Before each round Dustin Johnson plays on the PGA TOUR, he goes through an extensive warm-up routine. Enjoy this all-access look at how he prepares for competition.

GAUTENG, South Africa – Jaco van Zyl shot a 7-under 65 Thursday to top a South African-dominated leaderboard in the first round of the SA Open, the European Tour’s first event of 2016.

Van Zyl maintained the form that put him in ties for eighth and 13th at the season-opening Alfred Dunhill Championship and Nedbank Golf Challenge before Christmas, hitting six birdies and an eagle.

It was the 36-year-old Van Zyl’s first round of golf without the assistance of knee braces since he underwent surgery to both knees in March 2014.

Shaun Norris was alone in second place after a 66, and Jbe Kruger and Keith Horne were tied for third at 5 under at Glendower Golf Club as South Africans filled the top four places. Two more were in a six-way tie at 4 under – Justin Walters and 2006 winner Retief Goosen – on a low-scoring day when the rough was less penal after a recent drought and heatwave.

Defending champion Andy Sullivan of England shot 3 over and was 10 strokes off the pace.

Play was suspended for the day because of the threat of lightning, with 33 players still to finish their rounds. Nicolas Colsaerts (shoulder) and Richard Finch (Achilles) retired in the first round.

Van Zyl has 13 victories on South Africa’s Sunshine Tour but is yet to win on the European Tour, with the most recent of his four runner-up finishes coming at the Turkish Airlines Open in November.

“I’ve had a couple of weeks off, spending time with the family,” Van Zyl said. “I’ve had my fair share of whisky and Christmas pudding so it was really nice to get off to a good start.”

Starting at No. 10, Van Zyl picked up four shots on his front nine, and moved to 7 under after an eagle 3 at the par-5 second hole. He made up for his only bogey of the round, on No. 7, by making a birdie from three feet on the next hole.

Fairhaven, MA – FootJoy has announced its plan to expand into women’s performance apparel with the launch of FJ Golfleisure.  With the rapid growth of its men’s apparel line after entering the market just 4 years ago, FJ expands into the women’s market with a golf focused line inspired by the women’s athleisure lifestyle movement.

“The rise of athleisure women’s apparel driven by lifestyle changes inspired by fitness and wellness, has led us to develop this exciting range.  As an authentic golf brand focused on performance golf wearables, we feel there is an opportunity in the market for a golf interpretation of the athleisure lifestyle movement,” said Whitney Trimble, Director of Marketing-FJ Apparel.  “We also believe this is not a trend but rather a lifestyle shift in women’s apparel that needs to be addressed by a brand whose sole focus and passion is golf.”

FJ Golfleisure features an array of multifunctional silhouettes in comfortable performance fabrics for the active golfer while allowing these styles to also be worn for every day routine.  The range includes body mapped base layers, performance mid-layers, full zip hoodies, skorts, leggings, space dye layering styles along with performance shirts and outerwear.  All items are specifically designed for golf while being tailored for the player’s athleisure lifestyle.

Introduction of the FJ Golfleisure line will take place at the upcoming PGA Show in Orlando and include significant marketing support such as a lookbook catalog.

The Canadian line will be available in Canadian golf shops beginning Spring, 2017.

FAIRHAVEN, Mass. – Pinnacle Golf introduced a pair of new golf balls on Tuesday, with the Rush and Soft models.

The Rush design is a distance ball, while the Soft is to live up to its name, offering great feel at a modest price.

Here’s a little more about the two new products.

PINNACLE RUSH is designed with proprietary high-energy core technology that produces fast ball speed for extraordinary distance on all full swing shots. Rush utilizes an advanced icosahedral dimple design with 332 dimples to deliver a consistent, powerful ball flight, while its soft, durable ionomer cover provides great feel.

“Pinnacle Rush is designed to max out a golfer’s distance potential. It’s a distance-focused construction with a low compression core and a firm cover. That combination gives you high initial velocity off the clubface with very low spin, which is the perfect recipe for hitting it long. And because Rush has a lower overall compression than most other distance balls, it provides a very playable feel,” said Scott Cooper, Titleist R&D’s Product Development Manager. “We design, engineer and manufacture every Pinnacle golf ball ourselves. That’s a huge advantage which allows us to deliver the distance and performance these golfers want along with exceptional consistency.”

