PGA Tour

• LAST WEEK: AT&T Byron Nelson (Aaron Wise)

  THIS WEEK: Fort Worth Invitational

  Colonial Country Club, Fort Worth, Texas (Par 70, 7,209 yards)

  Purse: $7.1 million (Winner: $1.278 million)

  Defending Champion: Kevin Kisner

  Kisner shot a final-round 66 to win by one shot over Sean O'Hair, Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth by getting up-and-down from the back bunker on the final hole. ... This is the fifth and final Tour stop in Texas this season. ... The Colonial dates back to 1946, making it the longest running event on Tour at the same course. ... Adam Scott (2014) is the only international player to win the event in the past 10 years. ... Legendary Texan Ben Hogan won the Colonial five times, earning the event the moniker of "Hogan's Alley." He defended his title twice, and remains the only player to defend at Colonial. ... Spieth (2016) and Ben Crenshaw (1990) are the only native Texans to win the event. Colleyville, Texas resident Ryan Palmer is a member at Colonial. ... Spieth has a win and two runner-up finishes in the past three Colonials. ... The cut last year fell at 4-over par 144, the highest since 1999. ... The 54-hole leader has gone on to win only once in the past nine years.

  Television: Thursday-Friday 4-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 3-6 p.m. ET (CBS Sports)

  NEXT WEEK: Memorial Tournament

  LPGA Tour

  LAST WEEK: Kingsmill Championship (Ariya Jutanugarn)

  THIS WEEK: LPGA Volvik Championship

  Travis Pointe Country Club, Ann Arbor, Mich. (Par 72, 6,734 yards)

  Purse: $1.3 million (Winner: $195,000)

  Television: Thursday-Friday, 7-9 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 3-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)

  Defending Champion: Shanshan Feng

  Feng set the tournament scoring record with her winning total of 19-under 269 last year. ... Jutanugarn was the inaugural event winner in 2016 and leads this year's money list with $771,390. She also leads the Tour with eight top-10 finishes. ... The first 12 tournaments this year have been won by 12 different players. ... Second-ranged Feng has yet to win this year, but does have four top-five finishes in eight starts. This event marked the first of three victories in 2017 that vaulted Feng to become the first Chinese player to be ranked No. 1. ... Christina Kim (8-under, 2016) holds the 18-hole scoring record.

  NEXT WEEK: U.S. Women's Open, Shoal Creek, Ala.

  Champions Tour

  LAST WEEK: Regions Tradition (Miguel Angel Jimenez).

  THIS WEEK: KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship

  Harbor Shores, Benton Harbor, Michigan. (Par 71, 6,852 yards)

  Purse: $3.25 million (Winner: $585,000)

  Television: Thursday-Friday, 1-4 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday, 1-4 p.m. ET (NBC); Sunday, 3-6 p.m. (NBC)

  Defending champion: Bernhard Langer

  Langer will not defend his Senior PGA Championship while he attends his son's high school graduation, ending a streak of 28 consecutive major starts. ... The field includes 46 of the top 50 players in the Charles Schwab Cup, including 2016 champion Rocco Mediate, the winner the last time the event was held at Harbor Shores. ... Scott McCarron has seven top-10s in his past 11 majors, including each of the past two Senior PGA Championships. ... Jimenez has at least one victory in each of the past five years, second only to Langer's streak of 12.

  NEXT WEEK: OFF.

  --Field Level Media

World Golf Hall of Famer Carol Mann has died, the LPGA Tour announced. She was 77.

• Mann reportedly died Sunday at her home in The Woodlands, Texas.

  Mann also is a member of the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame. She won 38 tournaments, including the 1965 U.S. Women's Open.

  "It is always difficult to lose a member of your family," LPGA commissioner Mike Whan said in a statement posted on Twitter. "Carol Mann was a tremendous competitor, but an even more amazing person. She was special in every way and she certainly left the game and the LPGA better than she found it. Our thoughts are with her family and friends."

  Mann won 10 tournaments in 1968.

  She also served as LPGA president from 1973-76. Mann was a television analyst for men's and women's golf broadcasts after ending her playing career.

  --Field Level Media

European captain Thomas Bjorn named Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Lee Westwood and Luke Donald his vice-captains for the 42nd Ryder Cup to be held in France this September.

• They join Robert Karlsson, who was previously named as a vice-captain by Bjorn.

  "Opportunities arose for me to have these guys on the backroom team, and when I looked at these players, I thought, these are the people I want to have there," Bjorn said. "They bring all the right things to the team, and they bring everything I believe in."

  Harrington, who has appeared in six Ryder Cup matches, also served as a vice-captain to Paul McGinley in 2014 and Darren Clarke in 2016, while Westwood has played in the past 10 Ryder Cups since making his debut in 1997. McDowell, who claimed the winning point for Europe at Celtic Manor in 2010, and Donald will be making their vice-captain debuts.

  "You only need to look at the record books to see that their Ryder Cup pedigree speaks for itself," Bjorn said in announcing his vice-captains. "Each of them has played both home and away so they are well versed in the contest and know how to handle the special and unique atmosphere.

  "They all possess strong personalities but each of them will also bring something different to the team, giving us great balance. They have forthright opinions which is vital under the spotlight of a Ryder Cup week and is something which can only help our cause as we try and regain the trophy."

  Europe is seeking to regain the Cup after losing to the United States at Hazeltine two years ago. All four vice-captains are also eligible to qualify for the European team, although only Westwood (117th) is ranked inside the top 200 in the world rankings.

  "I'm of an age now where my chances of making the team go down quite significantly, and it's something that I've always been interested in, having played so many, but never been on the other side of it and seeing what goes on," said the 45-year-old Westwood, per Golfweek. "I was keen to see that kind of angle to it and, like I said, when Thomas asked me, I jumped at the chance."

  The 42nd Ryder Cup will be held at Le Golf National in Paris this September. Future venues include Whistling Straits in Haven, Wis., in 2020; the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome in '22; and Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y., in '24. Europe has yet to announce the home courses for the 2026 and '30 Ryder Cups. After returning to Hazeltine (Chaska, Minn.) in '28, the next U.S. course will be The Olympic Club in San Francisco in 2032.

  "I think my experience at Paris National, the four Ryder Cups I've played, have been the greatest moments of my career," McDowell said. "I'm just excited to take on a slightly different view of things, and obviously help the 12 players be as ready as they possibly can to regain this trophy that we all care so much about."

