Stanford beats UCLA to win 3rd women’s golf title

The Regular Season has been nothing short of “regular” but it will conclude this week with FedExCup Playoff spots up for grabs at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, NC. The end of the line is a familiar one as Sedgefield has hosted the final Regular Season event annually since 2008. Eligibility for the 2020-2021 season is not on the line, but only the top 125 players will advance to THE NORTHERN TRUST next week. Usually the only Donald Ross design on TOUR during the Regular Season, Sedgefield was joined this year and last by another, Detroit Golf Club. Kris Spence oversaw the redo here in 2007 and another in 2012, which included adding Champion Bermuda greens. Sedgefield plays 25 yards longer this season as a new tee box was added to Hole No. 14 but still doesn’t stretch over 7,200 yards. Champion Bermuda greens are above average in size and always roll perfectly, hence the low scores. RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks The Par-70 is protected by 52 bunkers and five water hazards but the openness and lack of rough makes it annually one of the easiest tracks on TOUR. In fact, it has played as the easiest or second-easiest Par-70 over the last three seasons and spits out low scores as the rule, not the exception. Wrapping up at the Wyndham means four days of breaking par and keeping any score with 70-something off the card. J.T. Poston will look to become the first to defend his title and win on this track for a second time. He’ll lead the field of 156 competing for a piece of the $6.4 million purse ($1.154 winner) and those very last, precious FedExCup Points (500 winner). Recent Winners at Wyndham 2019: J.T. Poston (-22) Final round 62, tied for the lowest winning score for a winner in tournament history to win by one over Webb Simpson. … Bogey-free winner for the first time ANYWHERE on TOUR since Lee Trevino in 1974. … North Carolina native won for the first time on TOUR. … Trailed by three shots after each round. … Fantastic performance included T2 Fairways, first GIR, T3 Proximity and T1 Scrambling. … Fourth consecutive winner to finish top 3 in Strokes-Gained: Approach. … Third winner in four to finish first or second in Strokes-Gained: Tee to Green. … Tied tournament scoring record. Notables: Simpson, the last native North Carolinian to win before Poston, (T2) and Billy Horschel (T6) co-led the field in par-breakers. … 2015 champ Si Woo Kim (T5) closed with 64. … Josh Teater (T6) was only one of two players in the top 30 to sign for a round above 70. … Brice Garnett (T6) played in the final group and closed with 70. … Sungjae Im (T6) opened with 62, one of three on the week. … Cut was 4-under, as lift, clean and place was in effect the first two rounds. … Top 47 players 10-under or better. … Four rounds above 70 of the top 40 players. … Two players broke into the top 125 (Patton Kizzire, Andrew Landry). 2018: Brandt Snedeker (-21) Fired 59 in the first round to set the course record and a foundation for wire-to-wire victory. … Won by three shots over CT Pan and Simpson. … Only player to win at Forest Oaks (2007) and Sedgefield. … Only fifth 59 of 10 to go on to win. … Missed tournament scoring record by a shot. … Not surprisingly only winner in last six top 10 Strokes-Gained: Around the Green. … Top 10 Par-4 scoring (T3) same as the last six winners. … Only winner in last six (T51) outside top 10 in driving accuracy. Notables: Pan was tied with Snedeker on No. 18 tee box before hitting it OB. … Simpson closed with 62, his best ever. … Jim Furyk (T4) closed with 63. … Brian Gay (T6) had a 63-62 Friday-Saturday. … 2009 champ Ryan Moore (T6) opened with 63. … Cut was 3-under. … Top 40 10-under or better. … One round OVER par in the top 25 players. … Two players broke into the top 125 (Harris English, Nick Taylor). 2017: Henrik Stenson (-22) Set tournament record (Par-70) as he made his one-shot 54-hole lead stand up. … Opened with 62 and trailed by one to Matt Every. … T8 fairways, T3 GIR, 1st Proximity and T3 Strokes-Gained: Putting. … T2 Par-3 and Par-4 scoring. … Led the field in Birdie-or-Better Percentage. … Won on fourth visit. … Second highest OWGR winner (No. 8) in tournament history behind Hal Sutton (No. 4) in 2000. Notables: Simpson (T3) opened with 63 finished four back. … 36- hole leader Ryan Armour (T4) posted 61 in Round 2, good for co-low round of the week with Every. … Rory Sabbatini (T6) picked up his third top 10 in four starts. … Shane Lowry (T7) was joined by Davis Love III (T10) and Harold Varner III (T10) to round out the top 10. … Cut 3-under. … Top 27 10-under or better. … Four players advance to the FedExCup Playoffs. Key stat leaders Top golfers in each statistic on the 2019-2020 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week. * – Top 10 at Sedgefield since 2015 Rounds in the 60s 1 Mark Hubbard 2 *Sungjae Im 9 Brendon Todd 13 Doc Redman 13 *Brian Harman (T6, 2019) 19 Patrick Rodgers 19 Henrik Norlander 22 Harry Higgs 22 Harris English (never MC in six) 24 Brian Stuard 24 *JT Poston 24 Carlos Ortiz 24 Maverick McNealy 24 Talor Gooch Greens in Regulation 1 *Jim Furyk 2 Kyle Stanley 3 Aaron Wise 5 Corey Conners 7 Russell Henley 8 *Josh Teater 9 Will Gordon 10 *Paul Casey (T3, 2015) 11 Harris English 12 Doc Redman 14 Nick Watney 15 *Brice Garnett 17 Pat Perez 17 Matthew