Rory: Time To Limit Alcohol Sales On Course

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Rory McIlroy offered a constructive solution to the loud-loser issue that has crept up in recent weeks (well, and years at the Ryder Cup): limit alcohol sales.

I've suggested a cut off hour is badly overdue at tournaments featuring loud and abusive fans. But since most of golf's leaders would give their grandmothers the Heisman for the chance to belly-flop on a loose penny, we've yet to see a golfing equivalent of the 7th-inning cutoff.

Bob Harig of ESPN.com reports on McIlroy's comments following a round where one fan kept yelling out his wife's name.

"There was one guy out there who kept yelling my wife's name," said McIlroy, who shot 67 on Saturday to pull within two shots of leader Henrik Stenson. "I was going to go over and have a chat with him. I don't know, I think it's gotten a little much, to be honest. I think that they need to limit alcohol sales on the course, or they need to do something because every week, it seems like guys are complaining about it more and more."

Instagram Roundup: Tiger's Heroic Recovery, Arnie's Tractor, Bobby Jones's Birthday And A Creative Masters Teaser

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A vintage Tiger Woods shot Saturday at Bay Hill. He trails Henrik Stenson by five heading into Sunday's 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational finale, Dan Kilbridge reports. A fantastic leaderboard should make for a great last day.

V I N T A G E 🐅

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The tractor belonging to Arnold Palmer's dad was brought down from Latrobe and parked at Bay Hill this week to commemorate the influence of his father.

Arnie’s Tractor.

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Saturday was Bobby Jones' birthday. The USGA posted some images of the amateur golfing great.

The Masters has begun their social media efforts earlier than normal and feature this look at the club's co-founders.

Forecaddie: Rory #1 In Strokes Gained Putting After Lesson From Brad Faxon

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The Bears Club, Brad Faxon, Rory McIlroy, a putting "meeting," and T11 heading into the weekend? The intrigue! The drama!

The Forecaddie with details that might explained how McIlroy has gained almost six shots (First in SG!) on the Arnold Palmer Invitational field with his balky putter.

This sounds like more than a simple meeting and given the looming Masters, the desperate times did call for something...

One immediate change McIlroy made this week after seeing Faxon was in the length of his putter. He is back to using a 34.25-inch model, the same as he used in winning his four majors. Kenyon had McIlroy using a 33-inch putter.

Roundup: Tiger's Bay Hill Round One 68 Makes It Seem Like He Never Left

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Golfweek’s Kevin Casey with the nuts and bolts of Tiger’s opening round 68 on the course where he has won eight times.

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ESPN.com’s Jason Sobel focuses on the 71-footer Woods made at the 7th, his 16th hole, and Tiger’s description is pretty fun.

Karen Crouse focuses on different reactions from players to having Tiger and his crowds back in the mix, including some fun comments by Paul Goydos.

Jay Coffin of GolfChannel.com on the drive hit out of bounds that annoyed Tiger because of the shot quality and not having hit a provisional while at the tee.  A side note: the second shot after his provisional tee shot was particularly stout and one of the more impressive I’ve seen in his comeback bid. He had to cut it around a tree from the rough, with water left and already lying three. A slight double-cross and he makes seven or eight.

Eamon Lynch at Golfweek puts some of the hype and excitement into perspective with help from Graeme McDowell.

The reality is that this week is just another staging post on Woods’ climb back to the top, not the destination. And nor is it an omen for what might follow three weeks from now in Georgia. Woods has won the Arnold Palmer Invitational four times since he last slipped on the green jacket in 2005.

Form here does not beget form there.

None of which detracts from the excitement Woods’ strong play has brought to the sport. “It doesn’t say much for the world of golf. We were all saying how healthy things were when he was gone, and now he’s back beating us all up again. Maybe we’re not as good as we thought we were,” McDowell says, laughing. “It’s pretty impressive. And it’s good for us all.”

ESPN.com's Bob Harig profiles Joe LaCava, patient looper who waited until Tiger's return.

