Jon Rahm leads after Round 3 of THE PLAYERS Championship

CROMWELL, Conn. – If a sense of calm seemed to envelope Patrick Cantlay moments after he made a double-bogey at his 17th hole, the par-3 eighth, in Thursday’s first round of the Travelers Championship, there were good reasons. One, by nature, Cantlay possesses a remarkable even-keel disposition. Two, he still signed for a 4-under 66 to continue a stretch of golf that is as good as anything being played on the PGA TOUR. And, third, he’s in a comfortable environment. “I turned pro here in ’12 and I played well here as an am in ’11,� said Cantlay, though he greatly understated the second half of that statement. That’s because in 2011, the then-19-year-old at UCLA scorched TPC River Highlands to the tune of 10-under 60, a bogey-free effort that featured an eagle and eight birdies. It remains the only 60 posted by an amateur in PGA TOUR history. “I like coming back to places that I like playing golf at,� said Cantlay, who led through 36 holes that year, but faded to T-24. He’s played here three other times since turning professional, but despite the sloppy bogey at the 204-yard eighth (“Just hit it a little fat and it went in the water,� he said), Thursday was his best score since that 60 eight years ago. “I hit the ball really well today. One missed shot cost me two.� You’d have to go back a long way to find a round of golf that didn’t have Cantlay speaking positively. Since missing the cut at THE PLAYERS Championship in March, his five stroke-play tournaments have produced stellar performances. A win (the Memorial Tournament), three other top 10s and a share of 21st at the U.S. Open last week have featured 20 rounds of golf, 12 of them in the 60s, a scoring average of 69.05 and a combined score of 43-under-par. Everything about Thursday’s start says Cantlay appears ready to continue that sizzling trend. “My mindset for a while has been, ‘Come out, win the golf tournament every week,’ and I’ve been close. I’ve played really well.�

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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Si Woo Kim had a hole-in-one on the way to a 62 for a two-shot lead over Doc Redman and Rob Oppenheim through three rounds of the Wyndham Championship on Saturday. Kim, who’s at 18 under after 54 holes, made history three years ago when at 21 he became the youngest winner of THE PLAYERS Championship. Now, he’s seeking his first victory since — and playing strongly wherever he tees it up. RELATED: Leaderboard | Round 3 update: FedExCup Playoffs, Wyndham Rewards | Final stretch in full swing at Regular Season finale Kim has broken 70 in nine of his last 10 rounds, including all four at TPC Harding Park to finish tied for 13th at the PGA Championship. He has continued that stellar play at Sedgefield Country Club, where he won his first PGA TOUR event in 2016. Redman had a 63, while Oppenheim set a career low on TOUR with a 62 in second at 16 under. Billy Horschel shot a 65 and was three strokes back at 15 under. Mark Hubbard (64) and Jim Herman were another stroke back at 14 under. Herman shot a 61, a career best and tied for lowest round of the tournament. But it was Kim’s sizzling play that stood out in this one. He got going when his 8-iron on the 161-yard, third hole found the cup for his third ace on tour. Kim clipped the cup on the par-3 12th, settling 14 inches away for another birdie. Kim kept it up with birdies on the 15th, 16th and 17th holes to take the lead. Oppenheim was bidding for a 60 when he birdied the next-to-last hole to move to 17 under. But his only bogey of the round on the final hole dropped him back. Oppenheim, 40, has put himself in line to make the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time, moving up from 145 on the list to a projected 77, with the top 125 making it to THE NORTHERN TRUST next week. He’d love to add his first TOUR title to the mix, too. Redman, 22, is also seeking his first PGA TOUR win. He joined the tie for second after matching his career low score of 63. Redman took bogey on his opening hole, then had eight birdies the rest of the way. The PGA TOUR moved up tee times, grouped competitors in threesomes and sent them off on the first and 10th tees to beat the bad weather expected later Saturday. The early, dry conditions set off a run of low scores that contenders had no choice but to keep up with throughout the round. In all, 52 of the 77 competitors finished with rounds in the 60s. There were two 61s, the lowest score this week, from Jim Herman and Zach Johnson, the Payne Stewart Award winner who is striving to make the Playoffs after a subpar season. Johnson was projected at 109 in FedExCup points after starting the round outside the Playoffs at 129. Past champion Webb Simpson (65) and Peter Malnati were at 13 under.

