Kevin Stadler makes first PGA TOUR start since 2015

Carlos Ortiz … Only he and Abraham Ancer represent Mexico with status on the PGA TOUR, but a total of seven natives of the host country for the Mayakoba Golf Classic are in this week’s field of 132. It includes Ortiz’ younger brother, Alvaro. Carlos is rested since a T4 at the Houston Open where he thrived on a fantastic short game. Three starts prior, he also finished T4 at the Sanderson Farms Championship where he excelled tee to green. This is his sixth appearance at El Camaleón. He debuted with a T9 in 2014 and owns a scoring average of 69.56 in 16 rounds. Ryan Armour … As a 43-year-old who never will be mistaken as a long hitter, it’d be a shame if he didn’t commit to the Mayakoba Golf Classic. He’s one of the most accurate off the tee on the PGA TOUR. Consider that in each of the last three completed seasons, he’s ranked either first or second in fairways hit and/or shortest distance from the edge of the fairway on drives that don’t find the shortest grass. A solo fourth as a rookie in the inaugural edition in 2007 was his first of four career top fives on TOUR. It was love at first sight. He also placed T21 last year and arrives for his fifth appearance with a T23 in Houston and a T8 in Bermuda in his most recent competitions. Brice Garnett … Sometimes, you want to be cliché. The 36-year-old not only does his best work tee to green, but he’s also proven how this formula works at Mayakoba time, and time, and time again. Since 2014, he’s 4-for-4 with three top 10s, a T25 and a scoring average of 67.81. After enduring a quiet first half of 2019, he found his gear in Detroit at the end of June. Since a T17 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, he’s gone for five top 25s among eight cuts made in 10 starts. It also cannot be ignored that he prevailed on paspalum at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in 2018. Harold Varner III … The non-winner isn’t a veteran ball-striker, but neither were John Huh (2012) and Patton Kizzire (2017) when they prevailed for the first time on the PGA TOUR at El Camaleón Golf Club. Proper courses reward those who are willing and can adapt to the test. In three appearances, HV3 has a T5 (2015) and a T6 (2018). His scoring average in 10 rounds is 68.20. It’s a trend that’s expected to continue as he arrives in form. Since mid-July, he’s 9-for-9 with a trio of top-20s finishes. J.J. Spaun … Course-history buffs will label his inclusion on this page as lazy, while devotees of recent form will call their bluff. See, since his first appearance with a T28 as a rookie in 2016, he’s added a T14 and a T3, respectively. His scoring average in those 12 rounds is a sporty 67.75. However, he arrives having gone nine consecutive starts without posting a top 35 and only one top-45 finish (T36, Sanderson Farms). When he plays to his strength as a ball-striker, it’s rewarded here, but he’s yet to find the grip on the toolbox this season. So, however you come at him, he’s compelling. NOTE: Sleeper is a relative term, so Rob uses unofficial criteria to determine who qualifies. Each of the following usually is determined to be ineligible for this weekly staple: Winners of the tournament on the current host course; winners in the same season; recent major champions; top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking; recent participants of team competitions.

