Lower shares Los Cabos lead after eagle on 18th

DUBLIN, Ohio – By the time he made a 12-foot birdie putt to close out Byeong Hun An in a playoff at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, Bryson DeChambeau had already checked the nitrogen levels in the Muirfield Village rough, verified the camber of the 18th green, and analyzed the glycemic load of Jack Nicklaus’ favorite milkshake. Or so you would believe, given DeChambeau’s mad-scientist reputation. “People always kind of scrutinize me saying I’m too technical and whatnot,â€� DeChambeau, 24, said after moving from 22nd to 4th in the FedExCup with his second PGA TOUR win. “It’s all just to aid my feel. I am a guy that goes off of feel still, to everybody’s surprise, probably.â€� By now it’s well known that the polymath DeChambeau has reimagined golf. He plays with a single-length set of irons, advocates a single-plane swing, and has done for the humble yardage book what Leonardo da Vinci did for anatomy. Good copy, as they say in the typing business. But it doesn’t really explain how this guy won the Memorial while hitting just 5 of 14 fairways in regulation play Sunday. How after missing 14 straight cuts last season, he now must be considered one of the 10 best American players. (He and other potential U.S. Ryder Cup Team members were fitted for uniforms at Muirfield Village earlier this week.) Yes, DeChambeau has reimagined the game, but he’s been even better at reinventing himself. “Other players go to the range,â€� said his caddie, Tim Tucker. “He goes to the range religiously.â€� Case in point: DeChambeau was the only one on the Muirfield driving range as the sun bled over the horizon Saturday night. What was he working on? No telling. He was improving his transdimensional aspect, closing the thorium loop, attenuating the dip slip. It doesn’t matter, and DeChambeau says he doesn’t like to give away his secrets, anyway. The important thing is he was working. “He’s happiest when he’s hitting balls,â€� Tucker said. With his active mind, DeChambeau is a perfect fit for golf, with its three-dimensionality and limitless variables. But that insatiable curiosity would mean nothing without the insatiable work ethic to go with it, the willingness and stamina to tear everything apart and start all over again. And again. And again. In a sport where even the big winners fail most of the time, self-reinvention is everything. Those 14 straight missed cuts, the last of which came at the U.S. Open last summer? Not unusual. Plenty of players could describe similarly bleak stretches before they turned into caddies (Paul Tesori, Lance Ten Broeck), and broadcasters (David Duval, Trevor Immelman). Not DeChambeau. Although he said it was “a tough pill to swallowâ€� and wondered if he was a TOUR quality player, he also settled in and sucked it up. It was time to have the Big Talk with the guy looking back at him in the mirror, because if he was going to survive, he had to adapt. “I went back to the drawing board,â€� he said, “kind of figured something out, and ultimately wound up winning the John Deere four weeks later because of that hard talk to myself.â€� But his reinvention wasn’t over, because he went straight from the Deere, where he thought he’d figured something out, to the Open Championship, where he shot 76-77 to miss the cut by eight shots. And he failed to make the TOUR Championship two months later. “So I went back to the drawing board again,â€� DeChambeau said, “… to be able to come out with something that has allowed me to be more consistent on TOUR, have less error in where I’m hitting it and be more confident in unique situations.â€� The second drawing board worked even better than the first one. He notched a top-20 finish at the Safeway Open, a top-10 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, a top-5 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Reinvention gave way to refinement, and he was second to Rory McIlroy at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, T3 at the RBC Heritage, and 4th at the Wells Fargo Championship. The mad scientist was closing in. DeChambeau led the field in scrambling (17/21) at the Memorial, and was ninth in Strokes Gained: Putting (+4.916). With only five fairways hit, the entire final round was a high-wire act. He three-putted the 72nd hole to fall into a playoff with Kyle Stanley (70) and An (69), and ripped off his white, Hogan-style cap and swatted his leg with it. “Let’s go win it,â€� caddie Tucker said. As sudden-death playoffs go, this one wasn’t very sudden. For the second time in 20 minutes, DeChambeau split the 18th fairway with a 3-wood, and he and An each missed the green before making deft par saves. Stanley, who had birdied four straight holes on the back nine to make the playoff, could barely get a club on the ball for his second shot and bogeyed to fall away. Again, DeChambeau went back to the 18th tee; again, he split the fairway with that 3-wood. This time his 9-iron approach shot rode the wind to within 12 feet of the pin. When the final putt fell, with An looking at another short putt to save par, the winner looked up and pumped his arms. He had found validation, again, and with something less than his A-game, grinding out the win the way tournament host Nicklaus had so often back in the day. “Sometimes that’s what you gotta do,â€� Nicklaus said. “If your driver’s not working, your putter better be working. And if your putter’s not working, everything else must be working. But he had the right club working today and that was his flat club. Nice going.â€� A Memorial victory, by the way, comes with a three-year exemption on TOUR, which is one more than most tournaments. DeChambeau may not need the extra year, but it’s nice to know it’s there. You know, just in case he ever has to go back to the drawing board.

