Darren Clarke won the Mitsubishi Electric Championship by two strokes on Saturday for his second straight PGA Tour Champions victory.
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MEDINAH, Ill. – 2015 was one of Jim Furyk’s best years. He captured the RBC Heritage on one of his favorite tracks, Hilton Head. That summer, he was ranked No. 3 in the world; it was his highest ranking in eight years. And with the 2016 Rio Olympics looming, he was one of the four top Americans and thus, went through the protocol required of all potential Olympic athletes. Pretty neat stuff. But his left wrist soon began to bothering him, and in the second FedExCup Playoffs event that year at TPC Boston, the pain sharpened. His next start was the BMW Championship – it was at Conway Farms, where two years earlier he had shot 59 – and Furyk teed off in the first round gritting his teeth and hoping to grind it out for four rounds. He lasted six holes before having to withdraw. It was the start of a lengthy downward spiral. Furyk was sidelined the rest of that year, forcing him to miss the Presidents Cup (he served as an assistant captain). He eventually needed surgery and didn’t return to action until May of 2016. By then, he was no longer a candidate for the U.S. Olympic team. It took him another year before he started finding his stride … only then to be hit with another injury, this time to the SC joint in his shoulder. “That set me back another year,â€� he said. Related: Leaderboard | Projected FedExCup standings | Tiger ready to resume FedExCup chase Thus, he went from peak form prior to the 2015 BMW to essentially losing three years. In his late 40s (he’s 49 now), it was a tough break. Plus, he spent a large part of 2018 with non-playing responsibilities as captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Juggling those duties can make it challenging to stay competitive as a player. But while his window of opportunity may be reduced, Furyk showed on Thursday it hasn’t closed yet. In his first BMW start since his WD four years ago, Furyk produced a bogey-free 66 that left him near the top of the leaderboard at Medinah. The highlights were many – two birdies to open his round, an eagle at the par-5 fifth when his 5-wood finished inside 10 feet, and a near-ace at the 17th, his 6-iron leaving him inside 1 foot. Given his FedExCup ranking – he started this week 48th – he’ll need to continue his good play the rest of the week to secure a top-30 spot and a trip to the TOUR Championship. “I’d much rather be in 20th place and know I’ve got a ticket stamped,â€� said Furyk, the 2010 FedExCup champ. “But I don’t have much to lose this week, to be honest with you … the only thing is upside.â€� Maybe it’s not a surprise that Furyk has good vibes this week. After all, he says, “Chicago has been good to me.â€� He has that 59 at Conway Farms. He won the 2005 BMW at Cog Hill. And his lone major victory came in the 2003 U.S. Open at Olympia Fields, which will host the BMW Championship next year. And he’s certainly shown flashes this season of his 2015 form. There was his runner-up finish to Rory McIlroy at THE PLAYERS Championship in March. Two months later, he was in the hunt through 54 holes at the Charles Schwab Championship at Colonial. Ranked 217th in the world in February, Furyk has worked his way back inside the top 50 (49th entering this week). Still … “This summer was a little lean,â€� Furyk said. “I didn’t play bad. It wasn’t like I missed a bunch of cuts. I’m really good at finishing 30th to 50th right now, which sucks. “But I’ve been working at it real hard and seeing some results. I feel like I still have a little left in me.â€� So, exactly how close is he to his pre-BMW 2015 form? Is he 90 percent back? 80 percent? Furyk took a few seconds to think about his answer … and then took a few more. It was difficult to put a number on it. “How close am I?â€� he responded. “I’m not there.â€� No worries. If he’s holding the trophy on Sunday, maybe he’ll adjust his answer.
