Why Stanford star Maverick McNealy decided to go pro

Dylan Frittelli (+260 for a Top 20) … Relative to the competition, this is not a reach despite the fact that he hasn’t cracked a top 20 since a T8 at the Valero Texas Open in early April or rested in five weeks. He cashed in 13 of his last 14 starts, including a T28 at The Open Championship where he led the field in putting and totaled only two three-putts on the massive greens. The South African also hasn’t missed an edition of the 3M Open where he’s 2-for-3 with a T18 in 2020. His scoring average in 10 rounds at TPC Twin Cities is 69. His only PGA TOUR victory occurred a few hundred miles south at TPC Deere Run, another Midwestern stop with bentgrass greens. Nate Lashley (+333 for a Top 20) … He’s veered into the same lane as Adam Long, who is in the Power Rankings. Like his fellow one-time PGA TOUR winner five years his junior, Lashley has been trading weekends off with top 20s and top 30s. It’s a heckuva way to make a keep one’s job at this level. Obviously, it requires confidence post-cut, and Lashley has that. He’s 14th in final-round scoring average. He’s also T3 in par-4 scoring and inside the top 50 in greens in regulation, converting those chances into par breakers and Strokes Gained: Putting. In lockstep with his recent trending, he’s looking for this first cut made in three tries at TPC Twin Cities. Michael Gligic … Where you can find it, a top 30 is a better play for the native Ontarian. In the last three months, he’s 8-for-9 with a trio of top 30s to surge to 145th in the FedExCup. He’s performed his best on easier tracks, so TPC Twin Cities should keep his rally rolling. He’s chasing his third payday in as many starts on the course and playing well enough right now to better a T26 in his debut in 2020. Averaging a couple of yards longer than TOUR average in distance of all drives at 291.0 (to rank T85), he’s not a short hitter by any judgment, but it’s still impressive that he’s T40 in par-5 scoring. That can matter more at TPC Twin Cities given its set of three par 5s has carved out a spot easily within the hardest half of all courses on the PGA TOUR. Justin Lower … Other PGA TOUR rookies are hogging the attention in 2021-22, but the 33-year-old from Ohio is putting together a nice season over on a side stage, so he’s worth checking out. He’s 13-for-21 with five top 20s, including a pair in the last two weeks to rise to 135th in the FedExCup. Currently inside the top 50 in both greens hit and proximity to the hole, but he’s also tightened up his putting on the average of almost one stroke per round within the last three months, and he’s showing zero signs of easing off that throttle. Cole Hammer … The decorated collegian at the University of Texas, where he contributed to his program’s national title a few weeks ago, is making already his fifth start as a professional and second on the PGA TOUR (MC, Travelers). Until he begins building in earnest, he presents merely as one to watch as he finished fifth in the Velocity Global Ranking for PGA TOUR University. That yields Korn Ferry Tour membership this summer and an exemption into the final stage of the KFT Qualifying Tournament. He arrives in Minnesota fresh off a T7 at the Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS where he co-led the field in par-3 scoring. Odds were sourced on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. For live odds, visit BetMGM.

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The PGA TOUR uses a standardized system for determining event fields, based off the current season’s Priority Ranking while also including additional exemption and qualifying categories. Field sizes can vary by event, as can the number of event-specific exemptions. Fully exempt PGA TOUR members are guaranteed entry into all full-field events, with various conditional categories subject to periodic reshuffles based upon FedExCup Points accrued throughout the season. Categories with ‘reshuffle’ notation indicate that a reshuffle period has occurred. World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play field list as of Friday, March 18 at 5 p.m. ET: Check here for updates. Top 64 – World Golf Ranking Jon Rahm Collin Morikawa Viktor Hovland Patrick Cantlay Scottie Scheffler Justin Thomas Xander Schauffele Dustin Johnson Bryson DeChambeau Louis Oosthuizen Jordan Spieth Tyrrell Hatton Billy Horschel Sam Burns Joaquin Niemann Daniel Berger Abraham Ancer Brooks Koepka Tony Finau Paul Casey Sungjae Im Matt Fitzpatrick Jason Kokrak Patrick Reed Will Zalatoris Kevin Na Thomas Pieters Talor Gooch Kevin Kisner Max Homa Webb Simpson Shane Lowry Adam Scott Tom Hoge Russell Henley Harold Varner III Corey Conners Marc Leishman Matthew Wolff Lucas Herbert Cameron Young Tommy Fleetwood Seamus Power Sergio Garcia Cameron Tringale Justin Rose Lee Westwood Christiaan Bezuidenhout Si Woo Kim Mackenzie Hughes Min Woo Lee Richard Bland Luke List Erik van Rooyen Takumi Kanaya Bubba Watson Alex Noren Brian Harman Ian Poulter Sebastián Muñoz Keegan Bradley Robert MacIntyre Keith Mitchell Sepp Straka The PGA TOUR uses a standardized system for determining event fields, based off the current season’s Priority Ranking while also including additional exemption and qualifying categories. Field sizes can vary by event, as can the number of event-specific exemptions. Fully exempt PGA TOUR members are guaranteed entry into all full-field events, with various conditional categories subject to periodic reshuffles based upon FedExCup Points accrued throughout the season. Categories with ‘reshuffle’ notation indicate that a reshuffle period has occurred. * = If all prior year Korn Ferry Tour graduates are eligible for event, exemptions become unrestricted # = Latest medical extension information can be found here. $ = Category breakdown can be found here.