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IRVING, Texas — Brooks Koepka leaned in for a closer look at his ball buried in deep rough when a critter he couldn’t identify caused him to jump back with a bit of a startled look. His best guesses were a frog or rat, though he was too disoriented to be sure. It definitely wasn’t a birdie, because Koepka was on his way to finishing with two straight bogeys after sharing the lead late in his opening round of the AT&T Byron Nelson on Thursday. A year after losing to Sergio Garcia in a playoff at the TPC Four Seasons, Koepka settled for a 3-under 67 and trailed co-leaders James Hahn and Ricky Barnes by three shots. “It jumped out and I didn’t know what was going on, freaked me out,” said Koepka, who needed help from a bevy of tournament volunteers and fans to find his ball while hitting two shots out of the thick grass and just missing a chip that would have saved par on the ninth hole, his last. “I was so in amazement of what just happened, whether it jumped out, scared me. I couldn’t see it because it ran underneath the grass again.” Matt Kuchar, Jhonattan Vegas, Jason Kokrak and Cameron Tringale shot 66, and top-ranked Dustin Johnson topped the group at 67, a stroke ahead of fourth-ranked Jason Day and Jordan Spieth, the No. 6 player competing in his hometown event. Masters and defending Nelson champion Garcia, ranked fifth, had three bogeys on the front nine and just one birdie in a 73 that left him tied for 93rd. The event is the last at TPC Four Seasons, ending the tournament’s 35-year run in Irving. The tournament will move to the new links-style Trinity Forest Golf Club south of downtown Dallas next year. Tringale was the only player with a lower score than Johnson in a blustery afternoon round, while Hahn and Barnes played in slightly calmer conditions in the morning. “It was blowing hard and it was gusty,” said Johnson, who has four top-10 finishes in seven previous Nelsons. “I thought it was very difficult to judge the wind and control the ball. Felt like there were a lot of times I hit really good shots that didn’t end up in good spots.” Using a mallet putter instead of his traditional blade, Spieth made a 10-footer for his second straight birdie on his 17th hole, the par-4 eighth. Normally one of the best putters on tour, the Dallas native was frustrated with that part of his game after missing the cut at THE PLAYERS Championship last week. “It’s nothing crazy new,” said Spieth, whose best Nelson finish remains his tie for 16th as a 16-year-old amateur in 2010. “It helps me line up a bit better and that’s kind of been my struggle is lining the putter up where I want to. I just haven’t quite dialed in the speed yet.” Day birdied the par-4 11th when he chipped to 12 feet off a cart path behind the green after a 326-yard drive on the 309-yard hole. On the next hole, he had to bend his second shot around tree from the rough and saved par. Day eagled the par-5 seventh and curled in a 28-footer for birdie on 18. “In this wind, I think everyone’s kind of scrambling,” said Day, whose first PGA TOUR win came at the 2010 Nelson. “I was not going to drop it all the way back onto the other side of the road. It was just in long grass and I wouldn’t be able to flop it over. It was quite a simple shot. You just had to contact it correctly.” Hahn finished a bogey-free round with a 22-foot birdie putt on 18 to match his lowest round of the season. The two-time tour winner saved par with a 24-footer on 14. Hahn’s first four birdies were inside 10 feet. Barnes, who has made four straight cuts after missing 10 of his previous 13, started a run of three straight birdies with a chip-in on his 15th hole, the par-4 sixth. He had two bogeys. “I’m having signs of brilliancy,” said Barnes, still looking for his first win in his 255th PGA TOUR start. “I just need to put it all together.” Koepka birdied his first two holes and was 5 under through 13 holes before stumbling late. On No. 8, his 17th hole, Koepka had to lift a folder lawn chair to uncover his ball behind the green. He missed the par putt. After missing on a birdie chance for the win in 2016, Koepka went in the water on 18, the first playoff hole, to open the door for Garcia to become the only two-time winner since Lord Byron’s event moved to the Four Seasons. “I didn’t play very good today,” Koepka said. “Even last year, I didn’t play very good around this place and just managed to get a decent score. Three under isn’t very good around here. I’ll take it for how I played.”

