Kevin Na shoots 61 to lead Sony Open in Hawaii

Once upon a time you had to serve an apprenticeship on the PGA TOUR. If you were good enough to get amongst the big boys in your early 20s, your time was spent learning the ropes and staying out of the spotlight. Oh how times have changed. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where a not so long off the rookie shelf Xander Schauffele took on the world in China and conquered the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions and a brand-new rookie in Cameron Champ delivered on the potential many had already highlighted he had at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Here are five observations and insights into another weekend full of youthful exuberance and excellence. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Xander Schauffele set a pretty high standard in his rookie season in 2016-17 — winning twice, including at the TOUR Championship. When he failed to win last season some quickfire takes concluded the youngster maybe overachieved in his rookie season … but such thoughts were short-sighted. You don’t always have to win to prove your worth. Schauffele returned to East Lake to defend his title last season, no mean feat. He did it with the help of two runner up finishes and two further third place results. He contended at two of the majors and THE PLAYERS. Clearly he is the real deal. And quite frankly, not winning last season might have been what he needed because he loves to play with a chip on his shoulder. He loves to feel like people don’t expect much from him, much like Brooks Koepka. “People can say whatever they want, but you know, my team and I, we know that we’re doing the right things, and it feels good to know that. It just feels good to win again,â€� Schauffele said after coming back from three shots down on Sunday to beat Tony Finau in a playoff. He just turned 25 — now there is a bright future on the horizon. 2. Anyone other than Tony Finau might be over this by now. Another runner up finish on the PGA TOUR, and this one in a playoff where he could taste the victory. From day one he was in the mix. And the three-shot lead he took into the final round in China had most thinking the patience and poise he’d displayed in his 11 top-10s last season — including three runner ups — was paying off. There was no doubt he had some Sunday nerves — his start was a little off and back-to-back bogeys on 11 and 12 had the smell of a Sunday slide. But impressively he bounced back and when he needed a birdie on the 72nd hole he produced it. His drive on the playoff was not his best but he was also a little unlucky to draw the lie he did. In the end he came up fractionally short again. But as usual he took it with grace and saw it as another learning experience. Another win for this man to go with his 2016 Puerto Rico Open is just around the corner, and it won’t stop there. “Definitely feel like I let one get away … It was cool to have a chance to win, a real chance to win, and I’ll definitely learn from this and keep moving forward,â€� Finau said. 3. It was an impressive title defense from Justin Rose in China. The FedExCup champion tried valiantly but just couldn’t muster enough of a charge down the stretch. A final hole bogey made his challenge appear weaker than it was on the scoreboard — in actual fact he was going for the hail mary eagle to finish to add some more drama and wasn’t that far off having a chance at it. While the game is getting younger and younger Rose continues to show the path for those closer to 40 than 20. He was a youth prodigy himself before battling through a huge slump at the beginnings of his career. Now look at him. The defending FedExCup champion who now once again threatens the world No. 1 slot. 4. Cameron Champ is just that: A champ. He’s barely into his career and he took out the Sanderson Farms Championship in style. The rookie proved that while he is the bomber off the tee we have heard so much about for a few years now, he is also much more than that. His putter proved more than capable in the big moments and his win came with an old driver after he cracked his gamer in his Sunday warmup. Perhaps the most impressive part of the win was his ability to turn things around mid-round. Champ lost a four-shot lead on the front nine on Sunday. You’d forgive most rookies for something similar — as it is usually part of the learning process. But instead of slinking away completely, Champ rallied and recovered in style. Once Corey Conners squared him up, Champ went on the offensive to great effect. He would end up making birdie on five of his last six holes to finish off an awesome effort and four-shot win. 5. It was another successful Asian Swing on the PGA TOUR with some impressive golf giving a handful of players a huge boost early in this new season. It is now very probable that winners Marc Leishman (CIMB Classic), Brooks Koepka (CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES) and Schauffele (WGC–HSBC Champions) will all be huge contenders for the FedExCup come playoff time. As each passing year goes by those who take the plunge into Asia are getting more and more reward. Word of mouth spreads fast with the players, and the hospitality shown in Malaysia, Korea and China has been impeccable. Don’t be surprised to see an even bigger swell in quality of fields next season. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Schauffele’s win moves him to No. 1 in the FedExCup. He’s looking to make it three for three in making the TOUR Championship since joining the TOUR. He was third in the FedExCup in 2017 and 15th in 2018. He now has three career wins in 60 starts. 2. Schauffele was the only player in the field in China to shoot in the 60s in the third and fourth rounds. He hit 11-of-14 fairways, 15-of-18 greens in regulation and hit 29 putts in his final round. For the week he hit 25-of-56 fairways, 49-of-72 greens in regulation and hit 104 putts. 3. Champ ranked second in both Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and Putting for the week at Sanderson Farms, becoming the 22nd winner on TOUR (since 2004 where ShotLink lasers were used) to rank inside the top two in both categories on the way to victory. A total of 86 percent of his total strokes gained for the week were a result of both his off the tee and on the green performances at the Country Club of Jackson. 4. Champ led the field in Driving Distance (All-Drives) averaging 308 yards off the tee. He hit eight drives of 340 yards or longer becoming the 42nd winner on TOUR to do so in the ShotLink era (since 2003). 5. In the final round, Champ made more than 114 feet of putts, a career high. He made a total of 28 birdies for the week, marking the most of any player by six. He converted over 50 percent of his birdies when hitting a green in regulation. Champ missed only eight putts from 15 feet and in going 66-of-74 (89 percent) for the week. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup regular season will benefit from the Wyndham Rewards program. Xander Schauffele takes top spot this week courtesy of his win at the WGC–HSBC Champions while Cameron Champ jumps up from 72nd to sixth after winning the Sanderson Farms Championship. Runner up in China — Tony Finau — is the other new arrival inside the top 10 with a move to seventh.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jordan Spieth gets his first shot at completing the career grand slam at this week’s PGA Championship. Check out PGATOUR.COM’s day-by-day coverage from Quail Hollow below. SPIETH’S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP SCORECARD Saturday: Hot streak, tough finish For the first seven holes Saturday, Jordan Spieth continued the frustrating play that has denied him a shot at history. Three bogeys had him free-falling down the leaderboard. But then he finally found the form — specifically, his putting stroke — that he had been seeking all week at Quail Hollow. A birdie from 10 feet at the eighth hole, followed by his longest made putt of the week, from 33-1/2 feet from the fringe at the ninth. Then four consecutive pars followed by three consecutive birdies, including a 23-foot putt at the 16th. His 5-under stretch in those nine holes had him on the verge of climbing inside the top 20 on the leaderboard. But on the final hole, his tee shot found the bunker and his second shot landed in the water. He ultimately suffered a double bogey, leaving him with an even-par 71 and 3 over going into the final round. It’s his best score of the week but even after his hot stretch, he had few illusions of becoming a contender. “If I had birdied one of the last two and I’m at even, it’s unrealistic,” Spieth said. “My goal was to try to work our way into a backdoor Top-10. Kind of stinks because it sets me back there. 18 is just a ridiculously hard hole today.” He’ll go into Sunday hoping to build some momentum going into the FedExCup Playoffs. Two months ago, he was out of contention at the U.S. Open but shot a final-round confidence-boosting 69. He said it was a catalyst to his wins at the Travelers Championship and The Open Championship. “Obviously any week you don’t have a chance to win, you’ve fallen short of where you would like to be,” Spieth said. “Disappointing would have been going home after two days. I think I saw some highlights today. “Like Michael [Greller, his caddie] was saying, we could break the season into quarters. This is the start of the fourth quarter. [Entering the] U.S. Open Sunday, I was out of it, but I gathered a little something off that Sunday round that led to two wins and two tournaments after that including a major. “Just one round like that can do that. That’s what I’m looking to do here.” — Mike McAllister Friday: Essentially out of it Jordan Spieth will start the weekend 11 shots behind co-leaders Kevin Kisner and Hideki Matsuyama. That means he has lots of ground to make up. Does he have a target score in mind for Saturday’s third round at Oak Hill? “54 would be nice,â€� he joked. Consider that Spieth’s way of saying he’ll likely have to wait another year to complete the career Grand Slam. His 2-over 73 on Friday leaves him at 3 over through two rounds and a tie for 46th, with some players yet to complete their second rounds. The good news for Spieth was that he did finish his round. The horn suspended play for darkness just before his chip shot onto the 18th green. Opting to finish the hole, Spieth chipped onto the green, then two-putted from 11 feet for bogey. It was that kind of day. Spieth posted just one birdie – he has just four through the first 36 holes – and never built any momentum. Instead, it was mostly just trying to scramble out of trouble. After a rain delay Friday afternoon softened the course and created prime scoring conditions, Spieth played even par once play resumed. He failed to birdie the drivable par-4 14th or the par-5 15th, missing a birdie putt from just inside 10 feet. He said he bailed out on both tee shots. He also thought 16 and 18 were playing easier, but he failed to take advantage of those opportunities others did, and consequently, he gave up ground quickly on the leaderboard. “It was more gettable after the rain delay than it was before, no doubt about it,â€� Spieth said. “I played even par after the delay and that’s not very good in my opinion on those holes that we had left.â€� So now his best chance is a Hail Mary on the weekend. “I kind of accept the fact that I’m essentially out of this tournament pending some form of crazy stuff the next couple of days,â€� he said. “I’m sure going to give it a try.”  — Mike McAllister Thursday: Putting struggles Jordan Spieth has displayed a new skill set in 2017, and it’s one that we still have to get accustomed to. His ballstriking has been the key to his success, while his trusty putter has failed to live up to his standards. That was the case again Thursday as Spieth began his pursuit of the career Grand Slam at Quail Hollow. This is a course that requires players to drive the ball well, and Spieth leaned heavily on the longest club in his bag. It was the shortest one that frustrated him, though. “It was just the putter,â€� Spieth said after a first-round 72 that left him five shots behind leader Thorbjorn Olesen. Spieth had 32 putts Thursday, and didn’t make a putt longer than 5 feet. – Sean Martin Click here for the full story on Spieth’s opening round Preview: No added pressure Jordan Spieth enters the season’s final major with a rare opportunity to wipe out one of Tiger’s records. Having just turned 24 in late July, Spieth is about six months younger than Woods was at St. Andrews. Should Spieth win at Quail Hollow, he would eclipse Tiger as the youngest player to complete the career slam. Theoretically, Spieth will have many opportunities – two decades? three decades? – to finish the career slam. But he’ll have only one shot to do it faster than Woods did. “He can accomplish something that has to rank up there with the greatest records in the history of this 500-year-old sport,â€� CBS golf anchor Jim Nantz said. “It’s a huge story. … Golf could be on the precipice of one of the greatest achievements.â€� Thanks to his win at The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale – along with his Masters and U.S. Open wins in his magical 2015 season — Spieth has put himself in this position. He knows the spotlight will be heavily focused on him at Quail Hollow. He calls it “noise.â€� Whether he’s feeling any additional pressure, however, remains to be seen. His preparation will not deviate just because it’s his first slam opportunity. His goal of winning majors – “The four events that we try to peak and think most about at the beginning of every year,â€� he said – has not changed. — Mike McAllister Click here for the full story on Spieth’s grand slam bid

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