Day: November 4, 2017

Spaun leads after 65; play suspended in VegasSpaun leads after 65; play suspended in Vegas

Spaun leads after 65; play suspended in Vegas

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Spaun opens up a three-shot leadSpaun opens up a three-shot lead

LAS VEGAS – J.J. Spaun isn’t, and doesn’t want to be, a rookie anymore. The 27-year-old has just begun his second season on the PGA TOUR and as such expects a whole new level of performance. Spaun had a respectable rookie season in 2016-17 finishing 97th in the FedExCup to retain his playing privileges. But he says the three top-10s from last season is not enough, and is aggressively pursuing his first victory. With a 66-65 opening to the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin he has opened a three-shot gap at the top and intends to keep the foot down. “I’ve had a year’s experience now on the TOUR, and this year it’s kind of just taking my game to the next level instead of just kind of being someone that lingers around the cut or top 20s,â€� he said. “It’s time to step up if I want to do something big out here on TOUR and make a name for myself.â€� Spaun said he fell into the trap of some of the negative associations of being a rookie last season. The little things like tee times and scheduling were getting under his skin more than they should have. But he’s thrown away the excuses now. “You need to kind of grow up. You’re not a baby, you’re not a rookie anymore,â€� he stressed. “You feel like – when you’re a rookie – everything is kind of stacked against you. But now it’s time to actually go to work and put yourself in contention and try to get W’s out here.â€� While not officially the 36-hole leader yet as play was suspended late due to darkness Spaun will almost certainly hold the position. The 36-hole leader/co-leader has gone on to win six of the last 10 Shriners Hospitals for Children Opens.  OBSERVATIONS Robert Garrigus felt like he almost couldn’t miss on the greens as he carded eight birdies on Friday. With just a lone double bogey trying to derail his day Garrigus shot an impressive 65 to move to 7-under for the tournament. The stats backed up his thoughts on the greens as he gained 4.811 strokes on the field putting in the second round to be ranked first in the field. “All in all it was one of the great days –  eight birdies in the wind, made a lot of good putts, hit everything where I was looking today with the putter, and that doesn’t happen very often, so I’m going to cherish this one,â€� he said. Darkness once again halted play before the full round could be completed with 28 players left to finish round two on Saturday morning. As such a cut hasn’t been made. The projected cutline stands at +1 with 80 players currently inside the mark. Those on the bubble include defending champion Rod Pampling and major winners Geoff Ogilvy, Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson. The wind was again a factor although it didn’t pick up quite as much as expected in the afternoon at TPC Summerlin. Even so the morning wave played the par-71 course in a 71.99 average while the unfinished afternoon wave was at 72.98 Aaron Baddeley put on a scrambling masterclass in the wind, getting up and down 9/9 times. The four-time PGA TOUR winner put up a second round 66 to give himself a chance at win number five. He sat five off the lead and in a tie for fourth when play was suspended. “The forecast for tomorrow is going to be super windy so it’s going to be a real patience day,â€� he said.â€� Just sort of picking up a bunch of pars and making some birdies. If we can do that on the weekend, we’ll be in a good spot on Sunday.â€� Kelly Kraft is the lone player who can, albeit unlikely, take away the 36-hole lead from J.J. Spaun. The former U.S. Amateur winner sits 4-under on his round through 15 holes and at 8-under overall to be second alone. His round included an ace on the 5th hole. First round leader Whee Kim battled to a 1-over 72 on Friday but remains in contention in a tie for 6th, six shots off the pace. There were two hole-in-ones on Friday. After just three aces in the first five tournaments of the season Kelly Kraft aced the par-3 5th hole with a 6-iron from 174 yards and Brice Garnett performed the feat on the par-3 14th hole with an 8-iron from 164 yards. The last player to make a hole-in-one on the PGA TOUR and go on to win was Dustin Johnson at the 2015 World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship QUOTABLES “I always listened to Freddie (Couples) when he told me, when it’s breezy, swing easy. I do have the best job in the world, for me. This is all I can do. Playing golf for a living is a blessing, and the family loves me, so everything is good.â€� – Robert Garrigus after a 65 moved him to 3rd place. “I got a new putter this week. The Ping Ancer. It’s beautiful. I’ve done some string drills on the putting green, which really sort of helped me get the ball started on the right line. Just sort of through that, I let my body adjust and it’s feeling good.â€� – Aaron Baddeley after sitting fourth in Strokes Gained: Putting through his two rounds. He is five shots off the lead in a tie for 4th place. “Once you kind of see a wheel fall off, you can kind of start seeing all the wheels fall off. I kind of did that a little bit last week, but it was a couple of bad breaks. This week I didn’t want that to happen.â€� – J.J. Spaun after he backed up his lone bogey on Friday with two tap in birdies.  SUPERLATIVES Low Round: J.J. Spaun (1st), Robert Garrigus (3rd) and Chesson Hadley (T16) led the way Friday with rounds of 65. Spaun had 7 birdies and a lone bogey, Garrigus had eight birdies and a double bogey while Hadley notched up 7 birdies and an eagle but had three bogeys. Longest Drive: Bubba Watson gave the crowd what they wanted to see with a 393-yard blast off the 9th tee. Longest Putt: South African Rory Sabbatini drained the longest putt of the second round with a 67-foot bomb for birdie on the 10th hole. Sadly it won’t help him make the weekend after a 77. Toughest Hole: For the second day running the par-4 3rd hole played the toughest, yielding just 10 birdies and a 4.303 stroke average. Easiest Hole: The par-5 9th once again proved the place to make your move with 2 eagles and 64 birdies helping it to a 4.592 stroke average. 

