Leishman leads LIV regular-season finale after 1

OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – A week ago, Harold Varner III busted the bubble and made the top 125 advancing to the FedExCup Playoffs. Now he’s projected to do the same thing again with 18 holes left at THE NORTHERN TRUST. The situations seem the same. But they really aren’t. And neither is Varner’s mindset. “Last week was a little different,â€� he said. “My job was on the line. Now that we’re here, we can, not so much attack it but you can kind of let it go.â€� When he started the Wyndham Championship, he was 138th in points. But his tie for 10th – his only top-10 finish thus far this season — moved him to 123rd and secured his PGA TOUR card for next season. Now his goal is to keep advancing in the Playoffs and perhaps make the improbable push for a spot in the TOUR Championship. No player outside the top 70 at the start of the Playoffs has ever made it to East Lake, but Varner is in position to at least take the next step to TPC Boston. His 1-over 71 on Saturday leaves him at 2 under for the tournament and tied for 22nd. He currently is one of four players projected to bust the bubble, moving to 95th if he holds his position. He would reach the Dell Technologies Championship for the second straight year if he handles his business on Sunday. “It’s insane,â€� Varner said. “I have a great opportunity now and I’m just really excited about it.â€� He might even be excited enough to check out the FedExCup rankings on a regular basis. “My rookie year, I looked at it all the time and I played well,â€� Varner said of last season, when he had four top-10 finishes. “This year, I didn’t look at all. Maybe I should start looking at it more often.â€� BUBBLE WATCH Here are the players who are projected to move inside the top 100 that will advance to next week’s Dell Technologies Championship, along with the players who are projected to fall out. QUOTE OF THE DAY Last week I was clearly obsessed with the line but this week I’m trying not to be. Every bite of the cherry you get the more chances you obviously have to get to East Lake. Hopefully tomorrow is not my last bite of cherry. TOP 5 WATCH The Top 5 players entering the TOUR Championship will control their own destiny at East Lake. Here’s a look at how the current top 5 fared Saturday at THE NORTHERN TRUST. 1. Hideki Matsuyama (CUT). Sitting at home after missing the cut. Projected to drop to fourth. 2. Justin Thomas (69). Just couldn’t get anything significant going throughout the day and is 4 under and tied for 10th. Projected to fall to third. 3. Jordan Spieth (64). A 31 on the back nine to streak ahead of the pack and set up a three-shot lead at the top. Projected to first. 4. Dustin Johnson (67). Was leading to start the round but saw Spieth blitz past. Still, he’s alone in second at 9 under. He’ll move into first with a win but projected to second right now. 5. Rickie Fowler (74). Started the day tied for the lead and with big hopes. Then made bogeys on five of his first six holes on Saturday to tumble down the leaderboard. Ended the round at 2 under and tied 22nd. Projects to sixth. FEDEXCUP NOTES Seven players start Sunday projected to be eliminated from where they sit on the leaderboard. Scott Stallings and Ryan Blaum are currently projected to be just a stroke short of the position they need, giving them every chance to gain a stay of execution. It will be a tougher ask for Vaughn Taylor, who currently projects to be eight shots back of what he needs to advance. The new man currently projected inside the top 5 on the FedExCup list is Jon Rahm. Sitting in a tie for third at 7 under, Rahm projects to fifth on the standings. “I try not to think about it too much. I just try to focus on my game like I’ve been doing till now,â€� he said. “Certainly the closer we get to East Lake, I know the pressure is going to pile up and the more important it’s going to be. Hopefully I can get in that top-5 spot going into East Lake and be a little less stressed.â€� Patrick Reed (38 to 15), Justin Rose (32 to 20), Keegan Bradley (46 to 26), and Louis Oosthuizen (35 to 27) are players currently projected to move inside the top 30 of the FedExCup standings. While the Dell Technologies Championship and BMW Championship are still to be played, the top 30 make it to the TOUR Championship.

