Cut prediction: Mayakoba Golf Classic

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – The 14th green at Pebble Beach is hard enough to hit with a wedge, let alone a 3-wood. Out-of-bounds stakes aren’t far from the putting surface, either. Gary Woodland wasn’t sure he should take the risk while holding the lead on the final holes of the U.S. Open. Woodland, the former college basketball player turned professional golfer, has physical gifts that few players possess, though. His caddie, Brennan Little, urged him to use them at this crucial moment. The uphill hole annually ranks as one of the hardest par-5s on the PGA TOUR. It’s the rare three-shotter where par is acceptable. Most players never have to consider reaching it in two. Woodland’s 3-wood carried the gaping bunker in front of the green and settled in the rough, just left of the flag. The birdie gave him a two-shot margin and the confidence to close out his first major championship. “It would have been pretty easy to lay up there. … (My caddie) is the one that told me play aggressive,â€� Woodland said. “Him telling me to do that gave me confidence, and it ended up in a perfect spot. That birdie there kind of separated me a little bit from Brooks and gave me a little cushion.â€� That shot was impressive, but it was a shorter stroke three holes later that illustrated Woodland’s progress from promising prospect to major champion. After his tee shot drifted to the wrong side of the hourglass green on Pebble Beach’s 17th hole, he nearly holed his chip shot from off the putting surface. That par save allowed him to play the picturesque finishing hole comfortably. But he added one more magnificent stroke to his triumph with a 30-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole of the championship. A final-round 69 gave Woodland a winning score of 13-under 271. He held off the TOUR’s most intimidating man in majors, Brooks Koepka, who pulled within one shot on the back nine, but could never overtake Woodland. Koepka fell three shots short of winning his third consecutive U.S. Open. He’s finished in the top 2 in five of the past six majors. Woodland didn’t dream of sinking big putts on the 18th green when he was growing up in Topeka, Kansas, though. He wanted to hit game-winning jumpers. However, he knew his basketball career was on borrowed time after the first game of his college career. He was a freshman guard for Washburn University when the Ichabods visited Lawrence Fieldhouse to face the Kansas Jayhawks. His assignment was to guard future NBA player Kirk Hinrich in the season-opening exhibition. “I was guarding Kirk Hinrich and like, OK, I need to find something else because this ain’t gonna work,â€� Woodland said. He transferred to Kansas the following year to play college golf. Woodland always thought he’d be a professional athlete. Golf was going to be his vocation now. His athleticism helped him get to the PGA TOUR in 2009, less than two years after he turned pro. Woodland’s physical prowess has received plenty of press ever since he arrived on TOUR. The college basketball player epitomized the bigger, stronger athletes who were migrating to the course. The expectations were raised even higher when he won just two years later. His ascension slowed because of an unpolished, one-dimensional game. His win at last year’s Waste Management Phoenix Open was just his third in nearly a decade on TOUR, and first in five years. “From a golf standpoint, I was probably a little behind, and that gets frustrating at some point, because my whole life I’ve been able to compete and win at everything I’ve done, and I haven’t been able to do that as much as I’d like to in golf,â€� said Woodland, 35. “It’s taken a while, but I think we’re trending in the right direction.â€� When he arrived at Pebble Beach, he was the highest-ranked player in the FedExCup without a victory. His first major title moved him to fifth in the standings. This is the first time in his career that he’s won in back-to-back seasons. He credited the work with Pete Cowen, who became his short-game instructor 18 months ago and then started coaching all facets of his game after Butch Harmon retired from instructing on TOUR earlier this year. Woodland was stellar around the greens at Pebble Beach, which is not an easy task on the steeply-pitched, poa annua putting surfaces. He didn’t three-putt all week. He made just four bogeys over 72 holes, tying a U.S. Open record. He was second in Strokes Gained: Putting this week, as well. His +8.3 strokes gained marked the second-best putting performance of his career. “He’s experimented, and he’s put the time and effort in to get better,â€� said his friend Matt Kuchar. “He’s really refined his skills. Not only does he have potential, but he gets a lot out of it now. He’s figured out how to play golf, how to keep it in play, how to work it both ways and his short game has vastly improved. It used to be a liability and now he’s gaining strokes around the greens.