Barkley, Phil to face Steph, Peyton in golf match

MEDINAH, Ill. – It’s all about Justin Thomas now. After coming into the BMW Championship winless this season, 2017 FedExCup champion Thomas scorched Medinah No. 3 with an 11-under-par 61, a new course record, and will go into Sunday’s final round with a six-shot lead over Tony Finau (68) and Patrick Cantlay (68). “I’m just trying to get my lead to seven right now,â€� said Thomas, who won a combined eight times in 2017-18 but has been noticeably absent from the winner’s circle after missing time this season with a wrist injury. “It’s at six. That’s the one thing I’m focused on.â€� This will mark the 10th time Thomas has held or shared the 54-hole lead on the PGA TOUR; he has converted six of nine such leads into victories. Thomas, Finau and Cantlay will play in the last group at 1:20 p.m. ET. Players will go off in threesomes with storms in the forecast. Related: Leaderboard | Projected FedExCup standings | FedExCup update: Spieth, Tiger, Day in danger of missing TOUR Championship For Finau, it will be the second straight day of watching Thomas up-close. “This golf course, when I played here on Tuesday for the first time, I was almost convinced a single digit (score) was going to win,â€� Finau said. “… If you would have told me somebody would shoot 61 this week, I would have told you that’s a joke.â€� He was hardly the only player shaking his head. Thomas birdied six of the first eight holes and eagled the par-5 10th hole. He wasn’t perfect; he bogeyed the sixth. Also, he pulled his wedge shot left of the green at the par-5 14th hole, one of his few bad shots, but chipped in for birdie. Another bad shot: Thomas drove into the water on 15, but after he took a drop he simply got up and down for par from 63 yards. It was that kind of day, and it was about to get even crazier. “I’m five back right now,â€� said Jon Rahm (66), who was marveling at Thomas’ chip-in birdie on 14 as the leader finished up the back nine. “Hopefully JT doesn’t get too far away.â€� Well, so much for that idea. Because in short order, Thomas holed his 180-yard second shot with an 8-iron to eagle the 16th hole, and hit his tee shot to six and a half feet for another birdie on 17. “He was already playing well,â€� said Finau, who authored his own holed out from 119 yards for eagle at the fourth hole. “And that shot on 16 put him over the top from well to really well.â€� With a score of 65 or better, Thomas (65-69-61) would break Marc Leishman’s 72-hole BMW Championship record (261). A victory at the BMW, the penultimate event of the season, brings 2,000 FedExCup points, and Thomas is projected to move from 15th to first in the standings. That’s especially important this year, as it would put him in pole position by two strokes in the new staggered-start format of next week’s TOUR Championship at East Lake. The runaway leader, though, refused to think that far ahead. “I could care less, to be honest,â€� said Thomas, who needed just 22 putts Saturday. “I’m just worried about trying to win this tournament tomorrow.â€� The week began with Thomas calling this an “oddâ€� season so far because of his wrist injury, a bone bruise suffered while hitting a tree at The Honda Classic (T30). He finished T12 at the Masters Tournament, but seemed to re-aggravate the wrist, and opted to take a break. He missed three tournaments, including the PGA Championship – a tournament he had won just two years before – and upon returning to action at the Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide, he missed the cut. He also missed the cut at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach but began to climb back at The Open Championship (T11), World Golf Championships – FedEx St. Jude Invitational (T12) and THE NORTHERN TRUST (T12). He huddled with his team, which consists largely of his father/coach, Mike, and caddie, Jimmy Johnson. What was he doing wrong? They all agreed the answer was not much. He was due. After struggling in his warm-up for the first round at the BMW, Thomas shot 65 and proclaimed that he was playing every bit as well as he did in his 2017 FedExCup-winning and Player of the Year season. After his fourth round of 61 or better on TOUR, no one is arguing the point. “I felt good about my game for a while,â€� Thomas said, “and you don’t know when something like this is going to happen, a round like this. We’ve all been talking the last couple of weeks that I’m due to have one and it’s nice when it happens. At the end of the day, this round was great and awesome, but it’s over with and I need to go focus on tomorrow.â€�

