Late birdie keeps Feng in U.S. Women’s Open lead

The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is a season-long competition that offers a $10 million bonus for the 10 golfers who end the regular season at the Wyndham Championship inside the top 10 in FedExCup points. The player atop the standings will earn $2 million, with varying payoffs for the others through $500,000 for the 10th place finisher. THIS WEEK: THE PLAYERS Championship Current Top 10 FedExCup players in the field 1. Sungjae Im 2. Justin Thomas 3. Rory McIlroy 4. Brendon Todd 5. Webb Simpson 6. Patrick Reed 7. Marc Leishman 8. Lanto Griffin 9. Sebastian Munoz 10. Hideki Matsuyama No. 1 watch: Sungjae Im ended Justin Thomas’ streak of nine consecutive weeks atop the Wyndham Rewards Top 10 standings, moving to No. 1 thanks to a third-place finish Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. Im, who won The Honda Classic the week before, is the second player this season under the age of 22 to be ranked No. 1 (Joaquin Niemann after 2019 A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier). Top 10 moves: Marc Leishman finished second at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and, as a result, moved from 13th to seventh in the standings. That knocked Kevin Na from 10th to 11th. Scenarios notes • The next nine players in the standings below Sungjae Im can overtake him at No. 1 with a win this week. In addition, Justin Thomas could move back to No. 1 with a top-10 finish (depending on Im’s result) and Rory McIlroy, defending PLAYERS champ, could move to No. 1 with a second-place finish. • There are 59 players outside the Wyndham Rewards Top 10 who could move inside the top 10 with a win at TPC Sawgrass (all the way down to No. 78 K.H. Lee). • Of the previous four PLAYERS champions prior to McIlroy’s win last season, only Webb Simpson (currently No. 5) is projected to be inside the top 10 after this week. The others are No. 170 Si Woo Kim (could move to 21st with a win); No. 91 Jason Day (could move to 11th with a win); and No. 94 Rickie Fowler (could also move to 11th with a win).

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MEDINAH, Ill. – Abraham Ancer made a putt that was worth $308,333 on hole No. 18 on Sunday at THE NORTHERN TRUST to finish in solo second place. Even though it was the fourth and final round of the event, it was only Ancer’s third competitive round ever using the putter.  Before the event started, Ancer switched out of an Odyssey White Hot Pro No. 5 putter model — with a “butaneâ€� finish — that he had used throughout the summer. He switched into a new Odyssey White Hot No. 7 model, which was equipped with a Stroke Lab putter shaft – a multi-material construction instead of the steel shaft he used prior. Ancer told PGATOUR.COM that he was hitting the ball so well and putting so poorly with the new No. 7 putter in his first round of THE NORTHERN TRUST that he decided to switch putters for the second round. Instead of going back to his old No. 5 putter, however, he switched into a new No. 5 with a different finish that was also equipped with a Stroke Lab shaft. According to an Odyssey putter representative, the new No. 5 head is slightly heavier than the old No. 5 head due to the weight distribution of the shaft, and the new black-and-blue colorway matches Ancer’s Porsche car. Aside from those minor changes, the putter is a replica of his old No. 5 model. That wasn’t the only switch that Ancer made prior to the tournament, though. Prior to THE NORTHERN TRUST, Ancer was using a Callaway Epic Flash Sub Zero three-diamond prototype driver equipped with a Mitsubishi Tensei White shaft. While he stuck with the same driver head, he changed in a Mitsubishi Tensei Blue shaft. The change may seem subtle, but Ancer said the switch from Tensei White to Tensei Blue allowed him to turn the ball over from left-to-right a bit easier, rather than the ball staying out to the right. The driver change also worked. Ancer ended up finishing first in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee on the week.

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