Plans to bring the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby back to T-Mobile Park in Seattle, which last hosted it in 2001, are being finalized, sources told ESPN.
On Monday, the PGA TOUR named Will Zalatoris as their Rookie of the Year for the 2020-21 season. The 25-year-old Wake Forest product finished in the top-30 on the official money list for the season, and in the top-25 in scoring average and Strokes Gained: Total. Zalatoris’ victory is the culmination of a two-year professional climb, from the Korn Ferry Tour (and outside the top-500 in the World Ranking) to burgeoning PGA TOUR star. Since the beginning of 2020, Zalatoris has racked up 18 top-ten finishes between the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR. In that span, only Jon Rahm has had more official top-10 finishes worldwide, with 22 (Bryson DeChambeau is tied with Zalatoris at 18). Zalatoris’ persistent good play has made him an undeniable presence at the biggest events the men’s game has to offer. Here are the numbers that fueled him to the Rookie of the Year title, and positioned himself as a player to watch in 2022 and beyond. Elite Iron Play Zalatoris averaged +0.75 Strokes Gained: Approach per round, the 7th-best rate of any player on the PGA TOUR in 2020-21. That was the highest per round average in that statistic by a PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year winner since Trevor Immelman in 2006 (+0.76 per round). Immelman, of course, would employ that approach play prowess two years later when he won The Masters, hitting 71 percent of his greens in regulation along the way. Speaking of Augusta National, it was there that Zalatoris had his breakout performance, going from under-the-radar analytical darling to major championship contender. Zalatoris finished alone in second place, the first player to do that in his Masters debut since Dan Pohl in 1982. Zalatoris ranked 4th in the field that week in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and 14th in Strokes Gained: Approach. His combination of those two statistics – Strokes Gained: Long Game – was 3rd-best in the field, trailing only Corey Conners and Hideki Matsuyama. Zalatoris hit more than 73% of his greens in regulation for the Tournament, the 2nd-highest rate in the field. For the season, Zalatoris was especially stellar with his longer irons. On approach shots from the fairway of 200 yards or more, Zalatoris had an average proximity to the hole of 46 feet, 10 inches – 11th-best on TOUR and nearly five feet better than the PGA TOUR average. When in those situations last season, Zalatoris’ average score to par was -0.24, seven-tenths of a stroke better than the PGA TOUR mean. Take a look at what’s in Zalatoris’ bag. Un-Rookie-Like Consistency In 2020-21, Zalatoris ranked 9th on the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, an exceptional performance that positioned him between Viktor Hovland (8th) and Rory McIlroy (10th). While that lofty company is impressive in itself, it’s the consistency in which Zalatoris delivered that might be most impressive. In 20 tournaments in which Strokes Gained data is available, Zalatoris had a positive Tee-to-Green average relative to the field 16 times. Zalatoris lost strokes to the field with his ball striking in less than 18% of his total rounds for the entire season. Unlike the typical rookie, Zalatoris was able to avoid the big number on his scorecard. Zalatoris averaged less than 0.2 double bogeys or worse per round, ranking him among the leaders in double-or-worse avoidance for the season. More than 150 players accumulated at least 70 stroke play rounds in the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season. Of that group, only 9 averaged less than 0.2 doubles-or-worse per round, Zalatoris included. In overall bogey avoidance, Zalatoris ranked in a respectable tie for 24th place, dropping shots on less than 15% of his total holes played for the season. On the Horizon In recent seasons, being named Rookie of the Year has been a harbinger of good things to come. Last year’s winner, Scottie Scheffler, followed up his rookie campaign with his first Ryder Cup selection. Sungjae Im won the award in 2019, then picked up his first PGA TOUR victory at the 2020 Honda Classic. In 2017, Xander Schauffele was named Rookie of the Year – he finished 15th in the FedExCup the following season, and has become a mainstay in the top-ten of the Official World Golf Ranking. Zalatoris’ ball striking acumen makes him a strong candidate to continue his career ascent. As mentioned, Zalatoris finished the 2020-21 season ranked ninth in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. Nine of the top-ten ranked players in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green in 2020 advanced to the TOUR Championship in 2021. Two-thirds of players ranked in the top-ten in that statistic at the conclusion of the previous three seasons made it to East Lake. Three of the four major champions in 2021 also ranked in the top-ten in that statistic the previous season. A worthy recipient of the Rookie of the Year award, Zalatoris figures to be a mainstay on PGA TOUR leaderboards for years to come.
The DI men’s college basketball season is rapidly approaching and Andy Katz is here with his top 25 returning players for the 2021-2022 college basketball season.
With four wins this season, including a Tour Championship victory that helped him clinch the FedEx Cup, Patrick Cantlay was voted PGA Tour player of the year.
DeVonta Smith found the end zone, Mac Jones showed poise for the Pats, and Joe Tryon-Shoyinka made his mark on the veteran Super Bowl champs.
