Leaderboard: Can Team USA close out Solheim Cup?

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Here are nine tidbits from the final round of the Quicken Loans National that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm hosts for the second time and measures 7,107 yards (Par-70). Italian Stallion Italy’s Francesco Molinari posted 21-under-par 259 to cruise to his first victory on the PGA TOUR. His final round 62 lapped second-place finisher Ryan Armour by eight shots and third-place finisher Sung Kang by nine. Tiger Woods and playing partner Abraham Ancer shared fourth 10 shots back. On a day of sweltering heat and humidity Molinari turned in 33 and had a three-shot lead. He ruined any hopes or dreams of those chasing as he began the back with a 48-foot eagle putt and then piled on four consecutive birdies after that. The only thing Molinari “struggled” with on Sunday was setting the course record. His miss from just inside eight feet would have put the cherry on top of the sundae Sunday but I doubt he’s too bothered. He torched TPC Potomac as he led (or tied) the field in the following categories:  SG: tee to green  SG: approach the green  Scrambling  GIR  Par-4 scoring  T-1 birdies (Woods)  T-1 birdie or better percentage (Ryan Palmer)  Bogey avoidance  T- course record  Tournament Record Molinari said it was a tough decision to skip the French Open this week but there are $1.278 million reasons why that pain won’t last. He also grabbed 500 FedExCup points and now is No. 42 on that list. Every since he MC at THE PLAYERS, as my O&D nonetheless, he’s rattled off a win, second, T25 plus this victory. There’s not a hotter player on the planet! Know Thy Enemy These were the top-10 selected golfers in the PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf game presented by SERVPRO. The winning score last year was seven-under set by Stanley and Howell. Hitting that number this time around didn’t get into the top 10! TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm was hot but the winds never materialized and the course remained receptive to solid shots all week. Gamers with players in the top eight above should have done well! PAIN OR GAIN These were the top-10 selected golfers (plus one) in the PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO: I’d have to scroll through the archives but I don’t remember, off the top of my head, the most or second-most selected player in this format winning. Molinari adds this to his list of firsts as well and his investors thank him! Farmer Ryan Gamers are always looking for trends and the next one for Ryan Armour is to play him regardless if the event has “Farm(s)” in the event title or course. His win at Sanderson Farms last fall was his first on TOUR and his solo second this week at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm is his second-best finish on TOUR. Too bad Conway Farms isn’t on the schedule this year! His worst round in his last 20 rounds is 72 once. I can dig it. Kang Kong Some guys have that one course where they just can’t do anything wrong. For Sung Kang it is TPC Potomac as he graced the top five for the second year running after birdies on three of his last five including the last two. How he arrived at solo third was impressive as he spotted par two strokes and began Round 2 T89 before playing the final three rounds in 14-under. He also was T6 when this was a Web.com event in 2013. Simmering Tiger Woods has picked up both of his best finishes in 2018 on courses he’s never played or not recently played as he was T2 at Innisbrook and T4 this week after co-leading the field in birdies with 21. That’s shocking to me as he’s made a ton of money at a handful of courses over the years. One of those tracks is Firestone South, site of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. Gamers that are “saving” him for early August need to be aware that he’ll need a big finish at Carnoustie as, according to the broadcast, he’s not adding any events before or after. Maybe he should! Usual Suspects The curious case of Beau Hossler continues as he doubled No. 16 on Sunday to drop from T3 to T6. Can you imagine when he puts it all together? He’s leading the TOUR in birdies and cashing big checks for fun. … Brian Gay (T8) picked up No. 4 top-10 payday of the year and his 10th top-25 accolade. … Another week, another top 25 for Stewart Cink (T23) as he runs his streak to three events on the bounce. … Sunday Silence Abraham Ancer had a front-row seat with Molinari in the final group after his course-record tying, bogey-free 62 on Saturday. He shot 72 and didn’t make a birdie but posts his best-ever payday on TOUR. … Zac Blair was looking for his first top-10 finish since the Houston Open last spring as he began the day two shots behind the leaders. He posted a pair of hockey sticks and dropped to T27. … Kevin Streelman did the difficult work on Saturday as he backed up his Friday 62 with 67. The mojo ran out on Sunday as he only beat Blair by a shot and dropped from sixth to T32. … Kyle Stanley began the round T16 and gave the defending champion hopefuls hope but his 73 slashed his earnings to