Branden Grace wins Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City

JACKSON, Miss. — Sebastián Muñoz of Colombia made a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to force a playoff, and then beat Sungjae Im with a par on the first extra hole to win the Sanderson Farms Championship for his first PGA TOUR victory. Muñoz, who closed with a 2-under 70, made it two straight weeks for South American winners, following Joaquin Niemann winning last week at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier. “Jaco’s win gave me the belief I needed, the little extra belief I’m good enough, I’m here,” Muñoz said. Niemann won by six shots at The Greenbrier. Muñoz had it far more difficult. He was among four players in the mix over the back nine at the Country Club of Jackson, and it looked as though the 21-year-old Im would snatch his first victory when he made a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-5 14th, got up-and-down from a bunker on the reachable 15th for birdie, and made it three straight birdies with a 12-foot putt. He closed with a 66, and that looked like it might be enough. Byeong Hun An made consecutive bogeys to fall out of the mix. Carlos Ortiz couldn’t get a putt to fall. Muñoz lost two good scoring opportunities with a drive well right of the fairway on the 14th, and then flubbing a lob shot left of the 15th green that went into the bunker, leading to bogey. Down to his last hole, he played it to perfection with a big drive, an approach to 15 feet below the hole and the most important putt of his young career. The 26-year-old from Bogota, who played his college golf at North Texas, poured in the birdie putt to join Im at 18-under 270. “We just decided on a line, kept it as as simple as can and just strike the putt,” Muñoz said. The playoff on the 18th hole wasn’t as clean. Im went left into the Bermuda rough and caught a flier, sending the ball well over the green against the grandstand. Muñoz was in the right rough and, expecting the ball to come out hot, he abbreviated his swing and it came out some 30 yards short. His chip-and-run rolled out to just under 4 feet. Im did well to pitch out of rough to just over 6 feet by the hole, but his par putt didn’t even touch the cup and he started walking soon after he hit it. Muñoz rolled in the par putt and the celebration was on. “I’m speechless,” he said. This is the first time since the tournament began in 1986 that it was not held the same week as another PGA TOUR event with a stronger field. That means it gets full FedExCup points, and Muñoz earned a spot in the Masters for the first time. Im, voted PGA TOUR rookie of the year last season for reaching the TOUR Championship, is still looking for his first win. An wound up alone in third with a birdie on the final hole for a 69, while Ortiz had to settle for a 71 and a tie for fourth with Kevin Streelman (64). The playoff ended a peculiar streak of 38 consecutive PGA TOUR events that were decided in regulation, dating to Charles Howell III winning in a playoff at Sea Island at the end of last year.

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Sebastian Munoz saw the tough weather conditions on the way to The RSM Classic and figured all he could do was keep his head down and make birdies. He wound up with a 10-under 60 to shatter his career round by six shots. RELATED: Leaderboard | Jordan Spieth and wife welcome first child Scoring was so low Thursday at Sea Island that all that got Munoz was a one-shot lead. The Colombian, who won his first PGA TOUR event just over two years ago, birdied his final hole at Seaside. He led by one stroke over Sea Island member Zach Johnson at Seaside, while three other players were one shot behind. Past champion Mackenzie Hughes, Chez Reavie and Scott Stallings each had a 9-under 63 on the Plantation course. Four players were tied at 8 under, led by Canadian Corey Conners (62 at Seaside). His wife, Malory, gave birth last week to their first child, a girl named Reis. Jhonattan Vegas, Talor Gooch and Russell Henley shot 64 at Plantation. Scoring was so ideal that 33 players shot 66 or lower on the two courses, located just off the Atlantic Ocean, and all but 21 players in the field of 156 broke par. The cumulative score in relation to par at the Seaside Course was 288 under, 42 shots lower than the previous record set in 2018. The scoring average