Jon Rahm re-energized for Torrey Pines test post COVID-19

With a well-known fill-in caddie on his bag, Justin Thomas storms from behind with a final-round 65 to become the first three-time PGA TOUR winner of the season at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational at TPC Southwind. In the process, Thomas becomes the third youngest player to win 13 times on TOUR since 1960, behind only Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, and regains the No. 1 spot in the world. He also puts some distance between himself and FedExCup No. 2 Webb Simpson with the Playoffs just two weeks away. Meanwhile Richy Werenski, king of the close calls after finishing 126th in the FedExCup last season (by two points!), authors a similarly fantastic finish as he racks up 11 points in the last seven holes to surge past Troy Merritt and win the Barracuda Championship at Tahoe Mountain Club. Welcome to the Monday Finish. THREE KEYS TO SUCCESS 1. Thomas kept it together despite some crazy misses. The FedExCup No. 1 hit some slightly wild shots coming in, most notably at the 15th hole, where his tee shot missed so far left it avoided the water hazard and gave him a chance to get up and down for birdie. Thomas missed his tee shot right at the par-5 16th hole, but laid up and then stuffed a wedge to within three feet for another birdie. He didn’t three-putt or make a double bogey all week, and played tidy golf despite being disappointed by his wedge game. “I didn’t really hit anything too close,” he said. “I just managed my game really well.” 2. He had a short memory. It had been just three weeks since Thomas lost a three-stroke lead and ultimately succumbed to Collin Morikawa in a playoff at the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village. Thomas forgot about it, other than reminding himself not to think too far ahead as he had at the Workday. His -1.881 Strokes Gained: Putting total at TPC Southwind marked the sixth worst performance on the greens by a TOUR winner since 2004, and the worst SG: Putting total by a winner since Steven Bowditch (-2.434) at the 2014 Valero Texas Open. Yet Thomas shrugged off missed opportunities on the greens and went to the next hole. That he was second in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green (+7.670) didn’t hurt, either. 3. Werenski kept believing. It’s a nice story that Werenski, the son of a PGA professional in Massachusetts, played his way into the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park this week. Especially because not long ago his TOUR career seemed to be on shaky ground (see below). But through all the close calls, Werenski kept believing that he belonged on TOUR. His team wouldn’t let him forget it, either. “Yeah, a bunch of people have told me that,” Werenski said after making birdie on 18 to win. “My whole team – my swing coach and mental coach and fitness coach and all that, my caddie, everybody. Especially the caddies, the last couple I’ve had, I had Pepsi for a while, Steve Hale, and he always told me, he said, you’ve just got to believe in yourself a little bit. He knew I had a lot of talent and I was good enough to win out here.” OBSERVATIONS Werenski breaks through Richy Werenski has been living on the edge, so the 11 points he banked in the last seven holes (three birdies and an eagle) to capture the Barracuda Championship should perhaps have come as no surprise. Last season he finished 126th in the FedExCup – by just two points. He went back to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, where things weren’t looking promising until he finished T7 on the last day of the season to snatch the 24th of 25 available TOUR cards. “I waited until the last tournament to play well,” Werenski said. Now, after waiting until the last seven holes to put his foot down at Tahoe Mountain Club, he’ll be in the field for this week’s PGA Championship, next month’s U.S. Open, plus the Sentry Tournament of Champions and THE PLAYERS Championship in 2021. What’s more, at 34th in the FedExCup, the native of South Hadley, Massachusetts is a lock to advance to week one of the Playoffs, THE NORTHERN TRUST at TPC Boston. “I’ve kind of always been in that 100 to 125 area,” said Werenski, 28, who never advanced to TPC Boston when it was the second leg of the Playoffs. “So it’s cool to be I think like 34th or something. Haven’t been there before, but I feel like my game is just getting better and better, so we’ll see what we can do with it.” More big times for ‘Bones’ Jim (Bones) Mackay is the hardest-working semi-retired caddie in the business. Last