FUZZY ZOELLER

Justin Rose didn't get the memo that Augusta National was playing a little easier Friday at the Masters.

The Masters features only six players, three of them amateurs, who have never played in the Masters.

(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)AUGUSTA, Ga. – The record score at Augusta National wasn't all that set Dustin Johnson apart from other Masters champions. No other Masters champion was allowed to keep his green jacket for only five months before it was time to try to win it again. Augusta National is blazing with pink and red and purple azaleas, accented by the white blooms of dogwood. Ad“I think it will be back to feeling like a normal Masters,” Johnson said. Augusta National had no choice but to keep the spectators away in November because of the pandemic, just like the other majors last year.

The PNC Championship announced Thursday that Woods will play with 11-year-old son Charlie in the tournament that has paired major champions with their sons since 1995, the year before the 44-year-old Woods turned pro. “I can't tell you how excited I am to be playing with Charlie in our first official tournament together,” Woods said. The PNC Championship is Dec. 19-20 at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando in central Florida. It allowed Fuzzy Zoeller to play with his daughter, Gretchen, and Arnold Palmer to play with his grandson, Sam Saunders. Until deciding to play in the PNC Championship, it was thought Woods ended the year at the Masters.

On the heels of shooting 67, 68 and 69 over the first three rounds, Smith finished with a 15-under total that would've been good enough to win most years. “It would have been cool to do that and win,” Smith said “I would take 15 under around here for the rest of my career. Smith, playing up ahead in the next-to-last threesome, brilliantly scrambled for birdies at the seventh and ninth holes, leaving him two behind at the turn. “I wouldn't say I brought my best stuff, especially my longer stuff,” Smith said. Unfortunately for Smith and Im, Johnson was even better.

Mexico's Abraham Ancer, South Korea's Sungjae Im and Australia's Cameron Smith were at 12-under 204 through 54 holes, four shots behind Johnson's pace-setting score. Ancer and Im are playing the Masters for the first time, which doesn't bode well for their chances. But he was hardly a contender, going to the final round 11 shots off the lead. “Anyone with a four-shot lead is expected to win,” Smith said. “I watched the Masters growing up so many times that I feel like I’m used to playing this course,” Im said through a translator.

Any description of Bryson DeChambeau now starts with U.S. Open champion. When his 7-foot par putt fell on the 18th, DeChambeau thrust those two powerful arms into the air. DeChambeau pledged to keep hitting it as far as he could, even if that meant being in the rough. Still to play was the back nine, where so much has gone wrong at Winged Foot over the years. DeChambeau from the right rough came up short, but he used putter from off the green for birdie from 15 feet away.

“Around here at Winged Foot, every golf shot you have to pay attention to because you hit one poor golf shot, a lot of things can happen out here.”Bad things. Although there are no fans on the course for the pandemic-delayed tournament, a few volunteers let out a holler. It was Reed’s second ace as a pro, having rolled one in on the 16th hole at the Houston Open in 2015. “An ace is an ace. “I’ve heard a lot of great things about the golf course, heard it’s a bear,” Reed said.

It was the lowest score in a U.S. Open at Winged Foot, which is hosting the Open for the sixth time dating to 1929. McIlroy was among those two shots behind on a scoreboard filled with red numbers, an unusual site for Winged Foot. “Yeah, 65 is fun no matter where you play, especially at Winged Foot,” Thomas said. Low clouds added to the soft feel of Winged Foot. It's still Winged Foot.