TULSA, Okla. – Ryan Newman’s return to dirt midget racing at the Gateway Dirt Nationals last month didn’t go as planned, but he’s hoping to exorcise those bad memories with a strong run during the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.

Newman will take the track during Wednesday’s Hard Rock Casino Qualifying Night program, wheeling the No. 6n Aggressive Hydraulics/Coca-Cola Spike-Stanton SR11x for Clauson-Marshall Racing.

The NASCAR Cup Series star and former USAC Silver Crown Series champion hadn’t driven a midget on dirt since 2000 prior to the Gateway event, and this week marks his debut appearance at the Chili Bowl.

However, he’s with a strong team in Clauson-Marshall Racing, and Newman believes that strength will allow him to have a chance at excelling as he goes through the program at Tulsa Expo Raceway.

“I’m excited,” Newman said prior to Wednesday’s on-track action. “I want to come out and have fun and race, because Tim Clauson and Richard Marshall have given me a great opportunity. Aggressive Hydraulics is on the car, Coca Cola – one of our Cup sponsors – as well as Brake-Safe, a new sponsor for the week. But I just look forward to having fun Wednesday night. This is a cool thing to be a part of.”

Newman noted that the spark that lit his fire to want to return to midget racing actually came last summer, when he watched as a spectator during the Stoops Pursuit at The Dirt Track at IMS.

“I was there last year as a spectator and it kind of motivated me to come do this,” said Newman of the prelude to the BC39. “It was an awesome race last year that Larson and Pickens and those guys ran and I wanted to be a part of the atmosphere if it made sense.”

That race, combined with some changes physically, turned the corner in his decision and led to a Gateway-Chili Bowl package being put together with the reigning USAC National Midget Series titlists.

“I’ve lost 20 pounds, too, so that’s a big part of coming back midget racing also. I do believe that the weight is a performance advantage, and that weight can be a performance advantage when the track gets slicked off. To me, what I’ve been told with a lot of people here, is that of all places the Chili Bowl has its rewards or potential rewards for a slick track that’s small and tight and needs weight transfer.

“All in all, it’s a lot of things that led to this, and now we’re here to see what we can do with it.”

While Newman struggled mightily at Gateway, his practice round on Monday in Tulsa seemed much smoother as he got more acclimated with the race car.

“The gateway race, that was the icebreaker, so to speak … as far as knocking the rust off,” Newman noted. “Practice here was mostly just kind of getting used to this track. Other than TV, I’d never watched anything at this place. So just getting a chance to gauge speed and grip and how the track is really narrow when it’s tacky was key.

“Getting an idea on what to expect was what it was all about, and now using that knowledge is the next step.”

One of the things that Newman is relishing the most, even as he’s learning more about the modern midgets and how to drive them at their peak, is the opportunity to work and interact with team co-owners Tim Clauson and Richard Marshall, who added Newman to the “dream team” in December.

“This deal is a team effort, just like in the Cup garage. You’ve got Tim Clauson, Richard Marshall, Rizzy (Tyler Ransbottom) being the crew chief and then obviously the (other) drivers, who all have a level of understanding of what the cars are doing,” explained Newman. “But we also have to deal with the track changing all the time. So just for me, learning about the track, learning about what they’re talking about and their language – because it’s totally different than talking about downforce and percent front and drag and things like that. In these cars, it’s more about turning and keeping the car free, but getting forward drive so that you can go down the straightaway.

“It’s been a process so far, but I’m enjoying the challenge and excited to get to work Wednesday night.”

He may be a rookie, but Newman believes that if he adapts well to the team and the car, he’ll have a shot to make some waves throughout the remainder of the week.

What that means on paper, he’s not sure, but Newman hopes it equals a shot at the Saturday A-main.

“I feel like if I can be as good as the race car is here, I’ll have a good shot of doing well,” Newman noted. “That’s what it’s really kind of all about, is getting me caught up to speed and making sure that I’m adjusting to the car and not that they’re adjusting to me. If we can click and keep getting comfortable, I think we’ll be alright. I really do.”