THE OVERVIEW AUSTIN, Texas — In Arizona, Dustin Johnson was a pushover. In Austin, he’s practically unbeatable. No player in this week’s World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play field has benefitted more from a change of scenery than the world’s No. 1 player. When the event was held in Dove Mountain outside Tucson, Johnson’s match record was 2-6, and he was ousted in the first round in four of his five appearances. The event was then played at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco in 2015, which was also the first year of the format change. Johnson did not advance out of group play. The next year, Austin Country Club became the home course, and Johnson immediately took a liking to the Hill Country layout. He advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to Louis Oosthuizen in 2016, a precursor to last year’s dominating performance in which he not only won the championship with seven match wins but never trailed at any time. Johnson, who held off Jon Rahm in a tough championship match a year ago, didn’t hesitate Tuesday when asked why his performances improved. “It had a lot to do with the golf course,â€� he said. “I don’t want to talk bad about any golf course, but it wasn’t my favorite place to play. It didn’t suit me very well.â€� Of course, Johnson’s game also was elevated in recent years, as he won his first major while reaching the top of the world standings. Given Johnson’s elite status and current form, perhaps Dove Mountain might not provide as much frustration now as it did then. Paul Casey – another player in great form right now – was asked if the feeling of uncomfortableness at a golf course can be reduced by being in good form. “Certainly less of a factor,â€� said Casey, recent winner of the Valspar Championship. “Maybe a nemesis hole you’ve never been able to figure out, suddenly you see a way. Or it bothers you less.â€� While Johnson has shown his ability to thrive in a match play environment, he doesn’t get caught up in the differences between this week’s format and a regular stroke-play event. In other words, he’s not fixating on his opponent, just his own game. “If you play well, usually that takes care of your opponent,â€� he said. “Obviously there are certain situations where you’re kind of just playing him. But for the most part, you’re out there just trying to make as low a score as you can on every hole.â€� If nothing else, Johnson knows what it takes to win at Austin Country Club. He’s hoping to follow the same gameplan this week.  THREE PLAYERS TO PONDER Dustin Johnson Defending champ has won at least one World Golf Championships event every year since 2014. Jason Day Didn’t get a legitimate chance to defend his 2016 title after withdrawing due to his mother’s health. Consider him the co-defending champ. Rory McIlroy Anybody else get the feeling that McIlroy’s win at Bay Hill might be the start of a big run for the next few weeks?  Three matches to ponder Wednesday: Tony Finau vs. Thomas Pieters. If the last two years are any indication, then Austin Country Club favors the big hitters. Finau and Pieters, part of Group 13, are two of the longest on the world stage. Thursday: Justin Thomas vs. Patton Kizzire. This Group 2 match pits the top two players in the FedExCup standings, as each already has won twice this PGA TOUR season. Thomas, the defending FedExCup champ and current leader, could also move to world No. 1 if he wins on Sunday. Friday: Jordan Spieth vs. Patrick Reed. Spieth joked on Tuesday there “might be some sort of rigging that’s going onâ€� in order to have Reed drawn into his Group 4. (Ah, the Patrick Ewing lottery conspiracy theory!). Safe to assume that for U.S. golf fans, this is the most anticipated group match of the week.  The Flyover Jordan Spieth calls the par-4 stretch of hole Nos. 13, 14 and 15 “the most pivotal holesâ€� at Austin Country Club this week. “That’s where the difference in the match happens,â€� Spieth added. The 317-yard 13th can be drivable and has played under par in the first two years. The 465-yard 14th and 440-yard 15th both played over par last year; the 14th was the most difficult hole on the back nine last year. “When you’re playing those three holes and playing them accordingly should put you at an advantage if you were to play them at par or better over your opponent,â€� Spieth said. The Landing Zone The 498-yard eighth hole is the longest par 4 at Austin Country Club, and consequently the most difficult par 4 on the course. It played to a stroke average of 4.283 last year. Players will favor going down the left side of the fairway to take advantage of the slope running to the right, but a long iron will still remain into a small green guarded by several pot bunkers. Weather check From PGA TOUR meteorologist Stewart Williams: “Showers and isolated t-storms will be likely through daybreak Wednesday morning as a cold front sweeps through the region. Skies will quickly clear with breezy and cooler conditions expected for the afternoon. Cooler and drier air continues Thursday and Friday with highs in the 60s each day. Warmer temperatures return Saturday with highs in the mid 70s. The next cold front appears to be slowing down and will likely bring showers and t-storms Sunday afternoon into Sunday night.â€�  For the latest weather news from Austin, Texas, check out PGATOUR.COM’s Weather Hub. SOUND CHECK I could shoot 2 over every single round and win a WGC this week. There’s a luck of the draw to it.The margin around here is very small. You’re always 3 feet away from a glorious shot or a disaster. Thank god it’s match play because I wouldn’t want to play straight play around here. BY THE NUMBERS 85.7 – The career winning percentage of Jon Rahm (6-1) in the event, the best of anyone in the field. 62 – The lowest seed to ever win the tournament (Kevin Sutherland 2002) 18 – Number of different countries represented in the tournament. 112 – Amount of holes played by Dustin Johnson last year in winning the title. It was a record high equal to Louis Oosthuizen from 2016. SCATTERSHOTS Of the 96 matches set for the three days of group play, 19 of them pit American versus fellow American. Just three others match up non-U.S. players from the same country – Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama vs. Yusaku Miyuazato and England’s Tommy Fleetwood vs. Ian Poulter on Wednesday, and England’s Paul Casey vs. Matthew Fitzpatrick on Friday. Jason Day is the only player in the field with multiple wins in this event, having won in 2014 and 2016. Tiger Woods won three times and Geoff Ogivly won twice. Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter have each won 23 matches in this event. That’s the most of any players in the field. Poulter’s amount is impressive since only one of his 12 appearances came in the current group-play format that guarantees at least three matches.
