The RSM Classic's Barbara Van Buskirk honored as 2020 PGA TOUR Volunteer of the Year

Golfers on both the PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour will have extra incentive to attack some of the most exciting holes during their respective seasons thanks to a stirring first-of-its-kind competition – the Aon Risk Reward Challenge. An age-old question in golf – does taking calculated risk provide a greater chance at reward over time? – will be put under the microscope, and ultimately a player from each tour will triumph. At select tournaments, holes that highlight a player’s strategic thinking will be designated as Aon Risk Reward Challenge holes. Throughout the year, a player’s best two scores on each hole will be tracked. On the PGA TOUR, 36 tournaments during the 2018-19 season will be included in the Aon Risk Reward Challenge, with one hole at each identified tournament included in the competition. The player from each Tour on top of the Aon leaderboard at the end of the regular season will each receive $1 million in prize money. So which holes are part of the Aon Risk Reward Challenge? Think the iconic short par-4 10th at Riviera Country Club or the sensational par-5 18th at Pebble Beach or the reachable par-5 16th at TPC Sawgrass. Go for it despite lurking hazards and maybe get yourself an eagle putt or even a rare albatross? Lay up to your number and back your wedge game to ensure birdie? Time to find out what works best. In order to be eligible, a player must be a member of their respective Tour and play a minimum of 40 rounds throughout the season at selected tournaments. The scoring system throughout the season will be a player’s average score to par calculated to three decimal places. (Reminder: Only the player’s two best scores on that hole in a given tournament are used for his average).  The PGA TOUR fall series provided eight events for players to get their scoring underway but as yet of course no one has reached the 40-round minimum. Of those players with more than one tournament start in the fall, the top scorers are PGA TOUR Player of the Year Brooks Koepka and Kevin Chappell. Both have set themselves up to make a nice run once the season resumes. Koepka eagled the par-5 18th hole during THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES twice and birdied the par-4 16th twice at the World Golf Championships – HSBC Champions in his two fall starts. That cumulative 6-under average in four rounds played calculates to a -1.5 average. Chappell might be even more excited given he eagled the par-5 13th at the Mayakoba Golf Classic twice, had an eagle and a birdie at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES and two birdies at the CIMB Classic’s par-4 16th. That’s a cumulative 9 under through six rounds for his -1.5 average. In 2019 the focus will first fall on the 305-yard par-4 14th at the Plantation Course in Kapalua during the Sentry Tournament of Champions – a short and drivable hole but one that plays uphill and is littered with bunkers and even a local house and garden down the right side. Last season it played to a 3.684 stroke average as players cranked up and went for it. Will the winds allow a similar strategy this season or will it be smarter to put a simple mid-iron in play and then go flag-hunting with a wedge? The 10th at Riviera always gives the players fits despite being just 315 yards. Last season there was one eagle, 87 birdies, 249 pars, 86 bogeys, 12 double bogeys and one other during the Genesis Open. Of the 436 times players teed it up over four rounds there were 317 attempts at going for the green. Will this continue in 2019 or will the fact it played to an over-par average (4.055) have players second-guessing their strategy? “I have done both, I’ve gone for it and laid up and I’ve been very unsuccessful both ways,â€� Tiger Woods famously said last season. “It’s a tossup, it really is.â€� And what of the picturesque finish to Pebble Beach? You’d assume most par 5s on TOUR get eaten up, but the 18th played to a stroke average of 5.017 last season – one of just seven par 5s on TOUR that played above par last season (out of a total of 163 par 5s). Do you dare take driver off the tee and risk hooking it into the ocean? Same could be said when thinking 3-wood as an approach option. At tournaments where more than one course is played, like at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the best one score from the specified course’s ARRC hole will count. That’s why Jason Gore is the current leader. His eagle at the par-5 15th during The RSM Classic gives him an average of -2.0 in his lone start in the fall. If a player withdraws from an event, their scores on the ARRC hole for that tournament will not be included in the year-to-date calculation — however players that MDF (made cut, didn’t finish) and play just three rounds for an event will still be included in the calculations. If there is a tie, then holes that have been played by both players will be compared based on their average score under par — and if there is still a tie, scores will be compared for the relevant holes in chronological order starting from the most recent. The winner for the PGA TOUR will be determined at the conclusion of the Wyndham Championship and the Aon Trophy will be presented during THE NORTHERN TRUST. The winner for the LPGA will be determined at the conclusion of the Blue Bay LPGA and the Aon Trophy will be presented during the CME Group Tour Championship. Below are the holes selected for the PGA TOUR schedule. 2019 Aon Risk Reward Challenge Schedule

