By Christopher Powers
The PGA Tour wraps up its Asian swing this week with the WGC-HSBC Champions, the first of four World Golf Championships on the schedule. It’s played in Shanghai, China at Sheshan International Golf Club, which has hosted the event 14 of the 15 times it’s been played.

While Tiger Woods won’t be in the field, there’s still plenty of star power. Thirty-four of the top 50 players in the world will tee it up, including three of the top 10. Rory McIlroy, defending champion Xander Schauffele and Justin Rose are among the marquee groupings. Tony Finau, who finished runner-up to Schauffele a year ago, will play alongside Bernd Wiesberger and reigning Open champion Shane Lowry.

Thursday Tee Times (all times local)

Tee No. 1
8:45 a.m. — Xinjun Zhang, Bryce Easton, Matthew Millar
8:55 a.m. — Chan Kim, Zander Lombard, Jake Mcleod
9:05 a.m. — Jbe Kruger, Jazz Janewattananond, Yechun Yuan
9:15 a.m. — Joost Luiten, Ryo Ishikawa, Daniel Nisbet
9:25 a.m. — Zecheng Dou, Neil Schietekat, J.T. Poston
9:35 a.m. — Yosuke Asaji, Cameron Smith, Matthias Schwab
9:45 a.m. — Scott Hend, Taehee Lee, Wenchong Liang
9:55 a.m. — Richard Sterne, Mikumu Horikawa, Paul Waring
10:05 a.m. — Masahiro Kawamura, Andrea Pavan, Justin Harding
10:15 a.m. — Zheng-kai Bai, Mike Lorenzo-Vera, Romain Langasque
10:25 a.m. — Jorge Campillo, Kevin Tway, Victor Perez
10:35 a.m. — Benjamin Hebert, Yikeun Chang, Andrew Putnam
10:45 a.m. — Abraham Ancer, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Charles Howell III

Tee No. 10
8:50 a.m. — Adam Hadwin, Tyrrell Hatton, Lucas Glover
9:00 a.m. — Erik van Rooyen, Corey Conners, Jason Kokrak
9:10 a.m. — Keegan Bradley, Byeong Hun An, Kurt Kitayama
9:20 a.m. — Ashun Wu, Chez Reavie, Rafa Cabrera Bello
9:30 a.m. — Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Sungjae Im
9:40 a.m. — Paul Casey, Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth
9:50 a.m. — Tommy Fleetwood, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott
10:00 a.m. — Ian Poulter, Francesco Molinari, Louis Oosthuizen
10:10 a.m. — Bubba Watson, Matt Wallace, Danny Willett
10:20 a.m. — Kevin Kisner, Robert Macintyre, Billy Horschel
10:30 a.m. — Phil Mickelson, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Haotong Li
10:40 a.m. — Shane Lowry, Bernd Wiesberger, Tony Finau
10:50 a.m. — Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Justin Rose

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By Ryan Herrington
Every shot counts is a consistent refrain you hear in golf, particularly when talking about the pro game. At that level, of course, the shots count for more than just numbers on players’ scorecards but also dollars in the bank accounts.

But just how much do they count? And does one shot count more than another?

With the conclusion of the 2018-’19 PGA Tour season, we went through the results of every tour event to do some investigating and answer a few questions. The working query was this: If a tour pro shot even par in every round of golf the entire season, how would he fare? How about shooting one under par every round? Or two under par? We went a step further and looked at what might happen if you shot a ½-stroke under par or 1½ strokes. How would this change things?

In crunching the numbers, we left out the WGC-Dell Match Play and the Zurich Classic, because of their variance from individual stroke-play competition, and the three FedEx Cup Playoff events, in an attempt to simulate how players would do in the regular season. That leaves 41 tournaments, counting majors, World Golf Championships and events opposite the WGCs, to gauge how many dollars and FedEx Cup points tour pros would earn at the different levels of proficiency. That number is obviously higher than any PGA Tour member plays in a regular season; the average number of starts for the 125 players on the final regular-season FedEx Cup points list was 21.5. But allow us to use it as a starting point.

