Quick look at the Waste Management Phoenix Open

Reshuffles occur at the conclusion of these tournaments • The RSM Classic (Nov. 19) • Genesis Open (Feb. 18) • Shell Houston Open (April 1) • Wells Fargo Championship (May 6) • FedEx St. Jude Classic (June 10) • John Deere Classic (July 15) Gain/Loss reflects movement if next reshuffle occurred this week. * – In the field at the CIMB Classic as of Oct. 8.

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Seventy-eight players will take on Sherwood Country Club in the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD. The tournament is making a one-year move to the U.S. due to logistical issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP became the first PGA TOUR event held in Japan. Tiger Woods won his record-tying 82nd PGA TOUR title at last year's ZOZO and will be back to defend against a field full of TOUR stars who are scheduled to compete, including FedExCup champion Dustin Johnson. FIELD NOTES: Woods is teeing it up for the first time since missing the cut at the U.S. Open. He won his Hero World Challenge five times at Sherwood... Hideki Matsuyama leads a robust contingent of golfers from Japan, many of whom are having excellent seasons on the Japan Tour. Matsuyama finished runner-up at the ZOZO a year ago... Sponsor exemptions include past FedExCup champions Justin Rose and Jordan Spieth along with Tommy Fleetwood, Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson, and Satoshi Kodaira... Other notables that round out the field (from the top 60 available on the prior season's FedExCup standings) include past FedExCup winners Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy... Young Southern California sensations Collin Morikawa and Matthew Wolff, who played junior golf against each other, are making their ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP debuts. Wolff went to high school just seven miles from the course. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: Sherwood Country Club, par 72, 7,006 yards (par and yardage subject to change). Sherwood, a Jack Nicklaus design, was the venue for Woods' Hero World Challenge from 2000-2013. It has also hosted the Shark Shootout (a team event hosted by Greg Norman) for a decade starting in 1989 and hosted the PGA TOUR Champions' PowerShares QQQ Championship. Nicklaus completed Sherwood in the late 1980's and then returned in 2016 to help with agronomic improvements. Built on a river valley with high surrounding hills, the course is a golfing oasis. STORYLINES: Woods is searching for his record-breaking 83rd TOUR victory and he'll do it at a place he's comfortable... Johnson, the reigning FedExCup champion, has the course record at Sherwood, a 61. Wayne Gretzky, his soon-to-be father-in-law, is a member of the club and resident... In the TOUR's history, five Japanese players have won 11 times - led by Matsuyama with five... Takumi Kanaya will play his first PGA TOUR event as a professional. The winner of the Mark H. McCormack medal as the year's top-ranked amateur turned pro a few weeks ago. He made the cut in the 2019 Masters after winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur. 72-HOLE RECORD: 261, Tiger Woods (2019) 18-HOLE RECORD: 63, Keegan Bradley (Second round, 2019), Rory McIlroy (third round, 2019) LAST TIME: Woods tied Sam Snead's record for most PGA TOUR victories with 82 after topping the field at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, the first TOUR event held in Japan. It was Woods' first start of the 2019-20 season, and his first since he had knee surgery that August. Woods bogeyed his first three holes on Thursday but birdied nine of his next 15 to shoot 64 and share the first-round lead with Gary Woodland. Play was called Sunday evening due to darkness, which resulted in Woods having to complete seven holes Monday morning. He topped Japan's own Hideki Matsuyama by three shots. The country's favorite son birdied three of his final eight holes to put the pressure on Woods but ended runner-up to history. McIlroy and Sungjae Im finished T3, six shots back, while 18-hole co-leader Woodland finished fifth. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Sunday, 5 p.m.-8 p.m. ET (Golf Channel) PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Sunday, 12:45 p.m.-8 p.m. ET (Featured Groups) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 2 p.m.-8 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 3 p.m.-8 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).

