It was a day of upsets at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. Bryson DeChambeau's loss to Frenchman Antoine Rozner was the shock of the day closely followed by the hefty defeat Rory McIlroy suffered at Ian Poulter's hands.
Rory McIlroy and Canadian Corey Conners lead after round one of the Arnold Palmer Invitational from Bay Hill. The pair opened with a six-under-par 66 to lead by a shot from Bryson Dechambeau.
As the low scoring continued at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii on Saturday Ryan Palmer, shot the lights out with a nine-under 64 to join Harris English at the top of the leaderboard.
Camilo Villegas carried his excellent form into Friday at the RSM Classic. The 38-year-old from Colombia shot a six-under 66 to add to his opening 64 but it was Robert Streb who grabbed a two-stroke lead after a nine-under 63. “I don’t want to be the one that breaks it,” Streb said. “There’s still a lot of golf left, and we’ll see what happens.”
Justin Thomas takes a one shot lead into the weekend at the Zozo Championship at the Sherwood Country Club in California. Thomas matched his opening round of 65 with a flawless round which included a stretch of five birdies in six holes on his first nine. "Got off to a hot start today and kind of coasted coming in," said Thomas
Bryson Dechambeau cam down to earth with a slight bump in the third round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Level par rounds are no good in a tournament where the leaders are averaging rounds of better than six under par! Round of the day came from U.S. Open runner-up Matthew Wolff who had an incredible run of three eagles in a five hole spell on the back nine of his round of 61.
Finally, golf is back after a three-month wait following the COVID-19 pandemic. Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth is hosting the Charles Schwab Challenge and nearly all the world’s best players will be teeing up today.
Italy has just gone into lockdown and around the world sports events are starting to be impacted by the Coronavirus crisis. All golf events cancelled to date have been mainly in Asia but now Europe and the USA are beginning to take action to stem the spread of the virus. The Masters is only a month away, and the signs are not promising.
Trial by television was with us again at the Bay Hill Classic on Thursday. No Patrick Reed this time but rather the squeaky-clean Justin Rose. Rose had a tricky chip from the back of the 11th which he ran some 10 feet past the pin but did he move the ball at address?
We thought Brooks Koepka had rather put the boot into Patrick Reed with his comments about building sandcastles but ex-CBS golf commentator Peter Kostis went even further this week inferring that Reed was a serial cheat.
Here we go... the first five GolfPunk Top 50 Of All Timers!!!
World No. 3-ranked Rory McIlroy, No. 4 Bubba Watson and No. 8 Dustin Johnson will start the first round at No. 1, at 1:58 p.m., and the second round at No. 10, at 8:43 p.m. Here are the othe supergroups.
