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AVONDALE, La.—When it came to plotting strategy at this week’s Zurich Classic, different teams discussed various tactics prior to Thursday’s opening round. Then there were Tony Finau and Cameron Champ, who had none at all, apparently. It worked out just fine anyway. Finau and Champ, who arrived on the first tee at TPC Louisiana unsure

AVONDALE, La. — “Fore right!” isn’t something you hear often on a par 3 on the PGA Tour. During Thursday’s opening round of the Zurich Classic, it was shouted twice in the span of four holes at TPC Louisiana. This is the nightmare of Hunter Mahan and Bill Haas. Worse yet, neither appears to know

12:19 PM ET Associated Press FAR HILLS, N.J. — The USGA will have a final qualifying site in South Carolina to account for a new tournament that replaces the RBC Canadian Open. The addition of Long Cove Club on Hilton Head Island brings the total number of final qualifying sites to 10 in the United

LOS ANGELES — Former World No. 1 Yani Tseng made news with her return this season to the LPGA after not playing on tour since the 2019 Lotte Championship. In four starts in 2021, however, the 15-time winner has yet to make a cut, extending a streak that dates back to the 2018 Swinging Skirts

11:40 PM ET Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Jessica Korda birdied three of the final four holes for a 7-under 64 and a one-stroke lead Wednesday after the first round of the HUGEL Air Premia LA Open. Korda had eight birdies and a bogey at Wilshire Country Club. She won the season-opening Diamond Resorts Tournament

AVONDALE, La.—A lot of teams at this week’s Zurich Classic make perfect sense—Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson are longtime Ryder Cup teammates; Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay bonded at the 2019 Presidents Cup and figure to be a formidable duo at this fall’s Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits; Aussies Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith are

AVONDALE, La.—Cameron Smith has three top-10s, including a runner-up, in five appearances at the Masters, a success rate that he attributes in large part to that week’s departure from the monotony of regular PGA Tour golf and the creativity required around the golfing brilliance that is Augusta National. Perhaps, too, that same logic explains his

2:07 PM ET ESPN News Services Seamus Power of Ireland has withdrawn from the Zurich Classic of New Orleans after testing positive for the coronavirus. Power was replaced in the PGA Tour’s only official team event by Zack Sucher, who will partner with David Hearn of Canada. Power is the 30th player to test positive,

Reigning U.S. Amateur champ Tyler Strafaci announced Wednesday he will turn pro after the upcoming Walker Cup. Strafaci will make his debut at the AT&T Byron Nelson. “Amateur golf will always have a special place in my heart, and I am proud that I was able to continue in my family’s legacy in the amateur

3:15 PM ET Charlotte GibsonESPN Inspired by the WNBA’s #OrangeHoodie campaign and the attention that it brought the league, Michelle Wie West has worked with the LPGA to design the #HoodieForGolf campaign to spread more awareness for women’s golf and amplify women’s sports. “We wanted to create this hoodie to help elevate the visibility of

The unpredictable format is why most of our experts are fading one of the favorites in lieu of some better value elsewhere. Our anonymous tour caddie and data scientist Rick Gehman of RickRunGood.com are fading Collin Morikawa and Matthew Wolff and three of our experts are fading Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, who have the

LOS ANGELES — The Hollywood sign looms large over Wilshire Country Club, where the LPGA’s Hugel-Air Premia LA Open begins on Wednesday. It’s apropos of the drama that could be playing out this week and throughout the spring and summer on the LPGA Tour. Since July 2019, Jin Young Ko has held the No. 1

6:46 PM ET The PGA Tour put in place this year a $40 million bonus plan that will pay the top 10 players based on how much they “move the needle” rather than their performance on the course. In theory, players such as Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth could

Monday qualifying is sport’s purest form of meritocracy. No matter who you are or where you are from, if you can play, you can play yourself into a tournament. It sounds simple, and it is, which is its beauty and singularity; after all, one can’t go from a beer league to the New York Yankees

12:41 PM ET The PGA Tour is strongly encouraging its players and caddies to get the COVID-19 vaccines, sending a memo on Monday that outlined how it will eventually stop on-site testing while also attempting to debunk some of the myths associated with the shots. In the memo obtained by ESPN, the Tour said while