And the shot of the day captured during the PGA Tour Live broadcast:

"A sad journey for Paul Casey after holding Tiger Woods at bay at the Valspar"

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After winning the Valspar Championship with a final round 65 and moving to 12th in the world, Paul Casey boarded a flight to England for a sad goodbye instead of a planned API appearance. 

The Daily Mail's Derek Lawrenson talks to him after the Valspar win sunk in for a player who has top six finishes in the last three Masters but who played with a heavy heart after learning of Mary Colclough's passing.  Her husband Ian was one of Casey's early supporters from his days at Burhill Golf Club. 

Lawrenson writes in his weekly golf roundup:

Once he received the sad news of Mary’s passing, there was never any question of that. And so he spent the long flight home reflecting on his conflicting emotions, and life’s fateful concoction of magic and loss.

‘I played with a heavy heart, and maybe that helped,’ said Casey, who had tossed away plenty of chances to win in America during a nine-year victory drought. ‘Ian was one of my best friends when I joined Burhill. He always looked after me and still does to this day, and Mary would always tag along for the ride.

‘One of those sad stories, and we all know one. Cancer sucks.’

Tiger, Bay Hill Could Not Be Better Set For A Fun Week

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Perfect weather, amazing course conditioning by Chris Flynn's team and Tiger continuing to round into form after another business-like pro-am round, suggest a fantastic Arnold Palmer Invitational awaits.

The Bay Hill greens are firm and fast after several dry, cool days, a characteristic Tiger and other tough-course types love. A birdie shootout will not happen.

Crowds are expected to be huge and Woods round 1/2 playing partner Jason Day believes, contrary to the view of other young players, that Tiger feeds off the energy to his benefit. Kevin Casey reports for Golfweek.com.

As much as Tiger would love to win his 9th API, as Bob Harig writes for ESPN.com, the target remains the Masters.

Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com considers the many instructors Tiger has worked with and swing philosophies as he settles back into a more artistic, feel player phase.

"Tyrrell Hatton reveals rules official left him "raging" over Mickelson incident"

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Tyrell Hatton joins Andrew Coltart and Josh Antmann on the Sky Sports podcast and expresses his displeasure at perceived preferential slow play treatment for Phil Mickelson (thanks reader SE for sending).

Michael McEwan summarizes the beef Hatton had with an official for putting everyone in the WGC Mexico City final round grouping but eventual winner Phil Mickelson.

A rules official approached Mickelson, Hatton and the third member of their three-ball, Shubhankar Sharma, after they had hit their tee shots at the 15th hole. Hatton and Sharma were informed by the official that they were on the clock – but Mickelson was not.

Hatton explained: “Sharma wasn’t that slow, to be honest. He was fine. But I feel like Phil was taking quite a lot of time on certain things. We’d had a warning earlier on in the round to speed up and we kind of did but not massively.

“I’d just birdied 14 to tie with Phil and, you know, you’ve got four holes to go and it’s kind of crunch time. We had all hit good tee shots up 15 when one of the officials charged over and said, ‘Phil, you’re exempt but Tyrrell and Sharma, I’m going to start timing you.’

“Phil goes, ‘Oh, he obviously likes me’. I was raging.

5.1: Valspar Final Round Highest Rated Golf Telecast Since 2015 PGA

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Many (thank you Tiger) ratings milestones matched at Sunday's 2018 Valspar (thank you Tiger) even with out purportedly greater, more amazing, more popular, generally wonderful next generation near the leaderboard top.

