Morikawa leads Zozo by 1 shot after 1st round

OVERVIEW Potential New Year’s resolutions for Patrick Cantlay: Find a way to beat Bryson DeChambeau, and find a way to make it to the 2019 Presidents Cup in Melbourne, Australia, where Cantlay would play for the U.S. in a major international team competition for the first time as a pro. The only surprise is that it hasn’t happened yet. His 60 at the 2011 Travelers Championship promised stardom, his career was nearly derailed by a back injury, and now he’s returned to the upper echelon in style. Cantlay finished a sporty runner-up to DeChambeau in his first PGA TOUR title defense at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in November. If the faces looked familiar in Las Vegas, they should have. Five months earlier, Cantlay led going into the back nine of the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide  but suffered a late bogey to finish fourth. DeChambeau won in a playoff over Byeong Hun An and Kyle Stanley. When you list the top 20-somethings on TOUR, it’s easy to forget about the quiet Cantlay, 26. DeChambeau is quirkier and has more wins than Cantlay, as do Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele. But Cantlay belongs in the conversation. He made 21 cuts in 23 starts last season, reached the TOUR Championship for the second straight year, and was 20th in the FedExCup. After playing a reduced schedule in 2017, Cantlay is a regular threat to win and a relatively new resident of North Palm Beach, Florida, where during off-weeks you can find him at The Bear’s Club playing with peers like Thomas — good company to keep. – By Cameron Morfit Click here to see who else made the Top 30 list. BY THE NUMBERS FEDEXCUP UPDATE Current 2018-19 position: 10th Playoff appearances: 2 TOUR Championship appearances: 2 Best FedExCup result: 20th in 2018. SHOTLINK FUN FACT Patrick Cantlay has played his last eight consecutive second rounds in the 60s for a combined 31 under — best second-round stretch of any player on the PGA TOUR since the 2018 PGA Championship. INSIDER INSIGHTS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Patrick Cantlay in 2019. TOUR INSIDER: Cantlay is a supreme ball-striker who was 9th in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green last season. Alas, he lost strokes to the field on the greens, finishing 153rd in Strokes Gained: Putting. Perhaps not coincidentally, he missed the cut at the Masters, one of his worst results of a season that saw him notch 15 top-25 finishes. Strong title defense at Shriners in November, when he bogeyed the 17 but birdied 16, 18 to make the winner earn it. – By Cameron Morfit FANTASY INSIDER: He lands in the same spot as last year’s Top 30, and that’s just fine for us. In fact, it’s the perfect representation for his consistency and reliability. Since returning to the PGA TOUR (just 22 months ago), he’s gone 37-for-39 with 13 top 10s and another 13 top 25s. His health and personal experiences outside the ropes have framed a perspective that introduced a fearlessness and calm to what was already a gifted skill set. As a result, the 26-year-old presents the fascinating blend of grinder and scorer. The next time I fade him might be the first, if it even happens. — By Rob Bolton EQUIPMENT INSIDER: Ask any equipment fan about Cantlay, and they’ll probably bring up his custom putter. It’s a Scotty Cameron GSS prototype with dancing four-leaf clovers and “Putter Studioâ€� stamped into the back cavity, and his initials on the back bumper. He did switch into a Cameron Concept putter in 2018, but he’s currently back into his familiar Irish-stamped studio blade as of the Shriners Open. Cantlay is also relatively stubborn when switching into new equipment at the top-end of his bag. While he made the change into new 718 AP2 irons, he’s still gaming a Titleist 917D2 driver, a 915F fairway wood, an 816H2 hybrid, and Titleist SM5/SM6 wedges. It will be interesting to keep an eye on any equipment changes Cantlay makes in 2019. — By Andrew Tursky STYLE INSIDER: If you think all the young guns on TOUR favor super sporty looks, guess again. Cantlay is part of a group of rising stars that still has time for classic kits. There is nothing fancy about Cantlay’s style, but he has a knack for cranking out simple and solid outfits round after round. He is in his comfort zone while wearing a neutral palette of black and grey, occasionally splashing a pop of color. — By Greg Monteforte

