New dress code: PGA Tour pro Sebastian Cappelen goes shirtless to hit out of water

Hitch. Shake. Shimmy. Call it a dance for all he cares. Matthew Wolff was already a disruptor in the world of golf given his funky unorthodox swing, but now you might just see imitation take hold because you can’t argue with results. Welcome to the Monday Finish where we dissect the Wolff man’s win at the inaugural 3M Open in Minnesota – one for the ages… well the young ages at least. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Wolff is certainly a disruptor… and that’s not a bad thing. Matthew Wolff certainly brought plenty of notoriety with him when he came to the PGA TOUR this season. The 20-year-old was a stud in college golf, the best in the country actually, and on top of that has an unconventional YouTube swing that is riveting to some, but has been dismissed by many long-term analysts and coaches publicly and privately. Yet here he is, in just his fourth start, winning the 3M Open. In the days of hyper hype in sports those people who thought the noise around Wolff was over the top can be forgiven. But he called himself a disruptor leading into his pro debut on TOUR a few weeks ago and he was right. Whether this all translates into long-term success remains to be seen, but you can’t start trying to build that road without the first win. And that has come in rapid time. Only Ben Crenshaw and Tiger Woods previously won the NCAA title and a TOUR event in the same year… they went on to do pretty decent things. Read more about Wolff’s background here. 2. Winners win. While golf swings can differ greatly and still be successful, one thing always needs to be present to win on the TOUR. Mental guts and execution under pressure. You often hear people say that this guy or girl is a winner. It’s thrown around as a vague term. But what it means is when the blowtorch is applied they don’t back down. They step up and execute when their body is in a new state. Heightened adrenalin. Faster breathing. Quicker decision making. Wolff was watching five-time TOUR winner Bryson DeChambeau make eagle ahead of him on the 72nd hole. He still had to take on a water carry if he was to have a real chance to win outright. Cometh the hour… Wolff found his way into eagle range, even if it was mid-range and from the collar of the green, and the rest is history. That’s brilliant from any player, let alone a 20-year-old chasing his first TOUR win just weeks after turning pro. Bravo. Read more on his stunning finish here. 3. We remain blessed with the production line of talent. Wolff is just 20 years old. Runner up Collin Morikawa is just 22. Viktor Hovland is 21 and was T13 in his third start as a professional. (He was T13 last week also). DeChambeau was also runner up and he’s just 25. Wyndham Clark is also just a quarter of a century old and he was fifth. Since Tiger Woods proved well and truly you don’t need to bide your time as a youngster anymore, a new breed of kid has come onto the scene. They have no fear. Thought Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas and co would dominate for decades? They might… but they’ll have to contend with the seemingly endless production line of new talented kids coming right behind them. Golf is lucky in this sense. “For the most part, it’s just playing on the PGA TOUR, that job security. I’m a 20-year-old and I’m saying, ‘job security,’ but it’s just, it really is. I knew as soon as I left college that I’m out here with the best players in the world and I have to prove myself, and I did that. Now I’m just free to play my game,â€� Wolff said almost ominously about becoming a TOUR member. Morikawa earned special temporary membership and has a chance to join his friend on TOUR next season. “Heading down to the end of the season and obviously there’s one more notch I want to reach, but it is a good feeling, you know, to finish T-2,â€� he said. “You’re never going to be fully disappointed on that. I think this is really going to help me just kind of move forward in the next month or so.â€� 4. Is Bryson back and ready to peak for Playoffs? Last season, Bryson DeChambeau was undoubtedly in rare form in the back half of the season. He won the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide and also claimed the opening two FedExCup Playoffs. While he was unable to close the deal to take the FedExCup at the TOUR Championship, he did win again soon after at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open early in the new season. However, then he cooled off a little and coming into the Travelers Championship a few weeks ago, he’d slipped to 27th in the FedExCup standings and hadn’t had a top-10 since early January. But he was tied for eighth at the Travelers, signaling he might have turned a corner. This week when the tournament was on the line, he stiffed his approach on the 72nd hole and made eagle only to see a likely playoff spot taken by Wolff’s incredible eagle of his own. DeChambeau is now 14th in the FedExCup and eyeing a potential run towards the Wyndham Rewards Top-10 before the Playoffs. Could he be peaking at the right time for redemption? 