Live leaderboard: FedEx Cup playoffs begin

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla., SEA ISLAND, Ga. and CHICAGO – RSM US LLP (“RSM�) – title sponsor of The RSM Classic since its debut in 2010 – announced that Cameron Champ has won $300,000 through the Birdies Fore Love charitable giving competition for recording the most birdies (or better) over the first eight events of the 2018-19 PGA TOUR Season. As part of the program, the money will be donated to Champ’s charity of choice, The Cameron Champ Foundation in support of STEM education and youth golf. The top three players who accumulated the most birdies (or better), beginning with the Safeway Open in Napa, California, and concluding at The RSM Classic in Sea Island, Georgia, were awarded with $300,000, $150,000 and $50,000, respectively, for charitable donations to the players’ choice of children- and/or family-focused charitable organizations that are building the middle-market leaders of tomorrow. J.J. Spaun finished second and will donate $150,000 to his charity of choice, the United Way earmarked for low income families affected by the California wildfires, while Joel Dahmen, a cancer survivor, finished third in the RSM Birdies Fore Love competition and will donate $50,000 to the Send It Foundation in support of young adult cancer fighters through the gift of outdoor adventure and community. 
“The RSM Classic and our partnership with the TOUR and the Davis Love Foundation provide an incredible venue to further RSM’s commitment to stewardship,� said Joe Adams, managing partner and CEO with RSM US LLP. “We are honored to have donated more than $2.8 million to support 65 charities across the United States and Canada through this year’s Birdies Fore Love program.�

Winning players designated funds to charitable organizations dedicated to building tomorrow’s middle-market leaders through programs that support education, as well as organizations committed to improving the lives of youth through a focus on hunger, housing and health. “We had an incredibly successful week, thanks to another exciting tournament with Charles Howell III winning, the announcement of RSM’s extension as title sponsor through 2025 and then capping it off with the success of the Birdies Fore Love program with more than $2.8 million donated this year,� said The RSM Classic tournament host Davis Love III. “I couldn’t be prouder of how The RSM Classic has grown over the years. Congratulations to Cameron Champ for winning the Birdies Fore Love competition and choosing a wonderful charity cause to receive the donation.� In addition to announcing its extension as title sponsor, RSM unveiled plans to further expand the Birdies Fore Love program for the start of the 2019-20 PGA TOUR Season. Not only will the top three finishers in total birdies (or better) from all fall events on the 2019-20 PGA TOUR Season schedule earn $300,000, $150,000 and $50,000, respectively, for a charity of their choice, but the player who records the most birdies (or better) in each fall event in 2019 will earn $50,000 for a charity of his choice, which brings the total to $1 million donated through the program each year. RSM got a head start for next year this week by awarding $50,000 to Patrick Rodgers who recorded the most birdies (or better) at The RSM Classic to give to a charity of his choice. Since the inception of The RSM Classic in 2010, RSM and the Davis Love Foundation have donated nearly $12 million to charities that support education and organizations that support children and families in the areas of hunger, housing and health. More than 200 organizations across the U.S. have benefited from these donations, including the Boys and Girls Clubs, Special Olympics, Blessings in a Backpack and Folds of Honor, just to name a few.

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KAPALUA, Hawaii — The only thing that resembled paradise to Xander Schauffele at Kapalua was his name atop the leaderboard Friday at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Through bursts of rain and gusts that topped 30 mph, Schauffele managed to go bogey-free for the second straight day with a 5-under 68 that gave him a one-shot lead over Patrick Reed and Joaquin Niemann. Schauffele is trying to become the first repeat champion of this winners-only event in 10 years. On this day, he was trying to keep it together. Schauffele finished with a birdie, a two-putt par from just under 100 feet, and a 7-foot birdie on the final hole. That gave him the lead at 9-under 137, the highest 36-hole score to lead at Kapalua since 2008. “A day of adjustment is sort of how I like to look at it, and glad we were able to come out on top,” Schauffele said. Reed made three straight birdies around the turn, lost two good scoring chances late, made up for that with a 30-foot birdie on the 17th and wound up with a 66 for the best score of the day. Niemann didn’t make a birdie until the ninth hole and limited the damage enough for a 72. Rickie Fowler (71) was two shots behind. Schauffele won last year with a 62 in the final round, a score that now seems out of reach on a Plantation course with entirely new grass on fairways that remain soft because of rain. The greens have shelves that weren’t there a year ago. And the weather was never this rough when he won. “Besides looking the same and looking over at Molokai, very different,” Schauffele said. “We’re on the same property, but for the most part there’s no memory I can fall back on when it comes to making a putt or hitting a bump-and-run shot on a certain hole since the green layouts are very different.” Justin Thomas was poised to join Schauffele until he missed the green at the 17th to the right and made bogey, and made another bogey on the 18th when his drive went left into the waist-high native grass. He was three strokes back after a 73. Thomas had a moment that sized up the day. Hitting into the wind, his divot flew back toward his face and deposited in the back of his shirt, leaving tiny splotches of mud on his white pants. The round was stopped twice, without ever taking players off the course, during a few burst of showers early that left standing water in too many spots. When told it would resume, Paul Casey asked if there was room to hit off the first tee. A puddle stretched from one end to the other, but just behind the tee markers. It was a sign that Kapalua would play longer than ever, and that much was evident throughout the day. Shots that typically bounce and roll out some 30 yards were rolling a few feet, if not hopping back from their pitch marks. Matthew Wolff hit a tee shot on the 18th that plugged in its pitch mark. The temperature felt tropical. Otherwise, this was a test.

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