KILDEER, Ill. (AP) Inbee Park is energized and ready to take aim at her eighth major.

The thumb and back that bothered her in recent years are fine. Though, one thing is weighing on the LPGA Hall of Famer entering the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Someone broke into her house in Las Vegas last week, and she’s still not sure exactly what was taken.

”Talking to police, talking to insurance,” Park said. ”It’s so hard when you’re not there trying to figure out what’s lost. I mean, this is the life we get on the road.”

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The home crisis aside, Park appears to be in a good place.

The top-ranked South Korean star tops a loaded field at Kemper Lakes in the third of five majors on the LPGA Tour schedule. They are trying to conquer a challenging course where the late Payne Stewart won the 1989 PGA Championship for the first of his three majors. And there is no shortage of story lines this week.

There’s Park, trying to win the event for the fourth time. She’ll be ..

John Smoltz talks about playing in the U.S. Senior Open

MLB Hall of Famer John Smoltz practice before the start of Thursday's U.S. Senior Open

SAN DIEGO (AP) Phil Rodgers, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour who became one of golf’s top instructors, died after a long battle with leukemia. He was 80.

Rodgers died Tuesday morning at his home near San Diego.

Rodgers developed into one of top young players in the 1950s under Paul Runyan at La Jolla Country Club, winning an NCAA title at Houston. He won the 1962 Los Angeles Open for his first PGA Tour title, closing with a 62 for a nine-shot victory.

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That also was the pro debut of Jack Nicklaus. They were rivals and friends, and Nicklaus later leaned on Rodgers for help with his short game. Nicklaus gave Rodgers credit for his U.S. Open and PGA Championship victories in 1980.

”We lost one of golf’s greats, one of its most colorful individuals, and one of my dearest friends in Phil Rodgers,” Nicklaus said in an Instagram post.

Rodgers won all five of his PGA Tour events in his 20s, and that included two close calls in the majors. He was at 2-under p..

POTOMAC, Md. (AP) Tiger Woods is playing the Quicken Loans National for the last time, and so much about this year feels new.

Woods played his first 18-hole round at the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm during the pro-am Wednesday, and it didn’t take long to realize why the course rated as the fourth toughest to par last year on the PGA Tour, behind only three majors.

”It’s certainly a lot more difficult than what I had envisioned,” Woods said. ”They’ve got the rough up, fairways in. It’s like a mini-Open here.”

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Also new: his putter.

Maybe.

Woods has been struggling with just about every aspect of putting since March, when he made a brief charge in the final round at Bay Hill until tying for fifth. He missed the cut at the U.S. Open two weeks ago, and last week in the Bahamas he began tinkering with a new putter. The one he used in nine holes of practice on Tuesday, and in the pro-am, was a mallet variety.

”I’m trying to find something that I can feel again..

Each year on the PGA Tour, there are golfers who stand out for how often they're in contention yet just can't quite break through

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