At St. Jude, Cink poised for emotional victory

NAPLES, Fla. — Sahith Theegala made a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole Sunday as he and Tom Hoge closed with a 10-under 62 in Fourballs and became the first rookie team to win the QBE Shootout in 11 years. Ryan Palmer and Charley Hoffman each missed birdie putts from about 12 feet at Tiburon Golf Club that would have forced a playoff. They had a 65. Theegala was coming off a strong PGA TOUR rookie season in which he reached the TOUR Championship and twice had chances to win going to the final hole of tournaments. The QBE Shootout is an unofficial event, but it still felt good to win. “It’s nice to get a taste of victory because it’s so hard out here,” Theegala said. Hoge, who won his first PGA TOUR title at Pebble Beach in February, carried much of the load early when Theegala pulled a muscle in his left side on the first hole. By the end of the day, Theegala said it felt better and he was able to take fuller swings. They still had to contend with Palmer and Hoffman, especially at the end. Palmer’s chip up a steep slope on the par-5 17th hole didn’t get up the hill and came back to him. Stepping up quickly for the next shot, he drilled it into the cup an unlikely birdie that gave his team a share of the lead. Harris English and Matt Kuchar, trying to win the QBE Shootout for the fourth time, finished two shots behind after a 62. Max Homa and Kevin Kisner had a 63 and finished fourth. The top LPGA Tour player was Nelly Korda, who teamed with Denny McCarthy for a 62 to tie for fifth.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Cameron Smith made the longest week at THE PLAYERS Championship worth the wait. In a dynamic conclusion to five days of bad weather and high drama, Smith one-putted eight of his last nine holes with his pure stroke and delivered one of the gutsiest shots of his career for the cushion he needed to win. RELATED: Final leaderboard | What’s in Smith’s bag? Leading by two on the par-3 17th hole, 135 yards to the hole on an island green, Smith split the difference in the 12 feet that separated the flag from the water. The ball ended up 4 feet away and the Australian made his record-tying 10th birdie of the round. Turns out he needed it. Smith punched out from the pine straw right of the 18th fairway all the way into the water. After a penalty drop, his 60-yard wedge spun next to the hole to 3 feet for a bogey and a 6-under 66, giving him a one-shot victory over Anirban Lahiri of India. Lahiri, who started the final round with a one-shot lead, birdied the 17th and needed one more to force a playoff. He came up short of the green, and his pitch was below the cup all the way. He closed with a 69. Paul Casey shot 69 and was the victim of a horrible break on the 16th hole when he was in position to edge closer to the lead. Smith, who finished at 13-under 275, won for the second time this year, and the fifth time in his PGA TOUR career, and picked up $3.6 million from the $20 million purse, the richest in golf. He earned a staggering 600 FedExCup points. This was about more than money, more than the three-year exemption he earned to the four majors and a five-year exemption on the PGA TOUR. This was as much about family. Smith, so unflappable in the tense pressure that featured 26 holes on Monday, choked up when he talked about his mother and sister, whom he had not seen more than two years because of travel restrictions Down Under during the pandemic. Smith makes his home down the road in Jacksonville Beach, and he happily went to the airport this week for a special reunion. They watched him capture the crown jewel of the PGA TOUR. “It’s really cool to have them here,” Smith said. “My main priority was to hang out with them. Golf was second. It’s nice to see them and nice to get a win for them.” Lahiri’s only big mistake was a tee shot into a palmetto bush on the par-3 eighth, forcing him to take a drop near the concession area that led to double bogey. It was the only shot he dropped all day, and his best finish on the PGA TOUR came with a $2.18 million consolation prize. Casey, meanwhile, was the victim of bad luck. He was two shots behind and in the same group as Smith when he looked to have a big advantage on the par-5 16th. Smith duck-hooked his tee shot into the pines. Casey drilled his drive down the middle. But the ball took one last roll in the rain-soaked fairway, right into another player’s pitch mark. Instead of a mid-iron into the par 5, he had to punch it out short. Then, he was inches away from getting relief from a sprinkler head near the green and had to scramble for par. Smith punched out to the fairway and matched the par. They headed to the 17th, where Smith’s 9-iron was bolder than he wanted. “I’d be lying if I didn’t push it a little bit,” he said. No matter. He got the birdie, got the win and moved to No. 6 in the world. So concluded a week like no other on the TPC Sawgrass, where so much rain early in the week meant the first round lasted 54 hours and 16 minutes, finishing on Saturday morning. The wind that followed wreaked havoc on half the field. The bone-chilling temperatures Sunday made it tough on everyone. It was the first Monday finish since 2005 at THE PLAYERS. Smith made it memorable for so many other reasons. Kevin Kisner birdied three of his last four holes for a 68 to finish alone in fourth. Kisner is famous for once saying 20th place pays pretty good. So does fourth place at the TOUR’s premier event. He earned $980,000. Keegan Bradley was among four players who had a chance over the last hour. He was one shot behind after a birdie on the 16th, only to three-putt the 17th from the front of the green to a back pin, and then took double bogey on the 18th when his punch shot from the trees came out hot and ended up in the water. He shot 68 and finished fifth.

