National Amateur Squad member Hugo Bernard of Mont-St-Hilaire, Que., has officially signed on as a member of the Saint Leo Lions golf team for the 2016 season.

Bernard, a former Quebec Men’s Amateur Champion, joins senior and fellow Canadian Joey Savoie (Montreal) in Saint Leo, Fla., as one of 12 on the Lions’ roster.

The smooth-swinging lefty joins the Lions on the heels of a season that featured Top-5 finishes at all three legs of the Quebec triple crown (Quebec Amateur, Duke of Kent, Alexander of Tunis) and a runner-up finish at the Canadian Amateur.

Bernard and the third-ranked Lions (Div II) are set to kick off competition in 2016 when they take on the field at the Matlock Collegiate Classic from Feb. 8–9.

Click here to view the Saint Leo Lions schedule.

Continued education of certified coaches delivers added benefits to the athlete, the parents, the teaching professionals themselves and ultimately, the future of Canada’s next generation of golfers.

National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) certified coaches belong to a select group that have chosen to pursue the highest education, giving them the knowledge to excel in all areas of coaching golf.

Click the below infographic to download live PDF version with videos.

CALGARY – Alberta Golf has announced the launch of She Swings She Scores, a program designed to introduce girls aged 6-12 to the sport of golf. She Swings She Scores focuses on girls currently participating in hockey by encouraging them to switch their hockey sticks for golf clubs at local hockey tournaments and community events. The goal of the program is to bring golf directly to girls and provide opportunities for players and teammates to learn the sport together in a fun, safe and developmental environment.

“Our goal over the next four years is to spark an interest in girls to try golf, bringing more of this key demographic into a game for life,” explains Matt Rollins, Executive Director/CEO at Alberta Golf.

Alberta Golf will set up an onsite hitting station and kiosk at hockey tournaments, where girls can try using golf clubs, enter in contests and get free swag. In addition to introducing the girls to golf, the program will educate parents and coaches about the Learn to Golf Field Trip Program.

“This initiative is a model for collaboration and partnership across provincial sport organizations in support of underrepresented and marginalized group’s participation in sport opportunities,” says Aaron Lavorato, Sport Consultant at Alberta Sport Connection. Support for the sport program is provided by Sport Canada and Alberta Sport Connection.

The first She Swings She Scores event will take place at The Olds Sport Complex in Olds on January 15th, 2016. For more information, click here or contact angela@albertagolf.org.

It is an inspired program that has the power to change lives—to send youngsters on a path to golfing stardom or to simply introduce them to a previously unforeseen athletic pursuit; to nurture confidence in a withdrawn individual and to instill the game’s greatest virtues at a key time in a student’s personal growth.

The (GIS) program has signed up more than 2,700 schools representing more than 315,000 students, but there are gaps that need to be filled as the program prepares for its next stage of evolution, the most prominent being with the end user.

For most of the year—and in many cases for years following a program’s initial implementation—equipment and teachers’ manuals sit dormant in gymnasium storage rooms. That’s not to say the responsibility lies entirely with the schools.

“We need more people, which is the answer to many of the challenges we have in growing golf,” explains the Golf Association of Ontario’s Executive Director Mike Kelly. “It’s the missing piece to what will allow programs like CN Future Links or Golf in Schools to take flight, or in growing the sport in general, for that matter—that we don’t have the infrastructure at the community level to support it.”

Within that framework, however, both Kelly and Golf Canada’s Chief Sport Officer Jeff Thompson see a need for volunteers to take the lead within their respective communities.

“The next step is creating relationships with schools and connecting them with local golf facilities,” says Thompson. “But that’s a big job to even expect from provincial associations.”

Consequently, Golf Canada is seeking to leverage the Community Golf Coach training program, which was designed in partnership with the PGA of Canada and the Coaching Association of Canada. “We also need to identify community ambassadors who have an interest and passion to support schools running a GIS program and who can connect to golf facilities,” Thompson adds.

Those community golf coaches can come from non-PGA members, notes Thompson. “Members of golf clubs who might be retired can take the community golf coach training, which arms them with the resources and intelligence to make them comfortable to go into schools and establish a relationship with the facility and the teachers, and help ensure that the roots run deep and that the program will continue over time.” The first of those community ambassadors will be Grant Fraser, founder of the Golf Management Institute of Canada and professor of the Professional Golf Management (PGM) program at Niagara College.