So here is what happens if a golfer played every tournament and shot even par in every round he played:

As you can see, shooting even par on the PGA Tour isn’t a bad thing—a golfer would keep his tour card by ranking 118th on the FedEx Cup points list and be able to boast that he cleared a million bucks in one year—but it isn’t going to turn anybody into a household name. The problem here, however, is that the data is skewed because even par at the PGA Championship left you in seventh place. The next best finish for the tour pro who shot even par in every round of every event was a 21st at the WGC-HSCB Champions. The PGA Championship becomes a bit of an outlier. Additionally, no golfer could play in two tournaments in the same week.

So let’s take out the majors and the WGCs, and keep the other events. This means we’re counting 34 tournaments, still well above the tour average but in the interest of our experiment, it’s a reasonable jumping-off point (we would rather not bias our results by randomly taking out other regular-season tour events). Here’s the new break down:

Not quite as impressive. Now a golfer is heading to the Korn Ferry Final series in hopes of getting back his PGA Tour for next year.

OK, so what if a golfer played incrementally better, shooting the equivalent of a ½-stroke under par each round rather than even par? Under this scenario, players would be sitting on one under par after 36 holes in every tournament (and hoping that was good enough to make the cut) then would finish at two under par in every 72-hole tournament. Here is how those golfers would fare, broken down by all events, then pulling out majors and pulling out majors and WGCs.

Understandably, majors and WGCs continue to prop up the overall numbers, given that these events are ones where the scores are highest so ½-stroke under par goes a lot farther than it does at the Desert Classic. But if you’re a rank-and-file member of the PGA Tour who isn’t necessarily eligible for all those tournaments in the first place, and you then play a healthy diet of regular-season events, shooting a shot or two under par every few rounds isn’t really going to cut it either. Ultimately, you’d still be outside the top 125 on the FedEx Cup points list and needing to figure out another way to get back on the PGA Tour. (And again, we’re working off 34 starts, which is higher than anyone played in 2018-’19; the tour leader was Sungjae Im at 32.)

Next up: What if a tour pro shot one stroke under par each round? The math is simple enough: This golfer is shooting a two-under total for Thursday and Friday and finishes four-under at the end of play on Sunday (if he’s made the cut). Here are the results:

The good news? You’re making more cuts. Where the even-par shooter was only playing on the weekend 35.2 percent of the time in non-major/WGC events, the one-under shooter does it at a 64.7-percent rate. There’s also a few top-10 and top-20 finishes now being recorded, allowing players to bank some money and FedEx Cup points. For the first time you’re comfortably keeping your tour card and even putting yourself in a position to play more than just one FedEx Cup playoff event.

So what happens if a tour pro is shooting 1½ strokes under par? This means he’s three-under through 36 holes and six under for the tournament. Here’s how the data breaks down:

In this case, you’d have posted top-10 finishes in three of the majors (only T-18 at the Masters), so the numbers counting all events put you in the top-10 in earnings and FedEx Cup points. Weed out the majors, and the WGCs as well, and you’ve still got nine top-20 finishes, three top-10s and are on the cusp of getting into the Tour Championship if you can perform well in the first two FedEx Cup playoff events.

Lastly, let’s look at what happens if a tour pro shoots two under par every round. The results shouldn’t necessarily be surprising.

First off: Congratulations are in order! If you shot eight under par in every tournament, you would have been a two-time winner on the PGA Tour in 2018-’19. And a major champion to boot, having taken the PGA Championship title at Bethpage in May. Once again, if we weed out the majors and WGCs, you’d still be a winner, as eight-under-par 276 won Paul Casey the title this year at the Valspar Championship.

As you can see, shooting two-under per round will allow you to finish in the top 20 more than a third of the time and in the top 10 in nearly a quarter of your starts.

So what are the biggest takeaways from all this? (And don’t be a smart aleck and say you win more money if you shoot lower scores!) Let’s take a look at two more charts. The first is the performances on tour broken down by stroke levels (even par, ½-stroke under, one stroke under, etc.). The second is money and FedEx Cup points earned, also broken down by the stroke levels.

[divider] [/divider]

What’s interesting is the non-linear way an extra ½-stroke helps as your scoring already is getting lower. Going from even-par shooting to ½-stroke under par lets you jump in earnings (about $300,000) and FedEx Cup points (roughly 130), but that extra ½-stroke if you’re already at one under par a round moves you up the earnings/points rankings by a larger margin (nearly $1 million and about 390 points). And another extra ½-stroke to go from 1½ strokes under to two under is worth $2.6 million and nearly 1,000 FedEx Cup points. This is a by-product of the fact the tour awards more dollars and FedEx Cup points for higher finishes, but it serves as a good lesson to all tour pros—and any fans who watch them compete.

