The Upshot: D. Johnson solid in return

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NOTE: For the first three events of the FedExCup Playoffs, Rob will focus only on golfers outside the bubble to advance. In this first edition, all five included below open the Playoffs outside the top 100 in points. Jimmy Walker … The effect of Lyme Disease on his performance is evident, but at 101st in the FedExCup points, he has the shortest road to advance. The last two times he’s fallen outside the top 100, he climbed back in thanks to a T18 at The Greenbrier Classic and a T28 at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. His physical challenge hasn’t negatively influenced his trademark putting, either. If anything, he’s found strength and confidence in it. His overall putting average of 1.502 strokes per hole played is a five-year low among all golfers on the PGA TOUR. Steve Stricker … When you turn 50, your Official World Golf Ranking is supposed to plummet, not rise as his has. Currently 77th in the OWGR and 110th in FedExCup points on the strength of two top 10s and a trio of top 20s. Also 18th on the PGA TOUR Champions money list in just six starts, but it’s his vintage work on the junior circuit that’s kept him floating for a sprint in the Playoffs. He’s second in fairways hit, T33 in proximity, 10th in strokes gained: putting and 23rd in adjusted scoring. A titillating sidebar to his prospects is that the Presidents Cup captain just might play alongside eventual charges who are eager to impress. David Lingmerth … Given his spot at 103rd in points and that a top-40 finish in the first tournament of the Playoffs historically has been enough to lock up a tee time at TPC Boston the following week, the Swede is as smart a projection as it gets among the 24 outside the top 100 and present at Glen Oaks. In his last 10 PGA TOUR starts, he rung up seven top 30s and didn’t miss cut. If that seems like the bar has been lowered to view him as a threat, consider that he recorded only one top 30 and missed the cut in half of his first 10 TOUR starts this season. Slots 11th in strokes gained: putting. Rory Sabbatini … As one of the four who snuck inside the top 125 of the FedExCup standings at the Wyndham Championship, it’s all gravy now for the 41-year-old. It’s the payoff of the battle back via the Web.com Tour graduate reshuffle category, a necessity secured in advance when he failed to meet the terms of a Minor Medical Extension to start 2016-17. At 122nd in the FedExCup standings at THE NORTHERN TRUST, he could use a T4 like he posted at the Wyndham Championship (but a top 25 should do). He’s well aware of how his uptick in putting is behind the sudden surge of five top 25s in his last six starts. Case in point, he enters having recorded positive strokes gained: putting totals in four consecutive measured tournaments for the first time in over two years. Richy Werenski … Talk about comin’ in hot! The 25-year-old rookie was 160th in the FedExCup standings after an 0-for-5 rut through The Greenbrier Classic. All he’s done since is go 5-for-5 with 16 red numbers in as many stroke-play rounds to complement a playoff loss at the Barracuda Championship. Now 108th in points, just like with Sabbatini, Werenski’s timely turnaround is directly attributable to markedly stronger putting. During this stretch, he’s jumped 59 spots to 119th in strokes gained: putting by shedding 1.66 strokes per start on average.

