m.	Mackenzie Hughes, Chris Kirk, Lucas Bjerregaard
2:05 p.m.	Collin Morikawa, Sung Kang, Webb Simpson
2:15 p.m.	Ryan Armour, Russell Knox, Kevin Stadler
2:25 p.m.	Nate Lashley, Matt Kuchar, Scott Piercy
2:35 p.m.	Martin Trainer, Aaron Wise, Satoshi Kodaira
2:45 p.m.	J.B. Holmes, Greg Chalmers, Luke Donald
2:55 p.m.	Corey Conners, Patton Kizzire, Grayson Murray
3:05 p.m.	Kyle Stanley, John Huh, Sungjae Im
3:15 p.m.	Zack Sucher, Alex Smalley, Kyle Westmoreland

TV information

(All times Eastern)

Friday

TV: 3 – 7 p.m. (Golf Channel)
PGA Tour Live: (Featured Groups, Featured Holes), 9:15 a.m. – 7 p.m.
PGA Tour Live on Twitter: 9:15 a.m. – 10:20 a.m. ET
Radio: 1 – 7 p.m. ET, PGA Tour Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio.

Saturday

TV: 1 – 2:45 p.m. (Golf Channel); 3 – 6 p.m. (CBS)
PGA Tour Live: (Featured Groups, Featured Holes), 10:45 a.m. – 6 p.m.
PGA Tour Live on Twitter: 10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. ET
Radio: 1 – 6 p.m. ET, PGA Tour Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio.

Sunday

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In Phoenix, players who can stand the heat embrace their moment in cauldron

PGA Tour stars like Jon Rahm know how to get the crowd on their side at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, known for its boisterous fans.

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SCOTTSDALE — Somewhere in a quiet corner of the locker room at TPC Scottsdale there might be a player who doesn’t enjoy the famously boisterous atmosphere at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, who loathes the beer-fueled histrionics at the Birds Nest 16th hole, who would rather go about his craft in the more traditional, cathedral-like environments of the PGA Tour.

But if such a player does in fact exist, he’s not about to admit it in public.

Those who dislike the vibe in Phoenix vote with their feet and stay home. Paul Casey, an Arizona State standout who lives in Scottsdale, hasn’t teed it up in this tournament since 2004. Those who do show up know for what they have signed up, which explains why everyone interviewed after Thursday’s opening round was unfailingly complimentary about the fans, even the braying mob at 16 who boo mediocre shots and sometimes even good ones, depending on who hits it. To say otherwise would be akin to attending a MAGA rally in a Hillary hat.

The savvy guys on the PGA Tour know how to make a winning gesture that gets the crowd on their side. This week Jon Rahm is wearing shoes emblazoned with the image of Pat Tillman, his fellow ASU alum who gave up an NFL career to enlist after September 11 and lost his life in Afghanistan. “I always try to do something for the home crowd,” said the native of Barrika, Spain, which is 5,400 miles away from Scottsdale. “It’s fun and it’s the biggest golf event in the sense of the most amount of people that come watch, so if you’re a Sun Devil and a hometown favorite you get a lot of people supporting you and it’s fun, it’s great.”

Rahm’s outlook illuminates a truth about the Birds Nest: being embraced has nothing to do with being born in the U.S., nor being a Scottsdale local. It’s about your willingness to play the game, to roll with the fun. Roll your eyes instead, and the fans will spit roast you.

Not everyone is as comfortable in the coliseum as Rahm. Most just try to survive without being mauled.

Nate Lashley shot 66 in the first round in his WMPO debut, but his ambition over the closing holes was to dodge the heckles. “So it’s, 16, 17, kind of nerve-wracking shots, really, because you don’t want to get booed,” he admitted. “But I think you just got to go out and just try to hit good shots and kind of wash out the noise and wash out all the distractions that are going on and just try to play some golf.”

Veterans know that shutting out the mayhem isn’t sustainable, that you have to let it wash over you just as the beer (and vomit) will dozens of spectators come peak festivities on Saturday. “This is a very unique week for us, very much of a Super Bowl atmosphere in golf. It’s great for golf,” said Harris English, who handled matters well with an opening 65.

