Tom Hoge keeps rolling and takes early lead in Sanderson Farms Championship

ATLANTA — Patrick Cantlay finished with a 25-foot birdie putt that gave him a two-shot lead over Jon Rahm in the TOUR Championship on Saturday and set the stage for a sprint to the FedExCup title. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Brooks Koepka WDs from TOUR Championship It might not be a two-man race at East Lake, anymore. Cantlay’s final birdie allowed him to finish strong after a wobbly four-hole stretch that had winnowed his four-shot lead down to one. He wound up with a 3-under 67 and was at 20-under par, leaving him one round away from the FedExCup. Rahm finished with five straight pars for a 68 and was still very much alive. He went from a four-shot deficit after the 10th hole to a one-shot deficit just five holes later. It’s not easy to go low at East Lake, but it’s easy to lose ground. Cantlay did that with a pair of mistakes over the final hour. “Hopefully tomorrow, I can bring my A-game and give this guy in front of me a little bit of a run,” Rahm said. Not to be overlooked was Justin Thomas, though he was agitated with his finish. Thomas, who began the TOUR Championship six shots behind because of his position in the FedExCup coming into the finale, was poised for the low round of the week to to get a little closer. But he pulled his tee shot on the par-5 18th, went rough-to-rough to 35 feet, and then three-putted for bogey by missing a 5-foot putt. He was five behind. No one else was closer than seven shots of Cantlay, who began the week at 10-under par after his BMW Championship victory made him the No. 1 seed. Cantlay had reason to think Sunday might have involved a little less stress. He and Rahm had matching birdies from the greenside bunker on the par-5 sixth, and then the cool-headed Californian began to pull away. Cantlay made a 12-foot birdie on No. 7. Rahm found a bunker off the tee at No. 8 and made bogey. Cantlay holed a 30-foot birdie across the green at the par-3 ninth, and then drilled his approach to 10 feet for another birdie on No. 10. Just like that, he was four shots clear and not making any mistakes that would suggest he was going anywhere but forward. But he missed the 11th green for bogey, and then it became a real struggle down the stretch. Cantlay found trouble left of the fairway on No. 14 and had to scramble for bogey. He badly missed the 16th green with a wedge in his hand on No. 16 and again scrambled for bogey. In between, he missed birdie chances of 10 feet and 8 feet, the length he had been making all day amid calls of “Patty Ice.” And then on the 18th, Cantlay faced a tough bunker shot over another greenside bunker to a tight pin. He played smartly, as he’s done all week, and left himself 25 feet for a birdie putt that put a happy finish on his round. Thomas was the only one of the dreamers to have real thoughts of winning, along with perhaps Kevin Na (66), who was seven shots behind. Rory McIlroy took himself out of the picture with a 74. Jordan Spieth, who thrives at East Lake, wasted a good start with too many bogeys and then nothing but pars over the final eight holes for a 70. Harris English didn’t make birdie until the 17th hole and shot 75. It looks like match play between Cantlay and Rahm, depending on how Thomas starts and whether he can stay close enough. So much more is at stake than the $15 million prize for winning. Still to be determined after the season ends Sunday is PGA TOUR player of the year. Rahm would seem to be a leading contender with his U.S. Open title and top finishes in the majors, along with Open champion Collin Morikawa. A win for Cantlay would be his fourth of the season — no one else has more than two — and it would include the FedExCup.

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2019 Desert Classic, End of Round 2: Round 2 course scoring averages: LaQuinta CC (LQ): -3.58 strokes per round Nicklaus Tournament Course (NT): -3.44 Stadium Course (SC): -1.73 Current cutline: 71 players at -6 or better (T59th position) Top 3 most likely projected cutlines (3 round cut): 9 under par: 28.8% 10 under par: 22.5% 8 under par: 21.9% Top 5 win probabilities: (Saturday’s course for each player is listed) Phil Mickelson (1, -16, SC) : 19.3% Patrick Cantlay (T8, -11, LQ) : 15.1% Adam Hadwin (T3, -13, NT) : 13.8% Jon Rahm (T5, -12, SC) : 13.2% Steve Marino (T3, -13, NT) : 4.2% NOTE: These reports are based off the live predictive model run by @DataGolf. The model provides live “Make Cut�, “Top 20�, “Top 5�, and “Win� probabilities every 5 minutes from the opening tee shot to the final putt of every PGA TOUR event. Briefly, the model takes account of the current form of each golfer as well as the difficulty of their remaining holes, and probabilities are calculated from 10K simulations. To follow live finish probabilities throughout the remainder of the Desert Classic, or to see how each golfer’s probabilities have evolved from the start of the event to the current time, click here for the model’s home page.

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The opening round at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES provided a stern test to the world’s best. Just 18 of 78 players broke par Thursday, with Chez Reavie leading the way at 4-under 68. The second round begins Friday morning at The Club at Nine Bridges in Jeju Island, South Korea, with United States-based fans able to watch in prime time Thursday evening. Reavie will aim to build his lead, as he chases his second PGA TOUR title, while notables such as South Korea’s Si Woo Kim (3-under) and reigning PGA TOUR Player of the Year Brooks Koepka (1-under) look to establish themselves for the weekend. Here’s how to follow all the action from Jeju Island. Leaderboard Round 2 tee times HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN (ALL TIMES ET) TELEVISION: Wednesday-Saturday, 10 p.m. – 2 a.m. ET (Golf Channel). NOTABLE GROUPINGS 7:05 p.m. ET off No. 10: Marc Leishman, Si Woo Kim, Ernie Els 7:15 p.m. ET off No. 10: Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Scott 8:15 p.m. ET off No. 1: Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Sungjae Im 8:25 p.m. ET off No. 1: Michael Kim, Ian Poulter, Gary Woodland MUST-READS Chez Reavie takes opening-round lead Win probabilities after Round 1 Six things about Nine Bridges

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