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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – The second round of the PGA Championship saw Brooks Koepka blitz out in front of the field… can he be caught? Here PGATOUR.COM’s writers tackle some of the big questions out of Friday at Bethpage Black. Brooks Koepka turned a one-shot lead into a seven-shot lead at the halfway mark of the PGA Championship. His 12-under 128 is a major championship record. Can we call this Tiger-like dominance yet? BEN EVERILL (Staff Writer): Woods’ 81 PGA TOUR wins might be saying, “hold my beerâ€�… But credit must come thick and fast if Koepka holds up the Wanamaker trophy again on Sunday. That will be four wins in his last eight major starts – not done since Woods in 2005-06. No one has ever defended the U.S. Open and PGA Championship in their career. That’s new history. SEAN MARTIN (Senior Editor): I don’t think we can, for two reasons. Tiger’s best runs lasted longer and it extended beyond the major championships. Woods’s win in the 2002 U.S. Open was his seventh victory in 11 majors. He won two majors by double-digits. A win this week would be Brooks’ fourth in his last eight majors. Also, Woods has 81 PGA TOUR victories. Brooks has five. I’m not ready to go down that road yet, no matter how good Brooks has looked. CAMERON MORFIT (Staff Writer): It’s absolutely Tiger-like. Woods led by six halfway through the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and wound up winning by 15. How many will Koepka win by? That’s the only suspense left in this tournament. ROB BOLTON (Fantasy Insider): Sorry, but I’m not taking that bait. Indeed, Koepka is in his own lane right now, but it’d take years for it to merge with that narrative. Leave hyperbole to social media and Bartolo Colon home run calls. RELATED: Tee times | Leaderboard | Koepka builds seven-shot lead How many shots will Koepka win by (or not by)? EVERILL: He talked about winning double digit majors in his career… I think he can win by double digits here. 10 shots. MARTIN: Five. I think there has to be some regression at some point. That said, it’s not like he’s simply relying on a hot putter. He shot 65 on Friday and the longest putt he holed was 11 feet. It’s his iron play that has been incredible. And that is less likely than the putter to desert a player in an instant. Bethpage Black is just too punishing to allow a player to keep cruising like he has, though. MORFIT: Scott doesn’t inspire confidence with his putting, and Spieth looks pretty suspect with his driving, so I’m going to say 14. BOLTON: Even fantasy leagues that reward bonus points for margins of victory don’t care much about it after only two rounds, but if Koepka is threatening Rory McIlroy’s record eight-shot runaway (in 2012) after 54 holes are in the books, then give me the over. Adam Scott flirted with an extremely low round before settling for a 64. Koepka has a 63 and 65. Danny Lee shot 64. Has Bethpage Black lost its bite? EVERILL: No. This course still is plenty long. And the rough has plenty of bite. But it has always given you the chance to score if you find the fairway. Ask Tiger Woods, Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia, Bubba Watson or Bryson DeChambeau how hard it is… they were among those to miss the cut. MARTIN:  I wouldn’t go that far. The rough is still extremely penal and the fairways are narrow. They’re fairly soft, though, which makes them play wider. And the greens are still relatively soft by major championship standards. And they’re fairly flat, which makes it easier to get on a roll. MORFIT: These are the best players in the world. It’s what they do. And after watching what the back nine has done to these guys, including Rory’s horrific 40 Friday, I’d say the place still has plenty of bite. BOLTON: Not quite. Remember, these are professional golfers. Bethpage is performing exactly how the PGA of America wants it to given the conditions and setup. It’s penalizing poor play and rewarding form commensurately. Jordan Spieth has found his way to second place, albeit seven shots back. Are we seeing the end of the slump once and for all? EVERILL: I really want to say yes but his stats this season, and this week, give me pause. Spieth hit just nine greens on Friday but rode a hot putter. Also his scoring average on Thursdays and Fridays has been fine this season… it is the weekends where he has tanked. If he puts four rounds together I’ll be more positive. MARTIN: I can’t make that proclamation yet. The weekends have been his biggest struggle. He’s played well on Thursday and Friday several times. But any uncertainty about one’s swing gets exposed under the pressure, and that’s been the case this year. I’ll have to wait to at least until Monday to make that proclamation. MORFIT: By his own admission he has made everything he’s looked at on the greens. I don’t like the big misses I’ve seen in his driver, and he was T88 in Driving Accuracy through the first two rounds. That tells you how great his putting his been, and that he’s not really back yet.  BOLTON: Two rounds don’t make or break a slump or surge and I want to see him put four together, but his first 36 holes at Bethpage match his confident rhetoric pre-tournament, so let’s not lose sight of that connection. Tiger Woods missed the cut. Does this make you think twice about his chances at the U.S. Open next month? EVERILL: I’m going to cut Woods some slack. He didn’t play between his Masters win and this week and then was sick in the lead up. He looked underdone and lethargic at times but by Pebble Beach, where he’s had so much success, you can assume he will be healthier. MARTIN:  I don’t think so. Pebble Beach is so much shorter. I thought his ball-striking looked solid on Thursday. He was just plagued by some silly mistakes. And he just couldn’t find a fairway on Friday. He won’t have to rely on his driver at Pebble Beach, though. I think Tiger still had the Masters hangover when he turned up at Bethpage Black. He’ll likely play the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide before the U.S. Open so that will give him another opportunity for some reps. MORFIT: Tiger just didn’t have it this week from the moment he double-bogeyed his very first hole, the brutish 10th. He drove it badly and made silly mistakes, which makes his Masters win look even more remarkable in retrospect. Was he tired? I don’t know. He’d better sharpen up for Pebble, though, because you can’t hit three of 14 fairways there, either. BOLTON: Hardly. While he’d never lay the foundation for doubt and excuse, it still would be nice to know sooner if he’s not feeling 100 percent. Assuming he’s healthy, all systems will be go at Pebble. It’s been fascinating to witness his learning curve as a capable 43-year-old.

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