Featured Groups: DEAN & DELUCA Invitational

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Cameron Smith ... Sure, it feels like cheating to circle the 51st-ranked golfer in the world who advanced to the TOUR Championship in early September and has opened 2020-21 by going 3-for-3 with top 25s in his last two starts, but the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD is limited to 78 golfers, so his position as a Sleeper is more relative than usual and he deserves the attention. If you agreed to split hairs, consider that the Aussie hasn't recorded a top 10 since hoisting the hardware at the Sony Open in Hawaii nine months ago. Joel Dahmen ... With 100 PGA TOUR starts under his belt, he's among the throng that appreciate the mountain that Jason Kokrak finally conquered at THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK on Sunday. It's rare for a first-time winner to emerge in a limited-field invitational with no cut. The last was Russell Knox at the 2015 World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions the week after Justin Thomas broke through at the now-defunct CIMB Classic. Dahmen's impressive form over time supports his inclusion on the short list of the non-winners in our crosshairs week over week. Ryo Ishikawa ... Time passes more quickly for some than for others. Even if you've been a fan of the PGA TOUR for a minute, it still might surprise you that he hasn't possess status since the 2016-17 season, the last of five consecutive with a card. It also might come as a shock that he's 29 years old and a veteran of 151 starts. Nevertheless, the once can't-miss prospect from Japan arrives having just finished T3 at the Japan Open Golf Championship with a field-low 65 in the final round. His astounding 17 victories on his home circuit include three in 2019. Takumi Kanaya ... It's not often when a PGA TOUR non-member wedges his way into this select grouping twice in six tournaments, but he's not just any PGA TOUR non-member. While he missed the cut at the U.S. Open, it's merely a matter of time before he's a fixture on the world stage. Already 218th in the Official World Golf Ranking thanks in part to a solo seventh in his professional debut at the Japan Open Golf Championship on Sunday, the 22-year-old also is a winner on the Japan Golf Tour. That title helped propel him to the top spot in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Gunn Charoenkul ... If you read my Father's Day special about how becoming a father influences performance inside the ropes, then his progression to the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD makes sense. He learned that his wife, Koyy, was pregnant in mid-2019. She delivered the couple's first child in February of this year. In the interim and since the birth, the first-time father converted 18 top-15 finishes worldwide, including in all of his most recent eight starts. The most recent was a co-runner-up in his native Thailand two months ago. NOTE: Sleeper is a relative term, so Rob uses unofficial criteria to determine who qualifies. Each of the following usually is determined to be ineligible for this weekly staple: Winners of the tournament on the current host course; winners in the same season; recent major champions; top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking; recent participants of team competitions.

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Welcome to Numbers to Know, where we'll take a closer look at Bryson DeChambeau's U.S. Open victory. Here's the key stats to remember from a groundbreaking week. 1. UNPRECEDENTED: Is DeChambeau ushering in a new era of golf? That is up for debate, but there's no debating that he won the U.S. Open in a manner that's never been done before. He had the highest driving-distance average, and the lowest driving-accuracy percentage, ever recorded by a U.S. Open champion (since hole-by-hole data became available starting in 1983). DeChambeau, who finished seventh in driving distance at Winged Foot, is the fifth consecutive U.S. Open champion to finish in the top seven in driving distance. DeChambeau is just the second U.S. Open winner since 1983 to hit less than half his fairways. Angel Cabrera also did it in 2007. 2. LONG BALL: Let’s not oversimplify things. You need to be highly-skilled in several facets of the game to win any golf tournament, let alone a major. That’s especially true when the USGA sets up one of the game’s classic courses in its traditionally tough manner. But having high clubhead speed is a major advantage in these instances, and we’ve seen it in the past five U.S. Opens. Four of the last five U.S. Open winners ranked in the top 10 in driving distance in the season that they won. Even if they miss more fairways, hitting it farther allows a player to have shorter clubs from the rough and their high clubhead speed helps them power it out of the thick stuff. 3. THE EAGLE HAS LANDED: DeChambeau’s incredible distance came in especially handy at the par-5 ninth hole. He eagled it twice, in the second and fourth rounds. He hit pa short-iron both times. On Friday, he hit a pitching wedge from 179 yards to 6 feet. He had just 182 yards to the hole Sunday and hit that shot to 40 feet. He’s the first U.S. Open champion since Tiger Woods in 2008 to make multiple eagles. Woods and DeChambeau are the only U.S. Open winners since 1983 to make multiple eagles. DeChambeau was the only player this week to make more than one eagle. 4. LINE OF DEMARCATION: DeChambeau’s transformation has received major validation. His win at the U.S. Open was preceded by a fourth-place finish at the PGA Championship. He’d never had a top-10 in a major before this year. 5. X MARKS THE SPOT: Xander Schauffele finished fifth at the U.S. Open. It was another high finish in one of the four Grand Slam events. He’s finished in the top 10 in seven of his 13 career major starts. That includes five top-5 finishes. It’s the second-most top-fives in majors since 2017, trailing only Brooks Koepka. All Schauffele needs now is a win. Dustin Johnson (T6), Rory McIlroy (T8) and Tony Finau (T8) all finished in the top 10 at Winged Foot, as well, continuing their strong play at the majors.

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