Aphibarnrat motivated by funeral for king and starts strong

JACKSON, Miss. – Notes and observations from the final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson. LEADING LIGHT Cameron Champ was an amateur this time last year. Now he’s a PGA TOUR winner. Champ, 23, claimed the Sanderson Farms Championship in just his second start as a TOUR member. He birdied five of his final six holes for a four-shot victory over Corey Conners. Champ shot a final-round 68 to finish at 21-under 267, the lowest score in the five editions of the Sanderson Farms at the Country Club of Jackson. And to think he almost didn’t turn pro last fall. He planned to finish his senior season at Texas A&M if he didn’t advance through the second stage of last year’s Web.com Tour Q-School. A third-round 75 left him outside the cut line with one round remaining. He closed in 68, including a birdie at the last, to advance to the final stage with three shots to spare. “It’s pretty unreal,â€� he said. “I can think back to second stage when I kind of almost choked with three holes to go. I made a great putt on 17 to move on to finals.â€� Advancing to Q-School’s final stage guaranteed him Web.com Tour status for 2018. He finished sixth on the money list, including a win at the Utah Championship, to earn his TOUR card. Now he has a guaranteed home on the PGA TOUR. The Sanderson victory comes with an exemption that will last nearly three years, through the end of the 2020-21 season. He also earns spots in THE PLAYERS Championship, the Sentry Tournament of Champions, PGA Championship and the TOUR’s invitational events. Champ’s booming tee shots should play well on the wide, sloping fairways of Kapalua’s Plantation Course. Champ can set his schedule instead of thinking about the reshuffle and keeping his card. He has the early, early lead in the Rookie of the Year race and moves to sixth in the FedExCup standings. He dominated the Country Club of Jackson’s back nine, which features two par-5s (Nos. 11 and 13) and the drivable, par-4 15th hole. He was 16 under on the course’s inward half and didn’t make a bogey. Champ’s trademark driving distance was key to his victory. He finished first in driving distance, averaging 308 yards on all holes and 334 yards on the measured holes. He was second in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, as well. Champ also finished second in Strokes Gained: Putting (+2.27 per round) and ninth in greens hit (55 of 72), despite hitting just 11 in the final round. OBSERVATIONS CANADIAN CHALLENGE: Conners put pressure on Champ for the majority of Sunday’s round. The Canadian caught Champ with a 13-foot birdie putt on the ninth hole and remained tied with him by matching his birdie at the par-3 13th. Conners almost tied Champ again on the 15th hole, but his 7-foot eagle putt on the drivable par-4 burned the edge. Champ birdied the next hole to take a two-shot lead. He carried that advantage to the 18th tee, eventually winning by four after Conners’ three-putt on the final hole. That bogey on the 18th hole was inconsequential. Conners finished two shots ahead of third place for his best finish in 40 PGA TOUR starts. He has conditional status this season after finishing 130th in the FedExCup. He’s 18th in this season’s standings. He can take confidence from his strong play under Sunday pressure, as well. This was the third time he started the final round of a PGA TOUR event in first or second place. He shot a final-round 77 at the Valspar Championship after holding a one-shot lead. He was in second at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship before a final-round 76. CASTRO’S CHARGE: Roberto Castro started Sunday in 19th place. He teed off more than an hour before the final group. He briefly pulled within two shots of the lead after making birdie on eight of his first 11 holes, though. He couldn’t keep up the pace. He bogeyed the 12th hole, then parred the last six. He finished T5 after a final-round 65. It was his best finish since the 2016 BMW Championship, when he finished third to qualify for the TOUR Championship. Castro, who graduated from the Web.com Tour in 2018, hopes another strong start to the season can result in his third trip to the TOUR Championship in his hometown of Atlanta. He’s 61st in this season’s standings. EAGLE HAS LANDED: Dylan Meyer is a first-year professional out of the University of Illinois. D.J. Trahan is a PGA TOUR veteran with two victories. They both parlayed sponsor exemptions into top-10 finishes at the Sanderson Farms Championship. They finished T7 at 13-under 275 to earn starts in next week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Meyer’s final-round 69 included an eagle on the par-5 11th hole. Meyer will have Web.com Tour status in 2019 after qualifying for the Web.com Tour Finals via his play on the PGA TOUR. He made the cut in five of seven starts as a pro, including a T17 at the Quicken Loans National and T20 at the U.S. Open. Trahan, who played in the final group alongside Champ and Conners, fired a final-round 71. It’s his first top-10 since the 2015 Sanderson Farms. QUOTABLE It doesn’t matter if you play good or bad. You go back to a little kid and they really don’t care.It really does help a lot just to get a little confidence going into the holidays and a few points. SUPERLATIVES Low round: Carlos Ortiz shot a final-round 64 to jump 16 spots on the leaderboard and finish in a tie for third. It was the best finish in 64 PGA TOUR starts for the 2014 Web.com Tour Player of the Year. Longest drive: Wyndham Clark hit a 369-yard drive on the sixth hole. He made par on the hole in his final-round 73. Clark, a Web.com Tour grad, finished T54. Longest putt: Brady Schnell made a 50-foot putt in his final-round 69. He finished T45. Hardest hole: The 209-yard, par-3 seventh hole played to a 3.3 scoring average, yielding just five birdies. Champ made one of the 19 bogeys there in the final round. Easiest hole: The 534-yard, par-5 third hole played to a 4.33 scoring average. There were six birdies and 38 eagles on the hole, compared to just two bogeys. CALL OF THE DAY  For play-by-play coverage of the PGA TOUR, listen here. SHOT OF THE DAY