Yes, every stroke counts, but the strokes and ½-strokes that take you from the good to the very good range on the PGA Tour “count” incrementally even more.

The post Shoot even par in every round on the PGA Tour and here’s how you would have done during the 2018-’19 season appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Big Game Brooks vs. Rory the Resilient.

Sunday’s final round of the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational isn’t to decide a major championship. But it is a major opportunity —especially for the 30-year-old Northern Irishman.

“It is exciting,” said McIlroy, who leads Koepka by a stroke through 54 holes at TPC Southwind after a sizzling eight-under 62 on Saturday. “He’s the number one player in the world, four majors in the last three years. He’s the man right now.”

It’s also chance for McIlroy to prove that he’s more than resilient. It’s a chance to prove that he can perform when the pressure is at its highest (or at least as high as it can be at a non-major).

After all, it wasn’t that long ago that McIlroy was the man.

Between 2011 and 2016, he won 19 times around the globe, including four majors to become the third player to win at least four majors by age 25 (Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods were the other two). He was the No. 1 player in the world, had the Golden Bear saying that he could win 15 or 20 majors and appeared to be the face of the sport for the foreseeable future.

In the years since, however, McIlroy has gone majorless. He has won other titles along the way, but he has also built up his share of scar tissue, too — from the final-round meltdown of the 2011 Masters, to the opening-round implosion at last week’s Open Championship at Portrush, and more than his share of gags in between.

One of them came right here at TPC Southwind. A stroke off the lead in the final round of the 2012 FedEx St. Jude Classic, McIlroy, needing to birdie the 18th, stepped to the tee on the par-4 and promptly yanked his 3-wood left and into the lake.

Then there was last week’s British Open, the first played in Northern Ireland in 68 years at a course where he’d shot 61 as a 16-year-old and an hour from where McIlroy grew up. Carrying the expectation of a nation, he stepped onto the first tee in the first round, felt his pulse quicken, his hands shake and watched helplessly as his tee shot with an iron inexplicably tumbled out of bounds. He went on to quadruple- bogey the hole, made triple at the last and shot a stunning 79.

That McIlroy bounced back the next day and nearly made the cut was hardly a surprise. He has a history of that, too — his win in Canada earlier this year came off a missed cut the week before at the Memorial and featured a final-round 61.

“The pressure, I guess the pressure’s off a little bit,” McIlroy said. “You’ve had a bad week and you go to the next week and you say, OK, I didn’t do this well. So you’re sort of trying to focus on that rather than winning the tournament.

“So for me, this week I wanted to focus on neutralizing my ball flight and trying to dial in my distances. All of a sudden, you know, those two little focus points, have made me play some good golf again.”

Now the question is does he have the mettle to hold off Koepka, and the rest of his pursuers? In addition to Koepka there are 11 more players within five shots of the lead going into Sunday.

None loom larger than Koepka, though.

Over the last two years, no one has been better when the lights have been the brightest. Koepka has won four of the last seven majors, which included this year’s PGA Championship at Bethpage Black. In the year’s other three majors, he finished T-2 (Masters), second (U.S. Open) and fourth (The Open).

Sunday will also mark the first time the two have been paired in the final round of a tournament and in some ways an opportunity for Koepka as well. If there’s a hole in his resume, it’s the fact that he has just two non-major wins on tour.

Throw in an extra $2 million to the winner of the Wyndham Rewards competition, and the stakes become that much higher.

“It will be a fun day tomorrow,” Koepka said. “There’s a lot, I guess, on the line and a lot to play for. Yeah, it will be fun duking it out with him.

“This is what you want. You want the best players coming down the stretch on Sunday with a chance to win.”

The post Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy, shake hands and come out fighting appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
The PGA Tour heads to Texas this week for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, the third of four World Golf Championships this season. This marks the fourth season the event will be held at Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas.

This also marks the fifth year of the event’s new, pool-play format, which doesn’t feel so new any more. The 64 players are broken up into 16 groups of four, and everyone plays each other once in each group, with one man advancing to the round of 16. A won match is a full point and a halved match is a half of a point. The player with the most points at the end of all three matches moves on to the round of 16, and any ties are decided in a sudden-death playoff.

