Alker wins Cologuard Classic on 1st playoff hole

Talented newcomers rise to the tops of leaderboards every year on the PGA TOUR, because while the top FedExCup point-earners make up an exclusive club, the abilities of the young stars have proven undeniable. Future legends like Vijay Singh (1993), Ernie Els (1994) and Tiger Woods (1996) all kickstarted their TOUR careers by earning Rookie of the Year honors. Of the top 32 players in this week’s Official World Golf Ranking, seven won the award. In 2021, first-year PGA TOUR member Erik van Rooyen made it all the way to the TOUR Championship, while Will Zalatoris – who ranked in the top 10 in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green – took home the R.O.Y. trophy. After the unprecedented 2020-2021 Korn Ferry Tour “super season,” many talented first-year players are primed to make a major impact on the PGA TOUR in 2022. Below is a look at some of the first-year TOUR pros who could make a splash. Taylor Pendrith Few players on the Korn Ferry Tour had as balanced a statistical profile as this 30-year-old Canadian. He bombs it off the tee (323.3 yards on average), and hit well over 70% of his greens in regulation (72.8%, ranked 18th). Pendrith ranked 5th in birdie average, and in the top 20 in total driving, ball striking and the all-around ranking. Short game, you ask? He ranked 9th in scrambling (64.2%) and a respectable T-36 in putts per green in regulation (1.75). Pendrith has already flashed potential this season: After rounds of 70-61-65, he held a three-shot lead entering the final round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in October. Ultimately, he finished tied for fifth after a final-round 76. Aaron Rai Accomplished at every professional level, Englishman Aaron Rai has the game to become a household name. His strength has been his approach play, having ranked in the top 25 on the DP World Tour in greens in regulation the last five seasons. In 2017, he rattled off three Challenge Tour victories in a five-month span, and in his two DP World Tour wins he beat some of the best players in the world – Matt Fitzpatrick at the 2018 Hong Kong Open, and Tommy Fleetwood in a playoff at the 2020 Scottish Open, a Rolex Series event. He capped off his fall run with three straight top-20 finishes on TOUR last fall. Chad Ramey How’s this for consistency? In his last 39 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour, Ramey has 11 top-10 finishes, five top-three finishes, and just one missed cut. His active run of 26 straight made cuts is the longest on the tour, far and away. Ramey ranked 3rd on the KFT in the 2020-21 extended season in greens in regulation (74.8%), 2nd in scoring average (68.81) and 9th in the all-around ranking. In six PGA TOUR starts last fall, Ramey picked up a pair of top-20 finishes. Mito Pereira Last June, Pereira became the first player in five years to earn the Three Victory Promotion from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA TOUR. The Chilean has made the most of his TOUR opportunities since, making 10 of 13 cuts and picking up a trio of top-10 finishes. Card in hand, 2021-22 will be his first full season as a TOUR player. The stats say he’ll do well. Since July 1, there are 132 players with 20 or more TOUR rounds measured by ShotLink. Of that group, Pereira ranks 10th in Strokes Gained: Total, narrowly behind Webb Simpson. In that same span, he’s 6th in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking (measuring shots off the tee and approaching the green), gaining 1.16 shots per round against the field. Hayden Buckley A University of Missouri product, Buckley was one of the most consistent players tee-to-green on the Korn Ferry Tour a season ago. For the season, he ranked 3rd in ball striking, 4th in total driving, and 9th in greens in regulation. After securing his PGA TOUR card via the Korn Ferry Tour finals (pair of top-10 finishes), he continued his strong play in the fall, finishing T4 at the Sanderson Farms Championship and T8 at the Shriners Children’s Open. Buckley is continuing his strong tee-to-green play so far on the big circuit, ranking in the top 20 in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and Strokes Gained: Total. Cameron Young At the Sanderson Farms last fall, Cameron Young nearly strapped a rocket to his rookie season. In what was his first career made cut in a PGA TOUR event, Young closed with 67-68 to finish a shot back of tournament winner Sam Burns. Speaking of rockets, check out Young with the driver in his hands if you get the chance – he’s hitting it 323 yards off the tee, which, although it’s early, currently leads the driving distance stat on TOUR. Sahith Theegala Young started that final round in Mississippi a shot behind Sahith Theegala, who led or co-led after each of the first three rounds before winding up in a tie for 8th place. Theegala comes to the TOUR with justified fanfare: In his final collegiate season at Pepperdine, Theegala swept the major player of the year awards (Nicklaus, Hogan and Haskins). The superlatives: Theegala hit nearly 82% of his greens in regulation at the Korn Ferry Tour Finals last year, tied for second-most in the field. And in limited PGA TOUR action in 2021, he has averaged 0.72 Strokes Gained: Putting per round – a rate that would have ranked 2nd on TOUR over the course of the entire season.