â€� Woodland is 54th in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green this season, an improvement of more than 100 spots in that statistic since last season. Earlier in the week, he and Cowen were working on hitting pitch shots off tight lies. That helped him execute that difficult pitch on the second-to-last hole. “I competed all my life at every sport and every level,â€� Woodland said. “It was just learning how to play golf. It was learning to complete my game, to get that short game, to get that putting, to drive the golf ball straighter. And that was the big deal.â€� The ability to perform under pressure is one of those intangibles that statistics can’t accurately measure, though. On Sunday, Woodland didn’t look like a man who’d never converted a 54-hole lead into victory. He’d taken at least of the share of the lead into the final round on seven occasions. He was winless in all seven. He started Sunday with a one-stroke lead over Justin Rose. Major champions like Koepka, Louis Oosthuizen and Rory McIlroy were still within reach. Woodland didn’t blink when Koepka made birdie on four of the first five holes Sunday. He made birdies on Nos. 2 and 3 to keep his lead. Playing with Tiger Woods in the final round of last year’s PGA Championship taught him about handling the final-round pressure. Woodland and Woods were both in contention, and Bellerive was overflowing with fans eager to see Woods win his first major in a decade. The chaos distracted Woodland early in the round. It was too late by the time he gathered himself. Woods and Koepka were already locked in a showdown. That experience helped him at Pebble Beach, especially as Koepka put pressue on him. “I think from a mental standpoint I was as good as I’ve ever been,â€� Woodland said Sunday. “I never let myself get ahead of myself. I never thought about what would happen if I won, what comes with it. I wanted to execute every shot. I wanted to stay in the moment. I wanted to stay within myself.â€� Woodland, who didn’t have a top-10 in his first 27 majors, now has three in his last four. That shows a more complete game, one that’s able to withstand the toughest tests. Pebble Beach, which played just a hair over 7,000 yards, forced him to rely on more than just his driving distance. The small greens demand precise iron play. He finished second in greens in regulation this week, hitting 52 of 72. “People probably growing up said the U.S. Open wouldn’t suit me, because I’m a long hitter, I’m a bomber,â€� Woodland said. “Coming to Pebble Beach, on top of that, it’s a shorter golf course. And I went out and proved, I think to everybody else, what I always believed, that I’m pretty good.â€�

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#AskESPNCaddie: On dropping a putter, purse sizes and more

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – After signing for a 5-under 66 in the final round of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, Justin Suh made a beeline for the 18th green at The Ohio State University GC (Scarlet). Suh’s longtime friend Joseph Bramlett was finishing up a final-round 68 for a T6 finish in central Ohio, plenty to secure a PGA TOUR return via the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. Suh is nine years younger than Bramlett, but the two met when Suh was a sixth grader in the San Jose metroplex and Bramlett was a college student at Stanford. Both grew up in the region and practiced regularly at San Jose Country Club. Suh, 25, had cemented his first TOUR card via the Regular Season Points List. After finishing outside the top 150 on the FedExCup, Bramlett needed to show out in the Finals to cement a TOUR return and join Suh for his rookie season. With back-to-back top-20s to begin the Finals, Bramlett did just that, marking the third consecutive year he will earn a TOUR card via The Finals 25. Suh was there to share the moment. He provided a heartfelt hug and shoulder massage and dialed up a friend for a congratulatory message as Bramlett exited the 18th green and headed to sign his card and make it official. “It will be nice to have a big brother as a practice partner,” reflected Suh upon learning that Bramlett was officially #TOURBound. “It will be a fun year. We played a bunch of practice rounds when he first came out of college; I’m just happy for him that he got his card back, and we’ll be traveling together and playing a lot of practice rounds.” These moments provide the heartbeat of the Korn Ferry Tour, friends being there for each other as they achieve their dreams. Suh knows how hard Bramlett has worked to ensure that he can continue to compete at golf’s highest level, after years of injury and uncertainty where Bramlett wasn’t sure if he could ever play competitive golf again, let alone on the PGA TOUR. After signing his scorecard Sunday in central Ohio, Bramlett grew reflective and emotional. He thought of what it means to compete on TOUR, as well as the challenges of constantly honing all aspects of the game. In recent years, Bramlett said he perhaps spent too much time on his long game, at the expense of chipping practice. He has re-emphasized the short game in recent months, implementing a series of intentional drills that foster a competitive streak. Throughout the week at the Scarlet Course, Bramlett’s short game was on point, particularly in a final-round 68 where he rebounded from a double bogey at No. 4 and didn’t record a score worse than par from then on. Now the 34-year-old is set for his fifth TOUR season, beginning at next month’s