Cut prediction: World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Improbable shots abounded on one of the most stressful days of the PGA TOUR season. Sunday’s final round of the Wyndham Championship is the last day for players to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs. The top 125 after the final putt drops – in this case, Henrik Stenson’s 3-footer for a one-shot victory – earn their berths into golf’s postseason, and many players need to be among that elite group to retain their full playing privileges for the following season. Both title hopes and jobs are on the line, a drama-inducing combination. A hole-in-one, a 60-footer from the fringe and unlikely birdies at the last hole all helped players qualify for next week’s THE NORTHERN TRUST, the postseason opener. And all these shots happened Sunday on Sedgefield’s final three holes. J.J. Henry narrowly grabbed the 125th spot in the FedExCup standings, and he did it by the slimmest of margins. He finished just 1.13 FedExCup points ahead of No. 126 Zac Blair. Henry birdied two of his final three holes to sneak into the top 125, including a 5-foot birdie putt on Sedgefield Country Club’s demanding finishing hole. “I’m very proud of the way I finished today,â€� Henry said. “I’ve won three times and played on a Ryder Cup team, and it was probably some of the most pressure I’ve felt, playing today.â€� Henry was one of four players to crack the top 125 at the Wyndham Championship. Martin Flores, Rory Sabbatini and Harold Varner III joined him. Both Henry and Sabbatini, who holed a 58-foot birdie putt from the fringe on No. 16, made the top 125 without a shot to spare. Sabbatini shot 64 on Sunday to finish T4. Four players were bounced out of the FedExCup Playoffs to make room for the successful foursome. Blair, David Hearn, Seamus Power and Daniel Summerhays were the unfortunate foursome. Flores shot Sunday’s low score, a 7-under 63. He made a hole-in-one on the 175-yard 16th and a birdie on No. 18, where he hit his 140-yard approach shot to 8 feet. “I just kept telling myself, ‘You have to make it. I don’t care what you have to do. Just find a way to make it,’â€� he said of his final putt. He pumped his fist after sinking his 8-foot birdie putt at the last hole, then got emotional during his post-round interview on CBS. “I knew exactly what I needed to do,â€� he said. “I did everything I could today and I’m really proud of how I played.â€� There were other players who saw their postseason hopes slip away on the final day. Shane Lowry, winner of the 2015 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, shot 67 on Sunday but finished one shot outside the top 125. Johnson Wagner started Sunday in fifth place thanks to an albatross and two eagles in his first three rounds. His final-round 74 dashed his hopes of leaping into the Playoffs from 141st in the FedExCup standings. Wagner’s bogey at the reachable par-5 15th, where he hit his 215-yard second shot in the water, gave Henry his slim advantage over Blair because it dropped Wagner behind Henry, who’d already finished his round, on the leaderboard. Blair, who began the week ranked 120th in the FedExCup, had to follow the final round from his hotel room after missing Saturday’s cut; he lipped out birdie putts on Nos. 16 and 17 to finish two shots outside the 54-hole cut. What Blair saw on television was one of the most dramatic finales to the Wyndham Championship in recent memory. More than a half-dozen players were hoping to make Hail Mary runs into the postseason, including 53-year-old Davis Love III, who started the final round in sixth place. Sam Saunders’ first FedExCup Playoffs berth was within reach as well. He shot 1 over par on the weekend (72-69) after starting the tournament with rounds of 63 and 68, finishing two shots short of the cut line. “It was the least enjoyable round of golf I’ve ever played in my life,â€� Saunders said. “You don’t know if you’re going to throw up or have a heart attack. It’s worse than trying to win a tournament, tenfold. … I’ve never had to birdie one hole to change my life for the entire year. And that just kills me.â€� Geoff Ogilvy was the man who started Wyndham week at No. 125 in the FedExCup standings. Ogilvy, winner of the 2006 U.S. Open and three World Golf Championships, said the stress of defending his Playoffs spot inspired some of the best golf of his life. He had to birdie five of his final seven holes Friday just to make the cut. He shot 6-under 29 on Sunday’s front nine, including a hole-out from 93 yards for eagle on No. 8. “If I wasn’t on (No. 125), I probably would have turned that front nine into a low-60s round. I felt like I was playing that well,â€� he said. “There’s a level of tension and stress in your body that’s on a different level when you’re in that position. “This is a different sort of pressure and a more uncomfortable type of pressure than trying to win a tournament. My body felt (bad) all week. You just don’t feel right.â€� Now his focus turns to winning the FedExCup. He has high hopes that moving inside the top 100 after THE NORTHERN TRUST could ignite a run to the TOUR Championship. He has two runners-up at TPC Boston, site of the second Playoffs event, the Dell Technologies Championship. “You can be right on the razor’s edge, one round away from going home, and then have a chance to go to Atlanta,â€� Ogilvy said. “That’s the cool thing about the FedExCup.”

