Horses for Courses: ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP

During the practice round on Tuesday at the Travelers Championship, PGA TOUR players were given a chance to hit at The Umbrella at 15½, a floating green in the pond between the 15th, 16th, and 17th holes in the shape of Travelers’ iconic red umbrella logo. Sticking his shot just seven inches from the pin, this year’s winner was TOUR pro Michael Kim. The hole is 85 yards long and the target is a 40-foot umbrella. Travelers donates $10,000 to the charities of the winner’s choosing. Kim earned a $5,000 donation to both the Zach Johnson Foundation and Windy Hill Foundation.

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With a well-known fill-in caddie on his bag, Justin Thomas storms from behind with a final-round 65 to become the first three-time PGA TOUR winner of the season at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational at TPC Southwind. In the process, Thomas becomes the third youngest player to win 13 times on TOUR since 1960, behind only Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, and regains the No. 1 spot in the world. He also puts some distance between himself and FedExCup No. 2 Webb Simpson with the Playoffs just two weeks away. Meanwhile Richy Werenski, king of the close calls after finishing 126th in the FedExCup last season (by two points!), authors a similarly fantastic finish as he racks up 11 points in the last seven holes to surge past Troy Merritt and win the Barracuda Championship at Tahoe Mountain Club. Welcome to the Monday Finish. THREE KEYS TO SUCCESS 1. Thomas kept it together despite some crazy misses. The FedExCup No. 1 hit some slightly wild shots coming in, most notably at the 15th hole, where his tee shot missed so far left it avoided the water hazard and gave him a chance to get up and down for birdie. Thomas missed his tee shot right at the par-5 16th hole, but laid up and then stuffed a wedge to within three feet for another birdie. He didn’t three-putt or make a double bogey all week, and played tidy golf despite being disappointed by his wedge game. “I didn’t really hit anything too close,” he said. “I just managed my game really well.” 2. He had a short memory. It had been just three weeks since Thomas lost a three-stroke lead and ultimately succumbed to Collin Morikawa in a playoff at the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village. Thomas forgot about it, other than reminding himself not to think too far ahead as he had at the Workday. His -1.881 Strokes Gained: Putting total at TPC Southwind marked the sixth worst performance on the greens by a TOUR winner since 2004, and the worst SG: Putting total by a winner since Steven Bowditch (-2.434) at the 2014 Valero Texas Open. Yet Thomas shrugged off missed opportunities on the greens and went to the next hole. That he was second in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green (+7.670) didn’t hurt, either. 3. Werenski kept believing. It’s a nice story that Werenski, the son of a PGA professional in Massachusetts, played his way into the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park this week. Especially because not long ago his TOUR career seemed to be on shaky ground (see below). But through all the close calls, Werenski kept believing that he belonged on TOUR. His team wouldn’t let him forget it, either. “Yeah, a bunch of people have told me that,” Werenski said after making birdie on 18 to win. “My whole team – my swing coach and mental coach and fitness coach and all that, my caddie, everybody. Especially the caddies, the last couple I’ve had, I had Pepsi for a while, Steve Hale, and he always told me, he said, you’ve just got to believe in yourself a little bit. He knew I had a lot of talent and I was good enough to win out here.” OBSERVATIONS Werenski breaks through Richy Werenski has been living on the edge, so the 11 points he banked in the last seven holes (three birdies and an eagle) to capture the Barracuda Championship should perhaps have come as no surprise. Last season he finished 126th in the FedExCup – by just two points. He went back to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, where things weren’t looking promising until he finished T7 on the last day of the season to snatch the 24th of 25 available TOUR cards. “I waited until the last tournament to play well,” Werenski said. Now, after waiting until the last seven holes to put his foot down at Tahoe Mountain Club, he’ll be in the field for this week’s PGA Championship, next month’s U.S. Open, plus the Sentry Tournament of Champions and THE PLAYERS Championship in 2021. What’s more, at 34th in the FedExCup, the native of South Hadley, Massachusetts is a lock to advance to week one of the Playoffs, THE NORTHERN TRUST at TPC Boston. “I’ve kind of always been in that 100 to 125 area,” said Werenski, 28, who never advanced to TPC Boston when it was the second leg of the Playoffs. “So it’s cool to be I think like 34th or something. Haven’t been there before, but I feel like my game is just getting better and better, so we’ll see what we can do with it.” More big times for ‘Bones’ Jim (Bones) Mackay is the hardest-working semi-retired caddie in the business. Last month the on-course commentator for NBC Golf Channel filled in and carried the bag for Matthew Fitzpatrick at the Workday Charity Open and Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide – the partnership bore fruit when Fitzpatrick finished solo third at the Memorial. Now Mackay is in the middle of a two-week stretch with Thomas while Jimmy Johnson, Thomas’ usual caddie, takes some time off the TOUR to address dizzy spells. Week one of the J.T./Bones partnership was a smashing success, which was surprising and not. Mackay had caddied for Thomas before, and has been assigned to follow Thomas many times in his TV role. What made it more intriguing was that Thomas played the final round alongside Phil Mickelson, with whom Mackay spent almost his entire career as a caddie until three years ago. “I honestly was 50/50 on thinking if it would work out this short-notice,” said Thomas, who only called Mackay on Tuesday afternoon of Memphis week. They’ll go for their second straight win at this week’s PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park. QUOTEBOARD “I just managed my game well.” – Justin Thomas on winning without his best stuff “That’s why it’s fun to play.” – Richy Werenski on the volatile modified Stableford format “I feel like my game’s right there.” – Brooks Koepka, aiming for a third straight PGA win WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is a season-long competition that offers a $10 million bonus for the 10 golfers who end the regular season at the Wyndham Championship inside the top 10 in FedExCup points. The player atop the standings will earn $2 million, with varying payoffs for the others through $500,000 for the 10th place finisher. Justin Thomas solidified his position at No. 1 and now has a 713-point lead over No. 2 Webb Simpson. Daniel Berger, a two-time winner at TPC Southwind, tied for second to reenter the Top 10 at No. 8. Only two weeks remain until the start of the FedExCup Playoffs. Here’s how the standings look heading into this week’s PGA Championship. SOCIAL SNAPSHOT

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