The post Pro tees off shortly after 7. He was done soon after that. appeared first on Golf.

The post Pro tees off shortly after 7. He was done soon after that. appeared first on Golf.

Arnold Palmer, in a fun commercial for the USGA a few years back, promoted speeding up play. After watching an actor stretch on the tee, waggle his driver, stop, walk over to a beverage cart and order the seven-time major champion’s namesake drink, the man himself appeared. “While we’re young,” Palmer said, playing on a line from Caddyshack. 

His grandson did him proud. 

Sam Saunders teed off at just after 7:14 a.m. on Sunday. And was done before 9. Playing as a single during the final round of the Club Car Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour, Saunders signed for his six-over 78 in 1 hour, 36 minutes, one of the fastest-ever rounds across the PGA Tour’s tours. 

“I was on the bag, official time was 1 hour 36 minutes,” tweeted Saunders’ caddie, Hunter O’Mahony, in a response to the Fire Pit Collective’s Ryan French, who first spotted the round. 

But was it the fastest Tour-based round? Almost. At the 2017 BMW Championship, Wesley Bryan raced around Conway Farms in 1 hour, 29 minutes — and as French tweeted updates of Saunders’ round on Sunday, Bryan jumped in. 

“Nice try Sam,” Bryan tweeted in response to French tweeting Saunders’ final time.

Still, Saunders was far from Sunday-strolling. Across the Landing Club’s 6,877 yards, Saunders averaged just under 1 minute, 15 seconds per stroke. According to French, Saunders was at one point a whopping nine holes ahead of the group behind.  

His grandpa would be proud.  

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The post Arnold Palmer’s grandson to wear golf shoes bearing the King’s face at Bay Hill appeared first on Golf.

The post Arnold Palmer’s grandson to wear golf shoes bearing the King’s face at Bay Hill appeared first on Golf.

Widespread admiration for Arnold Palmer has only grown stronger since the golf great passed away in 2016. There’s no better proof of that than at this week’s tournament at Bay Hill, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where tributes to the King abound. Tour pro Sam Saunders, who happens to be Arnold Palmer’s grandson, has come up with a unique way of honoring Arnie.

Saunders will wear a custom pair of FootJoy golf shoes decked out with red, green and yellow accents – colors strongly associated with Palmer and the tournament – as well as Arnie’s iconic umbrella logo and signature.

But that’s just the window dressing. The main attraction is a portrait of Palmer’s face featured on the top of the shoes above the toe. Check out some photos of the custom tribute kicks below.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BurA8pPga_i/

The shoes were designed by Connecticut-based shoe artist Mache in coordination with FootJoy and Saunders.

Being Arnold Palmer’s grandson, you can expect to see Saunders take on some other duties to honor his late grandfather this week. He tees off for the first round Thursday at 7:08 a.m. ET.

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The post PHOTOS: The best from Pebble Beach’s wild Sunday hailstorm appeared first on Golf.

The post PHOTOS: The best from Pebble Beach’s wild Sunday hailstorm appeared first on Golf.

It was a wild Sunday at Pebble Beach. After AT&T Pro-Am tee times were delayed an hour due to soggy course conditions, nearly every player was underway when the skies opened up for a surprising interlude featuring sideways hail. The white pellets immediately coated Pebble’s iconic greens as players ducked for cover behind trees and enclosures and underneath umbrellas. Sam Saunders threw snowballs. Patrick Reed’s caddie did a snow angel. Jonas Blixt made a snowman. You can see the best of the hailstorm photos and videos below.

Live look at Pebble Beach 😲☔⛳ pic.twitter.com/1E7kak1erX

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 10, 2019

Passing the time … pic.twitter.com/vqeXuy547Q

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 10, 2019

Jonas Blixt’s art creation after the hail storm subsided. #ATTProAm pic.twitter.com/SK43gRiM8D

— Steven A. Spatafore (@spattyspat) February 11, 2019

A video of the hail storm. #ATTProAm pic.twitter.com/NV0OvaMBc9

— Steven A. Spatafore (@spattyspat) February 11, 2019

Play is scheduled to resume at 4 p.m. ET. pic.twitter.com/bQhy9SXdpv

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 10, 2019

Weather is weird…

🌨➡️💦➡️☀️

All within 20 minutes. 😳 pic.twitter.com/9Kt4womC2W

— AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (@attproam) February 10, 2019

When it hails on the golf course …

Let the games begin. 😂 pic.twitter.com/fhUbWHOiqv

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 10, 2019

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The post Looking for a spark, Sam Saunders is using a putter that used to belong to his grandfather, Arnold Palmer appeared first on Golf.