Fortinet Championship in California – not far from where he and Suh grew up, honed their games and commenced the pursuit of their professional golf dreams. “That’s Q-School on steroids,” Bramlett described the Finals. “It’s three weeks of Q-School. Last week was incredibly stressful, this week’s incredibly stressful and next week’s going to be the same. I’m very fortunate that I at least know where I’ll be heading next year. “That’s the part of this job, nothing’s guaranteed. That’s the beauty of sport and beauty of competition and what makes the PGA TOUR so great, is that you have to back it up each and every week. This year I didn’t do a great job of that. I competed, I gave it everything I have, but my results just didn’t get me far enough. “It’s humbling, especially going from fully exempt this year in my own category to not even having (conditional) 126-to-150 category next year and basically just having Korn Ferry Tour status. Very humbling, but that’s the beauty of what we do … Never felt more alive than I do when I’m coming down the stretch with a lot on the line. You know, it’s a beautiful place to be, it’s what we train for. It’s scary, it’s stressful, you never know what’s going to happen, but see it through.” Two players – Will Gordon and Philip Knowles – crossed the fail-safe threshold to earn a TOUR card via The Finals 25 at last week’s Finals-opening Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron. The Korn Ferry Tour utilized a fail-safe threshold of 220 points to declare #TOURBound status after Boise. Based on a large contingent of players from The 25 playing well in Columbus, the Korn Ferry Tour has moved the threshold to 210 points at the conclusion of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. In addition to Bramlett, players to secure a spot in The Finals 25 at The Ohio State University GC (Scarlet) included winner David Lingmerth, Michael Gligic, Austin Cook, Dean Burmester and Henrik Norlander. Here’s a capsule look at the six players who cemented spots in The Finals 25 this week in central Ohio. David Lingmerth Age: 35 Hometown: Tranas, Sweden College: University of Arkansas Nationwide Children’s result: Win The Finals 25 rank: No. 2 (1,000 points) PGA TOUR starts: 198 PGA TOUR cuts made: 113 Best PGA TOUR finish: Win, 2015 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday Lingmerth played the 2021-22 TOUR season in the Past Champion category, making just 14 TOUR starts in addition to four Korn Ferry Tour starts before the Finals. He finished No. 193 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List to earn a Finals berth, and he took advantage. The Sweden native had battled various doubts and injuries in recent years – he even dealt with lower back pain in recent weeks – and was without a TOUR-sanctioned top-10 finish since 2017. All he did was go wire-to-wire at the Scarlet Course for a 17-under total and two-stroke victory over Paul Haley. Lingmerth, 35, now knows that he can plan a full TOUR schedule this coming season, no longer needing to closely monitor alternate lists on a week-to-week basis. “It’s stuff that’s hard for fans, or even friends maybe that you’re kind of close with, to know some of the struggles we might be going through at times,” reflected Lingmerth after his second TOUR-sanctioned victory in central Ohio, adding to his 2015 title at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. “I was struggling pretty good for a while there a few years back. It’s been a long climb up the mountain to reach this point again. “I feel like if I’m in this spot and I have a chance, I try to dig in and hang on there, and I did a great job of that this week.” Michael Gligic Age: 32 Hometown: Burlington, Ontario, Canada Nationwide Children’s result: Fourth The Finals 25 rank: No. 4 (277.8 points) PGA TOUR starts: 75 PGA TOUR cuts made: 39 Best PGA TOUR finish: T4; 2021 Corales Puntacana Championship The proud Canadian earned his first TOUR card via the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season, highlighted by an emotional victory at The Panama Championship. Gligic, 32, finished No. 135 on this year’s FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List to necessitate a return to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals; he was assured conditional TOUR status next season at minimum, but he wanted more. Gligic took care of business with a solo fourth in Columbus, carding four rounds in the 60s to finish 12-under total at the Scarlet Course. The 14-year pro spent a good deal of time on PGA TOUR Canada before breaking through on the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour, and he’s now set for his fourth PGA TOUR season; he finished No. 145 on last year’s FedExCup but proceeded to improve his status via The Finals 25. A year later, the savvy veteran did it again. Joseph Bramlett Age: 34 Hometown: San Jose, California College: Stanford University Nationwide Children’s result: T6 The Finals 25 rank: No. 5 (267.458 points) PGA TOUR starts: 104 PGA TOUR cuts made: 53 Best PGA TOUR finish: T7; 2021 AT&T Byron Nelson For the third consecutive Finals iteration, Bramlett has earned a spot in The Finals 25, demonstrating a propensity for raising his level of play when he needs it most. The