By Christopher Powers
The PGA Tour’s super season rolls on in Las Vegas this week with the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin. Can you take a wild guess at who is leading the tournament?

Yup, it’s big, bad, bulky Bryson DeChambeau, a former winner of the event. Will he ever lose again? We’re half-kidding … sort of.

Here are our takeaways from Thursday’s first-round at the Shriners.

Bryson DeChambeau steamrolls Summerlin
No, seriously, is he ever going to lose again? Obviously yes, it’s golf. But, maybe not? He’s legitimately breaking the sport, and he’s doing it at warp speed. Thursday’s 62 was another bomb-and-wedge fest, and it’s given him the solo lead. With no wind in the Nevada desert, it might as well be a pitch and putt for him right now.

“Yeah, it was a great day to play well,” said the U.S. Open winner. “There’s no wind out here for the most part, and I feel like you can bomb it everywhere and hit wedges close. And I was lucky enough to make a lot of putts to start off my day. Made a great 20-footer on 12 and that kind of jump-started everything. Great birdie on 15, 16. And then the birdie on 17 and 18 were stellar, just kept my momentum going.

“I didn’t hit it great today, but I still played really, really good and I’m excited for that.”

Didn’t hit it that great! This freakin’ guy. We’d like to believe him, but after one round he ranks first in strokes gained/off-the-tee, fifth in SG/tee-to-green, 17th in SG/approach and 10th in SG/putting. Oh, he ranks 81st in SG/around-the-green. Terrible. Embarrassing. Get to the short-game area dude.

“I’ll take a 62, I’m very pleased with how I played today. Didn’t hit it my best, but I put it in the right spots a lot of the times today. A lot of one-handed finishes, something I’m going to go work on, on the range. But I putted beautifully hopefully I can keep that up and clean up the driving a little bit.”

Whatever you say Bryson, whatever you say.

Matthew Stockman

Patrick Cantlay owns this course
By his own standards, Patrick Cantlay was in a serious slump in his last six starts. Translation: He failed to post a top 10, missed one cut and had a high finish of T-12. His four other finishes were T-43 or better. Not all that terrible for a regular PGA Tour pro.

But for Cantlay, this stretch was an eyebrow-raiser. Since the 2018 Shriners, Cantlay had 11 top 10s, seven top 5s and one win at the 2019 Memorial. That’s why a bunch of T-40s made it seem like his game was off.

Enter TPC Summerlin, where, with his Thursday 63, Cantlay has now played his last 13 rounds in 60 under par. Not a typo. 60. Under. Par. The craziest part is that the week he won at TPC Summerlin, the 2017 Shriners, he shot just nine-under total. He nearly matched that in one round today. He absolutely owns the place, and the tournament has showed up on his schedule at the perfect time in 2020.

Matthew Stockman

Can HV3 get it done?
Man, we sure hope so. And we’re not alone. Anytime Harold Varner III gets in the mix, it’s a good thing. There’d be no better story than HV3 finally breaking through, and there would be no happier dude than him if he does eventually get it done. He opened with an eight-under 63 on Thursday, putting him one off the lead. When asked if this golf course fits his personality, since it caters to the aggressive player, he could not have had a better answer.

“I think Vegas fits my personality more than the golf course, but that’s nor here or there,” Varner said.

Don’t worry, HV3, you’re not alone.

The hard part, of course, comes next. Last season, Varner was 13th on the PGA Tour in first-round scoring. As for the next two rounds, he was 68th and 91st. He’s well aware of this statistical fact, and would like it to change soon.

“I just would like to finish a tournament.”

Simple and to the point. If HV3 can finish, maybe this is the week.

Matthew Stockman

Rickie Fowler just can’t seem to avoid the big number
Keep in mind, the person writing this is a very salty bettor who has burned countless dollars on Rickie Fowler, and has zero stats to back up what’s he’s about to say. But it certainly feels like Fowler just cannot put a good, clean round together. Yes, he’s shot plenty of low ones, but you’d be amazed how many low rounds he shoots WITH a double bogey or WITH multiple bogeys. When the putter is on, he’s an absolute birdie machine. But he still has those moments where he just explodes out of nowhere.

Thursday was one of those days, as Fowler was four under and bogey-free through 12. Then, he bogeyed the par-5 13th, followed that with three straight birdies and then rinsed one at the par-3 16th and made double. Instead of shooting 64 like he should have (maybe even 63), Fowler finished with a 67. Good news: he’s first in strokes gained/putting, this after one of the worst weeks of his career on the green at Winged Foot. If he can clean up the approach game, and avoid the doubles, he should be able to get back to some good form.