The World Cup style format has yielded some exciting results, with Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson claiming wins in the last four years. All four former winners are in the field this year, as is Tiger Woods, who will be playing in this format for the first time in his career. Woods is in a group this year with Brandt Snedeker, Aaron Wise and Patrick Cantlay. The group packing the most star power, Group 12, consists of Day, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Henrik Stenson.

Tee times for Sunday’s matches are below. Check back here each day for the latest tee times.

Sunday tee times for the Semifinal matches (all times ET)

Francesco Molinari vs. Kevin Kisner — 10:05 a.m.

Lucas Bjerregaard vs. Matt Kuchar — 10:20 a.m.

The post 2019 WGC-Dell Match Play Semifinals tee times appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dave Shedloski
The new PGA Tour schedule that kicked in this year was designed to flow better, with the four majors lined up in consecutive months, but it also is more compact, which leads to some hard choices for players making out their itineraries for the year.

It’s not unheard of for a player to skip a World Golf Championship event. But Adam Scott currently is entertaining the notion that he might not play in any of the three remaining WGC events this season.

“In the end I just kind of took the simple approach and thought I’ll just play the ones I like and that make sense to play,” the former No. 1 player in the world said Wednesday at the Sony Open in Hawaii. “Any inconvenience, whether it’s a big tournament or not — I don’t know how everyone can define a big tournament differently — but at the moment I have not scheduled a World Golf Championship because they don’t fall in the right weeks for me.”

Scott, the 2013 Masters champion, finished T-18 at the WGC-HSBC Champions in October before taking a long break in which he also didn’t compete in his home country of Australia and didn’t touch a club for six weeks, perhaps the longest layoff since he turned pro. The next WGC is the Mexico Championship in late February, the last event on the West Coast and coming right after the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club, one of Scott’s favorite venues. The WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play falls two weeks before the Masters. The season’s finale in the series is the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, which not only replaced the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio — where Scott won in 2011 — but also is scheduled the week after the Open Championship in Northern Ireland.

And at age 38, Scott, not surprisingly, said his goal at this stage of his careers is to win majors. WGCs are nice and all, but they are not close to majors in the big picture. “I would like to think most of my achievements are still to come. You can’t escape — for me it’s about winning major championships. That’s the measure of a career really in this game.”

As for the WGCs, Scott, ranked 41st in the world, might change his mind as the season progresses, but for now he seems set on there being no deviations from the plan.

“I feel like there are good tournaments right around them that are a preferred option,” he said. “It is tricky. I thought that was interesting for my schedule change. I wouldn’t have thought that was the case, but that is the case at the moment.”

The post Adam Scott might be eliminating the World Golf Championship events with new compact PGA Tour schedule appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
It is the biggest. And the richest. And so the most powerful. So when things happen on the PGA Tour there tends to be a ripple effect down, across and through the world of professional golf.

Nowhere is that more true than in the realm of scheduling. Next year’s changes to the FedEx Cup and the PGA Championship’s move from August to May provoked an almost immediate response from the European Tour. In 2019, the Old World circuit’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, will be played in September rather than fill its traditional spot in late May.

There are, of course, further implications for the European Tour, both good and bad, depending on who you talk to. For the leading Europeans—those with PGA Tour membership and, often enough, U.S residence—the news is generally favorable, even if it comes with a certain foreboding for their home circuit.

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After the now two-pronged Middle East swing in January/February/early March, the European Tour calendar through the U.S. Open in mid-June looks more than a little bare. Take April. For the rank-and-file European Tour member who has not qualified for the Masters, there is but one event to play in, the Trophee Hassan in Morocco two weeks after Augusta. Then it is off to China and, immediately, back to England for the British Masters. Hardly the most convenient—or affordable—travel itinerary.

RELATED: Justin Rose defends his title in Turkey, returns to No. 1

Warren Little/Getty Images
The European Tour has conceded that big-name players like Rose and Fleetwood will miss portions of the season to play in the U.S..

Indeed, within that period between March and June, anything of real significance on the newly-announced European schedule—the majors and the WGCs—actually takes place in the U.S. For chief executive Keith Pelley it is not only a battle lost but apparently one not worth fighting. Speaking during last week’s Turkish Airlines Open, the perpetually jaunty Canadian for once openly conceded defeat.