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In retrospect, maybe we should have anticipated Scottie Scheffler’s PGA TOUR Player of the Year season. After all, Scheffler backed up Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year honors in 2019 with the PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year award the following season. He played well enough in 2021 to get a captain’s pick on the U.S. Ryder Cup team that beat Europe in the fall, even before his first PGA TOUR victory. He was clearly on an upward trajectory, but his four-month flurry of highlights still came as a shock. Let’s look back at Scheffler’s rapid rise – and analyze what’s changed about his performances since the early summer. Scottie’s spring ascent On the morning of Super Bowl Sunday, 2022, Scheffler was inarguably the best player in the world without a PGA TOUR win yet to his credit. At 15th in the Official World Golf Ranking, his WM Phoenix Open playoff victory over Patrick Cantlay that day made him the highest-ranked American player in OWGR history at the time of his first PGA TOUR title (a record broken later in the season by Will Zalatoris, ranked 14th). That win marked the beginning of one of the most dominant runs seen on TOUR in recent years. Not even one month after he won in Phoenix, Scheffler captured the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, and three weeks after winning at Bay Hill, Scheffler rose to number one in the World Ranking with his victory at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. The 42 days between Scheffler’s first win and his claim on the No. 1 ranking was by far the fastest ascent ever seen on the PGA TOUR or DP World Tour. The run hit its crescendo when he won the Masters Tournament two weeks later. Scheffler was excellent through the bag on the way to his first major win, ranking in the top 10 in the field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, Approach, and Around the Green. He was in the top 10 in Strokes Gained: Putting, too, until his four-putt on the final green. Scheffler now had four wins on the season, the first winner of the green jacket to reach that number on the PGA TOUR since Arnold Palmer in 1960. What fueled his rise Scheffler had been well above average in the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season, ranking 32nd in scoring average and 33rd in Strokes Gained: Total. His red-hot spring of ’22 owed to a few dramatic improvements. Scheffler ranked 45th in greens in regulation and 83rd in Strokes Gained: Approach per round in 2020-21. Solid, but not spectacular. By the end of May, he had vaulted to 13th in SG: Approach and a lofty 3rd in rate of greens hit. His improved wedge play was a significant change, as well. In 2020-21, Scheffler ranked 157th on the PGA TOUR in average proximity to the hole from 50-125 yards away. On June 1, he was up exactly 100 spots in that statistic – to 57th. The differential meant he went from being one foot farther away than the average PGA TOUR player’s approach from that range – to one foot closer. As if these improvements weren’t enough, he got better on the greens, too. In each of his first two full seasons on TOUR, Scheffler had hovered right around the statistical baseline for Strokes Gained: Putting among qualified players. He was at -0.05 strokes per round in 2020, and +0.02, in 2021. But in his 10 starts from February through May, Scheffler gained more than half-a-stroke on the field, per round, on the greens. In his victory in Phoenix, Scheffler ranked 2nd in Strokes Gained: Putting, one of just three times in his entire PGA TOUR career where he ranked in the top 10 in a tournament field in that statistic. The story since then Scheffler hasn’t maintained the pace he enjoyed in the spring, but still has recorded four top-10 finishes in his last 10 starts. And he’s improved in one big marker. From February through May, he averaged 1.32 Strokes Gained: Ball Striking per round and hit 70.9% of his greens in regulation. Since then, he’s averaged 1.70 strokes per round striking it and hit a sterling 74.1% of greens in regulation. That’s the good news. You can probably deduce what the bad will be at this point: His putting numbers have dropped off significantly. Since June 1, Scheffler is losing more than one-third of a stroke to the field per round on the greens, a rate that ranks 143rd of 180 qualified players in that span. Specifically, it’s been the shorter putts that just aren’t falling like they were in the spring. From February through May, Scheffler made 61.2% of his putts from 5-10 feet. Since then, he’s fallen off to 45% – well beneath the TOUR average make rate of 56.3% from that range. Things are looking up, though. After some typical autumn tinkering with his gear, Scheffler put the Scotty Cameron putter he used for all four of his wins last season back in the bag over the weekend at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. The result was the lowest final-round score of his PGA TOUR career (62) and his fewest putts per green in regulation for any single PGA TOUR event (1.60) in 17 months. At the Cadence Bank Houston Open last year Scheffler ranked 2nd in the field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green in a runner-up finish. If he’s rediscovered his magic on the greens, it could be a very happy homecoming this week for the affable Texan.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — J.J. Spaun did just enough right at the end to fashion a 2-under 68 and keep his one-shot lead Saturday in the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Spaun had a two-putt birdie on the par-5 16th and holed an 18-foot birdie putt on the next hole to claim the 54-hole lead a 13-under 197. Sepp Straka was right there with him until he failed to save par from the bunker on the 18th for a 68 that left him one shot behind. Both are first-time winners on the PGA TOUR this year, and a victory in a FedExCup Playoffs event carries even more weight — 2000 FedExCup points to the winner and a guaranteed spot at East Lake for the FedExCup finale. Cameron Smith, who’s already had a banner year with a win at THE PLAYERS Championship and his first major at the The Open, birdied his last hole for a 67. That left him two shots behind and fully aware a victory moves him to No. 1 in the world. “That’s been one of my goals probably since the start of the year is to try to get to that top spot,” Smith said. “Try and chase it down.” The chase will start out in a traffic jam. Will Zalatoris is just as hungry, for different reasons. Zalatoris has been a tough customer in the majors, losing in a playoff at the PGA Championship and finishing one back in the U.S. Open. He is No. 14 in the world. And he has yet to win on the PGA TOUR. Zalatoris opened with a 71 that put him in such a hole that even his fiancee wanted to know their plans if he didn’t make it to the weekend. “I told her, ‘Let’s cross that bridge when he get there,’” Zalatoris said with a smile. He decided to let his new caddie, Joel Stock, read putts in their second official round together. Zalatoris shot a 63 and followed with a 65 on Saturday. He also was two behind, along with Trey Mullinax (66). As for the chase to the next Playoff event, consider Tyler Duncan. He is No. 118 in the FedExCup, and only the top 70 move on to the BMW Championship next week in Delaware. Duncan had a 67 and was tied for sixth. He was three behind, and even if he doesn’t win, he can move on if he can hold his position. That won’t be easy with so many players in the mix — 16 players separated by four shots. That group includes Sam Burns and Tony Finau. A winner in his last two starts, Finau ended his streak of 11 consecutive rounds at 68 or lower. He made a bogey on the last hole gave him a 69, leaving him four behind.

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