DJ, McIlroy lose on first day of Match Play

The Regular Season has been nothing short of “regular” but it will conclude this week with FedExCup Playoff spots up for grabs at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, NC. The end of the line is a familiar one as Sedgefield has hosted the final Regular Season event annually since 2008. Eligibility for the 2020-2021 season is not on the line, but only the top 125 players will advance to THE NORTHERN TRUST next week. Usually the only Donald Ross design on TOUR during the Regular Season, Sedgefield was joined this year and last by another, Detroit Golf Club. Kris Spence oversaw the redo here in 2007 and another in 2012, which included adding Champion Bermuda greens. Sedgefield plays 25 yards longer this season as a new tee box was added to Hole No. 14 but still doesn’t stretch over 7,200 yards. Champion Bermuda greens are above average in size and always roll perfectly, hence the low scores. RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks The Par-70 is protected by 52 bunkers and five water hazards but the openness and lack of rough makes it annually one of the easiest tracks on TOUR. In fact, it has played as the easiest or second-easiest Par-70 over the last three seasons and spits out low scores as the rule, not the exception. Wrapping up at the Wyndham means four days of breaking par and keeping any score with 70-something off the card. J.T. Poston will look to become the first to defend his title and win on this track for a second time. He’ll lead the field of 156 competing for a piece of the $6.4 million purse ($1.154 winner) and those very last, precious FedExCup Points (500 winner). Recent Winners at Wyndham 2019: J.T. Poston (-22) Final round 62, tied for the lowest winning score for a winner in tournament history to win by one over Webb Simpson. … Bogey-free winner for the first time ANYWHERE on TOUR since Lee Trevino in 1974. … North Carolina native won for the first time on TOUR. … Trailed by three shots after each round. … Fantastic performance included T2 Fairways, first GIR, T3 Proximity and T1 Scrambling. … Fourth consecutive winner to finish top 3 in Strokes-Gained: Approach. … Third winner in four to finish first or second in Strokes-Gained: Tee to Green. … Tied tournament scoring record. Notables: Simpson, the last native North Carolinian to win before Poston, (T2) and Billy Horschel (T6) co-led the field in par-breakers. … 2015 champ Si Woo Kim (T5) closed with 64. … Josh Teater (T6) was only one of two players in the top 30 to sign for a round above 70. … Brice Garnett (T6) played in the final group and closed with 70. … Sungjae Im (T6) opened with 62, one of three on the week. … Cut was 4-under, as lift, clean and place was in effect the first two rounds. … Top 47 players 10-under or better. … Four rounds above 70 of the top 40 players. … Two players broke into the top 125 (Patton Kizzire, Andrew Landry). 2018: Brandt Snedeker (-21) Fired 59 in the first round to set the course record and a foundation for wire-to-wire victory. … Won by three shots over CT Pan and Simpson. … Only player to win at Forest Oaks (2007) and Sedgefield. … Only fifth 59 of 10 to go on to win. … Missed tournament scoring record by a shot. … Not surprisingly only winner in last six top 10 Strokes-Gained: Around the Green. … Top 10 Par-4 scoring (T3) same as the last six winners. … Only winner in last six (T51) outside top 10 in driving accuracy. Notables: Pan was tied with Snedeker on No. 18 tee box before hitting it OB. … Simpson closed with 62, his best ever. … Jim Furyk (T4) closed with 63. … Brian Gay (T6) had a 63-62 Friday-Saturday. … 2009 champ Ryan Moore (T6) opened with 63. … Cut was 3-under. … Top 40 10-under or better. … One round OVER par in the top 25 players. … Two players broke into the top 125 (Harris English, Nick Taylor). 2017: Henrik Stenson (-22) Set tournament record (Par-70) as he made his one-shot 54-hole lead stand up. … Opened with 62 and trailed by one to Matt Every. … T8 fairways, T3 GIR, 1st Proximity and T3 Strokes-Gained: Putting. … T2 Par-3 and Par-4 scoring. … Led the field in Birdie-or-Better Percentage. … Won on fourth visit. … Second highest OWGR winner (No. 8) in tournament history behind Hal Sutton (No. 4) in 2000. Notables: Simpson (T3) opened with 63 finished four back. … 36- hole leader Ryan Armour (T4) posted 61 in Round 2, good for co-low round of the week with Every. … Rory Sabbatini (T6) picked up his third top 10 in four starts. … Shane Lowry (T7) was joined by Davis Love III (T10) and Harold Varner III (T10) to round out the top 10. … Cut 3-under. … Top 27 10-under or better. … Four players advance to the FedExCup Playoffs. Key stat leaders Top golfers in each statistic on the 2019-2020 