“We know the challenges with the global calendar,” he said. “We’ve studied it forensically. And yes, the PGA Championship moving changed things. We have a very strong schedule early and then we have a number of really good events during the strength of the American majors. But when you look at those and three WGCs it is difficult for the top players to come back for one week. So I’m not sure competing in that period is a wise way for us to spend our money and our efforts. I’m not sure we would get top-player participation.”

Pelley is correct. That wouldn’t happen. Even Rory McIlroy is on record as saying he will not play in a regular European Tour event next year until the Irish Open in early July.

“The new PGA Tour schedule is going to have a huge influence on the European Tour from February until June,” says Martin Kaymer, the former U.S. Open, PGA and Player champion who is based in Florida. “The tournaments here are very low on World Ranking points and prize money. So if you have the chance to play on the PGA Tour, why would you play in Europe?

“I can spend three or four months in the States. Then I can play in the Rolex Series events after the U.S. Open in the run-up to the Open Championship. That will mean much less crossing the Atlantic. It just makes sense to stay in America until the end of the U.S. Open when there is only three or four weeks between the biggest events from the Players all the way through the majors. It would make no sense to go back to Europe, which is a shame for the events there.”

Which is not to say that Pelley didn’t investigate the possibility of going up against a PGA Tour schedule containing the WGC-Mexico Championship, the Players, the WGC-Dell Match Play, the Masters, the PGA, the Memorial and the U.S. Open. He did. But it was a futile exercise.

“We actually considered putting one of our eight Rolex Series events [with a purse of $7 million] into that period,” he said. “We sat down with a number of top players and every one of them said we shouldn’t do it. They just couldn’t commit. So we have to look at the four areas of our schedule that are strong. That is the beginning of the year, the period prior to the Open Championship, immediately after the FedEx Cup and at the end of our season.”

Looking further ahead, there is at least the possibility of more positive news for the European Tour. The one thing the Wentworth event has always lacked is any kind of decent American presence. But the move from late-May to September might change that. Might. Perhaps understandably, the prospect of leading U.S. players making that effort is one that provokes a degree of cynicism across the pond.

A sample:

Lee Westwood: “It might make a difference. But I doubt it. There are a lot of opportunities for PGA Tour players. So I’m not sure it really will make much difference.”

Stuart Franklin
Kaymer hopes with some of Europe’s bigger events after the FedEx Cup playoffs, Americans might be more inclined to travel overseas and play.

Kaymer: “There will be American players who will think, ‘Why should we come over when we play for $7 million every week anyway?’ Americans are weird in that sense. They don’t like to travel. And they can play for the same amount of money at home. So Europe is relying on guys like Matt Kuchar and Patrick Reed wanting to play overseas. Because they want to and not because of the prize money. Maybe their wives will fancy a week in London (smiles).”

Nicolas Colsaerts: “It is always the same debate. Do Americans really want to take the time to come over and play or not? It’s up to them. It has never been hard for them to do so. But yes, it will be ‘easier’ for them to come after the FedEx Cup. So we will find out just how much they do want to come and play. We have always hoped that some of them would come for Wentworth. But they never really have. Now they have a chance to do more for the game.”

Russell Knox: “It’s great for someone like me who lives and plays mostly in the U.S. There will be a break after the end of the FedEx Cup, a time when I can come over and play at Wentworth and the Dunhill. I’ll also play the Irish and Scottish Opens before the Open Championship. I would hope for the sake of the European Tour that they get super-strong fields in all of those events. They deserve strong fields. So I would hope that the leading Americans will come and play. But whether they will or not is debatable.”

RELATED: Could the 2020 Ryder Cup opening ceremony be held at the Colosseum?

Again, however, the news is not all bad for the European Tour. As Knox intimated, amidst that obvious pessimism about Americans actually getting onto planes to London, the leading European players based in the States will be able to offer plenty of much support to their home tour later in the year.

“I will actually end up playing in Europe just as much as I have this year,” says Tommy Fleetwood. “But there will be a bigger gap between my starts. It would be nice to think at least some of the Americans will come over for Wentworth and some of the other events after the FedEx Cup is finished. Add in the British Masters around the BMW/Dunhill time and that little U.K. stretch would have a lot going for it.”

Still, for all the talk of schedule and greater opportunities, nothing much has really changed in the relationship between the PGA Tour and the European Tour. Like it or not—and many do not—PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan continues to pull professional golf’s most influential strings outside of the majors and the Ryder Cup.

