Leaderboard: Round 2 of Houston Open

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Here are nine tidbits from the final round of the THE PLAYERS Championship that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. THE PLAYERS Stadium Course TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, has been the host since 1982 and plays 7,189 yards to a Par-72. Winner Webb For the first time in 107 starts on TOUR Webb Simpson is back in the winner’s circle. His final round 73 saw him post 18-under-par 270 to defeat a trio of chasers by four shots. The 2012 U.S. Open champion becomes the ninth player to win THE PLAYERS Championship and the national championship. Simpson’s record-setting seven-shot lead after 54 holes was never sliced to less than four as he meticulously navigated Pete Dye’s house of horrors. His worst golf of the day came on a three-hole stretch (Nos. 8-10) that saw him square two bogeys and give the field hope that a collapse just might be on the cards. Nope. He birdied both of the Par-5 holes on the back and not even a water ball on the last could make this interesting for the peloton. Simpson played the Par-5 holes in 13-under for the week and led the field in driving accuracy (46 of 56) and SG: putting. He holed just over 455 feet of putts on the week to claim his first top-10 in nine PLAYERS starts. His previous best finish was T16 last year so to say he’s figuring it out here is a huge understatement. In 11 starts in 2018 he’s now cashed T5 or better in five of them, including three of his last six. He held the 54-hole lead at Colonial last year, collected T8 at the Travelers and hit the podium at the Wyndham Championship in third alone. One of his daughter’s names is Wyndham in case you’re wondering where you might use him next. PGA TOUR Fantasy Game presented by SERVPRO top selections: Gamers watched in horror in the final round as Stenson couldn’t keep up, Spieth closed with a quad and Johnson couldn’t break par on a course with four Par-5 holes playing 7,013 yards. Nobody said this would be easy and this week never is. PGA TOUR One & Done presented by SERVPRO top selections: The only thing worse in this game besides a MC is burning a guy in a big event and he doesn’t fire. The brilliant front-runner Day continues to reinforce that winning fuels his fire instead of satisfying the need. He closed with bogey-free 68 and those who piled on this week were rewarded and will move up. Wrong Newcomer There wasn’t any argument that Bryson DeChambeau entered the week on fire with three top-four finishes in his last four starts and should have commanded attention in his maiden voyage. Instead it was Xander Schauffele who took home the honor, and major cash payment, as the best newcomer this week (T2). He’s collected top-10 finishes at Erin Hills, TPC Old White, East Lake GC, Riviera and now TPC Sawgrass in not even two full years on TOUR. He led the field in SG: tee to green and sand saves. Dy-No-Mite Gamers were leery entering the 2017-18 season as they saw Jimmy Walker deal with Lyme disease last year. The season-long and weekly investors have both been rewarded for their patience as he’s now rattled off nine of his last 10 weekends. On top of that he’s cashed four top-25 checks in a row with a pair of top 10’s. His T2 included a bogey-free 68 in the final round is his best finish at THE PLAYERS. #Play72 All eyes were on Tiger Woods-Jordan Spieth pairing Sunday after they both shot 65 in Round 3 to break into the top 10. Woods played his first 13 holes on Saturday in eight-under. He played his first 13 holes on Sunday six-under and was on the prowl. For the second round in a row he bogeyed No. 14 and the momentum died. He fell out of the top 10 with a double on No. 17, his first ball in the water in his last 13 events on that hole. There were plenty of positives to take but he’s not the finished article. … Charl Schwartzel rebounded from a tough 73 in Round 3 as he stormed home in 32 to T2. He only made six bogeys on the week and that play as resulted in three top-10 finishes on the bounce. Noted. Not yet. But it’s coming. New No. 1 Justin Thomas posted 68-66 on the weekend with the only blemish on the card to finish T11 and take over the No. 1 spot in the OWGR. He’ll never be happy with T11 but not too many guys have been No. 1 in the world so I think he’ll survive. Thomas will be bummed this event is moving to March as eight of his 15 rounds have been in red figures and his stroke average is 70.73. Johnson, who needed to beat Thomas and end up in the top 10, achieved neither as he ended T17. This season Johnson has a win, two seconds and two other top-10 paydays and is NO LONGER NO. 1?!?!?!?! Defending Champ Curse For the 36th time at TPC Sawgrass the defending champ went quietly into the good night. Only Adam Scott (T8, 2005) posted a top-10 finish in defending this century. Si Woo Kim opened with the best score of a defender with 67 on Thursday but faded playing his final three rounds three-over for T63. Sunday Silence I could have stuck Jordan Spieth in #Play72 above since his quad on the final hole knocked him from T17 to T41. I’m not sure which rounds I’ll remember most from the week, the 75 to open and 74 to close or 68-65 in the middle two rounds. … World No. 14 Tommy Fleetwood stuck all four rounds under-par for the week and finished T7. I don’t think I saw one shot of his on Sunday as he crept up the leaderboard while others faded away. Study Hall The final round scoring average was the lowest of the week at 70.014 as TPC Sawgrass played just 7,013 yards. The scoring average for the week was 71.275, almost a full shot under-par for the last May event, as the course was in all-time best condition according to many of the pros. … Brooks Koepka tied the course record (63) but couldn’t crack the top 10 (T11). His bogey-free round was one of four on Sunday. … Charles Howell III collected T17 for his first top 25 in 16 tries. … Bubba Watson’s form couldn’t carry through four rounds this week. His 68-71 was followed by 73-73 for T57.