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MAMARONECK, N.Y. — This wasn’t the kind of fun Justin Thomas had in mind for a U.S. Open at Winged Foot. For all the hype and history of how much punishment Winged Foot has doled out over the years. Thomas took advantage of a surprising soft and gentle Thursday morning with a 5-under 65, the lowest score in six U.S. Opens on this tough Tillinghast design. And all that got him was a one-shot lead over Patrick Reed, Matthew Wolff and Thomas Pieters, with Rory McIlroy another shot behind and starting to swing freely. Thomas went into the week saying it was a “different kind of fun” to grind over pars, to hit middle irons to difficult pins instead of the low scoring at so many other tournaments. He delivered six birdies and finished with a 25-footer on the 18th on a putt he barely moved to get it started down one of the many wicked slopes on Winged Foot’s greens. “Yeah, 65 is fun no matter where you play, especially at Winged Foot,” Thomas said. “I was in a really good frame of mind, and I was focused. I just was sticking to my routine and playing every shot, as opposed to getting ahead of myself. It’s one of those rounds where … next thing you know, you make the putt on 18, you’re done for the day.” He played with Masters champion Tiger Woods and PGA champion Collin Morikawa, who couldn’t get done fast enough. Woods was in five bunkers through five holes and then appeared to steady himself with three straight birdies around the turn to get under par, but only briefly. He made three bogeys coming in, still had a chance to post a reasonable score and then let it get away. From short of the steep shelf fronting the 18th green, he flubbed a flop shot, pitched the next one about 8 feet beyond the pin and missed the putt to take double bogey for a 73. “I did not finish off the round like I needed to,” Woods said, a feeling he conveyed five more times out of the six questions he faced after his round. Neither did Morikawa, who shot 40 on the back nine for a 76. Most irritating to Woods was a missed chance to score. Low clouds added to the soft feel of Winged Foot. The greens were fast but not as firm. Jordan Spieth discovered that on the first hole. He was trying to figure out if his approach would take a hard hop and release or land soft and spin back. He guessed wrong, the ball rolled down the slope to the front of the the green and he three-putted for bogey. He also shot 73. Thomas judged it correctly with a short iron left of the flag that spun back close to the hole for birdie. His only dropped shot came at the par-3 third because the ball settled on a downward slope of a bunker, leaving him no chance to get it close. There were few complaints the rest of the way. He also made three birdies around the turn, narrowly missing a fourth in a row from just inside 10 feet at the par-5 12th. Thomas felt at ease, and Winged Foot allowed him to feel that way. At least on Thursday. The previous low score for a U.S. Open was a 66 by Fuzzy Zoeller in the second round in 1984. “The greens are very soft,” Thomas said. “I thought they’d be a little firmer, but I also understood that they need to err on this side if they can get them how they want this weekend. … It’s still Winged Foot. You’ve still got to hit the shots. That kind of was my game plan going into the week. Yeah, I need to respect the course. But if I’m driving it well and playing well, I do need to try to make some birdies.” Reed did better than that. Starting with four pars and a double bogey on No. 5, Reed hit driver to the left edge of the rough on the short par-4 sixth and chipped to 6 feet. Then, he hit 9-iron that one-hopped into the hole for an ace on No. 7, and the awkward pause of making sure it was a hole-in-one because there are no spectators around to cheer. “It would have been nuts. Up here in New York, the fans are amazing,” he said. “It was unfortunate the fans weren’t here because that would have been an awesome experience. But at the same time, an ace is an ace. I’ll take it either way.” Reed prefers the U.S. Open to be a battle for par, and so it was for those who got out of position. Even then, he delivered. Reed clipped a tree on the 16th and was some 300 yards from the green and managed to escape with par. Ditto for the 17th, where he hammered a hybrid out of thick grass and let it run hot onto the putting surface. McIlroy can make the game look easy anywhere, and such was the case. He birdied three of the par 3s, and only a pair of three-putts — one for par, one for bogey — slowed him. “It was one of those rounds I felt like could have been a little lower than it was, but at the same time 67 is a really good start.

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