3 lead after windy Day 1 at World Wide Technology

The FedExCup Playoffs begin this week with the FedEx St. Jude Championship outside Memphis, a city that’s held a PGA TOUR event every year since 1958. Tony Finau looks to defend his title from last season’s FedExCup opener after recently winning back-to-back titles on TOUR. FIELD NOTES: The top 125 in the FedExCup standings are set to tee it up at TPC Southwind and return to action on TOUR… Count Cameron Smith as one of those who plays for the first time since winning The Open at St. Andrews. The Claret Jug winner lost in a playoff to Finau a year ago at the event played at Liberty National Golf Club, and also was T5 last year in the World Golf Championship at TPC Southwind… Scottie Scheffler, thanks to his four victories earlier in the year, heads into the FedExCup Playoffs first in the FedExCup Points List and as the winner of the Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10… Last season’s FedExCup Champion Patrick Cantlay travels to Memphis ranked fifth in the standings thanks to a TOUR-high 10 top-10s and a win with Xander Schauffele in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Cantlay is seeking to become the first back-to-back FedExCup champ… TOUR rookie Cameron Young sits ninth in the FedExCup standings after an incredibly impressive maiden TOUR campaign that features seven top-3 finishes, including a runner-up at The Open and T3 at the PGA Championship… Hideki Matsuyama and Sam Burns, who lost in a playoff at last year’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational played at TPC Southwind, are back looking for some more magic in Memphis. Burns and Matsuyama are Nos. 3 and 10, respectively, on the FedExCup standings. Burns has three wins this season while Matsuyama has two… Keep an eye on Daniel Berger this week. Berger, who is projected 79th in the FedExCup standings, loves TPC Southwind. He won there in both 2016 and 2017 and finished T2 in 2019 and T5 last season, when the event was elevated to a World Golf Championship… Justin Thomas, who is eighth in the FedExCup standings after winning his second PGA Championship, is another recent TPC Southwind winner (2020) who is set make his return to action… The 125 golfers who are eligible for the FedExCup Playoffs’ first event will be determined after the final round of the Wyndham Championship on Sunday…Rory McIlroy, who’s seeking to become the first three-time FedExCup champ, is playing for the first time since a heartbreaking final round at The Open. He ranks sixth in the FedExCup. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 2,000 FedExCup points. COURSE: TPC Southwind, par 70, 7,243 yards. The Ron Prichard design was established in 1988, with Hubert Green and Fuzzy Zoeller as player consultants. This is the first time TPC Southwind has hosted a FedExCup Playoffs event. The course boasts Bermuda greens, plenty of streams, ponds, and lakes, plus undulating zoysia fairways. During last season’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, the course played to an average score of nearly 1-under, at 69.05. STORYLINES: The FedEx St. Jude Championship is the first of three FedExCup Playoff events… Only the top 70 in the FedExCup standings after the FedEx St. Jude Championship will be continue to the BMW Championship… No golfer has ever won the FedExCup in back-to-back years. Last season’s winner, Patrick Cantlay, is in a solid position heading into Memphis at No. 5. Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods are the only two-time FedExCup winners… The winner of the FedExCup will earn $18 million… How about Tony Finau’s summertime sizzle? Finau, who is looking to become the first person to successfully defend his title at the FedExCup Playoffs opener, comes into the FedExCup playoffs having won the 3M Open and the Rocket Mortgage Classic in back-to-back weeks. He was the first golfer on TOUR to win two weeks in a row since Brendon Todd in 2019. 72-HOLE RECORD: 254, Dustin Johnson (2020 – TPC Boston) TPC SOUTHWIND RECORD: 264, Brooks Koepka (2019), Abraham Ancer (2021), Hideki Matsuyama (2021), Sam Burns (2021). 