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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – It was closer than many expected, this 101st PGA Championship at Bethpage Black, which at times resembled a very slow-moving trophy ceremony. Still, after weathering four straight back-nine bogeys and a charge by Dustin Johnson (69, 6 under total) that briefly cut the lead to one, Brooks Koepka stabilized and shot a final-round 74 to win by two. He’d done enough over the first three days, which he spent “absolutely destroying this placeâ€� (Xander Schauffele) and playing “ridiculous golfâ€� (Rob Labritz). And now he’s won four majors in 23 months. “Brooks is young; he might get to double figures,â€� three-time major winner Padraig Harrington said after missing the cut earlier this week. “It’s a numbers game. He’s young enough that he could do it. Why wouldn’t you talk about getting to 18? He’s cracking them out at a fair pace.â€� Koepka, 29, put the lie to his own prediction that the winning score would be around even or a bit better. But he may prove himself right in suggesting before the tournament that he could perhaps get to double digits in major wins. If he keeps this up, he could get there quickly. The question is whether he will. “Players drift in and out,â€� said Harrington, a six-time PGA TOUR winner who won his three majors, the 2007 Open Championship and ’08 Open Championship and PGA Championship, in just 13 months. “Pretty much if you watch everybody’s career, they get about 18 months where they truly peak. Whether they’re 100th in the world and they become 50th, or 50th and it becomes 20th, or 20th and it becomes 10, or 10 becomes 1, I don’t know.â€� Until his four back-nine bogeys Sunday, you could count Koepka’s missteps on one hand. He bogeyed the relatively easy first hole to start the final round while playing partner Harold Varner III birdied it to cut the margin to five, but even then there wasn’t much cause for concern. Related: Winner’s Bag | Bjerregaard aces No. 17 at Bethpage | Get to know Jazz Janewattananond Johnson shot a 3-under front nine to cut the margin to four, but Koepka hit his approach to 2 ½ feet and birdied the 10th, and it was back to five again. Then came a wild sequence, in swirling winds, as Johnson held steady and Koepka bogeyed holes 11-14. The lead was one. “DJ, DJ, DJ!â€� the rowdy Bethpage crowd chanted, awakened by the promise of a tight finish. Alas, Johnson missed from just under 9 feet and bogeyed 16, then bogeyed 17, too, to give Koepka the cushion he needed to play the last four holes in 1 over and become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2007 to successfully defend his PGA Championship title. Woods, whom Koepka beat head-to-head by 17 shots over the first two days, was also the last player to win four majors in a span of eight major starts – as Koepka has now done – in 2005 and ’06. But Woods, an 81-time PGA TOUR winner, including 15 majors, has been such an outlier, as Adam Scott reminded at Bethpage, “I think comparing anything to Tiger is a little unfair.â€� Nor is it helpful to compare Koepka to Jack Nicklaus, who won 18 majors of a span of 24 years, from the 1962 U.S. Open through the instant-classic ’86 Masters Tournament. Another outlier. Lee Trevino won four majors from the 1968 U.S. Open through the ’72 Open Championship, roughly four years. He won the ’74 and ’84 PGAs, too, for six majors over 16 years. More common, especially amongst today’s crop of talented, young players, is the trajectory of Johnny Miller, who won 16 times, including three majors, from the 1973 U.S. Open to the ’76 Open Championship. That was mostly it for him; Miller ended his career with two majors. Rory McIlroy (69, 1 over total) won 11 times worldwide, including four majors, from 2011 through 2014. Since then, however, he’s gone largely dormant at the biggest tournaments, the glaring exception being his victory at the recent PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass. “It’s awesome,â€� McIlroy said of Koepka’s current run. “It’s great to watch.â€� Most pros would sooner watch paint dry than another pro play golf on TV, but McIlroy admitted he was done so early he watched a lot of Koepka on TV this weekend. Because when a guy seems to be playing a different golf course than everyone else, it begs the question of how. Graeme McDowell (70, 5 over) did the same thing. “I just wanted to see just how these guys were dismantling this golf course,â€� McDowell said. “When he played 15 the way he played it (Saturday), that kind of summed the course up to me because when I missed 15 fairway, I’m physically incapable of getting to that green in two, and obviously it was a brute-force wedge or 9-iron he hit to 15 feet.â€� Bethpage, he added, favored those who could muscle the ball out of the rough. “That’s why I lift all those weights,â€� Koepka said with a shrug. With winning off the table, McIlroy talked about playing for pride, Phil Mickelson (76, 12 over) about working on his game. Matt Wallace (72, 2 under, T3) spoke of being on a quest for world ranking points. FedExCup leader Matt Kuchar (69, 1 over total) remained in pole position. Koepka’s seven-shot lead through 54 holes was the largest in PGA history. So was his seven-shot lead through 36 holes. He broke the course record with a 63 on Thursday.  Said Tony Finau, Koepka’s partner at the 2018 Ryder Cup in France, “This is not a golf course where in the practice rounds I would have told you anybody’s breaking any kind of record.â€� McDowell called the winner perhaps “the next real dominant player.â€� We have been here before, most recently with Jordan Spieth (71, 2 under, T3) when he won five times, including two majors and the FedExCup, in 2015. He got his third major at The Open Championship in the summer of ’17. But as with Miller, McIlroy and most others not named Nicklaus, Woods or Trevino, the pace proved unsustainable. That doesn’t mean Spieth won’t be back, and he showed some positive signs in posting a season-best T3 at Bethpage Black. McIlroy could have a second act. Same for Jason Day, who won seven times, including the 2015 PGA and 2016 PLAYERS Championship, in 17 starts. “I don’t think he faces too much challenge, to be honest, with the way he’s playing,â€� Day (72, 4 over total) said of Koepka, “but everything ultimately comes to an end.â€� Only three players have reached double digits in majors: Nicklaus (18), Woods (15) and Walter Hagen (11). Koepka, with four, is mowing them down quickly, on very hard courses. He knows he doesn’t have to be perfect, and when he’s not, he can bounce back. Mostly, he knows that if he plays his game, nothing else matters. He said he couldn’t remember any shots hit by Woods or Francesco Molinari after the first two rounds. He’s in his comfort zone. “Tiger used to say, ‘My B game is good enough to win,â€� Harrington said. “If you think your B game is good enough to win, your A game will turn up. If you think you need your A game, your B game will turn up. That’s just the way golf is.â€� Next up: the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Koepka will be the two-time defending champion there, just as he will be the two-time defending champion at the PGA at Harding Park next year. Whether it’s New York or California, one suspects that Brooks Koepka, king of the majors, won’t be all that worried about which game will turn up, or much of anything else. 

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