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SPEED SPORT’s Chili Bowl coverage is presented by MyRacePass, the official timing and scoring app of the 2020 Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals. Fans can download the MyRacePass app on their phones to follow all the action during the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals. For more information on MyRacePass, visit www.myracepass.com and use the hashtag #GetTheApp on Twitter!

In an NHL season filled with shocking coaching changes, add another to the list: The Vegas Golden Knights have fired Gerard Gallant and hired former San Jose coach Peter DeBoer, whom the Sharks fired last month.

The Knights also fired assistant Mike Kelly.

"You've seen consistency issues," Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon said in Ottawa. "We are like a lot of teams -- had real high hopes for the year, still have real high hopes for the year. We're in a unique position where we're right in the mix, so this isn't a case where the bottom fell out and we were left with no choice. It was a situation more where proactively it was our belief that this was going to be the best thing for our organization."

In a statement earlier Wednesday, McCrimmon had said that "our team is capable of more than we have demonstrated this season," but he thanked Gallant and Kelly for being "instrumental to the success we have enjoyed in our first two-plus seasons."

DeBoer has a career NHL coaching record of 415-329-111 with the Florida Panthers, New Jersey Devils and Sharks. He led the latter two teams to the Stanley Cup Final, but lost both times. He was fired by the Sharks when they had a 15-16-2 record on Dec. 11 despite high expectations entering the season. They've gone 6-7-2 since.

Ironically, DeBoer is hired by the Knights after eliminating them in a seven-game first-round series last year, during which the Sharks rallied from a 3-0 third-period deficit in the final game to eliminate Vegas.

"His teams are always very well prepared, very well coached," McCrimmon said of DeBoer. "He's an intelligent guy. Teams have always been very strong special teams. He's been to the Stanley Cup Final with two different teams. He enjoyed a lot of success in the National Hockey League as a coach and I think with this opportunity he'll continue to do that."

Gallant has a 118-75-20 record with the Golden Knights, having led them to the Stanley Cup Final in the team's inaugural season in 2017-18, the same year he won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year. But the Knights have been underwhelming in the standings this season with a record of 24-19-6. Their .551 points percentage ranks ninth in the conference.

Despite being around the top of the Pacific Division for most of this season, the Golden Knights have now lost four in a row and are tied with Winnipeg for the second wild card in the West.

The team has also been one of the unluckiest in the NHL. The Golden Knights have the 24th-ranked shooting percentage at 7.5 percent. They're first by a wide margin in expected goals at 5-on-5 -- weighed for shot quality -- at 106.93, but are only 12th in actual goals (98). Overall, the Knights are 17th in the NHL in goals per game (3.02) and they're not getting great goaltending either, with a team save percentage of .900 (19th).

Gallant, 56, was hired by Vegas after a three-year stint with Florida. He also coached Columbus. He was just over a week away from coaching the Pacific Division team at the NHL All-Star Game in St. Louis.

McCrimmon explained why he made a move now.

"It's hard to put into words unless you've done these jobs. It's just the feeling you have that a change might be needed," he said, according to the team's Twitter account.

"We thought about this a lot, it certainly wasn't something we did in haste."

Two of the past four Stanley Cup champions fired their coaches during the season they won it -- the Blues last season and the Penguins in 2015-16.

Gallant is the seventh coach fired in this NHL this season, joining Bill Peters of Calgary and Jim Montgomery of Dallas, who were fired for off-ice incidents; and John Hynes of the Devils, Peter Laviolette of the Predators, Mike Babcock of the Maple Leafs and DeBoer.

Meanwhile, DeBoer joins Hynes as two coaches fired in-season who were then hired again in the same season, as Hynes is now the head coach in Nashville.

There are now just 11 current NHL head coaches who have been with their teams more than two seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart will be out two to three weeks with a right lower abdominal strain, the team announced Wednesday.

In his second season with the Flyers, Hart has appeared in 32 games and has a 15-11-3 record, a 2.61 goals-against average and .905 save percentage.

Hart had started five of the Flyers' last six games and is 13-2-2 at home, best in the Eastern Conference.

