Janzen wins Tour Champions event in playoff

Click here to read the full article…

DUBLIN, Ohio – For Martin Kaymer it has been almost five years. Adam Scott has gone past the three-year mark. Jordan Spieth is coming up on two years. Those three are no strangers to winning on the PGA TOUR’s biggest stages. But all three have waited longer than they would like since last hoisting a trophy. Through 54 holes, one of them appears to have the best chance of winning the prestigious the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. RELATED: Watch Tiger on PGA TOUR LIVE on Sunday | Leaderboard | Tee times | Tiger stalls after double bogey Joining them in the top five on the leaderboard at Jack Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village Golf Club is Hideki Matsuyama and Patrick Cantlay. Matsuyama’s drought is at 22 months. And Cantlay is now around 19 months. Sunday will be a shootout to see who wants to end the drought more. Kaymer is the conductor at this point. Rounds of 67-68-66 put the German at 15 under and two shots in front. He has nine European Tour wins. He’s won the PGA Championship (2010) before. He won THE PLAYERS Championship and U.S. Open in the same year. But that was in 2014. He hasn’t won since. “Once you lead a golf tournament, it’s so much about how much can you handle yourself,â€� Kaymer said. “And obviously if somebody takes a run at you, it is what it is. But the game plan doesn’t really change. For me it’s pure enjoyment the way I play right now. I don’t have many weaknesses that I see at the moment. “But under the circumstances, it can change. Obviously handling certain nerves and pressure and stuff like that, who knows how you will react. And that is the beauty of golf; that you can’t really prepare yourself for those special situations.â€� Kaymer leads the field in Strokes Gained: Putting having missed just one putt inside 15-feet all week. He will look to continue the form Sunday. “I just really (need to) embrace the challenge tomorrow, try to keep working on the progress,â€� he said. “If it happens to win, fantastic; if not, I will learn a lot, which will help me, especially with the busy summer that’s coming up for me.â€� Next in line is Scott. The Australian’s 71-66-66 effort has him at 13-under, alone in second place. He’s also a former THE PLAYERS champion (2004) and the 2013 Masters champion. In total he has 13 PGA TOUR wins (and another unofficial one) plus a further 13 International wins. Scott won back-to-back weeks in early 2016 on the TOUR but not since. He leads the field this week in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and Approach-the-Green. “I’m just going to play as good as I can tomorrow. I like where it’s all at. I feel like the last few times I’ve been in with a chance, going back to the PGA Championship last year, I felt comfortable. So I’m not worried. I feel like this is the spot I’m meant to be,â€� Scott said. “And since then, I’ve seen lots of good golf, and I feel like my game is at a level that, if I put it all together properly and control myself out there, I can win.â€� Spieth (66-70-69), Matsuyama (71-70-64) and Cantlay (68-69-68) all sit at 11 under, four back. No one else is closer than six shots to the lead. Spieth, a former FedExCup champion with three majors to his name among 11 PGA TOUR wins also has won two Australian Opens. But he hasn’t won since the 2017 Open Championship. Three weeks ago he had gone 10 months without a top-10 finish but has since been amongst the best players two weeks in a row. “All in all I’m pleased with the progress that’s been made. If I look back three weeks from the Byron Nelson to now, it’s night and day, in my opinion, about how I feel about my game and how it’s actually producing,â€� Spieth said. “So I’m pleased with that. I’m just trying to make a little bit more progress for tomorrow.â€� Matsuyama has five PGA TOUR wins including two World Golf Championships and a win here at Muirfield Village (2014). There are also eight Japan Tour wins on his resume. Cantlay won his only PGA TOUR title at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open back in early November 2017. “All of them, if you take Jordan, if you take Adam, or Matsuyama…, they have won huge tournaments. They’re good enough to win any week,â€� Kaymer said. “And it’s the same for me. It’s just a matter of how much can you handle Saturday and Sunday. And you need a little bit of luck here and there as well. “So I think we can all play good golf, and it’s quite nice for tomorrow because no one is really holding back.â€� At the end of it all, Nicklaus will be waiting for his customary winner’s handshake. As a 73-time TOUR winner who won at least once in his first 17 seasons, he isn’t super familiar with the feeling of ending droughts. But he’ll have an idea when he sees the champion’s face.