Pinnacle Rush is available in both White and Optic Yellow.

PINNACLE SOFT is engineered with a high-energy, extremely low compression core –Pinnacle’s lowest compression core ever – that delivers extremely soft feel along with low spin for long distance. The proprietary core formulation combines with an incredibly soft ionomer cover to produce the softest-feeling Pinnacle ever made. Soft’s advanced icosahedral dimple design with 332 dimples ensures an ideal, consistent flight.

“Pinnacle Soft is designed for the golfer that wants soft feel on every single shot. It’s the softest core we’ve ever manufactured, combined with one of our softest cover blends. The ball just feels fantastic no matter which club is in your hands,” Cooper said. “Yet this is still a Pinnacle golf ball, and when golfers tee up a Pinnacle they expect long distance. We’ve made sure that this new construction, from the core to the cover to the aerodynamics package, still delivers on that expectation.”

Pinnacle Soft is available in three color options: White (with black play number); White (with pink play number); and Pink (with black play number).

New Pinnacle Rush and Soft are available in golf shops beginning January 2016.

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Jordan Spieth had an answer for anyone curious about what he will do for an encore.

“Doesn’t an encore mean that the show is then over?” he said Tuesday.

The 22-year-old Texan is well aware of the attention that will be heaped on him when he starts a new year at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. His hope is to get better in areas of the game that could improve, no matter how slight.

That doesn’t mean it will translate into two majors and a shot at the Grand Slam, five PGA Tour titles, $12 million in earnings, a Vardon Trophy and a FedEx Cup title with its $10 million bonus, or even staying at No. 1 in the world.

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are the only players in the last 20 years to win two majors and play consistently well enough to win the PGA Tour money title.

Spieth has his own set of expectations. The golfing public will have another.

“I’m sure they’ll measure it based on last year,” Spieth said. “The easiest thing for me to look at is Rory in the past. After his 2014, they’ll compare 2015. I think 2013 was the year which he considered a letdown for him after a major championship in ’12. It just seems that you’re judging from the previous year. That’s the general public, so I give you my perspective as being in the general public for somebody else.

“For me, I’m not even thinking of it as a new year,” he said. “I’m just thinking we had a three-week break and we’re just continuing to hopefully stay at the same level.”

So what would he consider a great year?

“Last year,” he said with a smile.

The only difference is the month and the numbers for the new year.

He played the Australian Open. He played in the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. He took a side trip to Augusta National with his dad and his agent, stepping into the Champions Locker Room for the first time, the space above the clubhouse reserved for Masters champions.

And then he was home in Dallas for Christmas, long enough to sit down with coach Cameron McCormick and pore over the statistics to see what needed work.

He targeted his wedge play, not only hitting it closer from 60 yards to 140 yards, but getting up-and-down around the green. McCormick sees the numbers before Spieth, and he asked Spieth how he felt about various aspects of his game.

Spieth told him he felt his wedge game was average last year, “and it was as average as any category that we had.”

That’s hard to believe, particularly because Spieth’s wedge game was a big part of his wire-to-wire victory in the Masters when he tied Woods’ record score of 270. Spieth felt a little bit better that Shotlink statistics were not available at Augusta National and other majors.

And now he’s off and running – along with a little swimming.

Unlike two years ago when he first qualified for this winners-only event at Kapalua, he brought his family with him (except for brother Steven, the shooting guard at Brown who already is back to school and to basketball). Spieth still has a small rash on the inside of his left elbow from trying to spearfish. He has taken teenage sister Ellie swimming and even jumped off the rocks into the ocean at the Cliff House down by the shore.

Spieth finished one shot behind Zach Johnson at Kapalua when he first qualified for this winners-only event two years ago. He has a busy start to the year, as usual, only this time he is taking a detour to Asia to play in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship and the Singapore Open, before returning to Pebble Beach and Riviera. A year ago, he finished one shot out of a playoff at Riviera.

