LPGA rookies hit hard by corona cancellations

ATLANTA – If history is any indication, Sungjae Im is a lock for PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year when voting by his peers for the Arnold Palmer Award commences next week. He’s the lone rookie in this week’s field at the TOUR Championship, meaning he has more FedExCup points than his fellow rookies. In the FedExCup era, no one has won Rookie of the Year without having the most points – and every year a lone rookie has reached East Lake, he’s been named Rookie of the Year. But the issue with Im, the 21-year-old from Korea, is that he hasn’t won this season; his best finish is a tie for third at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. He also has six other top-10s. Meanwhile, five of his fellow rookies have won – Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff, Cameron Champ, Adam Long and Martin Trainer. Not since 2011 have more rookie wins been posted in a single season. So the voters – in this case, TOUR members – will need to make a decision as they weigh their choice for Rookie of the Year: Season-long consistency but no win … or a win but less consistency/fewer starts? It’s the first time voters in the FedExCup era have had to weigh such polar opposites. “You have to look at each case differently. I don’t think there’s one overall criteria,� said Brandt Snedeker. “I haven’t looked at it too closely yet. I’ll look at it after this week and see how things shake out.� Snedeker won Rookie of the Year honors in 2007, the first year of the FedExCup. He won the Wyndham Championship that season and was the only rookie to reach East Lake. Pretty easy choice there. He’s one of five former Rookie of the Year winners playing at East Lake this week. The others are Charles Howell III (2001), Marc Leishman (2009), Rickie Fowler (2010) and Xander Schauffele (2017). Howell, Leishman and Fowler did not win during their rookie seasons; Schauffele won twice, including the TOUR Championship. No rookie won a tournament in Leishman’s season, but he had three top-10s that season, with his best finish a tie for second at the BMW Championship. That propelled him to East Lake, as he moved from 67th to 16th in the FedExCup standings. It’s no surprise he values trips to the TOUR Championship. “If you win, I guess it depends on which tournament it is. Or if you get to the TOUR Championship, that means a fair bit because it means you’ve had a great year,� Leishman said when asked which factors weigh the most. “If you end up at the TOUR Championship, that would probably mean more to me than a win. Getty here is pretty good. I think that makes a big difference.� Of course, Morikawa and Wolff could argue that they didn’t play enough events and it was simply an issue of opportunity. Both turned pro after their collegiate seasons, each making just seven starts prior to the FedExCup Playoffs. Thanks to their respective victories (Wolff at the 3M Open, Morikawa at the Barricuda Championship), it was enough to make the top 125. Wolff was eliminated after the first Playoffs event at Liberty National, and Morikawa was eliminated last week at Medinah. Related: TOUR Championship leaderboard | How it works: TOUR Championship | Koepka shares thoughts on Body Issue Meanwhile, Im has been the PGA TOUR’s workhorse this season. This week’s start is his 35th this season, the most of any player. Just three others played as many as 30 (Tom Hoge 32, Kelly Kraft 31, K.H. Lee 30). Of the two full-season rookies who won, Champ made 26 starts and Trainer made 25. When Im finishes his four rounds this week, he’ll have played 118 rounds this season – 18 more than any other player. The 29 other players at East Lake have averaged 78 rounds this season. That heavy workload helped him rack up FedExCup points, but his points-per-event pales in comparison to Morikawa and Wolff. For regular-season events, Morikawa ranked fourth on TOUR (111.4 average), Wolff ranked 12th (85.9) and Im ranked 61st (34.2). Add the first two Playoffs events, and the differences are reduced – Morikawa ranked 13th, Wolff ranked 23rd and Im ranked 51st after Medinah. But should Im get penalized in the voters’ minds for playing a full season – one good enough to reach East Lake – while Morikawa and Wolff were still in school? “He’s played a lot of golf – he’s definitely committed to a very packed schedule,� Schauffele said. “He’s played great. Every week – his last names only two letters, so I always see it on the leaderboard, and it’s always on top. “He didn’t win, or hasn’t won yet, and there’s always the talks with Morikawa and Wolff and them winning and he hasn’t. But if you look at the consistency – you heard it from so many players. If you make it to East Lake, you’ve had a good year. “Obviously, those two other boys didn’t have enough starts to make it here, and if they did, it would be ridiculous. In my mind, it would be hard to vote for anyone else just because he’s here and they’re not.� In 2008, Chez Reavie was part of a rookie class that also included Dustin Johnson. The winner that year, though, was Andres Romero, who won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, had top-10s in two majors and advanced to East Lake. Reavie also won that year – the RBC Canadian Open – but did not qualify for the season’s biggest events. “He was in all the WGC events and majors because of his world ranking because he played in Europe,� Reavie said of Romero. “That was my argument there. How is he a rookie when he’s in all the big tournaments and I’m not? I had to play my way into everything. He beat me by 50 points or something. I wasn’t too happy.� Reavie, as you might have gathered, values the grind of a full PGA TOUR season. “You look at what Sungjae did this year, making it here,� said Reavie after his Friday 6-under 64 that included his 21st career ace (five of those on TOUR). “It’s unbelievable. I have a hard time not giving the Rookie of the Year to somebody who makes it to the TOUR Championship. “I understand Matt Wolff’s a great player, so is Collin. They both won and played great. So it’s a tough one. Just have to see how it turns out. You’ve got a great case either way.� One sign of Im’s consistency is that his seven top-10s came in five different months – October, February, March (3), June and August. That’s the kind of start-to-finish run that impresses another voter, Jason Kokrak. “Those other guys (Morikawa, Wolff), played half a season,� Kokrak said. “They did win but I think it’s hard for those guys to win Rookie of the Year when they only have seven starts. They played incredible golf, which is great. But what Sungjae has done this year, I think, is more respectable than coming out and getting hot for three weeks.� Added Snedeker: “I know Sungjae’s the only rookie who made it here, so that’s kind of a leg up in my opinion.� So has Im – who is well off the pace through two rounds this week – done enough without a win? He hopes so. “I understand it’s voted by the players,� said Im, who won Rookie of the Year honors on the Korn Ferry Tour and could join Stewart Cink as the only players to win ROY honors on both tours in successive years. “I think I have a great chance, being the only rookie to advance to the TOUR Championship.� History is on his doorstep. Not only would he be the first Korean-born player to become Rookie of the Year, he’d also be the first player from Asia. The award was introduced in 1990. “If I received the honor,� Im said, “it would be incredibly significant for me and something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.�

Click here to read the full article…

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. - Camilo Villegas was dressed in all white on Friday. The only dash of color on his outfit was the rainbow ribbon attached to his hat. That rainbow has been there for months, as a tribute to his late daughter, Mia. RELATED: How the Villegas family has kept their daughter’s memory alive She loved rainbows. Villegas saw one while warming up for the first round of this week's The RSM Classic. "I start thinking about Mia and said, ‘Hey, let’s have a good one,'" he said Thursday. He has. Villegas is in second place, just two shots off the lead, at the tournament's halfway point. The four-time TOUR winner set a personal best with his 12-under 130 (64-66). Villegas is the sentimental favorite this week. How could he not be? A win so soon after an unspeakable tragedy would be an inspiration in the midst of this trying year. Only Robert Streb, who won his lone PGA TOUR title here in 2014, is ahead of Villegas on the leaderboard. "I’m not entirely sure how they cope with it," Streb said. "Obviously it’s horrible and don’t wish that upon anybody, but pretty amazing how well he’s playing." Mia was 22 months old when she passed away in July from cancer. Villegas has displayed incredible strength by simply competing on the PGA TOUR, let alone contending. While many may wonder how he can do it, Villegas wonders what other options he has. He was taken aback when asked what the hardest part about the next 48 hours would be. "I don’t know why you’d be thinking about what’s tough. We do this for a living," Villegas said. "What’s different tomorrow than the other Saturdays that I play golf? It should be the same. Just see what happens." He's seeking his first top-10 in four years and his first win in six. He's competing on a medical extension because of a shoulder injury that caused him to play just once last season. A win would be one of the most emotional the TOUR has seen in a long time. Villegas is focused on the task at hand, however. While he admitted getting emotional when he mentioned Mia in Thursday's post-round interview, he said the difficulty of competing on these windswept courses on Georgia's Atlantic coast keeps his mind from wandering. "When I’m out there, I’m so focused, there’s so much going on, especially under these conditions. I’m there with my brother (Manuel, his caddie) and you just follow a process," Villegas said. Even when he rolled in an eagle putt on his final hole Friday, Villegas responded only with a quick fist bump with his brother. Villegas, who's 14th in Strokes Gained: Approach this season, has hit 15 greens in each round this week. He has just one bogey, on the par-3 11th in the second round. He's been competing at Sea Island since his amateur days and called it one of his favorite stops on TOUR. His last top-10 was a runner-up here four years ago, when he was part of a five-man playoff won by Mackenzie Hughes. The last of Villegas' four PGA TOUR victories came at the 2014 Wyndham Championship. Villegas, who was ranked in the top 10 in the world after winning two of the four FedExCup Playoffs events in 2008, is now 866th in the world. He's made two cuts in five starts this season, with a best finish of T23 at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Villegas doesn't want to think about the larger significance of a win, however. He's focused on the next 36 holes. "We’ve only played half the tournament," he said. "A lot of golf to be played. We’ll do the same thing tomorrow, come out here, try to be free and just add them up at the end of the day."

Click here to read the full article…

SAN DIEGO — Jon Rahm began with an eagle and kept going lower until he had a 10-under 62 on the North Course at Torrey Pines for a one-shot lead over Justin Rose in the first round Thursday of the Farmers Insurance Open. Tiger Woods made his 2019 debut on the tougher South Course and opened with a 70. The conditions were remarkably close to perfect, with virtually no wind and pure greens on the North Course. Rahm knew it was important to start well, and he hit a 5-wood into 6 feet on the par-5 10th hole. He also made eagle on the 17th and shot 29 on the back. Rose also played on the North. Charles Howell III and Brandon Hagy each had 66 for the low score on the South.

Click here to read the full article…