  --Field Level Media

The perks keep piling up for Aaron Wise, the 21-year-old who became a millionaire with his first career PGA Tour victory at the AT&T Byron Nelson on Sunday.

• Along with the winner's check of nearly $1.4 million, Wise rose 33 spots to a career-best 66th in the world golf rankings and 34 spots to No. 12 in the U.S. Ryder Cup team points race. With a tie for second and a victory in his past two starts, Wise is now exempt into all the major tournaments and sits just four spots out of an automatic spot on the 2018 U.S. Ryder Cup team.

  Not bad for the former Oregon star who was barely a blip on the Ryder Cup radar this time last month.

  Wise earned 1,386 Ryder Cup points for his victory at the Byron Nelson, more than the 992 combined he entered the week with. The top 11 spots ahead of Wise went unchanged this week with Jordan Spieth the only player among them in the Byron Nelson field -- Spieth earned 80 Cup points to remain in fourth place behind Patrick Reed, Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson. Bubba Watson is No. 5, followed by Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson.

  The Players champion Webb Simpson is No. 9, followed by Matt Kuchar, Brian Harman, Wise, Bryson DeChambeau, Kevin Kisner and Jimmy Walker in the top 15.

  The four majors in 2018 are weighted heavily in the U.S. Ryder Cup team points race, with winners receiving two points per $1,000 earned at the Masters, U.S. Open, Open Championship and PGA Championship, and all other players receiving 1.5 points per $1,000 earned. That's compared to one point per every $1,000 earned in regular PGA Tour events in 2018 leading up to the Aug. 12 cutoff.

  The 42nd Ryder Cup will be held at Le Golf National in Paris this September. Future venues include Whistling Straits in Haven, Wis., in 2020; the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome in '22; and Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y., in '24. Europe has yet to announce the home courses for the 2026 and '30 Ryder Cups. After returning to Hazeltine (Chaska, Minn.) in '28, the next U.S. course will be The Olympic Club in San Francisco in 2032.

  --Field Level Media

Adam Scott's streak of playing in 67 consecutive major tournaments is in jeopardy after he failed to move into the top 60 of the world golf rankings this week.

• Scott, 37, moved up four spots to No. 61 following a top-10 finish at the AT&T Byron Nelson, which the Aussie added to his schedule in an attempt to get into next month's U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. The top 60-ranked players following the event are exempt through sectional qualifying.

  Scott's major streak is second among active players behind only Sergio Garcia's 75. He has played each of the past three weeks in an effort to crack the top 60. There is one more top-60 cutoff point following the FedEx St. Jude Classic the week before the U.S. Open.

  Scott will be in this week's field at the Fort Worth Invitational and is prepared to play the Memorial and the St. Jude Classic if he has not secured that coveted U.S. Open spot. If that does not prove to be enough, Scott said he is not planning to compete in sectional qualifying.

  "I'll play next week and hopefully play really well, and give myself a bit of cushion so I can take a week or so off and try to prepare the best I can for the U.S. Open," Scott said, according to Golf Digest.

  The 2013 Masters champion has eight top-five finishes, 16 top-10 and has missed 15 cuts during his major championship streak that began at the Open Championship in 2001.

  Scott, who rose to No. 1 in the world in 2014, has seen his ranking steadily drop since the ban on anchoring putters went into effect in 2016. He entered the Byron Nelson ranked 128th in strokes gained putting this season -- up from 198th the previous week.

  "My putting has been erratic, Scott acknowledged to ESPN last week. "Poor overall, with good and bad in there. I'm not getting the best out of my scores. If it were the other way around, I'd have shot a couple better here and there. And those 15th-place finishes instead are top-10s and a lot more world-rankings points in the scheme of things."

  Scott's improved play of late has coincided with a switch back to a longer putter, although he is not anchoring it to his chest. He tied for 11th at The Players Championship before his tie for ninth at the Byron Nelson -- his first top-10 result since the St. Jude Classic last year (T-10).

  --Field Level Media

Miguel Angel Jimenez and Gene Sauers are tied for the lead at 11-under par after two rounds of the Regions Tradition in Birmingham, Ala.

• Jimenez, who tied the course record with an 8-under par 64 on the Founders Course at Greystone Golf and Country Club on Thursday, settled for a 3-under 69 in the second round. Sauers shot a 5-under 67 on Friday and the two hold a two-shot lead over Jerry Kelly, Scott McCarron and Kevin Sutherland (9-under).

  Joe Durant, Scott Dunlap and Bob Estes are another shot off the pace at 8-under.

  This is the first time Jimenez has held the lead or a share of the lead after 36 holes of a major championship on the Champions Tour. Sauers has yet to make a bogey through two rounds and holds the lead/co-lead at the midway point of a Champions major for the fifth time.

  Two-time defending champion Bernhard Langer, coming off his first victory of the season two weeks ago, is in a tie for 39th at 2-under after opening with rounds of 70 and 72. He entered the week with eight consecutive rounds in the 60s at the event and is seeking his 38th Champions title.

  NOTES: Steve Flesch withdrew after six holes on Friday due to a shoulder injury. ... The last 36-hole leader to go on to win the Regions Tradition was Jeff Maggert in 2015. ... John Daly is in a tie for 39th at 2-under.

  --Field Level Media

A tape of the 911 call the wife of former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover made claiming she was attacked by her mother-in-law released Wednesday reveals Glover answered a call back from the St. John's Sheriff's Office in Florida and told police his wife was lying.

• "Yeah, hi, I think we got our lines crossed here. This is the husband, the sane one of the bunch," Glover says on the call. "My wife has called you. ... Now she's trying to blame it on my mother, which is not the case at all. ... My wife has gone crazy."

  Krista Glover was arrested Saturday in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., for allegedly attacking Lucas Glover's mother during an altercation after he missed the 54-hole cut at The Players Championship.

  Krista Glover was taken to St. John's County Jail before being released on $2,500 bond Sunday. She is facing misdemeanor charges of domestic violence and resisting arrest.

  According to the incident report, she attacked her husband's mother when the latter tried to intervene during an altercation between Lucas Glover and his wife. After being arrested, police say Krista Glover became combative and unruly and repeatedly kicked the car door.

  The arrest reports also states Lucas Glover told the deputy his wife calls him a "loser" among other insults after he plays poorly in a tournament, and that she had been drinking. The world's 104th-ranked golfer, Lucas Glover was one of nine players to be eliminated from The Players under the "made cut, did not finish" designation after 54 holes.

