Watch: Second round from Travelers Championship

At Saturday’s LIV event at Centurion Golf Club in London, it felt less like a golf tournament away from the rope line and more like a festival.

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Dustin Johnson pulls away from the field (and his closest pursuer in the FedExCup) with a final-round 66 to capture his 19th PGA TOUR title at the RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Johnson, 34, won for the 10th time in his last 43 starts to maintain the pole position in the FedExCup, going 527 points ahead of second-place Justin Thomas. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Johnson was a ball-striking machine. When he is putting well enough, Johnson crushes the field with his tee-to-green game, and such was the case yet again at Glen Abbey. One week after missing the cut by three at The Open Championship at Carnoustie, Johnson buckled down on his short game and it paid dividends. “I just did not score very well at Carnoustie at all,â€� Johnson said. “I didn’t putt good. I just scored really badly. But I hit the ball — I felt like I hit the ball plenty good enough to be under par after two days, and I was 5-over or something. It was just bad scoring.â€� He had to clean up his putting, which meant working at it on the practice green. Job done. “Started rolling the putter a lot better here this week,â€� he said. “You know, really, really hit the ball well all four days.â€� You can say that again. Johnson averaged 318.5 yards off the tee, which tied for first in driving distance, and hit 57 of 72 greens in regulation, also tied for first for the week. And he feasted on the par 5s, making three eagles and going 12 under on those holes. 2. Canada adopted DJ as one of their own. The famous/infamous streak continues: No Canadian has won the RBC Canadian Open since Pat Fletcher in 1954. It was some consolation, then, that the winner had at least an ancillary connection to the Great White North. He felt, he said, “like an honorary Canadian.â€� The reason: Canadian hockey great Wayne Gretzky, father of Paulina, Johnson’s fiancé. “It definitely helps,â€� Johnson said. “I get a lot of fans that pull for Wayne, they pull for me.â€� 3. Bradley’s mini-revival continues. It hasn’t been easy for Keegan Bradley since the anchoring ban took effect Jan. 1, 2016, but his winless streak goes back even further. At the RBC Canadian Open he was making his 157th start since his last win, at the 2012 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. But things are looking up. In the process of shooting a final-round, 8-under 64, Bradley holed out for eagle from 151 yards at the par-4 ninth hole. He became the first player since Derek Lamely in 2011 to record five eagles in a single stroke-play event on TOUR, and moved from 52nd to 44th in the FedExCup. “It’s probably my most tidy short game/putting tournament since I switched away from the belly putter,â€� said Bradley, who along with Harold Varner III shot one of only two bogey-free rounds Sunday. “So really big step forward for me, and it’s so fun to be able to play with a chance to win. It’s just something that I love, and it was fun this week.â€� 4. Hughes gave Canada hope. For the second straight year, Mackenzie Hughes (68, T8) won the Rivermead Cup as low Canadian. He threw a charge into the home crowd with a big front nine (32), but as was the case all week he couldn’t capitalize on the par-5 holes on the back (36). “Talking to me right now, I would say I’m a little disappointed,â€� Hughes said. “Just because right at the end there, if I could have — those par-5s coming in, they were both playing downwind, and if you’re out here and playing with your buddies, you’d probably birdie them both. More tough when there is pressure. But, yeah, overall very satisfied with the week.â€� Hughes birdied only one par 5 in the final round, the 13th hole. He played the holes in only 1 under in Round 1 and even in Round 2 before finally taking advantage in the third round, going 4 under. For the week, he was only 6 under on the par 5s, making him six shots worse than Johnson on those holes alone. At 15 under total, Hughes finished eight behind the winner. It was his first top-10 finish on TOUR since the 2017 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. 5. An’s T2 finish had silver lining. Byeong Hun An, a playoff runner-up to Bryson DeChambeau at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide earlier this season, was admittedly not at his best as he shot a final-round 69 at Glen Abbey to finish T2 with Whee Kim (69), three back. But An moved from 61st to 40th in the Official World Golf Ranking, and he was headed for this week’s elite, 73-player World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio. He also kept his sense of humor. “I had a tough start, and I bogeyed the second hole, which is probably a birdie hole for most of the guys,â€� An said. “But I found it hard to shoot 3 under today, and Dustin played it great today. I think he’s pretty good at golf.â€� FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Johnson became the first since Tiger Woods (’05-’09) and the 21st in TOUR history to collect at least three wins in three straight seasons. He is now 7-for-15 at converting a 54-hole lead/co-lead into a victory. He has won by a combined 17 strokes in three wins this season: Sentry Tournament of Champions by eight, FedEx St. Jude Classic by six, RBC Canadian by three. 2. Johnson led the field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (+1.884), and was fourth in SG: Approach-the-Green (+1.452), accounting for a combined 81 percent of his total Strokes Gained against the field. He was 33rd in SG: Around-the-Green (+.220) and 29th in SG: Putting (+.557). 3. Just 15 years after his dad, Bob, won the 2003 RBC Canadian Open, Kevin Tway took a share of the 54-hole lead into Sunday. He was trying to make the Tway tandem just the 10th father-son duo in history to win on TOUR, but things went awry in the final round as Kevin shot 76. On the bright side, his T17 finish still moved him from 99th to 91st in the FedExCup. 4. The front is generally regarded as the tougher nine at Glen Abbey, what with three of the course’s par 5s on the back. But England’s Tommy Fleetwood (T6), in his first RBC Canadian start, took that to a new level, playing the front nine in 4 over par and the back nine in 20 under. 5. Brandt Snedeker (67, T8) won the RBC Canadian in 2013, so it figures he would excel at Glen Abbey. Still, this was only his third top-10 finish this season. As he said afterward, it came at a good time, as he moved from 90th to 77th in the FedExCup. That puts him in a good spot to make at least the first two FedExCup Playoffs events. He won the whole thing in 2012.