"He did it at practice somehow. He felt a little strain, a little pain and did the smart thing, came off," coach Alain Vigneault said. "We had an MRI and lucky for us, it's not too serious. A couple days, it should settle down. It'll take him to after the [NHL All-Star] break there and he'll be fine after that."

The Flyers have recalled goaltender Alex Lyon from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL.

The Flyers are in St. Louis on Wednesday for a game against the Blues.

The team also announced that forward Chris Stewart has been put on waivers.

SAN JOSE -- Pierre-Luc Dubois is the leading scorer for the Columbus Blue Jackets, a 21-year-old forward whose production has increased each season. He is approaching restricted free agency this summer and what should be a lucrative second NHL contract.

He's also someone who really likes images of Baby Yoda in streetwear. More on that in a bit.

We caught up with the Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec, native last week during the Blue Jackets' West Coast swing.

ESPN: Let's start with the most surreal highlight of your season. You dropped the gloves and had a fight with Sidney Crosby.

Dubois: It was weird.

ESPN: How so?

Dubois: After my first year [in the NHL], I went on vacation. And he was at the same hotel as us in Barcelona, with all his friends. We saw each other a lot there. He came over and introduced himself. Again, it was after my first NHL season, so I was starstruck. We went out to dinner one night with him and his friends -- he had a couple of guys that spoke French -- and had a great time. He's a great guy. But when we play against each other, it's competitive.

He instigated the fight. He dropped. A lot of people think I dropped, but he dropped. And I was surprised when he dropped the gloves and couldn't really get a good grip on him. It's not like I fight that often, either. Once I got a good grip, I think he was done. So he just tried to flip me or something to stop the fight. I was just in shock, basically.

And then in the penalty box, he looked at me and just started laughing.

ESPN: What?

Dubois: I was like, "I don't really know what to say or do right now." So I started laughing, too. It was one of things where ... we're not friends, but it's one of those things where we both know we're not fighters.

ESPN: The Blue Jackets seem to play their best when everyone's counting them out, huh?

Dubois: It seems like it. You know, last year it was in the playoffs, and this year losing a couple guys at the start here. A bunch of injuries right now, too. In the NHL, nobody feels bad for you. Nobody comes in thinking that you have a bunch of injuries or that guys are gone. They just want to beat you, so we don't have time to think about that.

Ever since my first year, we talked a lot about being the underdogs because that's how it is. People follow other teams, and the teams they don't follow, they write them off. Since my first shift, we've had that attitude. That [playoff] win over Tampa was a huge boost for our organization. This year, we're just following up.

ESPN: You mentioned the "losing a couple guys" thing. Your team said goodbye to Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky and Matt Duchene over the summer. You played with Panarin. How much did you take it upon yourself to up your game after he left?

Dubois: I know year to year I want to improve, especially as a young guy. You have to get better and better. So when a big piece like Panarin leaves, you're kind of pushed into that to that position where, you know, it's kind of now or never. I still have a lot to improve, so I have to work hard. But I have to take a step this year.

I learned a lot from [Panarin], whether it was on the ice or off the ice. I can't thank him enough for what he did for my career. He's one of the hardest working players I've ever played with. Always looking to get better, always talking to his teammates. I can't thank him enough for what he did for me.

ESPN: Can you think of a moment when you were afraid of John Tortorella?

Dubois: [Laughs] Afraid? There's been a lot.

Probably my first season, after my 12th game. I wasn't playing that much. I wasn't playing well. I just went to his office just to see what I could do better to help the team because I felt like I wasn't really playing that well and I wasn't helping the team. So I just wanted to ask him. I was expecting, you know, some kind of encouragement type of thing. And it was more of ... an aggressive "what you aren't doing well" type of thing.

But it helped me so much because after that, he said, "Next game, I'm going to give you a chance. I'll put you back to center. Give you a chance to play well. But there are things you have to be better at." To me, that's when my season started. I was afraid at that moment, but it was the best thing that could have happened.

ESPN: Players have told us that they have to interpret what their coaches are saying sometimes. Do understand everything Torts says and how it would translate for another coach?

Dubois: Sometimes yes, sometimes no. He's got some words sometimes. And we don't know what they mean, ever after two-and-a-half years.