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CHARLOTTE – Quail Hollow Club fell silent as Troy Stribling stood over his 3-foot putt on the 15th green on Monday. Well, except for the construction workers hammering nails into the plywood of the floor of a hospitality area behind the gleaming white clubhouse. Not that a little noise mattered to Stribling, a senior at Florida A&M. He was just focused on the birdie putt that would give him a 4-and-3 victory over Texas Southern’s Owen Walsh – and as it turned out, clinch at least a tie for the Charlie Sifford Centennial Cup. “This was something special,” Stribling says. “This is probably the best golf tournament I’ve ever been a part of … especially, to share with this group of guys for my last year.” The exhibition, which featured six of the top Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) programs in the country, was conceived by the organizers of The Presidents Cup, which will take center stage at Quail Hollow in three weeks. Hence, the last-minute preparations for the biennial team competition to be held Sept. 22-25. The Charlie Sifford Centennial Cup was part of a year-long celebration of what would have been the World Golf Hall of Famer’s 100th birthday on June 2. The Charlotte native, who was the first African American to earn his PGA TOUR card, died in 2015. “I knew he was a trailblazer, and I didn’t know every obstacle he went through to get to where he was,” Stribling says. “He went through a lot of hardships. … And he’s not really talked about like the Muhammad Alis or Malcolm X or MLK, and he should be. “So, he went through a lot to help us get to where we are and we’re just here to honor him.” The six schools were separated into two teams for Monday’s competition – FAMU, Alabama State and Livingstone College represented Charles Sifford Jr. while Howard, Texas Southern and the host Johnson C. Smith played for James Black, another Charlotte native and a mainstay of the United Golf Association during the days of segregation. The final score was 12-6, in favor of the team captained by Sifford Jr. But the chance to play a major championship-caliber course – Quail Hollow has hosted the 2017 PGA Championship, 18 Wells Fargo Championships and 11 Kemper Opens on TOUR – made it a win-win for the student-athletes, many of whom aspire to play professionally. “It’s just preparing for my future,” says Howard’s Greg Odom Jr., who won the MEAC title and played in the Wells Fargo Championship on a sponsor’s exemption earlier this year. “And for me – if you see it, you can be it. So, I’m just here just trying to play great golf and continue my legacy.” The massive grandstands and hospitality venue may have been empty on Monday but Stribling, who like Odom plans to turn pro after graduation, was able to get a sense of what the excitement might be like in late September. J.C. Smith coach William Watkins says the “small city” being built for 40,000 can make the game feel intimidating. “Even though there’s no spectators in the stands, I feel a little nervous,” he says. “I’m like, wow, just imagine all the eyeballs on you.” The teams played the same reconfigured routing that will be used in the Presidents Cup. Quail Hollow’s famous Green Mile, holes 16-18, will be played as holes 13-15 for the Presidents Cup in order to make sure those holes factor into the matches. In fact, while Monday’s morning Four-ball matches were taking place, several members of the International Team and Captain Trevor Immelman made a stealth reconnaissance appearance at the course. “I haven’t really played a course like this with this kind of atmosphere,” Stribling says. “Having the Presidents Cup be here in a couple weeks to (watch) on TV and say, ‘I played those holes’ is something special. I can’t wait to tell my friends and my family about it.” Sifford Jr., who hit the competition’s opening tee shot, felt his father would have approved. “He would be super happy about it,” Sifford Jr. says. “There are two things that he always wanted. He just wanted to be able to play the game of golf and have the kids of all ages to be able to have a chance, an equal chance, to play the game, be exposed to it and have an opportunity to play it because he really, he fell in love with the game when he was 10 years old. “So, he would’ve been jumping off the wall to see something like this.” The connections – some made and others renewed — at Quail Hollow were many. The grandfather of Andre Springs, who coaches the NCAA Division II-leading Livingstone College team, played Little League baseball with the late Sifford, and Springs has known Sifford’s son for decades. Robert Clark, the assistant coach at Alabama State, first met the pioneering golfer when he came to support a junior clinic Clark was holding in Portland, Oregon. “I started talking to (Clark) about Charlie’s acceptance speech when Charlie received the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” says Adam Sperling, the executive director of the Presidents Cup. “And he said, oh, you don’t have to tell me. I was in the third row. “So gosh, there were five or six