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THE OVERVIEW By Cameron Morfit, PGATOUR.COM On or off the course, Kevin Kisner seldom fails to entertain. He’s also very, very good. The former Georgia Bulldog first made news in 2015 when he lost three playoffs in one season, becoming the first to hit that bittersweet trifecta since Horton Smith in 1937. All he’s done since is win twice, rack up more top-10s, and, last fall, make his first Presidents Cup team.  At Liberty National, his partner on the U.S. team was none other than Phil Mickelson, who has played in every Presidents Cup. Kisner soaked up every minute. “He probably wants me to be as hyped up as I can be,â€� Kisner said of Mickelson before the matches. “He’s fired up. He’s grabbing me every five minutes and telling me something that I don’t understand, and then we go on.â€� TOP 30 PLAYERS TO WATCH IN 2018: We’ll countdown our list with one new player each day in December. Click here for the published players. MORE: Top 30 explanation and schedule As it turned out, Kisner understood fine, going undefeated (2-0-2) while compiling three points in the U.S. Team’s winning effort. He and Mickelson won two of their three matches and halved the other. Kisner was so clutch and such a fine addition, you almost couldn’t fault him for his goofy “Three Amigosâ€� victory dance with Mickelson. None of which was a surprise. (OK, the dance was a surprise.) Kisner contended until the bitter end at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow (T4). He hit one of the clutch shots of the year at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a 95-foot chip that rattled the stick and dropped for eagle, forcing extra holes as dusk fell. (Jonas Blixt and Cam Smith ultimately beat Kisner and Scott Brown in the two-man team event.) At the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational, Kisner drained a bloodless five-footer on the 72nd hole for a one-stroke victory over Sean O’Hair, Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth. And he nearly made history at the Sony Open in Hawaii, where he missed an eagle putt of just over 10 feet that would have given him a third-round 59. (The 60 bettered his career low on TOUR by three.) “Kisâ€� is fired up, and he’s just getting started. Click here to follow Cameron on Twitter FEDEXCUP Current 2017-18 position: 70th Playoff appearances: 4 TOUR Championship appearances: 3 Best result: 12th (2017) BY THE NUMBERS INSIGHTS FROM OUR INSIDERS TOUR INSIDER by Ben Everill Kisner has shown himself good enough to be part of the elite names on TOUR now and this season is about maintaining, and improving. A winner in the last two seasons, Kizner should now expect nothing less than another trophy in 2018. Don’t be surprised if it comes in Hawaii before the new year is very old. He’s good in every aspect of the game, making up for any perceived lack of distance. And his competitive spirit is not to be underestimated. This guy is a bulldog — a straight-up grinder and fighter.  Click here to follow Ben on Twitter FANTASY INSIDER by Rob Bolton If this annual series focuses on fantasy value, you wouldn’t be reading about him for another week. I slotted the 33-year-old from South Carolina 17th in my full-membership fantasy ranking during the sliver of the offseason, so his appearance here represents the first noticeable drop from there to here. That speaks both to the strength remaining in the Top 30 and his underrated value in our world. He’s fresh off a career season (in his prime) in which he established a career low for missed cuts (three) for the fourth consecutive season all the while recording a career-high eight top 10s. While average in distance off the tee, he does everything else from well to outstanding. Fearless. Click here to follow Rob on Twitter EQUIPMENT INSIDER by Jonathan Wall Kisner’s Callaway Great Big Bertha driver has a custom 20-gram slide weight that replaced the two 10-gram weights he used to have in the track. Callaway GBB Epic fairway wood and 58-degree Fourteen Golf wedge were the only new additions to the bag last season. Click here to follow Jonathan on Twitter STYLE INSIDER by Greg Monteforte Kisner’s style can best be described as contemporary takes on classic looks. In 2017, he made the rare mid-season apparel shift and his new Dunning threads fit him to a tee. Here’s hoping we see more of the same from Kiz in 2018. Click here to follow Greg on Twitter

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Round 2 of the Charles Schwab Challenge takes place Friday from Colonial Country Club. The grouping of Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth and Daniel Berger will have the crowd’s attention, but plenty of other stars will be in the field including Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Billy Horschel, Justin Rose, Patrick Reed, Ryan Palmer, Sergio Garcia, Kevin Kisner and Will Zalatoris. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action, including Featured Groups for PGA TOUR LIVE. Leaderboard Full tee times HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 4 p.m.-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 2 p.m.-5:30 p.m. (Golf Channel), 5:30-7 p.m. (CBS). Sunday, 1 p.m.-2 p.m. (Golf Channel), 2 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (CBS) PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday 8 a.m.-7 p.m. (Featured Groups). Saturday, 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. (Featured Groups), 5:30 p.m.-7 p.m. (Featured Holes). Sunday, 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. (Featured Groups), 2 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (Featured Holes) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 1 p.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m.-7 p.m., Sunday, 1 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio). TOURCast: Get shot-by-shot info in real time with shot tracks and video with TOURCast. TOUR Pulse: Get the PGA TOUR app to utilize TOUR Pulse, which provides users the ability to experience a mix of content, such as video highlights, written hole summaries and stat graphics on every player after every hole they complete. FEATURED GROUPS Ryan Palmer, Sergio Garcia, Kevin Kisner (tee times) Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Billy Horschel (tee times) Phil Mickelson, Daniel Berger, Jordan Spieth (tee times) Justin Rose, Patrick Reed, Joaquin Niemann (tee times) MUST READS Jordan Spieth rolls to bogey-free 63 at Charles Schwab Challenge Sergio Garcia, Jordan Spieth share lead at Charles Schwab Challenge Phil Mickelson’s bag: How it compares to past wins at Colonial Cut prediction: Charles Schwab Challenge Top 10 moments in Charles Schwab Challenge history How Leonard bucked conventional wisdom to build Colonial CALL OF THE DAY

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