The post Looking for a spark, Sam Saunders is using a putter that used to belong to his grandfather, Arnold Palmer appeared first on Golf.

Looking to change his luck on the greens, Sam Saunders grabbed a putter that has a little extra meaning to him.

Saunders, the 30-year-old pro and grandson of Arnold Palmer, is using one of Palmer’s old putters this week at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier — an Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball. Saunders told PGATour.com he thinks the last time his grandpa used it was at the 2004 Masters, in which Saunders caddied for him.

“When I first turned pro and got my first few starts on the PGA Tour in 2010, I used that putter and putted really well with it that year, actually,” he told PGATour.com. “As every young guy out here does, you see all these beautiful putters out here on the green and you have one bad week and you start trying everything else. I’m sure I’ll change again. But it’s a great putter and he did tell me it’s one he wanted me to use so hopefully it’s got some good luck in it.”

Saunders was 111th in Strokes Gained: Putting, entering the week. So far for the tournament he ranks 21st in the same category.

Saunders, who is still looking for his first PGA Tour victory, begins the final round two shots off the lead.

Really cool to see Sam Saunders having success this week with an old @odysseygolf White Hot 2-Ball that was used by his grandfather Arnold Palmer. pic.twitter.com/t0VRbRo51G

— Jonathan Wall (@jonathanrwall) July 8, 2018

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The post Graeme McDowell, Sam Saunders and Patrick Cantlay share Genesis Open lead appeared first on Golf.

The post Graeme McDowell, Sam Saunders and Patrick Cantlay share Genesis Open lead appeared first on Golf.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tiger Woods waited 12 years to get back to Riviera and lasted only two days.

Woods had three straight bogeys early on the back nine Friday and didn’t play well enough to make up for his misses. He had a five-over 76 and missed the cut in the Genesis Open for the first time in nine appearances as a pro.

He was at six-over 148, one shot worse than his PGA Tour debut as a 16-year-old at Riviera.

“I missed every tee shot left and I did not putt well, didn’t feel very good on the greens,” Woods said. “And consequently, never made a run. I knew I had to make a run on that back nine, and I went the other way.”

Patrick Cantlay ran off three straight birdies toward the end of his morning round, starting with a tap-in on the par-3 sixth when he missed a hole-in-one by a fraction of an inch, and shot a 69. He was tied with Graeme McDowell (66), the former U.S. Open champion who is trying to work his way back from a two-year slump.

They were at seven-under 135.

Sam Saunders also was at seven under, making back-to-back birdies until it was too dark to continue. He had three holes remaining in his second round. Ryan Moore bogeyed his final hole for a 68 and was one shot behind at 136.

Woods plans to stick around for the weekend because his TGR Foundation hosts the event, one reason he played Riviera for the first time since 2006. Just as his second round was starting, the Honda Classic announced he would be playing next week at PGA National in Florida.

“I need some tournament rounds,” Woods said.

Riviera was tough on everyone with the firm conditions under two days of full sunshine. Woods started on the cut line, and sandwiched a pair of 20-foot birdie putts around a bogey at the par-3 fourth. But there were two stretches where he fell apart.

He came up well short of the green — with the pin in a bowl to the back left — and took bogey on No. 6. From a fairway bunker on the next hole, he hit the lip and the ball caromed off to the side. And with a wedge in hand from 117 yards on the ninth, he put it in a front bunker and dropped another shot.

Then, after a brilliant play off the tee that set up a rare tap-in birdie on the reachable 10th, he three-putted the par-5 11th from 40 feet and the 12th from 80 feet, followed by a pulled tee shot on No. 13 that clanged off the trees and left him a 3-iron into the green instead of a wedge. He pulled that left and made a third straight bogey.

Woods three-putted the 16th from about 25 feet.

During an 11-hole stretch starting with No. 3, he made only one par. He hit good shots, but his game was not nearly sharp enough to atone for far too many mistakes, especially on a track like Riviera.

“I haven’t played golf in years,” Woods said after his third PGA Tour event since August 2015 because of back surgeries. “I’m starting to come back and it’s going to take a little time. I am progressing, I’m starting to get a feel for tournament golf again. I just need to clean up my rounds.”

Rory McIlroy overcame a few short misses on the front nine for a 69 and was at 2-under 140.

“He is very close,” McIlroy said about Woods. “Give him a little bit of time.”

Cantlay was coming off a three-putt bogey when his tee shot at the par-3 sixth — the hole with a bunker in the middle of the green — landed above the flag and to the right, and then rolled back down the slope just over the right edge of the cup.