stories that hit us all over the last 48 hours that just make you appreciate how much those who made this possible persevered and how appreciative those that are out here today are of the efforts of those who came before them. And certainly, the feeling they have about the responsibility and quite frankly, the responsibility we all have.” One of those stories involves the Livingstone team, which has eight players from Uganda on its roster. The first to enroll was Titus Okwong, the oldest of 10 children who learned the game as a caddie. He was playing on his country’s national team and decided he wanted to come to the United States to play in college. He contacted more than 100 schools but couldn’t get enough scholarship aid – until he called Springs, that is. “I get this call out of the blue,” Springs recalls. “‘Hello coach. This is Titus calling you from Uganda, Africa. I would like to come to America to play for the Blue Bears.’” Figuring it was a prank call, Springs hung up. A few minutes later – it was 2 a.m. in Uganda – Okwong called back. Please don’t hang up the phone again, he told Springs. I want to be a champion and the Blue Bears are winning championships. Although he had no scholarship money, Springs was intrigued enough to ask whether Okwong could really play. The coach suggested he call back in a month, never really expecting to hear from him. But Okwong called. Springs told him to send his information to the admissions office and talked to the university president. They decided to give Okwong a chance. All Springs could offer was a partial academic scholarship. Okwong would need to raise $5,000 – which was nearly 2 million Ugandan shillings. He says he locked himself in his room for two days trying to figure out what to do. A friend suggested a fund-raising golf tournament, which netted nearly $3,000, and he raised more by putting fliers with his information at other courses. Finally, some of the people at his club who had been skeptical were willing to contribute, too. “They said, ‘Wow, this guy is serious,’” Okwong recalls. “Everybody started coming in. Everybody wants to be on a winning team.” Okwong came to Salisbury, North Carolina, in 2016. He played golf for the Blue Bears, captaining the team one year, and earned a degree in business administration with a 3.8 GPA. He is now Springs’ assistant coach and his quest serves as a blueprint for other Ugandans, including one of his brothers, who have played at schools like Catawba College and Howard, as well as Livingstone. “We all originally grew up together as caddies,” Okwong says. “And one thing we told ourselves is if one of us ever made it, we should never forget the others.” And he didn’t. “It’s a movie,” Springs says, shaking his head and smiling. “… We have eight on the team from Uganda right now. Now those kids would never have gotten the opportunity had not been for that phone call.” Springs says the Charlie Sifford Centennial Cup gives programs like his – which is ranked No. 1 nationally in NCAA Division II – much needed exposure. With that, comes growth. “It means a lot to our golf team,’ Springs says. “They are so excited about being here and being around the other players from other schools and meeting other players because of the relationships involved through this tournament. So, it’s been great.” The two-day event kicked off with practice rounds on Sunday. At the welcome reception that night, the Presidents Cup announced $25,000 donations to the golf programs at the six participating teams, as well as the Dr. Charles L. Sifford Scholarship, which helps defray expenses for HBCU students or minorities enrolled in golf management programs. Watkins says the donation exceeds his yearly operating budget. He sees the money helping with recruiting and travel expenses. It will also complete an endowed scholarship he started that was on a five-year plan and now can be realized well ahead of schedule. “So, I’m excited about that,” Watkins says. “That’s going to be something the team can take advantage of after I’m long gone and hopefully I can continue to get support to build on that structure.” The Charlie Sifford Centennial Cup was conceived as part of the PGA TOUR’s on-going mission to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. The Presidents Cup will also host a leadership summit during the week of the event featuring representatives from Bridgestone, City, Cognizant and Nucor, as well as presidents of HBCUs and other sports executives. Sperling says he’s extremely pleased with how the Centennial Cup unfolded. “I think our report card is measured in the looks on the faces of these 24 student-athletes, their coaches, their administrators, their families, from their arrival Saturday evening through yesterday’s welcome reception and practice rounds and in today’s competition,” he says. “… I’m not sure any of us knew how we would do it. We just knew it was something we needed to do. And we got a lot of the right people in the right positions to lead various areas and I couldn’t be happier with how it’s come out.”

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