  During the call, Lucas Glover told the sheriff's office that sending a rescue squad wouldn't be necessary. He also told the operator she couldn't speak to his wife, saying, "She's going to lie to you. That's what I'm telling you. That's why I answered the phone. She's telling lies.

  "She's in the house with my daughter. And when deputies get here, they need to talk to the male -- that would be me -- because these other two are out of their heads at the moment."

  Lucas Glover tweeted a statement on Tuesday, reading: "On May 12, my wife and mother were involved in an argument to which the police were called. Everyone is fine. Regrettably, although Krista was charged, we are comfortable that the judicial system is able to address what actually happened and Krista will be cleared in this private matter. We thank you for respecting our privacy as we work through this unfortunate situation."

  Lucas Glover won the 2009 U.S. Open and has two other career PGA wins, with the most recent coming at the Wells Fargo Championship in 2011.

  --Field Level Media

PGA Tour: AT&T Byron Nelson

• LAST WEEK: The Players Championship (Webb Simpson)

  THIS WEEK: AT&T Byron Nelson (Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw; Par-71, 7,380 yards)

  Trinity Forest Golf Club

  Purse: $7.7 million (Winner: $1.386 million)

  Defending Champion: Billy Horschel

  Television: Thursday-Friday 4-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. ET (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. ET (CBS Sports)

  This is the 50th anniversary of the event, which moves from the TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas to the links style Trinity Forest course. Las Colinas had played host to the event since 1983. Trinity Forest, built on top of a landfill, opened in October 2016 and does not feature any trees in play despite its name. ... Horschel won last year's event when Jason Day three-putted the final hole. ... Dallas native Jordan Spieth is a member. Spieth (No. 3) and Japan's Hideki Matsuyama (No. 9) are the only top 10 players in the field. Two-time event winner Sergio Garcia (No. 14) and Matt Kuchar (No. 22) are the only others ranked in the top 25. ... This is the final tournament for players to move into the top 60 of the world golf rankings and automatically qualify for the U.S. Open. The top 50 after this week will be exempt for the British Open. ... One featured group is comprised of Horschel, part-time Texas resident Garcia and Amarillo, Texas native Ryan Palmer.

  NEXT WEEK: Fort Worth (Texas) Invitational

  LPGA Tour

  LAST WEEK: OFF.

  THIS WEEK: Kingsmill Championship presented by GEICO

  Kingsmill Resort - River Course, Williamsburg, Va. (Pete Dye; Par-71, 6,445 yards)

  Purse: $1.3 million (Winner: $195,000)

  Television: Thursday-Friday, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 5-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)

  Defending Champion: Lexi Thompson

  This is the first of nine consecutive tournaments, including the U.S. Women's Open and the KPMG Women's PGA Championship. ... No. 3 Thompson, the highest of six top 10 players in the field, set the tournament record with her five-shot victory last year at 20-under and has finished in the top 10 each of the past three years. ... The field includes Jessica Korda, who leads the Tour with a 69.042 scoring average in 2018. Of her 24 rounds this season, 14 have been under par. ... 2016 champion Ariya Jutanugarn leads the Tour with seven top-10 finishes this season. ... Minjee Lee, who earned her first Tour victory at the Kingsmill Championship in 2015, has 16 top-10s since her last victory in 2016. ... Seven of the 11 winners on Tour this year are in the field. There has not been a repeat winner in 2018. ... Cristie Kerr is a three-time winner of the event that began in 2003.

  NEXT WEEK: LPGA Volvik Championship, Ann Arbor, Mich.

  Champions Tour

  LAST WEEK: OFF.

  THIS WEEK: Regions Tradition

  Greystone Golf & Country Club, Birmingham, Ala. (Bob Cupp/Hubert Green; Par-72, 7,277 yards)

  Purse: $2.4 million (Winner: $360,000)

  Television: Thursday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 2-4 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)

  Defending champion: Bernhard Langer

  The Regions Tradition is the first of five major championships on Tour over the next seven tournaments. ... Langer is the two-time defending champion and has posted eight consecutive rounds in the 60s at the event. ... Langer seeks his 38th Champions title. His victory at the Insperity Invitational two weeks ago extended streak to 12 years with at least one victory. ... Langer is eight wins shy of Hale Irwin's record of 45 Champions titles. ... 33 of the top 36 players in the Charles Schwab Cup are in the field. ... Scott McCarron and Steve Stricker are in the field after competing in The Players Championship on the PGA Tour last week. Stricker has two wins and four top-five finishes on the Champions Tour this year.

  NEXT WEEK: KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, Benton Harbor, Mich.

  --Field Level Media

Tiger Woods entered The Memorial, where he is a five-time champion and will open the event as playing partner to a Super Bowl champ.

• Woods, who is coming off of a strong weekend at The Players Championship, including a third-round 65 at TPC Sawgrass, said after the tournament, "I'm not that far off from winning."

  Before The Memorial gets underway, Woods will play in the May 30 pro-am event with former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning.

  Woods closed The Players Championship with a 69 and had peers taking notice. Tom Lehman said Woods "looks like the old Tiger." Woods agreed.

  "It was just a matter of time, and this weekend was it," Woods said.

  The 43rd Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, is hosted by Jack Nicklaus May 31-June 3.

  Woods won the Memorial in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2009 and 2012. He last finished the tournament in 2015, when he was 71st and shot 85 in the third round.

  Winning again would mean besting the top names in golf. World No. 1 Justin Thomas, Masters champion Patrick Reed, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day and defending champion Jason Dufner are confirmed for the Golden Bear's marquee event.

  "I have been so impressed with Tiger during his comeback, and as I said after last weekend, I think he is on the verge of winning for the first time in several years," Nicklaus said in a statement announcing Woods' commitment. "He's been very close, and having won five times at Muirfield Village, I wouldn't be surprised if he contended to win his sixth."

  Woods was ranked 656th in the world in January and is currently ranked 60th. The Memorial will be his ninth start this year and 16th career appearance in the tournament.

  --Field Level Media

The wife of former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover was arrested Saturday in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. for allegedly attacking Glover's mother during an altercation after he missed the 54-hole cut at The Players Championship.

• Krista Glover was arrested Saturday night at a rental house and taken to St. Johns County Jail before being released on $2,500 bond Sunday. She is facing misdemeanor charges of domestic violence and resisting arrest.

  According to the incident report, she attacked her husband's mother when the latter tried to intervene during an altercation between Glover and his wife. After being arrested, police say Krista Glover became combative and unruly and repeatedly kicked the car door.