18-HOLE RECORD: 60, Dustin Johnson (Second round, 2020 – TPC Boston) TPC SOUTHWIND RECORD: 61, Tom Lewis (Third round, 2020), Bob Estes (First round, 2001), Jay Delsing (Fourth round, 1993). LAST TIME: Tony Finau busted out of a five-year winless drought to capture last season’s FedExCup Playoffs opener in extra holes over Cameron Smith. Finau went on a 5-under run through Nos. 12-16 on the back nine Sunday to climb the leaderboard. He nailed a testy 6-footer for par on the 72nd hole to get it to 20-under for the week. Smith made back-to-back birdies on 12 and 13 and again on 16 and 17 but couldn’t convert a 20-footer for birdie on the par-4 18th. Smith and Finau played just one extra hole, as Smith’s drive was so wild it went over the retaining wall that separates Liberty National from the Hudson River. Finau made an easy-does-it par, and the trophy was his. Jon Rahm, the 54-hole leader, finished third at 18 under. He was firmly in the mix late on Sunday but bogeyed Nos. 15 and 18 to fall out of contention. Alex Noren, Tom Hoge, and Justin Thomas rounded out the top five. Keith Mitchell had a clutch finish as he looked to earn his way into the second playoff event. At No. 101 in the FedExCup standings, he birdied his final three holes in the final round to get into a tie for eighth and moved into 63rd position. HOW TO FOLLOW (All times ET) Television: Thursday-Friday, 3 p.m.-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (NBC). Sunday, 12 p.m.-2 p.m. (Golf Channel), 2 p.m.-6 p.m. (NBC) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 1 p.m.–7 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) For outside of the U.S., click here for GOLFTV powered by the PGA TOUR PGA TOUR LIVE PGA TOUR Live is available exclusively on ESPN+ • Main Feed: primary tournament-coverage featuring the best action from across the course • Marquee Group: new “marquee group” showcasing every shot from each player in the group • Featured Groups: traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage of two concurrent featured groups • Featured Holes: a combination of par-3s and iconic or pivotal holes

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2020 PGA Championship, Round 1 Scoring Conditions: Overall: +1.1 strokes per round Morning wave: +0.67 Afternoon wave: +1.54 Current cutline (top 70 and ties): 89 players at +1 or better (T68) Top 3 projected cutline probabilities: 1 over par: 29.4% 2 over par: 25.0% Even par: 19.5% Top 10 win probabilities: Xander Schauffele (T3, -4, 10.9%) Jason Day (T1, -5, 7.9%) Bryson DeChambeau (T20, -2, 6.4%) Brooks Koepka (T3, -4, 6.3%) Scottie Scheffler (T3, -4, 5.2%) Jon Rahm (T48, E, 3.3%) Brendon Todd (T1, -5, 3.0%) Patrick Reed (T20, -2, 3.0%) Daniel Berger (T12, -3, 2.9%) Justin Rose (T3, -4, 2.9%) NOTE: These reports are based off the live predictive model run by @DataGolf. The model provides live “Make Cut”, “Top 20”, “Top 5”, and “Win” probabilities every 5 minutes from the opening tee shot to the final putt of every PGA TOUR event. Briefly, the model takes account of the current form of each golfer as well as the difficulty of their remaining holes, and probabilities are calculated from 20K simulations. To follow live finish probabilities throughout the remainder of the PGA Championship or to see how each golfer’s probabilities have evolved from the start of the event to the current time, click here for the model’s home page.

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BROOKLINE, Mass. – There were 9,265 entries accepted for this year’s U.S. Open at The Country Club. Some players earned spots in the field through various exemption categories based on FedExCup finish, the Official World Golf Ranking, victories at prestigious events, etc. Others earned their spot through the unique meritocracy of qualifying. The enduring beauty of the U.S. Open is that any player with a 1.4 handicap or better can make the field for this major championship. In 2005, Jason Gore earned a spot in Sunday’s final group at Pinehurst No. 2 as a near-anonymous journeyman pro. Ten years ago, Beau Hossler held the solo lead Friday at Olympic Club as a rising high school senior. Who could author a similar story this week? Here’s five potential Cinderellas at The Country Club. ERIK BARNES A 36-hole U.S. Open qualifier didn’t faze the eighth-year Korn Ferry Tour pro. Barnes, 34, knows what it means to work a double shift. During pro golf’s hiatus in the spring of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barnes took a job at a Publix supermarket as a Grocery Replenishment Specialist (stocking shelves) to support his family – wife Ashleigh and two young sons, Jaxton and Tucker. Five days a week, the Indiana native woke up at 3 a.m. He worked from 4 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the grocery store, then headed to the golf course to practice. “Could I have filed for unemployment and got what I’m making at Publix? Yeah, probably,” Barnes said at the time. “But I needed to take action and do it right now.” Playing on conditional status at the time, Barnes made a quick impact once the hiatus was lifted, recording back-to-back top-15 finishes to boost his spot in the Priority Ranking and play a full season. He has played the best golf of his career in 2022, making 14 of 15 cuts to begin the Korn Ferry Tour campaign and secure his first TOUR card for next season. This week, he gets a sneak preview of life on golf’s biggest stage. FRAN QUINN Fran Quinn has been grinding as a pro golfer