Friday story at Valspar Championship, 3 Canadians, Im leads...36 hole leaderboard..

    PGA Tour : Valspar Championship  Tee Times Leaderboard

The 36 hole cut is projected to fall at E par today at the Valspar Championship. Here is the Canadian situation with the late wave about to go out on Friday.

Canadians

 Corey Conners T10   69 69 -4

AJ Ewart T59  +1 71 72

 Mac Hughes T59  +1 72 71

Nick Taylor T94 +1 72 74 +4 MC

Adam Svensson 75 73 +6 MC

Adam Hadwin 76 73 +7 MC

Taylor Pendrith 76 73 +7 MC

The leader Sungjae Im 64 69 -9

2nd  David Lipsky 69 65 -8...

Click on my leaderboard link above for live scoring..

Bryan Angus

Aaron Cockerill T18, Jordan Gumberg leads Hainan Classic. 36 hole results..

    DP World Tour : Hainin Classic Tee Times Leaderboard

With round two nearing completion in China at the Mission Hills Resort in Hainan Canada's Aaron Cockerill has followed his opening -6 66 on the Blackstone Course with a Friday E 72 on the tricky Vintage course to T18 -6 total.

With a birdie and a bogey he went out in E38, following that with and eagle and 2 late bogey's E34 for 72.

The leader American Jordan Gumberg 64 66 -14 has increased his lead by 2 shots over veteran Spaniard Jorge Campillo 65 67 -12.

The 6 hole cut fell at -1

more too follow..

Bryan Angus

Conners leads Canadians Rd 1 Valspar Championship...18 hole results, Friday TEE TIMES

   PGA Tour : Valspar Championship  Tee Times Leaderboard

The winning formula this week on this Copperhead Course is fairways and greens. It's tight and tricky, water in play on 6 holes. Drive it straight, have a great iron game and you have the recipe for success.

With the opening round in the books here are the Canadian scores.

Corey Conners T17 -2 69

AJ Ewart T46 E 71

Mac Hughes T70   +1 72

Nick Taylor T70 +1 72

Adam Svensson T114 +4 75 ,     

Adam Hadwin T120 +5 76 

Taylor Pendrith T120 +5 76

The leader is Sungjae Im -7 64 with two eagles, veteran Brandt Snedeker 2nd -6 65 and Davis Thompson 3rd -5 66. 

Bryan Angus

Rory reveals his Masters menu for the Champions dinner...

Rory McIlroy is bringing a taste of Ireland to Augusta National with champ on the menu for the Champions Dinner ahead of the Masters Tournament.

Better known as the Champions Dinner, the Masters Club Dinner began in 1952 when defending champion Ben Hogan organised a dinner for all previous winners.

Each year, the defending champion selects the menu and acts as host for the Tuesday night dinner before the first men's Major Championship of the season.

McIlroy earned the honour to host by virtue of his play-off victory over Justin Rose last year that saw him complete the career Grand Slam in emotional scenes at the 11th time of asking.

And while the Northern Irishman has chosen an eclectic and international menu, the traditional champ - a creamy mixture of mashed potatoes and spring onions - will bring a taste of home to the main course.

"When I was a kid, I used to eat champ by the bowlful," he said.

Four appetisers will be on the menu made up of peach and ricotta flatbread, rock shrimp tempura, bacon-wrapped dates and grilled elk sliders.

“I wanted to try to bring a little bit of the local ingredients in," he said of the flatbread. "So I'm doing a Georgia peach and ricotta flatbread with hot honey. So hopefully that will go down well with the drinks.”

He added: “My mum does these really, really nice dates stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped in bacon. Thanks to Rosie for that one. 

The first course will then be a yellowfin tuna carpaccio, a recipe taken from McIlroy and wife Erica's favourite restaurant in New York, Le Bernardin.

"That's a fun one that the club worked with me on as well," he said. "They went up to the restaurant and worked with the chefs."

For the main, diners will then have a choice of wagyu filet mignon (Japanese beef) or seared salmon, served with champ, sauteed Brussels sprouts, glazed carrots with brown butter and local Vidalia onion rings.

He then returns to the British Isles for dessert, serving sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream and warm toffee sauce.

Wine collector McIlroy has also chosen a a 2015 Salon Brut champagne, a 2022 Domaine Leflaive Batard Montrachet, a 1990 Chateau Lafite Rothschild and a 1989 Chateau D'Yquem dessert wine for his guests to drink.