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SAN FRANCISCO – When it mattered most, being short proved a great advantage for Collin Morikawa. This is not about his diminutive stature but rather his length off the tee. TPC Harding Park was a bombers’ paradise until the critical moment of the PGA Championship on Sunday. When Morikawa reached the short par-4 16th. RELATED: Final leaderboard | The clubs Morikawa used to win | So close but so far for Koepka, Casey, others At 294-yards on Sunday the hole was inviting players to have a crack, particularly as nine of them had been part of the lead during a frantic final round. Someone had to step up. Problem was, in these modern times of big hitters, for most of them, 294 yards is too short to wail away with driver. Bryson DeChambeau hits his drives over 350 yards, so to Tony Finau. Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Jason Day, Matthew Wolff, Cameron Champ … the list of long hitters in contention was long. But they’d have to take 3-wood, or try to take something off their longest club, finesse the ball in the soupy heavy air. Morikawa had the perfect number for his driver. The same driver that had helped him to lead the field in driving accuracy for the week. Funny thing is, pre-tournament he was certain he wouldn’t be going for that green at all. “I told Colt Knost, he saw me Wednesday afternoon practicing on there, and he asked me if I was ever going to go for it. I told him a quick no, it’s too much into the wind, why go for it. I didn’t think the pin was going to be where it was,” Morikawa said. But with the tee up and pin sitting in the middle where a ball rolling up onto the green would feed towards it was just too tempting. Particularly given just a few weeks back, at the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village, he’d had similar success when the 14th hole was played from a similar distance. Morikawa decided to go for it. And the rest will live in golf history forever more. His ball landed perfectly and rolled up to seven feet. Soon after Morikawa buried the eagle putt and took a commanding lead he would not relinquish. At just 23 he is a major champion. A three time PGA TOUR winner already in just 29 starts. He has more wins than missed cuts. “Those are moments I’m always going to remember. I want to say it was 278 front, 294 hole. My ball went 291, exactly how I played it. It just had to be a normal driver for me. I didn’t have to do anything special. Thankfully I don’t hit it 330,” he grinned. The only downside was only a small smattering of people were there to see it live thanks to these COVID-19 times. It was a shot that deserved a roar to rival anything Tiger Woods heard in his prime. And he would have received it. After all he’s a California kid who went to college at Cal Berkeley. They would have been going berserk. “This is the one time I really wish there were crowds right there,” Morikawa said. “I heard some claps. Obviously not a ton. But the claps could mean I’m on the green and I’ve got 50 feet. Walking up I knew it was right above the tier, and you had to make it. I had to make that putt. Two strokes is a lot different than one stroke coming down 18.” Indeed it was. It was in the end unassailable for anyone else. And it secured history. At age 23 years, 6 months, 3 days, he becomes the third-youngest PGA Championship winner since World War II, behind only Rory McIlroy and Jack Nicklaus. Woods won a PGA at 23 also. “It’s great company. It’s been crazy, because this entire start of my professional career, I see all the things comparing to Tiger … but Tiger is on a completely different level. I think we all know that,” Morikawa gushes. “But any time you’re in the conversation of the greats, Jack, Rory, Tiger, no matter who it is, if you’re in that conversation, you’re doing something well.” He is also just the third player since 1970 to win a major in two or fewer major starts after his U.S. Open appearance last year and is just the ninth player to win the PGA Championship in their tournament debut. His weekend rounds of 65-64 for 129 sets the lowest closing 36-hole score in PGA Championship history, beating Woods 130 from 2018 and the 64 ties the PGA Championship record for lowest final-round score by a winner with Steve Elkington (1995). The win sent Morikawa to second in the FedExCup standings and fifth in the world rankings. While the golf world continues to be a little taken aback by the quick success, it’s not a surprise to the man himself. “I’ve believed in myself since day one. I haven’t let up from that,” he said. “When I woke up today, I was like, this is meant to be. This is where I feel very comfortable. This is where I want to be, and I’m not scared from it. I think if I was scared from it, the last few holes would have been a little different.” Morikawa was an amateur standout so his confidence is not misplaced. Clearly he has the game to back up any bravado he brings to the course. It’s not arrogance, it’s just pure will to win. And with the FedExCup Playoffs upcoming and another six majors and a PLAYERS among tournaments in the next 11 months he is ready to continue his rise. “It doesn’t stop here. I’ve got a very good taste of what this is like, what a major championship is like,” he said. “The majors are going to be circled in, just like everyone else, but I’ve got to focus on every single week. I’m trying to win every single week. I’m not trying to come out and just win the majors. I’m 23. This is my first full year. “I love golf. I love every part of it. I love being in this position and I love just being able to come out here and play with a bunch of guys that love the sport, too.” The sport loves him back. And will for a long time to come.