Click here to read the full article…

ATLANTA – FedExCup leader Scottie Scheffler will begin Thursday’s opening round of the TOUR Championship with a two-stroke lead over defending champion Patrick Cantlay, who’s coming off a win in last week’s BMW Championship. It’s good to be No. 1 under the unique Starting Strokes format, even though a two-shot lead can disappear in one hole. Xander Schauffele, a three-time winner this season, will start 6 under, four back of Scheffler. Sam Burns, also a three-time winner this season, will begin at 5 under. One of those four will most likely be your next FedExCup champion, but anyone can win, all the way down to No. 29 Aaron Wise, who will start at even, 10 back. Here are Five Things to know before play gets underway at the TOUR Championship. 1. History hangs in the balance Scheffler didn’t have a single PGA TOUR win at the outset of this year. Now he’s got four and is looking to put a bow on a season that’s already been special. With a win this week, he’d be the first player to win the FedExCup with a five-win season since Justin Thomas five years ago. The complicating factors, though, are many. “Yeah, it’s definitely a bit different,” Scheffler said. “I think what’s going to probably work best for me is to look at it like a four-day event and really ignore the Starting Strokes deal and kind of go out there and do my thing and see where it puts me at the end of four days.” Hot on his heels will be Cantlay, 30, who knows what it takes to capture the FedExCup. As the top seed, he went into the TOUR Championship with a two-shot lead over Jon Rahm last year, held that lead all week, and edged Rahm by one to win golf’s ultimate prize. No player, not even Tiger Woods, has successfully defended his FedExCup title. Cantlay chalked that up to bad luck and injuries, and said he feels no special motivation to go back-to-back. That said, he added, “Two is a lot better than just one.” 2. Rory McIlroy could one-up Tiger Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy announced “a new tech-infused golf league” Wednesday, which promises a Monday-night team-golf concept set to begin play in prime time in 2024. No player, not even Woods, has won the FedExCup three times, but his new business partner could get it done this week. McIlroy, who has a lot of good vibes at East Lake, will start the tournament at 4 under par, six behind, but history suggests that might not be too far back. He was five off the lead through 36 holes and won the 2016 TOUR Championship, and (with Starting Strokes) began the tournament five behind when he won it again in 2019. He was nine behind through 36 holes when he won THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT last fall. “I’ve had chances the majority of the times I’ve been here to win the FedExCup,” said McIlroy, who birdied the last three holes to finish T8 at the BMW Championship last weekend. “… I felt like I got my golf game together a little bit better in Wilmington last week and played OK. I need to make a few more putts this week to have a chance.” A victory this week would put a cherry on top of a remarkably consistent season, as McIlroy has finished in the top 10 in nine of 15 starts, including all four majors. 3. The top four are teams of rivals Top-seeded Scheffler regularly rents houses with fourth-seeded Sam Burns. Together they account for seven victories this season, and wound up in a playoff, won by Burns, to decide the Charles Schwab Challenge. They will most likely make up one of the pairings for U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Davis Love III at Quail Hollow next month. Second-seeded Cantlay, meanwhile, is besties with third-seeded Xander Schauffele. They combined to win the two-man Zurich Classic of New Orleans this season, with Schauffele also collecting wins at the Travelers Championship and Genesis Scottish Open. Cantlay hadn’t won an individual tournament this season until last week’s BMW. They have already formed a successful duo in the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, and it was their debut in the 2019 Presidents Cup that strengthened their bond. Schauffele could have helped his friend by making a birdie putt from 7 1/2 feet on the last hole of the BMW. It would have left him alone in third place at 12 under, with Scheffler in solo fourth, one shot behind him. Cantlay would have (barely) become FedExCup No. 1 and taken the two-shot lead entering the TOUR Championship. As it was, Schauffele missed and he and Scheffler tied for third, and the subtle difference gave the Masters champ enough FedExCup points to nudge him past Cantlay heading into East Lake. “A lawyer,” Schauffele said when asked what Cantlay might be good at besides golf. “He’s really good at putting his thought into words, thinking to finality, and he’s very linear.” Thanks to Schauffele’s miss at the BMW, Cantlay will have to make his case for the FedExCup from two behind. 4. Will Zalatoris’ injury changed things It’s been an action-packed last month for Will Zalatoris, who made a caddie change, won the FedEx St. Jude Championship for his first PGA TOUR victory and suffered a back injury. He has two herniated discs and withdrew from the TOUR Championship after missing the BMW. The Zalatoris WD means that only two players are fewer than five back, which may or may not comfort frontrunner Scheffler. It means that the field is now only 29 players who will be sent off as 14 twosomes and a single each day. It also has Presidents Cup implications. At seventh in the Presidents Cup points standings, Zalatoris was all but a lock to be one of the six picks allotted U.S. Captain Davis Love III. It was widely assumed that Love would just pick Nos. 7-12, but now he has a decision to make that could impact anyone from No. 13 Tom Hoge to No. 30 Sahith Theegala, one of two rookies in the field at the TOUR Championship. “I think that there’s so much depth right now,” PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan said Wednesday. “You look at both teams, … I think both captains and both teams recognize that there’s a next-man-up philosophy. They’re prepared for that.” 5. Making the TOUR Championship just got even bigger Players have always made it a goal to reach the TOUR Championship. It sets up the following season, since by making it to East Lake they also punch their tickets to many of the game’s biggest events, including multiple majors. It was announced this week that, effective immediately, players who made it to the TOUR Championship will also get to play in the Sentry Tournament of Champions – historically a winners-only event – and also will receive a two-year exemption on the PGA TOUR, through 2024. The new rule will affect eight players at East Lake this week: Theegala, Cameron Young, Aaron Wise, Brian Harman, Scott Stallings, Adam Scott, Corey Conners, and Collin Morikawa. All can now book tickets to Maui. “It’s cool,” said FedExCup No. 29 Wise, who will go off as a single Thursday. “It kind of makes it feel like, even though you didn’t win, you got a win this season with the two-year exemption and trip to Maui.”

Click here to read the full article…

Propelled by a scorching final-round 61, McIlroy finished the Canadian Open with a tournament-record 22-under 258.

Click here to read the full article…