What Chris Kirk did off the golf course means way more to him than what he is doing on it

SAN ANTONIO – Andrew Landry’s mother wore a golf shirt Sunday that displayed the 2016 U.S. Open logo. It was an interesting choice, given that her son became the Cinderella story at Oakmont until reality hit in the form of a final-round 78. But Patricia Landry said there was no hidden meaning to her wardrobe selection. No attempt to exorcise demons from that final day or reanimate good vibes from those first three rounds when Andrew played his way into the last twosome of his only major start. “I kept the baby last night,â€� she explained, referring to Andrew’s son Brooks, whom wife Elizabeth gave birth to a month ago. “I got up, took a shower, just put on my clothes, whatever I had. Nothing particular.â€� On Sunday, Andrew Landry again found himself in the final group. This time was different. This time, he delivered the winning performance, shooting a 4-under 68 to win the Valero Texas Open by two strokes over Sean O’Hair and Trey Mullinax. It’s the first PGA TOUR win in 32 starts for Landry, the Texas native who starred in college at Arkansas. On the surface, that doesn’t seem like a lot of starts for a first-time winner, but the road to get to this point has been paved with plenty of heartbreaking moments. There was the 2009 NCAA Championship, when Landry rallied from 4 down with five holes to play before losing his match when Texas A&M’s Bronson Burgoon nearly holed his approach on the 18th hole. There was Oakmont, when Landry – then ranked No. 624 in the world — grabbed the lead with an opening 66, and then told dad Dwain that he was going to win the tournament. For two more rounds, Landry kept his promise … until midnight struck in the final round and he did a free-fall down the leaderboard into a tie for 15th. Then there was the CareerBuilder Challenge earlier this season, when Landry birdied the 18th to force a playoff with Jon Rahm, only to lose when Rahm birdied the fourth extra hole. Lots of golfers develop scar tissue. For Landry, those were the learning moments that paid off Sunday at TPC San Antonio. “I think that all those kinds of things really help every player whenever you get in a situation and you fail and you continue to fail,â€� Landry said. “You’re learning every single time. “Oakmont definitely did help me. It helped me on how to control my pace and the way my swing is and how important I walk, how that can lead into my golf swing.â€� Landry’s brother Adam has been there every step of the way, and he was among the large contingent of family members who greeted and hugged Andrew on the 18th green. No one, however, was shedding more tears of joy than Adam. “It’s been a long time coming,â€� Adam said. “I’ve watched all the trials and tribulations what he’s gone through, the highs and the lows. There was no Plan B for him. There was only this.â€� Referring to his brother’s previous heartbreaks, Adam noted, “Stuff like that will cripple people. It’ll make you want to quit, failing back and forth – but he continuously figured out a way to find his way to the top.â€� Perhaps hardships are easier to deal with when you’ve learned the game on a hardscrabble environment. The nine-hole Pea Patch course in Landry’s hometown of Port Neches-Groves, Texas, was hardly a country club-type of set-up. But it proved useful in developing the kind of skills that can thrive on Texas courses. “I learned the bump and run – obviously didn’t show on No. 11,â€� laughed Landry, referring to his lone bogey when his chip from the rough finished in the fringe. Landry isn’t the only PGA TOUR pro with a Pea Patch heritage. Chris Stroud also grew up on the course. “It’s funny that we have two TOUR players that played from a nine-hole goat ranch, seriously,â€� Andrew said. “It’s pretty amazing that both of us got out … We had good players to play with. It was crazy – you could be on the PGA TOUR and a guy in Crocs could beat you. I’m not lying.â€� “It’s where you learn your chipping and your putting,â€� added Dwain said while waiting for his son to emerge from the scoring trailer. Dwain was trying to keep calm, just as he did all afternoon, even though he was “pretty nervous.â€� But you could tell the fatherly pride was wanting to burst out. “We’ve always had faith in him,â€� Dwain said. “We knew his day was going to come. We always told him, just patience. When it’s your turn, it’s going to be your turn. He was calm and focused all day.â€� He was certainly focused when he started his final round with three birdies to separate from playing partners Mullinax and Zach Johnson. And he was certainly calm on the back nine. After he bogeyed the 11th, he missed two birdie putts inside 5 feet on the 12th and 14th holes that could have given him breathing room. Holding a one-stroke lead over Mullinax for most of the back nine, he never panicked. It was Mullinax, also seeking his first TOUR win, who finally flinched with a bogey at 17. As Andrew walked up the 18th fairway, his brother began to cry. Mom and dad were hugging. Elizabeth was holding the baby – and trying to hold it all together. Their home is just an hour away in Austin. Getting his first win in Texas seems appropriate. And deserved. “I tell him all the time – his relentless pursuit of his dream is truly inspiring,â€� Adam Landry said. “This is just the fruits of all that labor. “I’m very proud of him. Proud to call him my brother – but more important, proud for what he stands for and who he is. He’s a good man.â€� And now he’s a TOUR winner. Expect Patricia Landry to wear a Valero Texas Open shirt sometime in the future.