With four wins this season, including the FedEx Cup, Patrick Cantlay was voted PGA Tour player of the year.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA, AND HAMILTON, BERMUDA – The PGA TOUR today announced that Butterfield, the leading, independent offshore bank and trust company headquartered in Bermuda, will join Bermuda Tourism Authority as sponsor of the annual FedExCup event held at Port Royal Golf Course in Bermuda. Renamed the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, the tournament debuted in 2019 as the PGA TOUR’s first official event on the island. The agreement is through 2023. “Butterfield has been a wonderful supporter of the tournament since 2019, and we are excited they are elevating their partnership,” said PGA TOUR President and EVP Tyler Dennis. “Our players and their families love visiting Bermuda and competing on a world-class facility in Port Royal Golf Course. We look forward to working with Butterfield and Bermuda Tourism Authority to increase the charitable impact on the island.” The 2021 Butterfield Bermuda Championship will be held October 28-31 with live broadcast coverage on Golf Channel. As a standalone event in 2021, the field size will be expanded from 120 to 132 players with 500 FedExCup points being awarded to the winner and an increased purse of $6.5 million. The field features a minimum of four Bermudians who gain entry via a Local Qualifying event. “It’s an exciting time to be joining forces with the PGA TOUR given the elevation of this year’s Bermuda event, and we look forward to engaging clients, colleagues and the wider community,” said Michael Collins, Butterfield’s Chairman & CEO. “Significantly, this three-year partnership unites our core markets for banking services by including the Cayman Islands and the UK Channel Islands, where we will host two competitive Butterfield client events with the top five players from each event receiving invitations to the Butterfield Bermuda Championship Pro-Am on Wednesday of tournament week.” “Butterfield has been very supportive of our event since the start and we’re excited to have them elevate their partnership as a title sponsor with Bermuda Tourism Authority,” said Justin Belanger, Tournament Director at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. “To date, the tournament has raised over $400,000 for local charities, and we look forward to growing the impact with the support of Butterfield and Bermuda Tourism Authority.” Last year, Brian Gay claimed his fifth PGA TOUR victory at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, edging Wyndham Clark in a playoff. Brendon Todd won the inaugural event in 2019 on his way to a berth in the season-ending TOUR Championship.
DeVonta Smith found the end zone, Mac Jones showed poise for the Pats while Joe Tryon-Shoyinka made his mark on the veteran Super Bowl champs.
How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Each lineup consists of four starters and two bench players that can be rotated after each round. Adding to the challenge is that every golfer can be used only three times per each of four Segments. The first fantasy golf game to utilize live ShotLink data, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf allows you to see scores update live during competition. Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s Fortinet Championship in this week’s edition of the Power Rankings. For more fantasy, check out Rookie Watch, Qualifiers and Reshuffle. THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN OUR EXPERTS? The PGA TOUR Experts league is once again open to the public. You can play our free fantasy game and see how you measure up against our experts below. Joining the league is simple. Just click here to sign up or log in. Once you create your team, click the “Leagues” tab and search for “PGA TOUR Experts.” After that? Pick your players and start talking smack. Want to represent the fans against our experts? 2021 FINAL SEASON RESULTS 2021 FINAL SEGMENT RESULTS
David Hearn (+35000 to win) … The 42-year-old from Canada hasn’t qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs since 2016 but he cleared an important hurdle in the interim as it concerns his status for the rest of his life on the PGA TOUR. It was at Quail Hollow in the summer of 2018 when he survived his 150th career cut to qualify for Veteran Membership. He hasn’t needed it since but short of a burst of form, it will be coming in handy. He has three starts on a Minor Medical Extension to earn 213.051 FedExCup points for a promotion to the Major Medical category, but collecting 59.833 points would net conditional status. For the former at Silverado, he’d need no worse than at two-way T2, but a solo 13th would achieve the secondary objective. He placed T14 here last year with four sub-70s. For the week, he ranked T6 in fairways hit, T15 in greens in regulation, 10th in Strokes Gained: Putting and T1 in par-4 scoring. Cameron Percy (+12500 to win) … The stars are aligned for the Aussie. He led the PGA TOUR in greens in regulation last season, he closed with seven consecutive paydays, including a T11 at the John Deere Classic, and he’s gone T7-T23 in the last two editions of the Fortinet Championship. Not that anyone is short on motivation in any event, much less the season opener, but the 47-year-old is only 40.297 FedExCup points shy of the target for fully exempt status for the remainder of the season. That’s because he was granted a Minor Medical Extension with one start. It requires a solo 22nd-place finish. Short of that and he’ll play on conditional status for the remainder of 2021-22. Kiradech Aphibarnrat (+8000 to win) … After a difficult 2020-21 PGA TOUR season during which he plummeted over 300 spots in the Official World Golf Ranking to outside the top 550 just two months ago, the Thai rallied at the Wyndham Championship (T37) to qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, and then secured his return trip to the TOUR with a T20-T34-T27 sprint in the series. With the pressure off, he then turned in one of his best-ever performances at the BMW PGA Championship with a share of second place. Now back inside the top 200 of the OWGR (at 195th), he’s equipped with both the freedom and the momentum to keep the pedal down. Chad Ramey (+6600 to win) … Of those who finished inside the top 15 in Korn Ferry Tour points during the regular season, no one made as many as his 40 starts. What’s more, he cashed in 37 of them before going T7-T18-T11 in the Finals to finish with 24 top 25s overall. He also led the way with 136 rounds under par of which 104 were sub-70s. Finished the season at fourth in fairways hit, third in greens in regulation, third in scrambling, T1 in par-3 scoring and T2 in par-4 scoring. In a phrase, he’s built for the season-opening shootout as a rookie on the PGA TOUR. Ben Kohles (+15000 to win) … Because 25 cards are on the line at the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, it can go unnoticed how the 25 graduates from the regular season jostle for position in the opening reshuffle on the PGA TOUR. He finished 23rd in KFT points during the regular season, and then climbed over four others with a T54-T10-T20 showing to open in the 33rd position. Ranked 10th in fairways hit on the KFT, second in greens in regulation and fifth in scrambling. Odds were sourced on Sept. 14 at 8 a.m. ET. For live odds, visit betmgm.