5. Should Ernie Els be concerned? International Presidents Team Captain Ernie Els knows there is still six months before his team takes on the USA at Royal Melbourne. But you can’t help but think he might be a little worried as the deadline for the first eight spots gets closer and closer. Just four weeks of regular season remain on the TOUR before the three FedExCup Playoffs, after which the top eight on the International Team standings make the team. The 3M Open was another week of small promising signs, but ultimately no win. Adam Hadwin was fourth. Carlos Ortiz tied for fifth… but Hideki Matsuyama failed to take advantage of a good 54-hole position and was seventh. Big gun Jason Day, who is barely inside the top eight on the standings in seventh was 66th this week. Since the turn of the calendar in 2019, just three of the winners on the TOUR are eligible for the International Team. In the same span, just four winners on the European Tour are eligible players. Only one of those players, C.T. Pan, is currently inside the top eight of the standings. Now sure, winning tournaments individually doesn’t instantly correlate to team golf, but it would certainly help with confidence going up against the American juggernaut. Consider this, the current top eight Americans have, with the exception of Justin Thomas, won on the TOUR or the European Tour in 2019. Els will be hoping some International stars can create some momentum into and through the FedExCup Playoffs to perhaps inspire those who will later rely on captains picks. All 12 members will need to bring form and confidence to Melbourne if they are to win their first Cup since 1998. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Matthew Wolff became the first player since Russell Henley (2013) to win in four or fewer starts on TOUR. Wolff became the second youngest winner on TOUR since Jordan Spieth won the John Deere Classic in 2013 at the age of 19. He is the ninth youngest in TOUR history and the second youngest since 1940. 2. He is the first player to win after receiving a sponsor invitation since Billy Hurley III at the 2016 Quicken Loans National and becomes the third player to win NCAA individual championship title and TOUR event in same year, joining Ben Crenshaw and Tiger Woods. 3. A total of 95 percent of Wolff’s strokes gained for the week were a result of his play from tee-to-green. Wolff ranked second in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, outperforming the field by a combined +2.361 strokes per round. 4. For the week, Wolff outperformed the field by +3.329 strokes per round from tee to green compared to losing -0.453 strokes per round in his first nine rounds of his TOUR career. Further comparison between this week and his first nine rounds – Greens in Regulation: 83.3% vs 66.7%; Proximity to Hole: 28 feet, 4 inches vs 40 feet, 2 inches; Birdie Average: 6.5 vs 3.7; Score to Par: -21 vs -2. 5. Wolff made a field leading 26 total birdies for the week marking the 26th of 35 TOUR stroke play winners this season to make 20 or more birdies and go onto win. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is in its first season and adds another layer of excitement to the FedExCup Regular Season. The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will earn bonus payouts from the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. Matt Kuchar remains No. 1, and there were no changes among the rest of the all-important Top 10. Just three weeks and five tournaments remain until the start of the Wyndham Championship, the last event of the FedExCup Regular Season.

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RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico — Tommy Gainey birdied five of the last seven holes at breezy Grand Reserve for a 7-under 65 and the first-round lead Thursday in the PGA TOUR’s Puerto Rico Open. RELATED: Leaderboard | Finau and Rahm pair up again at WGC-Workday Championship Gainey, the 45-year-old from South Carolina who won his lone PGA TOUR title in 2012, had a one-stroke lead over local favorite Rafael Campos, Robert Garrigus, Taylor Pendrith, Lee Hodges, Greg Chalmers, Fabian Gomez and Brandon Wu. “It’s windy. It’s Puerto Rico,” Gainey said. “I’m just glad that it’s 80 degrees outside, because back in South Carolina, all it is, is 40 degrees and raining. So, I’m just glad to be in some hot weather. Wind, I can deal with. But I just hit it really good today.” The tournament is being played opposite the World Golf Championship event in Florida. The winner will get into the PGA Championship in May. Gainey rebounded from a three-putt bogey on the par-3 11th with birdies on the par-4 12th and 13th, par-5 15th, par-4 17th and par-5 18th. “Hit it 12 feet on No. 11 and then three-whacked it,” Gainey said. “So I’m not happy about that, but really happy at bouncing back with a birdie on 12. Just showing a little resilience and confidence to come back from a bogey, because when you three-putt from 12 feet, come on, let’s be honest, that’s bad.” He also started fast, birdieing the opening two holes and three of the first four. Campos closed with a birdie on 18. The 32-year-old Puerto Rican player won a Korn Ferry Tour event in 2019. “I hit the ball very well, gave myself a lot of great looks,” Campos said. “Wasn’t really aggressive today, which I think that was a key, just kind of tried to play my way around the course.” The event is being played without spectators because of the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s weird not seeing the fans out here,” Campos said. “I miss them.” European Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington shot 70. Ian Poulter opened with a 71.

