Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm share lead at TOUR Championship

GREENSBORO, N.C. - There's a lot on the line at this week's Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club. The top 125 in the FedExCup standings advance to the Playoffs next week and the Wyndham Rewards Top 10 competition will be decided. Here's a quick look at each one after Saturday's third round, which ended shortly after 2 p.m. after tee times were moved up to avoid a spate of thunderstorms and heavy rain. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Kim takes lead after 54 holes | Season’s final stretch in full swing at Sedgefield FedExCup Update At stake: The 125 spots in the upcoming FedExCup Playoffs. Players who finish outside the top 125 after this week will see their seasons end. Unlike in past seasons, though, all players who were exempt this year will retain their eligibility for the 2020-21 campaign due to the schedule reduction caused by COVID-19. Latest projections: Three players — Rob Oppenheim, Zach Johnson and Peter Malnati - have entered the Playoff picture with Fabian Gomez, Russell Knox and Charl Schwartzel potentially moving out of the top 125. … Oppenheim, who turned 40 in January, grew up about 70 minutes from TPC Boston, which hosts THE NORTHERN TRUST, and has never made the Playoffs. He is currently tied for second in the Wyndham Championship after shooting 62 on Saturday and projected to move from No. 145 to 77th. … Johnson, who was named the winner of the Payne Stewart Award earlier this week, tied the day's low round of 61 to move into a tie for ninth. He is projected to move from No. 129 to 109th in the FedExCup. Johnson has only missed the Playoffs twice since the competition's inception in 2007. … Malnati is 13 under and tied for seventh after his third-round 64. He has moved from 144th to No. 123 in the FedExCup. … Both Gomez and Schwartzel missed the cut and are projected to drop five spots to No. 127 and 130, respectively. Knox is still playing but he is currently tied for 75th and has moved from No. 124 to 129th in the FedExCup. On the move: Johnson raced up the leaderboard with a furious finish, playing his final five holes in 6 under. He started on the back nine and birdied his final three holes to turn in 32, then made a 15-footer for eagle at No. 5 and followed that with birdie putts of 15, 8 and 24 feet before holing it from the fringe at the ninth. "The irony is the first two days I really didn’t play that much worse, I just didn’t score," Johnson said. "I didn’t make many putts. Hit it close a few times, I had three three-putts and a four-putt. That just kills you. So, I mean, those that have been around me and know me, my team in particular, obviously my caddie and my coaches know that something like — maybe not to this degree, but something like this is not that surprising based on what I’ve seen. Is it big? Yeah, sure, it’s big. But, I mean, every round’s big." Particularly when it helps get a player closer to the top 125. Wyndham Rewards Top 10 At stake: The top 10 spots in the FedExCup standings and its bonus pool money of $10 million. Justin Thomas already has wrapped up the top prize of $2 million. For the third straight day, there was no movement in or out of the top 10. Webb Simpson, who has two wins this season, bogeyed his last hole on the way to a 65 that left him at 13 under and five behind Si Woo Kim. He remains ranked third in the Wyndham Rewards. … Sungjae Im, who is ranked fifth in the bonus competition, shot 66 and is 11 under through three rounds, tied for 14th. … No. 6 Patrick Reed, the 2013 Wyndham Championship winner, shot 67 Saturday and is eight back at 10 under. … Brendon Todd, who has also won twice this year, missed the cut but remains in the No. 9 spot.

