Landry, Scheffler share lead in US PGA desert showdown

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. - One of the toughest tests of the year made it clear that par would be a great score at Olympia Fields. Leave it to Hideki Matsuyama to make a 65-foot birdie putt on his final hole Thursday to lead the BMW Championship. Matsuyama, the Japanese player who has gone three years since his last victory, birdied two of his last three holes for a 3-under 67, one of only three rounds under par on a course that was long, tough, firm, fast and nothing like the last two weeks. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Tyler Duncan, just outside the top 30 as he tries to earn his first trip to the TOUR Championship, made an 8-foot par putt on his last hole for a 68. Mackenzie Hughes, one of only four players who reached 3 under at any point in his round, was another shot behind. “I’m not sure really what I had going today, but that last putt, the long putt that went in, very happy with that one,” Matsuyama said. “So we’ll remember that one.” Dustin Johnson, who won THE NORTHERN TRUST last week at 30-under par, opened with a 71 and felt like it was a good day’s work. He was told that even three straight rounds of 60 would not be enough to reach 30 under at Olympia Fields. “Yeah, but I would win,” he said. By a landslide, no doubt. Tiger Woods needs to finish around fourth to have any hope of returning to East Lake next week in Atlanta to chase the $15 million bonus for the FedExCup winner. He was hovering around even par a few shots out of the lead. He finished with three straight bogeys for a 73 and was running hotter than the weather. A three-time U.S. Open champion, Woods knows all about control and patience and key pars putts. And then he let a reasonable round get away from him. “The course was fine. The course is in perfect shape. Not the way I wanted to finish,” Woods said in brief comments. The average score was 72.8, and only four of the 18 holes played under par. That included both par 5s. This is what the U.S. Open could have used in 2003, instead of rain-softened conditions. It was hot in the morning, baking out a dry course. The rough is 5 inches in spots. The greens were hard, making it tough to get the ball close and nearly impossible to get shots to stop on the green from out of the rough. “I think when golf courses become like this and pars are a premium, I think I’m almost more comfortable at times because you don’t feel like you’ll ever get left behind when you’re running off a few pars in a row,” Hughes said. “Like last week, if you got off to a slow start and you were even par through six holes you felt like you were getting run over.” Rory McIlroy was among 10 players who finished at 70 and felt the day was a success. He hasn’t registered a top 10 since golf returned from the coronavirus shutdown in June, and he conceded to being lethargic without fan energy. “I said last week if you need someone to shoot between like even par and 2 under, I’m your man,” McIlroy said. “So I’m loving these conditions. It’s sort of weird. The way my game feels at the minute, it’s just as easy for me to shoot even par here as it was last week in Boston, for whatever reason that is. “But this is proper golf,” he said. “You’ve really got to think about stuff. … It’s nice to play a round of golf like that again.” Also in that group at even par was Carlos Ortiz of Mexico, notable because he was the latest player to be grouped with Woods for the first time. He raved about how Woods controls the flight of his irons. He missed out on the massive crowd because there are no spectators, only carts carrying the broadcast crew. “It’s probably the least amount of people he’s played in front of,” Ortiz said, “and the most for me.”

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Medical extensions in order of the 2017-18 PGA TOUR Eligibility Ranking. • In the only start on his medical extension, Ben Crane missed the cut at the Safeway Open. He fell 84.294 FedExCup points shy. However, because he had already achieved conditional status, he will play out of no worse than Category No. 30 in the Eligibility Ranking for the remainder of the season. ^ – Qualified for conditional status if he fails to meet the terms on his medical. % – If a golfer eligible on merit for a PGA TOUR event elects to play the PGA TOUR Champions the same week, he will be charged one start against his medical. & – Bronson Burgoon is fully exempt as a Web.com Tour Finals grad, so he will play out of no worse than Category No. 26 in the Eligibility Ranking. However, if he meets the terms of his medical, he’ll be promoted to Category No. 22. * – Because the FedExCup points structure was modified for the 2016-17 season, when golfers on medicals granted to time missed before the conversion earn FedExCup points in a tournament in 2017-18, they will be credited with the values distributed through the 2015-16 season. Thus, both “FedExCup points scored” and “FedExCup points remaining” for these golfers reflect the distribution through 2015-16 and not actual FedExCup points earned that apply to their FedExCup ranking in the 2017-18 season.

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This week’s Wyndham Championship marks the final opportunity for TOUR pros to earn spots in the FedExCup Playoffs. Following this week’s event, the top 125 in the FedExCup standings will earn tee times at THE NORTHERN TRUST. The FedExCup Playoffs feature a progressive cut, with 100 players qualifying for the Dell Technologies Championship, 70 for the BMW Championship and the top 30 for the TOUR Championship. Below you’ll see the top 125 in the current FedExCup standings, and the finish they’ll need this week to likely secure a spot in each of the four FedExCup Playoffs events.

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