“We’re going to pilot an initiative where he goes to four or flve facilities and talks to them about how he’s planning to create golf communities, linking schools with golf facilities that are keen to get involved,” Thompson explains. “It would be great to have one of him in every 40-kilometre radius!” Fraser, whose third year Niagara College PGM students have conducted annual fundraisers for the past four years, raising an estimated $7,500 in adopting 11 Niagaraarea schools, is a natural and enthusiastic flt.

“My students take pride in helping to grow the game,” he says. “Up until now I’ve been satisfied doing that, but it’s not enough. Going forward, I want to have my students help introduce the program to the schools—to physically go there and help the teacher get the equipment into the hands of the kids.”

Other similarly impassioned individuals can be found throughout the country, from Hughendon Golf Course owner Lee Cooper offering free golf to students aged 13 and under at neighbouring Amisk Public School in rural Alberta, to Chris Veltkamp, founder and director of the Play Golf Junior Tour and athletic coordinator and Phys. Ed. Teacher at St. Mary St. Cecilia in Morrisburg, Ont., who has been providing golf to schools he’s worked in for 10 years, including developing a rudimentary four-hole golf course in a empty lot beside his current school. And there’s P.E.I. Provincial Golf Coach Dallas Desjardins, a legendary Golf in Schools and junior golf supporter, and Wayne Allen, head pro at Blomidon GC in Corner Brook, Nfld., who has recruited 16 schools in Newfoundland and Labrador. The list goes on, but many more—particularly at the community level—need to step forward if Golf Canada’s ambitious plans are to bear fruit.

No one is more passionate about addressing that issue than Kelly, who developed Canada’s first Golf in Schools program in 2001 at Ontario’s Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board.

Kelly’s plan of attack involves creating new zones within Ontario, the purpose of each to grow local participation. “Each zone will be a combination of all of the partners in Ontario: the GAO, Golf Canada, the National Golf Course Owners Association, the PGA of Ontario, Ontario Golf Course Superintendents and Canadian Society of Club Managers. Golf Barrie is going to be the pilot. Now we have to recruit more people like Grant, who are passionate about Golf in Schools, can get out into the community and talk to the teacher once a month and be part of the program and give teachers reasons to do it.”

Making the game more visible and accessible is key to the plan, Kelly says. “Part of the challenge is that you don’t see golf anywhere but at a golf course. There’s a fear of what’s ‘over there.’ We need to make it part of community events. Golf in Schools is a ‘try’ activity. Then we can move it to the ‘learn’ side of things. If we can get people to play golf, they’re going to enjoy it and get hooked.”

Pay for Play

Funding the program is also a continuing focus. Currently, two-thirds of all new GIS participating schools are the result of ‘adoptions,’ whereby an individual or corporation donates to bring the program to the school. Golf Canada is consequently actively pushing further support by including it in corporate sponsorships. One example is the PGA Champions Tour’s Shaw Charity Classic, which, since its inaugural event in 2013, has made an annual $5,000 Golf in Schools donation to Alberta Golf. The association has, in turn, divided the funds into $300 parcels and donated them to multiple schools throughout the province.

Another high-proflle supporter is PGA TOUR player Graham DeLaet, who has adopted 37 Saskatchewan schools, including four in his hometown of Weyburn, through funds raised by the 2013 Graham DeLaet Charity Golf Classic, an event conducted in conjunction with Golf Saskatchewan. The contribution pushed the GIS program participation to more than 70 per cent of the province’s schools.

Golf Canada is making additional strides to explore the potential of the program. “This year we piloted an initiative around a Golf in Schools pass to 23 facilities around the country (who had made connections with schools),” says Thompson. “Those facilities can give the passes to kids to come back to their driving range to receive a free bucket of balls. The feedback we received has been positive— that those kids are not returning alone but bringing an adult or their brothers or sisters.

“And with the new Life Skills curriculum and intermediate schools program, two significant layers have been added this year,” Thompson notes. “Next year we will put together an evaluation process to see how the Life Skills curriculum is resonating with the schools.”As Kelly and Thompson point out, if the foundation can be improved and a community infrastructure added, the sky is the limit for Golf in Schools, not to mention other developmental programs. “We have more to offer families than any other sport,” says Kelly. “What we’re talking about is a massive change that will take time, but we need to start doing something. We can’t just sit and wait for people to come through the door.”