As well as Masters champions, Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts were made honorary members of the Masters Club in 1952, with Bill Lane, Hord Hardin, Jack Stephens, Hootie Johnson, Billy Payne and Fred Ridley subsequently also handed honorary membership.

edit >>> The past champions also have a choice of the regular Masters menu.

europeantour.com

Bryan Angus (edit)

Cockerill T3 round1, Gumberg leads at Hainan Classic, China...18 hole results

  DP World Tour : Hainin Classic Tee Times Leaderboard

30 year old American Jordan Gumberg playing the tougher Blackstone Course made it look easy running off 9 birdies including 5 in a row on the front nine to take the opening round lead at 63 -8.

He has owgr 568 and sits at #122 in the Race to Dubai.

Meanwhile Canada's Aaron Cockerill after 3 weeks at home with new daughter Tegan, Adison and wife Chelsea caught fire on his back nine after going out in a 3 birdie 1 bogey -2 34, and back with a bogey free 4 birdie 32 T3 -6 66.

He has owgr 450 and begins the week looking to improve on his Race to Dubai ranking #119.

The field will all play the longer Blackstone Course and the tricky Vintage Course before the 36 hole cut is made.

Click on my live links above for the complete leaderboard.

more to follow....

edit >>>>>

Jordan Gumberg finished his first round with five straight birdies to lead the 2026 Hainan Classic presented by MAEXTRO.

The American was in the chasing pack at -3 after he dropped a shot at the fourth, his 13th hole - but took full advantage of the remaining five to reach -8, one shot ahead of Spaniard Jorge Campillo at Mission Hills.

He said: "I just got the putter rolling. It’s been a little while since I’ve had the putter actually go my way. I made a little switch in that break area, going back to a short putter, and I just have a lot of confidence in it right now. It’s feeling good.

"It’s always great to be in a good spot after Thursday. You’ve just got to keep your head down and keep going. It’s a long golf tournament, there are still three rounds left and we play a different golf course tomorrow, so it will be interesting.

Campillo made back-to-back birdies at the third and fourth holes and another at the ninth to turn in 35, -3 for the long front nine on the Vintage Course.

A run of four straight birdies from the 11th saw him surge to the head of the field and though he bogeyed the 15th, he bounced straight back with an eighth birdie of the day at the next.

He said: “It was good, I played quite solid. I hardly missed any shots besides the hole that I made bogey, I hit the bunker and I got a bad lie there, but besides that I played very solid.

Home favourite Wenyi Ding had two eagles in his 66 on the Vintage Course, Jason Scrivener matched that score, with six birdies in a bogey-free round, as did Dylan Frittelli with seven birdies and a bogey.

Thriston Lawrence had eight birdies and two bogeys - both on par-fives - on the Blackstone Course, where Aaron Cockerill also shot 66 with seven birdies and a bogey.

europeantour.com

Bryan Angus (edit)

Seven Canadians at Valspar Championship...TEE TIMES

 PGA Tour : Valspar Championship  Tee Times Leaderboard

The Innisbrook Resort just NW of Tampa was always a popular spot for Canadians when I was growing up, beautifully situated on the Gulf Coast, and it's reknown Copperhead Course is the site for this week's Valspar Championship, the 25th edition, Viktor Hovland defends and this is the final leg of the Florida Swing.

With the big boys off again, taking their break before the Masters, there is quite a decent field this year including seven Canadians, Adam Hadwin is back off the Korn Ferry Tour as a past champion.

The others Mac Hughes 8.02 10th, Nick Taylor 8.08 1st, Corey Conners 8.13 10th, AJ Ewart 9.14 1st, Adam Hadwin 12.30 1st, Adam Svensson 12.47 10th, Taylor Pendrith 1.40 10th

Akshay Bhatia, Justin Thomas, Matt Fitzpatrick are drawn together, all played well last week Koepka and Schauffelle are also in the field. 

WEATHER: An early look at the forecast is good, hot and mostly sunny, no rain, it is breezy NE around 20-25kmh

Bryan Angus

Hainan Classic in China..Cockerill returns..TEE TIMES

 DP World Tour : Hainin Classic Tee Times

The Asian Swing begins this week with the DP World Tour rank and file in the Far East at Mission Hills Golf Resort in Hainan China.

Canadian Aaron Cockerill will have been off for nearly 4 full weeks when he tees it up on Thursday, because he is in Group 18 this season instead of Group 10 he has not qualified for the South African Open or the Joburg Open and there was a week unscheduled in there as well.

His world ranking is #450, his Race to Dubai standing #119, in his last outing in Kenya he T18th. 66 69 62 69 -14 one of his better outings this season.

Group 22 12.52 1st   Aaron Cockerill, Stefano Mazzoli

Click on my TEE TIMES link above for the full list

Bryan Angus