Koepka picks up right where he left off

ATLANTA – Brooks Koepka has the confidence to pose for nude photos. He has the composure to withstand the final-round pressure in golf’s biggest events. There may not be a more intimidating figure in the game today. But Koepka admitted that he was “freaking outâ€� about his game on Tuesday. He was in “full-panic modeâ€� on Thursday after sailing a tee shot 75 yards right of the 10th fairway. And yet, Koepka is the leader at the halfway point of the TOUR Championship. He was trailing Justin Thomas by three shots when play got underway at East Lake. Now Koepka is one stroke ahead of Thomas and Rory McIlroy with 36 holes remaining in the season finale. Xander Schauffele is two back. Related: Leaderboard | Casey pulls wrong club on 18 | Koepka discusses Body Issue After winning three times this season, including a major and World Golf Championship, Koepka has all but clinched a second consecutive Player of the Year Award. He’s two days from authoring the perfect ending to another dominant season. Koepka said late Friday his game is headed in the right direction heading into the weekend. He made that statement with his words and two 5-irons he hit on East Lake’s closing holes. The first came on the 229-yard 15th, where he laced his tee shot to the middle of the island green to set up a two-putt par on the day’s most difficult hole. Three holes later, he scared the hole with his 239-yard second shot, leaving himself just 9 feet for eagle. He missed the putt, but the birdie was enough to take the solo lead. Koepka shot 67 in each of the first two rounds at East Lake. “I feel better. I don’t feel like I’m clicking 100%, but it’s definitely close,â€� Koepka said. “There are shots where it’s like, ‘How did I just do that?’ And there are some shots where I’m like, ‘Man, why can’t I do that every time,’ like on 18.â€� He’ll play alongside Thomas in Saturday’s final group. The pairing will feature the past two PGA TOUR Players of the Year. Two years ago, Thomas’ capped a five-win campaign with a FedExCup triumph. He didn’t win the TOUR Championship, finishing second to Schauffele, but still claimed the season-long prize. That scenario doesn’t exist anymore. Under this year’s new format, the man atop the leaderboard Sunday afternoon will win both the FedExCup and TOUR Championship. Thomas shot 70-68 on Thursday and Friday, but is just one back thanks to the starting strokes he was awarded as the leader of the FedExCup. He won last week’s BMW Championship to take the top spot in the FedExCup standings. That earned him a two-stroke lead over the field at the start of the week. “I thought it was going to be easy for me to just play a tournament. It wasn’t. At least for me it wasn’t,â€� Thomas said about playing Thursday with a pre-tournament lead. “I thought it was difficult to stay aggressive, but then again, I wasn’t driving it very well, so I couldn’t be aggressive. “I don’t know, it was odd, but today definitely felt more normal.â€� He drove the ball better Friday, but his momentum was interrupted by a weather delay that hit just as the final groups were making the turn. Thomas and Koepka were both 13 under, and three shots clear of the field, when play was halted. Thomas missed just one fairway on the front nine while focusing on shortening his backswing. He only hit one on the back nine, though, and failed to make a birdie. He had to scramble just to shoot 1-over 36 on the last nine. There was a flop shot to save par on the 15th, and then a good bogey save at the 17th, where he bladed a fairway-bunker shot over the green. He missed a 6-foot birdie putt on the last hole after a good wedge shot. “It would be hard for me to say that (the delay) didn’t kind of stop my momentum because I was playing really flawlessly, I felt like, that front nine,â€� Thomas said. He has hit less than half his fairways this week (13 of 28) to rank 25th in the 30-man field in driving accuracy. He insists he’s driving it better than the statistics indicate, but the rough is so penal at East Lake that one foot can make a big difference. He had to lay up on 18 after his tee shot just trickled into the rough. “That’s the difference between me being able to hit a 4-iron and trying to make a 3 and then I’m just trying to get it over the water,â€� Thomas said. “That’s a big difference at East Lake.â€� Thomas and McIlroy are trying to join Tiger Woods as the only two-time champions in the FedExCup’s 12-year history. McIlroy won the TOUR Championship and FedExCup in 2016. He started the week five off the lead but shot 66-67 in the first two rounds. McIlroy finished Friday’s round by saving par from a greenside bunker on 16, sinking a 15-foot birdie putt on 17 and hitting a 25-yard chip to 3 feet for a closing birdie. “When they cleared the course. I was even par, sort of neutral, a nice thing for me to reset, and I thought, ‘OK, let’s give myself a goal here. Let’s play the last nine holes at 3 under par,’ and I was able to do that. It worked nicely for me.â€� McIlroy has 13 top-10s this season, including wins at THE PLAYERS and RBC Canadian Open. He leads the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Total, as well. He said before the tournament started that he believes a FedExCup victory could give him a case for the Player of the Year Award. He’ll have to earn it, though. Three of the game’s top players sit atop the leaderboard as the TOUR Championship heads to the weekend.