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Emergency 9: Fantasy tidbits from Round 2 at Shriners Hospitals for Children OpenEmergency 9: Fantasy tidbits from Round 2 at Shriners Hospitals for Children Open

1. J.J. Spaun was among the overshadowed rookies on the PGA TOUR last season despite going two events deep into the FedExCup Playoffs. He didn’t win but he’s also gone more than six months with just one top-25 finish on the board. It explains why he’s 84th-most owned in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO (although rewarding the faithful with a lead-high 200 points through the suspension of play on Friday night). There simply was nothing to project that he’d sit comfortably atop the 36-hole leaderboard. The 27-year-old is sticking to his strengths, though, leading the field in both strokes gained: approach-the-green and strokes gained: tee-to-green. He ranked inside the top 50 last season in both total driving and greens in regulation. 2. Of the 90 golfers chosen at least once in PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO, Spaun was not one of them. Meanwhile, Tony Finau paces the field at 14.6 percent. He’s in the house at 4-under 138, seven strokes adrift of the 36-hole clubhouse leader. Webb Simpson was selected by three fewer gamers. While the 2013 champ is T66 at 1-under 143, it’s unlikely that he’ll be sweating the cut line as only four of the 28 stranded by darkness on Friday are within two shots. Three others are at even. Of the top 10 in One & Done ownership percentage, only 2015 champ Smylie Kaufman (No. 8, 4.1 percent) is a lock to miss the cut. 3. The weather forecasters hit the bull’s-eye this week. After the field averaged 71.17 on the par-71 test for a relatively tame opening round (that 25 needed Friday morning to complete), winds freshened a bit for Friday’s second round. The morning wave averaged 71.99, which sounds high at TPC Summerlin until you learn that the interrupted afternoon wavers sat at 72.98 at nightfall. This is the first time since the course assumed duties as the solo host in 2008 that any round averaged over par. The trend is all but guaranteed to extend into the weekend. Sustained winds midday on Saturday are expected to be at least 20 mph. 4. Robert Garrigus crafted a 6-under 65 with eight birdies on Friday at TPC Summerlin to post 7 under through 36 holes. Only a double bogey-6 at the 18th hole (his ninth of the round) thwarted a clean card that included circles on each of the three par 5s. That’s hardly a surprise for the known bomber with an underrated penchant for piling up greens in regulation, but it’s his erstwhile flat stick that has him in the hunt in Vegas. He’s currently leading the tournament in strokes gained: putting. He did the same en route to a T29 at The National this summer and he found a groove in the second half of the 2015-16 season, so this isn’t unprecedented, just impossible to see coming. The soon-to-be 40-year-old (his birthday is Nov. 11) has showed off in the wind in the desert before, too. In the third round of the 2012 CareerBuilder Challenge, he dropped in 11 birdies en route to a bogey-free 61 at PGA West’s Nicklaus Private, beating the field average on the course by 9.29 strokes in that round. Play was suspended due to gusty winds after he had already sunk nine of his birdies. 5. If there’s ever such a thing as a gimme in fantasy golf – there isn’t – Patrick Cantlay presents a compelling case. Since returning from personal and physical challenges at Pebble Beach in February, he’s been perfect in 15 starts. That now includes a position inside the top 10 at the midpoint in Las Vegas where he’s making his first appearance. He’s lurking in part thanks to an eight-hole stretch on Thursday. From Nos. 9-16, he converted six birdies, including on all three par 5s. The 25-year-old is a non-winner on the PGA TOUR, but he just exhausted his rookie eligibility in 2016-17. Still, he’s risen the bar so fast and so high in his return – nine top 25s in 2017, including in each of his last five starts – that it’s only a matter of time before he’s a winner. 