This is one of the most interesting weeks of the year for golf DFS. Many of the tour players look forward to the Zurich Classic, and we do, too—as the rare team event offers an opportunity to find an edge over the casual player if you know how to build teams optimally. DraftKings scoring will

Billy Horschel last competed on European soil in September 2019 as one of the few Americans to tee it up at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in England. He spoke glowingly of the event and tied for fourth that week. It was also the first and only time in his career that the 34-year-old

5:20 PM ET A limited number of spectators will be permitted to attend both the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines (South) in San Diego and the U.S. Women’s Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco this June. To do so under California guidelines, residents of the state must provide a negative COVID-19 test or

Lydia Ko won her 16th LPGA Tour title on Sunday before her 24th birthday. That in itself, obviously, is an amazing statistical achievement. But it’s even more incredible when you factor in that Ko has racked up that many trophies despite her career including a three-year winless drought. In other words, Lydia Ko was even

6:57 PM ET Associated Press HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Stewart Cink shot a steady, stress-free 70 to cap off a dominant, record-breaking week that resulted in his third RBC Heritage title on Sunday. The 47-year-old Cink finished at 19-under 265 at Harbour Town, 4 shots better than Emiliano Grillo and Harold Varner III. Grillo

HILTON HEAD, S.C. — “He’s old and he’s kicking everyone’s a**.” Those words, from Harold Varner III, came right after he called Stewart Cink “old as—” and stopped himself in the nick of time, and may be all the summary we need for what went down this weekend in Hilton Head. The truth is, we’re

The upcoming Ryder Cup in his home state of Wisconsin clearly isn’t weighing on Steve Stricker. Nope. On Sunday, after capturing the Chubb Classic in Naples, Fla., for his sixth win on the PGA Tour Champions, the U.S. captain had his mind on—now get this—the FedEx Cup playoffs. And, well, why not? At 54, he’s

5:51 PM ET United States’ John Catlin claimed his third European Tour title in eight months after defeating Germany’s Maximilian Kieffer in a thrilling playoff battle at the Austrian Open on Sunday. Catlin finished with a round of seven-under-par 65 at Diamond Country Club, near Vienna, to tie for the top spot at 14-under alongside

A year ago, Webb Simpson bucked an odd bit of recent history at the RBC Heritage. Simpson shared the 54-hole lead at Harbour Town Golf Link last June, then shot a closing 64 to walk off with the title. In so doing, he was the first golfer to win at Hilton Head who had led

1:01 AM ET Associated Press KAPOLEI, Hawaii — Lydia Ko is golfing like she is a kid again. In other words, she’s tough to beat. No one came close at this week’s Lotte Championship. Ko torched Kapolei Golf Club and tournament records in the process. A final-round 65 Saturday left her at 28-under 260 and

Players who achieve early success receive great expectations for their careers. At 23, Lydia Ko is no stranger to those with the lengthy resume from her teenage years. She was the youngest, at 15, to win an LPGA Tour title and became the youngest World No. 1 ever at 17 years old. She won 14

HILTON HEAD, S.C.—This coming week, after the RBC Heritage is over, Stewart Cink will undergo one of the least fun processes in life: moving from one place to another. Saturday night, following a third-round 69 that represented a comedown from his ridiculous 63-63 opening rounds, but kept him five shots ahead of his nearest competitor,

7:49 PM ET Associated Press NAPLES, Fla. — Fred Couples put in more work than usual to get ready for the Masters, only to have his worst performance in 36 appearances. Back on the PGA Tour Champions, he was more at ease and close to flawless. Couples didn’t miss a fairway, setting up wedges or

HILTON HEAD, S.C. — If you squint your eyes just a little, the most interesting man on the PGA Tour is 23-year-old Reagan Cink. At the very least, he seems to be the most valuable; as his father’s caddie, he seems to have played a major role in rejuvenating a career that looked to be

12:33 AM ET Associated Press KAPOLEI, Hawaii — Lydia Ko again put herself in position for her first win in three years, shooting a 7-under 65 on Friday to take a one-stroke lead into the final round of the Lotte Championship. Nelly Korda, who went back and forth with Ko for the lead throughout the