ESPN: What's an example of one of those words?

Dubois: Like, "There's a schmozzle in the neutral zone." I don't know what it means. There are some words like that where if you don't understand them while he's yelling, you just try to figure it out on your own.

ESPN: You're in the top 10 among forwards in penalties drawn this season. Is there an art to that?

Dubois: Oh, I think just it's about getting body contact. Not being afraid of trying to go one-on-one. I mean, if it doesn't work, maybe he has to hook you. Maybe if you beat him, he has to hook you or trip you or something like that. It's definitely not something I go into [a] game thinking, "OK, now I'll try to draw two penalties." But if you're in the battles, if you're in front of the net, if you're around pucks, sometimes guys have to hold on to you. And more often than not, it ends up being a penalty.

ESPN: Of course, being someone who draws penalties can be seen in a different way.

Dubois: Yeah, and you don't want to be noticed like that exactly. I don't want to be known as that guy that refs look out for. It's a reputation type of thing -- especially as a young guy, you know. I have a lot of years left in the league. I don't want to be known as the guy where I go down too easy to draw a penalty.

But like I said, if you're around the puck, around the body, he might have to cheat in order to beat you.

ESPN: Do you ever think back to your draft year in 2016? You went third overall. Things could have gone differently.

Dubois: Yeah, honestly, I think about it ... not often, but I think about it every time I see a picture or somebody talks to me about it. It's interesting to think what could have happened. Because going into that day, I had no idea what was going to happen. You heard rumors, but rumors are rumors for a reason. They could have been made up by someone in his basement. I'm happy with how it played out, with me here in Columbus.

ESPN: Let's shift gears and talk about something really important: Baby Yoda. It's your profile photo on Instagram. What's that about?

Dubois: I saw it one day. It's Baby Yoda wearing a Nike track suit, with a beanie and Air Pods. I love Baby Yoda, and I love streetwear, so I thought it'd be perfect.

ESPN: What did you think of "The Mandalorian?"

Dubois: I didn't watch it.

ESPN: But Baby Yoda's your Instagram profile?

Dubois: I just remember I saw the meme, and I had no idea where it was from. Then I did some research and saw it. I think it's hilarious. And like I said: I like streetwear. So when I saw him with the hat and the track suit and the Air Pods, it was perfect.

ESPN: Also, according to your IG, you've become a bit of a Cleveland Browns fan.

Dubois: Yeah. My mom's American. She's from Atlanta. So growing up, it was Braves and Falcons and the University of Georgia. So it's kind of a mix of, you know, Georgia sports. Then I come to Columbus, and I become a Browns fan and become a Buckeyes fan. Still root for the Braves, though.

ESPN: Do you prefer college football over the NFL?

Dubois: It's definitely more interesting. I think because, you know, they're younger, not as experienced, make some more mistakes. In the NFL, it seems like everyone is perfect.

The Vegas Golden Knights have fired Gerard Gallant and hired former San Jose coach Peter DeBoer, whom the San Jose Sharks fired last month. The Knights also fired assistant Mike Kelly.

The move comes with the team in the mix for a playoff spot, but that factor did not prevent a midseason move. Let's explore how the switch could impact on-ice strategy, what the team does at the deadline and more. But first, let's examine the timing of the decision.

The Golden Knights are in the playoff mix. Why fire Gallant now?

The results aren't there for a team whose owner, on an annual basis, says he expects to win the Stanley Cup. The Knights have been underwhelming in the standings this season with a record of 24-19-6 in 49 games. Their .551 points percentage ranks them ninth in the conference. The returns were diminishing: They were third (.665) in their inaugural season of 2017-18 and seventh (.567) last season, although injuries played a role there. Vegas had returned to the top of the Pacific Division recently, and are only three points out of first, but are mired in a four-game losing streak.

True, the Knights are tied in points with the Winnipeg Jets for the final wild-card spot. But clearly management thinks they can and should be better, and that DeBoer is the coach to get that out of them.

Wait, didn't Gallant just win the Jack Adams a couple years ago?

