Kuchar leads by two at The Genesis Invitational

HOUSTON – Memorial Park underwent its most recent renovation with a tournament in mind. The course’s radical transformation, overseen by one of the top names in modern course architecture, was intended to end an absence from the PGA TOUR that had lasted more than half a century. RELATED: Leaderboard | Scottie Scheffler gets mad, sets course record in Houston | Adam Schenk incurs penalty after mistakenly touching ball A dramatic finishing stretch was one of the features Tom Doak built on the new-and-improved Memorial Park, which is in its second year hosting the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open, and Doak’s design delivered late Saturday afternoon. Birdie opportunities are rare on the par-70 course that measures more than 7,400 yards. Firm greens surrounded by dramatic swales make players hesitant to fire at flags. And even when an opportunity does arise, it doesn’t come without plenty of risk. That’s especially true on the course’s 16th and 17th holes. Doak studied under Pete Dye, and he borrowed the World Golf Hall of Famer’s trademark closing trio of holes when he built Memorial Park. That includes a reachable par-5 16th surrounded by water and a demanding closing hole. The penultimate hole veers slightly from Dye’s philosophy, as Doak built a drivable par-4 with a peninsula green. Dye usually built a trademark par-3 – sometimes with an island green – for his penultimate hole. It led to a leaderboard that seemed constantly in flux during the final moments of Saturday’s third round. When it was all over, Scottie Scheffler emerged as your 54-hole leader. Scheffler is at 7-under 203. Five players – Jhonattan Vegas, Matthew Wolff, Kramer Hickok, Martin Trainer and Kevin Tway – are a stroke behind, and three more players are just two back. “It’s a placer where you can score,” Scheffler said. “It’s just difficult to.” Scheffler, who parred the final three after birdies at Nos. 14 and 15, was the rare player who was unscathed by the final three holes. Tway birdied 16 before a bogey-bogey finish dropped him from the lead. He bogeyed 17 after driving past the green, then watching his chip roll across the putting surface and into the water. After reaching the 16th green in two with a 6-iron from 230 yards, Wolff couldn’t hit the next green with a sand wedge. He thought he was playing safe when he teed off with a pitching wedge on the short par-4, but still made double-bogey after his approach went into the water. “At the end of the day, I thought I would be holding the lead,” Wolff said, “especially with a sand wedge in on 17.” Vegas, who said the 16th has always made him uncomfortable, hit his second shot into the water for the second straight day, but rebounded with a 15-foot birdie putt on the next hole. Scheffler is seeking his first PGA TOUR win, the only thing the 25-year-old hasn’t accomplished during the impressive start to his pro career. He was the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year and was the PGA TOUR’s Rookie of the Year last year. He’s advanced to the TOUR Championship in each of his first two seasons and made his Ryder Cup debut this year, beating World No. 1 Jon Rahm in Singles. He set Memorial Park’s course record Friday, shooting 8-under 62. It was his fourth round of 62 or lower since the start of the 2020 season, the most on TOUR in that span. That includes a 59 in last year’s FedExCup Playoffs. In a testament to the high variance that Memorial Park seems to create, he is 1 over par on his other 36 holes this week. “I always prefer the harder courses because I feel like I can take it deep on them still and get myself back in the tournament, which I did this week,” said Scheffler, who was 3 over after his first three holes of the week and shot 72 in the opening round. “This golf course is pretty challenging, but it’s not a golf course where if you’re playing great golf, you can’t take advantage of it.” Sunday could be a low-scoring day. In Memorial Park’s debut last year, a variety of tees and hole locations were used to create the easiest day of the week. Three players shot the then-course record of 63 in the final round. It’s likely this Sunday will provide a similar scenario. A victory, especially in his home state, would be meaningful for Scheffler, but he’s not the only one with a lot to play for Sunday. Wolff may be the hottest player on TOUR, arriving at Memorial Park after a runner-up and fifth-place finish. His resurgence comes after this year’s well-publicized mental health break. He’s once again showing the potential he displayed earlier in his career when he won just weeks after turning pro, was runner-up in last year’s U.S. Open and rose as high as 12th in the world ranking. Vegas first moved to Houston from Venezuela when he was 17 years old. He arrived without his family, and with just his clubs and a bag of clothes. He knew just 10 words of English. He qualified for the Houston Open the next year, and remembers being awestruck as he walked past legends like Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson. He calls it one of the most important weeks of his career. Trainer has endured a difficult stretch since his surprise win at the 2019 Puerto Rico Open, having made just six of 54 cuts in the last three seasons. It’s been three years since Tway won his lone PGA TOUR title. Hickok is seeking his first win. Winning at Memorial Park won’t be easy, but it should be exciting.