California native earned his first TOUR card via Q-School in fall 2010, but he finished a distant No. 199 on the FedExCup as a rookie and returned to the Korn Ferry Tour. Bramlett dealt with severe back injuries for the better part of five years, seeing countless surgeons in the process, but opted not for surgery in order to maintain the best chance of returning to the highest level of the game. His self-belief was validated at the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Finals, as he recorded three consecutive top-30 finishes to earn a TOUR return. He finished No. 146 on the 2021 FedExCup to require a return to the Finals; he didn’t miss a beat, winning the Korn Ferry Tour Championship at Victoria National to earn the No. 1 spot on The Finals 25 and fully exempt TOUR status for 2021-22. Bramlett finished No. 162 on the 2022 FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List to lose his TOUR status. He needed to place inside The Finals 25 to earn back his TOUR card. With back-to-back top-20 finishes – T18 in Boise and T6 in Columbus – Bramlett has done just that. He’s headed back to the TOUR. Austin Cook Age: 31 Hometown: Little Rock, Arkansas College: University of Arkansas Nationwide Children’s result: T34 The Finals 25 rank: No. 6 (233 points) PGA TOUR starts: 136 PGA TOUR cuts made: 76 Best PGA TOUR finish: Win; 2017 The RSM Classic The spunky Arkansas native gained a quick following in golf circles with five top-25s in seven TOUR starts as a non-member in 2015, and he proceeded onto the Korn Ferry Tour, eventually earning his TOUR card via the 2017 Korn Ferry Tour. He didn’t waste any time making an impact on TOUR, securing his first title at The RSM Classic that fall. After finishing 136th on the 2021 FedExCup, Cook successfully navigated the Korn Ferry Tour Finals to earn back strong status, but he again finished outside the top 125 this season (No. 149 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List) to require another trip to the Finals. He didn’t miss a beat, following up a T4 at last week’s Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron with a T34 in Columbus, rebounding from a Saturday 74 with a final-round, 2-under 69 to cross the fail-safe threshold for a spot in The Finals 25. Cook had been assured conditional TOUR status at minimum. Now he’ll have a better sense of his schedule moving forward. Dean Burmester Age: 33 Hometown: Bloemfontein, South Africa Nationwide Children’s result: T46 The Finals 25 rank: No. 7 (218 points) PGA TOUR starts: 12 PGA TOUR cuts made: 8 Best PGA TOUR finish: T10, 2022 Genesis Scottish Open With back-to-back top-11 finishes at the Genesis Scottish Open and The Open Championship, the accomplished DP World Tour pro accrued enough non-member FedExCup points to qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. The married father-of-two has long held aspirations of competing at the PGA TOUR level, and with strong play across the last two weeks, the 33-year-old has made that dream a reality. Burmester opened the Finals with a T4 last week in Boise, and he recalls walking off the 18th green on Sunday in upbeat spirits, almost like he had won the tournament, despite finishing one stroke shy of a playoff. He knew he was on the verge of a dream. With a made cut in Ohio, final-round 69 and T46 finish, he has cemented his spot in The Finals 25. Burmester comes from an athletic family; his dad played professional cricket and his mom was a highly accomplished amateur golfer. He began dabbling in golf as an elementary schooler but didn’t start to consider it a realistic career pursuit until age 17, when he won the first tournament he entered, breaking 70 to do so. He turned pro at age 20, earned Sunshine Tour status through Q-School and commenced a steady upward progression. Now he’s headed to the PGA TOUR. “Man, it’s a long road from where I came from,” reflected Burmester after the final round in Columbus. “A junior taking up the game fairly late; always played when I was younger, and my parents just dragged me to the golf course on holidays, playing 72 holes a day. Now I get goosebumps thinking about where I’m headed to, No. 1 tour in the world and best job in the world. I’m just excited.” Henrik Norlander Age: 35 Hometown: Stockholm, Sweden College: Augusta University Nationwide Children’s result: T6 The Finals 25 rank: No. 8 (210.102 points) PGA TOUR starts: 130 PGA TOUR cuts made: 75 Best PGA TOUR finish: T2; 2016 The RSM Classic, 2021 Farmers Insurance Open Norlander joins Lingmerth as Swedes to cement a spot in The Finals 25 this week in Ohio. The 35-year-old has spent five full seasons on TOUR, but after a No. 144 finish on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List, he was faced with a trip to the Finals to improve upon conditional status. He started the Finals strong with a T37 in Boise, and he maintained the momentum with a T6 at the Scarlet Course, closing with a 4-under 67 to cross the fail-safe threshold and secure a spot in The Finals 25. With two runner-up finishes on TOUR, Norlander has proved the ability to contend at the highest level. Now the two-time Korn Ferry Tour winner will have plenty of opportunities to chase his first TOUR title.

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