The post Play ball: The tricky business of setting a schedule for 2019 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The victory was the third in the last 16 months for Schauffele, who turned 25 last week, and the duel against his 29-year-old counterpart was highlighted by a pair of birdies by Schauffele on the last two holes of regulation to force overtime, followed by another on the first extra hole.

“When I was signing my card, I was like, Oh, wow. I actually went birdie-birdie to get in the playoff,” said Schauffele, whose 68 was the low score of the day as just three players broke 70 in the final round at Sheshan International Golf Club. “I was just in my own world out there.”

The U.S. lost the Ryder Cup, yes, but with Schauffele’s victory it became the first country to sweep all four World Golf Championships in a calendar year (joining Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Justin Thomas). That’s hardly a consolation prize, but it is a positive sign for the future.

Six of the top 10 finishers on Sunday were Americans, including 28-year-old Patrick Reed and 26-year-old Patrick Cantlay, and the winner of the tournament wasn’t even on the Americans’ Ryder Cup team this year. Though Schauffele, the PGA Tour’s rookie of the year in the 2016-’17 season with two victories but winless in his sophomore campaign, was part of the conversation when it came to captain’s picks, hindsight being what it is he would have been a good choice for Le Golf National.

Schauffele, whose German and French immigrant father was a standout soccer player and track-and-field star, and two great-grandfathers in “football” as well at the European Premier level, has already shown a penchant for playing big-time golf in big-time tournaments. In seven major appearances, he has finished in the top-six three times. Two of those came at the U.S. Open and the other at this year’s Open Championship at Carnoustie, a course that is widely considered one of the most difficult in the world.

Since the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, where he was a shot off the lead after the first round before finishing fifth in his first career major, Schauffele has nine worldwide top-five finishes.

That includes his victory Sunday in China.

Beginning the day in a tie for second three strokes behind Finau, Schauffele hung around until briefly moving in front early on the back nine. But a bogey at the 15th dropped him back again. Still, Schauffele bounced back, though, with an 18-footer for birdie on the par-3 17th then added another at the par-5 18th. In the playoff, he reached the green in two, while Finau found a fairway bunker off the tee and was forced to lay up. Finau then narrowly missed a 20-footer for birdie, and Schauffele tapped in for the victory.

“It just feels good to win again,” Schauffele said. “Those two wins were pretty close in my rookie year and I didn’t really know what I was doing.”

And it should feel good for future U.S. team captains.

Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

Though Finau is still searching for his first win since his maiden victory in Puerto Rico in 2016, over the last two years he has racked up 20 top-10 finishes. Along the way he too has shown an ability to perform well on the big stage, tying for 10th at this year’s Masters despite dislocating his left ankle on the eve of the tournament, and finishing fifth at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock.

Finau also acquitted himself well in his Ryder Cup, where unlike fellow captain’s picks Tiger Woods and Mickelson, he actually scored points for the U.S., going 2-1-0 for the week, which included a 6-and-4 thumping of Tommy Fleetwood in singles.

“Definitely feel like I let one get away,” Finau said of Sunday’s finish at the HSBC. “Xander played incredible golf today.

“It was cool to have a chance to win, a real chance to win, and you know, I’ll definitely learn from this and keep moving forward.”

So, too, will the U.S. The talent keeps coming and talent generally wins out. The Americans at times look like the 108-win Red Sox. They might not have won this past Ryder Cup but they are set up well for the future.

The post Xander Schauffele’s playoff win in Shanghai caps big year by Americans in WGC events appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

According to the Commercial Appeal, the tour will hold a press conference this Thursday to announce Memphis will host a World Golf Championships event, starting in 2019. Scheduled to be at the event are tour commissioner Jay Monahan and FedEx Cup winner Justin Thomas.

The announcement is not a surprise; Golf Digest reported in December that, when FedEx re-upped its sponsorship of the tour’s playoffs through 2027, the courier delivery services company insisted on a WGC competition in its Memphis backyard. The area currently hosts the St. Jude Classic, which often attracts only a handful of marquee names because of its spot the week prior to the U.S. Open.

The upshot is that Firestone C.C., home to the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, will lose its spot on the tour schedule. “It’s over,” a source told Golf Digest, when asked about any future PGA Tour prospects. Golf Digest contributor John Feinstein reported early this winter that the Senior PGA Championship may come to Akron in 2019 as a replacement event.