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It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. That classic line is what defined my come-from-behind, worst-to-first victory among the Experts in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO last season. Justin Rose’s bogey-bogey close en route to his playoff loss at the BMW Championship didn’t come back to bite after all. That’s the beauty of the format on this site. By using FedExCup points to measure performance, just about anyone within a whiff of the leader can roar from the outside and threaten late. In earnings-based leagues, the fate of those who won’t win is known weeks if not months in advance. I admit that it took me time to come around on using FedExCup points, but I’ve grown to love the volatility that the quadrupled points in the Playoffs present. (And that’s even before my timely surge. In fact, it’s my second league championship.) You still have to plan ahead and you still have to connect, but the possibilities don’t rule you out at the buzzer. And hey, the front-runners are in the same boat. If they leave that door open, someone just might sneak in and steal the trophy. With the parade over and the celebration complete, we now venture into a new season. Here are a few critical things to keep in mind that I’m parking on this page. Use it as a resource throughout the 2018-19 season: • The Houston Open, A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier and the Dell Technologies Championship are off the schedule. • The RBC Canadian Open will be contested at Hamilton Golf & Country Club, which hosted in 2003, 2006 and 2012. • TPC Southwind now hosts the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. (Firestone Country Club no longer hosts a PGA TOUR event.) • Only three events will be included in the 2019 Playoffs. Among them, East Lake is the only recurring host (of the TOUR Championship). • THE NORTHERN TRUST will be contested at Liberty National Golf Club, which hosted in 2009 and 2013. The BMW Championship migrates to Medinah Country Club, which hasn’t hosted an individual competition since the 2006 PGA Championship. • Unlike the Masters (held every year at Augusta National), the PGA Championship (at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course), the U.S. Open (at Pebble Beach) and The Open Championship (at Royal Portrush) always demand real-time decision-making over long-range planning due to the variables in play during each of those weeks (even though Bethpage Black and Pebble Beach are familiar to many PGA TOUR members). All of these changes for 2018-19 are reflected in the organization of Future Possibilities below. The section is dedicated to notables who are most likely to warrant consideration in all One & Dones. I’ve updated my confidence values for all golfers and extended a few to assist two-man gamers. With the new season comes turnover among the notables as well. For example, Patrick Cantlay, Emiliano Grillo and Adam Hadwin represent this week’s newcomers in Future Possibilities. This process will continue until all notables make their season debuts. You’ll also notice the +1 in my little league. Mike Glasscott joined (and doubled) the fantasy writing team at PGATOUR.com during last year’s fall stretch. He authors the Confidence Factor every week, wrote the Emergency 9 after every round of every tournament through the TOUR Championship and will continue to contribute in various roles. Also note Glass’ willingness to step out on a limb with his first-ever selection. It’s always easy to pick on the rookie, but at least he doesn’t miss the bunny. Even before Brendan Steele connected victories at Silverado in 2016 