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Tiger Woods will team with son for 2022 PNC Championship as 15-time major winner adds to December schedule

detlef32 — Fri, 25 Nov 2022 18:39:38 +0000

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After playing just nine rounds over the first 11 months of 2022, Tiger Woods is poised to play seven more in the next three weeks. Woods has officially committed to play the PNC Championship Dec. 16-17 in Orlando with his son, Charlie. This marks the end of a three-week stretch in which Tiger will have played the Hero World Challenge (which his foundation hosts), The Match (alongside Rory McIlroy and against Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas) and finally the PNC.

Tiger and Charlie finished second in 2021 at the PNC Championship behind John Daly and his son, John II, despite a scorching second nine from the Woods’ on the second day of the two-round event. It was an exhibition tournament that somehow turned into one of the most fun days of the golf year.

It’s true that Woods’ next seven rounds won’t be played with anything near the intensity of his last nine — four at the Masters, three at the PGA Championship and two at the Open Championship at St. Andrews — but it’s still a2 bit surprising to see Woods tee it up this often during golf’s quietest season. Each event makes sense in a vacuum, but on the whole it’s a lot of golf for somebody who is still recovering from a nearly severed leg in a car wreck at the beginning of 2021.

It should also be encouraging for those who want to see a lot of Woods in 2023. We will speculate about his schedule at a later date — perhaps after seeing how he looks in these three events — but it’s difficult to envision Woods, barring a setback, playing three exhibitions at the end of 2022 and then sitting out the biggest events of the competitive golf year in 2023. At the very least, Woods will very likely play in at least if not all four of the major championships.

That’s then, though, and this is now. In the dark of the (admittedly) short golf offseason, Tiger will be a massive draw and a ton of fun to watch, perhaps most of all at the PNC Championship. Because while seeing him at the Hero alongside Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa and Scottie Scheffler and at The Match with McIlroy, Thomas and Spieth will be great, watching his son emulate a dad (who is also the best to ever do it) at this event for the third year in a row will probably be the most joyful of them all.

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Tony Finau poised for exciting run in 2023 as five-time PGA Tour winner continues to gather confidence

detlef32 — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 23:31:04 +0000

How many golfers have engendered more excitement about this upcoming year than Tony Finau? The list is not long, especially following Finau’s victory at the Houston Open over the weekend where he defeated Tyson Alexander by four to cash his third win in his last seven PGA Tour starts.

This is not the level success many envisioned Finau enjoying this year. Finau finished T19 at the small field Tournament of Champions in January but didn’t notch a single top 25 until the Mexico Open the first week in May where he finished T2. Since then, he’s been on the tear of his career, at least in terms of victories.

“Yeah, this is definitely the most all parts of my game have been clicking, but I would say I’ve played a lot of good golf for a while,” said Finau after his win in Houston. “I didn’t have a lot of wins to show for it, but I’ve pieced together a game, and that’s what you have to do out here. You know, with my experience, again as I alluded to, trying to be more of a precision player, because I don’t lack speed, so learning how to drive it in the fairway, working on my wedge game, working on my putter, those are all things that I worked extremely hard on.

“And I feel like I’ve been a very solid player for a long time, but it’s exciting for me that I’m getting better, and that’s all I can ask of myself is try and get better in the areas that I really need to. And then remember why you are where you are. I think I don’t go too far away from the DNA of my game, and how I see the game and I think I’m kind of bearing the fruits of how I see the game now and I’m able to hit the shots that I can see, which is pretty cool.”

Including that Mexico Open, Finau has seven top-five finishes in 15 starts, including three of his five career PGA Tour victories. It runs deeper than that; with an improved short game, Finau is one of just eight golfers who has been averaging over 2.0 strokes gained per round — top-five level in the world — since June 1, and he’s closer to No. 1 than he is to No. 8.

Rory McIlroy: 3.0 SG/round
Tony Finau: 2.6
Patrick Cantlay: 2.4
Xander Schauffele: 2.4
Jon Rahm: 2.4
Dustin Johnson: 2.3
Will Zalatoris: 2.2
Daniel Berger: 2.0

This is where the excitement comes in. McIlroy is obviously playing at a top-tier level, but Finau is not that far behind. Whether he can sustain that into a new year that begins with some monster tournaments and includes four majors in seven months remains to be seen, but it’s clear that Finau has kicked it into another gear.

“I’ve always felt like I’ve been very mentally strong,” said Finau on Sunday. “Sometimes I feel like once my game matches up to my mental attitude, I feel like I can be a great player. I feel like I’ve been a good player, showed some brilliance in spurts, but being consistent, to be consistently great takes a full game both mental and physical, and I feel like, honestly, my physical game is starting to match up to my mental. I’ve always been tough, I’ve always been strong mentally. Having a game that matches that is, I think, a great combination and I’m starting to see that with myself.”

Statistically, Finau is over-performing in all four major categories compared to his career averages. That is seemingly unsustainable, though none of them are that far beyond his baseline. Are we looking at a player making the leap into another category altogether, or simply a stretch of hot golf that will bolster the Wikipedia page?

There’s a difference, though, in winning 3M and Houston Opens and doing it at Riviera and the Memorial. Will this recent mini-jump be enough to push Finau over the top at some of the elevated events (or even majors) in 2023?

The answers to those questions will go a long way in determining whether the excitement surrounding the No. 12 player in the world going into 2023 is justified. Though Finau has thrived at major championships in the past (10 top 10s in 26 starts), he has yet to truly contend late on a Sunday. Even more perplexing is the fact that he’s never risen past the No. 9 spot in the Official World Golf Rankings — but that seems like it’s going to happen over the next year.

The First Cut podcast crew is back to bring you their recap of the Cadence Bank Houston Open. Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

If you made me list the players I’m most excited about watching and evaluating in 2023, McIlroy, Finau, Rahm, Jordan Spieth and (perhaps in an upset) Matthew Fitzpatrick are probably a personal top five. They all encapsulate the crossroads of intrigue, upside, talent and pieces of the unknown in ways most other players, at least at this juncture, do not.

Finau could go winless in 2023 or he could win two majors and become the PGA Tour Player of the Year. His long-term history and recent performance meld to create maybe the widest spectrum of outcomes of any player in the world right now.

One thing is for sure, though: Finau is playing with a refreshed belief — he said on Sunday that winning creates a confidence that is “contagious” — in himself and his game. His ceiling is high because his gifts are off the charts. He figured out how that can translate to wins in 2022. With that year and this history under his belt, what will he figure out in 2023 and beyond?

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