That he did, for taking an expansion draft of players, somehow getting them to pass the chemistry test and turning them into a regular-season juggernaut who went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Washington Capitals. It was, and will remain, one of the most legendary first-season runs for a team, and Gallant deserves multitudes of credit for that -- especially after the insulting way his tenure in Florida ended, with a fired coach photographed waiting for a taxi cab to whisk himself and his office belongings away.

But here's the problem for Gallant: He's not the only coach in the organization. Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon was the head coach of the WHL Brandon Wheat Kings from 2004 to 2016, and a good one at that. Looking around the NHL, there aren't many general managers with that kind of coaching résumé. McCrimmon said "our team is capable of more than we have demonstrated this season." I think that's the coach talking.

According to a source, this was a decision McCrimmon had to agree with and facilitate -- he wouldn't have taken the promotion to Golden Knights general manager last season if he'd be forced to make decisions with which he disagrees.

"As a manager, sometimes you have a feeling that something isn't what it needed to be. Sometimes you feel a change is needed," said McCrimmon.

Was there one ultimate failing for Gallant, or was it a combination of factors?

A combination of factors, some of them out of his hands.

Their 5-on-5 play has been underwhelming, if a bit unlucky. While their puck possession remains solid (third in the league in Corsi for percentage, at 53.59 percent of shot attempts), they're not taking over games offensively. They're first by a wide margin in expected goals at 5-on-5 -- weighed for shot quality -- at 106.93, but are 12th in actual goals (98). They have the No. 24 shooting percentage, at 7.5 percent. They're second in the NHL in scoring chances percentage (55.38) but 22nd in goals scored percentage (48.51). Overall, the Knights are 17th in the NHL in goals per game (3.02) with a system that's creating chances but without results.

They're not getting great goaltending either, with a team save percentage of .900 (19th). Marc-Andre Fleury has been very ordinary, with a minus-2.43 goals saved above average. Backup Malcolm Subban has been worse, with a minus-4.69.

But his management also failed him a bit. The Knights have needed help on their blue line for the past two seasons, and that hurt their ability to generate offense at even strength.

Frankly, the Knights just haven't looked like the Knights. They're getting outscored in the first period for the first time under Gallant (minus-4), a sign of unpreparedness and inconsistency. They're a middling 14-10-3 at home, where they used to be unbeatable. Wither the Vegas Flu?

So, Peter DeBoer. He looks quite familiar to Golden Knights fans.

Yes, in the sense that this is like the Justice League hiring Lex Luthor as head coach.

The rivalry between the Knights and the Sharks, DeBoer's former team, had quickly become one of the NHL's most intense feuds, fueled by a first-round loss by Vegas last postseason in a Game 7 that saw the Sharks get the benefit of a bad penalty call, and rally from a 3-0 deficit with four third-period power-play goals before winning in overtime. The rivalry even spilled over to the coaches, as DeBoer accused Gallant of trash-talking the Sharks from the bench and Gallant responded by calling him a "clown."

But DeBoer's team won, and then won another round and made it the conference final last season before losing to the St. Louis Blues. His Sharks team lost some key players to free agency last summer, and was a dud this season. He was fired by the Sharks when they had a 15-16-2 record on Dec. 11. They've gone 6-7-2 since.

DeBoer has a career NHL coaching record of 415-329-111 with the Florida Panthers, New Jersey Devils and Sharks. He led the latter two teams to the Stanley Cup Final, but lost both times. While not exactly popular among Knights fans -- at least not yet -- he's considered one of the top coaches in the NHL among his peers.

Will DeBoer's approach be any different than Gallant's?

Under DeBoer, the Sharks were similar to the Knights in the sense that they liked to possess the puck, roll their lines and come at you in waves offensively. He didn't have the personnel to do that any longer in San Jose, but with the forward group in Vegas, he's got a new sandbox in which to play. DeBoer's Sharks teams were better at suppressing shots than Gallant's teams in Vegas, although the wheels came off for San Jose defensively this season as he attempted to play the same style with a diminished roster. As can happen with all coaches, DeBoer's act eventually wore thin with his players, but for a while he seemed to understand the Sharks better than longtime coach Todd McLellan had.