  Lucas Glover tweeted a statement on Tuesday, reading: "On May 12, my wife and mother were involved in an argument to which the police were called. Everyone is fine. Regrettably, although Krista was charged, we are comfortable that the judicial system is able to address what actually happened and Krista will be cleared in this private matter. We thank you for respecting our privacy as we work through this unfortunate situation."

  The world's 104th-ranked golfer, Glover was one of nine players to be eliminated from The Players under the "made cut, did not finish" designation after 54 holes, following a 6-over-par 78 on Saturday that left him at 1 over for the tournament. With 80 players making the original 36-hole cut, rules required that only the top 70 plus ties advanced to the final round.

  Glover won the 2009 U.S. Open and has two other career PGA wins, with the most recent coming at the Wells Fargo Championship in 2011.

  --Field Level Media

Justin Thomas has committed to play in the France Open, which will take place June 28-July 1 at Le Golf National, the site of the 42nd Ryder Cup in September.

• Newly-minted as the fourth-youngest No. 1-ranked player in the world following his 11th-place finish at The Players Championship, the 25-year-old Thomas will play on the European Tour for the first time since his first tournament as a professional.

  "I'm very excited to have the opportunity to go and play in a European Tour event," Thomas said, per Sky Sports. "It is something I haven't done since my first start as a pro when I went to play the Dunhill Links.

  "I'm not sure what to expect, having never played a Rolex Series event. I know they're fairly new to the European Tour, so it will be really fun to be a part of it.

  "I'm sure the field is going to be tremendous, especially being a Ryder Cup venue. It will have a lot of talent."

  Other confirmed top-10 players include No. 4 Jon Rahm of Spain and England's Tommy Fleetwood, the defending France Open champion who rose to No. 10 this week.

  Thomas ended the 64-week reign at No. 1 by Dustin Johnson, which was the fifth-longest since the ratings system began. Thomas shot a 6-under par round of 66 on Sunday to claim the top spot.

  And Thomas has no designs on giving it back any time soon.

  "It means a lot, but it's something I want to have for a long time,'' he said. "It's not something I just want to have once.

  "To have it for a week and then be done with it... like DJ has and like Tiger Woods did and other guys who have had it for a long time, that's more of a goal of mine as opposed to just having it.''

  Le Golf National, located at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, southwest of Paris, will play host to the Ryder Cup Sept. 28-30.

  --Field Level Media

Webb Simpson climbed 14 spots to No. 9 in the U.S. Ryder Cup team points list following his victory at The Players Championship.

• The top eight spots earn automatic spots on the U.S. team. The top six remained unchanged with Masters champion Patrick Reed leading the way and followed by Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson and Rickie Fowler. Brooks Koepka moved up one spot to No. 7 after a course-record tying 63 at TPC Sawgrass on Sunday, while Phil Mickelson dropped to No. 8 after missing the cut.

  Simpson earned 1,980 points for his victory at The Players. Xander Schauffele vaulted 18 spots to No. 14 while Jimmy Walker rose 22 spots to No. 18 with their tie for second place along with Charl Schwartzel.

  The four majors in 2018 are weighted heavily in the U.S. Ryder Cup team points race, with winners receiving two points per $1,000 earned at the Masters, U.S. Open, Open Championship and PGA Championship, and all other players receiving 1.5 points per $1,000 earned. That's compared to one point per every $1,000 earned in regular PGA Tour events in 2018 leading up to the Aug. 12 cutoff.

  The 42nd Ryder Cup will be held at Le Golf National in Paris this September. Future venues include Whistling Straits in Haven, Wis., in 2020; the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome in '22; and Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y., in '24. Europe has yet to announce the home courses for the 2026 and '30 Ryder Cups. After returning to Hazeltine (Chaska, Minn.) in '28, the next U.S. course will be The Olympic Club in San Francisco in 2032.

  --Field Level Media

Justin Thomas was not able to crack the top 10 on the final leaderboard at The Players Championship on Sunday, but his performance was good enough for him to displace Dustin Johnson as the world's top-ranked player.

• Thomas shot a 6-under 66 in the final round to tie for 11th place at 11-under 277, one stroke ahead of Johnson. That allowed Thomas to snare the top ranking for the first time in his career.

  "It means a lot, but it's something I want to have for a long time, it's not something I just want to have once," Thomas said. "To have it for (a lengthy stretch) like D.J. has and like Tiger (Woods) did and other guys who have had it for a long time, that's more of a goal of mine as opposed to just having it.

  Since this week a year ago, Thomas has 11 top-10 finishes, including wins in the PGA Championship, the Dell Technologies Championship, the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges and the Honda Classic, plus runner-up results in the Tour Championship and the WGC-Mexico Championships.

  Johnson had been ranked No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking list since February 2017. His 64-week stay at the top is fifth-best in the history of the rankings, which began in 1986.

  The only longer runs were by Woods (281 weeks from June 2005-October 2010), Woods (264 weeks, August 1999-September 2004) Australia's Greg Norman (96 weeks, June 1995-April 1997) and England's Nick Faldo (81 weeks, July 1992-February 1994).

  Johnson's total of 64 weeks at No. 1 also ranks fifth all-time, behind only Woods (683 weeks), Norman (331), Faldo (97) and Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy (95).

  Thomas is the 21st player to hold the No. 1 position and the fourth youngest.

  Webb Simpson moved up to No. 20 on the latest list by virtue of his victory Sunday. Woods jumped from No. 92 to No. 80 after tying for 11th with Thomas and four others at The Players.

  --Field Level Media

Brooks Koepka wasn't even sure he'd be able to tee it up at The Players Championship.

• On Sunday, all he did was shoot a 9-under 63 to tie the course record at TPC Sawgrass -- highlighted by an albatross on No. 16 where he holed out on his second shot from 208 yards.

  The 2017 U.S. Open champion came oh-so-close to setting the course mark but his 12-foot birdie putt on 18 lipped out.

  Making just his third start since missing nearly four months due to a wrist injury, Koepka aggravated the injury on the driving range Wednesday when a golf cart drove in front of him, forcing Koepka to check his swing. He had an MRI exam and said he was not sure if he would tee it up until he arrived at the course Thursday.

  Koepka said the wrist was feeling better but not 100 percent after shooting a 2-under par 70 in the first round.

  The eighth player to shoot 63 at TPC Sawgrass, Koepka finishes the tournament at 11-under 277.

  Webb Simpson, who leads the tournament at 19-under after three rounds, also matched the course record on Friday to take a commanding lead in the tournament.