“I actually missed a little to the right, but it’s a bowl back there so as long as you get the number right, it should be pretty close,” Cantlay said.

He followed with a short iron into five feet for birdie, a 15-foot birdie on the next hole and then a wild drive that led to a bogey on his final hole.

McDowell has gone 59 starts worldwide since his last victory and has fallen out of the top 200 in the world. He had missed four straight cuts dating to late last year, though he felt he was hitting it well in practice. What helped was seeing some good scores.

“All I’m missing is a couple little numbers and a little bit of confidence,” McDowell said.

Defending champion Dustin Johnson shot a 69 and gets to stick around for the weekend. He was at one-over 143. Bubba Watson, who won in 2014 and 2016, has fallen out of the top 200 in the world after a two-year drought. He shot a 70 and was at four-under 138, and then headed for the NBA All-Star weekend to play in the celebrity game.

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The post As Arnie’s grandson, the weight of expectations can be heavy, but Sam Saunders is forging his own path appeared first on Golf.

The post As Arnie’s grandson, the weight of expectations can be heavy, but Sam Saunders is forging his own path appeared first on Golf.

When did you decide to become a professional golfer?

Probably in high school, when I was really starting to get pretty good at golf. I loved it. I excelled at a young age, and I thought, you know, I think I’d like to play professionally. It wasn’t because I wanted to follow in my granddad’s footsteps. I just really love the game and felt that I might be good enough at it to some day be a pro.

You’ve played on the PGA Tour for the last three seasons, but this year was your most consistent and successful to date, capped by an incredible 59 at the Web.com Tour Championship, which secured your Tour card for the 2017-18 season. Have you made any specific changes to your game?

I care more about winning now and less about just making cuts or trying to establish myself. I feel like I’ve been out here long enough to show that I’m a decent player, certainly not a world-beater or anything like that, but a guy who’s earned his way out here. Hopefully I’ll be able to play out here for a long time, but when it’s time to move on to something else, I also hope I can do it of my own accord.

Arnold Palmer’s passing was deeply affecting for everyone in the golf world. Do you feel even more pressure to perform and succeed now that he’s gone?

No, honestly, I don’t. I think about him all the time. I obviously do my best to make him proud and to make my whole family proud, but I play for me. I don’t play out there for anybody else. I’m not trying to prove anything to anyone.

What would a successful career look like for you?

I would certainly love to try to make it into the Top 50 in the world at some point. I’ve played in two U.S. Opens, but I’d love to play in the Masters, the Open Championship and the PGA, and to have at least one win on the PGA Tour. If I can do that, when I decide to move on to things other than golf, I’ll be satisfied.

So you’ve already started planning your post-golf life?

There will be a point when I decide that I don’t want to play anymore. But there’s a difference [between] quitting and moving on, because I feel like I have value in other places, and I feel like I’m more than just a golfer. I enjoy other things. I’d love to design golf courses. And most importantly, I love being around my family. Plus, the travel is tough.

What would you say is the biggest difference between Arnie the grandfather and Arnie the public figure?

I’ve said it before: He really was authentic. He really was the same guy. Most people aren’t like that, especially superstars. I got to see him in his sweats. I got to go to breakfast with him and just watch him when he wasn’t around other people. Little things, like paying cash for breakfast at the little diner in Latrobe and just leaving a normal $4 or $5 tip, with the waiter or waitress not even knowing who he was. And I think that’s what was neat for me, just to see him be a normal person. He wasn’t different to anyone that he ever came across, and that was so impressive to me.

Your wife famously had to Google you to discover that you’re actually Arnold Palmer’s grandson. Did you Google her?

Gosh, I don’t remember now, it’s been a few years. But I probably did. I guess we live in an era now where you might as well, just to make sure she doesn’t have a crime record or anything like that. [Laughs]

You have your own workshop and like to tweak the specs on your clubs. Done anything drastic lately?

Well, it’s funny — the better you play, the less you tinker. So this year, I don’t know if I did anything, actually. A lot of times, it’s just regripping my clubs and little things like that. Because today’s golf clubs are a little bit more sophisticated, it’s a bit more scientific now. It’s above my pay grade.

Is it true that your alligator headcover is made from one you caught?

Yeah. I went hunting down in Florida and got a ten-and-a-half-foot gator. It wasn’t just for sport—we used everything. I ate the meat, I used the leather, and I’ve got his head at the house, although my wife makes me hide it above the garage. I can’t display it proudly above the fireplace like I’d like to.