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TORONTO, Ont. – Growing up in Kentucky, the opportunities were likely limited for Justin Thomas to feel what it’s like to skate onto ice to the unmistakable bang of smacked hockey boards. Saturday at the RBC Canadian Open that electricity was turned up loud, and as Thomas entered The Rink (the par-3 16th) after rolling in a 1-foot, 2-inch putt for eagle on the previous hole he was serenaded by the Canadian crowd like he was one of their own. “I don’t know why it’s happening, but I’m very appreciative of the fan support here in Toronto. I said to… Rory (McIlroy) and Corey (Conners) that it felt like a major a bit out there,” said Thomas. “I knew, obviously, very passionate sports fans up in this part of the world and then having two years away from this tournament, I knew they were going to be ready to go this year.” Thomas shot a bogey-free 63 Saturday and St. George’s Golf and Country Club and is just two shots back of the 54-hole lead held by Tony Finau and Rory McIlroy. Sam Burns, ranked second in the FedExCup standings, is amongst those tied with Thomas at 9 under. Thomas, Finau, and McIlroy will be in the final group together on Sunday. Golfers will go off split tees and in threesomes with anticipated weather in the Greater Toronto Area. With this much firepower at the top of the leaderboard heading into Sunday’s finale in Toronto, the return of the RBC Canadian Open is very much delivering. “I mean, without sounding cheesy, it makes me pretty happy inside seeing this,” said Thomas of the top-heavy leaderboard heading into Sunday in Toronto. “There’s no other place I would want to be playing and it’s just, obviously with a tournament like this and the history that it has and how long it’s been played, had a lot of great past champions and venues and drama. “And it looks like it has a potential tomorrow to produce a little bit more of that and create some more history.” Thomas’ 63 – clipped by Finau’s 62 as one of the low rounds of the week – was “easy,” he said. The winner of the 2022 PGA Championship had as complete a day as you could ask for, sitting inside the top-10 in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, Tee to Green, and Putting. “I didn’t do anything great. I just didn’t do anything bad,” said Thomas. “But I took advantage of some of the opportunities when I had them there in, kind of the middle of the course, and just stayed patient and waited for my run.” Finau, who has won twice on the PGA TOUR, finished poorly on Friday – bogeying two of his final three holes – and that lit a fire in his belly to come out with a solid Saturday round. He birdied his first hole of the day, went out in 5-under 29, and added a birdie on his final hole of the day to put a bow on a 62. This was his lowest round on the PGA TOUR since a matching 62 in the second round of The American Express in January 2020. “I knew I was playing well, but at any given moment on this golf course you can make a number. So, there’s no reason to get ahead of myself, I just tried to stay in the moment as much as I could and put together a nice round all the way to the end,” said Finau. “And any time you’re at the top of the leaderboard and have a chance to win on a Sunday on the PGA TOUR it’s exciting.” McIlroy, meanwhile, is trying to go back-to-back for the first time in his TOUR career. No one on the PGA TOUR has repeated as champion at two different venues since Jim Furyk at the RBC Canadian Open in 2006 and 2007. He was quick to heap praise on the Canadian fans, who after two years of cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were thrilled with the buzz of a Saturday afternoon in the country’s biggest city. “The atmosphere out there today was, I mean I can’t remember the last time I played in an atmosphere like that,” said McIlroy. “It was really special.” There’s another carrot the likes of McIlroy, Finau, Thomas, and Burns don’t need to worry about Sunday – a spot in The Open Championship. The Canadian Open is part of the Open Championship Series and is offering two spots to golfers who are not otherwise exempt and who finish inside the top eight come Sunday. Wyndham Clark and Alex Smalley (tied for third), and Austin Cook and Jim Knous (tied for seventh) are in the mix for a spot to compete for the Claret Jug. There’s also the race for low Canadian still to be settled. Nick Taylor, who sits tied for 15th through three rounds at St. George’s, is a shot ahead of Corey Conners. Neither Taylor – who was as high as tied for second through the early part of Saturday – or Conners, the top-ranked Canadian in the FedExCup, has ever won the Rivermede Cup. “The ovation on the first tee, walking off a lot of greens on to the tees, it’s something that I don’t get every week, so it’s nice to feel that buzz,” said Taylor. “I think everyone’s really excited to have the event back.” The excitement was high, and the Canadian Open is certainly living up to the hype.

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