  --Field Level Media

Tiger Woods barely survived the cut at The Players Championship, but he's making the most of surviving to play the weekend.

• Woods, who started the day on the cut line tied with 12 others for 68th at 1 under, came out red-hot at TPC Sawgrass on Saturday, notching six birdies with no bogeys on the front nine and finishing with a round of 7-under 65 to move to 8-under 208 for the tournament. That was good enough to get him into a tie for ninth, though he remains 11 strokes back of Webb Simpson, who leads the field by a whopping seven strokes.

  "Well I finally got off to a good start," Woods said afterward, per Golfweek. "I birdied the first couple of holes and I just kept it rolling from there. I hit a lot of good shots today. It was nice to see a few putts go in. I hit a lot of, overall, the whole day, a lot of quality shots and 65 was probably as high as I could have shot today, which was kind of nice."

  He needed just 12 putts through the first nine holes and jumped all the way up to a tie for 11th at 7-under as he carded a 30 at the turn.

  "It was nice, I made some putts today, that was basically the difference," Woods said. "I've hit quality irons before and I was able to convert today and got rolling early."

  Woods opened the back nine with a par on No. 10, and then found himself with a shot at eagle on No. 11. He missed the 40-foot putt, but easily sank a short birdie putt to move to 7-under for the day.

  He opened No. 12 by flubbing his iron off the tee to the right, but salvaged it with a pitch that rolled onto the green and then sank an eight-foot putt for yet another birdie. His tee shot on the par-3 13th hole left him four yards from the pin, but his birdie attempt missed right and he had to settle for par.

  On, No. 14, a 485-yard par 4, Woods had his first misstep of the day. His drive left him 198 yards out in the rough and his approach left him still a good 40 yards away. He pitched it to within 23 feet of the hole, but was unable to make the par putt and carded his lone bogey through 14 holes.

  His drive on No. 15 was again right and landed in a bunker, but he chipped out to find himself with a 40-plus foot attempt at birdie that just missed before he tapped in. After his second shot on the par-5 16th left him in a bunker, he recovered with a chip to within seven feet but then two-putted for par.

  Woods wrapped up his round with a par on No. 17, after just missing a 30-foot birdie putt on the 126-yard par 3, and then found himself with a 15-foot birdie attempt on No. 18. Again, he just missed and settled for par.

  Despite the terrific round, Woods will have trouble putting any pressure on Simpson, who followed up a course-record-tying 63 on Friday with a 68 on Saturday. He is the only player in the field to shoot all three rounds in the 60s. Other than Simpson, only Australian Danny Lee (12 under) and Dustin Johnson (10 under) are in double-digit red figures.

  "These guys are going to go low today again," Woods said before the leaders began their afternoon rounds. "I think that some of the guys will probably shoot better scores than I did out there today. It's definitely gettable. I know there's a lot of pressure coming down the back nine here, but I think these guys, the way they have setup the golf course today, it's set up for these guys to go low."

  Jordan Spieth, who also began the day on the cut line, matched Woods for what proved to be the low round of the day, birdieing each of the final three holes for a total of nine in his round. Only three other players went lower than Simpson's 68: Jason Dufner (66), Marc Leishman (67) and Rafa Cabrera-Bello (67). Dufner is in a tie for fourth at 9 under overall, while Leishman and Cabrera-Bello are tied for 16th at 7 under.

  Woods played the first two days in a featured group with Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler, but was the only one of the three former winners here to make the cut.

  Woods won the event in 2001 and 2013.

  The 42-year-old Woods returned to tour this year after rehabbing from a fourth back surgery and has shown mixed results. He has four top 10 finishes, but also missed a cut at the Genesis Open and also has finishes where he tied for 23rd and 55th.

  Woods hasn't won a PGA Tour event since 2013.

  --Field Level Media

The marquee and so-called "super group" continued to fizzle at The Players Championship on Friday, with Tiger Woods finishing his second round on the cut line at 1-under par overall while Rickie Fowler and Phil Mickelson left themselves no chance to reach the weekend.

• Woods shot a 1-under 71 on Friday and was tied for 63rd when he tapped in for par on No. 9, his final hole of the day after beginning on the back nine. He finished tied with 12 others for 68th, with the cut line holding at 1 under for the tournament.

  Woods was more consistent off the tee than in his opening round, but was unable to capitalize frequently, carding a pair of birdies against a lone bogey and going only a combined 1-under on the four reachable par 5s at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. He'll enter Saturday 14 strokes behind leader Webb Simpson, who carries a five-stroke lead after shooting a 9-under 63 on Friday, which tied the course record.

  Fowler and Mickelson didn't have to wait around to see if they would reach the weekend before booking early trips home.

  Mickelson began the day with little hope of making the cut after shooting a 7-over 79 on Thursday. Admittedly dealing with some fatigue after the Wells Fargo Championship last week, Mickelson posted a typically sporadic scorecard that included six birdies, five bogeys, one double bogey and only six pars. Mickelson finished in a tie for 134th place at 8 over, ahead of only seven other players in the field.

  Fowler's plummet well below the cut line was far more jarring. He was cruising along at 3 under with birdies on Nos. 4 and 5 when, on the sixth hole, his ball landed in a palm tree and never came out. He was even seen using binoculars trying to locate it.

  That resulted in the first of two consecutive double bogeys that sank Fowler into a tie for 87th at 1-over par when the 2015 Players champion walked off the course. It proved to be two shots too many for Fowler, ending the tournament early for the world's sixth-ranked player in a tie for 89th.

  Joining Woods by advancing to the weekend directly on the cut line were top-five players Justin Thomas (second) and Jordan Spieth (fourth).

  Eighth-ranked Rory McIlroy (1 over) and ninth-ranked Hideki Matsuyama (4 over) joined Fowler as top-10 players who were cut.

  --Field Level Media

Phil Mickelson joked on Tuesday that he would be happy to fast-forward to a winner-takes-all duel against Tiger Woods in the final round of The Players Championship on Sunday.

• As it stands after the first round at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. on Thursday, Mickelson will need a miracle just to play the weekend.

  Paired together at The Players for the first time since 2011 as part of a heralded "super group" along with Rickie Fowler, Woods and Mickelson sprayed the ball all over the Pete Dye-designed course Thursday. But it was Woods who was able to scramble to stay within shouting distance while Mickelson imploded down the stretch.

  Woods, 42, was 2 over when he eagled the par-5 ninth hole to make the turn at even-par 36. He hit only five fairways all day, but made par-saving putts at Nos. 10 and 14 and a bogey-saving putt on No. 18 after driving it into the water to post the best round of the group with an even-par 72.