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week. * – Top 10 at Sedgefield since 2015 Rounds in the 60s 1 Mark Hubbard 2 *Sungjae Im 9 Brendon Todd 13 Doc Redman 13 *Brian Harman (T6, 2019) 19 Patrick Rodgers 19 Henrik Norlander 22 Harry Higgs 22 Harris English (never MC in six) 24 Brian Stuard 24 *JT Poston 24 Carlos Ortiz 24 Maverick McNealy 24 Talor Gooch Greens in Regulation 1 *Jim Furyk 2 Kyle Stanley 3 Aaron Wise 5 Corey Conners 7 Russell Henley 8 *Josh Teater 9 Will Gordon 10 *Paul Casey (T3, 2015) 11 Harris English 12 Doc Redman 14 Nick Watney 15 *Brice Garnett 17 Pat Perez 17 Matthew NeSmith 19 Henrik Norlander 24 *Harold Varner III 25 Russell Knox 25 Chesson Hadley Birdie-or-Better Percentage 4 *Webb Simpson 7 Seamus Power 9 *Patrick Reed (2013 winner) 14 Chesson Hadley 16 Anirban Lahiri 17 Will Gordon 22 Bronson Burgoon 25 Maverick McNealy 26 *Sungjae Im 29 Xinjun Zhang 30 Sebastian Munoz 31 Denny McCarthy 32 Danny Lee 33 Peter Uihlein 35 Charl Schwartzel Greenbacks in Greensboro Webb Simpson: 2011 champ has cashed in 10 of 11 with nine top 25s and seven top 10s. Hit the podium the last three seasons and is 57-under over that stretch with all 12 rounds in the red. Scoring average 66.79. Brandt Snedeker: 2018 champ has been paid off in 10 of 12 with six of those in the top 10. Five straight at the event includes three inside T5. Billy Horschel: T5 2016 began a run of four straight weekends and includes T11 2018 and T6 last year. Of 30 rounds career 27 are par or better including the last 19. Ryan Moore: Enters with five straight at Sedgefield under his belt. T10 in 2015 adds to T24 in 2017 plus T6 on his last visit in 2018. Rory Sabbatini: Top 10 results in three of his last four visits but paydays in all of them. Patrick Reed: Never missed in five chances and the last four are all T24 or better including his win. Sergio Garcia: 2012 champ has never cashed worse than T29 in four starts at Sedgefield.

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GUYANCOURT, France – The great saying goes a champion team will always beat a team of champions. And so it appeared to be at Le Golf National as the Europeans didn’t just beat what many were calling the deepest American Ryder Cup team ever assembled … they annihilated them. The 17.5 – 10.5 final result was the most lopsided Ryder Cup since Europe’s 2006 win at The K Club (18.5-9.5). It extended the dominance for Europe on their own soil to at least 27 years and marks seven wins in the last nine Ryder Cups for Thomas Bjorn’s men. Every single one of the European team contributed at least a full point to the final tally. All 12 of them. That is some serious teamwork. On the American team, 80-time PGA TOUR winner Tiger Woods went 0-4. Phil Mickelson 0-2. And Bryson DeChambeau was 0-3. All three of the above were captain’s picks from Jim Furyk. With Tony Finau gaining two points, the four picks earned just that. From the European side, Bjorn’s four picks stood up to be counted. They combined to score 9.5 points with Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson getting three each, Poulter winning two and Casey netting 1.5. Because those four understood from the minute they were given the gift of a place in the team, it wasn’t about them anymore. It was about nothing but the team. The Americans claim to be a cohesive unit. And no doubt they are. But the stark reality is they are not as cohesive as the Europeans. The numbers say as much. No amount of task force meetings can cover up minor fractures in team cohesion. From the moment the European team formed their now infamous WhatsApp group – a group message that was as Rory McIlroy described as “just one big love-inâ€� – the egos were left at the door. Garcia, in his ninth Ryder Cup, was no more or less important than Thorbjorn Olesen in his first. McIlroy’s stature as a four-time major champion and former FedExCup champion stacked up equally against Alex Noren this week. Garcia became the all-time points leader in European history at 25.5, taking over from Sir Nick Faldo but brushed it aside as just another three points towards this particular trophy. His real focus was on bringing the team theme to the rookies. Passing on the selfless passion he’s had for so many years in this cauldron. When Jon Rahm was feeling down after being 0-2 in team play, his fellow Spaniard took him aside and kept him on task. Rahm was slated with Woods in singles, no easy task to take on an idol. But Garcia told him how and why he would win. It proved prophetic. His contribution to that point perhaps as important as the three he gained himself. It was this comradery that had Italian Francesco Molinari so primed to deliver. In the past two Ryder Cups he had been part of, he had failed to win a match. This time around he was 5-0 and became the first European player to ever post that record in one Ryder Cup. “You could see on Monday when we got together, it wasn’t ending up any other way,â€� Molinari said. “I’ve been part of another two winning teams where I didn’t bring full points, and I’m glad after I’ve been carried on the shoulders by some of these guys to give something back. “But it’s about every one of these guys, the vice captains, it’s just the best team I’ve ever been part of by miles.