T32. Study Hall The course FINALLY played over-par in the final round but just barely at 70.041. It was the only round in the black and the average for the week checked in at 69.877, just a little easier than 71.369 average from last year. … There were only eight bogey-free rounds last year and that number, like the scoring, skyrocketed this year to 20 and included Molinari, Kang and Doc Redman on Sunday. … The best four players not already qualified who finished inside the top 12 qualified for The Open Championship. Gamers can add Armour, Kang, Ancer and Bronson Burgoon to their list of options for Carnoustie. Burgoon needed to make a birdie at the last to complete the quartet and he stuck it to four feet. Proper finish. … Across the pond Russell Knox (T2), Julian Suri (T2) and Marcus Kinhult (T5) also punched their tickets to The Open Championship. Alex Noren won the French Open while Jon Rahm (T5), Sergio Garcia (T8) and Justin Thomas (T8) cashed top-10 checks.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tommy Fleetwood kept a clean card in the March wind, kept his patience and was rewarded at the end with three straight birdies for a 7-under 65 to set the early pace Thursday in THE PLAYERS Championship. The move from May to its traditional spot on the calendar brought green, softer conditions and more wind than usual. Even so, Fleetwood was among several early starters who managed to take aim on the TPC Sawgrass. Fleetwood had only one birdie on the slightly easier back nine, and finished with birdie putts from 15 feet, 30 feet and 18 feet. “If you’re in the fairway all the time, the course feels very, very different,” Fleetwood said. “And it’s a massive key around here. And then I just started picking a few shots up, and then you get on a run like 7, 8, 9, and it feels great after that. Just one of them would feel like a great round, so three of them … I’ll take it.” Byeong Hun An and Brian Harman were at 66, while Rory McIlroy also played bogey-free for a 67. Tiger Woods was among the late starters on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. Of those playing in the afternoon, Keegan Bradley and Ryan Moore were the only serious threats to catch Fleetwood. Moore had a hole-in-one on the island-green 17th. Starting on the back nine, Bradley played No. 15 – 18 in 4 under to go out in 5 under. He kept a clean card on the front but couldn’t pull ahead of Fleetwood and will begin Round 2 tied with the Englishman at 7 under. Harris English had an albatross — the third straight year for one at THE PLAYERS — on the par-5 11th hole. The scoring wasn’t unusual, nor was the tight leaderboard. It was simply the way the golf course was playing — longer off the tee because the fairways aren’t quite as fast with rye overseed, softer around the greens. Charles Howell III holed out for an eagle from a fairway bunker on the fourth hole. Harold Varner holed out from the rough on No. 1. “Holing out from a fairway bunker on that hole, no, that will never happen again,” Howell said. “I used that up, so that’s done.” In May or in March, there’s generally no lack of excitement at Sawgrass. McIlroy was among those who approved of the calendar change. This was only the third time in 10 starts at THE PLAYERS he broke 70 in the first round. “I think the course over the last 10 years … it hasn’t lent itself to aggressive play,” McIlroy said. “It’s sort of position and irons off the tee and really trying to plot your way around the golf course. I hit drivers on holes today that I would never have hit driver the last few years. “I don’t know if the course is easier or not,” he said. “We’ll see what the stroke average is at the end of the day. But because I think it’s playing longer, it’ll play longer for most of the guys, and I think it should all even out. But I definitely like the golf course the way it is in March.” Whatever the month, the island green is still there. Moore used a 54-degree wedge for the first ace on the 17th hole since Sergio Garcia two years ago. It was the ninth hole-in-one on the most infamous hole at Sawgrass during THE PLAYERS. Paul Casey put two in the water on the 17th and made a quadruple bogey. English’s shot barely cleared the bunker and rolled softly into the cup for his 2 on the 11th hole, the first albatross on that hole since Hunter Mahan in 2007. It was the fifth in tournament history. Fleetwood, the 36-hole leader last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard until a bad patch on Saturday took him out of the mix, kept motoring along. He putted for birdie on all but two holes, getting up-and-down from 127 yards on the 14th hole and from just off the green at No. 4. “If you like golf, you should like this golf course, really,” Fleetwood said. “It’s just about as fair as you’re going to get a test. If you hit it well like I did today, you’re going to have chances and you can shoot a score, and people are shooting scores. But you can also get it the other way, as soon as you start struggling and start going the other way, it can easily go against you. It’s an amazing course for that.”

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