Column: Defining shots based on every club in the bag

The 2017-18 FedExCup season is now past the halfway point of the regular schedule. Twenty-one weeks are in the books; 19 weeks are left before the top 125 players in the standings advance to the FedExCup Playoffs. At the very top, nothing really has changed since last year’s FedExCup Playoffs ended. Justin Thomas won the 2017 FedExCup crown, and he’s atop the current standings for the seventh consecutive week. But with a half-season still to be played, there are no guarantees. A few FedExCup observations:  Don’t be surprised if there’s a generous amount of turnover in the next 19 weeks. Of the top 30 players a year ago at this point, 10 fell outside the top 30 by the time the FedExCup Playoffs started. Only one of those 10 players managed to play his way back inside the top 30 and advance to the TOUR Championship – Justin Rose, who posted top-10 finishes in each of the four Playoffs events. Fourteen players who made the TOUR Championship last season are currently outside the top 30, including defending East Lake champion Xander Schauffele. The reigning Rookie of the Year finished third in the FedExCup Playoffs last year but is currently 46th and has just two top-10 finishes in 11 starts. Another notable, reigning U.S. Open champ Brooks Koepka, is currently 97th and has been sidelined since late January with a wrist injury. Just four players have been atop the FedExCup standings this season – Thomas for seven weeks, Patton Kizzire for eight weeks, Pat Perez for four weeks and Brendan Steele (winner of the season-opening Safeway Open) for two weeks. Thomas currently leads Kizzire by 440 points – that’s the biggest margin between No. 1 and No. 2 in the FedExCup standings entering the RBC Heritage since 2009.  Thomas, incidentally, has now been No. 1 this season for the same number of weeks (7) he was all of last season. And get this: Since the start of the 2015-16 season, there have been 106 weeks of tournament competition. Thomas has been inside the top 15 of the FedExCup standings a total of 104 weeks in that span. The only times he was outside the top 15? The first two weeks of this season. He didn’t play the opening week, and he was 33rd after the second week. Thomas not only has the most FedExCup points, he’s also making the most of each start. Thomas leads in FedExCup points per event with an average of 176.9 in his 10 starts. The next five are Dustin Johnson (161.3 avg.), Justin Rose (144.8 avg), Jason Day (130.6 avg) and Bubba Watson (128.1 avg). If Tiger Woods can maintain his pace, he’ll be in excellent shape to make a run at his third FedExCup title. Woods currently ranks 42nd in points, averaging 79.3 points per start. A year ago, any player who averaged 70 points or better per start in the regular season found himself inside the top 12 starting the FedExCup Playoffs. Woods won the inaugural FedExCup title in 2007 and won it again in 2009. Chesson Hadley has made the biggest one-year improvement in the standings. A year ago, he ranked 217th entering the RBC Heritage; he now ranks 26th, a jump of 191 spots. In fact, seven players have made jumps of 100-plus spots – Hadley, Ryan Armour (190 to 40), Tom Hoge (180 to 48), Ryan Palmer (201 to 76), Ian Poulter (149 to 25), Bubba Watson (124 to 3), and Brian Gay (151 to 47).

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SAN DIEGO — Two career-changing putts for Jon Rahm brought two trophies Sunday. RELATED: Leaderboard | Winner’s Bag: Jon Rahm, U.S. Open He cradled his 3-month-old son, Kepa, as he walked off the 18th green at Torrey Pines on Father’s Day. And then he collected the silver U.S. Open trophy after a performance filled with passion and absent of blunders that wiped out everyone else. Rahm made a bending 25-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole to catch Louis Oosthuizen. He buried another curling, left-to-right birdie putt from 18 feet on the final hole for a 4-under 67 and a one-shot victory. “Little man, you have no idea what this means right now,” Rahm said to his son on the practice range when he won. “You will soon enough.” The 26-year-old Rahm became the first Spaniard to win the U.S. Open, finally getting the major prize to go along with his enormous talent. On a back nine filled with double bogeys by so many contenders and a shocking meltdown by defending champion Bryson DeChambeau, Oosthuizen was the last to fall. Trailing by one shot, Oosthuizen drove into the canyon left of the 17th fairway for a bogey that left him two shots behind, and then he missed the fairway on the par-5 18th that kept him from going for the green for a look at eagle to force a playoff. He settled for a birdie and a 71. It was his second straight runner-up in a major, and his sixth silver medal since he won the Open Championship in 2010 at St. Andrews. Only two weeks ago, Rahm was on the cusp of another big win. He had a six-shot lead at the Memorial after 54 holes, only to be notified as he walked off the 18th green at Muirfield Village that he had a positive COVID-19 test and had to withdraw. Worse yet, his parents had flown in from Spain to see their new grandson, and Rahm was in self-isolation and couldn’t be there for a special moment. Sunday made up for it. His parents were at Torrey Pines to witness a world-class performance capped off by one of the great finishes in U.S. Open history. He earned 600 FedExCup points and moved up 17 spots to No. 2 in the FedExCup standings. Rahm finished at 5-under 278 for his sixth PGA TOUR victory. The first one was at Torrey Pines four years ago when he holed a 50-foot eagle putt on the 18th.