  "I felt like today the way I was hitting the golf ball, especially towards the back nine, I should have shot something in the 60s," Woods told reporters. "But, didn't do it. Boy, it was nice to turn the round completely around there at 9. ... It was a nice turnaround.

  "It seemed like this golf course could have been had today."

  Fowler was at even par before putting his tee shot in the water on the famed par-3 17th hole, the site of his heroics in winning the 2015 Players title. He wound up with a double bogey and a 2-over par 74 after saving par from the pine needles on 18.

  Mickelson, 47, was 7-over on his final five holes in capping a disastrous 7-over 79 that was better than only two players in the 143-player field. It is also the highest that either he or Woods have shot when paired together in their careers.

  Mickelson, who deals with psoriatic arthritis, said leading up to the tournament that he was concerned about his energy level and acknowledged after the round that it was a factor Thursday.

  "I knew it was going to be a concern this week. I knew that I was going to have issues late in the day," Mickelson, who will turn 48 in June, told reporters after the round. "I tried to offset it this week by taking it easy, not doing too much, trying eat right ... trying to do all the right things to hopefully not have it be an issue. But I was concerned that would be the case, and it was.

  "But I'll come out tomorrow, should play fine tomorrow, and hopefully just have a good day. It's not specific to the tournament, it's just kind of specific to me and the workload and the things that are going on, and energy output throughout."

  Mickelson's round could be summed up with the bogey he carded on No. 9 that included hitting his approach shot off a hospitality tent and across a cart path, chipping his third shot over the green and then scooping under his fourth shot before putting up onto the green.

  The wheels really began to come off when he bladed his approach shot on No. 14, chunked the bunker shot coming back and then made the impetuous decision to putt over a drain. That led to the first of three double bogeys over a four-hole stretch, which included a second shot on No. 16 that never threatened to avoid the water before he joined Fowler in the water on 17.

  "Pete does a great job of making you feel uncomfortable," Woods told the Golf Channel when asked about the mental challenge of playing TPC Sawgrass. "There's trouble on every shot, and when you get it going around this course and you're playing well, the golf course doesn't seem very hard. But if you're a little off, you get penalized pretty severely here.

  "There's a lot of water holes out there that could be had. There's uncomfortable lies, really uneven lies, and some daunting pins."

  The trio will be paired again during the first wave on Friday. While Woods and Fowler battle to make the cut and hopefully play their way closer to contention, Mickelson will likely be relegated to enjoying the atmosphere and working out the kinks in his game.

  Woods is tied for 69th, six shots off the lead, while Fowler is tied for 95th.

  "They were into it, they were into it early," Woods said of the crowd. "That front nine was pretty packed. The galleries weren't quite as big at the end... I think they were a little tired from tipping back a couple, starting to get a little sleepy. Come tomorrow and the rest of the weekend, it will be another great atmosphere."

  --Field Level Media

Tiger Woods's comeback continues and will soon see him return to play in The Open Championship at Carnoustie.

• The official Twitter account of The Open tweeted on Wednesday that the 14-time major champ had committed to playing in the event, which tees off on July 19, for the first time since 2015.

  "I won two of my Open Championships in Scotland and the other one in England, so let's try and add another one in there," Woods is quoted in a photo accompanying the tweet.

  Woods played in the Masters last month -- his first major since 2015 -- and finished tied for 32nd.

  The 42-year-old Woods returned to tour this year after rehabbing from a fourth back surgery and has shown mixed results. He has four top 10 finishes, but also missed a cut at the Genesis Open and has T-23 and T-55 finishes.

  Woods hasn't won any PGA Tour event since 2013.

  He'll be paired with Phil Mickelson in a featured group at The Players Championship, which begins Thursday.

  --Field Level Media

Anyone compelled to make an argument that The Players Championship should be added as a fifth major need only to look at this week's field to support their case.

• For the first time since the 2016 U.S. Open the top 50 players in the world golf rankings and the top 50 players in the FedExCup Standings are in the field to take on the daunting TPC Sawgrass.

  No injury excuses. No complaints about a busy schedule. Players plan their schedule around a handful of marquee tournaments, and The Players is at the top of the list of non-major events and the Ryder Cup.

  Strangely, outside of No. 2 Justin Thomas (tie-third in 2016), most of the current top players in the world have a poor - if not terrible - track record at TPC Sawgrass.

  No. 1 Dustin Johnson has never finished in the top-10; No. 3 Jon Rahm has a one-year sample size but tied for 72nd last year; No. 4 Jordan Spieth has missed the cut each of the past three years after tying for fourth in his first Players; and No. 5 Justin Rose has just one top-10 (T4, 2014) in 14 career appearances.

  This year's Players is as wide open as any in recent memory. Take 5 looks at a few candidates primed to be in contention come Sunday.

  5. Si Woo Kim, Korea. The reigning champion was more than a one-year wonder. The 22-year-old has a pair of PGA Tour victories on his resume and four top-10s in 16 starts this season. Kim led the field in scrambling last year and was second in strokes gained off the tee, and holds the best scoring average (70.25) of any player with at least eight rounds played in the event.

  The biggest weight on his pre-tournament odds? No player has ever successfully defended a Players title. None. Zero. The best effort by a defending champion was Nick Price's fifth-place finish in 1994.

  4. Henrik Stenson, Sweden. The 42-year-old is quietly putting together a very strong season. He has not played since the Masters, where he tied for fifth. That followed top-6 finishes at the Houston Open and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Quick math says that in his last three starts, Stenson has averaged a fifth-place finish -- no one else in the field boasts that recent consistency.

  More important, the 2009 Players champion has three additional top-10 finishes in 13 appearances. He is also leading the Tour in driving accuracy (76.8 percent) this year.

  3. Sergio Garcia, Spain. Despite a frustrating meltdown in a playoff against Rickie Fowler in 2015, TPC Sawgrass clearly suits Garcia's eye. He won the event in 2008 and holds the longest active streak with 14 consecutive cuts made dating back to 2004 (Tom Kite holds the all-time record at 23). His $5.32 million won at The Players is an all-time record and he has five additional top-10 finishes to go with his '08 victory.

  Garcia is second to only Rory McIlroy (29-under) with a 27-under cumulative score to par in the past five Players.

  Need more evidence? Garcia's 20 rounds in the 60s ranks second in tournament history, and he enters with three top-10s in seven starts on Tour this season. Conversely, he has also missed three cuts -- including in his last two events at the Valero Texas Open and the Masters.