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LAS VEGAS – It wasn’t supposed to take this long for Peter Uihlein to hold his first 54-hole lead on the PGA TOUR. Heck, it wasn’t supposed to take this long for him to be a regular on the PGA TOUR. But for the third straight day he finds himself in at least a share of the lead at the Shriners Hospital for Children Open chasing a win that many had expected would come earlier. Uihlein is a former world No. 1 amateur who grew up in and around the game of golf with his father Wally being the CEO of the Acushnet Company (comprises Titleist, Footjoy, Pinnacle and Scotty Cameron brands). He won the U.S. Amateur in 2010 and the predictions of a long and storied successful TOUR career came thick and fast. But it didn’t pan out that way and some eight years later the now 29-year-old sleeps on the brink of his big moment. Instead of earning his way on the PGA TOUR as a youngster Uihlein battled first through Europe’s secondary Challenge Tour before moving on to the European Tour. A win at the 2013 Madeira Islands Open secured a place there but he always envisaged a crack at his home TOUR. It wasn’t until a handful of starts in the 2016-17 season earned him enough non-member points to play the Web.com Tour finals that his chance would be realized. Uihlein won the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship and graduated. Last season he finished 64th in the FedExCup with three fifth place finishes his best efforts. Now he has his best look at a win but he must do so while surrounded by players who have already tasted PGA TOUR success and as such may face less nerves on Sunday. “This is all a step in the right direction of where I want to get to. If I want to become a top player in the world, win tournaments, this is what you got to do,â€� Uihlein said. “You have got to get yourself in contention in the final group on Sunday. I’m looking forward to it and should be a lot of the fun.â€� Tied with Uihlein at the top is Bryson DeChambeau who is already a four-time winner including three wins in 2018. DeChambeau backed up his win at The Memorial Tournament with victory in the opening two FedExCup Playoff events. As such he has huge confidence he can make it career win No. 5 at TPC Summerlin. “Knowing that if I can just stay in it and keep executing great shots every single time, I’m going to be tough to beat. That’s just the way it is,â€� DeChambeau said. “I’m striking it really well right now, and I think people know it. Next in line is Lucas Glover, starting one back. His resume has three wins on it, one of which is the 2009 U.S. Open. While he hasn’t won on TOUR since the Wells Fargo Championship in 2011 Glover was third at TPC Summerlin just two years ago having held the 54-hole lead. “I like it here. You got to drive it pretty good and you got to hit your numbers,â€� Glover said. “If I’m striking my irons well I tend to do that. Par-5s are all draw tee shots if you choose, and that’s good for me. Just one of those courses that feel good when I drive up every day, so it’s good.â€� Tied in fourth place and just two back are defending champion Patrick Cantlay and Robert Streb. Cantlay is buoyed by his efforts 12 months ago while Streb won The RSM Classic in 2015 and as such also holds experience to pull from. “It’s great to be around a place that you have good memories from. I think that’s a big thing out here,â€� Cantlay said. “Also knowing where to hit it, where to miss it, and where your ball is going to be no matter what shot you hit. That’s important. And I feel comfortable around here. Looking forward to tomorrow.â€� Rounding out the top six on the leaderboard is Cameron Champ. Last week’s winner at the Sanderson Farms Championship is just three off the pace. That experience, where he lost a four-shot cushion before storming home to win by as many, has him primed for the chase. “To be able to do what I did down the stretch … just the experience alone for me will help,â€� Champ said. “It was the first time in that situation for me, and the same thing this week (trying to back up a win). “I’m trying to just blur everything out and just focus on this event. Feel like I’ve done that well the first three days, and tomorrow just go for it.â€� One thing is clear given the talent up top. If Uihlein does prevail he certainly will have earned it.

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