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ATLANTA — For the second day in a row, no one had a better score than Jon Rahm at the TOUR Championship. That’s just what he needed to make up ground on Patrick Cantlay going into a weekend chase for the FedExCup. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Jordan Spieth reveals that couple is expecting first child Rahm birdied his last three holes Friday for a 5-under 65. Cantlay birdied his last two holes for a bogey-free 66 to keep one shot ahead. It’s not quite a two-man race for the FedExCup with 36 holes still to play at East Lake, though it was shaping up as a possibility. Bryson DeChambeau was the next closest player, and his 67 lost ground Friday. He was six shots behind. “We definitely feed off each other,” Rahm said. “And that’s probably why you see the difference in the scoreboard right now.” Cantlay looked as though he was protecting a lead, often playing to the fat of the green. That was more a product of showing respect to an East Lake course that punishes even slight misses on the wrong side of the hole. He hit 16 of 18 greens, and only twice did he have par putts from about the 5-foot range. “I’m playing really well, and I think I’m playing the golf course the right way,” Cantlay said. Cantlay started the TOUR Championship at 10-under par because he was the No. 1 seed in the FedExCup. Rahm began four shots back. Asked if the idea was to chip away at the lead, Rahm replied, “What other strategy is there?” “As soon as we teed off, that didn’t matter,” he said of the four-shot deficit. “There’s a lot of golf to be played, even now.” The reason for Cantlay’s pre-tournament advantage was because of last week at Caves Valley. Cantlay and Rahm played in the final threesome, along with DeChambeau, going into the weekend at the BMW Championship. Cantlay finished 66-66 and won in a playoff. Rahm closed with 70-70 and tied for ninth, dropping to the No. 4 seed. That now seems long ago. The TOUR Championship, to a degree, feels normal now. Cantlay was at 17 under. He and Rahm will be in the final group again. DeChambeau had more work to do, as did Justin Thomas, who made two bogeys and failed to birdie the par-5 18th in his round of 67. He was seven behind. “A place like this, there’s not really a lead that’s safe with how tough it it can play,” Thomas said. “But at the end of the day, I can’t worry about what the other guys are doing. I just have to go out and try to make some birdies and stop making mistakes.” Harris English made his share of mistakes with five bogeys in his round of 69, leaving him in the large group at 9 under. So did Jordan Spieth. He was going for his fourth straight birdie to get right in the mix, facing a 10-foot putt on the 13th hole. He three-putted, lost momentum and shot a 67. Spieth, Rory McIlroy (66) and Louis Oosthuizen (67) were at 8 under. Gone are the low scores from the opening FedExCup Playoff events, at rain-soaked Liberty Natitonal and Caves Valley, where players at each course had a putt at 59. The best anyone has managed at East Lake, still slightly soft from rain and a light breeze, had been a 65. So it’s tougher for players to make up a lot of ground unless the leaders come back, and there has been little indication Cantlay and Rahm are going to do that. Cantlay had plenty of looks at birdie, and didn’t hear many calls of “Patty Ice” because not many of those putts were going in. He got up-and-down from a bunker on the par-5 sixth. His wedge into the 13th spun back to an inch of the cup. Rahm holed a 35-foot putt from off the green at the 13th, gave it back with a bad drive to the right on the next hole, and then closed the gap to one shot with a 10-foot birdie on the 16th. The final two holes felt like a duel, even for a lazy Friday afternoon. Rahm poured in a 25-foot birdie putt on the 17th, and Cantlay matched his birdie from 15 feet, the first time he had made a putt longer than 5 feet all day. On the closing hole, Rahm blasted out of the front bunker to tap-in range. Cantlay chipped down the slope and with the grain — one of the few times he was out of position — and watched it trail off 8 feet from the hole. He made that to regain the lead. “When you have somebody like him who played a round with very few mistakes — you could argue that it could have been a lot lower — it only motivates me to keep doing a little bit better,” Rahm said. “Even though I want to focus on myself, you know he’s not going to let up and he keeps putting it in the fairway and on the green and in the fairway and on the green. “It can raise your playing level a little bit,” he said, “as well as me raising his level when I’m making birdies.”

