Hatton outduels Hillier, wins Dubai Desert Classic

OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – Bubba Watson, David Lingmerth and Harold Varner III have extended their FedExCup hopes at THE NORTHERN TRUST after playing their way into the second event of the FedExCup Playoffs, the Dell Technologies Championship. Watson began the week ranked 113th in the standings but catapulted himself all the way to 72nd thanks to a tie for 10th at Glen Oaks Club. Watson’s first top-10 since June earned him a tee time for Friday’s first round at TPC Boston. The two-time Masters champion will take the rest of 2017 off once his run in the FedExCup Playoffs comes to an end and his focus will turn to coaching the tee-ball team of his 5-year-old son, Caleb. It could be a couple weeks before Watson can don his coaching hat, though. He’s now withing striking distance of the top 70 in the FedExCup standings and a spot in the third event of the FedExCup Playoffs, the BMW Championship. Varner III was a bubble buster a week ago, jumping inside the top 125 at the Wyndham Championship. A solid T20 at Glen Oaks surged him from 123rd to 91st in the standings. He becomes just the fifth player in FedExCup history to qualify for the Dell Technologies Championship after being outside the mark at both the Wyndham and THE NORTHERN TRUST.   Only one of the previous four, Ernie Els, continued the streak all the way to the BMW Championship. “I don’t want it to end. So I just need to keep doing the things I’m doing right now and just focus,â€� Varner said. “(I) played solid today, did what I had to do. It’s hard to really fire at (the flag) when you’re not sure you’re going to play next week, but we’re going to figure it out. We’re just going to keep playing golf and keep playing well.â€� Lingmerth should have cruised in after opening the tournament with rounds of 71-68-68, but things started to tighten up after he dropped five shots in a four-hole stretch on Sunday’s front nine. He rebounded with two birdies on the back side to move from 103rd to 87th with his T29 result. When three players moving inside the top 100, three players had to fall out. Those who were replaced were Byeong Hun An (96 to 102), Robert Garrigus (99 to 109) and Seung-Yul Noh (100 to 110), who all missed the cut. ELIMINATED Michael Kim was the last man in the top 100, finishing a single point ahead of Scott Stallings, who made a crucial bogey on the 17th hole Sunday to essentially end his season. Here are the 25 players who have been eliminated from the FedExCup Playoffs: Stallings, An, Martin Flores, D.A. Points, Luke Donald, Richy Werenski, Ryan Blaum, Geoff Ogilvy, Robert Garrigus, Noh, Jimmy Walker, Brian Gay, Brandon Hagy, Vaughn Taylor, Steve Stricker, Derek Fathauer, Tyrone Van Aswegen, Harris English, Dominic Bozelli, Nick Watney, John Huh, Blayne Barber, Ben Martin, Rory Sabbatini and J.J. Henry. QUOTE OF THE DAY I don’t know what it would take. But we’ll see. Maybe if I win the FedExCup or something, I’ll go nuts, because I’ve got 10 million cash in my pocket. TOP 5 WATCH The top 5 players entering the TOUR Championship will control their own destiny at East Lake. Here’s a look at the top 5 in the FedExCup standings after THE NORTHERN TRUST. 1. Dustin Johnson (WIN): Takes over top spot after his victory at Glen Oaks, his fourth of the season and first since winning three in a row in February and March. After starting the FedExCup Playoffs at No. 4 in the standings, he is virtually assured of being in the top 5 heading into the TOUR Championship. 2. Jordan Spieth (2nd): Jumped from the 3rd seed to the 2nd seed with his playoff loss to Johnson. The 2015 FedExCup champion is likely to once again control his destiny in Atlanta. 3. Justin Thomas (T6): Thomas sits in the three seed after another nice result this week, but his place in the top five for Atlanta is not yet secured. He’ll be looking to continue his form at TPC Boston. 4. Hideki Matsuyama (CUT): Was leading the standings to start the FedExCup Playoffs, but missing the weekend proved costly for the Japanese star, who dropped three spots. He told Japanese media this week that he is suffering from a sore hip. 5. Jon Rahm (T3): The Spanish star has lifted himself into the top 5 with an impressive opening result in his first foray into the FedExCup Playoffs. Each venue is new for him, but he remains undaunted. FEDEXCUP NOTES The new bubble boys are Sergio Garcia (30th), Grayson Murray (70th) and Michael Kim (100th). Adam Scott will return to play at the Dell Technologies Championship after initially suggesting he’d miss the event for paternity leave. He fell to 73rd in the FedExCup standings after being absent this week. Scott won at TPC Boston before it was a FedExCup Playoffs event. Johnson now shares the FedExCup Playoffs records for most wins (4, with Rory McIlroy), most top-5s (9, with Jason Day and Tiger Woods) and most top-10s (16, with Jim Furyk). Two rookies advanced to the TOUR Championship last season, the first time in FedExCup history more than one rookie made it to East Lake. Nine rookies remain headed to the Dell Technologies Championship, headed by Wesley Bryan in 32nd place. 

