Hatton takes five-shot lead in Abu Dhabi as fading light stops play

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If there’s one thing that can zap the confidence from any golfer without notice and without mercy, it’s an injury. Brandt Snedeker withdrew from the RBC Canadian Open on Monday. He was an early WD from last week’s Open Championship due to soreness in a rib that “didn’t respond to treatment as I had hoped,” he tweeted on Wednesday, July 19. This leaves the event in Ontario, Canada, without its all-time earnings leader at Glen Abbey Golf Club. In three appearances, he’s won (2013) and finished T5 twice (2009, 2016). Of course, this also means that opportunity is even greater for the 156 in the field who are able to compete. Glen Abbey is a fan-friendly venue on which golfers often struggle to find fairways and greens, but they know going in that par-breaker chances are everywhere. At least they should know. The par 72 with three par 5s on the inward nine connects with both angles as a putting contest. Either pile up the greens in regulation or sink it from everywhere with fewer looks. Do both and you’ll be raising that gorgeous trophy. Beginning with Snedeker in 2013, the last three winners at Glen Abbey dutifully step into formation. Glen Abbey is embraced by all who enter, not to mention a host country that continues to return to it for its national open – this will be the fourth time in five years that the RBC Canadian Open has been held here – but the Jack Nicklaus design checks all of the boxes from our analytical perspective as well. Fairness of the test translates into equity in the box scores. Last year’s field leaders in distance of all drives (Dustin Johnson), fairways hit (Steve Wheatcroft), greens in regulation (Martin Laird), proximity to the hole (Jon Rahm) and scrambling (Ricky Barnes) all finished inside the top 10 on the leaderboard. Now, because wind influenced higher scoring in the first two rounds, to get a fairer observation of the value of strokes gained: putting, it’s better to review the 2015 edition when only 16/100ths of a stroke separated the lowest round (first, 71.13) from the highest (third, 71.29). Not surprisingly, six of the top 10 on the leaderboard ranked inside the top 10 in the stat, including field pacesetter David Hearn. However, to avoid confusion by mixing and matching editions, all of the groupings in the identifiers below apply to 2016. Golfers in this week’s field inside the top 10 in the following categories in last year’s RBC Canadian Open: * – Currently inside the top 50 on the PGA TOUR in the stat. (Golfers who haven’t logged enough rounds are not tagged.) Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green Rank  Golfer (Tournament Finish) 1  Cameron Percy (T26) 2  *Jhonattan Vegas (Win) 5  Alex Cejka (T5) 6  Ricky Barnes (T5) 8  Hudson Swafford (T14) 9  Geoff Ogilvy (T9) 10  *Dustin Johnson (T2) Greens in Regulation Rank  Golfer (Tournament Finish) T3  Ricky Barnes (T5) T3  *Hudson Swafford (T14) T3  Jhonattan Vegas (Win) T8  *Chez Reavie (T14) T8  Johnson Wagner (T43) Strokes Gained: Putting Rank  Golfer (Tournament Finish) 2  Jared du Toit (T9) 5  *Steve Wheatcroft (T5) 6  Chris Kirk (T14) 7  K.J. Choi (T38) Par-5 Scoring Rank  Golfer (Tournament Finish) 1  *Dustin Johnson (T2) 2  Alex Cejka (T5) T3  Matt Kuchar (T9) T3  *Luke List (T14) T10  Ben Crane (T9) T10  Ken Duke (T49) T10  *Whee Kim (T38) T10  Geoff Ogilvy (T9) T10  Chez Reavie (T14) T10  *Hudson Swafford (T14) T10  Vaughn Taylor (T43) While Glen Abbey has undergone more than its fair share of modernizations in recent years, the historical line of demarcation as it concerns relevant course history occurred between 2000 and 2004 when a major renovation took place. So, the data below takes into account results from only 2004, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2016. NOTE: The groups below are comprehensive to assist in data mining. Inclusion doesn’t imply automatic endorsement in every fantasy game as all decisions are specific to your situation. CONFIDENCE MEN Selected golfers with multiple cuts made sorted by rank on the tournament’s money list. BUILDING CONFIDENCE Sorted by best finish, selected golfers who are either finally finding form on the course or are still relatively new to the tournament but have enjoyed some success. OTHER SIGNS OF CONFIDENCE Sorted by most recent top 10s, selected golfers for whom it’s been a few years since their last.

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ATLANTA – Patrick Cantlay will take a lead of anywhere between two (over Tony Finau) and 10 strokes (over five players) into the opening round of the season-ending TOUR Championship at East Lake, which will decide the winner of the FedExCup. All can agree on that. RELATED: How they’ll start at East Lake What is less clear is how significant that is. “I don’t know another format even remotely close to this,” said Cantlay, who in winning last week’s BMW Championship was +14.58 Strokes Gained: Putting, a PGA TOUR record. “I’m going to do my best to throw that out the window and try and treat it like any other golf tournament because the best chance for me succeeding is shooting the lowest score possible.” In other words, he’ll leave it to the rest of us to monitor his lead. How fast will he lose it? How much will he build it? Say this for the TOUR’s new Starting Strokes format, now in its third year: It elevates Thursday’s first round with a new kind of urgency and watchability. “I feel confident,” said Jon Rahm, who leads the TOUR with 14 top-10 finishes, including his win at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in June. “This is a ball-striker’s golf course, and my ball striking has been very, very good, and I’m only four shots back, so it’s only a one-shot difference each day, and we all know that four shots can be gone very, very quickly.” Justin Thomas went in as the top seed in 2019 and finished third. That was the year Rory McIlroy started five shots behind but won by four over Xander Schauffele. Dustin Johnson was the top seed last year and went on to win it all. Asked if he felt like he was sleeping on the lead from Monday through Wednesday, Johnson said he came to think of it as a five-round tournament. In other words, he told himself he built that lead the day before play started. Hey, whatever works; you can’t argue with $15 million. This year brings a new mental hurdle, as he starts seven behind. “It’s a great challenge,” he said. “Obviously over one day would be a lot to ask, but over four days it’s not as big of an ask.” Like McIlroy, Harris English, who will start six back, believes East Lake is an ideal course on which to make up ground fast. Hit the fairways and you have a green light to go low, but with stray tee shots, balls sink to the bottom of the rough and the bogeys can pile up fast. “I like the format,” English said. “I don’t mind coming from behind.” Neither does McIlroy, who finished solo fourth at the BMW. He said winning a third FedExCup title, even from eight behind, is not outside the realm of possibility. Whether or not Cantlay will open the door for players like him, English, Rahm, Johnson or 2017 TOUR Championship winner Xander Schauffele, who also will begin the tournament eight back, remains to be seen. “That’s the goal for the whole season is to have that lead,” said Schauffele, who had the lowest 72-hole total at East Lake last year (FedExCup T2). “And at East Lake it’s not a very big one.”

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