month the on-course commentator for NBC Golf Channel filled in and carried the bag for Matthew Fitzpatrick at the Workday Charity Open and Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide – the partnership bore fruit when Fitzpatrick finished solo third at the Memorial. Now Mackay is in the middle of a two-week stretch with Thomas while Jimmy Johnson, Thomas’ usual caddie, takes some time off the TOUR to address dizzy spells. Week one of the J.T./Bones partnership was a smashing success, which was surprising and not. Mackay had caddied for Thomas before, and has been assigned to follow Thomas many times in his TV role. What made it more intriguing was that Thomas played the final round alongside Phil Mickelson, with whom Mackay spent almost his entire career as a caddie until three years ago. “I honestly was 50/50 on thinking if it would work out this short-notice,” said Thomas, who only called Mackay on Tuesday afternoon of Memphis week. They’ll go for their second straight win at this week’s PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park. QUOTEBOARD “I just managed my game well.” – Justin Thomas on winning without his best stuff “That’s why it’s fun to play.” – Richy Werenski on the volatile modified Stableford format “I feel like my game’s right there.” – Brooks Koepka, aiming for a third straight PGA win WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is a season-long competition that offers a $10 million bonus for the 10 golfers who end the regular season at the Wyndham Championship inside the top 10 in FedExCup points. The player atop the standings will earn $2 million, with varying payoffs for the others through $500,000 for the 10th place finisher. Justin Thomas solidified his position at No. 1 and now has a 713-point lead over No. 2 Webb Simpson. Daniel Berger, a two-time winner at TPC Southwind, tied for second to reenter the Top 10 at No. 8. Only two weeks remain until the start of the FedExCup Playoffs. Here’s how the standings look heading into this week’s PGA Championship. SOCIAL SNAPSHOT

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Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson headline the field as Minnesota celebrates its first regular PGA TOUR event in a half-century, enjoying elevated status for what previously was one of the most popular stops on the PGA TOUR Champions. Jason Day and Patrick Reed also fill out the roster that features 11 of the top 30 men in the latest FedExCup standings for the inaugural, as the TPC Twin Cities unveils a bolder layout in anticipation of testing some of the TOUR’s top talent. FIELD NOTES: Kenny Perry, who won last year’s final Champions edition, is back to make a title defense of sorts while Minnesota native Tom Lehman also tees up as a holdover from the event’s previous chapter. … Fellow Minnesotan Tim Herron also was given a spot via sponsor exemption. … Koepka, Mickelson, Reed and Jimmy Walker give the event four members of the 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup winners at nearby Hazeltine. … Robert Garrigus makes his first PGA TOUR start since sitting out three months on suspension. He tuned up with a pair of Korn Ferry Tour starts, grabbing the first-day lead in Utah after a 64. … Viktor Hovland makes his third straight start as a pro since rewriting the U.S. Open’s scoring record for an amateur and finishing T54 in his pro debut at the Travelers Championship. Former Oklahoma State teammate Matthew Wolff likewise is in the field after making his pro debut at the Travelers Championship as well. … Chase Koepka, younger brother of Brooks, also will tee it up on a sponsor invite. He’s spent 2019 on Europe’s Challenge Tour. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points. STORYLINES: After embracing a PGA TOUR Champions event, two major championships and the Ryder Cup in the past 17 years, Minnesota finally has a PGA TOUR event that will put down roots. The 3M Open marks the TOUR’s first regular stop in the state since the Minnesota Golf Classic played its last edition in 1969. Raymond Floyd, Mike Souchak and Frank Beard were among those winners. … Brooks Koepka, who won the PGA Championship and was second in the year’s other two majors, hopes to right the ship in a regular event. His past two non-majors have seen him finish outside the top 40. … A top-7 performance also would lift Koepka past Matt Kuchar into the FedExCup points lead. … The 3M Open is the second event in as many years to receive a PGA TOUR promotion from another circuit. Last year, the Corales Puntacana Championship made