Americans rally late to only trail by 3 in Presidents Cup

Justin Thomas jumped out to the early lead on Thursday with a 9-under-par 63, while five players, including Marc Leishman and Patrick Reed, sit just three shots back. Don’t miss any of the action from Round 2 at THE CJ CUP.  Second round tee times Second round leaderboard HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN Telecast: Golf Channel (10 p.m. – 2 a.m. ET) NOTABLE PAIRINGS Keegan Bradley, Sung Kang, Anirban Lahiri 8:10 p.m. ET off 1st tee Xander Schauffele, Marc Leishman, Daniel Berger 8:20 p.m. ET off 10th tee Jhonattan Vegas, Patrick Reed, K.J. Choi 8:30 p.m. ET off 10th tee Pat Perez, Justin Thomas, Sangmoon Bae 9:30 p.m. ET off 1st tee Si Woo Kim, Adam Scott, Jason Day 9:40 p.m. ET off 1st tee Scott Brown, Whee Kim, Ryan Ruffels 10:00 p.m. ET off 1st tee

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Three trips around Pete Dye's dastardly Stadium Course at PGA West, and not a single bogey. Si Woo Kim remains unflappable to the end and birdies two of his last three holes for a one-shot victory over Patrick Cantlay at The American Express. It's the third PGA TOUR win for the 25-year-old Korean, and the first since he won THE PLAYERS Championship in 2017. It also moves him up 60 spots to ninth in the FedExCup. Here are five stories you may have missed from The American Express. 1. Kim gets first W since THE PLAYERS Si Woo Kim looked like he might never lose again in winning THE PLAYERS Championship in 2017, but had gone 1,352 days without a victory. He had struggled with back pain, shooting an opening-round 87 in the first round of The American Express last year, and course strategy. "So when I missed the win, when I had the chance to have a win, I didn’t play very well," Kim said after tying his career best with eight final-round birdies. "I had a lot of ups and downs; I tried to play aggressive and then that actually made me lose." He tossed and turned Saturday night despite taking melatonin. He thought about what his coach had said, that he would have plenty of chances to win, to be patient, to believe in himself. "So that’s what I tried to do," he said after going 16 for 16 from inside 10 feet on the greens in the final round. "And then I tried not to be emotional and that helps me to the win." Kim hit 116 of 144 greens in regulation at The American Express and the Sony Open in Hawaii (T25), the most of any of the 97 players who competed in both tournaments. 2. Cantlay dazzles with wild weekend Just a single point separates FedExCup No. 2 Patrick Cantlay from front-runner Dustin Johnson after Cantlay shot 61 to break the course record and finish second at PGA West (Stadium). "I played about as good as I can possibly play," Cantlay said after beating the course record by two. His final round featured a 38-footer for birdie on 18, and recalled the 10-under 60 he shot as an amateur at the 2011 Travelers Championship. He called the two rounds "very comparable." Cantlay was trying to become the first player since Brandt Snedeker at the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open to win on TOUR after making the cut on the number, and there wasn't much more he could have done. His 18-under total on the weekend tied Rocco Mediate (2003) for best score in relation to par over the final two rounds of a 72-hole event on TOUR. One misstep: He bogeyed the par-5 eighth hole on the way to shooting 65 on Saturday. 3. Finau settles for another top-10 Although he shot 68 to finish fourth, Tony Finau wasn't looking at The American Express as his 35th top-10 finish since his lone PGA TOUR victory at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open. Instead, the 54-hole co-leader was looking at the AmEx more positively in light of his lackluster T31 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions two weeks ago. (He had gotten into the field as part of the exception made for players who qualified for last season's TOUR Championship.) "A couple of those guys just went really low today," Finau said from PGA West, where he birdied the first two holes but could only manage to go 2 under the rest of the way. "I had some opportunities, I think, to shoot a number. But, man, I’m kind of leaving today pretty encouraged. "I played nicely," he continued. "I’ve been working on some things in my golf swing, changed up the putter this week, some positives for me and I like where the game’s at. It’s real early in the calendar year. I didn’t play very good in Maui, so this is actually pretty encouraging for me." 4. Davis enjoys career-best result Cameron Davis made eight birdies for a bogey-free, 8-under 64, and his solo third-place finish was his best result on TOUR. What's more, the 2017 Australian Open winner wasn't all that far removed from his previous best, a T6 at the Sanderson Farms Championship last fall. "Yeah, I’ve been trending in a good direction for a while now," said Davis, 25. Everything just clicked, he added, contrary to other final rounds where he's been in the mix. "I had a bad ball-striking day and a good putting day and a couple of good ball-striking days and didn’t make any putts," he said. "I think for me to get over the line it’s just having four solid days in a row where I keep up every part of my game. I’m getting closer to it, it’s obviously great to keep seeing personal bests ... because that keeps you excited and keeps you working hard." 5. Ancer finishes strong Davis wasn't the only promising talent to make a run at his first victory. Mexico's Abraham Ancer, the runner-up finisher in The American Express last season, birdied his last three holes for a final-round 66 and a T5 finish. At 15 under par, he was eight back, and won't have to look far to find where he could have improved. His scoring line: 69-65-73-66. The 2019 Presidents Cup standout, who is not in the field for this week's Farmers Insurance Open, bogeyed the third hole but heated up with an eagle at the eighth before his back-nine heroics. Mexico's Carlos Ortiz - 10th in the latest FedExCup standings - remains the last first-time winner on TOUR after winning the Vivint Houston Open in early November. TOUR Top 10