NeSmith 19 Henrik Norlander 24 *Harold Varner III 25 Russell Knox 25 Chesson Hadley Birdie-or-Better Percentage 4 *Webb Simpson 7 Seamus Power 9 *Patrick Reed (2013 winner) 14 Chesson Hadley 16 Anirban Lahiri 17 Will Gordon 22 Bronson Burgoon 25 Maverick McNealy 26 *Sungjae Im 29 Xinjun Zhang 30 Sebastian Munoz 31 Denny McCarthy 32 Danny Lee 33 Peter Uihlein 35 Charl Schwartzel Greenbacks in Greensboro Webb Simpson: 2011 champ has cashed in 10 of 11 with nine top 25s and seven top 10s. Hit the podium the last three seasons and is 57-under over that stretch with all 12 rounds in the red. Scoring average 66.79. Brandt Snedeker: 2018 champ has been paid off in 10 of 12 with six of those in the top 10. Five straight at the event includes three inside T5. Billy Horschel: T5 2016 began a run of four straight weekends and includes T11 2018 and T6 last year. Of 30 rounds career 27 are par or better including the last 19. Ryan Moore: Enters with five straight at Sedgefield under his belt. T10 in 2015 adds to T24 in 2017 plus T6 on his last visit in 2018. Rory Sabbatini: Top 10 results in three of his last four visits but paydays in all of them. Patrick Reed: Never missed in five chances and the last four are all T24 or better including his win. Sergio Garcia: 2012 champ has never cashed worse than T29 in four starts at Sedgefield.

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Welcome to the new Stats Insider. This new feature, which will run each Monday on PGATOUR.COM, will use ShotLink data and historical info to give you a deeper look at the previous week’s tournament. This was a good week to debut. An exciting young player stepped into the winner’s circle for the first time. Here’s a look at some of the numbers behind Joaquin Niemann’s win at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier. Niemann not only became the first player from Chile to win on the PGA TOUR. He’s just the eighth player under the age of 21 to win on the PGA TOUR since World War II. You’ve probably heard of the other seven: Raymond Floyd, Seve Ballesteros, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Matthew Wolff. In the last 95 years, only three players born outside the United States have won on the PGA TOUR before turning 21: Ballesteros, McIlroy and Niemann. This also is the first year since 1931 that multiple players aged 20 or younger have won on the PGA TOUR. Wolff won earlier in the year at the 3M Open. It’s always easy to say Monday morning, but perhaps we should have seen this coming. Niemann’s game has been trending in the right direction, and The Greenbrier has been a special place in his career. Niemann was 158th in the FedExCup after missing the cut at the PGA Championship in May, and still outside the top 150 when the calendar turned to June. A strong summer allowed him to advance to the BMW Championship in his first season as a PGA TOUR member, though. He was 67th in the final FedExCup standings. After the PGA, he missed just one cut in his last 11 starts of the 2019 season. His worst finish in that span was T31. Niemann finished T5 at both the Travelers Championship and Rocket Mortgage Classic and T10 at the John Deere Classic. Players have to go low to succeed in the summer months, and that’s exactly what he did. It continued last week, where he shot 65-62-68-64 to win by six. Niemann leads the PGA TOUR in rounds of 66 or lower and rounds of 65 or lower since June 20, the first round of this year’s Travelers Championship. Most rounds of 66 or lower since June 20: Joaquin Niemann, 14 Collin Morikawa, 12 Brian Harman, 11 Viktor Hovland, 9 Most rounds of 65 or lower since June 20: Joaquin Niemann, 9 Viktor Hovland, 6 Webb Simpson, 6 So what changed in Niemann’s game since the mid-point of last season? As usual, it was the putter. Here’s a look at Niemann’s average strokes gained per round through the PGA and after leaving Bethpage Black. There were slight upticks in his play Off-the-Tee and Approach, but the biggest difference was with his putting. He was 204th in Strokes Gained: Putting (out of 210 players) after the PGA Championship. From the PGA through last week, he’s averaged +0.47 strokes gained per round on the greens, an improvement of more than a stroke per round. Niemann led the Greenbrier field in Strokes Gained: Putting with a career-high +8.8 strokes on the greens. That was three strokes more than his previous career-high (+5.8, 2018 Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide). This was the first time in his career that he led a tournament in Strokes Gained: Putting. He made five putts from outside 20 feet at The Old White TPC. His previous career-high in a single tournament was three. Niemann made just three putts from outside 25 feet in 40 ShotLink-measured rounds from the start of last season through the PGA. He’s made 19 putts from outside 25 feet in 44 measured rounds since the PGA Championship. He’s also performing better on short putts. He finished second at The Greenbrier in make percentage from 4-8 feet (among players with at least 15 attempts). Niemann has been competing at The Greenbrier since he was an 18-year-old amateur. In fact, it’s the only tournament on the PGA TOUR that he’s played three times. He’s shot a final-round 64 all three times. In those three Sundays, Niemann has combined to make 18 birdies, one eagle and just two bogeys. Last year, he