Day 3 live scoreboard: WGC-Dell Match Play

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Byeong Hun An has set a target of qualifying for the FedExCup Playoffs finale, the TOUR Championship, in August and hopes to light up the International Team’s chat group along the way as he seeks his first PGA TOUR victory. The 28-year-old Korean rising star tees up at The American Express in California for the first time this week where he hopes to maintain his strong start to the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season. During the fall, he posted three top-10s and a T14 at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions and is currently 20th on the FedExCup points list. As a late inclusion in the Presidents Cup last month in Australia, An played all five sessions and delivered two points in the International Team’s narrow 16-14 loss to the United States “Hopefully I can keep the momentum going from the Asian swing,� said An, who finished T6 at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES in Korea and T8 at the inaugural ZOZO Championship in Japan. Since playing full time on the PGA TOUR in 2017, An has flirted with qualifying for the TOUR Championship, which is exclusive to the top 30 from the FedExCup points list. His best FedExCup finish to date was 42nd in 2017 while he was 53rd last season. A former U.S. Amateur winner, An is hopeful a revised playing schedule will propel him to a first visit to East Lake in August. Over the last few years, he competed in the Middle East on the European Tour to begin a new year, but he will play the West Coast over the next three weeks, including the Farmers Insurance Open and Waste Management Phoenix Open. “It’s nice to have a good start (in fall) compared to the last two years where I didn’t play that many,� he explained. “I’m starting earlier in the West Coast as well and I hope to have a quick start and eventually get into the TOUR Championship … that’s my main goal this year.� An took notice when Rory McIlroy talked about how tweaking his tournament schedule enabled the Irishman to lift the FedExCup for a second time last season. With An’s wife Jamie due to give birth to their first child next month, the Korean made the easy call to swap his travel plans. “In the past, I would only start in Phoenix after the Middle East and I’ll be like in 100th place on the points list and it’s hard to chase the guys,� said An. “That’s why I added this week and the next two. I want to get my FedExCup ranking as high up as possible early on. I’ve been close (to the TOUR Championship) and I feel I need to play more and it seems to be working out.� He is also fired up after watching Australia’s Cameron Smith secure a first individual PGA TOUR title at the Sony Open in Hawaii on Sunday and now dreams of emulating his International Team member. An said the International Team’s Whatsapp group chat has been buzzing recently as Adam Scott won the week after the Presidents Cup, Louis Oosthuizen came close at the South African Open (finishing second to his former International Team partner Branden Grace) and Joaquin Niemann contended at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. “It was incredible to see Cam win. Hopefully I can break through and win one day. Our group chat has been going crazy of late. Hopefully this week someone else can step up, hopefully me or Sungjae (Im) or someone else. It shows the Presidents Cup has helped us. The group chat is still running and it’s great,� An said. Although the International Team came close to toppling the U.S. Team after leading into the final day’s Singles session, An believes the experience of playing for Captain Ernie Els earned him memories to last a lifetime. “It was good because I got a late call from Ernie,� An said. “I wasn’t expecting to play in all five matches which were incredible. I did lose a couple, won one and tied two matches which was fun. It was something I never experienced before and Ernie did a great job. Everyone trusted him and stuck to the game plan. No one had any say on who we wanted to play with and we just had faith in Ernie to pick the pairings. We got the points on Thursday, Friday and Saturday but lost in the end. On paper, the U.S. is a really good team and we were disappointed.� “We just didn’t play well enough in the Singles to beat them. But we showed we could play better in Foursomes and Four-Ball than previously. That’s a great takeaway from the week and it showed Ernie had the right formula. I enjoyed it as it had so much passion as we were playing as a team and not playing for ourselves. When Adam or Sungjae made a putt, I was probably happier than they were! I played for Ernie and I played for the International Team, which was a difference and I guess that was why I showed the passion on the course. “Of course I want to get back into the team … that’s another goal in two years’ time.�

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On Monday, the PGA TOUR named Will Zalatoris as their Rookie of the Year for the 2020-21 season. The 25-year-old Wake Forest product finished in the top-30 on the official money list for the season, and in the top-25 in scoring average and Strokes Gained: Total. Zalatoris’ victory is the culmination of a two-year professional climb, from the Korn Ferry Tour (and outside the top-500 in the World Ranking) to burgeoning PGA TOUR star. Since the beginning of 2020, Zalatoris has racked up 18 top-ten finishes between the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR. In that span, only Jon Rahm has had more official top-10 finishes worldwide, with 22 (Bryson DeChambeau is tied with Zalatoris at 18). Zalatoris’ persistent good play has made him an undeniable presence at the biggest events the men’s game has to offer. Here are the numbers that fueled him to the Rookie of the Year title, and positioned himself as a player to watch in 2022 and beyond. Elite Iron Play Zalatoris averaged +0.75 Strokes Gained: Approach per round, the 7th-best rate of any player on the PGA TOUR in 2020-21. That was the highest per round average in that statistic by a PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year winner since Trevor Immelman in 2006 (+0.76 per round). Immelman, of course, would employ that approach play prowess two years later when he won The Masters, hitting 71 percent of his greens in regulation along the way. Speaking of Augusta National, it was there that Zalatoris had his breakout performance, going from under-the-radar analytical darling to major championship contender. Zalatoris finished alone in second place, the first player to do that in his Masters debut since Dan Pohl in 1982. Zalatoris ranked 4th in the field that week in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and 14th in Strokes Gained: Approach. His combination of those two statistics – Strokes Gained: Long Game – was 3rd-best in the field, trailing only Corey Conners and Hideki Matsuyama. Zalatoris hit more than 73% of his greens in regulation for the Tournament, the 2nd-highest rate in the field. For the season, Zalatoris was especially stellar with his longer irons. On approach shots from the fairway of 200 yards or more, Zalatoris had an average proximity to the hole of 46 feet, 10 inches – 11th-best on TOUR and nearly five feet better than the PGA TOUR average. When in those situations last season, Zalatoris’ average score to par was -0.24, seven-tenths of a stroke better than the PGA TOUR mean. Take a look at what’s in Zalatoris’ bag. Un-Rookie-Like Consistency In 2020-21, Zalatoris ranked 9th on the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, an exceptional performance that positioned him between Viktor Hovland (8th) and Rory McIlroy (10th). While that lofty company is impressive in itself, it’s the consistency in which Zalatoris delivered that might be most impressive. In 20 tournaments in which Strokes Gained data is available, Zalatoris had a positive Tee-to-Green average relative to the field 16 times. Zalatoris lost strokes to the field with his ball striking in less than 18% of his total rounds for the entire season. Unlike the typical rookie, Zalatoris was able to avoid the big number on his scorecard. Zalatoris averaged less than 0.2 double bogeys or worse per round, ranking him among the leaders in double-or-worse avoidance for the season. More than 150 players accumulated at least 70 stroke play rounds in the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season. Of that group, only 9 averaged less than 0.2 doubles-or-worse per round, Zalatoris included. In overall bogey avoidance, Zalatoris ranked in a respectable tie for 24th place, dropping shots on less than 15% of his total holes played for the season. On the Horizon In recent seasons, being named Rookie of the Year has been a harbinger of good things to come. Last year’s winner, Scottie Scheffler, followed up his rookie campaign with his first Ryder Cup selection. Sungjae Im won the award in 2019, then picked up his first PGA TOUR victory at the 2020 Honda Classic. In 2017, Xander Schauffele was named Rookie of the Year – he finished 15th in the FedExCup the following season, and has become a mainstay in the top-ten of the Official World Golf Ranking. Zalatoris’ ball striking acumen makes him a strong candidate to continue his career ascent. As mentioned, Zalatoris finished the 2020-21 season ranked ninth in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. Nine of the top-ten ranked players in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green in 2020 advanced to the TOUR Championship in 2021. Two-thirds of players ranked in the top-ten in that statistic at the conclusion of the previous three seasons made it to East Lake. Three of the four major champions in 2021 also ranked in the top-ten in that statistic the previous season. A worthy recipient of the Rookie of the Year award, Zalatoris figures to be a mainstay on PGA TOUR leaderboards for years to come.

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