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The PGA TOUR uses a standardized system for determining event fields, based off the current season’s Priority Ranking while also including additional exemption and qualifying categories. Field sizes can vary by event, as can the number of event-specific exemptions. Fully exempt PGA TOUR members are guaranteed entry into all full-field events, with various conditional categories subject to periodic reshuffles based upon FedExCup Points accrued throughout the season. Categories with ‘reshuffle’ notation indicate that a reshuffle period has occurred. How the field qualified for the WM Phoenix Open as of 2/4/2022: Check here for updates. Winner – PGA/U.S. Open Championship (five-year exemption) Brooks Koepka Jon Rahm Justin Thomas Jimmy Walker Gary Woodland Winner of THE PLAYERS Championship prior to 1996 Si Woo Kim Webb Simpson Winner of Masters Tournament (five-year exemption) Hideki Matsuyama Winner of The Open (five-year exemption) Francesco Molinari Jordan Spieth Winner of World Golf Championships event (three-year exemption) Abraham Ancer Billy Horschel Kevin Kisner Xander Schauffele Bubba Watson Winner of Arnold Palmer Invitational, Memorial Tournament and Genesis Invitational (three-year exemption) Patrick Cantlay Max Homa Adam Scott PGA TOUR tournament winner (two-year exemption) Daniel Berger Sam Burns Stewart Cink Corey Conners Joel Dahmen Cam Davis Tyler Duncan Harris English Tony Finau Rickie Fowler Dylan Frittelli Brian Gay Lucas Glover Talor Gooch Branden Grace Lanto Griffin Lucas Herbert Garrick Higgo Viktor Hovland Charles Howell III Matt Jones Sung Kang Patton Kizzire Matt Kuchar Martin Laird Andrew Landry Nate Lashley K.H. Lee Luke List Adam Long Graeme McDowell Keith Mitchell Sebastián Muñoz Carlos Ortiz C.T. Pan J.T. Poston Seamus Power Chez Reavie Robert Streb Hudson Swafford Nick Taylor Michael Thompson Brendon Todd Martin Trainer Kevin Tway Career Money Exemption Luke Donald Bill Haas Rory Sabbatini Nick Watney * Sponsor’s exemption (Korn Ferry Tour Finals) Sahith Theegala Sponsor’s exemption (members not otherwise exempt) Jason Dufner Sponsors Exemptions (Unrestricted) Austin Eckroat Patrick Rodgers Preston Summerhays PGA Section Champion\Player of the Year Craig Hocknull Top 125 on prior season’s FedExCup Louis Oosthuizen Scottie Scheffler Charley Hoffman Alex Noren Keegan Bradley Brian Harman Harold Varner III Aaron Wise Tom Hoge Russell Henley Maverick McNealy Emiliano Grillo Chris Kirk Kevin Streelman Harry Higgs Matt Fitzpatrick Troy Merritt Pat Perez Andrew Putnam Doug Ghim Brandon Hagy Peter Malnati Wyndham Clark Adam Schenk Kramer Hickok Brian Stuard Henrik Norlander Roger Sloan Brandt Snedeker Hank Lebioda Tyler McCumber Denny McCarthy Adam Hadwin Brendan Steele Sepp Straka James Hahn Zach Johnson Russell Knox Matt Wallace Sam Ryder Matthew NeSmith Scott Piercy Kyle Stanley Anirban Lahiri Brice Garnett Scott Stallings Chesson Hadley # Major medical extension Danny Lee Kevin Chappell Ryan Moore William McGirt Wesley Bryan Seung-Yul Noh Kelly Kraft Korn Ferry Tour Points winners (The 25 and The Finals 25) Stephan Jaeger Joseph Bramlett * = If all prior year Korn Ferry Tour graduates are eligible for event, exemptions become unrestricted # = Latest medical extension information can be found here. $ = Category breakdown can be found here.

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