of 66.308 at the Seaside was a tournament record, and the second-lowest for any round on the PGA TOUR since 1983, when the TOUR began tracking hole-by-hole data. The record is 66.28 at Indian Wells in the 2003 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Munoz matched Tommy Gainey’s 2012 record for low round at Seaside; Hughes, Stallings and Reavie tied for low round at the Plantation set last year by winner Robert Streb and Bronson Burgoon. A warm, sunny day that began with just enough light rain to soften the already pure greens is expected to morph into more common November weather on the Georgia coast Friday with a drop of about 10 degrees in the temperature and wind forecast to gust as high as 30 mph. “When you’ve got just absolute pure conditions weather-wise and pure conditions on the golf course — the best I’ve ever seen these two golf courses, period — you know you’ve got to get after it,” said the 45-year-old Johnson, who hit all 18 greens. “It was a perfect day and we all knew it (low scores) was out there,” added Cameron Smith, who had a 66 at the Seaside. Munoz, however, was staying in the present for his best round as a professional. He hit 11 fairways and 16 greens, made six birdies on the front nine and punctuated the day with a 12-foot eagle putt at No. 15 and a 10-foot birdie putt at No. 18. “I felt great yesterday playing the pro-am, basically the same weather for two days, so I knew I was hitting it good,” he said. “I just let it happen.” And for tomorrow? “I haven’t really looked at the forecast,” he said. “I don’t know how much it’s going to blow tomorrow or if it’s going to be cold or not, so I’m just kind of here right now and I’ll adjust tomorrow and see what happens.” Johnson was the only player who had a reasonable shot at a sub-60 round. He was 9 under through 15 holes after making a 7-footer for birdie at No. 15 and missed birdie attempts of 10, 20 and 25 feet on the final three holes. “It hit me (the chance to shoot 59) after I birdied 12 and 13 and I got to 8 under,” Johnson said. “Making birdie on 15, I was like, ‘Well, two more and I’m right there.’ I gave myself looks, pretty good looks and that’s all you can hope for.” Johnson also had a shot at 59 in the TOUR Championship in 2007 until hitting into a bunker on the par-3 18th hole at East Lake and having to settle for par and a 60. Johnson and playing partners Matt Kuchar (65) and Joel Dahmen (65) didn’t make a bogey.

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With the Power Rankings for the TOUR Championship slotting all 30 qualifiers in pursuit of the 14th FedExCup title, this weekly Fantasy Insider column is predictably abridged. But that's not to say that it's without valuable and timely information. After all, the 2020-21 season begins in nine sleeps with the Safeway Open on Thursday, Sept. 9. First, the bad news. I will not be writing a full-membership fantasy ranking. Given that membership isn't turning over and with only two days in between seasons, the energy and focus is devoted elsewhere. Ever since the wraparound season was introduced in 2013, I've joked that it's stressed fantasy planning due to tight scheduling, but this year's squeeze is unprecedented. In place of the ranking will be a season primer that will read a lot like the customary introduction to the annual ranking. It'll be an evergreen guide. More on its timing below. RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks | Eight things to know about East Lake While membership isn't changing, there is movement in the ranks. The next update to the Korn Ferry Tour graduate reshuffle page will list the opening order of the golfers who didn't qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs and who don't have status via a victory. Because there are no KFT grads in 2020-21, the title of the page will change. That'll be your cue for what's new if you don't already look at the date at the top. Medical Extensions will be updated at the same time as the Reshuffle. Plan on both being ready by Monday. Qualifiers will remain as fluid as it's ever been as the governing bodies around the world continue to adapt to the pandemic and how it influences their schedules. If you draft with an emphasis on who is exempt into the events included on that page, plan on no worse than the baseline constructs of how those fields have been assembled in recent memory. Anything