To learn more about Golf in Schools, visit www.golfinschools.ca.

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Robert Allenby returned to paradise with hopes of putting a nightmare behind him.

Allenby has missed the Sony Open only three times in his 17 years on the PGA Tour, and this would have been an acceptable occasion to miss. He went from victim of what he first described as a robbery and kidnapping to the butt of jokes over a bizarre night in Honolulu that left him with a bloodied forehead and no memory of what happened.

So why bother going back?

“I’ve got so many great memories here that I wasn’t going to let one bad one interrupt it,” he said Sunday night after checking into the Kahala Hotel at Waialae Country Club. “I also thought for my own well-being that maybe I could come here and face it and put some closure on what happened last year.”

He had dinner at the hotel with friends and already has his dining plans laid out for the week.

“Room service and (hotel) restaurant,” he said.

The 44-year-old Australian last year missed the cut in the first full-field event of the year, and then went to Amuse Wine Bar with his caddie and a friend. He recalls golf fans recognizing him and wanting a photo. He said police surveillance shows him leaving the restaurant. And that was it.

Whatever happened that night – Allenby says he still doesn’t remember anything during a 2½-hour window – it might have gone unnoticed except that Allenby posted a photo his private Facebook page of a bloody scrape on his head and a swollen eye.

Then came the tale of being tossed from the trunk of a car. Allenby said he was told that by a homeless woman who helped him escape from the park after his story was questioned. A homeless man said he saw Allenby pass out and hit his head on a rock.

He was found unconscious about a block from the restaurant.

Golf Channel cited unidentified sources at a strip club that Allenby ran up a $3,400 tab at Club Femme Nu. However, Honolulu Police Det. John McCarthy said the report was not true and the police investigation showed Allenby was never in the strip club.

Allenby believes someone slipped a date-rape drug into his drink at the restaurant when he was taking photos, which he said explains the memory loss.

A month after the incident, police arrested a Hawaii man for using Allenby’s credit cards. Owen Harbison was sentenced in August to five years.

Through it all, his reputation didn’t help.

He is renowned for a fierce temper on the golf course. Allenby once claimed Anthony Kim was out all night before the final day of the Presidents Cup – after Kim had beaten him badly in singles. He mixed it up with Geoff Ogilvy over who was to blame for a team loss in the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne two years later. And he has gone through more than a dozen caddies.

Allenby, however, said he felt as though he went from the victim to the culprit and that it marred the rest of his year.

With 21 victories worldwide – four on the PGA Tour – he made only seven cuts in 29 events and didn’t finish in the top 50 on the PGA Tour. He said he has had nightmares of being chased down a street and that he has sought help from a psychologist.

“I needed it to help overcome the stuff I’ve been dealing with,” he said.

He is using his one-time exemption from the PGA Tour career money list to play this year, so he could have just as easily started next week in the California desert. Until last week, he thought about skipping the Sony Open.

“I’ve always enjoyed coming here, and part of me just wanted to face it on the chin,” he said. “I didn’t want people to think that I wouldn’t come back. Not that I care what people think, but I wanted to come back and play well and move forward.”

Allenby remarried in October in Napa, California, the weekend before the Frys.com Open. His wife had work and did not join him on the Honolulu trip.

He has three top-10s in 14 appearances, including a runner-up finish in 2010 when Ryan Palmer beat him with a birdie on the last hole. He has missed the cut four of the last five years, but still considers Waialae a course he plays well.

“I thought long and hard about not coming,” he said. “But I said to (wife) Kym, ‘I need to go. I want to go.’ I love the golf course. The people are always so friendly to me. I know there will be media and all that, but I’m ready to move on with it. I’m not going to let it bother me. The reason I came here was to play and play well.”

CALGARY – Shaw Communications Inc. today announced it has added top-ranked Canadian golfer David Hearn to its roster of brand ambassadors, and agreed to multi-year contract extensions with fellow Canadians and PGA TOUR stars Graham DeLaet and Adam Hadwin.

With this sponsorship, Hearn, DeLaet, and Hadwin will wear the Shaw logo on their golf apparel, as they kick off the season at the PGA TOUR’s Sony Open in Hawaii from January 11-17, 2016. Both Hearn and DeLaet will wear Shaw’s logo on the front of their hats, while Hadwin will sport the logo on the collar of his golf shirt.