The real measure, as with so many other top players, will be the majors. The other measure, invariably, will be how he stacks up against 2015.

Graeme McDowell knows the feeling. He won four times in 2010, including the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, and he won the clinching match for Europe in the Ryder Cup.

“From a mental point of view, it’s like shooting 63 in the second round and you go out Saturday and try to back that up,” McDowell said. “We all deal with it different. Jordan seems to take things in stride. He seems to have an unbelievable head on his shoulders. No doubt, a big story line is how he’s doing to do. It’s hard to follow up what he’s accomplished. But nothing he does surprises you.”

LONDON – Christy O’Connor Jr., the Irish golfer who produced the shot of his career to help Europe win the 1989 Ryder Cup, has died. He was 67.

The European Tour said Wednesday that O’Connor died in his sleep while on holiday in Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands.

The crowning moment of O’Connor’s career came at the Ryder Cup at The Belfry in 1989.

O’Connor hit a 2-iron from the fairway to about 3 ½ feet for a birdie at the 18th to beat Fred Couples. The shot helped ensure the Ryder Cup finished 14-14, meaning Europe retained the trophy as defending champion.

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Jim Furyk wanted nothing more than to be in Kapalua for the start of the new year on the PGA Tour. His left wrist refused to cooperate.

Furyk hasn’t played since he walked off the course in the first round of the BMW Championship on Sept. 17 with what turned out to be a bone bruise on his wrist. He wound up missing the Presidents Cup, and took the rest of the year off to make sure it was fully healed.

But it’s taking longer than he expected.

After hitting balls for a few days, he noticed a little soreness and questioned whether he could play an entire week.

“It’s not 100 percent,” Furyk said Tuesday from his home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. “I don’t want to get out there and play and show up just to show up. I’ve been hitting balls since early December, but I wasn’t going to be as strong as I needed to be. To push it and try to get there early didn’t seem like the right move. In my mind, it’s not the right way.”

Furyk hasn’t been to Kapalua in five years. He ended the longest drought of his PGA Tour career by winning the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head in a playoff over Kevin Kisner.

In previous years when Furyk didn’t win, he typically started his year at the AT&T Pebble Beach National.

Now that’s the goal.

“First and foremost, I want to be healthy and get stronger,” he said. “It’s been a long, long layoff. In a perfect world, I think I’d be ready for Pebble and LA, but I know I’m going to be rusty. I’d like to play those two and evaluate where I’m at. It would be nice to go into March and hit the road running.”

Considering how the last three months have gone, he’s not sure what to expect.

“That bone bruise, from what I’ve learned about it, is real tricky,” he said. “They didn’t put a cast on my wrist because they felt it would get too stiff. It’s going to take some time. The doctor said this could be great in two to three threes, or it could be two or three months. It’s frustrating because there’s nothing I can do.”

Rock Ishii, Nike Golf’s Senior Director of Innovation for Golf Balls, and his team of engineers are constantly looking into the future to find ways to change the ball so that it performs better.

Since launching its first ball in 1999, Nike Golf has found ways to break the traditional molds and discover new construction methods and materials to give the athlete the best possible tool to succeed at the highest level. These include scientific investigations — in physics and aerodynamics — and material explorations for each layer in the ball. The result is an unwavering pursuit of improvements in distance, feel and spin.

• 2000, Nike Tour Accuracy: Nike created one of the first solid core golf balls which helped Tiger Woods win more than 20 tournaments, including four consecutive major championships.
• 2003, Nike One: One of the industry’s first 4-piece constructed golf balls.
• 2011, Nike 20XI: The first RZN core was introduced, going against conventional methods by using a new lighter and faster core allowing weight to be moved to the perimeter for better stability.
• 2014, Nike RZN: This ball took RZN material to a new level with Speedlock technology.

Nike Golf’s latest advancement is the RZN Tour ball, engineered to feel soft without sacrificing distance.