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The PGA TOUR uses a standardized system for determining event fields, based off the current season’s Priority Ranking while also including additional exemption and qualifying categories. Field sizes can vary by event, as can the number of event-specific exemptions. Fully exempt PGA TOUR members are guaranteed entry into all full-field events, with various conditional categories subject to periodic reshuffles based upon FedExCup Points accrued throughout the season. Categories with ‘reshuffle’ notation indicate that a reshuffle period has occurred. Scroll below for the Cadence Bank Houston Open field list as of Friday, Nov. 4th at 5 p.m. ET: Check here for updates. Winner of THE PLAYERS Championship (five-year exemption) Si Woo Kim Winner of Masters Tournament (five-year exemption) Hideki Matsuyama Scottie Scheffler Winner of U.S. Open Championship (five-year exemption) Gary Woodland Winner of Open Championship (five-year exemption) Francesco Molinari FedExCup Champion (five-year exemption) Justin Rose Career money exemption Jason Dufner Zach Johnson Jimmy Walker * Sponsor exemption (Korn Ferry Tour Finals) Nico Echavarria Kyle Westmoreland Sponsor exemption (members not otherwise exempt) Charley Hoffman Chris Stroud Sponsor exemption (unrestricted) Cole Hammer Walker Lee Johannes Veerman Travis Vick PGA TOUR tournament winner (two-year exemption) Ryan Brehm Sam Burns Cameron Champ Stewart Cink Joel Dahmen Jason Day Tyler Duncan Harris English Tony Finau Jim Herman Garrick Higgo Mackenzie Hughes Martin Laird Luke List Trey Mullinax Sebastián Muñoz Chad Ramey Sepp Straka Robert Streb Nick Taylor Brendon Todd Erik van Rooyen Richy Werenski PGA section Champion\Player of the Year Ben Kern Past Champion member Russell Henley Top 30 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List Aaron Wise Sahith Theegala Top 125 on prior season’s FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List Davis Riley Denny McCarthy Maverick McNealy Keith Mitchell Andrew Putnam Taylor Pendrith Emiliano Grillo Brendan Steele Adam Hadwin Taylor Moore Alex Noren Alex Smalley Wyndham Clark Lee Hodges John Huh Beau Hossler Brandon Wu Matthew NeSmith Adam Long Dylan Frittelli Ryan Palmer David Lipsky Adam Schenk Aaron Rai Stephan Jaeger Patrick Rodgers Russell Knox Adam Svensson Mark Hubbard Peter Malnati Danny Lee C.T. Pan Sam Ryder Vince Whaley Nate Lashley James Hahn Greyson Sigg Scott Piercy Callum Tarren Max McGreevy Chesson Hadley Nick Watney Kevin Tway Matthias Schwab Kramer Hickok Matt Wallace Austin Smotherman Justin Lower Doc Redman Danny Willett Kelly Kraft # Major medical extension Zac Blair Korn Ferry Tour Points winner (The 25 and The Finals 25) Justin Suh Korn Ferry Tour graduates via The 25 and The Finals 25 (reshuffled) Carl Yuan Will Gordon Paul Haley II David Lingmerth Zecheng Dou Austin Eckroat Robby Shelton Philip Knowles MJ Daffue Michael Gligic Taylor Montgomery Dean Burmester Ben Taylor Eric Cole S.H. Kim Joseph Bramlett Harry Hall Austin Cook Brandon Matthews Augusto Núñez Henrik Norlander Byeong Hun An Ben Martin Erik Barnes Ryan Armour Ben Griffin Davis Thompson Brent Grant Michael Kim Carson Young Tyson Alexander The PGA TOUR uses a standardized system for determining event fields, based off the current season’s Priority Ranking while also including additional exemption and qualifying categories. Field sizes can vary by event, as can the number of event-specific exemptions. Fully exempt PGA TOUR members are guaranteed entry into all full-field events, with various conditional categories subject to periodic reshuffles based upon FedExCup Points accrued throughout the season. Categories with ‘reshuffle’ notation indicate that a reshuffle period has occurred. * = If all prior year Korn Ferry Tour graduates are eligible for event, exemptions become unrestricted # = Latest medical extension information can be found here. $ = Category breakdown can be found here.

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How do caddies feel about the recent trend of rowdy fan behavior? And what do they make of Tiger’s latest return? A few caddies dished to our Michael Collins at this past weekend’s Match Play event in Austin.

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