Winner’s Bag: Hideki Matsuyama, Masters Tournament

Welcome to this week's edition of Numbers to Know, where we will take a closer at Jim Herman's victory at the Wyndham Championship. It was Herman's third PGA TOUR victory, moving him closer to pitcher Sandy Koufax on the list of all-time great athletic alumni from the University of Cincinnati. Let's get started. 1. FAST AND FURIOUS: Herman shot 61-63 on the weekend, tying the PGA TOUR record for lowest final 36 holes by a winner. Stuart Appleby also shot 65-59 in the final two rounds of his victory at the 2010 The Greenbrier Classic. Herman had the lowest weekend score at the Wyndham by two shots. Zach Johnson, who shot 126 in the final two rounds, was the only player within three shots of Herman over the final two rounds at Sedgefield. Herman missed just two fairways and four greens over the final two rounds. He led the field in greens hit (63 of 72) and was fourth in driving accuracy (46 of 56). 2. EAGLE HAS LANDED: Herman led the field with three eagles last week. That included a 131-yard hole-out on the par-4 ninth Thursday and two putts made on the par-5 fifth hole: a 25-footer in the second round and a 59-footer Sunday. Herman has two of the four longest holed shots for eagle by a winner this season, including the longest holed shot for eagle by a winner on a par-4 and par-5 this season. 3. MAKING THE MOST OF IT: Herman has two top-25 finishes in the past two seasons. They're both victories. Talk about making the most of your opportunities. He has missed two-thirds of his cuts over that span, including 11 of 18 this season entering the Wyndham Championship. In the past 10 years, only two players have had multiple seasons where they won while also missing more than half their cuts. Herman is one, performing the feat in each of the past two seasons. Scott Stallings is the other. He did it three times, winning in 2011, 2012 and 2014 while also missing more than half his cuts in each of those campaigns. 4. TEN TO ONE: Here's more proof that Herman makes the most of the times he is in contention. Herman has 10 top-10s in 195 PGA TOUR starts. Of course, three of them are victories. Since 1983, only one player with at least three PGA TOUR wins and 100 starts has a higher percentage of his top-10s that are wins. His name is Tiger Woods. The below chart shows players who didn't contend often but were able to win when they did. And it also is another example of Tiger Woods' incredible career. 2. MAKING A MOVE: The Wyndham Championship has been the PGA TOUR's regular-season finale since the FedExCup began in 2007. Herman entered last week ranked 192nd in the FedExCup, making him the lowest-ranked player to win the Wyndham in the FedExCup era.

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Nick Taylor birdied four of his last five holes at Pebble Beach on Friday for a 66 to take his first 36-hole lead on the PGA TOUR. Jason Day received a warm reminder at Pebble Beach how good it feels to hit shots the way he wants, make a bunch of putts and see his name high on the leaderboard. Related: Leaderboard | Day’s unique balloon therapy Day made two long birdie putts across the green, holed a 40-yard wedge for eagle on the dangerous par-5 14th, made a couple of big par saves and moved into contention with an 8-under 64 in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Taylor was at 14-under 129. “I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve actually been out there and felt the way that I felt out there today and played well like that,” Day said. Defending champion Phil Mickelson also got in the mix with aburst of four straight birdies after the turn at Monterey Peninsula. He made bogey on the long par-3 ninth to finish his round of 7-under. He was three shots behind. Mickelson has not had a top 10 on the PGA TOUR since winning at Pebble Beach last year, though he finished third last week at the Saudi International and carried a little momentum into the event he has won five times. Day knows the feeling. Since last year at Pebble, he has recorded just three top 10s, none since last June. He has not seriously contended. His back troubles have been so frustrating that at times he wondered how much longer he wanted to play. He described those as “dark times.” His outlook Friday was as bright as the sunshine over the Monterey Peninsula, at least until a light marine layer over parts of the courses lowered the temperature. Day birdied the par 5s and made a 45-foot putt from the fringe on the par-3 fifth at Pebble. He holed a 50-foot birdie putt on the par-3 12th, another bonus. And then he surged into contention by holing out for his eagle on the 14th, and following that with a 15-foot birdie on the 15th. There’s still one more round before this tournament played over three courses takes shape, and there’s no better place to be in relative calm than Pebble Beach. “If you have really good weather, you can go low at Pebble,” Day said. That’s what Taylor did, making birdie on all the par 5s for his 66. Ditto for Chris Baker, the 33-year-old PGA TOUR rookie who played Pebble Beach for the first time in a practice round Wednesday, and really had a blast in his round of 64 on Friday that put him four shots behind, along with Charl Schwartzel (66 at Pebble). Of the top five players, only Mickelson was not at Pebble Beach. Monterey Peninsula played about two shots under par, while Pebble’s average was nearly 1 under. Spyglass Hill was nearly a stroke over par, so it was no surprise that only one player from the top 20 — Matt Every — was at Spyglass on Friday. Dustin Johnson, a two-time Pebble Beach winner who finished runner-up to Ted Potter Jr. two years ago, appeared to be hitting his stride with great control of his irons and usual power off the tee. He lost a little ground on the final hole when he three-putted for bogey from about 25 feet on his final hole at Monterey Peninsula, missing a 3-footer. That happens on poa greens with foursomes in each group, and Johnson shrugged it off. He’s used to odd things happening, even when it’s not all his doing. Day was feeling particularly optimistic, especially after the year he had. His back gave him so much trouble that one of his routines is to blow into a balloon for some 20 minutes to help get his rib cage aligned properly. He used to spend hours chipping and putting. He found it a small victory when he was able to putt for an entire hour. “It’s hard because … you expect so much of yourself, and everyone does,” Day said. “But sometimes when you’re injured, like for the most part I was all last year, it gets frustrating. And not only do you get frustrated, you don’t get the results and you lose confidence and then you’re … just trying to find a solution into why I’m not playing well and why is this happening. And you feel like your world is kind of crumbling. “It’s not a good feeling because there’s some dark moments in there that you got to kind of fight through.” There were no dark moments Friday, not in weather like this. Day and Taylor now move over to Spyglass Hill on Saturday morning, while Mickelson, Johnson and the celebrities head to Pebble Beach.

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Will Americans’ dominance continue after latest convincing victory?

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