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Scottie Scheffler’s last putter switch paid quick dividends. He won in his first start with a new Scotty Cameron Special Select Timeless Tourtype GSS prototype, then rolled off three more wins in his next five starts, including the Masters, to reach world No. 1. Surely, Scheffler hopes his latest switch leads to such quick success. The reigning PGA TOUR Player of the Year has a new flatstick in the bag at this week’s THE CJ CUP in South Carolina, his first individual tournament since finishing second at the TOUR Championship in August. “I typically don’t like changing equipment at all, but I’ve been using (the new putter) now for probably two, three weeks,” Scheffler said Wednesday. “Late in the year I putted what felt like to me pretty poorly, I was really streaky. I was trying a few different things and that’s not really a way to improve when you’re kind of, felt like I was kind of blindly throwing darts just trying to find something. Sometimes I was lining the ball up, sometimes I wasn’t.” The new putter that Scheffler has in the bag this week is a new Scotty Cameron T-5.5 Proto mallet putter. The mallet is a departure from the style that Scheffler has used in recent years, but it reminds him of the style that he used during a successful junior career that included a victory at the U.S. Junior Amateur. Why the drastic change? “For me it’s just really easy to line up, I feel like I’m more consistent with it,” Scheffler said of the new putter. “I feel like my ceiling’s still the same. I can get hot with the putter and make a ton of putts, but I felt like my floor was a little too low last year, so hopefully this will be one of those deals that will kind of raise the floor.” At last month’s Presidents Cup, Scheffler was seen getting putting tips from U.S. Captain’s Assistant Steve Stricker and working past sunset with his longtime coach, Randy Smith, on Quail Hollow’s putting green. “I definitely was frustrated with how I was rolling it at the Presidents Cup,” Scheffler said. “I wasn’t hitting my lines. I couldn’t get comfortable over the ball.” As Scotty Cameron tour rep Brad Cloke explains it, Scheffler was recently practicing at home with an older Scotty Cameron Futura T5W mallet putter that the company had sent him years ago. Feeling that the T5W putter was helping him start the ball on-line more consistently, Scheffler asked Cloke last week for an updated version of the putter. Scotty Cameron then built Scheffler a new prototype of the Phantom X T-5.5 putter, which has a single black line on the top-line and two white lines on the back flange, just like the T5W putter Scheffler practiced with at home. For further customization, Scheffler’s new putter also has custom “Grinder” and “S.S.” stampings on the outer toe and heel portions, and it comes with deeper face milling marks, helping soften the feel and acoustics to match his previous GSS blade putter. Cloke said the size and stability of the Phantom’s mallet head are likely what helped Scheffler start the ball on his intended line more often. “I think the key takeaway, though, was just getting it lined up better for him, and framing it a little better than the blade,” Cloke told GolfWRX on Tuesday. While the putter switch may seem surprising after winning four times in 2022, Scheffler actually recorded negative Strokes Gained: Putting stats in six of his previous nine events where the stat was measured (the Genesis Scottish Open and The Open Championship did not report Strokes Gained: Putting stats). Scheffler finished the 2022 season ranked fourth in both Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green and Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green but was 58th in Strokes Gained: Putting. A new putter could help Scheffler get on another hot streak like the one we saw in the spring, though. We’ll have to wait until Thursday to see if the putter officially gets the call-up into competition, but if it does, another string of victories could be in store for the world No. 1.

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NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Xander Schauffele had a 6-under 64 for the lowest 36-hole score of his career and a two-shot lead going into the weekend at the BMW Championship. Tiger Woods went from a share of the lead to having to catch up again. Schauffele, ranked 41st in the FedExCup, is projected to move to sixth with a victory. He has gone nearly a year without winning. A victory at Aronimink might even be enough for Jim Furyk to take the 24-year-old from San Diego as the final captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup. He was at 13-under 127. Justin Rose (FedExCup No. 3) shot 63 and was two shots back in his bid for a third title in Philadelphia. Rose won at Aronimink in 2010 and captured his lone major at nearby Merion in the 2013 U.S. Open. One day after a 62, Woods shot 70 and was five behind.

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