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RENO, Nev. — News and notes from Sunday’s fourth round of the Barracuda Championship, where Chris Stroud captured his first PGA TOUR victory Sunday with a win in a two-hole playoff over Richy Werenski. STROUD SURGES FOR FIRST WIN Chris Stroud exploded for 20 points in the final round of the Barracuda Championship and walked away with his first victory on the PGA TOUR. Stroud was at No. 144 in the FedExCup standings going into the Barracuda. He picked up 300 points with his win Sunday and jumped all the way to No. 76 in the standings. Stroud went back to an old club he had used before, a counter-balanced, long putter. “It just really helps me release the putter,â€� he said. “And when it does that, it keeps me very still. And the trouble I have with putting, with a shorter putter, is I lean the shaft a little bit. So I end up pushing a lot of putts. “So it’s nice to have, but at the end of the day, I played beautifully. I had some really nice little bounces that I hadn’t been getting in the last few weeks and capitalized on them, made some good birdies.â€� Stroud, 35, from Houston, Texas, said he loves the Modified Stableford format, which rewards risk-taking and aggressive play. It was his first win in 290 PGA TOUR events. Stroud turned pro in 2004. He played on mini-tours until earning his PGA TOUR card at the 2006, 2007 and 2008 Qualifying schools.  His best performance in a PGA TOUR event during these early years was a tie for fifth at the 2007 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. In 2010, Stroud finished T10 at THE PLAYERS Championship, and he lost in a sudden-death playoff to Ken Duke on the second extra hole of the 2013 Travelers Championship. Stroud had never made the cut in Reno in three previous trips (2007, 2009 and 2016). Despite his history at Montreux, Stroud credited his caddie for helping him stay so calm on Sunday. “He kept me distracted,â€� he said. “If I hit a shot and I started talking about it, he’d say, ‘hey, let’s talk about something else.’ He never let me talk about golf. He was crazy. I was so calm.â€� Stroud also said his father was able to help him with his confidence going into Sunday’s final round and that his father knew he would excel in the unique format. “My dad sent me a text last night, he goes, ‘Hey, I don’t want to get in your way,’ he said, ‘But this is a good format for you. You’ve been making a lot of birdies. Just go out and make as many as you can, see if you can make a couple of eagles,’â€� Stroud said. “And sure enough I made two eagles on the weekend.â€� Despite it being his first win on TOUR, Stroud said he doesn’t have a celebration planned and his focus is now looking ahead to the PGA Championship. “I got my two baby girls — I was planning on going home because I wasn’t in the PGA Championship, going home to Houston and hanging with them for a week. But now I get to play Quail Hollow, which is an awesome, great golf course,â€� Stroud said. “My phone is dead from all the text messages coming in. That’s a good problem. I’ve gotta go charge that. Call my wife. I know she’s freaking out at home.â€� APPLEBY SURPRISES HIMSELF Stuart Appleby capped off a remarkable week with a tie for fourth at the Barracuda Championship. He had five birdies and one bogey in his round Sunday. Appleby said he enjoyed the change from stroke play events. “It’s a dynamic format. You never quite know where you are, quite as simple one shot can go either way,â€� Appleby said. “It’s interesting because you can come from behind or you can build a big lead.â€� Appleby said he has had a tough year and he still can’t wrap his head around how well he played this week. He said he hopes to build off his experience at Montreux. “I really even barely have my body going well to play for four days,â€� he said. “Hopefully this is something to run me in, for the next few, where I feel like I’m hitting and putting good. I just have to understand that I have a lot of experience in these situations and I need to use it. Good experience versus so much of the stuff I’ve had recently and go on.â€� TRENDING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION Richy Werenski, in his first year on the PGA TOUR, fell short in the playoff Sunday but said he can learn from the disappointment. “I haven’t experienced it before. I think it’s going to help me learn for the next time I’m in a playoff. I can just build off of this,â€� Werenski said. He said he was not flustered by the playoff atmosphere, as fans crowded around the 18th green. “I’ll learn from this experience and take it to the next time I’m here. The week was really good, solid, felt like I really could have played a lot better. I think everybody always says that. But I know I definitely don’t have my best stuff. My game is trending in the right direction.â€� BEST OF SOCIAL

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