U.S. Open: Outgoing USGA CEO Mike Davis caddying for marker Jason Gore

2022 Wyndham Championship, Round 1 Scoring Conditions: Overall: -0.51 strokes per round Morning wave: -0.65 Afternoon wave: -0.37 Current cutline (top 65 and ties): 78 players at -1 or better (T58) Top 3 projected cutline probabilities: 1. 3 under par: 41.0% 2. 2 under par: 32.9% 3. 4 under par: 15.5% Top 10 win probabilities: 1. Sungjae Im (2, -7, 23.3%) 2. John Huh (1, -9, 12.9%) 3. Aaron Wise (T5, -5, 5.6%) 4. Billy Horschel (T23, -3, 4.0%) 5. Russell Henley (T23, -3, 3.5%) 6. Peter Malnati (T3, -6, 3.1%) 7. Alex Smalley (T5, -5, 2.8%) 8. Brandon Wu (T3, -6, 2.8%) 9. Christiaan Bezuidenhout (T14, -4, 2.4%) 10. Brian Harman (T23, -3, 2.4%) NOTE: These reports are based off of the live predictive model run by @DataGolf. The model provides live “Make Cut”, “Top 20”, “Top 5”, and “Win” probabilities every 5 minutes from the opening tee shot to the final putt of every PGA TOUR event. Briefly, the model takes account of the current form of each golfer as well as the difficulty of their remaining holes, and probabilities are calculated from 20K simulations. To follow live finish probabilities throughout the remainder of the Wyndham Championship, or to see how each golfer’s probabilities have evolved from the start of the event to the current time, click here for the model’s home page.

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MEXICO CITY — Bryson DeChambeau kept making so many birdies in the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship that when he rolled in his ninth one from 45 feet, all he could do was throw his hands in the air in pure wonder. Related: Leaderboard | Bubba Golf enjoying mini-revival in 2020 | Erik van Rooyen has first PLAYERS in sights after record-tying 62 He wasn’t alone Friday in making birdies, although Rory McIlroy would like to have joined the party. DeChambeau made seven birdies in an eight-hole stretch at Chapultepec Golf Club for an 8-under 63, giving him a one-shot lead over Erik van Rooyen of South Africa and Patrick Reed at the halfway point of this World Golf Championships event. DeChambeau was at 11-under 131. van Rooyen, who played college golf at Minnesota, celebrated his 30th birthday by making nine birdies to tie the course record with a 62. Reed made five birdies on the back nine for a 63 Justin Thomas ran off four straight birdies to end the back nine, and then holed a 35-foot eagle putt to build a three-shot lead through 10 holes. That was gone in a matter of four holes as player after player kept rolling in putts on a day with much less wind and far better scoring. The average score 70.28, more than two shots better than Thursday. Hideki Matusyama was 9 under for his round through 15 holes and had a 20-footer birdie attempt from the fringe on the par-3 seventh. He missed that 3 feet to the left, then missed the next one. He bogeyed the next hole, too, and had to settle for a 64. That left him at 9-under 133, along with Thomas, who had to settle for a 66. McIlroy wasn’t so fortunate. Staked to a two-shot lead at the start of the day, he opened with eight straight pars, didn’t make a birdie until his 12th hole and fell six shots behind at one point. Two birdies at the end gave him a 69 and was only three shots behind. “I made eight pars in a row, and then it’s like, `OK, you’re either going to make a birdie or a bogey. What’s going to come first?’ And I ended up making bogey,” McIlroy said. “There’s a long way to go.” DeChambeau can use all the science he wants with calculations for altitude and air density. The difference for him on this day wasn’t that difficult to figure out. “I just made a lot of putts today,” he said. His big run began on the 18th hole with a 15-foot birdie putt. He got up-and-down from short of the green on the reachable par-4 first hole, made a 15-footer on the net hole, added a few birdies inside 6 feet, and then made a 25-foot birdie. That apparently wasn’t enough. His tee shot on the 223-yard seventh hole with a green fronted by water went toward the back of the putting surface, leaving DeChambeau a downhill putt that is tough to lag. His putt was perfect pace, and a perfect line, as it turned out. “I just threw my hands up in the air. I mean, come on. Who thinks I’m going to make this one?” DeChambeau said. “Matt (Fitzpatrick) just looked at me and he was like, `What are you doing? Go get a lottery ticket or something.'” Reed seems to play his best with a chip on his shoulder. “I’m not going to lie, just the whole thing on the outside distracts us from our ultimate goal, and that’s to go out and play great golf and continue to try to improve every day on and off the golf course,” Reed said. “As long as you’re doing that, then you’re living the right way. So at the end of the day, you can’t please everybody, and I feel like I’m doing everything I need to be doing to continue to strive in the game of golf, hopefully on and off the golf course.” Most intriguing of the lot is van Rooyen, who finished the year among the top 50 to earn his first trip to The Masters. Now it’s about building a schedule on the road to Augusta. He has a sponsor exemption to the Honda Classic — van Rooyen moved to the area last summer — and needs to be in the top 50 each of the next two weeks to get into the Arnold Palmer Invitational and THE PLAYERS Championship. He currently is at No. 52. “I think at a tournament like this and a field like this, if you can play well, you can play well anywhere,” van Rooyen said. “So if I continue the way I’m going, it’ll be a big confidence booster.” Defending champion Dustin Johnson continued to struggle. A two-time winner in Mexico, Johnson has made only three birdies in two days. He shot 71 on Friday and was 16 shots behind.

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