“Shaw’s golf sponsorship portfolio has provided us with a powerful branding platform to expand our profile across Canada, generate new business, and give back to the communities we serve in meaningful ways,” said Chethan Lakshman, Vice-President, External Affairs, Shaw Communications. “Adding David to the team strengthens our player roster and gives us more opportunities to connect with our customers and viewers through engaging golf content. We are proud to have such high-level athletes as part of the extended Shaw family, and we are looking forward to watching David, Graham and Adam as they represent Shaw on the PGA TOUR this year.”

“I’m proud to partner with Shaw – an iconic Canadian organization that is deeply rooted in the golf space, and shares my passion for growing the game in Canada,” said Hearn. “I’m excited to join the Shaw Team as an ambassador, representing the company and synonymously our country on the PGA TOUR”.

From Brantford, Ont., David Hearn has had a successful golf career across several professional tours. During the 2014 PGA TOUR season, Hearn recorded six Top-25 finishes, including three Top-10 results. In 2015, Hearn continued his solid play and excited golf fans across Canada with four Top-10 and four Top-25 finishes, which included a third place finish at the RBC Canadian Open.

Shaw’s renewed commitments to DeLaet and Hadwin include significant donations to the players’ charitable causes in Saskatchewan and British Columbia, respectively.

From Weyburn, Sask., DeLaet is one of the most popular players on the PGA TOUR. He had a breakout year in 2013, recording seven Top-10 finishes, placing eight in the FedExCup Playoffs, and being named to the Presidents Cup International Team. DeLaet continued to impress in the 2014 PGA TOUR season, with another seven Top-10 finishes, followed by three Top-10 finishes in the 2015 season.

“I’m thrilled to continue my partnership with Shaw on and off the golf course,” said DeLaet. “The support the team at Shaw has shown me, my wife Ruby, and our foundation has taken our relationship to the next level. I am excited to continue playing on TOUR while representing Shaw in Canada and in the golf space.”

Adam Hadwin has been a standout on the professional golf scene since 2010, highlighted by a Top-4 finish at the 2010 RBC Canadian Open to earn the first of his two career Rivermead Trophies, which honours the low Canadian at Canada’s national Open. In 2014, the Abbotsford, B.C. native emerged as a top player when he won twice on the Web.com Tour, securing his PGA TOUR playing
privileges. In his PGA TOUR rookie campaign in 2015, Hadwin retained his TOUR card for 2016 with three Top-10 and seven Top-25 finishes.

“I have been proud to partner with Shaw for the past couple years, and represent them on the PGA TOUR,” Hadwin said. “I have been lucky to get to know the company and I’m proud to say that we care about the same things and want to work together to showcase golf in Canada.”

Shaw continues to be a champion for golf in Canada. In addition to being the broadcast destination for PGA TOUR golf through Global TV, Shaw is also a premier sponsor of the RBC Canadian Open, and the title sponsor of the Shaw Charity Classic, a Champions Tour event held at Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club in Calgary, Alberta.

VILLAGE OF PINEHURST, N.C. – The famed Pinehurst Resort and Country Club is extending a special offer to Canadian residents this spring – the Canadian March Escape golf or spa package.

The specially prices packages will be available March 6-31, 2016 and regularly retails for $399 per person, double occupancy, per night. But, Canadian residents will receive 25 percent off the regular price.

The package includes:

• Choice of one round of golf (a surcharge applies to No. 2) or two 50-minute spa treatments per night of stay (save 35 percent when booking additional treatments)
• Resort accommodations at either The Carolina, The Holly Inn or The Manor
• Breakfast buffet and dinner each night
• Cart fee, club storage, and unlimited access to practice areas

Children 12-and-under stay and eat free with a paying adult, and children 17-and-under play golf for free with a paying adult.

With Pinehurst’s collection of nine courses, designed by some of the game’s best-known architects, golfers can enjoy a unique and varied experience. Both Pinehurst No. 4 and No. 8 have been selected by the United States Golf Association as companion courses for upcoming championship events, and for a $195 surcharge, golfers can include a round on famed Pinehurst No. 2, site of more single golf championships than any course in America and host to the historic back-to-back U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open in 2014.