â€� The Europeans made constant fun of one another – both in person or in the group text message. But as is the style of humor on this side of the pond it was all done from a place of love. There was no hierarchy. McIlroy pointed out before the Ryder Cup began that he was pleasantly surprised with Rahm’s contribution to the conversation. In other words, rookie Rahm could give as good as he could take. “At first I was a little bit hesitant on what to say. I didn’t want to piss off anybody, and once I realized what the tone was going to be, within 30 seconds, here we go, somebody was getting it,â€� Rahm admitted. Bjorn allowed this atmosphere to breathe. Justin Rose, another veteran, revealed after the victory that their skipper “didn’t fill our week with pointless team meetingsâ€� and “he trusted us to be 12 players that would come together working towards the same common goal.â€� They repaid him for that faith. Everything they did, they did as a team. And they enjoyed it. Even the monotonous staged team photos early in the week the Europeans turned up on time, laughing, loving every minute of it. On the flip side the Americans were late and appeared hardly interested. Seems trivial right? But it speaks to the bond the Europeans possess. All in, all together. The types of personalities on the American team are vast. A scientist in DeChambeau. A free wheeler in Bubba Watson. Mr. Nice Guys Tony Finau and Webb Simpson. Old school veterans in Woods and Mickelson. Pulseless machine-like stellar athletes Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka. Young millennials like Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth. And the brash and confident Reed. They came together as one for the most part but the cracks appeared when team pairings were not as expected in some quarters. The American players have a huge say in their pods and pairings – something that was born out of the task force following the 2014 loss in Scotland. But does this in itself open the door for the thinking to be not as team oriented as it should be? This was shown – most notably – when Furyk split one of the best American pairings in Ryder Cup history to disastrous results. Spieth and Reed had proven a huge thorn in the side of both Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup opponents, but instead Reed went out with Woods and was 0-2 with the veteran. Spieth preferred to be with his friend Thomas, and they combined to be 3-1, but in doing so split another proven pairing of Thomas and Fowler. To his credit, Furyk owned the decision and hindsight is always 20/20. Bjorn masterfully put Tommy Fleetwood with Molinari and the two combined to be the first European pair to go 4-0 in team play. Moli-Wood – as they have been affectionately called – became the darlings of the Ryder Cup. They were the pair who claimed the last point in the first session Friday to make it 3-1 against the USA, avoiding the sweep. It sparked the home team into action and they swept the afternoon before maintaining the rage. As awesome as they were, Bjorn once again stressed they were always team first. Europe had read all of the talk about the Americans before the Ryder Cup began. In fact they used one particular story suggesting America would dominate team golf for over a decade as extra motivation. Aside from that though, they didn’t care what was happening across the fairway from them. “The whole team has been part of this. And I think it’s very easy to sum it up: Some play five matches and some play two matches, but they all contribute,â€� Bjorn said. “We got it right this week. We worked as a team and we knew we were up against very strong opponents, but we went out on the golf course and believed in ourselves and what we stand for as a team. “We never, ever looked towards their team and what they were about. We were about us as a team and what we do. “This is the best team room I’ve ever been in. It was calm. It was determined. It was focused. It was fun. Everything that this Ryder Cup was, is what I think The Ryder Cup should be about for a European Team.â€�

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In celebration of ESPN The Magazine’s 20th anniversary, Peter Keating’s crunched the numbers to find the most dominant athletes of our time.

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