Click here to read the full article…

There exists an irony at Glen Abbey Golf Club. For as much as the RBC Canadian Open has migrated throughout its history, the course that hosts the 109th edition of the tournament is one of the most reliable destinations on the PGA TOUR. For an explanation on what this means, what can be expected in Canada’s national open, a glimpse at two-time defending champion Jhonattan Vegas and much more, scroll beneath the rankings. Two-time runner-up at Glen Abbey (2013, 2016) placed T8 last year. His scoring average in his last 12 rounds here is 68.58. He’s finished second, first and T6 in par-5 scoring, respectively. After helping promote his home-state Utah Championship on the Web.com Tour, he placed T9 at Carnoustie for his third top 10 in 2018 majors. Seven top 10s in all. T5 at Glen Abbey last year. Despite a rock-steady career, he’s been streakier than you might realize and he’s on mini-heater now with four straight top 20s worldwide. Also T16-T7-P2 in last three visits to Glen Abbey. He has unfinished business at Glen Abbey where he placed T18 after sitting T4 through 54 holes in only prior trip in 2015. Eighth on TOUR in birdies-or-better percentage with his putter. Snapped his slump at Carnoustie with a T2; held at least a piece of the lead after each of the first three rounds. Gunning to keep mojo alive at Glen Abbey where he placed T26 in debut last year. The 37-year-old gets some benefit of the doubt as the 2013 champion at Glen Abbey. In his return trip in 2016, he tied for fifth. T6 (St. Jude) and T3 (Greenbrier) in his last five starts. Had last week off after a T23 at the John Deere Classic, his sixth top 25 in nine starts since turning professional. Would rank second on TOUR in both GIR and proximity if eligible. Quietly answered last year’s disappointment in The Open Championship with a T9 on Sunday. He’s 4-for-4 at Glen Abbey since 2013 with three top 10s and a scoring average of 69.25. Solo third in his Glen Abbey debut last year. Led the field in par-4 scoring and ranked T10 in greens in regulation and second in strokes gained: putting. Nine top 25s in last 12 starts worldwide. Kept the pedal floored at TPC Deere Run and finished sixth on the heels of a T5 at Greenbrier. Now rested after a six-week road trip, can open the throttle again at Glen Abbey (T23 last year). Electrifying Englishman is making his tournament debut. He’s 33rd in the FedExCup standings and fifth in adjusted scoring with top 20s in all of the majors, the WGCs and THE PLAYERS. Playing into the horse-for-a-course mold of late. Sandwiched in between missed cuts in the last two majors, he won the Travelers and placed T13 at Greenbrier. Runner-up at Glen Abbey in 2015. The ball-striker has eight top 25s in last 10 starts upon arrival. Made his TOUR debut at Royal Montreal in the 2014 RBC after gaining entry via a monster season on the Mackenzie Tour. As the two-time defending champ limps in again this year, he has the field right where he wants ’em! Was 0-for-5 upon arrival in 2017. This time, he’s gone 11 straight starts without a top 35. Although he finished fifth in Houston nearly four months ago, the rookie hadn’t thoroughly enjoyed the fruits of his labor tee-to-green until a T2-T7 burst through TPC Deere Run and Keene Trace. POWER RANKINGS: RBC CANADIAN OPEN RANK PLAYER COMMENT Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Billy Horschel, Jimmy Walker and Barbasol Championship winner Troy Merritt will appear in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider along with other notables. For competitors who made the trip to Oakville, Ontario, Glen Abbey presents as a soft landing just as long as they hit the ground running. This includes the 32 who jetted from The Open Championship at Carnoustie in Scotland. They in particular will be reminded of what it’s like to sign for red numbers again. Glen Abbey is a stock par 72, albeit with respective pars of 35 and 37. The par 5s are Nos. 2, 13, 16 and 18. Last year’s scoring average of 70.371 established a tournament low for the course (since data was first maintained in earnest in 1983). When the wind blows, as it did early in 2016 and will a bit this week, the 5,600-square foot greens get even smaller, but Glen Abbey has yielded the most eagles of any course in each of the last five seasons it’s hosted the RBC Canadian Open (2009, 2013, 2015-2017), so they are still magnets. Given that Vegas prevailed despite finishing outside the top 50 in fairways hit during both of his titles proves that the only challenge besides hitting greens and rolling in putts – standard-operating procedure in all shootouts – is keeping pace. Of the 13 who finished inside the top 10 here last year, nine ranked inside the top 15 in greens in regulation. The field average of 36.32 percent in converting GIR into par breakers was a season high. Hitting it a long way doesn’t hurt, either. Only two of the top 13 on the leaderboard in 2017 averaged fewer than 299 yards in distance of all drives for the week. Vegas ranked inside the top 15 in both distance of all drives and GIR en route to both victories. Rough is trimmed from two-and-a-half inches to three-and-a-quarter inches, with the thickest stuff protecting the primarily bentgrass greens. They’re prepped to run upward of 12-and-a-half feet on the Stimpmeter, but the persistent threat of rain is poised to slow them down. Daytime temperatures will climb into the upper 70s. Earlier this month, it was announced that Hamilton Golf & Country Club will be hosting next year. The tournament will shift to the week prior to the U.S. Open. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton reviews and previews every tournament from numerous angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Facebook Live, Fantasy Insider WEDNESDAY: One & Done, Champions One & Done * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO, which also publishes on Tuesdays.

Click here to read the full article…