2020 Stocking Stuffers

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TRUCKEE, Calif. — Chez Reavie holed a long chip shot for eagle on the par-5 sixth hole and took a three-point lead Friday in the Barracuda Championship. Reavie had a 19-point round in the modified Stableford scoring system event at Tahoe Mountain Club, getting five points for the eagle and 14 for seven birdies. A point is deducted for bogey and three taken away for double bogey or worse. “It’s actually 2 1/2 birdies, so if you can make an eagle, you can kind of leapfrog guys on the leaderboard,” Reavie said. “I hit an OK tee shot kind of up the right side, so I had a little further in. Had to hit a 5-wood, so I kind of favored toward the right bunker side, and I just missed the bunker and had to chip across the green and was fortunate to knock it in.” Reavie played the back nine first in his morning round, making four birdies. He added birdies on Nos. 3 and 4, had the eagle on No. 6 and birdied No. 8 to take a 28-point total into the weekend in the event co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour. He’s the only bogey-free player after 36 holes. “I think really having control of the golf ball out here really helps you,” Reavie said. “You’ve got to be in the fairway. Once you get in the rough, with the greens being firm, you can’t really be aggressive with your irons, so you have to drive the ball in the fairway.” The 40-year-old from Mesa, Arizona, has two PGA TOUR victories, taking the 2008 RBC Canadian Open and the 2019 Travelers Championship. Mark Hubbard, tied for the first-round lead with Charley Hoffman with 13 points, was tied for second with Henrik Norlander at 25 points. Hubbard had a 12-point round, and Norlander a 14-pointer. The 33-year-old Hubbard is winless on the PGA TOUR. He was third last week in Kentucky in the Barbasol Championship, the first of two straight U.S. events co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour. “It was tough early, man, with the cold and the elevation,” Hubbard said. “It’s hard to know how far the ball is going, and it seemed like every pin on our front nine, the back nine, was front with water short, so you couldn’t really play with it. So it was just tough to get the ball close early. Once it heated up and started going another 10 percent, I started making some birdies.” Norlander had seven birdies in a bogey-free round. The 35-year-old Swede, also winless on the PGA TOUR, made a weekend cut for only the third time in his last 16 starts. He had missed five straight cuts. “I’m very pleased,” Norlander said. “It’s, first of all, nice to not make travel arrangements on Friday afternoon. I’ve been sort of used to that lately. Just a lot better attitude this week. ”There’s a lot of bad voices in there, I’m not going to lie. But I think the key for me is to like accept that and then move from there. When I get bad, I try to avoid those voices, but they’re there.” Kevin Tway had 21 points. He birdied the first five holes in a 15-point day. Maverick McNealy and Martin Trainer followed at 19. Hoffman had 15 after a two-point day.

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Scottie Scheffler knows how to make the most of a Sunday. After finishing runner-up at the Charles Schwab Challenge, his sixth top-two finish of the season, the FedExCup leader made a 75-mile commute from Fort Worth to Quinlan, Texas, for his sister-in-law Stephanie’s wedding. As Scheffler was playing the 18th hole Sunday at Colonial Country Club, CBS play-by-play host Jim Nantz noted the unique travel scenario at hand. With a 1:15 p.m. CT tee time and 6 p.m. CT wedding, Scheffler had a tight window to complete his final round and navigate to the ceremony. Needing a closing birdie to win or a par to force a playoff with Sam Burns, Scheffler knew a par would make for an even tighter timeline in his evening itinerary. That’s exactly how things unfolded; after Scheffler missed the green short in a bunker on a windy, demanding afternoon, he blasted to 6 feet and drained the par putt to match his longtime friend Burns at 9-under. For every playoff hole, Scheffler would potentially miss more of the wedding. When Burns drained a 38-footer from the back fringe for birdie on the first playoff hole, winning when Scheffler could not make a similar-length birdie to match, the silver lining was that Scheffler could arrive at the wedding sooner. The courtship story of Stephanie (sister of Scheffler’s wife Meredith) and her husband Matt even has a golf tie. From Stephanie and Matt’s wedding website: “In 2019, Matt finally made the decision to move to Dallas! Then, one glorious day in May, after an exciting weekend spent at the (AT&T) Byron Nelson golf tournament, Matt and Stephanie found themselves at dinner with friends, sitting across from one another once again. That evening, after reconnecting, Matt made the move and officially asked Stephanie to go on a date with him.” Add another golf memory to their tale, as well.

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