Expert Picks: The RSM Classic

The final round of the Masters begins Sunday from Augusta National Golf Club to decide the year’s first major championship. The two hottest players in the game make up the final pairing with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler leading PLAYERS champion Cameron Smith by three shots. Sungjae Im sits at 4 under. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action: Leaderboard Tee times HOW TO FOLLOW Click here for full coverage on Masters.com Television: Thursday-Friday, 3 p.m.-7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN); Saturday, 3 p.m.-7 p.m. (CBS); Sunday, 2 p.m.-7 p.m. (CBS) Radio: Thursday-Sunday, 2 p.m.-7 p.m. ET (CBS Radio; Sirius 208, XM 92) (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) For outside of the U.S., click here for GOLFTV powered by the PGA TOUR Stream: On the Range, Holes 4-6, Featured Group coverage, Amen Corner, and Holes 15 & 16 will be available to stream for views in the U.S. only via Masters.com (Starting times include: Thursday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday, 11 a.m. ET) PGA TOUR LIVE Editor’s note: Augusta National Golf Club, which owns and operates the Masters Tournament, controls all digital streaming and broadcast rights to this event. PGA TOUR LIVE coverage will resume at next week’s RBC Heritage. MUST READS Scheffler’s lead shrinks with Smith chasing Woods struggles with putter en route to 78 Book excerpt: When Tiger Woods proved the doubters wrong Nine Things to Know: Augusta National Golf Club Here comes Harry Higgs, right down Magnolia Lane Hideki Matsuyama helping Japan’s promising young stars Cameron Smith’s secrets to success at Augusta

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Welcome to the FedExCup Playoffs. Now in its 13th season, this competition rewards consistency as well as success during the regular season, while also offering hope for players who can get hot in the three-event Playoffs to make a charge up the standings. With some significant changes in the schedule and format, the question becomes: Who will own August? How it works The top 125 in regular-season FedExCup points qualify for the Playoffs. The points structure for the first two events will be quadrupled. At THE NORTHERN TRUST, 55 players will be eliminated, with the top 70 advancing to the second event, the BMW Championship. From there, 40 more players will be eliminated, with the top 30 moving on to the Playoffs finale, the TOUR Championship. This is similar to previous Playoffs, albeit with one less Playoffs event. It’s at the TOUR Championship where the biggest change has been made. Instead of a points reset used in the previous format, the new format for East Lake starting this season involves a strokes-based bonus system called FedExCup Starting Strokes. Each player will start with a score (relative to par) corresponding to his position in FedExCup points after the BMW Championship. Here’s the breakdown: This will allow each player to know exactly where he stands throughout the tournament, eliminating the guessing game and the scenarios of past Playoffs. With the implementation of this change, the player with the lowest total score will be the FedExCup champion and be credited with an official victory in the TOUR Championship. Players to watch A look at the top five in the FedExCup standings going into the Playoffs: THREE MORE TO WATCH Tiger Woods — He’s the defending TOUR Championship champ, but despite that Masters win, there’s no guarantee he reaches East Lake. He starts a precarious 27th in the standings and his health and stamina will be tested with three starts (he hopes) in three consecutive weeks. Still, his track record on this year’s three courses is unmatched by any player in the Playoffs. Justin Rose — The defending FedExCup champ won at Torrey Pines this season, but after that, the season’s been less productive. Vying to become the first to successfully defend the FedExCup. Will enter the Playoffs ranked 10th. Dustin Johnson — Has four wins in the Playoffs (tied with Rory and Tiger for most) and 18 career Top 10s (most of any player). And yet he’s never been able to lift the FedExCup trophy. Has hit a cold stretch the last five starts. Starts the Playoffs ranked 7th in points. The courses What’s at stake FEDEXCUP TITLE: The biggest prize in golf is even bigger this season, with the winner receiving a $15 million bonus – a 50 percent increase from last season. Just three of the previous 12 winners have entered