Keith Mitchell wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders in the rain-delayed final round of THE NORTHERN TRUST at Liberty National on Monday. And yet he knew he couldn’t let wild tee shots on 14, 15 and 17 define his day. On the bubble all week for the second event of the FedExCup Playoffs, the top-70 BMW Championship, Mitchell knew he had no choice but to somehow find a way to survive and advance. With a scrambling par on 15 and three closing birdies – the second from deep in the native area on 17 – Mitchell shot 69 to finish T8 at 13 under par, more than good enough. He moved from 101st to 63rd in the FedExCup heading into the BMW at Caves Valley this week. “I was pretty down on myself in the middle of 15 fairway,” Mitchell said, “and to be standing here getting up and down on 15 for par and then birdieing the last three holes to play next week, it took a lot of, I guess just calming my nerves and trying to remember that this is it, I’ve got three holes left to keep playing or I’m going home. “I just decided to stick with it and really that put on 18 just sealed the deal.” Mitchell’s birdie-birdie-birdie finish was the highlight among the group of six players who went from outside to inside the top 70 thanks to their play at THE NORTHERN TRUST. Tom Hoge (T4, 108 to 48 in the FedExCup), Alex Noren (T4, 91 to 43), Erik Van Rooyen (7th, 76 to 45), Harold Varner III (T11, 72 to 56) and Harry Higgs (T16, 80 to 69) were the others. Mitchell said the pressure he felt down the stretch was similar to the pressure he felt late in the day in winning The Honda Classic, his lone PGA TOUR victory, in 2019. “Usually there’s always next week, there’s always next week,” he said. “Well, there is no next week if I don’t birdie those last three holes. It’s very similar.” Notes: Erik Van Rooyan, who won the recent Barracuda Championship, quadruple-bogeyed the par-3 11th hole but rebounded somewhat for a 72 and solo seventh place. “Really happy to go to BMW, obviously,” he said after moving from 76 to 45 in the FedExCup. “That was the goal. But poor day. I hit it really bad, to be honest.” … Harry Higgs shot 68 to finish T16 and move on by a whisker, moving from 80th to 69th in the FedExCup. He admitted he had a hard time figuring out where he stood. “I kind of thought four birdies on the back nine would be in enough,” he said. “Three would have a very good chance. I guess fortunately made three to just scrape by and get in.” … Harold Varner III shot even-par 71 to finish T11 and move from 72nd to 56th and move on. “Today was a grind and just hung in there,” he said. … Alex Noren shot 66 to finish T4, making a massive jump from 91st to 43rd. That puts him just outside the top 30 who will advance to the season-ending TOUR Championship at East Lake. “I’ve never seen a drier course after I don’t know how many inches of rain,” he said. “The greens played softer, but they rolled good. I took advantage of it early and had great round. I’m very, very excited, yeah.” … Tom Hoge had missed four straight cuts and hadn’t had a top-15 finish since April, but shot a final-round 69 to finish T4, jumping from 108th to 48th. “Been struggling coming in here for a few months,” he said. “I haven’t made any cuts. It’s nice to play four good days more than anything. I would have taken this week coming in. I was 108th coming into the week and I was trying to play well. I wasn’t thinking a whole lot of next week and yeah, really excited for next week.”
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