Troy Merritt, Joaquin Niemann share lead at Rocket Mortgage Classic

Daniel Berger takes a run at becoming the first man since 2011 to three-peat a PGA TOUR event, joining reigning U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka and predecessor Dustin Johnson in the final stop before Shinnecock Hills. This year will be the final pre-Open setting for the longtime Memphis stop, which gets an upgrade to World Golf Championships status in 2019 and will move into the late summer slot following the Open Championship. FIELD NOTES: Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson also will take a running start into Open week, giving the lineup four of the top 20 players in the world rankings. Stenson visits Memphis for the first time since 2012. … In all, 13 St. Jude entrants will use Memphis as a tuneup for Shinnecock Hills. That number could rise after Monday’s final Open qualifying. … Ole Miss junior Braden Thornberry, fourth last year after capturing the NCAA individual title, returns on another sponsor exemption. … Two other former college standouts join the lineup: Grant Hirschman (Oklahoma) and Dawson Armstrong (Lipscomb). … John Daly, now primarily on the PGA TOUR Champions, joins the Memphis lineup for the first time since 2014. … Memphis native Casey Wittenberg tees it up on the PGA TOUR for the first time since 2016 at Torrey Pines. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points. STORYLINES: Berger, whose only two professional wins have come at TPC Southwind, sets out to become just the sixth man in the past four decades to win three straight at the same venue. Steve Stricker was the last to pull it off, winning three John Deere Classics from 2009-11. … Mickelson, never lower than 11th in any of the past five editions, returns to sharpen his game ahead of the only major he hasn’t won. The Hall of Famer has six top-6 finishes this season, including a win at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship. … Koepka arrives off a runner-up finish at the Fort Worth Invitational, just his third start since a 16-week layoff to let a wrist injury heal. …Just five St. Jude champions have come from outside the United States, with Nick Price winning twice in 1993 and ’98. The others: Gary Player (1974), Greg Norman (1997), Lee Westwood (2010) and Fabian Gomez (2015). … A U.S. Open berth remains available for anyone who moves into the top 60 of the world rankings after the St. Jude’s conclusion. Seeking a last-gasp rise: No.63 Patton Kizzire and No.65 Adam Scott. COURSE: TPC Southwind, 7,244 yards, par 70. Hosting its 30th edition of the St. Jude Classic, the former dairy farm takes a step up next year as a World Golf Championships venue. Architect Ron Prichard teamed with former U.S. Open champions Hubert Green and Fuzzy Zoeller on a layout that winds through natural lakes, streams and ponds southeast of Memphis. Loren Roberts was brought in for a 2004 upgrade that removed dozens of trees on the property and replaced Southwind’s bentgrass greens with more heat-tolerant Bermuda strain. Southwind’s par-3 11th hole draws comparisons with the famed 17th at TPC Sawgrass, requiring a short iron over water to a small island green. 72-HOLE RECORD: 258, John Cook (1996). 18-HOLE RECORD: 59, Al Geiberger (2nd round, 1977 at Colonial CC). TPC Southwind record: 61, Jay Delsing (4th round, 1993), Bob Estes (1st round, 2001). LAST YEAR: Berger picked up his second PGA TOUR title at the same place he claimed his first, emerging from a logjam at the top with a bogey-free 66 on the final day. A 17-foot birdie at No.15 pushed Berger to the front for good, finishing at 10-under-par 270 and one stroke clear of Charl Schwartzel and Whee Kim. Thornberry was among five players who finished two shots off the pace, becoming the first amateur to record a top-10 finish at Memphis since 1965. At one point, nine players shared the final-round lead at 8-under before Berger finally rose above the crowd. The Florida native became the St. Jude Classic’s fourth back-to-back winner and first since David Toms in 2003-04. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 4-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. (Featured Groups), 4-7 p.m. (Featured Holes). RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 1-7 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.COM).

