Morikawa takes home Open Championship

The final event of the 2016-17 season has arrived, and the PGA TOUR’s biggest prize is at stake. Any one of the 30 players in the TOUR Championship field has a mathematical shot at winning the FedExCup, although the top 5 in FedExCup points – Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Marc Leishman and Jon Rahm — are the only ones who control their own fates. A win at East Lake would guarantee any of them the FedExCup. PGA TOUR LIVE will carry coverage of the TOUR Championship starting Thursday at 10 a.m. ET. Golf Channel’s coverage will begin at 1 p.m. and PGA TOUR Radio’s play-by-play coverage will begin at noon ET. In addition, fans will be able to enjoy the TOUR Championship with a live Virtual Reality experience viewed on Samsung Gear VR headsets through the PGA TOUR VR Live app in the Oculus store. Fans without a headset can watch the 360 video stream on Twitter and Periscope. The Live and on-demand VR and 360 video coverage will showcase holes 1, 15 and 18. For more information, click here. The 30 players in the field will be paired in twosomes for each round – and unlike at regular TOUR events, will be repaired after each round. Pairings for the first round are based on current FedExCup rankings. Here are the Featured Groups for the first round at East Lake (FedExCup ranking in parentheses): JORDAN SPIETH (1), JUSTIN THOMAS (2) – Thankfully these two are such great friends because they’ve been spending a lot of time together recently. Due to their positions in the FedExCup standings, they’ve been in the same group six times during the Playoffs – Spieth has shot the better score three times, and Thomas twice. This will be the 24th time in their PGA TOUR careers that they’ve been in the same group, and the 14th time this season. Thomas has won twice in his last four starts – including the Dell Technologies Championship, the second event of the FedExCup Playoffs — while Spieth has posted two runner-ups and a tie for seventh in his first three Playoffs starts. Spieth is the only past FedExCup champ in the field this week; he won the title in 2015 by winning at East Lake. Rd. 1 tee time: 2 p.m. ET. DUSTIN JOHNSON (3), MARC LEISHMAN (4) – It’s a pairing of two of the three Playoffs events winners. Johnson beat Spieth in a sudden-death playoff at THE NORTHERN TRUST, while Leishman romped to a five-shot wire-to-wire victory at the BMW Championship – a win that moved him inside the top five of the FedExCup standings. Leishman has arguably been the best player in the last two events and is trying to take the Billy Horschel path to the FedExCup title. In 2014, Horschel played well at TPC Boston, won the next event and then carried that momentum to a win at East Lake. This will be the first time in four years that Johnson and Leishman have been paired at a TOUR event – not counting a Foursomes match at the Presidents Cup two years ago in Korea. Rd. 1 tee time: 1:50 p.m. ET. JON RAHM (5), RICKIE FOWLER (6) — Rahm is the only player in the Playoffs to produce top-5 finishes in each of the first three events and will be getting his first look at East Lake. Fowler comes off a tie for second at the BMW Championship – his first top-10 since a tie for fifth at the PGA Championship. While Rahm is guaranteed to win the FedExCup title with a win at East Lake, Fowler is in great shape too – a year ago, Rory McIlroy won the FedExCup title from the No. 6 position. It’s a terrific opportunity for Fowler, who last year was No. 31 in points and did not play at East Lake. This will be the 15th round this season that Rahm and Fowler have been in the same group. Rd. 1 tee time: 1:40 p.m. ET. HIDEKI MATSUYAMA (7), JUSTIN ROSE (8) – It’s been a frustrating Playoffs for Matsuyama but a very productive one for Rose. Matsuyama was the No. 1 seed after the PGA TOUR Season, but a missed cut, a tie for 23rd and tie for 47th left him outside the top five. Meanwhile, Rose is one of five players who began the Playoffs outside the top 30 bubble but played his way in from the No. 32 position. With consecutive T-10s followed by a tie for second last week, Rose is one of three players (Spieth, Rahm) with top-10 finishes in all three events. This will be just the second PGA TOUR stroke-play event that Matsuyama and Rose have been paired. Rd. 1 tee time: 1:30 p.m. ET.

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HAMILTON, Ontario – There are not many people in golf, let alone on the PGA TOUR, who could rely on past experience when they get close to shooting a 59, golf’s magic number. But Brandt Snedeker is one of those people. Snedeker, who won the RBC Canadian Open in 2013, shot a 10-under-par 60 on Friday at Hamilton Golf and Country Club and was flirting with 59, again, late in his round. The former FedExCup champion shot a 59 to open last year’s Wyndham Championship. He’d go on to win that week, his first TOUR win in two years. “When I did it at Wyndham I wasn’t feeling very good about my game at all; today I was feeling good,â€� said Snedeker of the differences between the two days. “I knew I could get something going early, make a putt early, I was rolling it really good on the putting green so I felt like I was there. “You get one those days every once in a while, and so I did the best I could taking advantage of it. I tried to make sure I made every putt today.â€� Snedeker made 136 feet of putts on Friday, his best of the season after making 112 feet of putts at the second round of the Charles Schwab Challenge. Snedeker and Carl Pettersson, who won in 2010 at St. George’s Golf and Country Club, are the only golfers to shoot 60 at the event. Greg Norman also had a round of 10-under, a 62, at Glen Abbey Golf Club in in 1986. Snedeker tied the best 36-hole score at the Canadian Open with 129 after he opened with a 1-under 69.   “I made a small adjustment in my setup this week and it kind of clicked and felt great on the range. I think I missed one fairway with my driver, and you do that around here you’re going to set yourself up for success,â€� he said. “I just kept feeding on it, feeding on it, didn’t really think about (the score) too much until… 17 is the first time kind of popped in my head. Like, ‘oh, if I finish birdie-birdie I can shoot 59 again.’â€� As the afternoon wave was just getting started Friday, Snedeker was leading by two shots. Snedeker was grouped with Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas – another past FedExCup champion – and combined the trio shot 19-under on Friday. “It was fun to watch. It was exciting for sure. He made it look really easy,â€� said Koepka of Snedeker’s round. “I felt like I didn’t play very well playing with him,â€� echoed Thomas, with a laugh. “I mean, man that guy can putt. It was unbelievable.â€� Snedeker said the golf course sets up well for him since it’s not a layout for bombers. “You’ve got to put the ball in the fairway and give yourself plenty of opportunities. Sounds boring, but that’s the way this golf course is meant to be played,â€� he said. “That’s why I love it. I love old-school golf courses.â€� Although Snedeker has had two top-10 finishes this year, including at THE PLAYERS Championship, he classified his season to this point as “mediocre,â€� admitting he’s had trouble stringing four good rounds together. He said he usually plays well at events he’s won before – indeed, he’s won twice at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Farmers Insurance Open, and the Wyndham Championship – and even though he’s playing the Canadian Open this week at a different course than when he won in 2013, he’s still feeling good heading into the weekend. “I hold this tournament up a little bit more just because of what it means to me being a past champion,â€� said Snedeker. “I’ve only won RBC (Canadian Open) once, so would be find of a fitting way to top this one off.â€�

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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Wyndham Clark zoomed to the top of the leaderboard midway through his third round at The Honda Classic. Here are a few things you should know about the PGA TOUR rookie who currently resides in Las Vegas. His mom took him to the driving range for the first time when Wyndham was just 3 years old. “I hit a bucket of balls and asked to hit another bucket,â€� Wyndham recalled. Lisa Clark remembered an elderly gentleman golfer asking how long her son had been playing the game. She said, “30 minutes,â€� to which the man replied, “Don’t change his swing.â€�   At 6 years old, young Wyndham made his first hole-in-one. “Hit driver from 125 and made it,â€� Clark said. “I actually got on the front page of the Denver Post. I have that framed. So, I remember that as well.â€� Clark attended Valor Christian High School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, and become close friends with classmate Christian McCaffrey, the star running back for the Carolina Panthers.   After graduating from high school, he initially went to Oklahoma State to play golf (and through that connection, became friends with Rickie Fowler). During Clark’s freshman year, his mother’s breast cancer, which had been first diagnosed in 1997, returned. She died in August of 2013. Wyndham wants to honor his mom’s memory – he calls it “Play Bigâ€� — and hopes to start a breast cancer foundation.   “She’s a lot of the reason why I play today,â€� Clark once told the school newspaper at Oregon. “She was there when I played bad, and there to console me and make me feel better. When I played great she was there to hug me and be super excited for me. She was a huge part of my upbringing.â€�   After his mother’s death, Clark contemplated quitting the game. “It just wasn’t as much of a priority for me after she passed,â€� he said. “It got to where it was really hard and just not enjoyable. But I know that she wouldn’t want me to do that. … She’s really helped me get through a lot of tough things since she’s passed. I want to honor her and honor what she wanted me to do and try to make her proud.â€�   Ten days after his mother’s death, Clark competed in the U.S. Amateur, finishing ninth. Oklahoma State head coach Alan Bratton was his caddie.   Clark transferred to Oregon for a change of scenery and enjoyed playing for coach Casey Martin. He was Pac-12 Player of the Year for the Ducks team, with three individual tournament wins and 10 top-10 finishes in 11 starts. He shot 69 or better in 18 of 28 rounds that season, including all three rounds of the Pac-12 Championship, which he won. He was also named GolfWeek Player of the Year, was a finalist for the Ben Hogan Award and was a semifinalist for the Division I Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year award.   The Ducks also won the NCAA Championship in 2017. “I’ve never won a championship that big. Not only did I do it individually, but we did it as a team, which was awesome. It was really fun to share, and we all had a blast doing it,â€� Clark said.   Clark also graduated with a business degree. “It took me five years,â€� he said. “I’m a good student, but I didn’t put 100 percent effort into it. When I did graduate, it definitely felt like I accomplished something. It’s nice to have my piece of paper, my degree.â€�   After a T-23 finish at the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament – which included a hole-in-one during competition — Clark guaranteed himself eight starts to begin the 2018 Web.com Tour season. He parlayed that into full status, and eventually made 24 starts, with four top-10 finishes. He finished 16th on the regular season money list to secure his PGA TOUR card for the 2018-19 season.   In his first 10 starts this season, his best result is a T-10 at last week’s Puerto Rico Open. Because of that top-10 result, he earned a spot in the field this week at PGA National. He entered this week ranked 13th on TOUR in birdie average (4.66 per round).   He currently lives in Las Vegas, and practices with fellow residents Scott Piercy and Ryan Moore, who have given him advice on being a TOUR pro, as well as insight into the courses on TOUR.   Asked once if it was an advantage or disadvantage growing up in Colorado as a golfer, Clark replied (to CHSAA.org): “I think it’s a disadvantage, personally. Because you don’t ever really play at altitude at any of these events. The most you play at is maybe 1,000 feet. I think growing up in Colorado, not only are you playing different distances, but the ball actually spins less and is affected by the air less. So the ball goes straighter and doesn’t go offline as much. When you go play in Florida or other places where the air is thick, your misses are exaggerated a lot more. I think that’s definitely a disadvantage.â€� So far, Florida seems to be working out quite nicely for Clark.

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