"I think he's always been a coach that has a lot of respect from his players, relates well to his players," said McCrimmon.

Unlike some other coaches, they hear him immediately when he arrives: Florida had a 93-point season in his first season in the NHL, and the Devils and Sharks went to the Stanley Cup Final in his first campaign with both of those teams.

If the theory is that Gallant got as much as he can out of the Knights, and that someone else needed to take them to the next level, DeBoer fits the bill.

Should we expect any trades in the short term? Will the Golden Knights be a player at the trade deadline?

Yes. The Knights are expected to have around $2 million in cap space at the deadline, per Cap Friendly. There's absolutely one place to target: the blue line.

Outside of Shea Theodore and Nate Schmidt, no Vegas defenseman has more than 10 points. That's just not getting it done in the NHL in 2019-20. The Knights lack that last piece of championship DNA that most Stanley Cup winners have: a franchise-level defenseman. That's probably not arriving at the trade deadline, but help on defense absolutely needs to arrive.

What's next for Gerard Gallant?

Well, we've had seven coaching changes this season, and two of the guys who were fired are now coaching other teams within the same season, so who knows? Maybe Gallant is back in a job by the time you finish reading this.

In the short term, the NHL is actually going to have to make a decision on Gallant because he's scheduled to coach the Pacific Division in the All-Star Game. (Heck, maybe he still wants to do it for that all-expenses-paid trip to St. Louis.) The NHL names the coaches of the top teams in each division at the midpoint of the season (Jan. 2) to the All-Star Game. The NHL uses points percentage as the determining factor, so while Arizona was second in the Pacific to Vegas, Vancouver had the better points percentage, so perhaps Travis Green gets the call.

In the long term, there's one very intriguing landing spot for him: the Detroit Red Wings. This will mark Jeff Blashill's fifth season with the team and fourth straight outside the playoffs. Gallant played nine seasons in Detroit, and was a teammate of current Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman.

Of course, there's another intriguing possibility: Seattle. Why wouldn't the NHL's newest expansion team hire a coach with Gallant's kind of unique experience, and who took the league's last expansion team to the Cup Final in Year 1?

Grade the decision (and the timing).

I'll give it a B+. Gallant was a victim of a lot of different factors: underwhelming performances from veteran players like Fleury, Schmidt and Jonathan Marchessault; bad puck luck, given their shooting percentage at 5-on-5; and having set the bar ridiculously high in his first season. Yet the Knights were right in the playoff race, three points out of first place. There were signs of trouble, but there was also a lot of goodwill Gallant had built up, in theory.

So even though the Knights have mulled this over, this was a bit of a knee-jerk move ... until you understand the coach they hired. DeBoer is one of the best, a coach that gets results, and is without question someone who could get more out of some of the players that have plateaued or declined this season.

And hey, let's not forget the Cup-shaped elephant in the room: Two of the last four Stanley Cup winners have fired their coaches in season.

The focus of the golf world is split this week, with the PGA Tour returning to the mainland U.S. while the European Tour holds a Rolex Series event in the Middle East. Some stars are in California for the American Express, while plenty of others have made the trek to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. One thing’s certain – there is plenty of desert golf to go around.

Here are four questions to ponder for this week’s action, ranging from the health of the world No. 1 to a new tournament host and some possible major prognosticating:

Will new Phil be a different Phil?

If you’ve logged onto Twitter anytime in the last few months, you’re likely up to speed on the status of Phil Mickelson. Lefty has put in plenty of work this offseason, continuing the momentum of last year’s weight loss while fending off Father Time in the gym. But it remains to be seen if those physical changes can translate into more birdies.

Mickelson has been saying all the right things for a while, but there is no denying that he’s in the midst of the worst slump of his career. Phireside chats and calf raises haven’t done much for his results, as the 11 months since his win at Pebble Beach have included no top-15 finishes and a pronounced slide in the world rankings. He’ll look to break the drought this week in Palm Springs, where he’s also the tournament host of the revamped event.

Mickelson came up one shot short a year ago, so there’s reason to think he’ll quickly shake off the rust. This will also kick off a busy stretch for the 49-year-old, who will play each of the next four weeks.