The PGA Tour is set to roll out the new schedule in the second week of May, with the PGA Championship moving to May and Players returning to March being a focal point of the release, along with a shift of the FedEx Cup playoffs to end before the NFL season gets in full swing. Other balls in the air regard the fates of the National and Houston Open. Both are without title sponsors, and with the Valero Texas Open expected to take Houston’s pre-Masters spot, these two events may not return. The Dell Technologies Championship, a FedEx Cup event since 2003, may also be a schedule casualty.

However, the Colonial, despite lacking long-term endorsement, is not envisioned to dissolve.

Another storyline to watch is the formation of a new PGA Tour event in Michigan or Minnesota. The tour has been pitched a proposal from a Detroit group, while the organizers who run the Champions’ 3M Championship at the TPC Twin Cities have made their attentions known of gaining a regular tour event.

The post PGA Tour expected to announce 2019 WGC event in Memphis this Thursday; Firestone set to lose Bridgestone Invitational appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
On Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Rory McIlroy looked like his old, unstoppable self, finishing off a three-shot victory with a back-nine 31 at Bay Hill for career win No. 14. Three days later, he’s 0-1 at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, falling 2&1 to Peter Uihlein on day one at Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas. Had it not been for a late charge from McIlroy, the match might not have made it past the 15th hole.

Related: What makes a good match-play golfer? Six of the world’s best try to answer

“I made him earn it at least. I made the score line a little more respectable,” said McIlroy. “I just came away a little flat. I didn’t really necessarily play badly. He played pretty well. It was a few under through 9, and got down early and he didn’t make a bogey all day. So it was — it was hard to sort of claw my way back.”

Such is life in the match play format, where you can feel in control one minute and walk away 1-down the next. But McIlroy is ready to get back at it on Thursday when he’ll take on Jhonattan Vegas (0-0-1).

“Forget it, go on to tomorrow. Obviously it’s out of my control now. So I’ve just got to win my next two matches and hopefully the draw works in my favor.”

As for Uihlein, it’s a promising start in his first WGC-Match Play appearance. He’ll look to get to 2-0 when he faces off with Brian Harman (0-0-1) on Thursday.

Darren Carroll

McIlroy wasn’t the only top player to go down, as world No. 1 Dustin Johnson also lost 3&1 to Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger, a win made all the more impressive when factoring in that Johnson did not trail on a single hole in any of his matches during his win here last year. On Wednesday, it looked as though we were headed for a similar week, when Johnson led 1-up after two holes and then led 1-up again through five. But after Wiesberger won the next two holes to grab a 1-up lead, Johnson never regained it, despite getting the match to all square on two different occasions.

“At the end of day, we both didn’t have a great day. I think we only made three birdies between us, which is not a lot out here. He gave me a couple of holes, I gave him a few. At the end of the day, I’m glad that I prevailed and got a win,” said Wiesberger.

Wiesberger looks to take control of the group on Thursday when he plays Kevin Kisner (0-0-1), while Johnson will face Adam Hadwin (0-0-1).

Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth had no such struggles, each getting off to a 1-0 start. Spieth defeated Charl Schwartzel 2&1 and Thomas defeated Luke List 2-up in an entertaining match that featured a bit of everything, like List using a wedge as a putter for most of the match and Thomas making an incredible par save from a tough lie. Spieth will play China’s HaoTong Li (0-1) before a potentially epic duel with Patrick Reed (1-0) on Friday, while Thomas gets Patton Kizzire (0-1).

Other highlights from day one included Ian Poulter defeating fellow countryman Tommy Fleetwood 3&2, Zach Johnson coming from 4-down to halve his match with Matt Kuchar, Jason Day beating James Hahn 4&2 and Bubba Watson dominating Branden Grace, 5&3. There were also a few other surprising upsets, like Julian Suri defeating Marc Leishman 3&2 and Charles Howell III defeating Phil Mickelson 3&2.

Related: Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed are on a collision course in Austin, and it’s worth every bit of hype

The post Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson among big names to struggle on first day at WGC-Match Play appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
The PGA Tour makes its first of five stops in Texas this week for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, the third WGC of the season. For the third year the event is being held at Austin Country Club after a one-year stint at TPC Harding Park and a five-year stretch at The Golf Club at Dove Mountain in Arizona. It’s the fourth year of the tournament’s intriguing new pool play format, separating 64 of the top players in the world into groups of four and having them play round-robin matches, with the top 16 advancing into a single-elimination bracket.