The post Bryson DeChambeau steamrolls Summerlin and three other Thursday takeaways from the Shriners appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
The PGA Tour returns to the United States this week for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, held at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, Nevada. What’s normally a quiet fall season event gets kicked up a notch this week thanks to a strong field featuring a few stars who added the Shriners to their schedule to fulfil the PGA Tour’s minimum appearance requirement.

Leading the way in that group is Jordan Spieth, who is making his first career start in a fall event in the U.S. this week. It’s also his first start of the 2018-’19 season, and his first since the BMW Championship, though he did play in the Ryder Cup. He’ll look to get off to a good start in Vegas as he hopes to get back in the winner’s circle this season.

Other big names in the field include Rickie Fowler, one of the two favourites to win this week along with WGC-HSBC Champions runner-up Tony Finau. Bryson DeChambeau, Webb Simpson and defending champion Patrick Cantlay will also tee it up, as will Cameron Champ, fresh off his maiden PGA Tour victory at the Sanderson Farms Championship.

TV Schedule
OSN Sports 3HD will carry live coverage of all four rounds, from 11.30pm Thursday through Saturday and then from 10.30pm on Sunday.

Thursday Tee Times (all times ET)
NOTE: The United Arab Emirates is 8 hours ahead of Eastern Time

Tee No. 1
10 a.m. — Harris English, Lucas Glover, Harold Varner III

10:10 a.m — Robert Streb, Hunter Mahan, Dominic Bozzelli

10:20 a.m — Alex Cejka, Alex Prugh, Brandon Hagy

10:30 a.m — Wesley Bryan, Hudson Swafford, Brian Gay

10:40 a.m — Curtis Luck, Satoshi Kodaira, Rod Pampling

10:50 a.m — Si Woo Kim, Cody Gribble, Davis Love III

11 a.m. — Scott Piercy, Jim Furyk, Sangmoon Bae

11:10 a.m. — Scott Brown, Whee Kim, Ollie Schniederjans

11:20 a.m. — Freddie Jacobson, Ryan Palmer, Roberto Castro

11:30 a.m. — Roberto Diaz, Kyoung-Hoon Lee, Nick Hardy

11:40 a.m. — Cameron Davis, Kyle Jones, Shintaro Ban

2:35 p.m. — Vaughn Taylor, Kevin Streelman, John Huh

2:45 p.m. — James Hahn, Scott Langley, Sam Ryder

2:55 p.m. — Peter Malnati, Joaquin Niemann, Tyler Duncan

3:05 p.m. — Webb Simpson, Rickie Fowler, Matt Kuchar

3:15 p.m. — Kevin Na, Ryan Moore, Tony Finau

3:25 p.m. — Gary Woodland, Jhonattan Vegas, Jason Dufner

3:35 p.m. — Ryan Blaum, Abraham Ancer, J.T. Poston

3:45 p.m. — Bud Cauley, Sung Kang, Bronson Burgoon

3:55 p.m. — Wyndham Clark, John Chin, Rob Oppenheim

4:05 p.m. — Corey Conners, Adam Svensson, Dylan Meyer

4:15 p.m. — Roger Sloan, Kramer Hickok, George Cunningham

Tee No. 10

10 a.m. — Martin Laird, Josh Teater, Trey Mullinax

10:10 a.m — John Senden, D.J. Trahan, Peter Uihlein

10:20 a.m — Jason Kokrak, Shawn Stefani, Brandon Harkins

10:30 a.m — Cameron Champ, Aaron Wise, Jordan Spieth

10:40 a.m — Kevin Tway, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay

10:50 a.m — Austin Cook, Chris Stroud, Chesson Hadley

11 a.m. — Danny Lee, Steve Marino, Anirban Lahiri

11:10 a.m. — Kenny Perry, J.J. Spaun, Beau Hossler

11:20 a.m. — Carlos Ortiz, Anders Albertson, Kevin Dougherty

11:30 a.m. — Wes Roach, Sebastian Munoz, Preston Otte

11:40 a.m. — Jose de jesus Rodriguez, Martin Trainer, Doug Ghim

2:35 p.m. — Graeme McDowell, Matt Jones, Tom Hoge

2:45 p.m. — Brian Stuard, Nick Taylor, Rory Sabbatini

2:55 p.m. — Nick Watney, Patrick Rodgers, Richy Werenski

3:05 p.m. — Troy Merritt, Grayson Murray, Jonas Blixt

3:15 p.m. — Russell Henley, Mackenzie Hughes, Kevin Stadler

3:25 p.m. — Michael Kim, Brice Garnett, Brendan Steele

3:35 p.m. — Scott Stallings, Kelly Kraft, Seamus Power

3:45 p.m. — Chris Kirk, Joel Dahmen, Denny McCarthy

3:55 p.m. — Adam Schenk, Sungjae Im, Seth Reeves

4:05 p.m. — Sam Burns, Chase Wright, Kristoffer Ventura

4:15 p.m. — Max Homa, Stephan Jaeger, Cole Nygren

The post 2018 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open tee times, viewer’s guide appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

That was five years ago, when he turned professional after a stellar amateur career and was expected to be the next big thing before Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and their peers began their incursion into the game’s upper ranks.