“I love the fans here. They’re out here to have a good time and whatever it brings to have a lot more people come watch golf is great for golf and I like it. If you let it get under your skin it can bug you, but you got to put yourself in their shoes, like if I was at a football game I would be trying to have fun and enjoying myself and that’s what these people are doing.”

Another lesson absorbed by seasoned survivors of the Scottsdale scene is this: adapting to the bedlam means adjusting your game, even on the comparatively quiet days. “I think you have more adrenaline out here on a Thursday or Friday than you usually would at any other event, so I’m trying to channel that a little bit and just understand that the ball’s going to go a little farther sometimes or you’re a little juiced up,” said Justin Thomas. “It’s something that you don’t feel nervous or adrenaline very often on a Thursday or Friday, so having to control that and your emotions for four days is tough sometimes.”

“You can’t replicate this anywhere and you can’t really get ready for it, so all you can do is try to stay as calm as possible early on,” Rahm agreed.

But there is one way to prepare for the cauldron at 16, Rahm admitted: play a tournament round with Tiger Woods. “If you get to play with him like I did at Augusta and at Torrey Pines that was a pretty good way to practice it,” he said. “More than the crowd and the cheers, it’s some of the noises you might hear, cameras or off timing, but that’s about it. You can’t really get ready for it. You just have to experience it and learn from it.”

Tom Hoge played with Woods last week in the Farmers Insurance Open and believes that experience, along with a late tee time last year, contributed to his Thursday 65. “I played with Tiger on Sunday last week and just to have that energy and excitement out there it’s a blast,” Hoge said. “I played well here last year, on Saturday I was one of the later groups, so I got to experience all the craziness there on the back nine. So it’s fun and just try to welcome it and play well.”

Even the players who say they enjoy the atmosphere concede they’ll be happy to leave it behind come Sunday night. “It’s quite amazing. I think it’s good to have it at least once a year,” said Ben An. “But I wouldn’t take it every single week.”

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Justin Thomas, Tony Finau, Max Homa honor Kobe Bryant at Phoenix Open

Several golfers took the opportunity to pay tribute to Kobe Bryant at the Waste Management Phoenix Open’s first round.

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Several golfers took the opportunity to pay tribute to Kobe Bryant during the Waste Management Phoenix Open’s first round.

Justin Thomas wore his Lower Merion High School Kobe Bryant jersey on the 16th hole.

Max Homa wore his No. 24 Los Angeles Lakers gold jersey, also on the 16th hole.

Tony Finau played his round in Lakers purple-and-gold golf shoes.

Thomas arrived at TPC Scottsdale this week with his wedges stamped with tributes to Bryant: “Mamba mentality,” “Black Mamba,” “Kobe Bean Bryant” and “81 points.”

Justin Thomas honors the Kobe Bryant at the 2020 Waste Management Phoenix Open. Photo by Rob Schumacher/The Republic via USA TODAY NETWORK

Thomas was asked how it felt to wear the Kobe jersey on the 16th hole.

“It felt great. I’ve played a lot of golf in that, believe it or not, so it felt pretty comfortable.

“He had such an impact on me and he was such a person that I looked up to and tried to kind of have my mental approach like that, I felt like it was very fitting. There’s only one tournament all year you can put a jersey on and hit a shot. Just the timing worked out to be here, so it was a no-brainer for me.”

Finau’s shoes were mostly purple with a gold Nike swoosh and the numbers 8 and 24, in reference to the two numbers, both since retired, that Bryant wore for the Lakers.

Tony Finau wears Kobe Bryant-inspired golf shoes during the first round of the 2020 Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. Photo by Joe Camporeale/USA TODAY Sports

Finau spoke to reporters last Sunday after the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

“I’m a huge Kobe fan and a Laker fan single-handedly because of Kobe Bryant,” Finau said. “To have that happen to one of the greatest ever to play the game of basketball and one of the greatest athletes in sports is so tragic.”

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Justin Thomas talks Kobe jersey at Waste Management Phoenix Open

Justin Thomas discusses why he wore a Kobe Bryant jersey on the 16th hole at the first round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Jon Rahm talks about honoring Pat Tillman on his golf shoes

Jon Rahm talks about his first round at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and how he is honoring Pat Tillman with his golf shoes. Both went to Arizona State.