The Match Play’s new format has produced some must-watch television over the last three years, most recently in 2017 when Dustin Johnson defeated Jon Rahm 1 up in an epic final match for his fifth WGC victory. Both players are back in this year’s field, Johnson once again the 1-seed and Rahm the 3-seed, as well as the event’s last two winners, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy. McIlroy is coming in fresh off his impressive win at Bay Hill, where he carded a final-round 64 en route to a three shot victory.

Also in the field this week is Jordan Spieth, who looks to get his season on the right track in his home state. The three-time major champion hasn’t had much success in this format though, having made it to the final 16 only once in the last three years, and failing to advance when he did in 2016. He faces a difficult task to get there this week, grouped with Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teammate Patrick Reed as well as Charl Schwartzel and China’s rising star Haotong Li.

Related: Match Madness – Breaking down the 2018 WGC-Match Play groups

TV Coverage
OSN Sports 3 HD will carry live coverage on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 10pm UAE time. They’ll also carry coverage on Saturday and Sunday from 6pm UAE.

Wednesday Tee Times (NOTE: The UAE is nine hours ahead of the stated Texas tee times):
Group 1
12:48 p.m (9.48pm UAE time). — Dustin Johnson (1) vs. Bernd Wiesberger (52)
12:59 p.m. — Kevin Kisner (32) vs. Adam Hadwin (38)

Group 2
9:52 a.m. — Justin Thomas (2) vs. Luke List (60)
10:03 a.m. — Francesco Molinari (21) vs. Patton Kizzire (48)

Group 3
2:16 p.m. — Jon Rahm (3) vs. Keegan Bradley (63)
2:27 p.m. — Kiradech Aphibarnrat (28) vs. Chez Reavie (43)

Group 4
11:20 a.m. — Jordan Spieth (4) vs. Charl Schwartzel (49)
11:31 a.m. — Patrick Reed (19) vs. HaoTong Li (34)

Group 5
10:36 a.m. — Hideki Matsuyama (5) vs. Yusaku Miyazato (53)
10:47 a.m. — Patrick Cantlay (30) vs. Cameron Smith (46)

Group 6
1:32 p.m. — Rory McIlroy (6) vs. Peter Uihlein (57)
1:43 p.m. — Brian Harman (18) vs. Jhonattan Vegas (44)

Group 7
3:00 p.m. — Sergio Garcia (7) vs. Shubhankar Sharma (62)
3:11 p.m. — Xander Schauffele (20) vs. Dylan Frittelli (41)

Group 8
12:04 p.m. — Jason Day (8) vs. James Hahn (56)
12:15 p.m. — Louis Oosthuizen (25) vs. Jason Dufner (42)

Group 9
11:42 a.m. — Tommy Fleetwood (9) vs. Ian Poulter (58)
11:53 a.m. — Daniel Berger (26) vs. Kevin Chappell (33)

Group 10
2:38 p.m. — Paul Casey (10) vs. Russell Henley (51)
2:49 p.m. — Matthew Fitzpatrick (31) vs. Kyle Stanley (45)

Group 11
1:10 p.m. — Marc Leishman (11) vs. Julian Suri (64)
1:21 p.m. — Branden Grace (23) vs. Bubba Watson (35)

Group 12
10:14 a.m. — Tyrrell Hatton (12) vs. Alexander Levy (55)
10:25 a.m. — Charley Hoffman (22) vs. Brendan Steele (36)

Group 13
10:58 a.m. — Alex Noren (13) vs. Kevin Na (61)
11:09 a.m. — Tony Finau (29) vs. Thomas Pieters (39)

Group 14
1:54 p.m. — Phil Mickelson (14) vs. Charles Howell III (59)
2:05 p.m. — Rafa Cabrera Bello (17) vs. Satoshi Kodaira (40)

Group 15
9:30 a.m. — Pat Perez (15) vs. Si Woo Kim (50)
9:41 a.m. — Gary Woodland (24) vs. Webb Simpson (37)

Group 16
12:26 p.m. — Matt Kuchar (16) vs. Zach Johnson (54)
12:37 p.m. — Ross Fisher (27) vs. Yuta Ikeda (47)

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