Expert Picks: Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard

Last month, Justin Lower was emotional on the 18th green at Sedgefield Country Club after a final-round, 1-under 69 – including a three-putt bogey on the 72nd hole – saw him finish T36 at the Wyndham Championship. As a result, Lower, 33, was outside the top 125 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List and headed back to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals for an opportunity to improve his PGA TOUR status for the 2022-23 season. Friday afternoon, however, Lower and five others learned they were moved inside the top 125 on the 2021-22 FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List, effective as of 1:15 p.m. ET, replacing six players. Matt Wallace, Austin Smotherman, Lower, Doc Redman, Danny Willett and Kelly Kraft now rank Nos. 120-125 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List, respectively. These six players will earn fully exempt 2022-23 TOUR status and gain THE PLAYERS Championship access following Friday’s announcement. Six players who finished inside the top 125 have been removed from the 2021-22 FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List – Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Joaquin Niemann, Harold Varner III, Anirban Lahiri and Cameron Tringale. Lower, Redman and Kraft have been subsequently removed from the Korn Ferry Tour Finals Eligibility Points List (i.e. – The Finals 25), as they cannot better their TOUR status via the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. These players will not count toward The Finals 25. Lower (ninth), Redman (16th) and Kraft (T32) all held points on the Finals Eligibility Points List entering this week’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance, the third and final tournament of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, as well as the 26th and final event of the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour season. Smotherman competed in the Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron but missed the cut; Wallace and Willett did not compete in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. The top 25 players on the Korn Ferry Tour Finals Eligibility Points List at the conclusion of this week’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance will earn 2022-23 PGA TOUR membership, and they will slot into the TOUR Priority Ranking in alternating fashion with the top 25 players from the season-long Korn Ferry Tour Eligibility Points List (i.e. – The 25). The final FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List for the 2021-22 season will not be finalized until 5 p.m. ET on September 9.

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LA QUINTA, Calif. — Sungjae Im shot a 7-under 65 on Friday at The American Express to take a one-stroke lead over first-round leader Brandon Hagy and four others. RELATED: Leaderboard | Mickelson cards 18 pars in a round for first time on TOUR Im, the 22-year-old South Korean who was the PGA TOUR’s rookie of the year in 2019, had seven birdies in the bogey-free round on the Stadium Course at PGA WEST, highlighted by three in four holes around the turn. Hagy was in position to join Im at 11 under, but he bogeyed his final hole with a tee shot into the fairway bunker to finish his 70. Canada’s Nick Taylor (66), South Korea’s Si Woo Kim (68), Tony Finau (66) and Mexico’s Abraham Ancer (65) also were 10 under. Emiliano Grillo (66), Francesco Molinari (66) and Doug Ghim (68) were two shots off the lead. The leaderboard was crowded with low scores as usual at the Palm Springs-area tournament long hosted by Bob Hope. Im, Taylor and Ancer were among 12 players who didn’t make a bogey Friday. After splitting the first two rounds over two courses, the players will all play the Stadium Course for the final two rounds. Tournament host Phil Mickelson made 18 pars for the first time in his 2,201 rounds of PGA TOUR play. The 50-year-old missed the cut at 2 over. With his drives looking sharp and his mid-range putts dropping regularly, Im is off to another strong start at a tournament in which he has already finished 10th and 12th in his short PGA TOUR career. “I’m pretty satisfied with how I played all of my shots,” said Im, who feels his putting has improved sharply this year. “Speaking of putting, I started drawing a line on the ball as I visualize my putts, and that seemed to work pretty well today.” Im also feels he might have an edge because didn’t travel home to South Korea during the holiday break due to the mandatory coronavirus quarantine required. Instead, he stayed in the house he recently purchased in Atlanta and practiced for the new season. Hagy made 10 birdies in his opening round, but got off to a rough start Friday on the Stadium Course with two early bogeys. He rallied with birdies on his 16th and 17th holes, but his errant drive on his final hole kept him one shot off the pace. Taylor, who also led the Sony Open in Hawaii after two rounds last week, shot a 66 with six birdies on the Stadium Course. He had three straight birdies on the back nine of his bogey-free round, including a 24-foot birdie putt on the 15th and an 18-footer on the island green at the 17th. Taylor appears to be rounding into impressive form as he prepares to defend his Pebble Beach title in three weeks. “My game feels really good right now, so hopefully it keeps peaking,” he said. “It was a lot of intimidating tee shots, iron shots into greens. I feel like I missed in the right places. I drove it really nice on the par-5s and gave myself pretty easy looks on a few of them.”

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