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ORLANDO, Fla. – Tiger Woods didn’t always pour in putts on Bay Hill’s 18th green. But those previous misses paid off when he was trying to hold off Phil Mickelson in the final round of the 2001 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. They were the top two players in the world and tied atop the leaderboard. Mickelson already had signed his scorecard, while Woods was facing a finishing hole that was playing a half-stroke over par. Just five players had birdied the 18th hole all day. After hitting a 5-iron onto the green, Woods faced a curling 15-footer for his second win at Mr. Palmer’s place. He figured the putt would break a foot to the right. He’d missed it low before, though, so he added a couple inches to his read. “I hit the putt just the way I wanted to and it took its time breaking,â€� Woods said. “But once it started snapping, it went sideways and caught the hole.â€� Now it feels like it’s impossible for players to miss on Bay Hill’s final green. Left-to-right putts are supposed to be anathema for right-handers, but it has become an annual tradition for the champion at Bay Hill to cap off his win by curling in one last birdie putt on the 72nd hole. Woods has done it three times, as have the past two winners. Since ShotLink started measuring shots in 2003, the winners of the Arnold Palmer Invitational have holed 168 feet of putts on the 72nd hole. That’s more than any other event. This despite a traditional Sunday hole location that’s tucked behind water and cut on a steep slope. Richie Hunt, a statistical consultant for several TOUR players, says that players make about 5% fewer putts from 15-20 feet to that hole location than the TOUR average. Woods’ influence cannot be understated, though. He’s made a hard putt look easy, and everyone, including TOUR players, has seen the highlights on repeat. “Every player has seen Tiger make all those putts on that green, so they know it can be done,â€� said NBC analyst Gary Koch, who won at Bay Hill in 1984. Woods spiked his hat after sinking a 24-footer in 2008. It was almost dark when he made one from 16 feet the following year. Both birdie putts were necessary for one-stroke victories. Five years ago, Matt Every sank a 17-foot birdie putt on 18 to win his second straight Arnold Palmer Invitational. He beat Henrik Stenson by one. Rory McIlroy and Francesco Molinari won by larger margins, but their final putts completed dramatic Sunday charges. Two years ago, McIlroy was trailing by two strokes at the start of the final round. He made birdie on five of the final six holes – including a 25-footer on the final green – to win by three.  McIlroy’s 64 was the low round of the day by three shots. Molinari shot the same score in last year’s final round to go from five behind to a winner by two shots. He capped it off with a 43-foot putt on the final hole. It’s the fourth-longest putt holed by a winner on the 72nd hole in the ShotLink era (since 2003). “You know it’s definitely not breaking right-to-left from there,â€� Molinari said. The tournament’s namesake would be proud of what has transpired in his tournament. He is the one, after all, who said, “You must play boldly to win.â€� Bay Hill’s final hole requires bravery to birdie. “It’s a daunting shot. It looks like there’s no green there. From the fairway, all you see is rocks and bunker on that entire right-hand side,â€� said longtime TOUR caddie Paul Tesori. “Long is a bogey. Short is a double. It’s one of the most intimidating shots on the PGA TOUR, but it’s also given us some of the best drama.â€� Tesori has had a front-row seat for that drama. Sean O’Hair played with Woods in the final round in both 2008 and 2009. Tesori was on his bag. O’Hair was one of five 54-hole leaders, along with Woods, in 2008. O’Hair was two back when he reached the final hole, though. That eased the sting of Woods’ final blow. The next year, O’Hair took a five-shot lead into the final round. He and Woods were tied entering 18. Even though O’Hair had blown his large lead, he still had a chance to win. Zach Johnson, the third member of the final threesome, knew how this story was going to end, though. “We’re standing on the fringe and Zach said, ‘Paulie, I’m sorry but he’s going to make this,’â€� Tesori recalls. “I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ It was pretty dark. I just didn’t think he was going to do it that time. He’d already made it twice in the past. He’d already used those up.â€� Of course, Tesori was wrong. “All those putts went in with perfect speed,â€� he said. “I feel like they could have fit in a thimble. They go in exactly where they’re supposed to go in, in that 7:30 area of the hole.â€� And now they just keep pouring them in on Bay Hill’s 18th green.

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