2025 PGA Championship: Experts’ picks and betting tips

Justin Thomas has been tearing up the PGA TOUR. Now one of his college teammates will have the opportunity to make his PGA TOUR debut. Scott Strohmeyer was one of four players to Monday qualify for this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship. Strohmeyer was teammates with Thomas on the 2013 Alabama team that won the NCAA Championship. Three of the five players from that team have earned PGA TOUR cards: Thomas, Trey Mullinax and Bobby Wyatt.  Strohmeyer, on the other hand, has not played in a PGA TOUR or Web.com Tour event. He won his lone individual title at the 2013 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional, the second-to-last event of his career; he finished two shots ahead of Wyatt and six shots ahead of Thomas. Strohmeyer closed his career by beating Illinois’ Brian Campbell in the championship match of the 2013 NCAA Championship, helping Alabama to a 4-1 victory over the Illini. Campbell played on the PGA TOUR last season. Strohmeyer recently failed to advance out of the first stage of Web.com Tour Q-School after shooting a first-round 81; he played the next three rounds in 2 under. Strohmeyer shot 68 in Monday’s qualifier at Deerfield Golf Club in Canton, Mississippi, then won a four-man playoff for the final spot in the Sanderson Farms Championship. Rhein Gibson, Chris Baker and Mississippi State alum Matt Fast also were in the playoff. Grady Brame Jr. shot 65 on Monday to earn medalist honors. Brame, 24, will be making his PGA TOUR debut. He finished 144th on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada money list this year, making two cuts in nine events. Brame played college golf at Southeastern Louisiana and won the Louisiana Amateur in 2014 and 2015. Nyasha Mauchaza finished one shot behind Brame on Monday. Mauchaza, 29, is from Zimbabwe and graduated from Towson University in 2011. His lone PGA TOUR start came at the 2011 Wyndham Championship; he missed the cut with rounds of 75-72. He last played a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event in August 2016, when he competed in his fourth PGA TOUR Canada event of the year. David Skinns is the most experienced member of this week’s qualifiers. Skinns, a 2006 graduate of Tennessee, finished 58th on this year’s Web.com Tour money list. It was his first time playing more than 11 Web.com Tour events in a season. His runner-up finish at the final event of the Regular Season, the WinCo Foods Portland Open, was his lone top-10 in 23 starts in 2017. He jumped from 115th to 58th on the money list to keep his card for the 2018 season. Skinns, 35, has played in three PGA TOUR events: the 2013 Valspar Championship (MC), 2014 Puerto Rico Open (T29) and 2016 Waste Management Phoenix Open (MC).

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Jordan Spieth put himself into the mix Saturday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am title, and he lived to tell about it. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Inside the Field: WM Phoenix Open On a day when Seamus Power went backward to allow a half-dozen other players back in the game, Spieth went backward just to make sure he didn’t fall over a 60-foot cliff Even if it might have looked more dangerous than it was, his approach from the edge of the cliff on the eighth hole at Pebble Beach stole the show on a Saturday that typically belongs to Bill Murray, Macklemore and the rest of the celebrities. Spieth had a 9-under 63, his career low at Pebble Beach, to go from 10 strokes behind Power to one shot behind the leading trio of Beau Hossler, Andrew Putnam and Tom Hoge. “That was by far the most nerve-wracking shot I’ve ever hit in my life,” Spieth said to caddie Michael Greller after his shot went just left of the green. His tee shot ran out through the fairway, short of going over the edge. Keeping all the weight on his right leg, Spieth hit the shot and immediately backpedaled to level ground. From the rough, he chipped down the slippery green to 18 feet and made the par putt. It was high entertainment on a Saturday built for such theatrics. And while the celebrities attracted a big gallery that lined fairways on another glorious day, the final round was loaded with possibilities. Hossler had a 65 at Pebble Beach, narrowly missing a second eagle of the round on the 18th hole. He was the first to reach 15-under 200. Putnam started on the back nine at Pebble Beach and ran off five straight birdies with hardly anyone watching, finishing with a par for a 68 at Pebble Beach. Hoge was at Spyglass Hill and shot a 68 to join them. Patrick Cantlay, the reigning FedExCup champion, started and finished his round with a pair of birdies and didn’t do a lot in between. He had a 68 and was one shot behind, along with Spieth and Joel Dahmen (66 at Spyglass). “I’m in great position and I love this golf course and everyone will be playing on the same golf course tomorrow so it should be fun,” Cantlay said. A key figure in all this fun was Power, the 34-year-old Irishman, who set the 36-hole tournament record at 128 and looked as though he could do wrong. He had a five-shot lead to par and a four-shot lead on strokes, but his round at par-71 Monterey Peninsula became a struggle off the tee and round the greens. Power had consecutive birdies to get back to 16 under — even for the day — until bogeys on two of his last three holes for a 74. Even so, he was only two shots behind going into the final round. Spieth went out in 31, highlighted by an approach up the hill to 3 feet on the par-5 sixth for an eagle and his two 18-footers to close out the front nine, the par on No. 8 and a birdie on No. 9. He finished with a tee shot on the par-3 17th that took a hard bounce off the springy green, grazed the flag and settled 8 feet away for a birdie. On the iconic par-5 closing hole, his second shot tumbled onto the green and ran near the hole until it stopped on the fringe, leaving 20 feet and two putts for a final birdie. Jason Day, who tied for third third at Torrey Pines as the former No. 1 player in the world tries to regain his form, kept alive his hopes with a 70 at Spyglass. He was four shots behind. Hossler and Hoge are the only players among the leading seven who have yet to win on the PGA TOUR. Hoge had a chance two weeks ago in the California desert. Hossler was bogey-free, a steady round with very little stress. “Pebble can give and take so quickly, right? I was glad to be on the receiving end today,” he said. “I hit it well, played really conservatively, frankly, even though it might not look like it, and was fortunate to not have any misses really get me in significant trouble.”

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Round 3 of the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP takes place today from Chiba, Japan. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action. Round 3 leaderboard Round 3 tee times HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Wednesday-Thursday 11 p.m.-3 a.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday 7:30 p.m.-3:45 a.m. ET (Golf Channel). Event scheduled to end Sunday morning (ET). PGA TOUR LIVE: None. Radio: None. NOTABLE PAIRINGS (ALL TIMES LOCAL) Xander Schauffele, Matthew Wolff, Billy Horschel 8:10 a.m. (No. 1) Hideki Matsuyama, Corey Conners, Daniel Berger 8:20 a.m. (No. 1) Tiger Woods, Gary Woodland, Keegan Bradley 8:30 a.m. (No. 1) MUST READS Tiger tracking towards record-tying win Home favorite Matsuyama in contention Woodland auditioning for Presidents Cup captain’s pick in final pairing Tiger looking for No. 82 in Japan Woodland makes Presidents Cup case Ishikawa eyeing comeback What to expect during the fall schedule Sign-up and play Fantasy Golf

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