shot a final-round 64 to finish T5 and earn his PGA TOUR card for the 2018-19 season. His third Sunday 64 at The Old White TPC earned him his first PGA TOUR win. He birdied six holes on the back nine to pull away from the field. Niemann is the only player in tournament history with three final rounds of 64 or lower. It should go without saying that Niemann’s 64.0 final-round scoring average is the lowest in tournament history. He holds that mark by a fairly wide margin. Only four players who’ve played at least three Sundays at A Military Tribute have a final-round scoring average under 67. Low final-round scoring average at The Old White TPC: Joaquin Niemann, 64.0 Alex Cejka, 65.7 Brandt Snedeker, 65.7 Ted Potter, Jr., 66.5 (minimum 3 rounds) Ten of Niemann’s 12 career rounds at The Old White TPC have been in the 60s, and six of them have been 65 or lower. That’s two more than anyone else in the last three years. Kevin Na and Robert Streb are second on that list with four rounds of 65 or lower at The Old White TPC since 2017. Niemann has 16 rounds of 65 or lower in his PGA TOUR career. Six of those 16 (38%) have come at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier.

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Now that we’ve learned how THE PLAYERS Championship delivered in its return to March, it’s time to see how those who competed in the PGA TOUR’s flagship event turn over – or is it hang over? – for the Valspar Championship. As of midday Monday, 87 of the 144 in the field at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club’s Copperhead Course made the trip from TPC Sawgrass. While there will be a more casual feel in the anchor leg of the Florida Swing outside Tampa, no one can let his guard down on what’s been the toughest or second-toughest par 71 among all non-majors in each of the last six seasons. No changes have been made to Copperhead since last year’s edition, but scroll past the ranking for analysis of what the field of 144 can expect, how Paul Casey extended a theme and more. Gary Woodland, Brandt Snedeker, Bubba Watson, Branden Grace and Steve Stricker will be among the notables covered in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. While Innisbrook Resort is only 165 air miles southwest of TPC Sawgrass, it might as well be on the other side of the planet. The 7,340-yard test is the unforgiving examination amid uncommon elevation change in the Sunshine State as compared to the risk-reward at essentially sea level of its predecessor on the schedule. In its third spin post-renovation, the Copperhead Course held firm with a scoring average of 71.968 last year. There’s just nowhere to hide or gain traction. Consider that among all courses in 2017-18, it ranked inside the top 15-most challenging in distance of all drives (fourth), fairways hit (15th), greens in regulation (third), proximity to the hole (T11) and putting: birdies-or-better (fifth). Even though there are four par 5s, they surrendered a stingy 4.78 scoring average, sixth-highest of all courses. The par 4s also ranked sixth (at 4.13), while the quintet of par 3s were no bargain, either, at 3.13, good for a tie for the 11th-hardest set. All of these analytics align with its recent history. If there’s a soft spot on the property, it’s around and on greens that are prepped to touch 12 feet on the Stimpmeter. Since the switch in 2016 to TifEeagle bermuda, which is overseeded for the tournament, Copperhead has been a pushover, at least relatively speaking, in terms of scrambling for pars and putting inside 10 feet. The trend enhances the value of hitting greens in regulation. It also rewards those with terrific short games. Adam Hadwin is known for being one of the best putters on TOUR, so it made sense when he broke through for his first title here in 2017. He finished the week inside the top 10 in both scrambling and bogey avoidance. Paul Casey defends this week after a similar performance. The Englishman ranked T68 in driving accuracy, T30 in piling up scoring opportunities and 15th in strokes gained: putting, but he made the putts count when necessary, finishing third in scrambling and co-leading the field in bogey avoidance. Embedded in Copperhead’s tip-to-tail toughness is The Snake Pit. It consists of the par-4 16th hole, the par-3 17th and the par-4 18th. Since the tournament debuted (in the fall) in 2000, none of the holes have averaged under par in any edition. Last year’s aggregate scoring average for the trio was 11.607. Casey scored 1 over for the week en route to his one-stroke victory at just 10-under 274. With overseeded rough extending three inches and higher, the moral of this matter is it would be poor to plan for a slingshot of a victory at the finish line. This is all about climbing the leaderboard early and course management coming home. This week’s experience should resemble what we already know. Aside from the occasional freshening but manageable breezes, Mother Nature is going to cooperate throughout. Gradually increasing daytime highs into the upper 70s are expected. A system that will bring rain is on the horizon, but it might not arrive until the tournament concludes. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider WEDNESDAY: One & Done * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesdays.

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