Russell, 15, gets invite to make PGA Tour debut

For just over three seasons no one has won more on the PGA TOUR than Justin Thomas. Just let that sink in. Related: Leaderboard | What’s in Thomas’ bag? | Lee, after runner-up finish: ‘I gave it my best out there’ Not the seemingly unstoppable Brooks Koepka. Not the win every season Dustin Johnson. Not FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy. No one. And it’s not really even close. Since the beginning of the 2016-17 season Thomas has 10 wins after grabbing his 11th career title at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES on Sunday. In that span Johnson is next with eight, Koepka six. It’s no contest. It was the second win on JeJu Island in three years for Thomas as he held off a plucky crowd favorite in Danny Lee by two shots. The 26-year-old former FedExCup winner has now converted eight of 11 54-hole lead/co leads into victory. He finds a way. And while those watching him are very impressed with such resolve Thomas isn’t ready to adopt the closer title just yet. “I don’t think you can ever necessarily call yourself the best closer. I’ve only won 11 times. I feel like once I get to 40 or 50 times and I’ve closed a lot of those, then I think that’s kind of different,â€� Thomas says. Yes, this Kentucky product already has 40 or 50 wins on his mind. And why not, he’s well and truly on his way. But truly, he’s modest. Because on Sunday, Lee was playing spoiler for sure. Like a pesky terrier the Korean born contender was making the clutch putts when it mattered. He wasn’t backing down and was riding a wave of emotion. In the face of this it could have been easy for Thomas to press. To try to knock him out of his misery by going for a big play. But that would have been risk. And maturity took over. Thomas held his nerve and eventually it was Lee who blinked with some late bogeys. “The biggest thing I think that I’ve gotten a lot better at is just learning, taking experiences and learning from them,â€� Thomas explained. “That’s what I did early in my career. There were a couple times I felt like I should have won the tournament but I did something incorrectly or hit a wrong club or thought how I shouldn’t have. “There’s going to be things today that once I sit down and digest it and pay attention to kind of what happened out there, I’ll be able to learn from it. That’s all I’m trying to do because I feel like if I can just improve a little bit every year, then there’s not really a ceiling that I feel like I can’t reach, I just want to try to win as many tournaments as I can.â€� It wasn’t that long-ago Thomas had temporarily lost his mojo thanks to a wrist injury and extended break. He missed a big chunk of last season after he hit a tree on a follow through at The Honda Classic and certainly had some rust coming out of it. Some were even ready to write him off. His best had come. His fast pace couldn’t continue… surely. That was until he took out the BMW Championship in the FedExCup Playoffs in August and showed his time is far from over. Now he’s won again and is already third in the new FedExCup chase. “It feels great … It’s very reassuring knowing that I could hit those shots when I needed to the entire day when I felt like the heat was on the whole day,â€� Thomas added. “I feel like I’m starting to understand a lot better what I need to do, what my body needs to do on prior weeks before events and I feel like I’m doing a good job. In terms of the season, I definitely got off to a good start, there’s no doubt about that.â€� If this is what Thomas has been able to do without full understanding of himself … then there really might be no ceiling he can’t reach once he does. Either way it will be fun watching him prove it.

