Keep your eyes on streaky McIlroy after API win

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and Norton, Massachusetts (August 30, 2017)  – PGA TOUR professional and Houston resident Chris Stroud led an announcement today from the TOUR’s Dell Technologies Championship, pledging support for those affected by Hurricane Harvey and the resulting flooding.  Stroud committed $10,000 toward the relief efforts and plans to add an additional 10 percent of his earnings from this week’s event.  TOUR players, fans and tournaments can further assist the American Red Cross through PGA TOUR Charities’ Together, anything’s possible platform.  Additionally, fans on site at this week’s event in Norton, Massachusetts – where players will wear red, white and blue ribbons (colors of the Texas flag) to raise awareness – can donate via kiosks in the Dell Technologies Championship Fan Experience.  Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast on Friday, August 25, and torrential rainfall has submerged thousands of homes and forced unprecedented evacuations. “It has been a tough week, but in some ways a very rewarding week,â€� said Stroud.  He is one of the more than 30 players on the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions and Web.com Tour who live in the Houston community, and the area is also home to the PGA TOUR’s Houston Open and the Insperity Invitational on PGA TOUR Champions. “To see all the people and organizations around the country eager to pitch in and help is inspiring.  I hope the efforts of the PGA TOUR and my fellow players will spur more people to join in and help make a difference to those who are in need.â€� Fans wishing to assist in the relief and recovery efforts can stop by the Dell Technologies Championship Fan Experience, or by making donations through PGA TOUR Charities’ “Together, anything’s possibleâ€� website by clicking on the red GIVE button. Starting on August 30, all donations via the site will be distributed to American Red Cross Hurricane Harvey Relief. Additionally, fans can make donations directly through the American Red Cross by visiting www.redcross.org or by texting HARVEY to 90999 to make a $10 donation. “Our thoughts are with all of those impacted by this terrible storm and flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey,â€� said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan, who pledged $250,000 on behalf of the TOUR to the American Red Cross. “We hope our collective efforts help bring comfort and aid to the victims and that it will spur our players, tournaments and fans to join the cause and help out.â€� “Thanks to the generosity of the PGA TOUR and its partners, the Red Cross will be able to continue to provide our needed services to those impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Currently, Red Cross is focusing on providing safe shelter and feeding people. After the storm passes, we will be offering emotional support, health services, and distributing emergency relief supplies such as comfort kits and cleaning supplies. Red Cross plays a critical role in helping families and communities get back on their feet and we are very grateful for PGA TOUR’s support,” said Anna Trefethen, Vice President Humanitarian Services Southeast & Caribbean Division. About Together, anything’s possible Together, anything’s possible, is the PGA TOUR’s charity platform that brings together all of the TOUR’s stakeholders – players, tournaments and sponsors, volunteers, charities and fans – to tell the story of the tremendous impact that their collective efforts are having on communities throughout the world. Since the first donation of $10,000 was made in 1938, PGA TOUR events have generated significant funds for local charities. In fact, the PGA TOUR, Champions Tour and Web.com Tour have surpassed the $2.46 billion mark in overall charitable contributions. To learn more about tournament and player charities and how to donate to these causes, visit the PGA TOUR’s charity web site at www.pgatour.com/together.

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Tiger Woods posted video of himself hitting balls for the first time since his February car crash that caused several injuries to his right leg and foot.