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jordan Spieth has displayed a new skill set in 2017, and it’s one that we still have to get accustomed to. His ballstriking has been the key to his success, while his trusty putter has failed to live up to his standards. That was the case again Thursday as Spieth began his pursuit of the career Grand Slam at Quail Hollow. This is a course that requires players to drive the ball well, and Spieth leaned heavily on the longest club in his bag. It was the shortest one that frustrated him, though. “It was just the putter,â€� Spieth said after a first-round 72 that left him five shots behind leader Thorbjorn Olesen. Spieth had 32 putts Thursday, and didn’t make a putt longer than 5 feet. “If you told me I was going to hit my driver the way that I did today, I would have definitely thought I shot a few under par,â€� Spieth said. “I can’t putt any worse than I did today.” This was only the fifth time this season that Spieth had 32 or more putts. It was his fifth-worst performance in Strokes Gained: Putting (-2.15 strokes) this season, as well. If Spieth is to become the youngest player ever to complete the career Grand Slam – and this is his lone opportunity to break Tiger Woods’ record – then Spieth will have to win in a way that is unprecedented for him. Spieth has never finished in the top 10 in a major after shooting over par in the first round. His best finish was a T11 at this year’s Masters, where he shot a first-round 75 after making a quadruple-bogey at the 15th hole. He battled to within two shots of the lead after 54 holes, but shot another 75 in the last round. Spieth’s caddie, Michael Greller, used that tournament as inspiration when Spieth arrived at the seventh tee Thursday at 3 over par. “He goes, ‘Grind these last few. You had a chance to win Augusta and we were in a worse position at this point,’â€� Spieth said. “And he was spot on.â€� They knew birdie opportunities awaited, at Quail Hollow’s par-5 seventh and the short, par-4 eighth hole. There was still the possibility to turn in an even-par scorecard. “If I were to finish par, par, par, I would have thrown myself out of the tournament,â€� Spieth said. Instead, he made two birdies and a solid par at the final hole. His rally started with a 296-yard drive into the fairway at the seventh hole. His playing partners, Brooks Koepka and Sergio Garcia, had to lay-up after missing the fairway, but Spieth was able to hit a hybrid that just trickled through the green and set-up a two-putt birdie. A 290-yard drive into the fairway on the next hole set up a 57-yard approach that he knocked stiff. Spieth hit 10 of 14 fairways while averaging 298.8 yards on all tee shots. He gained 2.03 strokes off the tee Thursday, his second-best performance in that stat this season. He also hit 12 of 18 greens. “If I would have shot 1 over and didn’t strike it well and everything was average, it would have been fine. But when I had the chances that I had and I just couldn’t get the ball to go in on the greens, that is when I get the most frustrated I can get out there,â€� Spieth said. He is in the midst of the best ballstriking season of his career, leading the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green. Earlier this year, he said that his playoff victory at the Travelers Championship was the first time that he won on the PGA TOUR without putting well. His Open Championship win, the one that set the stage for the career Grand Slam, will be remembered for the long putts he holed down the stretch, but he also wasn’t content with his putting performance at Royal Birkdale. He ranks 47th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season, his worst ranking in that statistic in his career. Spieth, who teed off on No. 10 on Thursday, missed a downhill, 8-foot birdie putt at the par-3 13th. He drove the green at the next hole, but his 120-foot eagle putt rolled off the back of the green, leading to par. Spieth also three-putted the sixth and seven holes from just off the green. He missed 10-foot par putts on both holes. “He didn’t make as many putts as he usually does. I feel like that 15- to 20-foot range, usually see him make a bunch of putts. He just didn’t make any,â€� said Koepka, who shot 68. “He had a couple putts that he just ran 10, 15 feet by. But he struck it really well.â€� Spieth knows he has ground to make up. He has started with 68 or better in all three of his major wins. He held the 36-hole and 54-hole leads in all three victories, as well. “I know I’m still in it, but I know that tomorrow’s round becomes that much more important. … I’ve got to make up ground,” Spieth said. “If I’m five back at the start of the day, I’ve got to be less than five back after Friday to really feel like I can play the way this golf course needs to be played and still be able to win.”

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