Win probabilities: THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES, Round 2

NAPA, Calif. – The Fortinet Championship marks the beginning of a new season and, for 26 rookies and other Korn Ferry Tour graduates, the start or restart of a PGA TOUR career. For Phil Mickelson, 51, it’s more like the culmination of a wild 2021 season, and he’s looking forward to taking three months off to process it all. Well, the PGA Championship victory, mostly. Other than that, his season was a reminder that he’s in the September of his years. Until now, which happens to be, ahem, September. Mickelson strung together five straight back-nine birdies to reach 10 under par and with a very real shot at the Fortinet trophy going into Sunday. He is just four behind surprising Jim Knous (65) and Stanford product Maverick McNealy (70), with just eight players ahead of him. “I’m in a position where a good round tomorrow will do some good,” Mickelson said after making 123 feet, 8 inches of putts with his new grip extension and arm-lock putting method. “And it’s fun to have a little later tee time and to feel some of the nerves and so forth. I know I’m going to have to shoot probably 7, 8, 9 under par to have a chance, but either way it’s fun having that chance.” That was before the wind picked up in the afternoon, and the leaders stalled. The distance he might have anticipated between himself and the leaders never really materialized. “I’ll have to be a little bit more precise,” he said after hitting just five of 14 fairways. Mickelson’s 2-wood broke Friday, but he travels with backups and simply popped on a new head. Whatever happens Sunday, he will stay busy. Although the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits will mark the first U.S. Ryder or Presidents Cup side he hasn’t made as a player since 1993, he will still be there as a vice-captain to Steve Stricker. He plans to fly from Napa to San Diego after the final round, spend a night in his own bed, then depart with wife Amy for Wisconsin. While Mickelson will be chasing his 46th TOUR win Sunday, the eight guys ahead of him on the leaderboard have seven victories combined. Scott Stallings (67) leads the way with three, while Max Homa (65) and Troy Merritt (69) have two apiece. All are at 12 under, two back. Co-leaders Knous and McNealy are each seeking their breakthrough TOUR win, and only one of them is a surprise atop the board. McNealy, 25, racked up 11 victories at Stanford, just 60 miles south of here, and has made the BMW Championship in each of his first two TOUR seasons. A win Sunday would be a very natural next step in his progression, and it would be hard to find a more fitting place to do it. McNealy grew up in the Bay Area, got sponsor exemptions into the Fortinet as an amateur, and had his parents, uncle and friends cheering him on Saturday. “It’s one of the places on TOUR where I don’t feel like as much of a rookie,” he said, “and it’s going back to the Bay Area roots. Something about the air here, I feel really comfortable, and the grass and the conditions and it’s a lot of fun having people rooting for you.” As for Jim “Hard K” Knous – his real nickname, by the way – well, no one saw him coming. He made just five cuts in 18 Korn Ferry Tour starts last season and got into the Fortinet field on a major medical extension due to a wrist injury. Knous, who finished 25th in the 2018 KFT Finals to earn his TOUR card, has this and one more start to fulfill the terms of his extension. A two-way tie for third or better Sunday would give him enough points to equal the 125th player in the 2018-19 FedExCup standings, while a solo 12th or better would give him conditional status on TOUR and full Korn Ferry Tour status, allowing him to skip the upcoming Q school. “Do your best,” he said his wife told him. “Let God do the rest.” So far, it seems to be working. Two days after world No. 1 Jon Rahm missed the cut, Hard K is playing to dramatically alter the trajectory of his career. “Yeah, nothing to lose really for me,” he said. “I can go out there and play free and hit the shots that I know I can hit, try to go win the tournament. I know it sounds like a lot, but I’m going to play like that because that’s when I play my best golf, when I make full committed swings.” With so much inexperience at the top; 18 players within four of the lead; and Mickelson, Webb Simpson (65), and newly minted Rookie of the Year Will Zalatoris (71) lurking, the stage is set.