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Justin Rose played alongside Tiger Woods, and then joined him in the U.S. Open record book at Pebble Beach. Rose birdied his last three holes Thursday for a 6-under 65, giving him a one-shot lead on a day so accommodating that more than three dozen players broke par. It was an ideal start for Rose and for the USGA, which wants a smooth ride after four years of various mishaps in the U.S. Open. The idea was to start safe and make the course progressively more difficult, and a forecast of dry weather for the week should make that easier to control. This was the day to take advantage, especially with a cool, overcast sky for most of the day. Rose knew what was at stake when he blasted out of a bunker short of the par-5 18th to about 12 feet. He was watching the telecast earlier when Rickie Fowler had a birdie putt for a 65 to tie the lowest U.S. Open round at Pebble Beach, set by Woods in the first round of his record-setting victory in 2000. “I was thinking, ‘This would be kind of cool doing it front of the great man himself,'” Rose said. He lightly pumped his fist, partly for the record, mainly for the best start. Fowler had to settle for a 66, tied with Aaron Wise and two others who had big finishes. Xander Schauffele caught a break when his tee shot on the 18th caromed off the rock edge of the left fairway, setting up a 12-foot eagle. Louis Oosthuizen finished on No. 9 by holing a bunker shot for a birdie. It felt almost as good as the wedge he holed from 95 yards for eagle on No. 11. Woods took advantage of the scoring holes with three birdies, but there was one blunder — a tee shot he hooked on the par-3 fifth that smacked off the cart path into gnarly, deep grass some 20 yards behind the edge of the bleachers. He blasted that out beyond the green and made double bogey. After two straight birdies, he finished with 11 straight pars for a 70. “Pebble Beach, you have the first seven to get it going, and after that it’s a fight,” Woods said. “I proved that today. I was trying to just hang in there today. Rosey proved the golf course could be had.” Two-time defending champion Brooks Koepka proved the opening holes could be had. He was 4 under with his birdie on the par-5 sixth hole and appeared to be on another major mission until a few errant tee shots into nasty rough, a few missed putts and a few bogeys. Even so, he had few complaints about his 69 to begin his bid for a record-tying third straight U.S. Open. “I didn’t shoot myself out of it,” Koepka said. “I’m right there. I feel like if I get off tomorrow to a good start, I’m right back into it.” Phil Mickelson, in another U.S. Open quest to complete the career Grand Slam, didn’t feel he was out of it either, despite only two birdies in his round of 1-over 72, which included a 22-inch par putt that he missed. Woods also had a one-shot lead when he had his opening 65 in 2000, a lead he stretched to six shots after the second round, 10 shots after the third and 15 shots at the end, a record for major championships. But only 17 players were under par in the first round of 2000. For this U.S. Open, in these relatively soft conditions, 39 players broke par. Perhaps more telling about the course, and depth of talent compared with two decades ago, there were 17 eagles. That’s the most for any round at any U.S. Open, breaking the record of 13 set in 1983 at Oakmont. The eagles included Callum Tarren holing out from a bunker on No. 10, the hardest hole at Pebble Beach, and Rory Sabbatini making a hole-in-one on No. 12. No one was expecting a breeze the rest of the week. “It’s a very soft start to a U.S. Open, which is a good thing,” Rory McIlroy said after a 68, his first sub-70 round at the U.S. Open since he won at Congressional in 2011. “They can do whatever they want with from here. It’s not as if you’re starting with a course that’s in the condition like a Sunday, and then you get three days and it sort of starts to get away from you.” Scott Piercy, who bogeyed the 18th for a 67, was the first player to get everyone’s attention when he was at 5 under through six holes. Graeme McDowell saw the score when he walked off the 10th green at the start of his round and quipped to his caddie, “All the USGA radios are going off and they’re saying, `Turn off the water — NOW!'” McDowell won the last U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2010 when it was so difficult he made only one birdie in the final round and no one broke par for the week. Even as he saw low scores on the board — he had a bogey-free 69, one of 27 rounds in the 60s — McDowell feared what was to come for those falling into a comfort zone. “Careful what you wish for, because I think we’re going to see it come the weekend,” McDowell said. “I don’t think level par wins this week,” he said. “Careful what you wish for, because I think we’re going to see it come the weekend.” For one day, Pebble Beach was paradise. “I wouldn’t say it’s exhilarating, because I feel like my mindset is I am in a 72-hole tournament,” Rose said. “This is just a very small step toward outcome. So you don’t feel that buzz that you would on a Sunday, but you can’t help but look around over your shoulder and … this is Pebble Beach. Shot 65 and you’re in the U.S. Open. It’s a cool moment. Whatever transpires the rest of the week, it was a cool moment.”

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