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2020 World Golf Championships-FedEx St Jude Invitational, Round 2 Top 10 win probabilities: Brendon Todd (1, -11, 29.6%) Rickie Fowler (2, -9, 19.7%) Brooks Koepka (T3, -7, 8.9%) Matthew Fitzpatrick (T6, -6, 5.9%) Webb Simpson (T8, -5, 5.2%) Chez Reavie (T3, -7, 4.7%) Byeong Hun An (T3, -7, 4.6%) Justin Thomas (T12, -4, 4.6%) Sungjae Im (T8, -5, 2.3%) Jason Day (T8, -5, 2.2%) Top Strokes-Gained Performers from Round 2: Putting: Webb Simpson +4.0 Around the Green: Chez Reavie +2.9 Approach the Green: Sung Kang +4.1 Off-the-tee: Byeong Hun An +1.6 Total: Kevin Na +6.0 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 20K simulations. To follow live finish probabilities throughout the remainder of the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational 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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It was a record-tying showdown between Harris English and Kramer Hickok at the Travelers Championship on Sunday. Their eight-hole playoff tied the PGA TOUR record for the longest sudden-death playoff ever completed on the TOUR. After they tied with pars on the first seven playoff holes, English ended it with a 5-foot birdie putt to earn his second win of the season. In light of that record, let’s take a look at the longest playoffs in PGA TOUR history. Only the 11-hole playoff in the 1949 Motor City Open, which ended with co-champions after it was too dark to continue, was longer than Sunday’s affair. 1949 Motor City Open (11 holes): Lloyd Mangrum and Cary Middlecoff declared co-winners by mutual agreement due to darkness The previous year’s Motor City Open went to a playoff between Ben Hogan and Dutch Harrison. No one was eager to repeat another 18-hole affair the following year. Thus, the tournament used a “sudden-death” format in 1949. That playoff lasted almost as long as the one between Harrison and Hogan. Mangrum and Middlecoff, who won the U.S. Open a week earlier, tied 11 holes before they were declared co-champions due to darkness. The two were all but inseparable on the final day. They started the day tied at 9-under 204 and both shot 69 in the final round. Mangrum had a 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole that would have given him the title. He missed, and so the playoff began after the players were given the opportunity to take a “brief rest,” according to a newspaper report. Mangrum had another great opportunity to win on the 11th extra hole. Middlecoff’s approach sailed 40 feet right of the flag and into the rough. Mangrum’s approach settled 9 feet from the flag. Middlecoff chipped within inches before Mangrum missed his birdie opportunity. “This playoff takes the cake,” Mangrum said. 2012 Mayakoba Golf Classic (8 holes): John Huh defeated Robert Allenby. It took eight straight pars for Huh to win his first PGA TOUR title. Huh was just 21 years old and making his fifth PGA TOUR start. He made 3 at the par-3 10th hole, tapping in from 2 feet after Allenby hit into a hazard and missed a 15-foot par putt. It was the fourth time the pair had played the 10th hole in the playoff. Allenby had a two-shot lead on the final hole but made double-bogey to fall into a playoff. 1983 Phoenix Open (8 holes): Bob Gilder defeated Rex Caldwell, Johnny Miller and Mark O’Meara Caldwell was runner-up in three consecutive tournaments in early 1983. That included a loss in an eight-hole playoff at the Phoenix Open. Gilder won with a birdie on the eighth extra hole. It was the second straight week where Caldwell lost in extra holes. “I’m happy I won one, but I’m glad it’s over,” Gilder said. “It was a battle all the way. It wasn’t any fun.” Caldwell, who was seeking his first TOUR title, earned his spot in the playoff with a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation. Mark O’Meara and Johnny Miller dropped out of the playoff on the second extra hole after Gilder and Caldwell made birdie. The national television broadcast went off the air after the fifth extra hole. Gilder ended it six holes later with a 7-foot birdie putt. It was Gilder’s lone playoff in his PGA TOUR career and the sixth, and final, win of his career. His first and last wins came in the Phoenix Open, in 1976 and 1983. Caldwell, who’d been on the TOUR nine years, left the green without speaking to Gilder and did not speak to the media, according to a newspaper report. He earned his lone PGA TOUR win later in 1983, beating Lee Trevino by a stroke in Abilene, Texas, in September. 1981 Quad Cities Open (8 holes): Dave Barr defeated Woody Blackburn, Frank Conner, Dan Halldorson and Victor Regalado After finishing his final round of the Quad Cities Open, Barr packed up his shoes, had a beer and a couple of soft drinks. He was two shots behind Regalado, who was 12 under par. “A playoff was in the back of my mind, but I really didn’t expect it,” Barr said. Regalado bogeyed 17 before missing a 3-foot par putt on the 72nd hole to open the door for a five-man playoff. Eight holes later, Barr won by holing a 3-footer of his own to win over Woody Blackburn. Regalado, Halldorson and Conner were all eliminated on the first extra hole. 1978 Greater Milwaukee Open (8 holes): Lee Elder defeated Lee Trevino Trevino forced the playoff with an 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation. “I thought, ‘Not again,’” said Elder, who lost to Trevino in a playoff in Hartford, Connecticut, six years earlier. “He did pretty much the same thing in 1972 when he sank a 15- or 20-footer on the last hole.” The putter left Trevino in extra holes, however. He missed 5-foot birdie putts on the second and fourth playoff holes and a 9-footer on the seventh. On the eighth playoff hole, Trevino blasted out of the sand to within 6 feet. He missed the par putt and Elder two-putted from 12 feet for the win. “I’m sure Lee tried as hard as he could, but I believe that if he hadn’t been in a hurry to meet his wife in Chicago and catch a plane for England for the British Open, it could have been a different story,” Elder said. “I think the fact that Lee came here and played as hard as he did when he planned to go to England right after ward says something about what kind of man he is.” 1965 Azalea Open Invitational (8 holes): Dick Hart defeated Phil Rodgers. Hart entered the Azalea Open only two minutes before the deadline. It earned him his first PGA TOUR win, and in a record-setting playoff. Both Hart and Rodgers missed the green on the eighth playoff hole and Hart, 28, won by getting up-and-down. Hart forced the playoff with a 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation. He also eagled the 15th after holing a 40-yard wedge shot.

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