For Immediate Release:

Final Round Coverage of Valspar Championship on NBC Earns 5.11 Overnight Rating;
Highest-Rated (Non-Major) Golf Broadcast Since 2013 PLAYERS
 
Yesterday’s final round coverage of the Valspar Championship on NBC (3-6p ET) earned a 5.11 Overnight rating (+190% year-over-year), becoming the highest-rated (non-major) PGA TOUR broadcast in nearly five years, dating back to the final round of Tiger Woods’ win at the 2013 PLAYERS Championship (5.7). Sunday’s final round Overnight also is the highest-rated golf telecast (outside of the Masters) since the 2015 PGA Championship (5.14) according to data released by The Nielsen Company.
                                                                                          
Golf Channel’s final round lead-in coverage (1-3p ET) earned a 1.65 Overnight, becoming the highest-rated Golf Channel PGA TOUR “lead-in” telecast on record (2009-’18).
 
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
·       Coverage peaked at a 6.62 from 5:30-6p ET on NBC and a 2.12 from 2:30-3p ET on Golf Channel.

·       Final Round coverage of the Valspar Championship on NBC was +28% vs. final round of the 2015 Wyndham Championship (4.0), the last time Tiger Woods contended on a Sunday, and +73% vs. final round of The Honda Classic a few weeks ago.

·       The Valspar Championship saw 27.2 million minutes streamed across Golf Channel / NBC Sports’ Digital platforms, becoming the most-streamed PGA TOUR event ever for the network, and the fourth-most streamed golf event overall for NBC Sports behind the 2016 and 2017 Open, along with the 2016 Ryder Cup. (source: Adobe Analytics)

·       Sunday’s coverage saw 15.4 million minutes streamed, +1060% vs. 2017.

·       In the event’s home market of Tampa, the final round Overnight rating was a 10.98.

The numbers could explain why, contrary to the cries of Golfweek's Martin Kaufmann, we did not see a single shot from Jason Kokrak, Branden Grace, Rory Sabbatini or Webb Simpson. How will we carry on having not seen their wizardry?

Roundup: Casey Pulls Off Valspar Win, Tiger Finishes Second

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Steve DiMeglio leads with Tiger in his USA Today game story, but quickly turns to Paul Casey's rewrite of the fairytale script. 

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Doug Ferguson in his AP gamer says a long victory drought was broken...Paul Casey's. But you have to love Casey, one of golf's best interviews, openly acknowledging the joy brought by merely sharing leaderboard space with Woods.

Bob Harig recounts the final day at Innisbrook Tiger's quotes about not playing the par-5s better stands out and the likely difference between second and a win. 

Jason Sobel has no doubt Tiger will win again. 

Golfweek's Dan Kilbridge focuses on Casey's remarks about the joys of winning as an old guy in a young man's game.

Alex Kirshner of SB Nation has the roundup on Patrick Reed's last hole, uh, what's the word I'm going for here...uh...miscalculation. Sadly his first shot is not posted anywhere officially but you can see it in the Twitter replies. For now. 

As Rex Hoggard reports for GolfChannel.com, even Casey was rooting for Tiger.

“I actually thought he was going to win today before the round started. I thought it was just teed up beautifully for him,” said Casey, who birdied three consecutive holes starting at the 11th and scrambled for pars at the three closing holes on his way to a 6-under 65 and a 10-under total.

Karen Crouse of the New York Times on caddie Joe LaCava finally getting to see signs of the old Tiger, and his bosses praise for his work.

Casey explained what all of the 17th tee discussion was about and Hoggard reported on a mistaken yardage rectified in time. 

Some of the more important Tweets, starting with Tiger's.

The tour did a roundup of celebrity Tweets and other excitement over Tiger's return to contention.

Highlights, both of the round four variety and Tiger's putt on 17.

Tiger Giving Valspar Championship A Nice Ratings Bump

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The numbers over the first two days suggest a huge Tiger bump, especially considering day one was a Thursday telecast. 

Friday's telecast did not feature live golf from Woods, but still drew well:

Roundup: Tiger One Back Headed Into Valspar Final Round, Seeks First Win Since 2013

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ESPN.com's Bob Harig lists some fairly staggering numbers reflecting Tiger's longevity, consistency and reinforcing the intrigue level as he seeks his 80th PGA Tour win Sunday.

Tiger downplayed the win possibilities given the many names in contention, writes GolfChannel.com's Rex Hoggard.