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The PGA TOUR has announced that it will implement a new Integrity Program effective January 1, 2018, to protect its competitions from potential outside influences related to gambling. While the TOUR has a longstanding policy prohibiting players from betting or related activities at TOUR-related events, the new Integrity Program is more comprehensive. It will cover all facets of competition and operations on the six Tours overseen by the PGA TOUR, including players and their support teams, all tournament staff and volunteers, the entire PGA TOUR staff and the PGA TOUR Policy Board. The Program’s stated mission is: “To maintain integrity and prevent and mitigate betting-related corruption in PGA TOUR competitions – ensuring competitions always reflect, and appear to reflect, the best efforts of the players, while protecting the welfare of the players and others involved with the PGA TOUR – through clear policies and regulations, ongoing education and training, and effective and consistent monitoring and enforcement functions.� To assist with the implementation of the program the TOUR has engaged Genius Sports, the global leader in sports integrity services, to provide several key services. This includes its state-of-the-art bet monitoring system which tracks real-time betting activity and utilizes proprietary algorithms to identify potentially suspicious patterns occurring in global betting markets. “The bedrock of PGA TOUR competition are the inherent values of golf and the honesty and integrity of our members,� PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan said. “We recognize, however, that no sport is fully immune from the potential influence of gambling. So, we felt it was important to move forward with an Integrity Program to further protect our competition from betting-related issues. Genius Sports will provide essential support as we roll out the Program across the entire PGA TOUR.� The TOUR has worked with Genius Sports to develop a tailored educational program that will help players, caddies and officials to identify, resist and report incidents of potential betting corruption. Educational workshops will reinforce the PGA TOUR’s regulations and highlight the potential consequences related to betting corruption. Additionally, custom-made e-learning modules will be available on a worldwide basis to all PGA TOUR players in multiple languages. Mark Locke, CEO at Genius Sports Group, said: “We are delighted to partner with the PGA TOUR to drive its integrity initiatives. Protecting the integrity of sport has never been of greater importance and it requires forward-thinking organizations such as the PGA TOUR to proactively invest in both proven technology and education driven by true expertise.� The TOUR will receive important insight into global betting activity on its tournaments across the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, Web.com Tour, Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica and PGA TOUR China, covering approximately 140 events per year. The Program will be administered by a PGA TOUR Integrity Officer, and investigations will be conducted by an independent group with experience in law enforcement.

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HAMILTON, Ontario (AP) — Rory McIlroy ran away with the RBC Canadian Open, closing with a 9-under 61 on Sunday for a seven-shot victory. Starting the day in a three-way tie for the lead, McIlroy, who won THE PLAYERS Championship in March, ended any suspense about who would emerge as the champion with five birdies in his first seven holes, none from longer than 8 feet. The only question on the back nine was whether McIlroy would shoot the 11th sub-60 round in PGA TOUR history. He kept firing at flags and even though he missed three of his final four greens, he had a chance on the par-4 18th. But his shot from a greenside bunker went long and he ended up tapping in for bogey to finish at a tournament-record 22-under 258. It was McIlroy’s 16th PGA TOUR victory and 25th win worldwide, and the fourth by at least seven shots. McIlroy will hope to ride the momentum into next week’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Shane Lowry and Webb Simpson tied for second at Hamilton Golf and Country Club. Adam Hadwin was the low Canadian, finishing alone in 6th at 12 under.

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