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…

Although the former Golf Canada National Amatuer and Young Pro Squad member Jennifer Kirby struggled in the 2015 season, on a mixture of the Symetra and LPGA Tours, the 24-year-old is staying positive.

Kirby has not yet found success at the LPGA level, but the can’t-miss-kid couldn’t be missed for a reason. After winning both the Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship and the Canadian Junior Girls Championship in 2009, Kirby went on to a tremendous career at the University of Alabama – including being part of the National Championship-winning team in 2012.

Kirby then went on to win in her first start as a professional, at a Canadian Women’s Tour event in Quebec.

Here, Kirby dishes on her collegiate experience (“Roll tide!”), her off – course passions, and what it means to be supported by Canadian fans.

On winning the NCAA National Championship:

The team goal is always to win the national championship and every year we just kept building towards it. My sophomore year we were the closest I ever thought we’d be, it was just nice to feel that hard work come into success. There are a lot of great players that’ll go through their college careers and not experience something like that.

On Alabama’s crazy football fans:

Football season makes it (Alabama) a whole other place to be when all the people come in to watch the games. Everyone gets so in to it there, it’s just like a way of life.

On Alabama’s (really) crazy football fans:

102,000 people fit in the stadium. But it feels like so much more. People come in to town and don’t even go to the game. The city just transforms.

On being a part of the Golf Canada experience:

As an amateur they gave me every opportunity I could ask for. I travelled all around the world representing my country. They gave me all the tools to succeed and all the opportunities to play against good competitors. Every day I’m very thankful to have gone through that program.

On playing LPGA events in Canada as a Canadian:

Canadians just love golf. You can tell the Canadian events are the best run on Tour. Everyone loves going there and the crowds are so knowledgeable and so involved. They’re very excited about everyone being there. For me, as a Canadian, it’s just amazing to come home.

On her famous Canadian coach:

I’m still working with Sean (Foley). We’ve been working together for over 10 years. It’s very hard because we both have very different schedules, but I still try to see him whenever I get the chance to get together.

On some off-course interests: 

I like working out, I like to shop and travel. Anything relaxing. We’re always on the go, being at home and being with family and friends is a lot more valuable than doing other things.

On the LPGA’s new look:

I think it’s really cool that a lot of magazines and shows have been highlighting women on tour and showing there’s more to them than just being a golfer. I think a lot of the girls do a good job on Instagram showing that as well – you see girls in yoga magazines, fitness magazines, and more. It’s good for the fans to know a little more about the people on our Tour.

On getting on the bag for her boyfriend (Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada member Tommy Cocha):

Whenever I go to see him – obviously our schedules are very difficult, but when I see him at a tournament week, he enjoys having me on the bag and obviously it’s a good financial help for both of us. He’s helped me before with that too. I really enjoy it, I learn a lot about how he plays. It’s good to have someone you trust on the bag and someone who knows you pretty well.

TORONTO – In a year in which Brooke Henderson stole the show in Canadian golf, she can add two more honours to her trophy case.

The Golf Journalists Association of Canada (GJAC) is proud to announce Henderson, David Hearn, Corey Conners, and Maddie Szeryk are the 2015 Players of the Year as voted by GJAC members across the country. Henderson’s spectacular first season as a professional was also named the Canadian Golf Story of the Year.

“GJAC is thrilled to honour these wonderful golfers in 2015,” said Grant Fraser, GJAC President. “The accomplishments of the winners – and each of the nominees – show that Canadian golf is in very good hands.”

Henderson became the first Canadian to win on the LPGA Tour since Lorie Kane in 2001 after capturing the Cambia Portland Classic by eight shots. At 17 years, 11 months, and 6 days old, she was the third-youngest champion in LPGA Tour history and was granted LPGA Tour membership in August. The native of Smiths Falls, Ontario also defended her title at the 2015 PGA Women’s Championship of Canada and notched one victory (with five top-10’s in five events played) on the Symetra Tour. Henderson ended the year 17th on the Rolex Rankings – the official world ranking of female professional golfers.

Her choice as Female Professional of the Year was a unanimous decision.

Meanwhile, David Hearn – who’s run at the RBC Canadian Open was another nominee for Canadian Golf Story of the Year – was named Male Professional of the Year. Hearn is Canada’s highest-ranked male golfer, and nearly won twice on the PGA Tour in 2015. He held the 54-hole lead at the Canadian Open, and then lost in a playoff at The Greenbrier Classic. The 36-year-old finished 55th in the FedEx Cup standings and earned $1.8 million – his highest total ever as a professional.

Corey Conners was named the Male Amateur of the Year for the third year in a row in a tight vote with Blair Hamilton and Garrett Rank. After finishing as runner-up at the U.S. Amateur in 2014, Conners participated in The Masters where he played the first two rounds with Mike Weir. The 23-year-old finished as low amateur before announcing he would turn professional. He was ranked 21st on the Official World Amateur Golf Ranking prior to turning pro.

Maddie Szeryk was named Female Amateur of the Year after finishing first on Golf Canada’s National Women’s Order of Merit. The Golf Canada national team member is currently ranked no.38 (first in Canada) on the Official World Amateur Golf Ranking. The 19-year-old is set to graduate from Texas A&M in 2018, and in her first collegiate season, she was named the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year.