unusual will be considered a bonus. The Rookie Ranking will be taking on a different form in 2020-21. Because there won't be any rookies to start the season, there won't be anything to rank. However, in due time, non-members will begin totaling the equivalent of FedExCup points in pursuit of Special Temporary Membership. (The target remains 288.035 points. That's a holdover from the 2018-19 season because 2019-20 was compressed.) Non-members will include the top 10 in Korn Ferry Tour points at the conclusion of the KFT Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance as they will have exemptions into all additional events in 2020-21. All three-time winners on the combined 2020-21 KFT season also will earn an automatic promotion to the PGA TOUR and could qualify as a rookie. With so many moving parts, Rookie Ranking will demand attention, just in a different way. With the Monday finish of the TOUR Championship, my preview material for the Safeway Open will slide back a day. So, the Power Rankings will publish on Tuesday, as will the season primer referenced above. Sleepers, Expert Picks and the Fantasy Insider will publish on Wednesday. We'll return to the regular schedule in advance of the U.S. Open the following week. Speaking of primers, this is a great time to reacquaint yourself with the fantasy primer for the restart of this season. It published in early June, but it can serve as a bridge into next week's primer and should help with some direction for draft leaguers. Before all of that, of course, there's the little matter of settling fantasy league championships at East Lake. Round scoring in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf isn't influenced by the staggered start of the TOUR Championship, but the bonus points earned will be based on actual finish in the tournament, not by actual score over 72 holes. As I reminded gamers in this space two weeks ago and as the old One & Done determined values for the 2019 TOUR Championship, because no FedExCup points are up for grabs in the finale, bonus points in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf will follow the same breakdown used at THE NORTHERN TRUST and the BMW Championship. So, the winner will yield 150 bonus points as a starter for his owners in the final round. PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf My roster for the TOUR Championship (in alphabetical order): Bryson DeChambeau Dustin Johnson Jon Rahm Xander Schauffele Webb Simpson Justin Thomas You'll find my starters in Expert Picks. Others to consider for each category (in alphabetical order): Scoring: Daniel Berger; Tony Finau; Tyrrell Hatton; Scottie Scheffler Driving: Daniel Berger; Tyrrell Hatton; Hideki Matsuyama; Collin Morikawa; Scottie Scheffler RETURNING TO COMPETITION Martin Laird ... Scheduled to tee it up at the Korn Ferry Tour's Lincoln Land Championship presented by LRS. He was among the internationals who didn't return to the PGA TOUR this summer. Finished 182nd in the FedExCup, but he'll keep his fully exempt status due to the eligibility adjustments announced during the hiatus. Kelly Kraft ... Also committed to the KFT event in Springfield, Illinois. This constitutes his first sanctioned start since he underwent surgery on his left hip (labrum, impingement) on Sept. 26, 2019. When he returns to the PGA TOUR, he'll have a Major Medical Extension with a full season's slate of 23 starts. NOTABLE WDs None. POWER RANKINGS RECAP - BMW CHAMPIONSHIP Power Ranking Golfer Result 1 Dustin Johnson P2 2 Webb Simpson DNP 3 Justin Thomas T25 4 Jon Rahm Win 5 Bryson DeChambeau 50th 6 Daniel Berger T25 7 Collin Morikawa T20 8 Kevin Kisner T25 9 Harris English T40 10 Scottie Scheffler T20 11 Alex Noren T40 12 Xander Schauffele T25 13 Tony Finau 5th 14 Louis Oosthuizen T25 15 Jason Day 64th 16 Viktor Hovland T40 17 Hideki Matsuyama T3 18 Matt Kuchar T59 19 Russell Henley T25 20 Ryan Palmer T40 Wild Card Rory McIlroy T12 SLEEPERS RECAP - BMW CHAMPIONSHIP Golfer Result Corey Conners T33 Matthew Fitzpatrick T6 Mackenzie Hughes T10 Mark Hubbard T51 Matthew Wolff T16 BIRTHDAYS AMONG ACTIVE GOLFERS ON THE PGA TOUR September 1 ... Matthew Fitzpatrick (26) September 2 ... none September 3 ... none September 4 ... none September 5 ... none September 6 ... Brice Garnett (37) September 7 ... none September 8 ... none

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