“We still have so many opportunities to innovate the golf ball,” said Ishii. “This is innovation. This is where we are now. And we are heading toward our future.”

RZN Tour

Featuring a 4-piece urethane cover design, the RZN Tour ball utilizes four key components: RZN 4.0, Speedlock X Core, Speedlock Mantle and Flight Suit Cover. These combined technologies help propel the RZN Tour/Black and RZN Tour/Platinum balls to added yardage and a softer feel versus the previous RZN Black and RZN Platinum.

“The ball feels much softer, yet I’ve maintained my ball speed and even picked up a few yards overall,” said Nike Golf athlete Rory McIlroy. “It’s easily the best combination of distance and feel I’ve ever played.”

Made with the newest iteration of RZN material, RZN 4.0, the blue center core is not only softer but also 10 percent bigger than the previous generation. This gives the ball what amounts to a bigger engine, thus unlocking faster ball speeds.

The core utilizes Speedlock X technology. The core of the RZN Tour ball features deeper grooves and a X-shaped surface pattern which creates 26 percent more surface area than the former generation to allow better energy transfer through the ball and ultimately provides more distance and faster ball speeds. Surrounding the core, the Speedlock Mantle and its Speedlock grooves help engage the cover of the golf ball for greater spin on shorter shots with high-lofted clubs.

The ball’s Flight Suit cover features visible technology: 344 dimples and 13,558 micro dimples. To achieve longer ball flight, engineers utilized advanced aerodynamics by adding the micro dimples, strategically spread across the cover of the ball, which help facilitate improved lift and drag properties especially at the end of the ball flight.

The RZN Tour ball will be available in two versions: Black for lower-spin distance and Platinum for mid-spin control.

RZN Speed

In addition to the RZN Tour, Nike Golf engineers also created the RZN Speed golf balls, two new 3-piece constructed balls designed for ultimate forgiveness and softer feel.

The same Speedlock X Core technology from the RZN Tour ball helps maximize energy transfer for faster ball speed and ultimate forgiveness in the RZN Speed balls.

A softer RZN formulation provides a softer feel without sacrificing distance.

The RZN Speed ball will be available in two versions: Red for longer carry and White for softer feel.

Both the RZN Tour and RZN Speed golf balls will be available on January 29 at select retailers.

PGA of Canada Master Professional Henry Brunton took to the Golf Channel studios to share some tips that will help you to improve your game. Check  them out…

European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley laid out ambitious plans with hopes of becoming a “viable alternative” to the PGA Tour.

That starts with an increase in prize money, and he went so far as to say that it would make more sense for the European Tour’s flagship event to be the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai ($8 million purse) instead of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth ($5 million purse) because of the money.

Another measure of the mountain he has to climb is the world ranking.

The gap continues to widen in the average ranking points for PGA Tour events compared with Europe – up an average of one point this year, two points from 2012.

Including the four majors and the four World Golf Championships, the PGA Tour averaged 56.4 points for the winner compared with 42.2 points for the European Tour. That’s a difference of 14.2 points, up from 13.3 points a year ago.

Throw out the majors (each worth 100 points) and the WGCs, and the PGA Tour offered an average of 49.5 points compared with 32.9 points for the European Tour.

The European Tour had six regular events that offered 50 points or more, including the BMW PGA Championship, which is guaranteed 64 points as the flagship event. The PGA Tour had seven events that offered 60 points or more, including The Players Championship, which is guaranteed 80 points (The Players actually has a stronger field by raw numbers than three of the majors).

The four events in The Finals Series for the Race to Dubai offered an average of 53 points to the winner. The four FedEx Cup playoff events on the PGA Tour awarded an average of 68.5 points to the winner.

Pelley is aware he needs time to become a viable option, and his target is the next generation of players.

“That’s not going to happen necessarily in 2016,” Pelley said last month in Dubai. “You’ll start to see it happen in 2017. You’ll start to see it come to fruition in 2018. We definitely in three to five years will have a viable alternative, so that 17-, 18-, 19-year-old doesn’t necessarily need to go to America to be able to make as much money as they possibly can.”