25 players earn PGA TOUR status via Korn Ferry Tour Finals

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• COURSE: TPC Sawgrass (PLAYERS Stadium), 7,189 yards, par 72. Already lauded as a course that plays no favorites and deftly tests all parts of a player’s game, the Stadium Course offers two new tests this year for the game’s best players. The narrow water hazard between Nos. 6 and 7 has been expanded into a rectangular lake, removing several trees in the vicinity. More significant is No. 12, which has been turned into a drivable par-4 with both fairway and green sloping toward a new water hazard on the left. What hasn’t changed is the hole that receives the most attention – the iconic 17th, measuring 137 yards over water to a green connected only by narrow rear pathway. • FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 600 points. • CHARITY: More than 300 Northeast Florida charities receive assistance from THE PLAYERS Championship, among them Wolfson Children’s Hospital, American Cancer Society and Epilepsy Foundation of Florida. Last year’s event raised a record $8.5 million for charity, bringing its total to more than $84 million since the event first arrived outside Jacksonville in 1977. • FIELD WATCH: World No. 1 Dustin Johnson and newlywed No. 2 Rory McIlroy join defending champion Jason Day to headline what is annually the year’s strongest roster. The lineup features 24 of the top 25 in the current world rankings and 55 of the top 60. … Bernhard Langer, 59, is the oldest player in THE PLAYERS field for the third consecutive year. The Hall of Famer will make his 26th start at TPC Sawgrass, getting in by virtue of last year’s victory at the Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS Championship. … One additional berth is available for the winner of this week’s Wells Fargo Championship, if he hasn’t already qualified. • 72-HOLE RECORD: 264, Greg Norman (1994). • 18-HOLE RECORD: 63, Fred Couples (3rd round, 1992), Greg Norman (1st round, 1994), Roberto Castro (1st round, 2013), Martin Kaymer (1st round, 2014); Jason Day (1st round, 2016); Colt Knost (2nd round, 2016). • LAST YEAR: Day tied the Stadium Course record with an opening 63 and hardly looked back, becoming just the fifth wire-to-wire winner in the event’s history as he completed a four-shot triumph. Day’s total of 15-under-par 273 was the lowest score at TPC Sawgrass in 10 editions since THE PLAYERS moved to a May date. The chase pack never got closer than two shots in the final round, after Day’s bogey at the par-5 ninth hole. The Aussie birdied two of his next three, though, to post his third victory in a nine-week span, alongside wins at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. Kevin Chappell used late birdies at Nos. 16 and 17 to take runner-up honors, matching their 1-2 finish at Bay Hill. • STORYLINES: Johnson, owner of three straight wins before the Wells Fargo Championship, could use an uptick at TPC Sawgrass. Before last year’s share of 28th, his previous seven starts had yet to yield a top-30 finish. Johnson has broken 70 just once in an opening round – a 68 in 2014. … New Masters champion Sergio Garcia, the 2008 PLAYERS winner, makes his first start since Augusta National. It’s been 14 years since he missed a cut at TPC Sawgrass – but the past two Masters winners (Jordan Spieth, Danny Willett) missed THE PLAYERS cut after slipping on the green jacket. … McIlroy tees it up in competition for the first time as a married man, wedding Erica Stoll in a lavish affair 2 ½ weeks ago at Ashford Castle in Ireland. The reigning FedExCup champion has finished outside the top 10 just once anywhere since East Lake, failing short of knockout play at the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play. • SHORT CHIPS: A total of 36 balls found the water surrounding No. 17 last year, slightly below average (39.5) since the PGA TOUR began keeping count 14 years ago. Two years earlier produced the all-time low of 28 splashdowns. The record is 93, when the event first moved to May in 2007. … Paul Azinger (1987) is the only man to birdie No. 17 in all four regulation rounds. Rickie Fowler birdied it three times in a day, during the final round and playoff of his 2015 triumph. … Day became just the second of the past 10 champions who managed to close the deal after holding the 54-hole lead. Martin Kaymer was the other, holding off Jim Furyk after a rain delay in 2014. • TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 1-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 2-7 p.m. (NBC). • PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.-7 p.m. (featured groups), 9 a.m.-7 p.m. (17th hole). Saturday-Sunday, 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m. (featured groups), noon-7 p.m. (17th hole). • RADIO: Thursday-Friday, noon-7 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-7 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com). For more on all the courses in the TPC network, visit TPC.com.  Play where the pros play. To book your tee time at TPC Sawgrass, visit TeeOff.com.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Chez Reavie shot a 5-under 65 on Friday to move to 9-under 131 and share the lead with Charl Schwartzel and Sebastian Munoz after two rounds at the St. Jude Classic. Schwartzel had a 66 while Munoz finished the round with a 67. Stewart Cink — who shared the first-round lead along with Matt Every, Scott Brown and Munoz — was one stroke back after his 68 at the PGA TOUR’s final event before the U.S. Open. Ben Crane, who won this tournament in 2014, was two strokes off the lead after shooting a 65 at the par-70 TPC Southwind course. Reavie, who started two strokes behind the co-leaders, had three birdies on the front nine and an eagle on the par-5 No. 16, landing his second shot fewer than 15 feet from the flagstick and sinking the putt. The 35-year-old from Arizona State earned his only win on tour at the RBC Canadian Open in 2008. “There’s no way that I can change my mindset and go out there and try and make pars — I won’t win the golf tournament if I do that,” Reavie said. “I need to just keep doing the same thing I’m doing — attack the holes that suit my eye and make as many birdies as I can.” Schwartzel, who shot a 65 in the first round, began his round one stroke behind the four first-day leaders along with Matt Jones. He started on the back nine and birdied four of his first eight holes, going back-to-back on Nos. 16 and 17. On the par-5 16th, he sent his second shot into a greenside bunker but recovered by chipping out of the sand to inside of 5 feet of the flagstick. The 32-year-old South African then moved into sole possession of the lead with a birdie on the par-4 second — only to give it back with a bogey on the par-3 eighth. Schwartzel, who finished third at The Masters, is seeking his third career victory on tour — he’s won 12 times internationally — and first since he won the 2016 Valspar Championship near Tampa, Florida. “If these fairways get firm (over the weekend), you’re really going to have to try to keep it in the fairway,” Schwartzel said. “If you’re missing fairways, with the greens, you’re going to miss a lot of greens, you’re going to struggle. So if you want to move forward and win this golf tournament, I think all parts of your game are going to have to be in top form.” Munoz, who made a late charge up the leaderboard in the first round, kept himself there with his second strong round, shooting four birdies to offset his first bogey of the tournament, which came on the par-4 18th. He arrived in Memphis having never shot better than 67 in any round on tour, only to match or better that in each of his first two rounds here. Among those who missed the cut at 1 over: Jason Bohn, Boo Weekley and Jim Furyk were in the cluster of players at 2 over, and Rickie Fowler was at 4 over.

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