ONE THING I KNOW FOR SURE

The best advice I ever got from my grandfather is to talk less and listen more. I think about that all the time. We live in a world now where everybody feels the need to talk so much. I try to talk less. You really can’t get into a whole lot of trouble by just listening. And when you do speak, make sure your words have value. I like to listen to what other people have to say and to try to learn from them.

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Sam Saunders, the grandson of Arnold Palmer, went low Thursday at Atlantic Beach Country Club

Sam Saunders, the grandson of Arnold Palmer, went low Thursday at Atlantic Beach Country Club.

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The post Sam Saunders: 5 things to know about Arnie’s grandson appeared first on Golf.

The post Sam Saunders: 5 things to know about Arnie’s grandson appeared first on Golf.

All eyes are on Arnold Palmer’s grandson, Sam Saunders, at Bay Hill this week as an elite field of Tour pros prepares to play in the first Arnold Palmer Invitational following The King’s passing. The 29-year-old turned pro in 2009 and joined the PGA Tour in 2015. He hasn’t won yet, but came close with a second-place finish at the 2015 Puerto Rico Open, losing to Alex Cejka in a playoff. Here’s five things to know about Saunders.

1. Saunders is Palmer’s grandson

This much we already knew, but did you know that Saunders is the only of Palmer’s six grandchildren to follow in Palmer’s professional golf footsteps? At least, for now: cousins Anna and Will Wears played collegiate golf at Palmer’s alma mater Wake Forest and Loyola University Maryland, respectively.

2. Saunders grew up playing Bay Hill

As a kid, Saunders used to sell lemonade around Bay Hill’s 18th hole to help raise money for the Arnold Palmer Hospital. In high school, he was the club champion, and he also caddied for his grandfather when he played the PGA Tour event held there. At 14, he played it for the first time as a non-competing marker.

3. Saunders qualified for the 2011 U.S. Open using his caddie’s irons

While playing the Monday qualifier in Columbus, Ohio, Saunders decided to use his caddie, Travis McAlister’s, clubs instead of his own. “He has the same irons I used to have, and I decided to use his instead of mine,” Saunders said. He shot 66-66 in the 36 hole qualifier to tie Michael Putnam at the top of the leaderboard.

MORE: You’ll never guess how Sam Saunders’ wife found out he was Arnold Palmer’s grandson

4. Saunders lost his sense of smell in a scooter accident

In August 2015, Saunders suffered a fractured skull, epidural hematoma, and concussion when he fell off an electric scooter. The pro was lucky, though: his injuries could have been career-ending, but the only thing that was damaged was his sense of smell. “It’s 100 percent gone, which is weird,” Saunders told NBC News in 2015. “Taste is not quite there. But those are things I can live with. I’m very lucky to be as well as I am.”

5. Saunders delivered a touching eulogy at Palmer’s funeral, honoring the man he knew at “Dumpy”

One of the most emotional moments of Palmer’s 2016 funeral was Saunders’ story of a phone call between Palmer and Saunders, one Saunders made, unknowingly, while his grandfather was visiting the President of the United States. “And I said, ‘Why are you answering your phone?'” Saunders recalled. “He said, ‘I wanted to talk to you.’ And that’s what he did. He always wanted to talk to me. He always wanted to be there for us, and he always was.”

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The post WATCH: Arnie’s grandson Saunders, dozens of pros hit ceremonial tee shots for the King appeared first on Golf.

The post WATCH: Arnie’s grandson Saunders, dozens of pros hit ceremonial tee shots for the King appeared first on Golf.

The festivities of the 2017 Arnold Palmer Invitational kicked off with a touching ceremonial tee shot tribute to the tournament’s late namesake on Wednesday.

Arnold Palmer’s grandson, Sam Saunders, and 30 other pros each fired off an honorary tee shot on the range at Bay Hill. Pros have been turning out in droves both at the tournament and online to pay tribute to the King, who misses his tournament for the first time since it took on his name in 2007.

The effect was a 21-gun-salute-like spectacle, something Arnie would likely have thought equally impressive and beautiful to watch.

Sam Saunders hits honorary tee shot with @PGATOUR pros following to remember Mr. Arnold Palmer @APinv. pic.twitter.com/e1KFuswlXk

— PGA TOUR Media (@PGATOURmedia) March 15, 2017

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The post Sam Saunders leads early at Riviera appeared first on Golf.

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Sam Saunders, grandson of Arnold Palmer, fired a seven-under 64 Thursday to take a two-shot lead at the Genesis Open.

Sam Saunders, grandson of Arnold Palmer, fired a seven-under 64 Thursday to take a two-shot lead at the Genesis Open.

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