Awarded Four Stars by Forbes Travel Guide, The Spa at Pinehurst is a 31,000-square-foot sanctuary that features 28 private treatment rooms and an array of treatments designed to use the healing power of nature to renew, rejuvenate and refresh. The Canadian March Escape Spa package includes a select list of spa treatments, including the essential Pinehurst Massage and the Sweet Tea Sugar Scrub.

For more information about Pinehurst or to make a reservation, visit pinehurst.com or call 855-235-8507. All pricing is in U.S. dollars.

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Jordan Spieth brought his old form to the new year and had no trouble winning the Hyundai Tournament of Champions on Sunday.

Staked to a five-shot lead, Spieth made two straight birdies around the turn at Kapalua to restore his margin, and he spent the rest of the afternoon soaking up the views of surf and sun on Maui. The view from the top is just as stunning at the moment, not so much for those trying to catch him.

Spieth made an 8-foot birdie putt to reach his target, even though he didn’t need it. He closed with a 6-under 67 for an eight-shot victory over Patrick Reed. He finished at 30-under 262, joining Ernie Els as the only players in PGA Tour history to finish a 72-hole event at 30 under or lower.

Els set his record of 31 under at Kapalua in 2003 with an eight-shot win.

“I felt like it was short three-week break and continue what we were doing last year,” said Spieth, coming off a five-win season that included the Masters and U.S. Open. “That’s the way I’ll keep on thinking about it. It worked this week. All parts were firing.”

Reed, the defending champion at Kapalua, got within three shots with a birdie on the par-5 ninth. Spieth answered with a two-putt birdie in the group behind him, and then rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt on the 10th and was on his way.

He had talked about setting 30 under as his goal because it such gorgeous conditions, he might need it to hold off anyone making a big run.

Turns out he didn’t need it.

Reed stalled on the back nine, ended his bogey-free week on the 15th hole and closed with a 69. Brooks Koepka, playing with Spieth in the final group, had a wild start to his round but never got closer than the five-shot deficit he faced at the start. Koepka closed with a 71 and tied for third with Brandt Snedeker (67).

Spieth won for the seventh time on the PGA Tour, joining Tiger Woods as the only players to get that many at age 22 since complete records began in 1970.

That requires a little context.

Spieth won his seventh title in his 77th start as a pro. Woods won his seventh PGA Tour event in his 38th start, and he had 18 wins in his first 77 tournaments.

Even so, comparisons with Woods in golf can only mean great play, and no one is playing better.

“Nowhere near,” Spieth said on how his record stacks up with Woods. “I don’t think there’s any reason to compare. It’s awfully early. We’re excited about where we’re at to start our career. What Tiger has done, I can’t imagine ever being done. But it’s nice to be in that company. It’s fantastic being out here with what we’re trying to do, and doing it well.”

It was the fifth time in the last 13 months that Spieth had at least a two-shot lead going into the final round, and he was never seriously challenged. That’s not to suggest it felt like a breeze, especially early. His approach shot on No. 1 somehow ended up just out of a steep bunker on the very edge of sand, some 50 yards to the hole. He pitched it onto the green and let the grain take it to 4 feet for a save, and then he holed a 35-foot birdie putt on the next hole.

But he missed a 3 1/2-foot birdie putt on No. 3, and then three-putted the par-5 fifth for a par. And after a simple up-and-down for birdie at No. 6, he made his second bogey of the week on the par-3 eighth hole. Reed made birdie on the ninth ahead of him, cutting the lead to three shots.

That was as close as it got.

Reed, trying to join Stuart Appleby and Geoff Ogilvy as the only repeat winners at Kapalua, opened with three birdies in five holes and went out in 32. Whatever chance he had ended when he started the back nine with five straight pars. A poor drive on the par-5 15th led to his only bogey of the week.

“I knew I had to make birdies early to put pressure on him,” Reed said. “I got it to within three. The next time I saw a board it was back to five. He’s not going to shoot over par, especially the way he’s playing now.”

The tournament was never in doubt, and for one tournament at least, Spieth backed up his comment that 2016 isn’t an encore because that would mean the show was over.

The next questions is how good he can get.

After a week at home in Dallas, he heads to Middle East for the HSBC Abu Dhabi Golf Championship and the Singapore Open before resuming his PGA Tour schedule at Pebble Beach and Riviera.

