Tiger Woods dazzles with a 62 in the opening round of the BMW Championship

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Brendon Todd finished three shots ahead of the field in The RSM Classic’s Monday qualifier after shooting a bogey-free 61 at Brunswick (Ga.) Country Club. He birdied five of his final six holes. This will be the first start of the season for the former TOUR winner. A 5-for-3 playoff determined the final three spots in the RSM field. Ben Taylor, who won on the Web.com Tour in 2018, and Kameron Williams were the odd men out. Akshay Bhatia, the 2018 AJGA Player of the Year and runner-up at this year’s U.S. Junior Amateur, missed the playoff by a single shot. Here’s a closer look at the players who Monday qualified for the final event of the fall season. BRENDON TODD (61) Age: 33 Hometown: Atlanta Alma mater: Georgia PGA TOUR starts: 160 Cuts made: 75 Best PGA TOUR finish: Won, 2014 AT&T Byron Nelson Notes: Making his season debut. … Made just 15 starts over the previous two seasons, missing 14 cuts. … Qualified for the TOUR Championship in 2014 and finished in the top 50 of the 2015 FedExCup. … Struggles started shortly thereafter. … Fell out of the FedExCup’s top 200 in 2016 after missing 25 of 29 cuts. … Also owns two Web.com Tour victories. …Medalist at 2011 PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament. JAMES DRISCOLL (64) Age: 41 Hometown: Boston Alma mater: Virginia PGA TOUR starts: 242 Cuts made: 119 Best PGA TOUR finish: 2nd, 2009 Valero Texas Open and 2005 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Notes: Monday qualified twice in 2018, finishing T61 at the Travelers and missing the cut at Wyndham. … Won on Web.com Tour in 2016 but has played just one event on that circuit this year. … Both his runners-up on the PGA TOUR were playoff losses. … Lost a playoff to Zach Johnson in San Antonio and Tim Petrovic in New Orleans. … Driscoll also was runner-up in the 2000 U.S. Amateur, losing to Jeff Quinney on the 39th hole of the 36-hole final. ALEX KANG (64) Age: 28 Hometown: Las Vegas Alma mater: San Diego State PGA TOUR starts: 3 Cuts made: 2 Best PGA TOUR finish: T10, 2017 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open Notes: Brother of LPGA major winner Danielle Kang. … Finished 108th on the Web.com Tour money list in 2018 with one top-10 in 22 starts. … Shot a final-round 64 to finish T10 at last year’s Shriners after getting in the field on a sponsor exemption. … Also made the cut in the 2015 Puerto Rico Open, finishing T47. BLAKE MORRIS (64) Age: 26 Hometown:  Alma mater: Mississippi PGA TOUR starts: Debut Notes: Ranks 19th on the 2018 Minor League Golf Tour’s money list. … Completed his collegiate career at Mississippi in 2015. … Was second on the team with a 71.9 scoring average. MAYAKOBA GOLF CLASSIC QUALIFIERS MC. Corey Conners, 72-71 MC. Brad Adamonis, 76-69 MC. Eamonn McLoughlin, 70-76 MC. Matt Hutchins, 75-72 THIS SEASON’S QUALIFIERS Qualifiers: 16 Made cut: 6 Best finish: T4, Aaron Baddeley (Safeway Open) Top-10s: 1 Top-25s: 2