Tiger Tracker rounds up his thoughts from the day, including the 14 of 18 greens performance.

Your tee times and final round TV info from Golfweek.

Joe LaCava says Tiger's 67 in front of massive crowds felt like old times, and other insights from Woods' bagman as reported by Will Gray. 

Tiger's extended highlights include a nice chip-in at No. 9, followed by the overall round 4 highlights from PGA Tour Entertainment.

SUBSCRIBE to PGA TOUR now: http://pgat.us/vBxcZSh In the third round of the 2018 Valspar Championship, Tiger Woods climbed up the leaderboard with a strong performance to tie for second place heading into the final round. These highlights are delivered by PGA TOUR LIVE.

SUBSCRIBE to PGA TOUR now: http://pgat.us/vBxcZSh In the third round of the 2018 Valspar Championship, Corey Conners is the leader heading into the final round over a trio in second, including Tiger Woods. Check out all the scores and highlights from Round 2/3/4 at http://bit.ly/2oWMf7K The Valspar Championship is held at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Palm Harbor, Florida.

70: Oh Tiger Don't Hurt Yourself Before Augusta, Please!

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Nice opening 70 at Innisbrook on a cool, swirling-wind day that produced some high scores, as Dan Kilbridge notes at Golfweek.com.

ESPN.com's Bob Harig noted there was some pain from the recovery shot but hopefully nothing more.

But this, this is so unnecessary! 

@tigerwoods makes par. From the woods. 🐅🌳

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Bill Haas Returns To Tour Golf With Heavy Heart

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Doug Ferguson talks to Bill Haas about the tragic events of his Los Angeles stay last month that ended abruptly after a car crash. The accident claimed the life of Haas's Genesis Open host for the week and the car's driver, retired businessman and golfer Mark Gibello.

Haas returns to this week's Valspar Championship with a heavy heart.

Along with leaning on his wife and his family, he has spent time with a therapist to cope with the wide range of emotions and the lingering questions.
"I don't know that I won't have recurring images and thoughts and feelings about that night," he said. "Why was he taken and I wasn't? I ask, `Why?' all the time. From the people who have reached out to me and the advice I've been given, you can't ask, `Why?' in life. Life happens in ways you can't explain. There's no point in asking. It won't solve anything, and it only brings more questions."

Phil! WGC Mexico City Ratings Up 21%

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A stacked leaderboard, dreadful weather in most parts of the U.S. and the Phil Mickelson factor helped the 2018 WGC Mexico City climb 21% Sunday. 

Roundup: Mickelson Finally Returns To The Winner Circle!

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The already compelling Masters picture got more interesting with Phil Mickelson breaking a stubborn winless drought at the WGC Mexico City.

According to Doug Ferguson's game story, Phil Mickelson's win over Justin Thomas in sudden death means more to Phil than we'll ever know. 

Phil feels he has a little less work to do to make the Ryder Cup team, writes Rex Hoggard.

After win No. 43, the 47-year-old is still hoping to get to 50 PGA Tour wins, writes Brentley Romine.

Nick Menta with some of the key social and video highlights from a topsy-turvy final round.

The winner's bag, which included a new fairway wood at Mexico City.

For a roundup of all the week's action, check out the March 5 Golfweek digital edition.

SUBSCRIBE to PGA TOUR now: http://pgat.us/vBxcZSh In the final round of the 2018 World Golf Championships - Mexico Championship 8, players kept things exciting as Phil Mickelson marched to the top of the leaderboard for the win. The WGC - Mexico Championship returns to Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City, Mexico.

Thomas’s approach shot hole-out at 18: 

SUBSCRIBE to PGA TOUR now: http://pgat.us/vBxcZSh In the final round of the 2018 World Golf Championships - Mexico Championship 2018, Justin Thomas holes a 119-yard approach shot for eagle on the par-4 18th hole. The WGC - Mexico Championship returns to Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City, Mexico.