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…

Admit it. If every tournament produced winners like Justin Rose at the Farmers Insurance Open, Rickie Fowler at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and Phil Mickelson at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done would be boring. It’d be easy. Why even play? Pshaw! Enjoy the run because it never lasts. But it sure is fun in the meantime and we might be treated to one more predictable haymaker at the Genesis Open. Mickelson will be gunning for a second title in as many weeks and his third overall at Riviera Country Club (2008, 2009). I’ll side with gamers concerned about the quick turnaround after an interrupted finale on Sunday-Monday at his age. With that hungry look in his eye and a potentially historic performance looming at Pebble Beach again in June – granted, it’ll be stingier – it wouldn’t be the silliest idea to holster him for the U.S. Open. If that doesn’t sit right at the time, then move him to TPC Southwind for the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in late July. Bubba Watson is a three-time winner at Riviera and the defending champ. If you don’t burn him now, fine. It’s likelier going to be a deeper field than his title defense at the Travelers Championship the week after the U.S. Open, which is probably going to be my spot for him. Dustin Johnson disappointed last week, but he hasn’t gone consecutive starts anywhere without a top 20 since the summer of 2017. Of course, a mere top 20 is losing FedExCup points and earnings to your opposition over the course of time, so you’ll need a podium finish to warrant the investment. Otherwise, wait until the U.S. Open. It lines up first on his Future Possibilities. Justin Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama and Jon Rahm would form a formidable fivesome for roster formats, but Riviera isn’t a super site for any. Paul Casey is soaring, but is value is in his consistently strong form and not necessarily while he’s red-hot on courses that haven’t matched up well. All that is to say is to retain confidence in the long-term and consider him again at one of his Future Possibilities. Don’t sweat Patrick Cantlay’s early withdrawal from the AT&T. He cited illness, not injury, as his decision to sit it out. We can’t dispute Sean’s reasoning to pull the trigger or his decision-making that’s guided him to his position atop our little league. Cantlay is safe, sane and sound. With the way Matt Kuchar is going, I’m angling at using him at THE PLAYERS. He’s a former winner at TPC Sawgrass (2012) where he’s recorded seven top 20s, he has experience on the course when it hosted in March and the tournament always is a crapshoot because of the starkness of success and failure tee to green. Xander Schauffele and Tony Finau rarely let us down, so each steps up uncommonly strong at Riviera for those of us in pursuit. Schauffele is making just his second start (T9 last year), while Finau has gamers unnecessarily skittish after an MC-T38 fortnight through TPC Scottsdale and Pebble Beach. Two-man gamers must consider Adam Hadwin, Charles Howell III, Jason Kokrak and Sung Kang. Reminder: TWO tournaments next week. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2018-19. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Keegan Bradley … CIMB (1); Mayakoba (3); Farmers (2); Memorial (5); Travelers (4) Rafa Cabrera Bello … WGC-Mexico (5); PLAYERS (1); Wyndham (4) Patrick Cantlay … Genesis (4); Valspar (2); Memorial (3) Paul Casey … WGC-Mexico (6); Honda (10); Valspar (7; defending); WGC-Match Play (8); Masters (2); Wells Fargo (9); Travelers (1); TOUR Championship (3) Bryson DeChambeau … Arnold Palmer (3); Heritage (1);  Memorial (2; defending); Travelers (4); John Deere (7) Jason Dufner … Honda (3); PLAYERS (7); Valspar (4); New Orleans (1); Charles Schwab (6); Memorial (5); U.S. Open (2); Wyndham (8); TOUR Championship (10) Tony Finau … Valero (5); Memorial (2) Sergio Garcia … Genesis (8); WGC-Mexico (1); Honda (4); PLAYERS (7); Valspar (9); Masters (6); Open Championship (5); TOUR Championship (2) Branden Grace … Heritage (1); Valero (3); Byron Nelson (5); U.S. Open (4) Bill Haas … Genesis (3); WGC-Match Play (8); Heritage (4); Charles Schwab (2); Wyndham (6) Adam Hadwin … Genesis (3); Valspar (2); John Deere (5) Brian Harman … Arnold Palmer (7); Charles Schwab (1); Travelers (5); John Deere (4) Russell Henley … Honda (4); Masters (3) Charley Hoffman … Genesis (5); Arnold Palmer (2); Masters (4); Heritage (7); Valero (3); Charles Schwab (6); Travelers (1) J.B. Holmes … Genesis (4); Wells Fargo (5) Dustin Johnson … Genesis (3); WGC-Mexico (5); Masters (8); PGA Championship (11); Memorial (10); U.S. Open (1); WGC-St. Jude (6); TOUR Championship (7) Si Woo Kim … PLAYERS (3); Heritage (1) Matt Kuchar … PLAYERS (5); Valspar (9); Masters (6); Heritage (2); Charles Schwab (7); Memorial (1); Open Championship (8) Martin Laird … Genesis (3); Valero (5); Barracuda (2) Marc Leishman … Arnold Palmer (1); Byron Nelson (6); Memorial (4); Travelers (3); Open Championship (8) Hideki Matsuyama … Genesis (10); Arnold Palmer (11); PLAYERS (9); Masters (4); PGA Championship (13); Memorial (8); U.S. Open (14); Wyndham (7); TOUR Championship (5) Rory McIlroy … Arnold Palmer (2; defending); Masters (4); Wells Fargo (3); Memorial (5); Travelers (8); Open Championship (1); TOUR Championship (6) Phil Mickelson … Genesis (6); WGC-Mexico (1; defending); Masters (9); Wells Fargo (2); Open Championship (8); WGC-St. Jude (3) Ryan Moore … Genesis (5); Valspar (3); Valero (7); Masters (13); Memorial (11); Travelers (6); John Deere (8); Wyndham (2); TOUR Championship (9) Kevin Na … Genesis (2); Valspar (6); Charles Schwab (3); Wyndham (5) Jon Rahm … Masters (5); Charles Schwab (1); TOUR Championship (7) Louis Oosthuizen … Valspar (3); WGC-Match Play (1); Masters (2); U.S. Open (5); PGA Championship (4) Xander Schauffele … Genesis (6); PLAYERS (5); U.S. Open (3); Open Championship (4); TOUR Championship (1) Adam Scott … Genesis (4); Honda (1); Arnold Palmer (10); PLAYERS (2); Masters (6); Byron Nelson (11); PGA Championship (8); U.S. Open (9); Open Championship (7); TOUR Championship (3) Cameron Smith … Wyndham (3) Jordan Spieth … Genesis (10); WGC-Mexico (11); Valspar (14); Masters (1); PGA Championship (7); Charles Schwab (5); Memorial (13); U.S. Open (4); Travelers (9); Open Championship (6); TOUR Championship (8) Brendan Steele … Honda (7); Valero (8); Wells Fargo (9); Travelers (4); Reno-Tahoe (3) Kevin Streelman … Valero (9); Heritage (5); Memorial (4); Travelers (7) Justin Thomas … WGC-Mexico (2); Honda (7; defending); PLAYERS (11); PGA Championship (9); Memorial (8); TOUR Championship (3) Jimmy Walker … Valero (2); Byron Nelson (6) Bubba Watson … Genesis (1; defending); WGC-Match Play (6; defending); Masters (5); Memorial (7); Travelers (2; defending); TOUR Championship (8) Tiger Woods … Arnold Palmer (1); Masters (2); Memorial (4); THE NORTHERN TRUST (6); TOUR Championship (5; defending)

Click here to read the full article…