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NASSAU, Bahamas – Driving distance leader Cameron Champ is not among the 18 players in the field at this week’s Hero World Challenge. No matter — his legend continues to grow. Tony Finau, no slouch himself off the tee, told the story Tuesday about Champ’s appearance during Finau’s charity event in September at Alpine Country Club south of Salt Lake City, Utah. Champ soon engaged in a long driving contest against Finau’s cousin, Ben Tua’one, who in 2011 was the World Long Drive runner-up and reached the final four the next year. “Just on the range, they were sending drivers and put him on TrackMan, so we got the accurate distance,â€� Finau said. “They both went after it and both their (ball) speeds were right around 200 (mph), just over 200, maybe 202, 203. “Cameron was obviously a little more efficient, hitting in the center of the face. So his ball in Utah was going just over 400 yards, so it was quite impressive to watch.â€� Those speeds surpass Champ’s average ball speed this season on the PGA TOUR. In his four starts in his rookie season – among those, his first TOUR win at the Sanderson Farms Championship – Champ has an average ball speed of 193.61 mph. Naturally, that leads the TOUR in that category, more than 7 mph faster than his closest challenger, Brandon Hagy. Champ has been measured with 14 drives. His fastest ball speed for a single drive was 198.91. Champ’s clubhead speed average of 130.20 also leads the TOUR, as does his driving distance average of 328.2 yards in measured drives. If Champ maintains his current driving distance pace, he would shatter the TOUR record currently held by Hank Kuehne, who averaged 321.4 yards in measured drives in 2003. A year ago, Rory McIlroy led the TOUR with a 319.7-yard average. In his first four full seasons on TOUR, Finau has had the second highest ball speed three times, including the 2017-18 season when averaged 181.81 mph on his 66 measured drives. Trey Mullinax led the TOUR with a 182.22 mph average. “I haven’t seen anybody hit it further than Cameron Champ,â€� said Finau, who played the first two rounds of the Mayakoba Golf Classic with the rookie from Texas A&M. “Maybe once I had that type of speed and that type of length, but not anymore. That’s pretty incredible. He has the flexibility and the length I’ve never seen before.â€�

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2021 Charles Schwab Challenge, Round 1 Scoring Conditions: Overall: +0.88 strokes per round Morning wave: +0.88 Afternoon wave: +0.88 Current cutline (top 65 and ties) 68 players at +1 or better (T57) Top 3 projected cutline probabilities: 1. 1 over par: 41.2% 2. E: 28.8% 3. 2 over par: 19.7% Top 10 win probabilities: 1. Jordan Spieth (T1, -7, 31.0%) 2. Sergio Garcia (T1, -7, 13.4%) 3. Jason Kokrak (T3, -5, 7.2%) 4. Daniel Berger (T14, -2, 3.9%) 5. Patrick Reed (T14, -2, 3.4%) 6. Collin Morikawa (T24, -1, 2.7%) 7. Brandt Snedeker (T5, -4, 2.6%) 8. Adam Hadwin (T5, -4, 2.6%) 9. Tony Finau (T24, -1, 2.4%) 10. Cameron Tringale (T8, -3, 2.2%) NOTE: These reports are based off of the live predictive model run by @DataGolf. The model provides live “Make Cut”, “Top 20”, “Top 5”, and “Win” probabilities every 5 minutes from the opening tee shot to the final putt of every PGA TOUR event. Briefly, the model takes account of the current form of each golfer as well as the difficulty of their remaining holes, and probabilities are calculated from 20K simulations. To follow live finish probabilities throughout the remainder of the Charles Schwab Challenge, or to see how each golfer’s probabilities have evolved from the start of the event to the current time, click here for the model’s home page.

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