PGA Tour rookies to watch in 2018 — one sits third in FedEx Cup points

In his first extensive interview since his February car crash, Tiger Woods said his hope is to return to competitive golf, but that he never expects to compete again at the highest level, “and I understand it, and I accept it.”

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Max Homa has said that the final event of the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season carries some of golf’s most suffocating pressure, particularly for those on the top-75 bubble. Play well and you’ll have a chance to earn a PGA TOUR card via the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals. Falter, and your fate could be Q-School, with an uncertain career path. “You start spiraling on the negatives,” once explained Homa of the prospects of losing full Korn Ferry Tour status. Entering the final event of the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season, Philip Knowles stood No. 87 on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Eligibility Points List. He knew a good finish was required to keep a guaranteed job for 2023. He booked two flights. One was to Idaho for the Finals-opening Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron. The other was to his adopted hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, to begin preparations for Q-School. Knowles’ wife Olivia flew to Omaha on Sunday morning, unannounced, and was on the 18th green at the Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna to provide congratulations as Knowles cemented his first career top-10 finish (T10) to move to No. 67 on the Regular Season Eligibility Points List and cement a Finals berth. Not only was he exempt for 2023, no Q-School needed, but he would have a chance at a TOUR card via The Finals 25. “The fact that I’m going to Boise is incredible,” Knowles said shortly after signing his scorecard last Sunday in Omaha. “Still some processing to do there. First time having locked up full status out here, and having a chance at a TOUR card the next few weeks … it’s awesome.” Knowles accelerated his timetable, to say the least. The University of North Florida alum finished runner-up at the Albertsons Boise Open, carding a four-round total of 21 under at Hillcrest CC to match Will Gordon and MJ Daffue for the week’s low score. Gordon won with a par on the first playoff hole, but all three players have earned the Korn Ferry Tour’s ultimate prize. Gordon earns 1,000 Korn Ferry Tour points for his win; Knowles earns 490 points for a two-way T2. The fail-safe threshold for a player to secure a TOUR card via The Finals 25 is 220 points; both players comfortably surpassed that mark in Boise. (Daffue was already #TOURBound via a top-25 spot on the Regular Season Eligibility Points List.) Six players finished in a six-way T4, which allots 200 Korn Ferry Tour points. In addition to Erik Barnes and Taylor Montgomery, whose TOUR cards are secure via The 25, this group included Scott Harrington, Austin Cook, Thomas Detry and Dean Burmester; these four are seeking a TOUR card via The Finals 25. Although these players are not mathematically safe per the Korn Ferry Tour’s fail-safe threshold, they’ll head to next week’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Columbus feeling confident about their chances. For reference, in a three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals series, the threshold for a TOUR card has been 186 points (2019) and 157.773 points (2021). Knowles arrived at the 72nd hole Sunday in Boise with a one-stroke lead, hit his second shot over the green and was unable to get up and down for par, vexed by Hillcrest CC’s severe back-to-front sloping 18th green. He then burned the edge on a 6-foot par try in the playoff; Gordon tapped in for a winning par shortly thereafter. In the annals of closing bogeys to fall short of winning a title, though, Knowles’ may go down as one of the least consequential. Less than two weeks ago, the native of Bradenton, Florida, was reasonably justified in planning for Q-School. He needed to deliver one of his career-best finishes to keep his season alive. He started the year with conditional status and took advantage of a sponsor exemption into his hometown LECOM Suncoast Classic, chipping in on the final hole and finishing T22, which allowed him to play a mostly full schedule for the remainder of the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour calendar. He had spent most of his career in the proverbial week-to-week grind. Conditional status, Monday qualifiers, mini-tours and the inevitable, instinctual questions of how long to keep going. The nomadic unknown. Now the 25-year-old, who met his wife Olivia when she competed on their high school’s men’s golf team, is headed to the PGA TOUR. “It’s really hard to put into words,” reflected Knowles on a tranquil Sunday evening in Boise. “Conditional life on the Korn Ferry Tour is miserable. It is nothing short of miserable. If you’re Monday qualifying, you’re fighting every week just to have a chance to play. If you’re playing in the events and you’re conditional, you are hoping you’re continuing to play well enough to continue to get starts. “I’m married, I’ve got a kid on the way, and that dynamic of trying to plan things … family vacations, vacations with friends … for a couple of years now, I haven’t been able to plan. Everything’s been spur of the moment, because I couldn’t ‘t tell you where I was going to be next week, or a month from now. “To have experienced that, to play well last week when I had to was incredible. It’s what I felt like was coming. Then to come out here this week … to stand here now and think that I’ve got a PGA TOUR card is crazy.” Crazy, perhaps, but reality.

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Mackenzie Hughes won the Sanderson Farms Championship in a playoff over Sepp Straka on Sunday at the Country Club of Jackson, collecting $1.422 million in official earnings and picking up 500 FedExCup points to lead the standings for the first time in his career. Canadian Hughes, who was +8000 on BetMGM Sportsbook pre-tournament, claimed his second PGA TOUR win, his first since the 2016 RSM Classic with an eight-foot birdie on the second playoff hole. Austria’s Straka dropped his second playoff in his last four TOUR starts (2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship). He was seeking his second title of the 2022 calendar year (The Honda Classic). He picked up $861,100 for his efforts and 300 FedExCup points to sit equal third on the standings. Hughes leads the FedExCup with 528 points, Max Homa is second with 500 with Straka and Danny Willett tied third at 300 points. Here’s a breakdown of the purse and FedExCup points for the Sanderson Farms Championship:

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