and 2017, he delivered for a pair of top 25s on the course. Now he’s attempting to become the first since Steve Stricker at the John Deere Classic from 2009-2011 to win the same tournament in three consecutive years. Steele is a no-brainer of a No. 1 in my Power Rankings, but investors can’t ignore suspect form spanning his last 10 starts. Since THE PLAYERS, he’s made just five cuts and finished no better than T47 at The Open Championship. Maybe it’s the euphoria of my surprise triumph in the Playoffs, but my confidence is higher in Ryan Moore, who sits No. 2 in the Power Rankings. No one’s record at Silverado can stack up against Steele’s, but Moore has a T10 (2015) and a T17 (2017) in two tries. He’s always a reliable bridge during the heart of the season, but the course feeds into his accuracy off the tee and experience in blending going low with salvaging a score during a tough round. While former champion Emiliano Grillo, Patrick Cantlay and Martin Laird are tempting for different reasons, I love Sean’s decision to piggyback red-hot Denny McCarthy. The events of the Web.com Tour Finals aren’t PGA TOUR events, but they’re play-in copetitions for the real thing. So many of the graduates ride the momentum of their latest achievement. Citing a historical example, Grillo made history when he concluded the 2015 Finals with victory at the Web.com Tour Championship before repeating the achievement at Silverado two weeks later. Now that’s euphoria! FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2018-19. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Patrick Cantlay … Shriners (1; defending); Genesis (4); Valspar (2); Memorial (3) Jason Dufner … CareerBuilder (9); Honda (3); PLAYERS (7); Valspar (4); New Orleans (1); Charles Schwab (6); Memorial (5); U.S. Open (2); Wyndham (8); TOUR Championship (10) Emiliano Grillo … Mayakoba (1); Arnold Palmer (2); Charles Schwab (3) Bill Haas … Safeway (5); RSM (7); CareerBuilder (1); Genesis (3); WGC-Match Play (8); Heritage (4); Charles Schwab (2); Wyndham (6) Adam Hadwin … CareerBuilder (1); Waste Management (4); Genesis (3); Valspar (2); John Deere (5) Russell Henley … Shriners (5); RSM (1); Sony (2); Honda (4); Masters (3) J.B. Holmes … Farmers (1); Waste Management (3); Pebble Beach (2); Genesis (4); Wells Fargo (5) Chris Kirk … Sanderson Farms (6); RSM (1); Sony (4); Valero (3); PLAYERS (5); Charles Schwab (2) Russell Knox … CIMB (5); WGC-HSBC (4); Mayakoba (1); Sony (3); Heritage (2) Martin Laird … Safeway (4); CareerBuilder (6); Waste Management (1); Genesis (3); Valero (5); Barracuda (2) Phil Mickelson … Safeway (7); CareerBuilder (10); Waste Management (4); Pebble Beach (5); Genesis (6); WGC-Mexico (1; defending); Masters (9); Wells Fargo (2); Open Championship (8); WGC-St. Jude (3) Ryan Moore … Safeway (4); CIMB (1); Shriners (10); Waste Management (12); Genesis (5); Valspar (3); Valero (7); Masters (13); Memorial (11); Travelers (6); John Deere (8); Wyndham (2); TOUR Championship (9) Scott Piercy … Safeway (2); CIMB (4); Shriners (5); Mayakoba (6); Sony (3); New Orleans (1; defending); Canadian (7; last winner at Hamilton in 2012) Brandt Snedeker … Sentry (4); Farmers (3); Waste Management (8); Pebble Beach (2); Masters (10); Heritage (6); Charles Schwab (7); U.S. Open (5); Travelers (9); Wyndham (1; defending) Brendan Steele … Safeway (1; two-time defending); CIMB (5); CareerBuilder (6); Waste Management (2); Honda (7); Valero (8); Wells Fargo (9); Travelers (4); Reno-Tahoe (3) Kevin Streelman … Sanderson Farms (3); Shriners (6); Mayakoba (2); CareerBuilder (8); Pebble Beach (1); Valero (9); Heritage (5); Memorial (4); Travelers (7)

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