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Here’s a look at the field and how they qualified for the Mayakoba Golf Classic as of 11/02/18: Winner — PGA/U.S. Open Championship Jordan Spieth Winner — THE PLAYERS Championship Rickie Fowler Si Woo Kim Winner — The Open Championship Zach Johnson Winner — Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Memorial Tournament Jason Dufner Winner — FedExCup Billy Horschel Tournament Winner Past Two Seasons Ryan Armour Jonas Blixt Wesley Bryan Cameron Champ Kevin Chappell Brice Garnett Cody Gribble Adam Hadwin Brian Harman Russell Henley Mackenzie Hughes Kevin Kisner Patton Kizzire Matt Kuchar Andrew Landry Grayson Murray Pat Perez Scott Piercy D.A. Points Chris Stroud Hudson Swafford Jhonattan Vegas Aaron Wise Gary Woodland Career Money Exemption Ernie Els Padraig Harrington Sponsors Exemptions — Web.com Tour Finals Carlos Ortiz Sponsors Exemptions  Jim Furyk Bill Haas Sponsors Exemptions — Unrestricted Shintaro Ben Zachary Bauchou Viktor Hovland Designated Sponsor Exemption Adria Arnaus Armando Favela Oscar Fraustro Sebastian Vazquez Past Champions Harris English Charley Hoffman Graeme McDowell Top 125 on Last Season’s FedExCup Points List Tony Finau Emiliano Grillo Chez Reavie Cheng Tsung Pan Luke List Beau Hossler Charles Howell III Brian Gay Abraham Ancer J.J. Spaun Chris Kirk Keith Mitchell Ryan Moore Whee Kim Kevin Streelman Bronson Burgoon Joel Dahmen J.B. Holmes James Hahn Jamie Lovemark Brian Stuard Kelly Kraft Tom Hoge Danny Lee Ollie Schniederjans Anirban Lahiri Sam Ryder Brandon Harkins Patrick Rodgers Sean O’Hair Harlond Varner III Alex Cejka Rory Sabbatini Richy Werenski Sung Kang John Huh Tyler Duncan Seamus Power Martin Laird J.T. Poston Vaughn Taylor Sam Saunders Ryan Blaum Scott Brown Nick Taylor Bud Cauley Top 125 Prior Season Nonmenmber Joaquin Niemann Major Medical Extension Kevin Stadler Sangmoon Bae Freddie Jacobson Jim Herman Dominic Bozzelli Steve Marino Leading Web.com Tour Money Winner Sunjae Im Denny McCarthy Top 50 & Ties Web.com Tour Finals Kramer Hickok Anders Albertson Robert Streb Sam Burns Peter Malnati Scott Langley Cameron Davis Adam Schenk Martin Trainer Kyoung-Hoon Lee Matt Jones Chase Wright Hunter Mahan Sebastian Munoz Roger Sloan Kyle Jones Shawn Stefani Adam Svensson Seth Reeves Alex Prugh Max Homa John Chin Roberto Diaz Jose de Jesus Rodriguez Stephan Jaeger Josh Teater

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The 16th of 24 contributing events for PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO is this week’s Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex. It begins at 2:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, which is 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday on the West Coast. Scroll for tournament notes, 22 notables and five wild cards from the field of 144 in Scotland. With The Open Championship in the books, we can focus on the last nine tournaments of 2017-18 as a singular frame. They present a sample size small enough for us to maintain thoughts about all of them in our heads at once – at least in theory – but let’s dissect it properly. Most of the usual suspects will be in our crosshairs for next week’s World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and the following week’s PGA Championship. They will then reappear en masse for most of the four FedExCup Playoffs events. If you pencil in your favorites for each, you should have some morsels for this week’s RBC Canadian Open and the Wyndham Championship in three weeks. I’m holding my breath that Martin Laird commits to next week’s Barracuda Championship where golfers who qualify for the WGC cannot play because the Barracuda is contested concurrently. (Gary Woodland and Brendan Steele also would present strongly in Nevada, but both will be at Firestone.) The field of 156 at Glen Abbey includes cornerstones Dustin Johnson, Tony Finau, Charley Hoffman, Brandt Snedeker and Matt Kuchar. All reside inside the top eight of my Power Rankings. I wouldn’t talk you out of any assuming you’ve mapped out the remainder of the season accordingly. Only Snedeker remains available to me, but I’ve earmarked him as a possibility for the Wyndham. Brooks Koepka is back after a two-year hiatus since his close call as a debutant in 2015. He’ll have zero issues with the challenge, and he’s still on my board, but I’m saving him for one of the next two tournaments. Among the elite, he’s as electrifying as any on the biggest stages. This opens