Click here to read the full article…

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Europe’s latest Ryder Cup sensation is called “Moliwood,” and what a show Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood produced at the Ryder Cup on Saturday. And now for the final act. Molinari and Fleetwood became the first European tandem to win all four matches, leading their team to the brink of regaining the Ryder Cup from an American team that had to rally just to keep the score close. Tiger Woods hasn’t won any of his three matches. Phil Mickelson didn’t even play. Europe filled the board with blue in the morning, eventually winning three of the four matches in fourballs for its largest three-session lead in 14 years. It held on in foursomes, with Henrik Stenson delivering clutch putts in the only match that was close. At the end of two days, Europe had a 10-6 lead. The score should sound familiar. That’s the same deficit Europe faced in 2012 at Medinah when it produced the largest comeback on foreign soil. The Americans have never made up that much ground away from home, though they were the first to win after trailing 10-6, at Brookline in 1999 when they front-loaded the Sunday lineup with their biggest stars. And that was on the mind of European captain Thomas Bjorn, even as he was drowned out by thousands of fans using what was left of their voices to sing, “Ole, ole, ole, ole,” the European anthem for these matches that Americans have heard far too often. “I’ve seen too many times what the singles game does,” Bjorn said. “We used a lot of energy these days. We go ahead tomorrow and focus on what’s ahead and not what’s done.” Even so, he couldn’t contain a smile. Europe brought five rookies to Le Golf National who sure didn’t seem like them — Alex Noren and Fleetwood were the last two French Open champions on the Albatross Course — and certainly didn’t play like them. “We’re really, really, really happy with how it’s gone these past two days,” Bjorn said. If not for Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, the Americans might really be in trouble. They pulled ahead in a tight fourballs match to beat Ian Poulter and Jon Rahm for the lone American point in the morning that prevented Europe from a second straight sweep of a team session. They rallied from an early deficit against Poulter and Rory McIlroy in foursomes, with both delivering key shots and big putts. With four birdies over their last five holes, they won 4 and 3. “They had a six-point lead, and now it’s four,” Spieth said. “So we are carrying that as a little bit of momentum, I guess. Early wins tomorrow go a long way.” Mickelson will have to shake off some rust. He hasn’t played since Friday in a foursomes loss that lasted only 14 holes. U.S. captain Jim Furyk said he would shake up the order for Saturday afternoon foursomes, and that meant keeping Lefty on the bench. It was the second time in as many Ryder Cups in Europe that Mickelson, who holds the Ryder Cup record with 12 appearances, did not play on Saturday. Woods played twice, and at times it looked as though he were playing by himself. Patrick Reed went from “Captain America” to looking more like “Private Patrick,” taking himself out of holes in the fourballs session with too many shots into the gnarly rough, in the water and one out-of-bounds. That wasn’t enough to contend against “Moliwood.” The fourballs match was all square until Molinari ran off three straight birdies. The foursomes match was never close, as Fleetwood delivered big putts to win holes, each time turning to the crowd in a crouch, dropping both arms and pumping them wildly. They were 5 up at the turn over Woods and DeChambeau, and a brief rally only delayed the inevitable. Most peculiar about the matches in this Ryder Cup is that only two of the 16 matches have reached the 18th hole, and each match has been won outright. Woods has failed to win seven consecutive matches, dating to his singles victory against Molinari in Wales in 2010. Woods, coming off an inspiring victory at the Tour Championship for his first title since his litany of back surgeries, has looked flat in the Paris suburbs. He hasn’t had much help, but he also missed key putts around the turn that allowed Europe to build a big lead. “Everything feels pretty good,” Woods said. “Just pretty (ticked) off, the fact that I lost three matches and didn’t feel like I played poorly. That’s the frustrating thing about match play. We ran against two guys that were both playing well.” The rest of the Europe wasn’t too shabby.

Click here to read the full article…

The pluck of the Irish. Seamus Power emerged with a one-stroke victory at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship at 19-under 265, this despite navigating the last six holes in 2-over and without a par. He banks $1.17 million and 500 FedExCup points. RELATED: Full FedExCup standings The Irishman opened the final round at Port Royal Golf Club in Southampton with a share of the lead with 26-year-old rookie Ben Griffin, who was making just his eighth career PGA TOUR start. After birdies at 10 and 11, Griffin then scored 6-over on the next five holes before concluding with a pair of pars and settling for a three-way T3 and two strokes back of the champion. This is Power’s second career PGA TOUR title (2021 Barbasol Championship). Upon arrival in Bermuda, he was tied for third-shortest odds to win at BetMGM (+2200) with Mark Hubbard, who missed the cut. The more heavily favored Denny McCarthy (+1600) and Thomas Detry (+2000) finished a respective T6 and second in the tournament. Detry’s consolations include $708,500.00 and 300 FedExCup points. For their splits of third place, Griffin, Patrick Rodgers (+2800 to win) and Kevin Yu (+9000) each earned $344,500.00 and 145 FedExCup points.

Click here to read the full article…