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BROOKLINE, Mass. – World top-five players Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas were all among those to break par in Thursday’s opening round of the U.S. Open. Adam Hadwin shot 4-under 66 in the afternoon to take the solo lead. Scattered across the first page of the leaderboard at The Country Club, though, are some lesser-known names who haven’t jockeyed for a PGA TOUR title in quite some time, if at all. It’s part of the U.S. Open’s mystique, as the world’s elite compete on the same playing field as dozens who earned their tee times via 36-hole Final Qualifying. The Country Club, after all, is where 20-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet beat British stalwarts Harry Vardon and Ted Ray at the 1913 U.S. Open. Here’s a look at four lesser-known names in the mix after Thursday’s opening round. MJ Daffue (3-under 67) The South African met two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen when he was in middle school, and the two remain close. Now after making a late decision to attempt U.S. Open qualifying due to crossing the fail-safe points threshold to secure his first PGA TOUR card via the Korn Ferry Tour, Daffue (sounds like Duffy) is on the leaderboard at The Country Club. He played collegiately at Lamar University, turned pro in 2012, and after a series of agonizing misses at Second Stage of Q-School, he earned guaranteed Korn Ferry Tour starts for the first time via Final Stage Q-School last fall. Money has been tight at times for the 33-year-old, who has admittedly battled depression amidst job uncertainty and loss – in 2013, his now-wife Kamie’s mom Jill tragically passed away after tripping on a street corner and being struck by a car. “My life is really good,” Daffue said after the opening round. “I have a great family, and everybody is healthy, and I think just being grateful for things has really given me a step back, and looking from the outside in … eventually, this is just a game. “We’re playing against the best in the world,” he added, “and this is just a privilege to be here.” Callum Tarren (3-under 67) The Englishman played collegiately at Radford University in Virginia and bounced around on various smaller tours before earning Korn Ferry Tour status via the No. 1 spot on the 2018 PGA TOUR China Order of Merit. He returned to Korn Ferry Tour Q-School in 2019, where after losing his swing during a 7-over 42 on the second nine of his opening round, he carded a final-round 65 to earn guaranteed starts on the number. After missing the cut at the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season-ending Pinnacle Bank Championship last August, Tarren flew home for the birth of his first child, daughter Sofia. He made it just in time, spent a couple days at home in England, and flew back to the U.S. for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, where he secured his PGA TOUR card. He secured his spot at The Country Club via Final Qualifying in Toronto, where he played in a twosome with Brandon Hagy. They completed the second round in 2 hours, 55 minutes, returning Tarren to a comfort zone of playing speedy rounds as a kid. His clubs arrived in Boston a day late, but based on his early returns at Brookline, he wasn’t fazed. “I’m kind of pinching myself,” said Tarren upon realizing he shared the U.S. Open lead through the morning wave Thursday. “Just excited with my start, and let’s see what the next few days hold.” David Lingmerth (3-under 67) The Swede and former University of Arkansas golfer wasted no time after earning his TOUR card via the 2012 Korn Ferry Tour. He recorded two runners-up as a TOUR rookie in 2013, and won the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday in 2015. For the former junior hockey standout, though, the golf game had fallen on hard times. Lingmerth hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish on TOUR since July 2017, and he has battled myriad injuries in his quest to recapture past form. He herniated two discs in his neck in 2017, and fractured his kneecap during a pickup hockey game in 2019. “There have been some tough days, not going to lie, and you start asking yourself those questions,” Lingmerth said. “But I’m pretty stubborn, and I’m not one to give up. Deal with the fact that I am where I am today, and I’ve just try to get better every day.” Lingmerth recently started working with coach Mark McCann – who also works with TOUR veteran Russell Knox – near his home base in northeast Florida. He’s optimistic, and early returns at Brookline suggest he’s on the right path. Hayden Buckley (2-under 68) The native of Tupelo, Mississippi, played at the University of Missouri on a 2 percent scholarship, essentially as a walk-on. Buckley’s junior golf results failed to attract buzz across the Division I landscape, but positive word-of-mouth reviews led Missouri coach Mark Leroux to offer him a spot on the team without seeing him hit a single shot. With a homemade swing, Buckley channeled an underdog mentality into a successful career as a Tiger, ultimately earning third team All-American honors as a senior in 2017-18. The same underdog mentality served Buckley well as he played the 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour season on conditional status. He arrived at the LECOM Suncoast Classic in February 2021 as an alternate, and warmed up on the range Thursday morning – in the dark – without a tee time. A last-minute withdrawal provided Buckley a spot in the field, and he proceeded to win the event in a playoff and earn his first PGA TOUR card. Buckley entered the U.S. Open with just one made cut in his last seven starts, and he stands No. 112 in the FedExCup. He earned his way here, though, and is taking advantage.

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