  2. Rickie Fowler, USA. As is fitting to his overall reputation, it's go big or go home for Fowler at The Players. The 2015 champion also tied for second in 2012. His other six appearances? A T60 ('17), T77 ('14) and four missed cuts - including each of the past two years.

  Fowler is coming off a T21 at the Wells Fargo Championship, but he did finish solo second at the Masters and recent results are rarely a window into the future of the wildly inconsistent Fowler. If he can withstand the environment of being paired with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson for the first two rounds and avoid the several blowup holes that tend to mar his scorecard, Fowler should be a factor come Sunday.

  His birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie finish to reach the playoff against Garcia and Kevin Kisner in 2015 remains the best closing four-hole stretch in tournament history, and arguably one of the best closes anywhere, any time.

  1. Jason Day, Australia. Yes, it's easy to ride the horse coming off his second victory of the year and a vault to No. 7 in the world rankings. But Day's ascent back into the upper echelon of men's golf isn't an accident. He is driving the ball further than ever before and he proved on Sunday that when that driver loses its aim, he has the short game to recover.

  Arguably the world's best putter from inside 10 feet, Day also has a strong track record in the event. The 2016 Players champion also tied for sixth in '11 and 19th in '13. He does also have three missed cuts in his seven previous appearances.

  Day will have to erase the memory of a final-round 80 last year, his second-highest score at TPC Sawgrass behind an 81 in the second round in 2015. But no one enters hotter than the 12-time winner on the PGA Tour as Day has made the cut in all nine of his events on Tour this season and leads the Tour in both strokes gained putting and sand saves percentage.

  --Derek Harper, Field Level Media

PGA Tour: The Players Championship

• THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (Pete Dye; Par 72, 7,189 yards)

  Purse: $11 million; $1.98 million to winner

  Defending Champion: Si Woo Kim

  Television: Thursday-Friday 1-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. ET (Golf Channel), 2-7 p.m. ET (CBS Sports)

  LAST WEEK: Wells Fargo Championship (Jason Day)

  THIS WEEK: Kim's winning score of 10-under 278 was the highest since Sergio Garcia in 2008 (283). Kim posted the only bogey-free final round and at 21 years, 10 months and 16 days old became the youngest winner of The Players. ... Adam Scott (T-8, 2005) is the last reigning champion to finish within the top 10. ... World No. 1 Dustin Johnson has never posted a top-10 finish at The Players. ... Tiger Woods (2001, '13 champion), Phil Mickelson ('07) and Rickie Fowler ('15) will be paired together for the first two rounds, with the other marquee group comprising Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas (each is seeking his first win at The Players). ... The top 50 players in both the world golf rankings and the FedExCup points standings are all in the field for the first time since the 2016 U.S. Open. ... All winners on the PGA Tour since last year's tournament are also in the field. ... Kyle Stanley in 2017 joined Paul Azinger (1987) as the only player to birdie No. 17 all four rounds in a single tournament. Stanley shared the 54-hole lead but shot a 3-over 74 on Sunday to tie for fourth. ... The 18th hole at TPC Sawgrass played as the second toughest on the PGA Tour during the 2016-17 season with a 4.486 scoring average, with No. 8 playing as the second-hardest par-3 (3.314). ... The past two champions, Kim and Jason Day, have led the field in both scrambling and par-4 scoring average. Kim (70.25) also holds the best tournament scoring average (minimum eight rounds). ... Over the past 15 years, there have been more balls hit in the water on holes Nos. 16-18 (1,889) than on the first 15 holes combined (1,818). The 69 total balls hit in the water on No. 17 last year were the most since 2017 (93).

  NEXT WEEK: AT&T Byron Nelson

  LPGA Tour

  LAST WEEK: Volunteers of America LPGA Texas Classic (Sung Hyun Park)

  THIS WEEK: OFF.

  NEXT WEEK: Kingsmill Championship present by GEICO

  Champions Tour

  LAST WEEK: Insperity Invitational (Bernhard Langer)

  THIS WEEK: OFF.

  NEXT WEEK: Regions Tradition

  --Field Level Media

The burgeoning friendship between Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods was evident when the two played a rare practice round at the Masters last month, and on Tuesday Mickelson said the golf his longtime rival played during his prime was the best the game has ever seen.

• Mickelson and Woods will be paired together, along with Rickie Fowler, for the first two rounds of The Players Championship beginning Thursday. It will be just the second time that Mickelson, 47, and Woods, 42, have played a competitive round together at TPC-Sawgrass.

  The first was during the third round in 2001, when Woods drained a 60-foot birdie putt on the famous par-3 17th hole. It was the highlight of a 6-under par round of 66, and Woods went on to win the title the following day. Two weeks later he would complete the "Tiger Slam" by winning the Masters for his fourth consecutive major title.

  Mickelson believes no one will eclipse the golf Woods played in compiling 14 major titles, the most recent coming at the U.S. Open 10 years ago.

  "I don't think anybody today who wasn't there to witness it, and I don't think anybody before, will ever see that level of play again,'' Mickelson said. "It was the most remarkable golf in the history of the game, and I think unrepeatable. I think it was that good.

  "I look at 2000 as being kind of the benchmark at the U.S. Open and being the greatest golf I've ever witnessed and I believe has ever been played."

  Mickelson is a five-time major winner, but didn't collect his first until the 2004 Masters. He added two more green jackets in '06 and 2010 to go with a PGA Championship title in 2005 and a British Open victory in 2013. The one that has eluded him is the U.S. Open, where he is a six-time runner-up.

  One of those came in 2002 to Woods, who ultimately had eight majors under his belt before Mickelson earned his first.

  "It sucked to have to play against him. It really did," Mickelson admitted Tuesday. "You look at it and say, 'How am going to going to beat this?' There was a stretch there for a numbers of years that it was so impressive that it was hard to imagine that it was actually happening, that he was hitting some of the shots that he was hitting and playing that well.

  "The guys today look back and they say, 'Come on, how much better could he have been?' and so forth. And it goes to show you that they weren't there to witness it.''

  The notoriously frosty relationship between the two legends has cooled dramatically in recent years, with Woods saying at the Masters that Mickelson was a great friend as he recovered from fusion surgery last year -- his fourth back procedure. Woods hasn't won a tournament since 2013, and Mickelson had some fun with the level of interest their grouping is drawing this week -- the first time they have played in the first two rounds together since the 2014 PGA Championship.