the door – finally – for Joaquin Niemann. After cementing his TOUR card for 2018-19 via the non-member route, he received a special invitation for the PGA Championship on Tuesday of this week. The 19-year-old from Chile has been as quick a study as Jon Rahm two years ago, but Niemann went about his craft competing in professional events in his homeland regularly as an amateur. His unintentional transition from attending and playing collegiately at USF to instant success at the highest level of professional golf is the kind of mythical twist reserved for legends. But for now at Glen Abbey, he’ll attack a vulnerable par 72 that has yielded the most eagles of any course in each of the last five seasons it’s hosted the tournament. I’m advising sitting out Kevin Kisner, Ian Poulter, Tommy Fleetwood and Bubba Watson in favor of spots in the last eight events. Two-time defending champion Jhonattan Vegas has course history on his side, naturally, but even those swinging for the fences are unlikely to connect, much less threaten the warning track. Two-man gamers should entertain Harold Varner III, Joel Dahmen, Chez Reavie, Stewart Cink and J.J. Spaun. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2017-18. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Tony Finau … Canadian (4) Sergio Garcia … TOUR Championship (4) Bill Haas … Wyndham (2) Charley Hoffman … Canadian (3) Billy Horschel … TOUR Championship (4) Dustin Johnson … Canadian (10); WGC-Bridgestone (14); PGA Championship (9); Dell Technologies (11); TOUR Championship (6) Kevin Kisner … Wyndham (6) Brooks Koepka … WGC-Bridgestone (6); PGA Championship (2) Matt Kuchar … Canadian (3); WGC-Bridgestone (7); THE NORTHERN TRUST (9) Martin Laird … Barracuda (1) Brandt Snedeker … Canadian (3); Wyndham (4) Jimmy Walker … Dell Technologies (7) Bubba Watson … WGC-Bridgestone (1); TOUR Championship (4) CHAMPIONS ONE & DONE Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex This is the fifth and final major on the PGA TOUR Champions in 2018. The field of 144 will be chasing total prize money of $2 million, lowest of the five majors. In fact, five of the remaining eight tournaments this season will feature richer purses. This week’s winner will clear a little over $300K. A cut of low 70 and ties will occur at the conclusion of 36 holes. It’s the last of the three cuts of the season. The Old Course at St. Andrews is the backdrop. It needs no introduction except for the fact it’s hosting this tournament for the first time, and that includes from 1987-2002 when the tournament was considered unofficial on the PGA TOUR Champions. St. Andrews will play to its customary par of 72 with just two par 3s and two par 5s, but at 7,216 yards, it’s slightly shorter than how it set up for recent Open Championships (2005, 2010, 2015) and for its annual slot in the rotation for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Bernhard Langer defends his third title in the tournament. His last two occurred at Royal Porthcawl (2014, 2017). He prevailed for the first time at Carnoustie in 2010. Not surprisingly, he’s the tournament’s all-time earnings leader. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2018. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Stephen Ames … Boeing (2); Shaw (7) Fred Couples … Usable everywhere. Joe Durant … 3M (6); DICK’S (12); Boeing (10); Shaw (11); PURE (3); SAS (13) David Frost … 3M (7); Boeing (5); Shaw (8); PURE (1) Paul Goydos … 3M (1; defending); DICK’S (3); SAS (5) Miguel Angel Jiménez … Senior Open Championship (4); 3M (9); Shaw (7); SAS (12) Brandt Jobe … 3M (5); Boeing (8) Jerry Kelly … Boeing (1; defending); Shaw (5); PURE (2); SAS (4) Bernhard Langer … Usable everywhere. Defending five titles. Tom Lehman … SAS (9) Jeff Maggert … Shaw (5) Billy Mayfair … Boeing (2); PURE (1) Scott McCarron … Senior Open Championship (10); DICK’S (4; defending); Shaw (5; defending); PURE (8) Colin Montgomerie … Senior Open Championship (10); Shaw (4); PURE (7); SAS (3; defending) Tom Pernice, Jr. … Shaw (3); SAS (5) Kenny Perry … 3M (1); DICK’S (11); SAS (2) Gene Sauers … Boeing (1) Vijay Singh … Shaw (5); SAS (1) Kevin Sutherland … Usable everywhere. David Toms … Boeing (2); SAS (4) Kirk Triplett … Shaw (4) Duffy Waldorf … Shaw (5) WILD CARDS (short list of golfers not included above but on the rise or still building portfolios after recently turning 50): Paul Broadhurst; Bob Estes; Steve Flesch; Scott Parel; Tim Petrovic

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