for three decades. He’s won four times on the Korn Ferry Tour but also traversed the globe, including stops in Africa and Asia, in search of places to play. Just 71 of his starts as a pro have been on the PGA TOUR. His 72nd may be the most memorable of them all, however. The 57-year-old’s endurance and perseverance will pay off this week, with a moment that he will never forget in front of friends and family. The Massachusetts native will be the first man to tee off of No. 10 Thursday (fellow Massachusetts native Michael Thorbjornsen, an amateur who made the cut in the 2019 U.S. Open, will do the honors off of No. 1). Quinn, 57, hadn’t attempted U.S. Open Final Qualifying since 2015 but the opportunity to compete this week in his home state was too good to pass up. Making the field may have been a longshot but he had to try. With the encouragement of his son Owen, and The Country Club’s location just 40 minutes from his hometown of Holden, Massachusetts, he sent in his application. The four-time Korn Ferry Tour winner advanced through both Local and Final Qualifying, punctuated with a birdie on the second extra hole of an 8-for-3 playoff at the Purchase, New York, site to secure his first U.S. Open berth since 2014. In his most recent U.S. Open appearance, at Pinehurst No. 2, Quinn generated buzz with an opening-round 68 that placed him T2 at day’s end. With Owen on the bag, he made the cut and enjoyed a memorable Father’s Day walk. It would have marked a sufficient farewell to the major championship arena. Now he has upped the ante, with a moment he only could have dreamed of. KEITH GREENE Golf Channel was on hand for the Jupiter, Florida, site of Final Qualifying, and when the broadcast cut to an interview with Keith Greene, many fans didn’t think much of it. But as Greene became teary-eyed upon explaining what this opportunity meant to him, he instantly gained legions of new fans. Kevin Kisner even tweeted at Greene with interest in setting up a practice round. Greene, 29, played collegiately at Eastern Florida State College and has competed on various mini-tours with limited success. He has made 12 career starts across PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR Latinoamerica, with just one made cut to show. The seventh-year pro has yet to make a PGA TOUR or Korn Ferry Tour start. On his TOUR profile, Greene notes a favorite quote is “hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.” Perhaps channeling that spirit, the Florida native has earned the right to tee it up against the world’s best this week. “I’ve just believed so much in myself … it’s just been hard, man,” Greene said upon qualifying, his voice breaking. “The family’s there, though. I’m just trying to do what I can out here, and I know I’ve got it. Competition’s so good, but I know I can do it.” Professional golf is incredibly deep. This week, Greene will aim to prove that. ISAIAH SALINDA Salinda’s parents worked long hours for decades to give their son every chance to chase his dreams. His dad Antonio has spent three-plus decades in the postal service in San Francisco, and his mom Debbie is a longtime nurse. Salinda played collegiately at Stanford, helping the Cardinal to the 2020 NCAA title, and he advanced through PGA TOUR Canada Q-School in March 2020 — just before the COVID-19 pandemic hiatus. Without a place to play for a while, his timeline was delayed. He finished T21 at PGA TOUR Canada’s Royal Beach Victoria Open the day before competing at 36-hole Final Qualifying in Bend, Oregon, where he carded 8 under to earn one of three available spots. Salinda competed in the 2019 Walker Cup and was a second-team All-American as a senior. Now he’ll tee it up in his first major championship. CHRIS GOTTERUP After a disappointing exit in the NCAA Championship quarterfinals, Gotterup wouldn’t have been blamed for taking a few days to relax before commencing his professional career. But the New Jersey native – who played a fifth year for Oklahoma after four years at Rutgers – recalibrated mentally and traversed from the NCAA Championships in Phoenix to attempt U.S. Open Final Qualifying in Purchase, New York. The recent Haskins Award winner (recognizing the United States’ top collegiate golfer) didn’t miss a beat, carding 3 under at a pair of demanding courses to earn his first major championship start. Gotterup, 22, finished No. 7 on the 2022 PGA TOUR University Ranking presented by Velocity Global. He’s expected to get a handful of PGA TOUR starts this summer, as well (he missed the cut last week in the RBC Canadian Open). He’s already finished in the top 10 in a PGA TOUR event, the Puerto Rico Open, this year. He has seen what success looks like at various levels. Now he’ll put it to the test at the highest level.

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