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Kevin Tway held off two proven PGA TOUR winners a year ago to notch his first career TOUR victory at the 2018 Safeway Open. In the process, he and his father, Bob Tway, became the eighth father-son duo to win on the PGA TOUR since 1900. FIELD NOTES: Phil Mickelson is making his 2019-20 PGA TOUR season debut and will play alongside former NBA MVP Stephen Curry in Wednesday’s pro-am. This will be the fourth consecutive year that Mickelson has played the Safeway Open (he also played it in 2007); he has two top-10s and a top-20 in the last three starts. … 2017 FedExCup champion Justin Thomas also will make his 2019-20 debut, as are veterans Adam Scott and Francesco Molinari … Two-time winner Brendan Steele (2016-17) is returning once again. Steele finished T53 last season … Kevin Tway returns to defend… Recent Cal-Berkeley graduate and PGA TOUR winner Collin Morikawa is making his season debut. Morikawa played the Safeway Open in 2016 while he was a college sophomore … Fred Couples, who also played the Safeway Open in 2018, is playing his first non-major on the TOUR schedule since the Genesis Open. He has nine top-25 results in 10 starts on PGA TOUR Champions this year… Former NFL quarterback and CBS football analyst Tony Romo will be playing on a sponsor exemption. This will be Romo’s fourth TOUR start (he also played the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship in 2018 and 2019 and the AT&T Byron Nelson in 2019). Romo also is scheduled to play the pro-am with Thomas … After making his professional debut at the Sanderson Farms Championship, 17-year-old Akshay Bhatia is teeing it up this week as well FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points. COURSE: Silverado Resort & Spa (North), 7,166 yards, par 72. Despite wildfires that raged all around Silverado in 2017, the two golf courses were relatively unscathed. This is the fourth year the Safeway Open will be played at the North course at Silverado. STORYLINES: Phil Mickelson returns to action in the PGA TOUR for the first time since the BMW Championship. Mickelson, who turns 50 in 2020, is playing his fourth Safeway Open. He’s finished T3-8-T17 in his previous three starts, and shot an opening 65 a year ago. He’s also hoping to chase after a Presidents Cup captain’s pick. Mickelson has been on every U.S. national team since 1994 … Justin Thomas announced on Twitter in mid-September he had a melanoma scare on his leg after visiting the dermatologist. This is his first TOUR event since that scare, and he returns to the Safeway Open for the first time since 2016 when he finished T8 … Five of the 12 Safeway Opens have ended in a playoff … Seven golfers who are participating in the Presidents Cup (Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay, Scott, Marc Leishman, Abraham Ancer, and C.T. Pan) are in the field, the strongest in Safeway Open history. 72-HOLE RECORD: 262, Cameron Beckman (2008 at Grayhawk GC), Kevin Sutherland (2008 at Grayhawk GC), Troy Matteson (2009 at Grayhawk GC), Rickie Fowler (2009 at Grayhawk GC), Jamie Lovemark (2009 at Grayhawk GC). Silverado record: 270, Brendan Steele (2016). 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Mark Hensby (2nd round, 2007 at Grayhawk GC), Kevin Stadler (2nd round, 2008 at Grayhawk GC), Troy Matteson (2rd & 3rd rounds, 2009 at Grayhawk GC), Mike Weir (4th round, 2009 at Grayhawk GC), Chesson Hadley (2nd round, 2017 at Silverado). LAST TIME: Brandt Snedeker held the 54-hole lead but shot a 2-over 74 on Sunday – including making three straight bogeys after the turn in the final round – and ended up in a playoff with Ryan Moore and eventual winner Kevin Tway. Moore birdied three of his final four holes to get into the playoff. Tway birdied his final two holes to reach 14 under for the week. Tway and Moore made matching birdies on the 18th hole twice (Snedeker was eliminated after making a par on the first playoff hole) before the pair moved to the par-4 10th. Tway won after a birdie and would go on to finish 31st on the FedExCup. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 5 p.m.-9 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 6 p.m.-9 p.m. ET (Golf Channel) PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. ET (Featured Groups) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 3 p.m.-9 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday, 4 p.m.-9 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).

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