On Sunday at TPC Summerlin, Cantlay proved he still has talent and promise. He is still that same golfer.

He’s just not the same person.

Cares in the world? Got ’em. So be it.

With a par on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff, Cantlay defeated Alex Cejka and Whee Kim and won the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open for his first PGA Tour title. This day was supposed to come much sooner for the California native. But at least it came.

“I feel like getting your first one can sometimes be the toughest one to get,” Cantlay, 25, said after shooting a final-round 67 to finish at nine-under 275 and then surviving extra holes to become the 11th player to win his first tour title here since Tiger Woods broke through in 1996. “Hopefully, I can start getting some more wins. I hope they pile up.”

It wasn’t supposed to be tough at all for the UCLA All-American who won the Jack Nicklaus Award and Fred Haskins Award in 2011 as the top collegiate golfer and who occupied the top of the World Amateur Golf Ranking for a record 55 weeks before making his pro debut at the 2012 Travelers Championship.

Meticulous, stoic, and adroit, Cantlay heralded his potential a year earlier in the same event when he fired a second-round 60 at TPC River Highlands, the lowest score ever recorded by an amateur in a PGA Tour event, in grabbing the 36-hole lead. That came after finishing T-21 at the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional.

The kid had the skills and the head for the game. Just not the back.

Cantlay first was sidelined after withdrawing from the 2013 Colonial with a back injury that turned out to be a stress fracture in his L5 vertebrae. Somehow, he came back in the fall for one start in the Web.com Tour Finals, finishing second in the Hotel Fitness Championship to retain his PGA Tour card.

In the next three years he would make just six starts.

Stacy Revere/Getty Images

Doubt and discouragement were constant companions during that period, especially in 2016 when he didn’t play at all. But he never felt defeated.

“There’s not a lot of give up in me. I never really thought about giving up,” he said. “I thought maybe there was a chance my back would never feel good enough to play again … but I knew that I’d be able to get to where I wanted to be if I felt healthy. My main goal was just to get 100 percent healthy. If knew if I could get 100 percent healthy, everything else would take care of itself.”

The first win is the toughest, and Cantlay made it harder on himself when he bogeyed the last two holes. Starting the final round four strokes behind J.J. Spaun and Beau Hossler, Cantlay had forged into the lead with four straight birdies starting at the 11th hole.

Fortunately for Cantlay, the closing stretch at TPC Summerlin was inhospitable to a host of contenders as late afternoon winds kicked up. Kim, who closed with a 66, also bogeyed the 18th, as did Chesson Hadley, which cost him a spot in the playoff. Spaun, meanwhile double bogeyed the final two holes. Conversely, Cejka, who fired a brilliant 63, birdied his last four holes before the breeze brought havoc.

All three players bogeyed the 18th on the first extra hole, and when they came around again, it looked like that might be the case again. Cantlay, however, managed to steer a 4-iron under and around a tree from the right rough to the back of the green and then got up and down from 70 feet for par. Kim made double bogey after a poor drive while Cejka just missed extending the playoff when he missed his par save from 18 feet.

Cantlay looked relieved after tapping in from two feet for the title, worth $1.224 million, but not overwhelmed. Part of that is who is always has been. Part of it who he is now.

That’s because of the terrible loss he suffered in 2016 while working his way back to health. In February, he watched in horror as his best friend and caddie Chris Roth was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver. Cantlay was just 10 feet away when the accident occurred at an intersection in Newport Beach, Calif.

Not a day goes by that he doesn’t think of that terrible night.

Robert Laberge/Getty Images

Patrick Cantlay hits his approach shot on the first hole during the final round of the Shriners Hospitals For Children Open.

But he won’t make that tragedy a part of his comeback narrative, a comeback that already was impressive when he qualified for this year’s Tour Championship after just 12 starts.

“I don’t really associate the two together that way,” Cantlay said. “It feels good to be doing what I feel like I was born to do and what I practiced to do for such a long time. The other part is so separate, and it was such a heartbreaking deal that I don’t even … it’s not even on the same level as golf.