the Playoffs as the top seed – Tiger Woods in 2007 and 2009, and Jordan Spieth in 2015. After a 38-week regular season, it’s now a three-tournament sprint to the finish. PRESIDENTS CUP: This year’s competition at Royal Melbourne is in December, but the automatic top eight spots for both teams will be determined after the BMW Championship. For the U.S. Team, rankings are based on accumulated FedExCup points; for the International Team, the Official World Golf Ranking determines the top eight. Some big names are currently on the outside looking in – including U.S. Captain Tiger Woods, currently ranked 12th. Woods and International Team Captain Ernie Els will make their Captain’s Picks during the Fall portion of next season’s schedule. PLAYER OF THE YEAR: So you think Brooks Koepka has it wrapped up for the second straight year? He certainly is in the driver’s seat, but perhaps Rory McIlroy – who counts THE PLAYERS Championship as one of his two wins this season – can make some noise to join Tiger as the only two-time FedExCup champs. Or maybe Gary Woodland gets hot and adds the FedExCup title to his U.S. Open victory. Could be enough to sway some votes. ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: This one should definitely be decided by what happens in the next three weeks. Sungjae Im has been arguably the most consistent, but Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff, Adam Long and Cameron Champ each has a victory. The goal is to get to East Lake … and then make your final argument there. MORE BENEFITS: Reaching certain plateaus in the FedExCup standings triggers various invites to tournaments in the following season. Here’s a list: Playoffs fast facts Nine players have qualified for the Playoffs in each of the first 13 seasons: Charley Hoffman, Charles Howell III, Matt Kuchar, Phil Mickelson, Ryan Moore, Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Brandt Snedeker, Bubba Watson. Phil Mickelson is the only player to qualify for the BMW Championship (top 70) in each of the previous 12 seasons. Mickelson enters this year’s Playoffs ranked 33rd, so he’s essentially assured of advancing to the BMW for a 13th consecutive season. Mickelson also has made more birdies (651) than any player in Playoffs history. Dustin Johnson is the only player to qualify for the TOUR Championship in 10 of the first 12 FedExCup seasons. Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose had reached East Lake nine times since 2007. Jason Day has a recorded a top-25 finish in 29 of 39 Playoffs events (a 74.4 percent clip). That’s the most top-25 finishes for any player in Playoffs history. Day also is the most under par (227 under) and has the most sub-70 rounds (84). Since 2009, Tiger Woods is the only No. 1 seed entering the TOUR Championship to win the FedExCup. More Tiger: His 68.27 career stroke average in the FedExCup Playoffs is the best among all players with a minimum of 40 rounds played. Since 2012, Jon Rahm has a stroke average of 68.60, the best among all players with a minimum of 30 rounds. Rahm and Justin Thomas each played all 16 rounds of the 2017 Playoffs at par or better – the only ones to have done that in any Playoffs stretch (Thomas won the FedExCup title that year). Lowest rounds in Playoffs history: Jim Furyk’s 59 at the 2013 BMW Championship; Zach Johnson’s 60 at the 2007 TOUR Championship. Four players have shot a round of 61 in the Playoffs. Just two players have drives of 400-plus yards in the Playoffs – Dustin Johnson, 463 yards at the 2011 Dell Technologies Championship/Rd. 4 (TPC Boston); and Rory McIlroy, 403 yards at the 2017 THE NORTHERN TRUST/Rd. 4 (Glen Oaks). Charles Howell III has the longest putt in Playoffs history – 88 feet, 5 inches on the 12th hole at the 2011 BMW Championship (Cog Hill). Billy Horschel is the lowest-ranked player entering the Playoffs to win the FedExCup. He entered the 2014 Playoffs ranked 69th, then fell to 80th after missing the cut at THE NORTHERN TRUST. He then finished T-2 at the next event before winning the last two events that season. Bubble busters: 34 players who started the BMW Championship outside the top 30 in points have played their way into the TOUR Championship. Geoff Ogilvy was the lowest-ranked player, starting 69th before moving up to 24th after the 2011 BMW. Twelve rookies have qualified for the TOUR Championship in the FedExCup era, most recently Aaron Wise last season. Xander Schauffele has the best rookie finish in the final FedExCup standings (third in 2017).