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Cameron Smith of Australia is seeking to join an exclusive club this week. Only Tiger Woods has won THE PLAYERS and the Masters in the same year, and it happened when Woods was at the height of his powers. Woods’ first PLAYERS win came in 2001, just two weeks before he completed the Tiger Slam by making the Masters his fourth consecutive major victory. Smith has already won THE PLAYERS this year – in addition to his record-setting victory at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January – and all signs point to him as a favorite this week at Augusta National. Smith, who’s third in the FedExCup and sixth in the world ranking, has finished in the top 10 in three of his last four Masters appearances, including a runner-up in 2020 when he became the first player in Masters history to break 70 in all four rounds. And while four of the last five champions at Augusta National were in at least their 10th Masters start, Smith feels he’s banked up the experience necessary to become just the second Australian to win at Augusta National. We sat down with Smith to pick his brain and find five keys to preparing and playing well at the Masters. 1. Tap into your creative side Smith missed 25 greens at the 2020 Masters but made just nine bogeys on his way to an impressive 15-under total and runner-up finish. He produced incredible par saves on his final three holes in the third round to stay within four of Dustin Johnson, and Smith pulled within two Sunday after two incredible birdies from tough spots on the first nine. One of those, on the par-4 seventh hole, appeared set to be a certain punch out to, at best, a greenside bunker after his drive leaked right into the trees. But Smith saw a tiny window up through the branches. He decided to gamble. Swinging as hard as he could, he launched the ball into orbit from 120 yards out. It sailed through the trees unscathed and onto the putting surface, coming to rest 10 feet from the hole. “I wasn’t here to finish second,” Smith said of his aggressive play. It was the vision to even see the shot that makes Smith the type of player who can win a Green Jacket. Smith says: “When it comes to playing well at Augusta National you need to be able to see a variety of shots from a variety of places and have the ability to recover from wherever you might end up. If you are not able to see a handful of ways to play shots, or the right way to play them, you can get into trouble quickly. So, for me, it is important to really get that creative mindset ready to go in the lead up. I play that way most of the time, but at Augusta you find slopes and quadrants on the greens you need to use, and elevation changes across the course that mean you might need to play in the air, along the ground, or even a combination of both. Not only do you need to open your mind to different options, but you need to be confident when executing them also. I actually usually use the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play to help dial this attitude in, as Austin Country Club has a lot of imaginative ways to play shots. This year, I’ve had to replicate it on my own at home (Smith withdrew from the Match Play to spend more time with family visiting from Australia). Sometimes when I’m playing with mates in practice, I’ll make bets that I can get up and down from tough spots to help get my mind locked in. Obviously the practice rounds of tournament week are important here also.” 2. Dial in your irons, especially from 130-140 yards With Augusta National being somewhat generous off the tee, it becomes important to have your approach game in a good place that week. For Smith, who’s eighth in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green this season, it is about extra effort, particularly on the wedge game, as the Masters nears. Last season, Smith was best on TOUR from 100-125 yards and eighth from 125-150 yards. This season, he’s on point again from 100-125 yards, ranked seventh, but has slipped a little from 125-150 and ranks 133rd. So that is his focus. Smith says: “Augusta is a second-shot golf course so you really have to have your approach game on point. You really need to hit it into certain spots on the greens to score well because it is a tricky golf course. In simple terms, you just have to hit good quality shots if you want to win. It’s not just a simple cliche like leaving it below the hole because there are certain pins, for example the pin on the top tier at the back-right of the sixth green, you don’t want to be below the pin there because you’ll have 30-40 feet uphill. Sometimes you need to remember par is a really good score and if you get