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Playing with a four-shot lead but with the weight of history and haunting missed chances, Rickie Fowler overcomes a bad break and a tough ruling with a pair of clutch birdies to finally win the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Fowler broke a nearly two-year win drought, qualified for the Sentry Tournament of Champions, and vanquished his demons at TPC Scottsdale. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Mental toughness told the story. Golf is always about resilience, but Fowler’s triple-bogey at the 11th hole was one-of-a-kind. How did he survive it? It wasn’t easy. After a bogey at the 12th, and with Branden Grace climbing fast up the leaderboard, Fowler had gone from a five-shot lead to one behind. “It would have been really easy at that point to say, ‘This just isn’t my day,’â€� said Fowler’s friend Aaron Baddeley, who for the third time in the last four years hung around the scoring area (he lives five minutes away) hoping to congratulate Fowler on the victory. This time, it worked out. For the winner, it was all about keeping the past in the past. As they stood on the 14th tee, Fowler’s caddie, Joe Skovron, said, “Hey, you would have taken this at the beginning of the week, tied five holes to play. Let’s go win a golf tournament.â€� Fowler did. “You kind of just have to put the first 67 holes behind you and go play five holes,â€� he said. 2. TPC Scottsdale was brutal. Players woke up to rain and cooler temperatures Sunday, restoring the bite to a TPC Scottsdale track that Fowler had tamed to the tune of 64-65-64 (20-under) in the first three rounds. The grass was wet, and the ball was flying every which way, Fowler finding the native area at the third hole, where he made a 30 1/2-foot par putt to steady himself. That was hardly his only brush with danger. He got out of position two holes later, smacking his ball around more native area before finally rolling in a 4 1/2-foot putt for double-bogey. Then came the chaos at the 11th, where drained a long putt for a triple-bogey 7. Justin Thomas shot 72 to finish third. Matt Kuchar, who was trying to extend a perfect streak of 19 straight rounds of par or better this season, and win for the third time in three starts, shot 75 to finish T4. They made up the last threesome and shot a combined 8-over. “I’ve never been in a group that had worse momentum,â€� Thomas said. 3. Grace got a lot out of the week. Coming off a missed cut, South Africa’s Branden Grace was making his first start at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and wasn’t sure what to expect. He shot a final-round 69 for a runner-up finish, his only regret being the tee shot he hooked in the water at the driveable par-4 17th hole, leading to a bogey. “It was great,â€� Grace said of his overall experience. “I really enjoyed it. Obviously being in the final group (Saturday) with Rickie and them was awesome. This place was nuts. It’s everything and more than what I expected and what a fun week it was. I can’t take anything for granted and I had to dig deep today and I did that, it’s just unfortunately one bad shot.â€� In search of his second TOUR win (2016 RBC Heritage), Grace recorded his first runner-up finish in 104 TOUR starts and moved to 31st in the FedExCup. 4. Thomas fought hard without his A-game. Despite slogging through a flat weekend, and an especially difficult course in wet, cool conditions Sunday, Thomas hung around for a 1-over 72 and a third-place finish. It was his best result in five WMPO starts. The only downside was that the 1-over 72 marked his first over-par final-round score since the 2018 Travelers Championship. “I didn’t think I had on a great chance to start the day, or knew I needed to do something special,â€� Thomas said. “And the weather got pretty tough out there and I can’t believe if I would have shot 2-under, I would have been in a playoff. And, yeah, I mean for myself I just didn’t–I couldn’t make the putts.â€� He was 28th for the week in Strokes Gained: Putting. 5. Kuchar battled despite a rare, left miss. Attempting to win for the third time in three starts, Kuchar could have given Fowler something to think about but for a couple of surprising hooks that hurt him at the 15th and 17th holes. “I knew I didn’t have my A game,â€� said Kuchar, 40, who still finished T4 with Chez Reavie (68) and Bubba Watson (71). “Conditions were hard. I was kind of trying to steer it around and then hit a couple good shots. Made the birdie on 13. And then 15 you’ve got four exciting holes to play and I was right there. Any time I struggle with missing left, I struggle. “I missed one left there, missed one left on 17,â€� he added. “Those are typically just not misses I have. And when I’m doing that it, I know it’s going to be a tough day for me and unfortunately it came out at a bad time.â€� His final-round 75 was his first over-par score this season, in his 20th round. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Fowler led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting (+2.385) and is the first since 1983 to win despite a double bogey and a triple bogey or worse in the final round. He has posted an over-par score in each of his seven 54-hole leads/co-leads, winning twice. It was his fifth victory in 220 TOUR starts, and his first win at the WMPO in 11 starts. 2. It wasn’t just the players in the final group who struggled. The wet, long course really was harder in the rain and cooler weather. TPC Scottsdale, which already had the tees back, felt longer in the elements and played to a 71.575 stroke average in the fourth round, highest of the week by almost a full shot. The second round (70.634) was the second hardest day. 3. Branden Grace, who was seven shots back at the start of the day, was attempting to author the second-biggest WMPO comeback. Kyle Stanley came from eight behind to win in 2012. Grace was also trying to become the 10th player to win the event in his first appearance, and the first since Brooks Koepka in 2015. Grace tied for third in distance of putts made (367’ 7’’).  4. Chez Reavie, who lost in a playoff to Gary Woodland last year, didn’t make a bogey and shot 64-68 on the weekend to finish T4. Something has clicked. Before last year, Reavie had six missed cuts at TPC Scottsdale, with a career best finish of T41 in 2011. 5. Former Arizona State star Jon Rahm (T10) has finished no worse than T16 in four WMPO starts and has four straight top-10s on TOUR this season. In his TOUR debut, Oklahoma State sophomore Matthew Wolff shot 72 to finish T50. Bubba Watson’s T4, in his 300th TOUR start, was his first top-10 since the 2018 Dell Technologies Championship. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is in its first season and adds another layer of excitement to the FedExCup Regular Season. The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will earn bonus payouts from the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. There were no changes in the top six players after the Waste Management Phoenix Open, with Xander Schauffele hanging onto the top spot with a T10 finish. In battling through adversity, WMPO champion Rickie Fowler was the week’s biggest mover, going from 65th to 7th.

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