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The FedExCup standings will have not changed for three months once the PGA TOUR season resumes at the Charles Schwab Challenge in the second week of June. Sungjae Im is still leading, followed closely by 2017 FedExCup champ Justin Thomas, with reigning champ Rory McIlroy in third. Meanwhile, Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia are among the big names needing to make significant moves just to make the top 125 that start the Playoffs at THE NORTHERN TRUST. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting cancellations and postponements of tournaments leaves just 11 eligible tournaments over a 10-week stretch for players to qualify for the Playoffs and a chance at the $15 million bonus that comes with the season-long FedExCup crown. While the top 125 will not double as the cutoff for TOUR cards next season in this reduced schedule, it will remain the mark to get into THE NORTHERN TRUST, the first of three Playoffs events in the chase for the FedExCup. Gone is the luxury of extended rest between starts for those sitting way back on the list, such as Koepka, who was just starting to find his feet again on a return from injury when the pandemic halted play in March. The two-time PGA TOUR Player of the Year will now need to make the most of his starts when play resumes. Currently he sits a distant 213th with just 21 points from his five starts this season. It’s no wonder he’s already announced he’ll play Colonial; he’s made just one previous start at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Among those not too far ahead of Koepka and still sitting on the outside of the current 125 are some big European names, including: Past FedExCup champions Rose (203rd) and Henrik Stenson (192nd); the last two Open champions in Shane Lowry (140th) and Francesco Molinari (169th), along with Ryder Cup hopefuls Garcia (179th) and Ian Poulter (140th). Meanwhile, Jim Furyk (168th) and Bill Haas (200th) join Stenson and Rose as past FedExCup champs currently on the outside looking in. The past has shown that every shot counts, with mere fractions separating players from making the Playoffs and indeed moving on inside them. Just look at the list as we get set to restart. Currently, 125th place is held by Ted Potter Jr. with 159 points. Fabián Gómez is next up with 158.653. Less than four-tenths of a point would currently represent the difference of keeping your season alive versus being done early. Although stars such as Dustin Johnson (111th), Jordan Spieth (110th), Rickie Fowler (94th), Jason Day (91st) and Phil Mickelson (89th) will begin the restart of the season inside the top 125, they certainly cannot expect to stay there without some decent results. Besides, the top 125 is just the first step. Only the top 70 after THE NORTHERN TRUST make it to the BMW Championship and only the top 30 after that make the TOUR Championship for a shot at the FedExCup. And while just making the TOUR Championship gives players a chance at the $15 million, 30th place starts at East Lake 10 shots behind the leader. The closer you are to the top of the points list the closer you are to the prize. The good news is, with 500 points for a win at most of the remaining tournaments (600 for the PGA Championship, 550 for the World Golf Championships-Fed Ex St. Jude Invitational and 300 for the Barracuda Championship), Koepka and others can make huge strides with just one big week. Which brings us to those players at the other end of the spectrum. Those who have already positioned themselves to have a decent crack at the title and now hope to maintain the momentum despite the prolonged break. Im, last season’s PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year, is the leader — a remarkable nod to both his ironman will to play and his breakout win at The Honda Classic. It is his ability to play week in and week out that might just ensure he is a huge chance to become the first player in history to back up a Rookie of the Year win with a FedExCup crown. Im has 14 starts to his name already this season and has a playoff loss and two thirds to go with his win. The South Korean star had missed only one week – the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am – since playing the Sony Open in Hawaii in early January prior to the shutdown. Other players may need to adjust to a crammed schedule while Im can carry on what has thus far worked to his benefit. Meanwhile, Thomas and McIlroy hope to chase him down. Thomas has two wins already this season to be just 55 points behind Im’s total. McIlroy has six top-10s from his six starts, including a win and showed in the recent TaylorMade Driving Relief skins game that his form is not far from where he left off. Barring injury, this dynamic pair will no doubt be in the field at East Lake. McIlroy will be looking to be the first back-to-back champion and the first three-time champion. Thomas will be looking to avenge a year ago when he started the TOUR Championship in top spot with the -10 handicap but failed to close the deal. The other two players currently in the top five took two very different paths to get there. Brendon Todd was the star of the fall in the 2019 portion of the season, winning twice. With 14 starts, he has a total of three top 10s but none have come since 2020 rolled around. Webb Simpson on the other hand has played just five times to get himself into fifth on the standings. His form line reads T7 – P2 – 3 – P1 – T61. His win came over Tony Finau at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February after he had let the RSM Classic slip back in November. Consistency has been common of late for Simpson. His last 12 starts of the 2018-19 season all finished inside the top 30 before he continued it into the 2019-20 campaign. Will Simpson continue to play a sparse schedule given his lofty spot? Perhaps … but then again perhaps not, given the opening two courses of the restart in Colonial Country Club (two previous top fives) and Hilton Head (six top-16s including a runner up) have been proven venues for the former PLAYERS Champion. There is no doubt winning already this season does give a little more flexibility in taking weeks off during the crammed race to the finish but with such a tightly packed points list, it is not something to take for granted. Australian Adam Scott has already touted his preference to delay his restart, something his win at The Genesis Invitational allows given it has helped him to 20th place. He can likely return to the U.S. from his Australian base on his own terms but if he stays away too long, he will slide quickly. The same can be said for Tiger Woods, who saw first-hand how a limited schedule can bite your FedExCup hopes. Last season after winning the Masters, Woods was unable to get his back and knee fully fit and battled the rest of the way. It resulted in his falling out of contention at the BMW Championship. This time around his PGA TOUR record tying 82nd win at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP has helped him to 28th spot on the FedExCup from just three starts. And the time off to rest seems to have helped if his impressive ball-striking at The Match: Champions For Charity is anything to go by. How often Woods plays will be one of many fascinating subplots over the 10 week pre-Playoffs stretch. One thing is for sure — whoever does win the FedExCup will have well and truly earned it.

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