Two weeks ago, Cameron Champ looked like a player set to miss the FedExCup Playoffs due to his form in 2021. But he reminded us of all of his raw talent as he defied some terrible form to produce four days of beautiful golf at TPC Twin Cities where he claimed his third PGA TOUR win. RELATED: Final leaderboard | What’s in Champ’s bag? Here are five stories you may have missed from the 3M Open. 1. Form be damned, Champ knows how to win. Cameron Champ came to TPC Twin Cities at 142nd in the FedExCup standings and without a top-10 finish since last October at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD. He ranked 206th on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting, 199th in Strokes Gained: Around the Green and 162nd in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green. Even a T11 finish in his last start at the John Deere Classic wasn’t enough for people to seriously consider Champ as one to watch at the 3M Open. But riding an incredible +8.480 in Strokes Gained: Putting at TPC Twin Cities, Champ overcame Cameron Tringale’s 54-hole lead, and bettered sentimental favorite Louis Oosthuizen with a bogey-free 5-under 66 on Sunday to win. It’s his third TOUR win in 76 starts, seeing him join Collin Morikawa, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau as players 27 or younger (he’s 26) to win in each of the last three seasons. He’s now 49th in the FedExCup standings and can count on a Playoff berth. Get the full lowdown on the victory here. 2. Louis Oosthuizen’s runner-up list is getting near comical. The South African set the clubhouse lead on Sunday only to see Champ better him by two shots, relegating Oosthuizen to a fifth top-3 finish in his last seven starts on the PGA TOUR. Unlike The Open, where Oosthuizen couldn’t get it going Sunday, he pushed hard to the end, making three birdies in the final four holes. Since losing in a playoff at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Oosthuizen has finished T8 (Valspar Championship), T2 (PGA Championship), T18 (the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide), 2nd (U.S. Open), T3 (The Open Championship), and T2 (3M Open). It means four of his 12 career TOUR runner-up finishes have come during this stretch. Incredibly, Oosthuizen now sits sixth in the FedExCup without a victory. “I was happy to play this week. I sort of didn’t really want to just think about last week, about not playing great on that Sunday and immediately quickly go back into tournament mode and then play this tournament,” Oosthuizen said. “We had a good time here this week and I’m just trying to see if I can go one better than all these seconds and thirds.” 3. Vegas and Pereira head to Tokyo in nice form. Jhonattan Vegas will head to the Olympic Games fresh off a third career runner-up result on the PGA TOUR – funny enough they’ve all come this season. The Venezuelan was also second at the Puerto Rico Open and the Palmetto Championship at Congaree. “I had a dream start making three birdies in five holes, kind of got slowed down a little bit through the middle of the round, couldn’t really buy a putt,” Vegas said. “Gave myself a little bit of a chance at the end. But solid week, that’s all you want. You want to play good under pressure and feel like I did that. “(Tokyo), it’s super exciting. Like I’ve said before, we don’t really get to play for our countries that often and every chance you get a chance it means a lot, especially being Venezuelan. “Venezuela’s been going through extremely rough times lately. To be able to represent it and hopefully give the country a medal would be a dream come true.” Chile’s Mito Pereira is also ready to hold his own with teammate Joaquin Niemann in Japan after a second consecutive top-10 finish on TOUR. Pereira was T5 at the Barbasol Championship last week and T6 this week. 4. Cameron Tringale’s scars continue but they could help in future. The 54-hole leader is now 307 events into his TOUR career and has yet to win. But experience builds with every missed opportunity. This time around birdies on the 11th and 12th holes saw his 1-over front nine a forgotten annoyance as he pulled within one of the lead. But then a mental lapse of epic proportions proved costly. Tringale came up short in a bunker on the par-3 13th only to fail to hit the green from there. A third shot jumped a little but still left 15 feet for bogey. Inexplicably, Tringale three-putted from there for a triple bogey and the end of his challenge. He’d talked about having “tons of upside” and playing with “freedom” after the third round but he stiffened up Sunday and lost over 3.5 strokes to the field in putting. Still – he sits 39th in the FedExCup now and could yet have the last laugh if he can harness the lessons learned. 5. Horses for Courses to remember. Charl Schwartzel posted his second top-three finish in as many starts at the 3M Open (T3, 2020; T2, 2021) and he wasn’t alone showing a little course form to remember about next season when doing your fantasy picks. Fellow former International Team Presidents Cup player Adam Hadwin now also has top-10 finishes in both starts at the 3M Open (4th, 2019; T6, 2021). Schwartzel moved to 43rd in the FedExCup as the Playoffs approach and Hadwin made a very timely move from 120th to 107th to try to lock in his place in the post-season. On the other side of the coin, past 3M Open champions Matthew Wolff and Michael Thompson both settled at a tie for 39th this time around with Thompson still under pressure to find a Playoff spot now sitting 132nd in the points standings. Ryan Armour (117th) and Gary Woodland (119th) both played their way inside the Playoff zone. COMCAST BUSINESS TOUR TOP 10 The Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10 highlights and rewards the extraordinary level of play required to earn a spot in the TOP 10 at the conclusion of the FedExCup regular season. The competition will conclude prior to the FedExCup PLAYOFFS where the top 10 FedExCup points leaders will be recognized and awarded as the most elite in golf. Week after week, shot after shot, each event matters more than ever before. Who will finish in the Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10? Click here to follow the weekly action.