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.”

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Bob Parsons conducts business to an extreme, and that now includes golf clubs.

The people he hired to build his golf clubs have no limitations and no deadlines. Money is no object, either, and that better be the case for the consumers. Parsons, the billionaire founder of GoDaddy, is selling his PXG clubs at about $5,000 for the entire set.

“Making money is not what I have in mind,” Parsons said. “My goal with this is to build some very incredible clubs without regard to cost, without regard to the process. I’ve been telling people what I’m doing and I’ve heard many times, ‘You’re nuts.’ That’s a very good sign.”

Ryan Moore last year became the first PGA Tour to put them in play.

Now, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company is hopeful of making a big splash in 2016 by signing an additional eight players, men and women, to staff contracts at PXG. Topping the list is British Open champion Zach Johnson, who had been with Titleist his entire PGA Tour career that includes 12 victories and two majors.

Johnson, who is in the field this week at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, did not want to discuss his switch ahead the announcement at Kapalua. He said in a release that he did not make the change lightly.

“My entire team, from caddie to coach, was part of the discernment process,” Johnson said. “We all agree that PXG is undeniably the best equipment to help me achieve my goals on the course.”

PXG also signed Billy Horschel, Chris Kirk, James Hahn and Charles Howell III on the PGA Tour, along with Cristie Kerr, Alison Lee and Gerina Piller on the LPGA Tour. Already on board with the clubs were Moore, Rocco Mediate (Champions Tour), Sadena Parks and Beatriz Recari.

Parsons describes himself as a golf fanatic and an equipment junkie. He didn’t start playing seriously until he was in his 30s because he was too busy with work, first with Parsons Technologies for 10 years (which he sold in 1994 for $64 million) and then with the GoDaddy Group. He stepped down as GoDaddy executive chairman in 2014, though he remains on the board and is the largest shareholder.

By then, an affinity for golf turned into an addiction.

“It got to the point three or four years before I started the PXG venture that I would spend about $250,000 to $300,000 a year on equipment,” he said. “I bought pretty much everything and would hit it. I could tell you which irons, woods and all that … were real and what wasn’t. Most of it is gimmicky. You take any manufacturer and they say, ‘This will give you an extra 10 yards and 15 yards.’ If all that were true, we’d be hitting it a mile-and-a-half.”

Eventually, Parsons was intrigued by building his own clubs.

PXG stands for “Parsons Xtreme Golf,” though a running joke in the industry is that it also stands for “Ping X-Guys.” Among the Ping employees he hired were two engineers, former Bay Hill winner Mike Nicolette and Brad Schweigert, and Parsons turned them loose.

“We have no constraints on our engineers, no cost constraints, no time constraints,” Parsons said. “The only they must do is the performance must be there before we release it. … We’re using as much technology as we can shake out as long as they conform with USGA rules.”

The iron, which has the look of a blade, is a hollow body design that is filled with thermoplastic elastomer that allows for a thinner face. The signature look on the PXG clubs are what appears to be black dots. Those are tungsten alloy screws that enhance the perimeter weighting and increase forgiveness.

“Our iron is one of the few that is made to be adjusted weight-wise,” Parsons said. “When the engineers were doing the initial development, they took one of our first prototypes – which was a train wreck – and put weights into it one way. I said, ‘That looks good. It’s going to be our trademark look.'”

The equipment industry is crowded, and the venture is a risk. Parsons doesn’t mind that.

“If we did exactly that TaylorMade and Ping was doing, and Callaway and on and on, we’d get our brains beat out,” Parsons said.

He was behind the racy GoDaddy.com ads during the Super Bowl (he said PXG doesn’t need to be as outrageous in its marketing). He also caused a sensation in golf circles when he bought what is now Scottsdale National Golf Club and wrote a letter to members outlining bold new rules – no more than 30 rounds a year without bringing a paying guest and a $100 service fee every time a member plays. Those who didn’t like the rules were given a refund on their initiation fee.

It was different. But that’s what Parsons is all about.

But is there a market for golf clubs that cost $5,000 for a set?

“There are 6.5 million avid golfers in the country (U.S.), and 4.1 million of the have a household income in excess of $125,000 a year, which means about 2 million have significantly higher than that in household income,” he said. “If you ran across a set of clubs that you don’t have to change a thing in your game and it would take you down to a 3 (handicap index) and you feel great hitting them … you’d do what you could to buy them.”

As the year winds down, we look back at the most-viewed news stories on golfcanada.ca in 2015.

No. 10 – Team Canada’s band of brothers embark on next stage of golf careers

No. 9 – Don’t forget to post your scores

No. 8 – Brooke Henderson defends her PGA Women’s Championship of Canada title

No. 7 – PGA TOUR Canada announces 2015 Qualifying School dates and sites

No. 6 – New membership model welcomes everyone to be part of “golf in Canada”

No. 5 – PGA Tour Canada announces 2015 schedule

No. 4 – Final field announced for 2015 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open

No. 3 – Golf’s governing bodies announce Rules of Golf revisions for 2016

No. 2 – Golf Canada announces 2016 Team Canada

No. 1 – Field announced for 2015 RBC Canadian Open