Much like Woods in 2000, and even David Duval in 1999, he sent an early message by winning Kapalua that he wasn’t interested in this wave to end.

JOHANNESBURG – Brandon Stone won the South African Open on Sunday for his maiden European Tour title, becoming the youngest player to win the event since it joined the tour schedule in 1997.

The 22-year-old South African finished with a roller-coaster round of 71 that had seven birdies and also six bogeys, but it was still enough for a two-shot win over fellow home player Christiaan Bezuidenhout.

Stone finished 14 under par at Glendower Golf Club in a tournament that was interrupted by stormy weather, forcing the first three rounds to be suspended and carried over to the following day.

Stone was in tears after completing victory at golf’s second oldest national open after the British Open. He held a five-shot lead at one point but had to fight in the end to hold off Bezuidenhout’s late charge.

Bezuidenhout finished with a superb 5-under 67 to nearly steal victory at the end.

Englishman Daniel Brooks, who was tied for the lead with Stone when the third round was suspended on Saturday, closed with a 72 to finish 11 under and three shots behind Stone in third. Brooks held a two-shot lead with nine holes to play, but couldn’t keep that momentum.

Stone only claimed his first professional victory late last year on the South African Sunshine Tour.

He appeared to have blown his chances at Glendower with a run of three straight bogeys and four dropped shots in five holes approaching the turn on Sunday. He shrugged that off to collect four birdies in five holes from No. 12 and finished par-par to win.

The tears began to flow for Stone on the green at No. 18 when he put his third shot close, pretty much guaranteeing him victory. He rolled in the par putt and had to wait for the last few players to come home. No one had a realistic chance of catching him.

Retief Goosen finished in a four-way tie for fourth on 9 under alongside Branden Grace, Justin Walters and Keith Horne.

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Sharp as ever to start the new year, Jordan Spieth capped off another strong performance with a 10-foot eagle on Saturday for an 8-under 65, giving him a five-shot lead over Brooks Koepka going into the final round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

Only one other player, defending champion Patrick Reed, was within eight shots of Spieth.

A hardy Kona wind didn’t slow anyone down who was playing well. Spieth started the day with a four-shot lead and ran off four straight birdies.

Koepka, in only his second tournament in nearly three months and his first since switching to Nike, had six straight birdies on the front nine. That streak ended when he made par on the downwind, par-5 ninth hole. And with a par on the closing hole, he still had a career-best 63.

At one point, Koepka pulled within one-shot of the lead.

Spieth talked Friday about learning to be patient because he would have more holes to play from the final group. Along with taking care of the holes where birdies are likely, he picked up a bonus with a 50-foot birdie putt up the slope and with the grain on the 12th hole.

And then, his short game took over.

From just short of the 14th green, he chipped into the grain to 2 feet for birdie. His second shot into the par-5 15th went just long, leaving him in a tough spot with a back pin. It looked as if the best play was a chip that bounced onto the green and rode the grain and slope. Instead, Spieth opened a lob wedge and threw it up in the air with a flop shot that settled 3 feet away.

He saved par on the 16th with another tough chip, and closed out his round with a second shot that had the gallery thinking it might go in.

The way this week has been going, who could blame them?

Spieth was at 24-under 195, one shot shy of the 54-hole record at Kapalua that Ernie Els set in 2003 on his way to an eight-shot victory. Els is the only player in PGA Tour history to finish a 72-hole event at 30 under or better (he was 31 under).

Koepka had his best score on the PGA Tour and still shaved only two shots of his deficit, though he at least has one more day. Reed remains the only player at Kapalua this week without a bogey, though a 67 left him six shots behind.

“Jordan is definitely not letting up and we’re going to have to go out and get it,” Reed said.

Brandt Snedeker (65) and Fabian Gomez (70) were nine shots back.

Kevin Kisner, playing in the final group with Spieth, tried to keep pace but missed three birdie putts inside 6 feet. He had to settle for a 71.

Spieth has talked all week about wanting the new year to be a continuation of the old one, and that’s what it looks like so far. His only blemish came on the par-3 eighth hole when his tee shot hit the top of the bunker, rolled through the sand and stopped 6 inches away from the hazard line.

He hit a flop over the sand to 7 feet and missed the par putt.