When will Bryson’s lifts lift his score?

He’s spoken for months about physical changes – but while Mickelson is shedding the pounds, Bryson DeChambeau is packing them on. DeChambeau has never shied away from the sport’s cutting edge, but he’s now taking things to a new level as he bulks up with an eye on adding distance.

DeChambeau’s first start of the new year comes this week in Abu Dhabi, and he’ll stick around next week to defend his title in Dubai. In between Fortnite sessions on Twitch he’s been training around the clock in his brief off-season, recently letting reporters in on the fact that he ate a whopping 6,000 calories a day at the Presidents Cup to “sustain” his weight gains amid intercontinental travel.

DeChambeau’s tactics have been laughed out of the room before, only for him to silence doubters with one win after another. This is another instance where he has raised more than a few eyebrows with a near-obsession over physique. Now is his first chance to show how the gym sessions and Trackman gains will translate into lower scores.

Can Brooks Koepka’s knee handle the load?

The world No. 1 is returning from a three-month absence this week in Abu Dhabi, and he has shed light on a knee injury that may have been more serious than it first appeared. Koepka endured “excruciating” pain while rehabbing a torn patella tendon, an injury he re-aggravated the last time he played competitively in South Korea.

Koepka’s famously light practice schedule may have actually been impacted by the injury, which apparently dates back to March. The key for Koepka has been to stay healthy, as he has thrashed the competition when close to 100 percent but missed multiple large chunks of time in recent years.

American fans will have to wait until Riviera to get their eyes on the reigning PGA champ, but this week’s event in the Middle East could offer a glimpse as to how healthy Koepka is – and how close he might be to returning to the dominant form he’s flashed so often since 2017.

Is there a future major champion ready to shine?

The European Tour’s Desert Swing has drawn plenty of big names in recent years, a pattern that will continue over the next three weeks. But there’s been another recent trend of players lifting trophies ahead of a major breakthrough.

Months before he shocked Jordan Spieth at the 2016 Masters, Danny Willett got into the winner’s circle at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic. The next year it was Sergio Garcia who won in Dubai before getting his first major in Augusta, while last year Shane Lowry captured the title in Abu Dhabi ahead of his watershed win at Royal Portrush.

Lowry is back to defend this week, with the claret jug likely not far from his reach. But the field looking to follow in his footsteps both this week and this summer includes a number of high-profile stars who remain in search of major glory, a group that includes DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay and Tommy Fleetwood.

LA QUINTA, Calif. – Balancing membership on both the PGA Tour and European Tour has always been a complicated necessity for top players and that balancing act won’t be any easier this year.

To maintain membership on the European Tour, a player like Paul Casey must participate in four events, excluding the World Golf Championships and majors, which are co-sanctioned by both tours. In the past that requirement has been lessened by a regulation that allows players to count starts in unofficial events like the Ryder Cup, but that loophole appears to have been closed slightly.

Under the European Tour’s membership rules players can count just one start in either the Ryder Cup, Olympics or Presidents Cup as part of their membership requirement.

“For guys who play both the Olympics and the Ryder Cup, they only get to count those two events as only one towards the European Tour,” said Casey, a member of both tours. “I look at things like that and that makes it even tougher. You're penalizing the best players again. I'm not a fan of that because I would like to be in both of those [events].”

The European regulations also dictate to some degree which four events a player must play to reach their minimum, with at least one of those starts coming in a player’s “home country.” For players like Casey and Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose it’s become a yearly effort to fulfill their membership requirements on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

“How do you balance it? How do you weigh it all out? I don't know. I've been doing it 20 years and I still haven't figured it out,” Casey said.

The ISPS Handa Vic Open is getting some added star power to support its noble idea this year.

Former world No. 1s Stacy Lewis, Cristie Kerr, Inbee Park and So Yeon Ryu are early commitments to the Australian event, joining Aussies Karrie Webb and Geoff Ogilvy as returning supporters. 

Australian Hannah Green, now a major champion, is also returning.