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Scottie Scheffler has been re-writing golf’s record books for the last four months. At the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Scheffler went from arguably the best player without a TOUR win to an unquestionable force. Then he officially became the best player (period) on the planet after his win at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, which vaulted him atop the Official World Golf Ranking. His gap of just 42 days between his first PGA TOUR or DP World Tour victory and ascending to No. 1 was by far the shortest in the 36-year history of the OWGR. And only Tiger Woods (21) and Jordan Spieth (77) needed fewer starts as a professional than Scheffler’s 92 to reach No. 1. At the Masters, Scheffler became the first player since Arnold Palmer in 1960 to leave Augusta with four or more wins that PGA TOUR season, including the Green Jacket. His win came in his very first start as the world No. 1, mirroring what Ian Woosnam did at Augusta National in 1991. And at the Charles Schwab Challenge two weeks ago, Scheffler showed he’s not close to done with this incredible heater. If not for Sam Burns’ heroics, Scheffler would have become the first player since Bobby Locke in 1947 to get each of his first five PGA TOUR victories in the same season. Scheffler is positioned to create even more history as the season reaches its apex. He returns to action this week at the RBC Canadian Open, his first career appearance in this storied event. And he does so with sizable leads in both the FedExCup and world ranking. Top of the Standings Scheffler’s enormous FedExCup lead of 1,041 points is easily the largest by any player at this point in the season under the current format, which started in 2009. The second-largest lead any player has had in the season points race as the TOUR left the Memorial Tournament was in 2015, when Jordan Spieth led by 624. With most TOUR events awarding 500 points to the winner, even an additional two wins by Burns – who ranks second in the FedExCup with three wins this season – could not be enough to catch his good friend. It’s a testament to Scheffler’s win in some big events, including a major (the Masters, which awards 600 points), a World Golf Championship (the Dell Technologies Match Play, which awards 550) and an elevated invitational (the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, which also is worth 550 FedExCup points). Scheffler also has two runners-up this season. With 3,142 points this season, Scheffler already has amassed the third-highest Regular Season points total since the current system began 13 years ago. In all but two years, the sum he already has in his pocket would be enough to lead the standings entering the FedExCup Playoffs. The only exceptions are 2009 (Tiger Woods, 3,431 points) and 2015 (Jordan Spieth, 4,169 points). Scheffler has averaged about 203 points per start since the beginning of February. If he maintains that pace and plays four more tournaments (in addition to this week) before the Playoffs begin, it would be entirely possible that Scheffler breaks Spieth’s record for the most Regular Season points accumulated under the current system. Emphatic No. 1 Scheffler also leads the Official World Golf Ranking with an average of 10.15 points per start, about 2.49 points ahead of world No. 2 Jon Rahm. That lead is more than twice the size of what Rahm’s lead was as No. 1 over Collin Morikawa (9.80 to 8.75) in the first ranking of 2022. A year ago today, Dustin Johnson held the top spot, but his margin over Justin Thomas was just 1.79 average points. Scheffler is assured of holding the top spot entering next week’s U.S. Open, regardless of what happens this week in Canada. Any time the topic of large leads atop the OWGR comes up, it’s impossible to not look back at some of the astronomical gaps Tiger Woods put between himself and the rest of the sport in his prime. After winning the 2008 U.S. Open, Woods had an average of 21.54 points per start – more than double world No. 2 Phil Mickelson (who had a very strong number of 10.21 – a higher average than Scheffler holds this week). In November 2000, Woods played in the Johnnie Walker Classic, a tournament in Thailand that was co-sanctioned by the DP World and Asian Tours. Despite winning that week, Woods’ average points number actually went down, from 28.64 to 28.47. His lead that week over world No. 2 Ernie Els was about 17 points. So while Scheffler is enjoying a healthy gap between himself and number two right now, it’s nowhere near the halcyon days of peak Woods. How Scheffler Made His Leap The biggest statistical jump for Scheffler this season over last has come from his approach play. Scheffler has gone from an above-average iron player on the PGA TOUR last season to an elite one in 2022. Last year, Scheffler averaged about 0.15 Strokes Gained: Approach per round, good for a respectable ranking of 83rd among qualified players. This season, that number has more-than-quadrupled to 0.69 per round, good for 13th-best on TOUR. If you are into more traditional statistics, take a look at his rate of hitting greens in regulation. In each of Scheffler’s first two full seasons on TOUR, he ranked 43rd and 45th in greens in regulation. This season, he’s second-best on TOUR at 71.6%, a clip that trails only Rahm (72.3%). Scheffler has also made a similar statistical improvement on the greens. Last season, he was right around average with his putter, with 0.02 Strokes Gained: Putting per round. He’s jumped from 107th in that metric to 26th this season – and ranked a strong 14th in the statistic the week of his victory at Augusta National. One interesting thing one can glean from analyzing Scheffler’s putting this season is that it actually has distinct room for improvement, too: from 4-8 feet away, he’s making significantly less putts (65.2%) than the PGA TOUR average (69.0%). For the competition, that’s quite a frightening thought.

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