“I’d say I’m better because of it, as tough as those moments were.”

And maybe he’s tougher, too. He takes up the chase now to catch up to Spieth, Thomas and his peers, and he doesn’t much care if they have a head start on him, though he corrects a questioner who says it wasn’t long ago when he was mentioned in the same breath with them. “It feels like a long time ago,” he said.

“It feels like someone put the pause button on playing,” he explained. “But I feel like I picked up right where I left off, where I was playing good before. I feel like this year has been really good. I don’t feel like I’m behind the eight ball with those guys. It’s been great to see those guys play well because I know their games. I know who they are as people. I know how hard they work. I know what they do.

“I feel like I’ve always been right there with those guys, so looking forward to working hard and hopefully having some battles with them in the future.”

And he is ready to battle. “Yeah, of course. I want to be the best player in the world, and I want to win a bunch of tournaments,” he said. “I feel like if that’s not what you’re out here for, you shouldn’t be out here.”

Yes, he’s still that same golfer. He’s found his old self in a new man.

The post Patrick Cantlay enjoys the delayed gratification of his first PGA Tour win appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
Maverick McNealy would have been a unicorn: A national college player of the year not swayed by the lure of the PGA Tour’s big bucks, the first in more than two decades to remain an amateur.

Ultimately, though, the Stanford All-American, who graduated last spring tied with Tiger Woods and Patrick Rodgers for the most school wins at 11, came to the conclusion most expected. After playing for the U.S. in his second Walker Cup next month, the 21-year-old will in fact pursue a career as a tour pro. His debut as a professional is set for the PGA Tour’s Safeway Open, Oct. 5-8 not too far from where he grew up in Northern California

For much of his college career, McNealy professed that turning pro wasn’t the obvious matter of when, but if, the idea of following in the entrepreneurial footsteps of his father Scott, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, appealing to him. So what ultimately swayed Maverick to take the road more traveled?

“I think one of the big things is if I don’t do it now, I’ll never be able to,” McNealy said during a phone interview on Wednesday shortly after making his decision known via a post on the Stanford golf website. “That was the thing. I said if I look back in 30 years at this time in my life, I think more likely than not if I didn’t turn pro, I would have wondered and maybe even regretted it.”

Mind you, McNealy says that he’s not just “trying” pro golf, but that he’s completely committed to this as his career, something his father professed he needed to be before deciding to give this a go. “I’m going to give this my full effort,” McNealy said before laughing. “Maybe 40 or 50 years down the road, the Stanford degree will come in handy. That’s what I’m planning for.”

As part of this commitment, McNealy will move next week to Summerlin, Nev., and begin working on his game out of TPC Summerlin.

McNealy’s competitive schedule after the Safeway will include spots in five other PGA Tour events in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (at TPC Summerlin), the Farmers Insurance Open, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (where he’ll play with his father as his partner), AT&T Byron Nelson and the Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial, a spot he secured by virtue of winning college golf’s Ben Hogan Award in May.

Additionally, McNealy intends to play at the second stage of the Web.com Tour Qualifying School (he should be exempt into it through being in the top five on the World Amateur Golf Ranking after the Walker Cup).

Partially why McNealy hemmed and hawed so much about turning pro was an honest uncertainty that he had the game to make it on tour. In high school, he split his time between golf and hockey at the expense of a fancy junior resume on the links.

Finally focused on the former in Palo Alto, McNealy’s game developed quickly. He played fifth man behind Rodgers and NCAA champion Cameron Wilson as a freshman, then won six times and earned the Fred Haskins Award as college player of the year as a sophomore. Eventually he rose to No. 1 in the World Amateur Ranking. He also has had modest success playing as an amateur in pro events; he memorable sat T-5 at one point during the third round of the PGA Tour’s Greenbrier Classic in 2015.

“I promptly hit it in the hazard on 17th and didn’t play well on Sunday,” McNealy said. “But that was cool to see my name on the leader board.”

Moreover, seeing the quick transitions of several recent college players to the pro ranks help crystalize in his mind that his game was in better shape to make the leap than he might have thought. Specifically, watching his former Pac-12 rival Jon Rahm from Arizona State, who McNealy played against for three years of college golf, swayed him about his chances of success.

“Right before he went pro, I played with him probably five or six rounds his senior year, my junior year. And I was going ‘Wow, this guy is on it. He’s playing really, really good right now.’ And it was really cool to see how that translated into the pro ranks.

“It’s cool to see the success those guys have had, and I think it makes me believe it’s possible with an incredible amount of hard work, and time and effort and doing things the right way.”

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