6. It wasn’t that long ago when Harris English was a short-lister when you wanted some substance to complement an aggressive roster in weekly action. For his first five seasons, he missed only 27 cuts and withdrew during another in 137 starts for an astounding cuts-made clip of nearly 80 percent. He’s been derailed since. After going just 15-for-27 last season and finishing a career-worst 118th in the FedExCup standings, he’s opened 2017-18 with three missed cuts in as many tries. He’ll get snipped by at least one stroke when the hammer officially falls on Saturday in Vegas. It’ll be his fourth consecutive MC to establish a career long. 7. There is an argument that the Web.com Tour Finals shouldn’t imply a finish line. Sure, it determines who earns the last 25 PGA TOUR cards, but boxing out in the reshuffle category immediately ensues. Get off to a slow start and playing time all but disappears until fields expand with daylight hours in mid-April. Entering the Shriners, 11 golfers in the field had yet to crack their goose egg in the FedExCup points column. At the suspension of play on Friday, only Alex Cejka is assured of making the cut, but Sam Saunders (T13) and Roberto Diaz (T35) are poised to join him once they polish off their second rounds. Four of the other eight are already taillights (Jonathan Byrd, Nate Lashley, Sam Ryder, Andrew Yun), while Kyle Thompson (T81), Keith Mitchell (T89), Denny McCarthy (T96) and Lanto Griffin (T130) have yet to be officially knocked out because they haven’t finished their second rounds. Both the OHL Classic at Mayakoba and The RSM Classic will grant starts to the entire category, so their backs aren’t against the wall again. Yet. 8. Billy Horschel withdrew hours before his second-round tee time due to a sore left shoulder. He opened with 4-under 67 in what was his first round of the season, so this was a tough pill for gamers to swallow. The mid-tournament WD is his first in 177 PGA TOUR starts as a professional. Jonathan Randolph withdrew after eight holes of his second round, also with a shoulder injury. He also recorded his first mid-tourney WD in 53 TOUR starts as a pro. Of the two, only Horschel committed to next week’s OHL Classic at Mayakoba where he’d be making his fourth appearance. Mackenzie Hughes is slated to tee it up in Mexico as well. The Canadian withdrew early from the last two stops in Asia in October to be with his wife for the birth of their first child, Kenton Robert. 9. Jason Day announced that his wife, Ellie, is pregnant with their third child. The due date is in June, which, of course, is when the U.S. Open is contested (June 14-17), so One & Doners likely will be investing elsewhere at Shinnecock Hills. The Days live near the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, but an appearance in his adopted hometown also is in jeopardy because it falls two weeks prior to the season’s second major. Day is 6-for-9 in his backyard but with only one top 25, a T15 in 2017. For Ben Everill’s full story that also includes the news and quotes from Day and Marc Leishman about their decision not to tee it up at the Hero World Challenge next month, click here.

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J.J. Spaun shoots 65 to take PGA Tour lead in Las VegasJ.J. Spaun shoots 65 to take PGA Tour lead in Las Vegas

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