A credit to Aussie imagination and audacity, the Vic Open was added to the LPGA schedule for the first time last year. While it may have been the LPGA’s smallest purse ($1.1 million), it was the tour’s biggest idea. Once again, male and female pros will tee it up at 13th Beach Golf Links in Victoria and play the same courses at the same time for the same amount of prize money. It was a mustard seed of an idea that is spreading, with the European Tour and Ladies European Tour teaming to co-sanction the Scandinavian Mixed tournament in Sweden this summer. Male and female tour pros will compete against each other there for the same purse and the same trophy.

While there are practical reasons for Lewis to play the Vic Open, as she seeks more starts to rebuild her world ranking to make runs at the Solheim Cup in her native Toledo, Ohio, next year and the Olympics this year, there’s also a golden opportunity to support a cause that is dear to her.

Lewis, 34, is an outspoken proponent of equal pay for women. She didn’t play a lot overseas last year while juggling her career with motherhood for the first time, but she is curious to see how the Vic Open’s unique staging plays out.

“They’re doing something a little different,” Lewis said. “They’re kind of going out on a limb and putting up equal purses there. It’s something I wanted to check out, and this was a good year to do it, to see how it works. Maybe it’s something we can bring back to the United States and do an event like it here.”

Like Lewis, Kerr is motivated to rebuild her status and needs more starts, but she also welcomes the chance to support the Vic Open’s cause.

“It’s definitely appealing,” Kerr said. “I wish every purse on the LPGA was a minimum of $2 million. I think in this day and age we can do that, but it’s still a playing opportunity, and it will be cool to be around the guys that week.”

Lewis relished seeing CME Group put up a $1.5 million first-place check in the 2019 season finale, a payout larger than the winner’s check in 32 of 46 PGA Tour events.

“This is all something I have been talking about a long time, kind of beating my head against the wall,” Lewis said. “People are starting to pay attention and look at the questions I’ve asked. Why aren’t women’s sports on TV as much? Why do these sponsors put up money for a PGA Tour event but can’t put up a quarter of that for an LPGA event? More people are starting to ask those questions, as well, and it’s bringing it to light. It’s a great thing, but we have to continue to push it and continue to talk about it. Raise awareness.”

Events like the Vic Open provide a stage that serve that purpose.

LA QUINTA, Calif. – Phil Mickelson was born in San Diego, lives in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., and has won 12 of his 44 PGA Tour titles in California, but his days living on the West Coast appear to be nearing an end.

Mickelson confirmed to GolfChannel.com Wednesday at The American Express that his family closed on a lot on Jupiter Island, Fla., on Dec. 23 and he hopes to begin construction soon.

Mickelson, who is the host of this week’s event, said the family’s current plan is to move to Florida after his youngest child, Evan, graduates from high school in a year and a half.

Lefty would join a growing list of Tour players who call South Florida home including Tiger Woods, world No. 1 Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson.

Although Mickelson didn’t offer a reason for his potential move, in 2013 he suggested he might move out of California because of his federal and state tax bill, which he estimated had pushed his tax rate above 60 percent.

“There are going to be some drastic changes for me because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state and, you know, it doesn't work for me right now,” he said in 2013. “So I'm going to have to make some changes.”

A week later Mickelson released a statement saying, “finances and taxes are a personal matter, and I should not have made my opinions on them public.”

There is no state income tax in Florida.

Bryson DeChambeau is cultivating mass and reshaping his body, becoming a muscle-bound freak before our very eyes.

And if you want any more info on his diet and exercise routine, just ask him. Or don’t, he’ll tell you about it either way.

Just a day after citing his newfound muscles as the reason slow play will no longer be an issue for him, DeChambeau gave another important update on his body, and on Brooks Koepka's.

While playing video games on the live-streaming platform Twitch, DeChambeau criticized Koepka's physique, saying the four-time major winner "didn't have any abs" when he posed for ESPN the Magazine's Body Issue last year.

He quickly followed it up with, "I have some abs," as you can see in the video below, captured by The Score's Eric Patterson.

This isn't the first of Koepka and DeChambeau needling each other over slow play and big muscles, and with both players becoming more comfortable speaking their mind in front of a microphone, don't expect it to be the last.