Two birds, one stone for American Kang

C.T. Pan … Given that he’s missed only two of his last 23 cuts, he’s already a default Sleeper because anything can happen on the weekend. After opening with three straight 71s here last year, his final-round 69 lifted him 14 spots and into a tie for 17th place. For the week, he ranked third in strokes gained: tee-to-green. As a rookie in his tournament debut in 2017, he sat T5 after each of his first two rounds before losing the handle post-cut (to finish T37). At just 5’6″ and 145 pounds, it’s not surprising that he does his best work on shorter tracks like 7,125-yard PGA National. Trey Mullinax … With six straight paydays, the last three of which going for a top 25, he’s not necessarily sneaking up on anyone. However, his propensity to mash it off the tee and pile up the scoring opportunities works counterintuitive to the objective of keeping the ball in play and targeting pars at PGA National. So, something will give in his second appearance (MC, 2017), but the relative absence of wind tilt the favor to his profile. Currently 50th on TOUR in strokes gained: tee-to-green but 213th in fairways hit and 192nd in strokes gained: putting. Kelly Kraft … Not entirely the focus of converging trends as much as he’s at the union of converging coincidences. The 30-year-old finished T9 in his last start at the Genesis Open where his overall game was just short of superb but much further from frustrating. It ended an 0-for-5 drought and a seven-month stretch without a top 30. Meanwhile, after missing the cut in his first look at PGA National in 2017, he connected for a T8 last year and led the field in putting inside 10 feet, missing only three of 67 tries, 28 of which from outside three feet. Carlos Ortiz … Now that he’s back on the PGA TOUR with fully exempt status, he can give PGA National another go. Perhaps the third time will do no harm after missing the cut in his only two previous appearances. The 27-year-old is 71st in the FedExCup standings with a pair of top 10s, the latter of which in his last start at the Genesis Open (T9) where he ranked seventh in strokes gained: putting. Adam Schenk … The PGA TOUR sophomore has displayed an affinity for shootouts, but there’s been evidence of grinding. For example, in his Honda debut last year, he ranked T13 in bogey avoidance en route to a share of 29th place, one of the better results of his rookie season. Having returned via the Web.com Tour Finals, he’s currently 46th in strokes gained: putting and coming off a T16 at the Puerto Rico Open where he slotted T5 in fairways hit and T6 in greens in regulation. But more than anything, his experience is paying off in his second spin on this circuit. Overall, he’s 9-for-12 in 2018-19 with four top 25s. NOTE: Sleeper is a relative term, so Rob uses unofficial criteria to determine who qualifies. Each of the following usually is determined to be ineligible for this weekly staple: Winners of the tournament on the current host course; winners in the same season; recent major champions; top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking; recent participants of team competitions.

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NORTH BERWICK, Scotland (AP) — Cameron Tringale has played 331 times on the PGA TOUR without winning. His career-best round of 9-under 61 on Thursday might help him change. Tringale ran off six straight birdies to start the back nine at The Renaissance Club on Thursday and had a three-shot lead in the Genesis Scottish Open, the first event co-sanctioned by the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour. Former U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland saw work with putting coach Phil Kenyon pay off in his round of 64, the only one close to Tringale. “I haven’t had a professional win on my own, and obviously Scotland is where golf started, so this place is special,” Tringale said. And it was relatively benign, at least for Tringale. That wasn’t the case Thursday afternoon, when the average score was more than three shots higher. Flags were crackling in 30 mph gusts that felt even stronger along the shores of the North Sea, conditions best described by the clubs that were used. Some players barely reached the fairway on the par-5 16th, if they did. Patrick Cantlay had 231 yards for his second shot on the 483-yard closing hole. He hit 3-wood, and even that wasn’t enough. Cantlay did well to close with three straight pars, which were at a premium. He had a hard-earned 70. U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick opened with 71, while PGA champion Justin Thomas held on as long as he could. Thomas bogeyed three of his last five holes for a 73. The low score from the afternoon was Kurt Kitayama at 66, and only five other players who faced the afternoon wind managed to break par. Tringale had the lowest score of his PGA TOUR career and matched the course record set three years ago by Bernd Wiesberger when The Renaissance played to a par 71. Jordan Spieth set an early pace by running off five straight birdies, only to drop three shots over his last 10 holes for a 68. He called it a tale of two nines based on course knowledge. “The nine I had never seen before went really well, and the nine I played yesterday went poorly,” Spieth said, who is playing a week before The Open Championship for the first time since 2015, the last time the Open was at St. Andrews. It made sense this year with the PGA TOUR co-sanctioning the tournament for the first time, which led to 14 of the top 15 in the world at The Renaissance, a course that looks like one and is plenty fast without having true links soil. Tringale, who has reached the TOUR Championship only once in his 12 previous years on the PGA TOUR, is having one of his better years. He missed a playoff at Torrey Pines by one shot and was a distant runner-up to Hideki Matsuyama in THE ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP last fall. The conditions along the North Sea could not have been more ideal for him, with only a mild breeze and a full blue sky in the morning. Tringale took advantage with one key club in his bag. “Golf is more fun when the putts are going in, and they were for me today,” he said. He made a pair of birdie putts from the 40-foot range, and only four of his nine birdies were inside 6 feet. Equally important were a few midrange par putts he made at the start. It was a struggle for Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, who made double bogey from the 18th fairway by going from rough to rough, and lost more ground on the front nine for a 73. The Scottish charge was led by Ewen Ferguson (67) and Russell Knox (68), who heeded some strong advice from his wife, a former tennis pro. Knox has been struggling with his putter when he was persuaded to try a long putter. “My wife said, ‘You’ve been playing professional golf for 15 years and you’re horrible at putting. Try something different,’” Knox said. “The best putt of my life was a 3-footer for par on the first hole because if that didn’t go in, we were in for a long day.”

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Former Ryder Cup player Thorbjorn Olesen and Ryan Fox shared a one-shot lead following the first round of the British Masters on Thursday.

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