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Coming from five behind at the start of the day, Satoshi Kodaira of Japan fires a final-round 66 to force a playoff, then birdies the third extra hole to defeat Si Woo Kim of Korea. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Kodaira followed a second-round 63 with an even more impressive 66 two days later in windy weather, breaking through at scenic Harbour Town. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Yes, Kodaira’s victory was surprising, even to him. For one thing, when he speaks of Japan’s most famous player, five-time PGA TOUR winner Hideki Matsuyama, Kodaira still speaks with the reverence Wayne and Garth once reserved for Aerosmith. “Hideki is a great player,� said Kodaira, who is in fact two years older than Matsuyama. “And of course I’m not as good as him, but I’m getting closer.� Before Harbour Town, Kodaira had missed the cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii and Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard; finished 54th at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship and T59 at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play; and peaked with a T28 at the Masters. His results hardly seemed to indicate that this was coming, and he came into the RBC ranked 46th in the world. (He’s up to 27th. Matsuyama is eighth.) On the other hand, Japan Golf Tour fans were perhaps less shocked. Kodaira, 28, is a six-time winner on that tour, and has also collected three second-place finishes, and five thirds. 2. Runner-up Si Woo Kim moved up 24 spots to 26th in the FedExCup, and he played some great shots under pressure. Alas, he had a bad putting day at exactly the wrong time. Many will look back on Kim’s missed birdie from 6 feet, 4 inches on the last hole of regulation, but that was part of a larger nine-hole stretch on the back nine in which he could not buy a birdie. Also, don’t forget that Kim would have still won by two had he not incurred a two-shot penalty for wiping sand off the green between his ball and the 14th hole Friday. Amazingly, despite a triple bogey there, he still shot a second-round 65. Silver lining: He’s rounding into form nicely for his title defense at THE PLAYERS Championship next month. “Even though I’m not an American player,� he said at Harbour Town, “I’m just incredibly grateful to see some of these fans cheering my name and cheering for me in the playoff.� 3. Luke List just keeps on knocking on the door, and as he said afterward, it seems likely to open for him sometime soon. The Vanderbilt product admittedly wasn’t sharp in the final round, but he still gave himself an excellent chance to join the playoff by parking his approach shot to 10 feet, 3 inches on the last hole of regulation. He missed, his face a picture of agony, and signed for a 1-over 72 to finish T3. The bigger picture, though, shows a positive trajectory: in 16 starts this season, List has nine top-25 finishes, including four top 10s. His best: a playoff runner-up to Justin Thomas at The Honda Classic. List, who is originally from Seattle but plays out of Virginia Country Club in Long Beach, Calif., moved from 20th to 11th in the FedExCup. 4. Ian Poulter finally ran out of gas, which was understandable given the run he’s been on, a six-week stretch of tournament play that began at the Valspar Championship outside Tampa. Poulter made a run to the quarterfinals at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play; won the Houston Open to earn a last-second Masters invite; and while he did little besides make the cut at Augusta National, he built a one-stroke lead through 54 holes at Harbour Town. Alas, after a 47-hole stretch without a bogey earlier in the tournament, Poulter shot a 4-over 75 to finish 9 under and T7, making five of his six bogeys on the inward nine holes. Still, it’s worth remembering Poulter came into last year’s RBC Heritage at 210 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He came into this one 31st, and is now 29th. Oh, and don’t look now, but it’s a Ryder Cup year. 5. Harbour Town was the week’s big winner, as usual. The 7,099-yard, par-71 stood its ground as the field averaged 70.847 for the week, and 12-under was good enough to get into the playoff. The par-3 14th hole gave players fits, and all week players commented on how the layout was proof that one need not build a course to be 8,000 yards long to create a challenge. “The fairways sometimes aren’t quite good enough,� Poulter said. “You have to hit the right or left half of them. And it’s a great test of golf. … It’s a very clever course. It’s not the longest one we play, but it’s probably the smartest one.� FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Kodaira became the third player to win a TOUR event this season after opening with a 73. Jason Day (Farmers Insurance Open) and Poulter (Houston Open) were the first two. Kodaira collected his first win in his 15th PGA TOUR start, and his longest made putt of the week, of 24 feet, 6 inches, came as he closed out Kim on the third playoff hole (17). 2. Kodaira separated himself from the field on his approach shots. He averaged 29 feet, 6 inches on his approaches, which was nearly six feet closer than the field (35 feet, 5 inches) and was the third best average proximity to the hole by a winner on TOUR this season. His third-round 63 marked the fourth round of 63 or better by a winner at the RBC. Peter Lonard went for 62 in the first round of the 2005 RBC, while Loren Roberts (round three, 1996) and Jim Furyk (round four, 2015) also shot 63 in winning efforts. 3. Since 2007, seven of the 11 RBC Heritage champions have qualified for the TOUR Championship. Kodaira said it has always been his dream to play the PGA TOUR, and verbally accepted membership Sunday. Should he formally do so, he would earn a two-year membership with his win, carrying him through the 2019-20 season. And his non-member FedExCup points would transfer over to the member list. Should he accept TOUR membership, his win would also get him into THE PLAYERS Championship, Fort Worth Invitational, the Memorial Tournament, The National, and the PGA Championship. For next season, he gets into the Sentry Tournament of Champions, CareerBuilder Challenge, Arnold Palmer Invitational, and RBC Heritage. 4. Harbour Town’s small greens highlighted the importance of good iron play. Kodaira was seventh in the field in strokes gained: approach-the-green, and Kim was 12th. Meanwhile, Bryson DeChambeau and Luke List, who tied for third, were second and third, respectively. 5. There were six bogey-free rounds Thursday, nine Friday, three Saturday, and none Sunday. TOP THREE VIDEOS

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