We happen to think it's up after the win at Torrey Pines and close call at Pebble Beach, as Jason Day appears to be on the rise in 2018

FAR HILLS, N.J. (AP) Ernie Els and Jim Furyk have received a special exemption to play in the U.S. Open this year at Shinnecock Hills on Long Island, New York.

Els is a two-time U.S. Open champion who would have faced qualifying because his five-year exemption from winning the 2012 British Open ran out last year. Els won the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 1994 and at Congressional in 1997. This will be his 29th consecutive U.S. Open.

Furyk won the 2003 U.S. Open at Olympia Fields.

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They received the first U.S. Open exemptions since Retief Goosen in 2016. Goosen is a two-time Open champion, including 2004 when it was last held at Shinnecock Hills.

PHOENIX (AP) The LPGA Tour will open next season with the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

The tour and Diamond Resorts announced the new tournament Wednesday at the Founders Cup. It will be played Jan. 17-20 at Tranquilo Golf Club at Four Seasons Resort Orlando.

The event will feature winners from the last two LPGA seasons playing alongside 45 celebrity participants and 10 amateurs all four rounds. The tour players will compete for a $1.2 million purse in 72 holes of stroke play.

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The event will be broadcast by Golf Channel the first two days and NBC the final two rounds.

The tournament replaces the Diamond Resorts Invitational, a PGA Tour Champions offseason event that Lexi Thompson, Brittany Lincicome and other LPGA Tour stars played the last three years.

PHOENIX (AP) – The LPGA Tour will open next season with the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

The tour and Diamond Resorts announced the tournament Wednesday at the Founders Cup. It will be played Jan. 17-20 at Tranquilo Golf Club at Four Seasons Resort Orlando.

The tournament replaces the Diamond Resorts Invitational, a PGA Tour Champions offseason event that Lexi Thompson, Brittany Lincicome and other LPGA Tour stars played the last three years.

Article continues below …

The new event will feature winners from the last two LPGA Tour seasons and sponsor exemptions, playing alongside 45 celebrity participants and 10 amateurs all four rounds. The tour players will compete for a $1.2 million purse in 72 holes of stroke play. The celebrities and amateurs will use a Modified Stableford scoring format. The event will be broadcast by Golf Channel the first two days, and Golf Channel and NBC the final two rounds.

PHOENIX (AP) Michelle Wie is trying to have fun – and stay healthy.

”My goal is to play the whole year and not to take an extended break during the season,” Wie said at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup. ”That would be my whole goal. Keep my organs in my body.”

Organs?

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Yep, last August – a week after helping the U.S. win the Solheim Cup – she had her appendix removed after being stricken before the final round of the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open.

She has recently fought arthritis in her hands, first with cortisone and now with collagen injections. She also is off to a fast start this season, winning the HSBC Women’s World Championship two weeks ago in Singapore for her fifth career victory and first since the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open.

”I’ve working really hard on my putting,” Wie said. ”During the offseason, I putt and chip for at least five hours a day. I just put in the time. It feels good that it’s paying off. … I think being confident with your putter, ..

PHOENIX (AP) Michelle Wie is trying to have fun – and stay healthy.

”My goal is to play the whole year and not to take an extended break during the season,” Wie said at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup. ”That would be my whole goal. Keep my organs in my body.”

Organs?

Article continues below …

Yep, last August – a week after helping the U.S. win the Solheim Cup – she had her appendix removed after being stricken before the final round of the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open.

She has recently fought arthritis in her hands, first with cortisone and now with collagen injections. She also is off to a fast start this season, winning the HSBC Women’s World Championship two weeks ago in Singapore for her fifth career victory and first since the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open.

”I’ve working really hard on my putting,” Wie said. ”During the offseason, I putt and chip for at least five hours a day. I just put in the time. It feels good that it’s paying off. … I think being confident with your putter, ..

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) The future of Tiger Woods is filled with optimism because of the past.

The next stop on his remarkable road to recovery from four years’ worth of back trouble is the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the tournament he has won a record eight times on a course that feels comfortable to him.

There also is a short history of Woods winning at Bay Hill during various comebacks.

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When he was out nearly nine months recovering from reconstructive surgery, his first victory back was at Bay Hill when he made a 15-foot birdie for a one-shot victory over Sean O’Hair. After going more than two years without winning on the PGA Tour while trying to patch his personal life back together, Woods finally broke through at Bay Hill with a five-shot victory over Graeme McDowell.

Six months after Woods wasn’t sure if he would be able to compete again at a high level, he is the betting favorite at Bay Hill. That stems from his runner-up finish last week at Innisbroo..

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Sergio Garcia now has more than a green jacket to remind him of his victory at the Masters.

He has a daughter .

Garcia’s wife, Angela, gave birth to a girl early Wednesday in Texas. They named her Azalea Adele.

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Augusta National is known for its spring beauty, particularly the azaleas. One of the more pivotal moments in his victory last year was at the 13th hole – named ”Azaleas” because of its 1,300 bushes on the par 5 – when Garcia hooked his tee shot beyond the hazard, took a penalty drop, chipped out and still managed to save par and not lose any ground. He followed with a birdie and an eagle and wound up winning in a playoff over Justin Rose.

Adele is his wife’s middle name.

Golfers at Bay Hill participate in driving range salute to Arnold Palmer — with a twist

To find baseball from before, the wool-clad, leather oil-smelling, faded-yellow version that predated whatever you feel corrupted it, you go to Cooperstown, and you lope through ice cream parlors and hand-painted memorabilia shops and maybe into Doubleday Field, where a sleepy game of aging locals may be living out unclaimed dreams. Doing it for basketball is a little easier: Drive to Knightstown, Ind., an hour east of Indianapolis, just three miles off the I-70 exit, where the price of basketball Americana is exactly zero dollars.
Knightstown houses the Hoosier Gym, built in 1921, polished up in 1936, shuttered in the 1966 and revived in 1985 for the filming of Hoosiers, where it played the home court of Miraculous State Champions Milan (renamed Hickory in the fictionalized version) and enshrined itself as an evocative hoops-tourism destination, once the cast and crew got over thinking they’d just shot an audienceless throwback bomb. Shortly after wrapping filming, Gene Hackman, Denni..