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.

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.

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.

KAPALUA, Hawaii – A new year, and everything is falling Jordan Spieth’s way.

Spieth chipped in for eagle, make a pair of tough par saves late and ended his round Friday with a 15-foot birdie putt into the grain that stopped on the lip and then dropped into the cup for a 9-under 64. It gave him a four-shot lead in the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

Two rounds into 2016, it already feels a lot like last year.

Spieth is making putts. Spieth is holing chips. Spieth is in the lead.

For all the talk about how he can match what he did last year – two majors, five victories – it might be just as tough to repeat what he has done the opening two rounds. Spieth was at 16-under 130, one short of the 36-hole record at Kapalua set by Ernie Els in 2003.

“Did I see 16 under? Probably not to start the season,” Spieth said.

Kevin Kisner, coming off a big year of his own with his first victory and four runner-up finishes, missed a couple of short birdie putts and still shot his way around the Plantation Course with ease for an 8-under 65 that earned him a spot in the final group with Spieth on Saturday.

“What’s Jordan at? I saw he was at 15,” Kisner said when he finished. “He’ll probably shoot another 15 (under), so I better get going tomorrow, the way he plays. We’ll just make a bunch of birdies and see what happens.”

Birdies have not been in short supply this week with only a moderate breeze and a blazing sun that is making Kapalua pick up some speed. Fabian Gomez of Argentina, one of 14 players making his debut this week, made seven birdies in his round of 66. He joined Kisner and Patrick Reed (69) in the group four shots behind.

Reed didn’t make nearly enough birdies to keep pace. He fell out of the lead for the first time when Spieth made an 18-foot birdie on No. 8, and then Spieth took over with a chip from 35 feet behind the pin that broke sharply into the pin and disappeared.

But it was the back nine where Spieth built his lead.

Even this early in the year, he felt good enough with his driver to be aggressive on the 13th, and it led to a short wedge he hit to 3 feet. He driver again on the 14th, narrowly clearly a bunker and leaving a pitch just short of the green to 3 feet. And then from a hanging lie on the 15th, he drilled a 3-wood just off the back of the green and rolled the putt down to just over 4 feet for a third straight birdie.

Equally important, however, were the pars.

His worst swing of the week with a 52-degree wedge was fat and smothered, and it left him a long, tough putt across the green to 6 feet. He made that for par, and holed a 7-footer for par on the 17th. The final putt was a bonus.

“I go from leading by one to leading by four,” he said. “And that’s huge.”

Kisner only needed five holes to tie for the lead, making two birdies and a 30-foot eagle on the par-5 fifth hole. He started the back nine with three straight birdies, and the only glitch was failing to birdie the two par 5s on the back nine.

“First tournament of the year, kind of rusty, haven’t played in a while,” Kisner said. “Seeing where my game is, I’m looking forward to having a chance on the weekend.”

Danny Lee recovered from a bogey-bogey start to shoot 68 and was five shots behind. Rickie Fowler and Steven Bowditch each had 67 and were another shot back.

Jason Day, the No. 2 player in the world competing for the first time in three months, had a 73 and already was 12 shots behind. He would appear to have little chance of getting to No. 1 this week.

KAPALUA, Hawaii – The first round of the new year on the PGA Tour was not an encore for Jordan Spieth – or defending champion Patrick Reed.

Spieth had said earlier in the week that an encore means the show is over, and it sure didn’t look that way at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. He opened with seven birdies and no bogeys for a 7-under 66 that left him one shot behind when Reed finished strong and made a 15-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole for a 65.

Reed hasn’t won since he rallied to win at Kapalua a year ago, though he hasn’t been far off. He ended last year with six top 10s in five countries, and he showed his comfort level on a Plantation Course in gorgeous sunshine and only a stiff breeze that picked up in the middle of the round.

Reed and Spieth both had eagle putts on three of the par 5s.

The difference was Reed converting on the final hole. They were in the last group and part of a five-way tie for the lead when Reed smashed a 3-wood from 309 yards that trickled onto the front of the green and let the grain take it 15 feet below the hole.

“I didn’t think I could get it all the way to the green,” Reed said. “I thought if I smoked it, I’d get to the front edge and it just happened to ride the wind a little bit and kind of just kept on going. And once it gets on that green, I know it’s going to just keep feeding.”

That capped off a finish that took Reed from the middle of the pack to the lead. He was 6 under over the last six holes with that eagle.

Spieth came up some 60 yards short and hit a great shot of his own, a flip wedge that rolled to 4 feet for birdie.

Brandt Snedeker, still battling a head cold, J.B. Holmes and Danny Lee were all at 67, while Fabian Gomez of Argentina was another shot behind.

Jason Day, who has a chance to replace Spieth at No. 1 in the world this week, has not played in three months since the Presidents Cup. And it showed. In ideal scoring conditions, Day didn’t make a birdie until the ninth hole and made only two on the back nine for a 70.

Only seven players from the 32-man field of PGA Tour winners last year failed to break par. One of them was Dustin Johnson, a past winner at Kapalua, who had to birdie the 18th for a 73. Johnson had the longest drive on six of the holes, including three of them just short of 400 yards. It didn’t help him score.

Smylie Kaufman, one of 14 players making their debut at Kapalua, hit the opening tee shot of 2016 so far left that he played his next shot from the ninth hole. He still made birdie, and wound up with a 70.

Spieth won the Masters and U.S. Open last year, along with three other titles that led to the FedEx Cup and a sweep of all the awards. He wanted this to me a continuation of last year and brought that attitude to the opening tee shot.

“It’s another event in the course of my career,” he said. “The calendar changed.”

It only took two holes from a familiar look – Spieth walking across the green as a long putt dropped for birdie. He had long two-putt birdies on the par 5s on the front and missed a 15-foot eagle on the 15th that was such a weak attempt that he said even Reed said to him, “Nice effort.”

They typically do well together, which includes a 2-0-1 record as partners in the Ryder Cup two years ago. Reed picked up his first PGA Tour victory in a playoff over Spieth in 2013 with a shot out of the trees to 3 feet. Spieth got him back last year at Innisbrook with a 30-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole.

“Whether we want to feed off each other or we want to beat the crap out of each other, we somehow play well together,” Spieth said.

Reed wasn’t converting many chances, with two-putt birdies on the par 5s on the front. His round turned with a 15-foot birdie putt on the 13th. He followed with a pitch to tap-in range on the 14th and 15th holes, and a shot over the gorge to 2 feet on the 17th.

Snedeker has been at Kapalua for a week, playing four times before the official start of tournament week. He was ready to go, and when it counted, he looked sharp.

“I know the golf course pretty well and I think getting over here early, the greens always pose a big problem,” Snedeker said. “You get comfortable on greens and be aggressive on putts that you know are fast or slow. You just have to know putts. They’re hard to read. So that’s kind of the reason I came over to do that.

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.”

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.”

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.”