FedExCup Movers: Travelers Championship

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The PGA TOUR enters the second week of its holiday hiatus, but you won’t find any in the stacked field at this week’s Hero World Challenge easing off the throttle. After the pandemic canceled the 2020 edition of the annual stop at Albany in The Bahamas, an intimate gathering reconvenes with the same no-cut, stroke-play competition over 72 holes, purse of $3.5 million and full-field distribution of Official World Golf Ranking points. And, oh yeah, Tiger Woods remains the host. The only change pertains to the permanent increase in the size of the field. For details on that, how Albany played in 2019 and other nuggets, scroll past the projection for all 20 participants. For the first time in its 21-year history, a record 20 golfers will be chasing victory and its $1-million prize. Accommodations were ratified to add the winners of the most recent edition of THE PLAYERS Championship and a third sponsor exemption inside the top 50 of the OWGR on Sept. 6. They join winners of all majors since the previous edition of the Hero World Challenge, the other two sponsor exemptions and the defending champion. To fill the field, the OWGR on Sept. 6 was used in order of position. Albany is in its sixth consecutive edition as the host. It’s a par 72 with five par 3s and five par 5s. In its first five spins, it surrendered a scoring average south of 70 just once. That occurred in 2017 when the field of 18 landed at 70.333 and despite Rickie Fowler’s course-record 61 to seal a four-stroke victory. In 2019, the scoring average was 69.792. Henrik Stenson prevailed by at 18-under 270. He was the only golfer that week to sign for four rounds in the 60s. With sand, water and wind helping to defend scoring, course management and a plan of attack on the par 5s is the way to go on Albany, which stretches to 7,309 yards. Stenson played the par 5s in 4.60 with one eagle, eight birdies and nine pars against two bogeys. Considering only par breakers across the rest of the course’s 52 holes over four rounds, he circled another eagle (at the par-4 14th hole in the opening round) and 11 birdies. Therefore, he converted 42.86% of his 21 par breakers on 27.78 percent of the holes played. Moderate winds at worst are forecast, so the talented field will have its way with Albany once again. There’s a threat of passing showers on Saturday, but the bermudagrass greens should touch 12 feet on the Stimpmeter for which they’re prepped. What rough there is stands just an inch and a half. NOTE: PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf will resume with the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Jan. 6-9.

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MEDINAH, Ill. – At No. 32 in the FedExCup rankings, Jason Kokrak is within shouting distance of his first trip to the TOUR Championship. But he doesn’t want to know the scenarios needed to make it to East Lake. “You know, I thought about doing some number crunching and seeing what I had to finish,� Kokrak said, “but I think playing golf, putting myself in a good position to win a golf tournament, is going to get the job done. “I don’t think I need to worry about where I need to finish in the tournament. I’d rather go out and try to win.� So far so good. Kokrak’s 7-under 65 Thursday at the BMW Championship gave him a share of the lead with 2017 FedExCup champ Justin Thomas. Kokrak has made the Playoffs six previous times, with his best finish in 2016 at 33rd in the standings. Of the players in this week’s field, only Ian Poulter (11 previous appearances) and Vaughn Taylor (eight previous appearances) have more Playoffs appearances than Kokrak without a trip to the TOUR Championship. If he wins, Kokrak is projected to move to third in FedExCup points, which not only would send him to East Lake but put him in terrific shape to chase the FedExCup and its $15 million prize. And if he doesn’t win? According to the scenarios, Kokrak needs a solo 17th or better to climb inside the top 30. Hmm, hopefully Kokrak didn’t read the previous sentence. SABBATINI EYES EAST LAKE RETURN In case this comes up on your next Trivia Night: Name the first player to post top-10 finishes in each event of the FedExCup Playoffs. Raise your hand if you answered Rory Sabbatini. It happened in the inaugural FedExCup year of 2007. Sabbatini had finishes of solo third, T-6th, T-10th and T-9th in the four Playoffs events, leaving him fourth overall in the final standings. Since then, just seven other players have managed top-10 finishes in each Playoffs event in a single year (none, interestingly enough, ever won the FedExCup that season). Of course, it might be a bit easier this year with the Playoffs now reduced to three events. So 2007 remains the high point of Sabbatini’s FedExCup career. In fact, it’s the only time he’s reached the TOUR Championship in the FedExCup era. He’d like to end that drought this week at the BMW Championship. He took a solid first step with a bogey-free 5-under 67 on Thursday at Medinah, leaving him inside the top 10 of the first-round leaderboard. At 45th in the FedExCup standings, Sabbatini likely needs to finish seventh or better at the BMW to climb inside the top 30. “It’s a challenge this week and I know there are some guys that are right on the cusp and they’re going to be stressing,� he said. “I’m kind of in that nice little slot where I can kind of be aggressive and try to make a move and let them stress over it a little bit more than I do. “It’s a good start but I’ve got three days of hard work to do.� Thursday’s round is reflective of the renaissance season Sabbatini is having. He has six top-10s – his most since that 2007 season when he had 10 – and is finally seeing the results of a rebuilt putting style. He’s 61st in Strokes Gained: Putting this season after ranking 98th last year and 169th, 184th, 13th and 148th the four years before that. On Thursday, Sabbatini rolled in his first two birdie attempts from 11 feet and 21-/2 feet and also made two more birdie putts outside 10 feet just before the turn. “It always seemed to be a lacking spot in my game,� he said. “When I’ve putted well, it’s gone well. When I haven’t putted well, I’ve struggled. I’ve definitely made that more consistent, and that’s taken the pressure off the rest of my game.� It also helps that he’s healthier now than the previous three seasons, having been able to solve some crippling back issues. Add it up, and he says this is “probably the first time in many years I’ve actually played to my potential.� He’d like to turn that potential into his first visit to East Lake in a dozen years.

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