  "I love that we're paired together, I think it's really fun," Mickelson said. "As I look at the cover of the newspaper and the pairing is on there, and the excitement that has been going on here, it gets me thinking, why don't we just bypass all the ancillary stuff of a tournament and just go head-to-head and just have kind of a high stakes winner-take-all match?

  "Now, I don't know if he wants a piece of me, but I just think that it would be something that would be really fun for us to do and I think there would be a lot of interest in it if we just went straight to the final round."

  --Field Level Media

Australia's Jason Day vaulted seven spots to No. 7 in the world golf rankings on Monday, a day after winning his second tournament of 2018 at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C.

• The former world No. 1 also won the Farmers Insurance Open in February and has two other top-five finishes this year. A tie for 36th at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play is his only finish outside the top 22 in 2018. Day tied for 20th at the Masters.

  The top six remained unchanged as Dustin Johnson is still No. 1, followed by fellow American Justin Thomas, Spain's Jon Rahm, American Jordan Spieth, England's Justin Rose and American Rickie Fowler.

  Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy (No. 8) and Japan's Hideki Matsuyama slid one spot, with Masters champion Patrick Reed rounding out the Top 10.

  Tiger Woods moved up one spot to No. 92 despite a disappointing tie for 55th at Quail Hollow.

  Reed also remained atop the U.S. Ryder Cup team points race with an eighth-place finish at the Wells Fargo. There was not much movement within the top eight automatic qualifying spots as Reed is followed by Thomas, Johnson, Spieth, Bubba Watson, Fowler, Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka. Mickelson and Koepka, the reigning U.S. Open champion who is playing his way back into form following a wrist injury, swapped spots.

  The biggest move within the top 25 came from Bryson DeChambeau, who climbed three spots to No. 12 with his fourth-place finish at Quail Hollow. He also rose to a career-best No. 42 in the world.

  The four majors in 2018 are weighted heavily in the U.S. Ryder Cup team points race, with winners receiving two points per $1,000 earned at the Masters, U.S. Open, Open Championship and PGA Championship, and all other players receiving 1.5 points per $1,000 earned. That's compared to one point per every $1,000 earned in regular PGA Tour events in 2018 leading up to the Aug. 12 cutoff.

  The 42nd Ryder Cup will be held at Le Golf National in Paris this September. Future venues include Whistling Straits in Haven, Wis. in 2020, the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Italy in '22 and Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y. in '24. Europe has yet to announce the home courses for the 2026 and '30 Ryder Cups. After returning to Hazeltine in '28, the next U.S. course will be The Olympic Club in San Francisco in 2032.

  --Field Level Media

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will play together at next week's The Players Championship in one of the featured groups announced on Sunday.

• Woods and Mickelson haven't been in the same group at the event in 17 years or at any PGA Tour event in nearly four years.

  They'll be joined by Rickie Fowler when play begins at TPC Sawgrass on Thursday.

  The trio has four Players Championship titles between them. Woods won in 2001 and 2013, Mickelson won in 2007 and Fowler took the title in 2015 in what is considered the biggest victory of his career.

  The other featured group is made up of the past three FedExCup champions -- reigning champ Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy.

  Two more featured groups are set to be unveiled when tee times are released.

  --Field Level Media

Tiger Woods fired six birdies on Saturday en route to a 3-under 68 in a strong third-round showing at the Wells Fargo Championship at Charlotte, N.C.

• The score could have been lower but Woods narrowly missed an 8-foot par putt on 18 for his third bogey of the round. His 49-foot birdie attempt sailed just wide prior to the par miss.

  The solid round leaves Woods at 1-under 212 through three rounds.

  But Woods was visibly frustrated after the missed opportunity on 18 as he knew an opportunity to post an even lower score was missed.

  "I was so close to shooting 7-under on the back nine," Woods told the Golf Channel in a postround interview. "It was one of those rounds where I easily could have shot 7 or 8 under par without doing much.

  "End up at 3, which is a good number, but also disappointing too."

  Woods strung together three straight birdies on the back nine at the par-3 13, par-4 14 and par-5 15.

  His tee shot on 13 was placed less than 6 feet from the hole before he knocked in the birdie putt.

  His front-nine birdies came at the par-4 5, par-5 7 and par-4 8. His other bogeys were at the par-4 2 and par-4 9.

  Woods hit 15 of 18 greens on Saturday but required 31 putts.

  "My ball striking has been fine," Woods said. "I just have not made anything. ... just putting normal I would have been up there next to the leader."

  The stellar round came after Woods shot 71 and 73 over the first two rounds.

  Woods had three birdies and three bogeys on Thursday, and just one birdie to go with three bogeys on Friday.

  --Field Level Media

Tiger Woods' putter continued to let him down in Friday's second round of the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C.

• His putter also may have saved him in the end.

  Starting on the back nine, Woods needed 18 putts to make the turn as he shot 73 on Friday, leaving him at 2-over par and right on the cut line, projected to be at 2-over. A three-putt bogey on No. 6 ended a string of pars on the front nine and seemingly sealed his fate until a birdie on No. 9, his final hole of the round, brought him back into contention. Windy conditions are threatening to push the cut line back even further.

  "I'm on a hot streak right now," Woods joked with reporters following his round, referring to his continued struggles on the green.

  "On slower greens I've always kind of struggled. ... I've had ample time to make adjustments and I just haven't," he added.

  "If I just putt normal, I'm probably 5- or 6-under par."

  Woods hit a 13-foot putt on that pivotal birdie, his only made putt longer than six feet all day.

  Woods has missed the cut at Quail Hollow twice before.

  He shot an even-par 71 in the first round, but needed 31 putts just to break even in his first tournament since the Masters last month.

  Woods is making his first appearance in the event since missing the cut in 2012. This is his seventh start on the PGA Tour in 2018, and Woods had consecutive top-five finishes before finishing 32nd at Augusta National.

  Dating back to 2010 when he also missed the cut at Quail Hollow, Woods has averaged 31 putts over his past five rounds at the event while making just 56 percent of his putts from 4-8 feet through Thursday's round.

  Woods took three weeks off before entering the Wells Fargo, and he admitted Thursday he's not yet sure what level he can take his game to following fusion surgery on his back a year ago.

  "Not really, I'm just trying to get better," he said. "I felt like I've played my way into playing shape now. Whether it's the simple act of walking and playing, recovering from day to day and week to week. I feel like I've played my way into the rhythm of it. Now I'm just trying to get a little bit better."

  --Field Level Media