Live leaderboard: Byron Nelson Classic

ST. LOUIS – With his FedExCup Playoff spot on the line Adam Scott produced a vintage performance at Bellerive on Friday. Sitting in 119th spot on the FedExCup standings, Scott entered the PGA Championship with his FedExCup Playoff future in doubt. The Australian is one of only 13 players who have qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs every year since its inception in 2007 but a rough 14 months put the streak under threat. So a tidy 5-under 65 was very welcome indeed, ensuring he will start the weekend just five shots back of leader Gary Woodland. As a 13-time PGA TOUR winner and former Masters champion it has surprised many to see the 38-year-old’s spot in jeopardy. Including Scott himself. But the reality is he has just one top-10 finish in 14 months, a tie for ninth this season at the AT&T Byron Nelson. “The difference between the level I think I’ve played at and the top level is very fine and really after a little while it’s just that little bit of confidence that you lack,� Scott said. “And it is very very hard for anyone to give you that other than yourself. “That self-belief has to come out and I feel like the last six to eight weeks has been a real positive for me. My results look a lot worse than what it has felt. I have played some good golf but inconsistently.� Scott said his warmup before an opening round 70 was the best he’s had all season. Having recently re-hired his brother in law Brad Malone as a swing coach after a two-year hiatus the benefits are beginning to show. “It felt like the young Adam Scott swinging the golf club. With a bit of ease, a bit of grace, bit of flow and rhythm,� Scott said. “That was enough to make me play a little more freely. There were good signs that carried over to today, and hopefully tomorrow it gets better and better.� At 5-under through 36 holes Scott projects up towards 100th place on the points list. It would be enough to secure his spot and give him the option of not playing the season ending Wyndham Championship should he wish to rest up for THE NORTHERN TRUST. But he’s got his sights set on another number. One. He believes he can win at Bellerive. He believes he can secure a FedExCup Playoff berth. And he believes he can get to the TOUR Championship for the eighth time in the FedExCup era and ultimately win the FedExCup. “If I can get myself to New York then I can get myself to East Lake,� he says. Scott won the TOUR Championship in 2006, the year before the FedExCup Playoff system was implemented. Another former Masters champion in Sergio Garcia has not been so fortunate in terms of his FedExCup Playoff push. Garcia is projecting towards a missed cut and having started the event at 131st in the standings he will indeed head to the Wyndham Championship next week. Like Scott, he has qualified every year since 2007. He has made it to Atlanta six times and was runner up at East Lake in 2008. Garcia also needs a 15th event to meet his PGA TOUR minimum start requirement, a mark he will hit next week. Bill Haas (147th) and Luke Donald (212th) also need a late surge if they are going to keep their 100 percent playoff record alive. Justin Rose (3rd), Bubba Watson (4th), Phil Mickelson (9th), Charles Howell III (44th), Zach Johnson (51st), Ryan Moore (57th), Matt Kuchar (58th), Brandt Snedeker (77th) and Charley Hoffman (92nd) will all make it 12 straight FedExCup Playoff runs.

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What better way to impress the Presidents Cup captain than by beating him? That’s what Gary Woodland will try to do at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. Woodland is Tiger Woods’ closest pursuer at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. Woods leads by two after shooting 64-64. Woodland (64-66) is two back. RELATED: Tiger holds two-shot lead | Home favorite Matsuyama contending | Monday finish determined for ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP They’ll play the next 36 holes together at this weather-delayed event. Players will not be re-paired for the final round at this weather-delayed event. The third round will be completed Sunday morning, and players will compete until darkness before finishing the tournament Monday morning. Woodland made just one bogey in the second round, on his third hole of the day. He closed his front nine with three consecutive birdies before making a lone birdie on his back nine. “It was a grind all day,â€� Woodland said. “I didn’t have my best stuff today. … I had some opportunities to post a pretty good number, but all in all, I’m happy to not have my best stuff and shoot 4 under.â€� Keegan Bradley, who shot a tournament-low 63 in the second round, will join them in the final group. Woodland, the reigning U.S. Open champion, narrowly missed making the U.S. Presidents Cup team. Success in Asia is nothing new to him. He’s coming off a third-place finish at last week’s THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES. He was runner-up in that event last year, and was a two-time runner-up in the CIMB Classic in Malaysia. “I played great on the weekend last week in Korea and played great the first round, so it gives me a lot of confidence to not play great today and still hang in there,â€� Woodland said. “That’s a huge deal because 36 holes more to go and hopefully I come out with my A‑game and play well.â€�

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ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Rory McIlroy beamed as he grabbed the hand of Tiger Woods and excitedly pointed up to a window high in the Rusacks Hotel that flanks the 18th fairway at St. Andrews. The pair then waved animatedly in the direction of 22-month-old Poppy McIlroy, daughter of the 21-time PGA TOUR winner and four-time major champion as they finished up play in The Open Championship’s Celebration of Champions on Monday. Just moments earlier they had posed for photos together on the Swilken Bridge, with 18-time major champion Jack Nicklaus no less, but this moment was arguably just as incredible. It was raw. It was pure. And in an age where renumeration can dominate headlines, it showed what this is really all about. Being part of, or bearing witness to, history. This is indeed a very special week – one that will ultimately crown the champion golfer of the year – but one that is so much bigger than any leaderboard. For this is the 150th Open Championship. At the home of golf. It is a celebration of the game born in the Scottish sheep paddocks around this area that has now blossomed into a game that will see hundreds of thousands of fans swarm through the gates this week. It is a game that is still inherently open to all and enjoyed by multiple generations. And while Poppy likely won’t ever remember the special time where Woods, an 82-time TOUR winner with 15 majors – two of which came at St. Andrews – made her the center of attention despite being in the middle of a spiritual setting on golfs grandest stage… Rory will. “If you had of told 10-year-old me that I would play in something like this I’d have hardly believed it. Playing with my idol, ahead of such a special week, it’s just really really cool,” McIlroy said. Woods and McIlroy were part of the last four-person team that included two-time Open champion Lee Trevino and 2018 Women’s Open champion Georgia Hall to take on the first, second, 17th and 18th holes at the Old Course in a better ball format competition that, as the name suggests, celebrates the former champions of The Open. Fans were treated to a cavalcade of legends including gems of the past like Tom Watson and Gary Player to current stars Jordan Spieth and Collin Morikawa among many more. Nicklaus is also here to become just the third American, behind Benjamin Franklin and Bobby Jones, to be given honorary citizenship of the town having won The Open here in 1970 and 1978. This was pinch yourself stuff. Tell your grandkids stuff. One golf analyst was going to leave early to buy a desk fan for his non-air-conditioned accommodation before the light bulb went off… when will you see something like this ever again? The fans cheered for them all. But they saved the loudest roars for Woods who will tee it up Thursday in likely his last real chance of making it three wins at the iconic venue. Despite the numerous complications he faces with his body following a car accident last year, Woods showed glimpses of the smarts that helped him dominate in 2000 and plot his way to another win in 2005 as he birdied two of the four holes. If there was a way to count it, it’s possible a world record number of phone photos would’ve been taken in the four-hole stretch. A chef at The Old Course Hotel on the 17th fairway snuck away from his burners and grabbed his pictures through the glass while down below him, sitting out on a grass lawn, was former Masters champion Adam Scott and his father Phil, also realizing the significance of the occasion enough to come out and soak it all up. “For a lot of guys who haven’t been here like myself, to come here, look out the hotel, walk down 17, 18 on Sunday when you have the public just walking, that’s the coolest experience as a fan, as a golfer, anyone could ask for because it’s a game for everyone,” defending champion Morikawa said. “The stretch of just teeing off on No. 1, just seeing 17, just seeing 18, you feel the history, and you feel the importance of everything that has come before us at this golf course and golf in general. It’s really cool to be here.” For the record, the team of Sir Nick Faldo, Louis Oosthuizen, Zach Johnson and John Daly – all winners at St. Andrews – posted the low score Monday to claim bragging rights over the fellow former champs. They won be three shots and perhaps foreshadowed what might be a birdie fest later in the week. Some are fearful the modern golfer might have usurped The Old Course … Nicklaus isn’t one of them. “They might shoot low. So what? That’s sort of the way I look at it. They’re shooting low now compared to what they shot 100 years ago. But times change and golfers get better, equipment gets better, conditions get better,” Nicklaus said. “I don’t think it really makes a whole lot of difference, frankly. It’s St. Andrews and it is what it is, and it will produce a good champion. It always has. That’s the way I look at it. Bobby Jones always said a golfer’s resume isn’t complete unless he’s won at St. Andrews.” And so we await which golfer will complete his resume – but ultimately – just being part of this iconic week – is enough.

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