the jump from the Korn Ferry Tour. COURSE: TPC Twin Cities, 7,468 yards, par 71. Recently upgraded in anticipation of the PGA TOUR’s arrival, the longtime Champions venue north of Minneapolis first opened in 2000 and was widely considered one of that circuit’s top layouts. The Arnold Palmer design, with Tom Lehman as a consultant, transformed a former sod farm into a rolling landscape featuring 27 bodies of water, restoring several natural wetlands while framing holes with stands of mature oak and spruce trees. The 3M Championship came to TPC Twin Cities in 2001, enjoying an 18-year run on site. In each of the past seven years, TPC Twin Cities ranked first or second in birdies among 54-hole Champions stops. 54-HOLE RECORD (Champions): 191, David Frost (2010). 18-HOLE RECORD (Champions): 60, Paul Goydos (2nd round, 2017), Kenny Perry (2nd round, 2018). LAST YEAR: Perry closed the event’s PGA TOUR Champions chapter with his third victory in Minnesota, using a second-round 60 to open a five-shot lead before cruising to a three-shot triumph. A 3-under-par 69 was all Perry needed to finish things off, keeping Wes Short Jr.’s closing 63 at arm’s length. Perry also won at TPC Twin Cities in 2014 and ’15, matching Hale Irwin’s standard of three wins in the Champions event. It also was the seventh time in eight appearances that Perry had finished among the top seven at TPC Twin Cities. “It’s going to be so long next year, I probably won’t even recognize it when I come back,â€� he quipped. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (featured groups). Saturday-Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. (featured groups), 3-6 p.m. (featured holes). International subscribers (via GOLF.tv): Thursday-Friday, 12:00 to 22:30 GMT. Saturday-Sunday, 13:30 to 22:00. RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 1-6:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).  

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NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. — J.T. Poston shot a 10-under 62 on Thursday to take the first-round lead in the PGA TOUR’s Barbasol Championship. Poston birdied six of the first eight holes at rain-softened Keene Trace, bogeyed the par-3 ninth and added five more birdies on the back nine for his lowest score on the PGA TOUR. “It was one of those days everything clicked,” Poston said. “Hit it good, hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens. I was hitting it so good I didn’t really have that many lengthy birdie putts that I made until the last hole.” Winless on TOUR, the 26-year-old former Western Carolina player closed with a 27-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th. “The greens had been a little on the firmer side at the start of the week, firmer than I think most guys would expect,” Poston said. “But a lot of rain last night and so they’re soft, and they’re really good greens and you can make a lot of putts. They’re rolling really well. You hit the fairway and you get a lot of wedges in your hand and guys are going to make a lot of birdies.” Nick Taylor was a stroke back. The Canadian had an eagle and seven birdies in a bogey-free round. “I hit every green, I didn’t miss a fairway, so it was very solid tee to green and putts were going in,” Taylor said. “Everything was kind of clicking today. With the soft conditions, it was different than the practice rounds. I thought it would be a little bit more difficult, and then that rain came in last night and definitely softened things up. ” Wes Roach opened with a 64. “I played solid, hit a lot of fairways, gave myself some good opportunities with some wedges and short irons, and was able to hit some quality shots, and putted nice,” Roach said. Bill Haas was at 65 with Roberto Castro, Jim Herman, Kelly Kraft, Josh Teater, Kramer Hickok, D.J. Trahan and Sebastian Munoz. John Daly shot a 71, following a triple bogey on the par-4 fourth with an eagle on the par-5 fifth. Fighting osteoarthritis in his right knee, Daly was denied a cart by the R&A for the Open Championship, but has been approved for a cart at PGA TOUR events until the end of the year. This is his first PGA TOUR event since he was approved for a cart last fall. “It’s just getting worse every day,” Daly said. “Probably have to go back and maybe duct tape it. I did it in Wisconsin. The knee’s falling, so you could literally pick my knee up and put it back. It’s brutal, but especially downhill and stuff like that.” The tournament winner will receive a spot in the PGA Championship.

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