away with a birdie you’ve had a win. You need to keep that mentality and patience. “Your wedge game is a really big key. Particularly around 130-140 because the course is so tough and the pins are so tight you really have to get those dialed in if you want to play well and contend. In the lead up, I try to spend a lot more time with the wedges in hand and try to get a few competitive games going as I look to get those numbers in sync. I’ll grab TrackMan and call the yardage I thinks shots will carry and then check to see how close I am. I want to be very accurate in this space. That way you can stand over any shot and feel comfortable that you can get to the spot you need to get to.” 3. Get ready for grain and tight lies Smith’s short game is among the best in the game, and it needs to be at the Masters. He ranks 20th on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Around the Green and has been inside the top 40 in five of the last six seasons. An ability to nip the ball off of tight lies around the greens gives players a leg up, but Smith cheekily says it takes “23 years of practice,” to get it just right more often than not. Smith says: “Chipping is very important. The reality is it gets really grainy at Augusta National. It’s the way they mow it. … They mow it all going away from you so you’re constantly chipping into the grain. It seems like you always need to nip it perfectly to get a good result from your shots. I definitely practice a lot more around the greens, especially trying to use slopes in a variety of ways. Again, this is where your creative mind must be used. You need to see the options in your mind and make the right decision. I use the practice rounds each year to mess around a bit with trying things around the greens. You never know what you might be faced with and you need confidence to find, and execute, a way to get the ball to the hole.” 4. Bend it both ways Smith won the PLAYERS despite ranking last in the field in driving accuracy. The driver has never been Smith’s best club and he’s always ranked outside the top in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee. He makes up for it with his iron play, short game and putting. He points out he’s improved his driving accuracy at the last two Masters, however, hitting 64% of fairways in 2020 and almost 68% in 2021. His focus though, is on shaping shots. Smith says: “The key to driving at the Masters is the ability to shape it both ways off the tee. I know people say you need to hit a draw – and there are a lot of shots where right-to-left is the shot – but you definitely still need to hit a fade. This idea that it’s only a draw course, I don’t buy that. You obviously want to hit the fairways, especially on the par-5s where you need to make your moves or get left behind. And the more fairways you hit the better, but that isn’t the be-all and end-all. “I’ll spend extra time trying to get my shape correct off the tee – and I do spend effort on the draw because I find it harder to hit driver right-to-left naturally – but I’ll also spend time with my 3-wood for that shot. It’s easier for me to turn a 3-wood over from right to left, so I’ll use that where appropriate in the spots where driver is a bit awkward for me. I definitely use the 3-wood a little more at the Masters than other weeks.” 5. The need for speed (control) Smith was 10th in Strokes Gained: Putting last season and ranks third this year. His flatstick work at the PLAYERS was incredible, particularly in the final round where he one-putted his way to victory. When it comes to recent champions at the Masters, six of the last seven ranked inside the top 20 in total putts and four of those were in the top 10. In his last four Masters, Smith ranked 13th, ninth, second and 33rd in number of putts. The 28-year-old says speed is the key to his putting at the sloping greens of Augusta National. Smith says: “For the most part, putting is about where to leave yourself on the Augusta greens. Speed is where you really have to put your efforts. In the practice rounds I tend to hit longer, curling putts from all spots as I work to get my speed as dialed in as possible. You can get in some (crazy) situations and, like I’ve said a few times now, you will need to creatively use slopes to get close to some holes and avoid three-putts. You want your lag speed to be near perfect because three-putts are killers most weeks, especially at majors. The course changes from early in the week to the tournament days, also, so you have to be able to adjust with the speed – and that is where prior experience can help – as can your warmup each day on the practice greens.”

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